《The Ruined World 破壊された世界》 Prologue The middle of the night is always haunting those with paranoia. The darkened sky remained a blanket over the neighbourhood. The residential district was silent. Shuffle shuffle- Footsteps belonging to that of a male youth could be heard. The lone individualdarted his eyes around with apprehensive eyes. ... "..." Raspy breaths and choking gasps could be heard, it seemed like he had been running. Or perhaps, runningawayfrom something. Despitehis desperate attempts at pacing, the youth did not seem very familiar with exercising. The sweat from his forehead clearly showed his meagre amounts of stamina. Within a few moresteps, the youth had already given up. His right arm was resting against a ledge of a terrace house. "..." Still he was silent. No matter how embarassing it was for a teenager like him to be this physically inept, the youth called "White" did not dare to make a sound in the middle of the night. "...Ghh..." Giving in to his paranoia, White turned around one more time. He had been doing this for the thirteenth time now, yet he still felt uncomfortable, as if he was being watched from the corner of his eyes. Taking in the sight behind him with his droopy eyes, White saw... Nothing as usual. The neighbourhood was silent as it had always been, and there was no one behind him. The youth grit his teeth, as if he had enough of the unnatural tension. He never felt safe once he was outside. Yet as if to prove him wrong, the streets were empty, illuminated by a few lamppostsstemmed onto the concrete pavement he had been walking on. "...Haahh... haahhh... haaahh... euk... kahhhaah..." His breathing slowly stabilized. (...Fuck... this...) White cursed inside. If anyone were to see him like this in the middle of the night, he might have been detained by the police because of how suspicious he looked. ...Unable todo anything about it, the youth turned his head back forward and hastened his pace. It wasn''t as if he wanted fresh air out of the blue. At least to an onlooker, it did seem like the youth needed it. His unkempt and shady look did not inspire any girls to look at him, White seemed like the unpopular kind who would be picked on in high school. ...In any case, he was out of his usual abode for a different purpose.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. The youthhad awoken to a series of thunderclaps. As disturbed as he was, it was a dangerous thought to wander outside this late at night. Even a NEET like him could understand that.He lived in a country with a low crime rate, but nothing was ever certain in this world. Perhaps he would be stabbed to death by some stalker cooked up inside his head. Maybe he would be run over by a truck, sending him over to another world. Such delusions continued to bog his mind down. White was someone who overthinks, symptoms of one who would contract the deadly eighth-grader syndrome. ...But this time, perhaps he truly felt a ''real'' premonition. A dream?A nightmare? The youth awoke in cold sweat an hour ago. He could not remember its contents, but he could feel something from it. The irrational thought of wanting to head outside. Yet without a direction, White still felt like he had to leave his chilly apartment. (Whatis it? What is going on?) The youth felt as if his feet were not his own, he had been heading towards a certain direction for a while now, yet his mind was blank. ...Perhaps, he was having a lucid dream.
Presently- Thechill from the air in the open seeped through his skin. The youth rubbed his hands together and moved them close to his mouth. Exhaling softly, a cloud of air dispersed into the surroundings. Of course, he never stopped walking, as if being directed to do so. There were truly no one around on the streets. The path that he was walking on, guidedby adjacentstreet lamps illuminating the pavement. Occasionally he would find a few beggars sleeping along the streets, but nothing else stood out in the silent neighbourhood. He continued walking. Passingby a few facilities that were rather unfamiliar to him, he walked and walked. A playground with a sand pit, a child-care centre, a small mart that seemed to run on a family business. Of course, that was closed. The youthwalked on briskly, and the destination seemed to be clearer. He was heading towards a nearby convenience store, while being wary of his surroundings. Perhaps he needed painkillers...? Was that why his body was being incited to move like this? White clutched his head, and felt himself getting a little light-headed from his apprehension. The convenience store served as a drugstore too, so long as he showed his identification card fora legal purchase. The restrictions weren''t really heavy since he was too, diagnosed with similar illnesses that caused him to suffer from constantinsomnia. (...Fuck... this is so weird...) His migraines came in a series of unfamiliar voicesoverlapping, andhewas the one to receive the full brunt of that disjointed noise. Like a radio with bad frequency, it wasn''t something pleasant to the ears. Clutching his head to balance himself, the voices slowly settled down one after another. Sighing to himself while gripping his jacket even tighter to extract some warmth, the youth slowly reached the entrance of the convenience store. An out-of-service gas station was right behind it and further behind was a hill fenced off as private property, but it wasn''t really somethinghe wanted to know anyway. Feeling a little more lethargic than usual, he decided to grab his items and quickly pay for them when he entered. But that thought was quickly erased, and his senses turned sharper. Clearly, the situation had changed. The youth''s eyes had finally rested upon the glass doors of the convenience store. He assessed the situation at once, quickly before his eyes. Rather, right beyond the glass doors. There was... something unbelievable happening. Aburly man wearing a beige-coloured beanie and a purple trenchcoat. ...Not that it mattered how he looked like, but the situation he was placing himself in. In the hand that was holding what seemed like a black metallic firearm, the man was placing its nuzzle right before the head of a female clerk. His eyes widened. "...Wh...at...?" For a moment, White did not catch on. He did not seriously think that something would happen. The rationality within his head turned into a sea of white. (A... robbery... ...?!) ...Arobbery was taking place. His feet had led him to such a peculiar event. But of course,the youth at this time, was not aware ofit. This had been the catalyst that would carry him forward. To graduate from his weak self. White Shigaraki would cross over to another world this fateful night, just like the novels that he had read before countless of times. [Arc 1] Chapter 1 - Overthinking "Ahhh-ahhh!!" For a start, this was rather unsurprising. White directed his eyes to the insides of the store. The shriek came from a female clerk tending to the counter. Looks like the robbery had just started to take place, it wasn''t long since that man had entered the store. Panic button? No, there was no time to do it. White had already seen the weak-willed woman raise her hands up helplessly. He did not think of it as anything but an act of self-preservation over her own life. His own feeble emotions would show more than the woman inside, that he was sure of. Naturally, if he was the main character of a story, protected in a world with protagonist correction, maybe he would have attempted to save her. The ability to gamble away his life, to yield returns of giving himself the title of the one vigilante who appears at night around this neighbourhood. White held those kind of foolish thoughts for a brief moment despite the tense situation inside. In that sort of sense, White was a youth who had a case of mild schizophrenia. While he was a person who thinks before he acts, it conversely meant that he was someone who overthinks more than half the time. That was just some kind of commercial filter the guy had, but the cold air that tickled his skin even now, jostled him wide awake. ...This was the real world. More than anyone else, White knew the grim reality that awaited him if he tried to do anything foolish. While he technically had a few ideas to disarm this situation, he did not have the obligation to raise any kind of flags here. More often that not, the people who acted like a hero in real life, were the first ones to die. That was something he knew very well. His hands trembled. Was it because of the cold? A bit of both, maybe. White was nervous as the scene before him became even more unfavourable. White was at a blind spot where the robber would not be able to see where he stood, as long as he had his attention on that clerk over there. ...So leaving slowly, inching backwards from where he had come from, that was the wisest choice he could make. He should leave now before he was seen. Closing his eyes in order to shut out the nagging conscience on his mind, White had essentially granted himself a reprieve.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. While giving his condolences to the woman in his heart, the youth moved a step away, lurching his back as he did so in order to not draw any kind of attention to himself. He went a step further by holding on to the pockets of his black pants so that the keys inside would not jiggle, and tiptoed away from the convenience store, a step at a time. An unreal situation, as White would call the things that were happening right now. It happened, and then it ended. There was no reason to stick his nose into places where it didn''t belong. That was okay, he had made the right call. He was going to live through this unexpected event. A robbery that he had left, maybe he would be able to brag about it online. .. Ah. White felt that it had been strangely silent since a while ago, so he had looked back up. But- "Ah...ahh..." The burly man who acted as the instigator of the robbery inside was looking straight at him blankly, the woman included. (Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous.) Those words rang in his head like crazy, forcing his feet to move even if he had been frozen still by that silent intimidation. The terror as he noticed the eyes of the burly man, appraising him like a predator before a helpless prey, it was unbearably dangerous. Run? He only had a second to think about it. Run. He had to run. No way in hell should he stay. So the decision was made. ... ... ... But his feet stopped after the first step back. His eyes seemed just as timorous as before, but a cold glint could be seen in them for just a brief moment, before it disappeared. What... was he doing? What was he thinking? He had stopped. He had stopped moving. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. But he couldn''t move. He couldn''t budge. (Fuck... fuck... fuckkk!!! Move!!! What the fuck!!!) That was when he had finally noticed, he was not looking at the robber any longer. His eyes, they were fixated on the clerk. They exchanged a silent eye contact, hers filled to the brim with tears. A tearful expression that sought for help, expressing distress towards him. White felt a sickening punch in his stomach. He had been resisting himself to not feel anything for the woman, but now that it had come to this, the youth could not help but feel a sense of self-reproach. What on earth was wrong with him?! He was prancing around danger right about now, he had no time to look after someone else. No, he did not even possess that kind of strength to protect himself anyway! Then what was this? Why wasn''t he moving?! White grit his teeth, no. His teeth chattered. .. He realized that the man was moving towards the exit of the store with his pace quickened. His expression turning even darker by the second. And because of that frozen state, White had been caught and dragged back into the convenience store. An idiot. White had been an idiot. Since he had been thinking so much about the victim inside, he was going to become one himself too. Reckless bravery? Or the simple fact that he had short-circuit on the spot because of his piling thoughts in his head? ...In any case, he was caught too. [Arc 1] Chapter 2 - White Room That duality of thinking, that contradiction. Leaking with hypocrisy, that was White''s inborn personality. But that kind of strange sense of morals probably wasn''t limited to him. He believed that many people in the world acted like him too. Humans in the modern world were impassive and unchanging, yet they expect things. Still...
White could only whimper inside of his head once inside of the convenience store. Now that it had come to this. He should put that brain to good use. Quick thinking, anything. But the young man had already snapped a long time ago. He was no longer listening to anything. His ears rung, and his vision was distorted. A feeling of belching surfaced as a trigger before he spat out whatever that was left in his body. "[][][][][][][][][][][][][]... [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]!" He heard something, but he was too disoriented to piece them into his understanding. He was in a pathetic state just by being caught. The potential that he would die in the hands of the robber, that was the only thought that flooded his frantic mind. "[][][][][][][], [][][][][][][][][][][][]!!!" He heard a more visibly louder voice, and then he felt his stomach being kicked. He felt a strange movement, turning him even more unstable for a second, before he felt his back slamming onto something. A sharp pain could be felt, and his throat became hotter. (Wh-wha... what... what is happening... to me...) The young man did not have to wait for long. The next thing he perceived with his ears became just as clear. BANG. His vision soaked in a sea of white. White could hear everything now. "F-Fucker... ignoring me like e-everyone else... you... you deserved that... you fucking... you fucking mute...! I-I''m not... I''m not responsible for this... I''m not... no... no..." "Hiyaaaahhhh!!!" "AHA...AHAHAHAHAHA-!" "Aahhhhh-" BANG. The other scream coming from the woman was cut short as well. That brief moment of exchange made White sober up instantly, but it was too late. A bullet was put through his chest, in a weak body of his. He was not going to make it. The pain attacking his entire body, and the fact that he could feel the bullet lodged in his chest. His body which had originally heated up intensively, had cooled down at a breakneck speed all of a sudden. It was excruciatingly suffocating. It became harder and harder for him to breathe. He felt the sweat sticking to him, burning his skin, like fire ants clawing through his body with numerous incisions. White felt his arms flailing around uselessly for a few seconds. "[][][][][][][][][][]-" The blurry voice returned. It seems like he could no longer hear much from the additional shots of the gun. BANG. .. .. In the end, he did not manage to save anyone at all. He did not even manage to save himself. His life had ended in such a pitiful manner, befitting a misfit like him. An outcast who could not fit in anywhere after his parents'' death, it was better he died this way. ...At least he could stay as the ''victim'' even as he passed away.
.. ... ..... A few seconds passed. The black landscape turned a little brighter. Slowly but surely, the nothingness was clearing up. ... His eyes opened groggily. Not mentioning the incessant ringing in the head, discomfort attacked his entire spine too. As if he could not grasp a brake or center of gravity, White quickly tumbled onto the ground head first. "Ack!" He responded painfully, further ingraining the fact that he had just suffered from something even more serious than a light concussion. As he steadied his vision, White clutched his head with both hands from the constant ringing in his mind. It was so erratic he felt like his brain was going to explode. Before long (and like he expected), White could finally feel his toes. Then his legs and his waist. The numbing sensation was no more, and White who had originally been robbed of his senses could perceive his own existence spatially again. (A... dream...?) Something that seemed to block out his body senses, albeit for a brief moment... that was something that he needed to consult his doctor about. (Wait... a moment...? How long... was I out for?) White knew that for something like this to happen to his own body, there must have had been a catalyst for its trigger. Which was losing unconsciousness. Whether it be sleep, or being knocked out by someone else. The matter of fact is that he had passed out unwillingly, somehow. Because this out-of-body sensation that was currently losing its numbness, that means that that person had surfaced. That person, was a rather vague term of course, considering that it was a fact that White lived alone in his apartment. He did not keep in touch with anyone he would call a friend, nor did his relatives bother him anymore. But to White, who clearly understood that someone else lived within him, he knew what "that person" meant. A detestable face of himself. A split personality, so to speak. That was another excuse White had given himself to stop coming to school altogether. He never knew when it would act up. And bringing that person out was far from a pleasant thing. White had never met him, but he could tell. The insidious residues left behind every time he awoke with this kind of feeling. The feeling as if the young man had been possessed by a wild animal, he would see the traces of blood on the clothes he had slept in last night.
.. Unfortunately, trying to recollect his memories before he passed out proved to be of no use as usual. It would only serve to make the headache even worse than it was now. The young man rubbed his scruffy black hair, causing a few flakes of dandruff to fall from his head. It was apparent that he had not been keeping his personal hygiene in check. Soon enough, he would understand that he was no longer in his own apartment. It would naturally be because of the unnatural lack of comfort from his A/C. While the temperature wouldn''t be considered anywhere near a degree of hotness, White who already did not have a good constitution would notice the minute changes in the surrounding temperature almost immediately. Or rather, most people who spend more than half their time indoors would take notice of.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. As he had already begun inspecting his surroundings, White became visibly shaken soon after finding himself in a completely different place. There were no posters of his favourite shows on the walls, there were no figurine collections that stood proudly in all six of his glass shelves. No, not even his beloved computer which contained all of his MMORPG games. While his eyes shivered, the young man could not help but dart them around. (No, this is not possible... snap out of it.) he thought to himself while blinking several more times to assess his current situation. But it couldn''t be less true even after he pinched himself to convince himself that, it was just a nightmare like usual. After all, his vision was completely white. Like a blank canvas, there was absolutely nothing here at all, so much so that White who had been squatting the entire time could not even feel a solid ground beneath his feet. Immediately, he had already felt extreme discomfort from having left the security of his own room. While it was not accurate to call it his home, it was at least somewhere he could hide in away from the eyes of the public. And now, he was in such a strange place. (Am I kidnapped? Why isn''t my feet touching anything?) White was truly shaken for the first time in a long while. It seemed too realistic to be a dream, and too far-fetched to be a prank. In the first place, pranks were supposed to be pulled with people who knew each other, ...maybe. And White didn''t really have any friends in real life. So then, what was this situation. White calmed his nerves in a steady pace, thinking that maybe, this was a warehouse where he was placed in after he had been kidnapped? ... .. . "Ah... h..." White had started to recall what had happened to him now. As he visualized the image of guts exploding, he recalled what had transpired. He had been shot, and killed subsequently after. Probably why the video tape that he had stored in his head stopped playing right after that. And White, who had suddenly remembered something nasty was not prepared for such a revelation. Experiencing an encounter with death, it was a seriously painful feeling that he would never get used to. As such, pangs of discomfort attacked his lungs and shortly after, he blew out a large amount of vomit out of his mouth. "Uerrgghh!"
"Haahh... what is going on..." White muttered to no one in particular. He had no destination in mind, merely walking with his feet feeling nothing as his legs moved in a draggy motion. After some time had passed, even someone as timid as White could begin to calm down. While he was still a little unsettled, there were no visible threats to his life at the moment. Thus he could begin to notice a few points as he wandered about. Firstly, there were no shadows. While it was a simple observation, White was aware of the law of physics. Matter would always cast one, as long as the subject wasn''t in space. Then, was he somewhere close to space? Secondly, he did not feel hunger nor thirst, and his stamina that kept his legs going the entire time, seemed to stretch for eternity. It was a strange feeling, but he accepted this for now as while it was out of the ordinary, it did not really make him body feel any different other than that. His clothes were also intact, along with the oval-shaped pendant on his neck. Thirdly, his voice did not reverberate, and it was dead silent. Yet his ears didn''t feel uncomfortable from the silence, he could not even hear the blood vessels moving around his body. It really seemed as if it was a point to disprove the first, and that he had merely been dreaming the entire time. After all, there were large contradictions to this place, and the more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. (Am I going to be stuck here I wonder...) White lamented, as if the entire situation would clear up the instant he said that. Needless to say, nothing happened even after that. And soon, even he stopped counting down the time that had elapsed in this place, he had lost all sense of time. Maybe, he thought. Maybe this wasn''t really that bad of a situation. His legs came to a stop. He was tired, mentally. Entertaining the thought of death once again, White who had no trouble with any bodily strain stood still, and his eyes closed in complete acceptance of his situation. (Ah, maybe... this is merely a process. I am probably dead. That''s the only logical conclusion...) That''s right, he was probably dead. It was easier to think so. As he did come to that conclusion, he felt his mind harden a little for the lack of realism to what had truly happened to him. A long period of silence, no, idleness would turn one completely insane, yet White was someone who already had a plethora of issues with his mental health. He embraced this stillness, he welcomed it. At least, it was least distracting. Maybe this was the concept of death, he thought to himself. And it wasn''t all that bad. All of his earthly desires were mere distractions. The time he spent browsing the web for light novels, cute illustrations of girls, and games that he had played. They were only something he had done to pass time through his life. The individual White, had never truly lived beyond the age of six. His time had already stopped in that car crash orchestrated by fate more than ten years ago. He didn''t blame anyone, since there was no one else to blame but himself. Why? Of course it was for his own selfishness to want to drag his parents out of their work to accompany him for his birthday. (Ah. Maybe... I might just have one regret. I don''t regret anything.) His eyes were still closed, but he could feel the pendant around his neck from the outline he felt around the palm of his right hand. It gripped onto the memento tightly, as if it would be stolen if he had not done so. (Ahh... it''s frustrating... Not really, what a shitty life you led.) His face felt a little hot. Down to his roots, White simply wanted to live with his parents again... ...And thus, it brought forth a change. At first, it felt like a glint. And then it got brighter. Its intensity had started to peer out of the abyss. This had obviously sparked a small feeling of curiosity in the young man, as the waves of resignation begun to pull back. His eyes slowly opened. But something else pulled back as well. His entire body was being repelled backwards, as if he had received a large volume of weight against his front. No, was it a conveyor belt? White was perplexed and seriously disorientated, but he couldn''t act against this force. After a few seconds had passed, it had finally stopped. The exhaustion he felt from it, caused him to heave heavily for a while, before he noticed the presence before him. Again, it was something out of the ordinary. But this time, he was clearly familiar with it. The conclusion that he was being led to, at least, the source of his understanding. It was the radiant appearance of a beautiful woman before him. Words were unable to describe anything about her features, thus his mind had accepted it as such. He had stopped thinking about such trifling matters. Instead, more than anything... White, who had his fair share of experience with literature, and more specifically, themes revolving otherworldly fantasies. It was clear where this was going. "Greetings... human. I welcome you, as the Goddess of Life, Raermy. Congratulations for making it thus far. To have called upon the one thing we call e-" Congratulations? For what? The words that spoke to him were clear but frustrating that it never changed in its inflexible template. Like those that struck him as something like that of a door-to-door solicitor, he merely viewed it as something that ''could not be helped''. But was it believable? Was he happy right now? Of course he was, after all... "...Am I going to be reincarnated?" He questioned without letting the woman finish her words. .. The woman, who had been interrupted, stayed silent for a brief moment. "Yes. ...Indeed." White held a look of happiness. Reincarnation. An overused trope in mainstream media, but there was a reason why it was popular. Reincarnation, meaning a second life. White could take the chance to forget everything about himself on this Earth and work towards a better him in the new one. Even the blemishes of his broken family could be fixed with ample time, or so he had thought. This was something he''d written under his bucket list, but to have something like this to actually happen in reality...? "A cheat? Are you going to give me a cheat? Ah... then... then... then..." White''s eyes glittered with expectations. That''s right, he was going to live a good life from now on. There was no need to suffer anymore. This was fate, he thought selfishly, casting aside the issues that plagued him in his life. Then now, was it time for him to pick an ability? A cheat? Something that would allow him to clear the conditions of a world inhabited with fantasy elements? This... isn''t this development going like a game?
The Goddess who had stayed silent for a moment, opened her eyes and looked at the young man before him for the first time. Lifeless, having no soul, not a shred of muscle, motivation nor determination. Ah, she thought. Another piece of trash who could not wait to jump into the embrace of an easier life, a restart so to speak. And to think that she had expectations of a different role for him. Far from it, it seems that the calling... yearning that came from the empty canvas here known as the Soul Forest... it seemed to be a false alarm. A delusional good-for-nothing, in hopes of possessing power or knowledge able to terraform a new world with cheats. She had seen the foolish behaviour of mortals time and time again, yet it was an inescapable duty for her to guide these souls. If she had known that the calm demeanor of White was merely one due to giving up, then she would not have given her introductions this politely. For her to misjudge a person''s character, this wasn''t the first time anyway. That was why there was a selection process in this place where the Goddesses could connect with the souls of these mortals at the point of life and death. After all, an existence known as the Goddess was not omnipotent. One merely served as a gatekeeper, not a source of power. There were no qualifications to speak to a Goddess after death, everyone was judged equally. There was no exceptions to their luck or regrets in life. A Goddess did not empathize with such trifling matters of these men. Who did these men think they were, in the face of an existence that far outweighed the importance of a few tiny specks in the universe? Who was the original perpetrator who had spread the false and ''exclusive'' or special ideals of what a Goddess embodied? It was clearly stupidity to think that a Goddess would''ve conformed uncharacteristically to a single human being. It was clear that the quality of men that she had extracted over the years, were starting to decline. Within her interlinking network with the other Goddesses that worked since the creation of time, she could see the entire timeline of White''s life. The Goddess was an existence whom usually ran like clockwork, but this time, she was in an even worse mood than usual. She had definitely held some expectations from White before he had opened his mouth. Now he had banished himself to a place where all the freeloaders went. There was heaven in a world where peace flourished, and so naturally, there would be hell where sinners with no redeeming value went. She already had the answer from the start. Even now, she could hear the silent thoughts clutching onto the frail youth''s mind. They went in a downward spiral, and he had the misconception that as long as he had the redemption known as ''reincarnation'', then he would truly be happy. ...Really now? She spat out in disgust. "Reincarnation huh. Of course." As if waiting for that answer, White jumped onto that opportunity and was about to speak, when- "You speak of many things in your mind, yet do you think they hold any substance? ..." The goddess closed her eyes and frowned. "...Eh?" "Your thoughts, they do not translate into action. You are a human whose life have stood still since the beginning. For that, you have committed the grave sin of Sloth. Your years of denial are being calculated, please be on hold." "Wha-" "Calculated. Decision ruled. ...As expected, there is no place but Area 44 for your accomodation." The goddess squinted her eyes and stared coldly at White who was wiping off a sweat on his forehead. "O-oh I see... I-It''s vacancy is it...? Th-then I don''t mind i-" "There is no choice on the matter. You are to participate in Area 44, that is all." "W-wait, what about my skills? And my character... and..." Without an explanation, the Goddess closed her eyes once more, and replied coldly. This time, revealing a small fraction of her true feelings of irritation towards the recurring ignorance of the masses. "...There is nothing else to speak of. Leave and repent, foolish mortal. Shall you survive, then will you be called again eventually." "Wait a- minute?!" Through an unending fall, White was discharged from the ''white room'', and shortly lost consciousness once more. [Arc 1] Chapter 3 - Wretched Lands [Part 1] His eyes opened again. Blinked once, twice. Great. Like a start-up sequence, White had completely recovered from the hazy feeling he had before. He scanned his surroundings with interest. It was a very rocky terrain, where he could not see far from the dust clouds obscuring his vision. Not that it was too bad that it narrowed his range of sight too much, but it was still difficult to see. The ground below him was solid unlike the white room he had been in earlier. There was nothing else in particular that screamed the word ''fantasy'' in his mind, and he thought for sure that it must have had been a mistake. Maybe he was brought to the wilderness in the West instead. Recalling the blinding color of where he had previously been, White felt a faint relief that he was indeed alive now. He took in a deep breath, and exhaled through his lungs. But he was interrupted. White choked on the dust particles that fogged the wasteland. Feeling irritation in his throat, he could not help but cough a few times to expel discomfort. "Cough cough!!!" A little unlucky, one would say to have been reincarnated into such a hostile environment right from the beginning of his story. Or was it more accurate to say that he had been transported or transferred? He had such thoughts in his mind as he rubbed away the spit around his mouth. He was wearing the same black shirt under his grey jacket. Besides his slightly loose jeans that held a similar dark hue, he also sported a pair of sandals he had worn to the convenience store. Of course, his pendant hung around his neck like usual. There was nothing different about his appearance since he had died on Earth. If that was the case, then it seemed as if the Goddess did not brief him on anything well during his transfer on purpose. He could not believe that a higher existence like a Goddess would be so careless, after all the novels he had read contained really clumsy Goddesses, but they did help the protagonist in the beginning one way or another. This was a little too cruel, he cursed silently. As he walked around to probe his surroundings, White slowly headed towards an area where it was easier to breathe in. He had also taken off his jacket from the heat that felt like a desert to him, and covered the area around his mouth with it. He rested his back against a withered tree for a few minutes, before continuing on again. The starting difficulty was too high for him who had never exercised a long time ago, and he briefly questioned himself why did the Goddess treat him so roughly unlike the stories that he was accustomed to.
It was strange, White began to suspect the authenticity of this place. He was not referring to the two suns that hung in the afternoon sky. No, that was something trivial for White who was keen to adapt to a new world and relish in the comfort his new life would bring from now on. Such a thing, it was merely a ''cosmetic'' difference. It didn''t affect me in the slightest. What had truly started to creep him out, was that the lack of people... had been accompanied by rotting carcasses that were left sprawled all across the ground spanning more than tens of kilometers. The structure of their bones were extremely unrealistic as compared to an animal on Earth, and most of them seemed to... or used to have very large bodies. So this was the smell he had felt a little nauseous about ever since he took in that first breath. Naturally, he was accustomed to it after a while, but it was still an unpleasant smell that was slugged in the thick stench of dried up blood and piss.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. For a creature to die like this, it was without reason that they had been hunted by something stronger. Clutching the jacket around his nose even tighter, he bent down to inspect one of the carcasses. Wooden... fences? There were splinters around him if he looked closely enough. But he could not make anything out of it, nor the bones he had attempted to glean information from. He wasn''t an archaeologist.
"Aah... I''m thirsty..." White resumed his direction towards a place with less dust. Still, no signs of civilisation could be seen. He had been pushing himself further than usual from the excitement that was fueling him, but it had long faded into obscurity as he began to think that the road ahead might be stretching even further than he had initially thought. This was absurd. This was unreasonable. What is this shitty world... White grumbled with an even more tired expression on his face. There were a few more new things he had found out, however. Recalling that perhaps there might be some unspoken rules of this world, he had attempted many different keywords, or ''trigger'' words that would invoke some kind of change around him. Magic, after all, was a staple in many reincarnation and transfer stories. Fireball! No amount of magic ''incantations'' was able to bring anything magical out of his extended palms. Clean! The dirt stuck to his clothes remained along with the sweat sticking uncomfortably onto his skin. Maybe, cultivation core activate? Maybe the premise of this world was one that favoured inner strength, but that didn''t invoke anything either. There was truly no cheat. But for White who had nothing to do except talking to himself, he stumbled upon something that gave him a response. "Status Window."
Stamina [32]
Hunger [11]
Thirst [3]
"Huh?! There''s a response!" White cried out excitedly. But that excitement quickly died down. It was nothing more than a way to track his sustainability, he thought. He thought it was useless, even he could understand when he needed to eat or drink. It did not show his own parameters and skills like he had expected it to. "As expected... at least... this is a sign that I wasn''t crazy? This is another world after all." He lamented as he looked at the flickering blue screen before him. It would have had been the same exact interface like any other story, except for the fact that it lacked vital information. But he didn''t put the screen away. This was the only thing he had unlocked. Although it would fade away after three seconds exactly, he would repeat the call to open that translucent screen again. "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." "Status Window." He repeated continuously, hanging onto the thread that something different might occur. But only the values beside each allocated item dropped as time passed. Before long, his ''Stamina'' had also reached the red zone at ''15'' points. One hour, two. Then three. He no longer knew how much time had passed, but the sky was getting a little darker. His stomach growled, as if displeased with his current predicament. If he knew that he would suffer this much, then he would''ve preferred to stay back at his apartment. He held a longing for chicken breast meat, a large serving of fries, and a big bottle of coke. The indicators of his thirst value merely made him even more frustrated. He could not even yell out an expletive from his parched throat. He felt like he had been duped, this wasn''t exactly how he had imagined his beginning to be. ...But as he was on the verge of giving up right there and then, he noticed something shimmering in the distance. Lighted up by the setting suns, he could see his salvation. There was a lake about tens of meters away from him. Was it a mirage? He could not care less. White hung on to the remaining straw that would possibly sustain his life. He was probably exaggerating, but for White who had not suffered from physical hardships for a long time, it was more than enough to say that it was indeed, a form of torture. Gritting his teeth, White quickened his pace towards the possibility of a water source. [Arc 1] Chapter 4 - Wretched Lands [Part 2] It was a small pool of water. Surrounded by a circle of rocks, it felt like a hot spring. But while it was indeed a source of water, it also a very diluted one; the traces of mud floating up to the surface, forming a layer of ''fat''. While the young man briefly wondered how it had not evaporated from the heat after all this time, he was more disappointed with what he had discovered. "I can''t use this..." He complained. But nighttime was getting closer, and White was nowhere near satisfied. His soles were swollen from walking so much, his legs were riddled with sand and cuts from the dirt. His body reeked of sweat and most important of all, he was at the brink of exhaustion, both mentally and physically. "Ugh... Beggars... can''t be choosers..." Giving himself an exception this time (and probably for his hard work), White bent down on one knee and scooped up an amount of muddy water with both his hands. "..." It definitely wasn''t drinkable. And god knows if he would actually be poisoned by it. White pushed back his unsettled feelings and opened his mouth to drink- The liquid content went down his throat, instantly rejuvenating him to a certain extent. Although it was just as difficult to drink as he thought, at least he had satisfied a certain amount of thirst. The value of ''Thirst'' rose by 5-
Thirst [8]
-But could he relax now? This question was quickly answered by the sudden piercing feeling in his stomach. "??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "UAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" While let out a frightful scream. He could not be bothered if the muscles in his throat would tear off. There was a shocking amount of pain being registered in his brain at the moment. It came from his stomach. "IT HURTS! IT HURTSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! FUCKKKK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK... ..." Not knowing how to calm himself down, White rolled around on the ground aimlessly, lashing out expletives to distract himself from the pain. And as a result from speaking too much, or probably for some other nasty reason, White struggled to breathe for a few seconds and had no choice but to cough with intensity.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. The third time he had done so, a small stringy object flew out of his mouth. It looked like pink spaghetti. It still hurt, but after coughing out that thing, White could feel his suffering lessening to the extent of a gastric pain. Still, it was not a small matter. "Wh-what the fuck is that..." White managed to spew out those words as he gasped for air. The thing that had came out of his mouth, it had flew quite a few meters away, and thus White left the pool of muddy water and came closer to it. At first glance, it looked like a ball of red yarn... but the truth. The truth was shortly revealed, and White immediately felt even more nauseous than he ever did his entire life. What he saw was... a yellow mealworm covered in red hair. To be more precise, it was entangled with a few of them and they were all still squirming around on the ground. They seem to be twitching a little, as if it was a fish that had no ability to breathe on land. "Ue-UERGHHHH!!!!!" White belched out one, two more of those worms. To think something like that was contained in his body! But how?! He continued to breathe raggedly, an invisible string of saliva coming out from the ends of his mouth. This was far from just being a difficult beginning. White was almost convinced now that this wasn''t exactly the world he wanted to be reincarnated in. It seemed that after that struggle with the creepers inside him, he had lost a substantially amount of sustainability points as shown on his Status Window. When he felt that there were no longer anything inside of him, White had already looked drastically weakened. He had to find out what that thing was. And thus, he focused his attention to chant the only ''skill'' he could bring out. ?Status Window? This was a piece of information he had obtained after attempting to appraise things around him for a while. And as if repeating its use had a certain kind of experience system (or probably because it had a certain restriction or requirement), he could identify one of the carcasses earlier. ?Stonelace Bull? There was just the name, but now he was somewhat certain that those were indeed... monsters. Existences that threaten the residents of the other world. That was a fact he was rather acquainted with, but what about it? The him that possessed no skills at the moment, they were an existence he could no longer treat lightly. ?Mutated Mana Worm? This was the name that appeared on the Status Window. There were no other descriptions but the name. However, the fact remained... that they were monsters. And just earlier, he was probably almost killed by these creatures. Almost immediately, a certain kind of feeling rushed up to his head. Raising another loud cry, the already tired young man stomped on the worms around him. They died with yellow liquid oozing out of their bodies. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Finally, they were all gone. He was... probably safe now. Yes, he had defeated these monsters. Now, he expected a level up. He had fought for his life. His life had been threatened and he successfully erased the monsters. If not for a reward, then what good was this world for? A level up. Come and level me up. I deserve a level up. Level up, and then become stronger. Become stronger, and then I won''t suffer like this anymore. Such thoughts ran through his mind like dopamine, he became increasingly alert for any kind of ''announcements''. Or something to fall from the sky. Maybe a visual effect to show that something had changed. He waited. One minute. Two. And then three. But nothing had changed. He was still stuck in this death-game. [Arc 1] Chapter 5 - Wretched Lands [Part 3] Nothing happened, and so he fell back down onto the ground. His legs were even more tired from stomping. He was in anguish. Wasn''t this unfair? What exactly was this place? White had felt a certain amount of annoyance from the walking ever since he had arrived, but this was certainly a rude awakening. Or maybe... the monsters known as ?Mutated Mana Worm? was nothing more than fodder. Like slimes, but even weaker. Not even decent experience points could be received by killing them. Maybe, he needed to kill one of those ?Stonelace Bull? that he had seen decaying all around this wasteland. But... was that possible? Was it possible for a frail human like him to fight something that big? White''s eyes had started to turn a little lifeless. He had already felt that if he did not have a goal to aim for, then he would surely die alone without accomplishing anything. Maybe that was fine, he thought. In the first place, he had only came to this world thinking that he was only in for a fun ride. He had already probably died so maybe passing on was an event without suffering. Thinking like this, he decided to kill himself. He stood up again, and headed towards the pool. He had not estimated its depth, but something told him that if he soaked in that very pool, he would die in an instant. So he came closer. And closer. Like he had recalled himself doing right before he died and came to this world. He was suicidal. Yes, he had a hidden intention behind him trying to save the female clerk at that time. He wanted to kill himself. He wanted to attach himself to someone before he died, so he could be labelled as something. He could etch himself somewhere in the news, and he would be remembered for a short while. He was a selfish person. And maybe, that was why God... no, the Goddess was punishing like this. "Ah... ah... ah..." In the end...Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ...He really felt regretful about that one thing. ... "HE...Y... D... H...EY... UCK...!!!" "?" Right as he was about to take a step into the pool, a man''s voice entered his ears. And soon after, he could feel himself suddenly hesitating. A person? There is someone else here? Feeling a little conflicted as he had already steeled himself for his second death, White noticed that the voice had come from across the pool. A few hundred meters away, he could see a speck of a person, and it was getting bigger. How he had heard him, it was because the land stretched out far enough in between a few mountains to create varied volumes of echoes when shouting. Then, had he attracted the attention of other humans living around here earlier? He had screamed quite loudly after all. "It...it''s true... there really is a person... I''m not... hallucinating..." Light returned to his eyes, as White began to try and see what the person looked like. And then again, he received the same warning from earlier. "FUCK!!! YOU WANT TO DIE?! DUCK!" "H-huh?!" A middle-aged man with a visibly haggard look was sprinting towards him. He was wearing a dark green tank-top and a baggy pair of pants, giving off a very militaristic vibe. Something seemed to be... chasing from behind. White did not know what it was, nor was he near enough to see it. For now, he was already clear that this place was incredibly hostile, thus he felt like someone who was here as well would empathize with such a feeling. If so, then the thing that was chasing after that man coming closer to him... It was undoubtedly another monster. Making up his mind, White gathered up his low reserves of energy and put them into his legs without saying anything else. He turned his back against the man and waited for him to say something else. "RUN NORTHWEST! HIDEOUT!!!" He managed to yell out within a very frantic pace of breathing. It seemed like that man knew his way around. Trusting in that set of information, White pushed himself forward and ran northwest. While his speed wasn''t fantastic, White still had a considerable amount of distance in between the two of them. Before long, the man''s figure could no longer be seen within the dust. He ran, and ran. And ran. There was slowly a slight change in landscape. He could see trees that were no longer withered, but their leaves were purple. While he held some interest in that, White still continued running and looking for something else. He needed to look for that hideout. After all, the sky had nearly darkened completely and who knew how the levels of danger would be affected in the night. That''s right, he needed to hide first. And thinking so, he placed an excessive amount of faith in the information of the hideout that would be visible if he kept running northwest. [Arc 1] Chapter 6 - Wretched Lands [Part 4] While White was considered a ''nocturnal'' back on Earth, he wasn''t exactly a superhuman either. Just like anyone else, the only way he could see in the darkness was to get used to it. And since he had came to this world, time progressed as normal. Which meant that White had been exposed to the sunlight long enough for his ''advantage'' to lose effectiveness. The sky had already turned dark blue, and it wouldn''t be long for even that darkness to consume the glitter of the stars in the sky. How much... further? He thought anxiously as he wandered even deeper into the thickening forestry. There was no sound of crickets, nor cicadas. It was unnaturally silent, but that made him even more worried. Doubts began to spring into his head. Maybe, the man had lied? But why? The man had no reason to lie to him. He was being chased from quite a distance away, and he couldn''t serve as a suitable scapegoat... No, why am I doubting him... I am the one in need of help in the first place... I knew this, but I''m really a terrible human being... White shook his head and focused on his task at hand. He was not to lose his focus or he might miss the entrance to the hideout. It was at this time that White had regretted not waiting for some additional clues in order to find it.
And then he found it. Not the hideout, but something peculiar. A woman...? No, a girl...? It wasn''t really important how old she was for now, but White had stumbled across an unconscious woman stuck in a net. It looked like one of those net traps one would see a hunter use in documentaries when securing wild animals. The ends of the net were tied to two nearby trees, and it looked rather secure. No no, why am I calmly analyzing the net now... that person... why is she trapped in a place like this? Maybe it was because he held a generally favourable opinion of the opposite gender, or maybe it was simply because it was also another person he had stumbled across in this dangerous land, it seemed like he wanted to release her from the net. Before he knew it, his legs had already stopped. And while he didn''t think that stopping now would be a good idea, White would never have realized that trouble would be knocking on his door so soon. Silently, and crawling. White began to notice an itchy feeling on his right ear. He scratched, and felt something that made his skin chilly. It was a maggot, the size of a small capsule ball. "WH-AT THE F-" It wasn''t just on his right ear. As he looked down frantically, he could see a swarm of them crawling speedily up into his pants.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Disgust, shock, fear... all of those emotions surged together at once. White jumped up and down, flailing his arms and shaking his head madly like his life depended on it, literally. This maggot was probably another monster. It did not even register to him that they were crawling on top of his skin until they had taken a good bite off his flesh. It was a horrifying monster which he would later find out to be a ?Mutated Lilac?. He shook some of them off, but they continued to crawl up all over his body. Some were almost getting into his ears, while some had already gotten into his mouth. White had to repeatedly spit them out before any of them slid down his throat. More than disgusting, he felt that if the Lilacs swarmed him even more, it would reach a point of no return and he would die from being eaten alive before even considering the fact that he would also bleed to death from all of the external wounds he had received. His eyes turned to the female still trapped in the net, dangling in between two trees. He felt that if anything, that person was even more in danger than him. She could not move while unconscious, and it would be a matter of time before these Lilacs swarmed together and overwhelm her too. White had already held feelings of wanting to save her initially, thus he could not help but focus a part of his attention on the female. Ughh... th-there''s too many...!!! Just when all seemed lost, he noticed something bound to one of the trees very close to him. A coil of rope was wrapped around its trunk, securing it in place. White quickly realized what it was from the look of it. A torchlight! Without hesitation, White extended his left arm forward and grabbed the torchlight. A beam of light immediately appeared after its switch had been turned on. They''re... afraid of the light! The grass patch infested with the Lilacs was being put in the spotlight, and almost immediately all of them scurried away in all directions. I... I can do this! White immediately shone the light on himself, and in his clothing. He managed to get most of them off, but he had already suffered from quite a few wounds. On top of having close to no more stamina, he was also starting to bleed profusely. But what about her? He thought frantically, already thinking of climbing the tree to save her. Of course, it was just thinking. He could not possibly do it, not in this state. Nor was he confident of climbing a five-meter tree at his best. He shone on the underside of the net, as he watched the insect monsters crawl up from the bottom of the trees and reaching the ends of the rope leading to the net. Still, he wanted to help. The first few Lilacs would awaken her from unconsciousness, and then he would tell her to try and rotate her body around so that he could try and keep them away with the torchlight. For himself, he would jog on the spot lightly such that they would not be able to get to him as easily as before. Sure enough, he noticed that the female had woken up from the pain. She quickly noticed her surroundings. What emotions did she have, when she noticed that there were barely any space to move around in the net? In the first place, how had she gotten in a place like this...? As if suddenly coming to a realization, she widened her eyes. "N-no way... he..." That voice was of a mature woman, and finally White could call her one in his mind. But that was but a fleeting thought, as he would never see this woman again. "Tu-turn your body around! I''ll shine the light on them!" The woman suddenly heard a voice coming from underneath her, and noticed that there was certainly a light coming from below. The voice of a young man, and he had a torchlight. But the woman did not have the time to think of such things either, as she felt another sting in between her breasts. "Agahhh!!! Help me!" She screamed in a voice louder than White. "Help meeee!!! What is this?! What are these things! No, nooooooo!!! Get away from me!!! Ahh, it hurts! It hurtssss!!!" White could no longer speak from a lack of water content in his throat, yet there were still screams. Screams of pure agony and despair. White''s jogging became less and less energetic, but his hands on the torchlight were still on the back of the net. His eyes twitched and his smile became slightly crooked. "No way this is... happening... right...?" A small voice could be heard if the woman listened close enough, but the maggots were already plugged into her ears and nostrils. She could no longer perceive her surroundings, flailing about in the tightened net like a butterfly caught in a spider''s web. She had already closed her eyes off as the slimy legs of the Lilacs had began to melt them like acid. "Hurts... It hurts!!! Help me!! Help me!! Aghh, ack, ish'' intho'' my mhouth''...!!! H''lp... h...p..." The screaming became a whimper, and soon enough the quietness of the forest returned. [Arc 1] Chapter 7 - Tag "Why... why..." A mangled corpse fell out of the net after holes had been created from the Lilacs. The woman was already dead, but the remaining Lilacs that were about to crawl up to White had switched their focus to the sweet scent of blood. The insects piled up onto the remains of the body like a flock of vultures. The layer of meat the woman still had around her skeletal frame was quickly being devoured, and her size shrunk even more. At least, he wanted to know her name. His narrowed eyes laid rest on the body which had already been layered by a horde of ?Mutated Lilac?. He repeated the use of his only appraisal skill in his head until he could do so without saying it. ?Status Window?. He shone a light quickly over, and in an instant, the Lilacs made way for the light. White had achieved the precondition to have to view a portion of the target in order to use it. ?Human Corpse? As if mocking his efforts, the window displayed those cruel words. White felt the grim reality of a person''s death. He had witnessed someone else die before him, in the worst and most cruel way possible. There was no way that he wouldn''t be shaken by it. Even though I''ve tried my best... even though she did nothing wrong... For an 18-year-old, death was not a common sight, even if he had attempted to drown his own life away countless times. It was a fact that even White who held more importance over his own safety, wanted that woman to live. She had done nothing wrong, or at least, he wanted to believe so. They were all victims of this world. ...And the one who had sent him here, was that Goddess. For once, White could feel something brewing inside of his chest close to anger. But the person himself did not have much time to settle down his thoughts. He had to get out of this place, he told himself many times repeatedly. He had to get to the hideout.
Stamina [4]
Hunger [4]
Thirst [2]
He was running out of options. He only had this torchlight. White''s pace reduced to a light jog, and slowly turned into walking. And then walking which required him to take frequent breaks.
Stamina [2]
Hunger [2]
Thirst [1]
He was going to die.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "Fuuu..." I exhaled heavily. It seemed that the matter this time was rather serious. A transfer? Really? I closed my eyes and admonished myself for being such an idiot. At least, he still managed to bring me out properly right before he actually died. That was, to me who had stayed inside for not very long, the situation was rather annoying. This was the second time in a long while, and the gap in between was rather quick. A flood of information seeped into my head, and I quickly understood our predicament. "So this... is it... huh..." ?Mutated Lilac? This was the monster that hated light. This thing probably came out the moment it turned dark. And then there was the other creature he had encountered. ?Mutated Mana Worm? This one was an aquatic type. And it only appeared when he had ingested the muddy water. Both of them had the word ''Mutated'' in them, perhaps this was a place where everything had deviated from the norm. In that case, it was silly for him to even consider eating anything around here carelessly. The purple trees which did not wither even in this wasteland. A forest right in the middle of it, everything about it just seemed suspicious. And so? There was nothing else I could do about it. My feet had turned heavy, and I did not have the resources to fuel myself forward any longer. Seriously, this is the worst. To always bring me out in situations like this. "...You already know how much I hated being in the open..." I muttered softly under my breath. I had to find a solution huh. My feet had stopped, and I thought even harder again. The illumination from the torchlight danced from tree to tree, I soaked in every single detail and etched them into a mind map. The environment was useless... then were there anything else... something that could get me out of this place, someone that could get me out... My eyes fell upon the clothes I was wearing. It had not been torn off the entire time. And then the answer occurred to me. "...Ugh..." Still... I''d like to not use it if I could. But I guess it couldn''t be helped. Beggars can''t be choosers.
A pair of footsteps rustled as they moved along the tall grass that got to one''s kneecaps. A man dressed lightly held a large amount of caution as he continued forward. In one of his hands, there was a wooden stick with its ends set ablaze. That was a fire torch that one would see when ''adventurers'' moved into the dungeon depths. Of course the use of such a torch was slightly different here, but it generally had one use for having it. It was to keep out the monsters that lurked in the darkness. With the help of the flame illuminating the surroundings, the man did not spare much effort in navigating his way around. Still, he did frequently check the places around the trees where he had marked them with a knife. Where he was going, was quite clear. He was going to collect a woman. And while it might be good that the other kid that was around earlier was still alive, it was merely just an added bonus. He was beginning to run out of food after all. Snickering to himself internally, he had finally arrived at where the woman was. But almost immediately, he had lost a substantial amount of calmness. "Fuck...!" The man gnawed at his own teeth, furious by the unexpected results. It seemed that the net was already broken, and that the trap did not stand well against the critters that appeared after nightfall. More specifically, the bottom of the net had been bloodied and hung loosely. Normally he would''ve employed the use of a more secure trap, but he didn''t really have much of those left. Those kinds of traps were one-time uses, and it was annoying to have to remake them again and again. So his experimentation had failed, and it had cost the life of such a precious stock. But he could not see the corpse anywhere. The man moved the fire torch around and tried to see traces of a skeleton. He knew how the Mutated Lilacs acted. They did not consume anything beyond flesh, and the bones would naturally be kept intact. "Hmm...?" The movement of his hand holding the fire torch stopped as he noticed a small spot of light on the ground not far from here. Ah, the torchlight. He assumed rather quickly. Did the woman manage to get away after falling out from the net? The man licked his lips, and sauntered towards that direction. [Arc 1] Chapter 8 - Transfer Hunter The man was called Vincent. To live in a place like this, Vincent was a man which many would call a "Transfer Hunter".
There was no rule, nor laws that governed this new world. Vincent had learnt the truth fairly quickly as he had been a trained hunter in the woods back on Earth. Most of his belongings remained in the backpack that he had carried before he died, and it seemed to have been brought over here as well. As such, he was able to think of surviving with a good headstart. But he could not hunt animals. There were no animals, but real monsters. This world was extremely poisonous towards humans, and almost everything was not edible. His rations were running out. And he quickly realized that nighttime was one where he seriously required a light to sustain his own small life. Then one day, an elderly woman had appeared before his eyes. At first, he could not believe it, but the figure that had seemingly faded into existence suddenly spoke to him. "Where am I?" And then he knew, at this time, that he was not the only one. The first person that had he had met, probably came to this place in the same way like him. Thinking that it was a waste of his rations, Vincent had initially refused in his mind to help out the old lady. But his conscience gave in at the end. That was until he became extremely sick and tired of the old woman complaining about how she was getting less and less food. "Fuck, if you don''t stop complaining, I won''t give you any more!!!" He shouted with irritation clear in his tone. And as the old woman had zero ability to procure food on her own, she was even more agitated.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. "Young man, how can you talk to your elders like this?! How selfish can you be, it''s just a little food-" "-JUST A LITTLE FOOD?! YOU OLD HAG, YOU''VE ONLY BEEN TAKING, AND NOT GIVING. FUCK, I EVEN GAVE UP A SLEEPING BAG FOR YOUR WRINKLY ASS. NOW YOU WANT TO COMPLAIN? YOU WHO DON''T EVEN HAVE A SHRED OF VALUE, YOU WHO DON''T EVEN HAVE VALUE IN YOUR OWN BODY?" He snapped. And the old woman merely egged him on, thinking that she was being abused like her son in the previous world. Everything seemed to be against her, she thought agitatedly. And then finally, Vincent could no longer take it anymore. "Hey, you know what." WHAM. A firm strike against the side of her skull with a baton, and she dropped dead in less than a few seconds. Vincent wheezed. And wheezed. He had killed animals as a hunter, but not humans. Yet strangely, he felt clear-headed. He felt satisfied. He wondered why he hadn''t done so from the very beginning. Even his solution for food was solved. He grinned in satisfication. And if someone who came to this place held rations with them, then he could get water eventually as well. Otherwise, he would just take them from their dead bodies. Vincent fell into depravity. And then, he lived his life onwards not as a hunter, but a "Transfer Hunter". He would lurk around in this area for years, racking up things that belonged to others. He had already enough to travel for extended periods of time and hopefully be able to leave this place, but he had already grown addicted to plundering, and killing and raping. His crimes would go unpunished, and he would instead be rewarded each time he found a survivor who came from Earth. Everything belonged to him in this world. He would soon enough settle his own heart by calling it ''salvation''. To ease the pain through a final trial of being eaten, would they finally go to heaven. He was a good man to offer such a service. Woman, after woman after woman. Man after man after man. Even children, no. Especially children. He savoured their bones in soup as if he was tasting a delicacy. He butchered the meat of the children, ignoring their silent screams as their vocal organs had already been smashed to pieces. And it would continue for years until he died of old age. It was just a profession like on Earth, he thought willfully. His way of speech and the look on his face had thus adapted to such a mindset, but the person himself did not have the chance to look in the mirror. At what he had become. So as he saw the woman he had trapped in the forest seeming to be desperately keeping the insects away, he felt as if he had a smile filled with innocence. He would release the woman from her pain soon, but of course before having a good taste of her body first. That was of course, a natural course of action for Vincent. [Arc 1] Chapter 9 - There Are No Second Chances in Life Vincent narrowed his eyes in glee, having a sense of relief that his prey had still been alive and had not wandered far off course. Hiding his presence and slowly moving towards her, he still could not help but feel a little excited. He had already taken a look at the goods that laid beneath her clothing. Vincent couldn''t wait to savour the taste of such a delectable woman. "?! Who''s there!" A frantic whisper soft enough that he would almost miss it. Vincent was rather shocked. Did he mess up? But even if he did, wasn''t the woman busy with flashing the light underneath her feet? How did she manage to notice him? No matter, he thought, his smile returning to him again. She must have exhausted all of her strength anyway. She had no weapons, and most importantly, not determined enough to kill a man. He revealed himself from the parting of the grass and bowed his head, as if mimicking the actions of a gentleman. "Pleased to see you again, Fiona~" The woman was called Fiona, and he thought it would be rude to not give out at least a salutation before he hunted her down. Fiona stayed silent, but seemed to be trembling in the dark, her back continuing to face him. She really doesn''t want to see me eh~ Hehe... it just makes the aftertaste even more favourable~ Vincent licked his lips, as his eyes laid upon the dishevelled mess on her attire. Her clothes which seemed to be one of a night attendant. Fiona was probably a hooker at a pub somewhere. "How could you..." The faint whisper could be heard again. Vincent grinned even wider, he enjoyed watching people reaching the brink of despair. He came even closer to her back. Fiona didn''t seem to move away anymore, and it felt like she had already given up after knowing that she could no longer run away. "Hehh... Don''t worry, miss. I''ll send you to heaven right away~ Various meanings included~" As lust took over his body, Vincent slackened his guard and moved his fingers over to the area under her armpits. Just a little more... just a little more... And he touched it. Fiona''s chest. ...It was flat. "Eh?" "How could you be so stupid." "Wh-" He faintly recognized this voice, now that the person no longer whispered. Without waiting for Vincent to react, the person disguised as Fiona threw a piece of cloth at his face. "?!" The cloth unwrapped itself, revealing a large number of Mutated Lilacs. All of them splendidly hit his face without missing, and some of them had already successfully latched onto him while the other fell to the ground near him and started working towards his feet. "Wh-what the fu- Get it off! ARGH, GET OH''FF!!!" Vincent cried out in panic as he tried to get them off. His torch... that''s right, his fire torch, he would use it... but- "?! My th''orchhh!!!"If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. He had lost grip of it and it fell onto the grass clearing, the flame still burning on the ground yet not spreading anywhere fast enough. Avoiding the flame, the maggots merely quickened their scuttering towards Vincent''s feet. Their bites intensified, and it seemed that they would be working towards his inner veins any time soon. Vincent no longer had time for the crossdressing White, who had begun to stand up slowly and walk towards him. "...A fire torch, as expected." White picked up the fire torch from the ground and then fished out a knife in Vincent''s back pocket easily. He quickly flung his hand around to shake off the maggots that were sticking to it. For now, White noticed no other weapons other than the knife. That was somewhat regrettable, he thought coldly. He wished that he would''ve gotten a little more than that. Besides that, he also loosened the fanny pack strapped around Vincent and shook off those Lilacs crawling around it as well. There was nothing else much he could take from him. "G-gh''aaa, you... you brat!!! Give those back!!!" The man swung an arm towards White, but he did not have enough reach. His balance was also extremely off from being pestered by the creatures around his ears, thus White merely had to step back a little without much effort. Lighting the area around his legs with a torchlight on his right hand and the fire torch on his left, he moved away from Vincent and seemed to be searching for something on the ground. "Still..." White continued while searching around, his head looking downwards as if Vincent''s predicament was none of his business. "To actually come up with such a straightforward plan... As expected of a hunter, I guess? You prioritize efficiency." "Gh''aaa!!! GYAAHHHH!!!" "Kaka! You know, I have to thank you..." White did a strange cackle. "Wh-what?!" Vincent couldn''t help but question White, and also to buy some time. He thought he hadn''t given anything away that he was clearly going to kill him. This boy that he coincidentally heard from a loud scream while he made his way to the forest. He wanted to get the boy to the ''collection point'' so that he wouldn''t have to make two rounds. He would not survive alone in the forest looking like that anyway. But why had everything turned out like this?! But he still clung on to one last hope. The boy had merely thrown the Lilacs towards him, and did not harm him with his own hands. This was a big difference. This was maybe something he could exploit. After all, no human being could kill another this easily without hesitating. He would use that gap, and- "Did you know, the cuts you made as marks in case you got lost around here. Those were pine trees." "Wait..." "And the sap of these trees, are highly flammable." "Don''t... don''t do it!!!" Vincent had shaken off a majority of the maggots around him, but some of them he had already ingested. Still, it didn''t even come close to the pressure and bloodlust coming out of the boy. But contrary to that frantic appearance, Vincent was extremely elated inside. He felt like he had already won. Hah, you idiot. Looks like you''re really new to this world... He thought the boy would have wanted to burn him, and he knew that it was a mistake since the Lilacs hated the light. Moreover, he was used to being burnt and the pain was less than the heavy bites of countless Lilacs sticking to his body. Once he was free from those monsters, Vincent would then beat him up and kill him with ease. "Ah, found it." "Huh-?" It seemed White had found what he was looking for. He threw the fire torch onto the ground. It suddenly lit up, following a full circle, it quickly became an enclosed field where the Lilacs could no longer escape from. And since they had no other choice but to come to the inner circle where Vincent was, they attacked him even strongly. "GAHH!!! IT HURTSSS!!!" Incidentally, White had already left the circle and was watching the hunter from the outside, though the flames were also starting to spread outwardly. White clicked his tongue. "Tch. I really wanted to retrieve the remainder of your belongings intact, but you''re too strong for me. I need to kill you quickly before something else unexpected happens." Vincent had finally realized, that this boy held not a single shred of empathy in his heart. He was just like him, or even worse. He had experience in murder. Throwing a bunch of Lilacs in his face was not a compromising action, it was merely a judgement that understood that he could not overpower Vincent who was far more experienced in combat than him. Once he had come to the realization that the Lilacs would die trying to get into his insides to avoid the light, Vincent''s face paled. He had an omen of his own impending death. "One of us has to live, and the other has to die~ So, please die." "...Guhaaa!!!" Vincent''s eyes widened, as they met the gaze of the boy''s outside the ring of fire. The flames were closing in, and the maggots were getting even more active. He faced death in all directions. The eyes of the boy were cold and calculative, not even a smile hung on his face. White did not feel anything from it, not even joy. He was just like a monster following his instincts to live. "You... you monster!!! N...NO...!!! THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN... THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY NEW CHANCE AT LIFE...!!! THIS WAS MY KINGDOMMM!!!" Fresh blood spurted out of his mouth, and Vincent slowly lost his strength from the blood escaping from holes all over his body. The Lilacs that he had shaken off began to crawl back up again. White looked down at Vincent as if he was looking at trash. He had already fallen to his knees. "There are no second chances in life. This is merely the afterlife, you''re not supposed to enjoy it." The flames fanned on in the night, and the anguished cries were drowned out by the creatures crawling into the man''s body. [Arc 1] Chapter 10 The goddesses were tired. The amount of humans on Earth had a finite number, and passing onto the reincarnation cycle, or forced ejection from their own world to another. It wasn''t a good practice. But they had to. The many other worlds that each Goddess governed, there were too many anomalies. Demon Kings, monsters, corrupted politicians befitting the medieval ages of these worlds. These humans were people with values, or at least the goddesses had assessed them to be. And so they sent them to prevent the world from losing its neutrality. But one day, a Goddess had mistakenly sent a human without such values. He was a murderer in his past life. While the starting actions didn''t seem big initially, ripples started to spread and come in contact with each other like a butterfly effect. Betrayal leading to negative emotions, breeding hate and revenge. Various conspiracies and plots that culminated from the earthling sent to resolve problems, became the problem instead. From the consequences of that human''s actions, the world it was in was doomed to fail. And so the goddesses became dejected. The scarcity of such humans had already dipped over the years, and a wrong choice would result in something like this? The goddesses felt like the majority of humans did not appreciate their second chance at life. So another world was created. To create a world, the power of many goddesses were required. The birth of life. It was created in the likeliness of its neighbours, yet it had a flaw that the goddesses had purposefully left it with. The magic systems, monsters and even citizens worked against the favour of those who would eventually be sent to this place. And they would send in people whom they deemed to require such a baptism. A hell created in the mirage of a perfect world, a test for those who would eventually succeed after clawing their way from the bottom. They would finally appreciate life after managing themselves in a place where the conditions of survival were harsh. But it turned out to be a mistake, the cesspool of self indulgence and neglect grew even strongly in this place. Why? The goddesses thought as they viewed the world from above. Why has this happened? They did not understand the true nature of humans. The residents of the new world could not cope on their own, but they continued to be selfish. It wasn''t as if the goddesses had left them with no choice, those who earnestly wanted to carve out a way to live, would do so with some leeway in their new lives. But people... humans continued to be selfish. They always sought more, treating themselves as the center of the pack. Egoistical, self-centered... Thinking, why does things happen to me? Why must it be me? Why was I chosen to suffer? And so those ugly feelings pit forth against each other, straining the relationships in this damned place. The world plunged into darkness, and there was no longer hope in rehabilitating them.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. The goddesses were already tired, and they did not have the obligation to save these humans in the first place. Thus it slowly became a place like the afterlife where humans served their penance for all the sins they''d committed in their lives. The worlds continued to move in parallel, advancing the stories of each of them, but only that corrupted world stayed in place.
White did not bother collecting the remains of the dead man whom he did not even know the name of. Even though he had already realized that the Mutated Lilacs did not melt or bite through fabric, the flames were spreading faster than he had anticipated. For now, he decided to move out of the forest where the Lilacs crawled. Perhaps he might come in contact with other monsters lurking inside. His best bet was the open grounds of the wasteland. He backtracked following the marks of the trees. They would soon be burnt by the flames spreading wildly. That was another reason he needed to get out of here, there might also be monsters awakened and provoked by the fire. Thinking back, it was rather uncharacteristic of him to risk his life doing something so showy. Preferably, he would have done the entire thing more discreetly. But then again, he chuckled after thinking about it once more. "Keuk, keuk..." Since he was back in control over his body, he had begun to realize it as well. No one was here to judge his actions, this was a different world as compared to Earth. Either way, there was little to work with. White wasn''t exactly a grand strategist, but he wasn''t an idiot either. If one would take a step back to access the young man, they would most likely have the iimpression that he possessed a rather quick-witted mind. This considerably savage method to secure his most optimal route of survival, White could not help but sigh and mull over the plan''s overall lack of elegance.
White had already checked the contents of the pack around his waist. There were quite a few items in there, but for now he took out a small 500ml bottle of water. He was rather parched from all the heat and action, so he drunk it without hesitation. There should be no poison in them considering it was from the Hunter''s actual rations. "Ahh... that''s much better..." His thirst was finally quenched. Then he took out a small packet of biscuits and ate it as well. He felt considerably better than before. ?Status Window?.
Stamina [6]
Hunger [21]
Thirst [41]
Still, he was too fatigued to run. So he took his time getting out of the burning forest.
For now, he sat down onto the ground with the torchlight at the ready in case Lilacs appeared again. He tucked the knife that still had its sheath at the pocket on his back, and dumped the contents of the bag out on the ground. "A set of coordinates..." He held a crumpled piece of paper up to the torchlight. It was probably where that man''s hideout was, seems like it was true after all and it wasn''t too far from the forest where he had set the trap at. In addition, there was a compass. 4 packs of biscuits. 2 500ml bottles of water. 6 small ziplock bags with a small blue pill in each of them. A moderately bigger one which held a bunch of green berries. "Haahhh..." It was nighttime already. For now, he decided to pay the hideout a visit. [Arc 1] Chapter 11 - City Ruins To his surprise, White''s appraisal skill ?Status Window? had gone beyond the ability to only check for monsters and himself. He realized that there were a few things in the fanny pack that the ''status system'' could also recognize.
Mana Compass A compass that has the ability to manipulate mana for navigation
The compass which appeared to have a light silver trimming around its circular frame, had an actual name and description! This was the first time the ?Status Window? had done something like this. Perhaps this skill had truly levelled up? There was a string attached to it, thus White hung it over his neck along with the pendant he was already wearing. And as expected, mana did exist in this world. But how much did mana affect this world, he had yet to find out. The ziplock bag with a bunch of green berries were able to be appraised as well.
Ferretfruit Bunch A bunch of Ferretfruit. Edible to humans when ingested with ?Vegetables?.
Something that seemed as if the hunter had taken his chances with its edibility. That man was probably looking for food alternatives. Since there were various things here and there that did not exist on Earth, White reminded himself that he would appraise things around him more frequently than before.
Blue Pill
And the only other thing that could be appraised, but did not have its description box. Still, its appearance was very similar to a "Mana Pill", and it seemed to make sense considering that the ?Mana Compass? made use of it too. In the end, he was right. As he took a pill out of its ziplock bag, the compass around his neck responded, turning the pill into blue glittery dust which it immediately sapped inside it. White waited in anticipation. After a few seconds, the ?Mana Compass? began to glow blue and its light dimmed and flickered like waves. And then at the corner of his eyes, he could see a translucent blue string. It had one end connected to the center of the compass, and the other led to another direction. White realized what the mana had been used for, and it felt rather convenient for him who had limited vision at night. He kept the rest of the items in the bag and began to follow the line which he had started to call: "Mana Strings". Arriving at what seemed to be city ruins, White began to slow down his pace and moved the flashlight around even more than ever. The rocky grounds had paved way for destroyed roads, overgrown with red and orange weed. There were a few skyscrapers left standing, with windows mostly broken. The entrances were covered by red vines and various flora of a similar color. There were many familiar structures he saw: A hospital, a desert shop where he could work out the name "Salisbury", a shopping mall with an area that looked like an arcade. Still, he did not go beyond ''window shopping''. They did not seem to be stable structures anyway. Some of the buildings creaked and had the ominous sounds of metal bending. There was a few skyscrapers in particular on the way here which had already leaned to one side like a failed jenga structure. Nothing much could be appraised, and even if they did give a hit, there was no descriptions about them.
Mutated Hydrangea
Greenlark
Manastone
The moment he had appraised a certain shrub of plants as a ?Mutated? one, White immediately set a good distance away from it. He did not want to aggravate any kind of monsters currently. The city ruins were currently silent, and while he did not know why it was here or what had happened to it, he did not want to break that passiveness.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. The second one was a small bunch of round-shaped fruits and had a little more tamer in its name, but White did not want to risk taking something without a description. He had food right now and now was not the time to introduce any kinds of risk. Still he decided to mentally mark the spot where he had seen the Greenlark plant. As for the ?Manastone?, White had appraised it when touching a black lamp-post. It no longer worked but his appraisal skill went through and registered it as such. "...A light source." He noticed that there were indeed a tiny dark blue pebble inside of the unbroken glass. He steadied his aim with the knife he had pocketed earlier and threw it at the glass. The glass shattered violently into many pieces, like a raindrop coming into contact with concrete. It gave way without any resistance, and the knife fell down to the ground. The ghost town seemed to create fluctuating reverberations into the surroundings, and White took the ?Manastone? and returned the knife back to its sheath at his back before moving away from that area quickly. There were only so many lamp-posts, and most of them already had their ?Manastone? removed. It looked like White was rather lucky with this one as the city ruins already had signs of being pillaged once. White continued following the mana strings without going off course too much and eventually was led to a construction site. It did not seem too conspicuous like the neighbouring structures, but the mana strings clearly led to the inside of this place. "...It can''t be helped then." Calmly considering the pros and cons, White went even further inside the half-built concrete structure. Looks like it was meant to be for a shopping mall, but there were not much to see here besides rocks and white painted walls, so White did not pick anything up by touching them in hopes of triggering his appraisal. Since he had finally entered a ''building'', White began to take a more cautious stance. He moved his torchlight left and right, lighting up roughly 20% of the place and his field of vision grew narrower as he went in further. He walked on for roughly 30 more minutes, and took a few breaks in between. The unfinished mall did not seem to be this big when he had seen it from the outside. Was he possibly going underground right now? If so, then the slope was very hard to notice. White stopped and took out a ?Blue pill?, then he balanced it like a coin on the ground. Sure enough, it tilted towards the direction he was going. Using his hands at the ready, he collected it again and returned the pill back into its ziplock bag. Incidentally, the ?Mana Compass? had not absorbed the pill like before. Thus White could conclude that the Mana Compass needed to run out of mana first, before another can be used. Still, the added knowledge had satisfied his doubts. The hideout seemed to have been located at a good place, but White was still careful just in case a monster appeared in front of him, or the ?Mutated Lilac? came attracted to the darkness. His right hand which wasn''t holding the torchlight was always at his back, ready to draw his knife. Now he had already gone in quite deep, and he had to resort to shining the light near his feet to make sure that he did not trip. He now purely relied on the mana strings to get him there, and as he went in deeper, the strings became even more condensed in blue. To think of reaching the hideout single-mindedly like this, not many people would have dared to even venture this deep. What was going on in that mind of his, only White himself knew. The blue light of the mana strings looked like a lightshow in the darkness. Finally, White had arrived. He had his doubts, but still he had reached his destination in one piece. The walls and ceiling and caved inwardly to the height of a plain white door in front of him. "...If this is a trap..." White muttered to himself. Gripping the knife behind him tightly, he twisted the brass door knob with his left hand which was still holding the torchlight. [Arc 1] Chapter 12 - Base of Operations [Part 1] "Nngh..." A groan escaped the ends of my clenched teeth. There was a severed portion of memories. I could not remember it what had happened. Silently, I moved my body up. No, away from the wall against my back? Had I been sleeping while sitting like this? My body felt a little sore from the rough sleeping position. "..." I stretched my fingers a few times and looked at the wrinkles on my hands. I''m... still alive. The surroundings were dark, but as if my eyes had already been accustomed to it for a very long time, they could see things around me vaguely. I got up and walked a few steps forward with an unsteady gait. It would take some time for me to adjust to my disorientation after waking up as usual. I worried about my lack of medication at the back of my mind. A rack that seemed to be pulled off a supermarket. It held canned food, and bottled water... their expiry dates were one year from now. Ah, also... I should quickly take out the sardine cans. Those had already expired, I should eat them first. Food was scarce in this place, I had learnt the hard truth yesterday. ...Huh, why did I know most of them already? Was I even sure that I had only been unconscious for today? ...In fact, how long had I been out for? Why was my mind not questioning the safety of this place? It seemed as if I was accustomed to it already. The sofa which had an indistinguishable colour in the dark was in my memory too. There it is, to the further right of this cramped place. There it is, I moved over to it and ran my fingers across its leathery surface. Why did I not sleep on the sofa? Was I too preoccupied with doing something until I fell asleep? Many questions ran through my mind, but they weren''t doubting the general safety of this place. I could tell that my mind had already registered it as the "Hunter''s Hideout". I had roughly outlined the furniture and resources here as well, and the air flow was good due to a vent on top. Looks like it channeled fresh air from the outside, but it was still a little suffocating. The circulation of air around here wasn''t perfect, the hunter should not have thought to stay in here for more than a day or two. No wonder it was rather warm in here. Did that mean that either he had more of these hiding spots or was he very active in the day? Looks like the vent did not work very well deep underground huh. ...Come to think of it, how did I know I was underground...? ... A sofa for me to sleep well enough to not cause a backache. Beside the sofa was a small coffee table which had an electric kettle without a wire, and a large beaker half-filled. It could roughly hold about 5 litres of water. Beside the beaker was a stack of plates and bowls, there were no cutlery around but there was an untidy stack of disposable wooden chopsticks left in the corner of the room.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. And the rack filled with enough food to last me a month. Various assortments that consists of canned fish, vegetables, beans, spices and meat. A few packets of cup noodles and also the bottom section of the rack which held biscuit packs, some chocolate bars and rock candy. A medicine cabinet with about 60 of the mana pills that was in the fanny pack, adding to the remaining ones in it amounted to 65 of them. There were also a bottle of painkillers and antibiotics prescribed for "Age 16 to 35, take twice a day". A packet of plasters and a roll of band-aid. A steel and slightly rusty cabinet overturned to create a makeshift desk. Of course, there was still a hollow space beneath it. Since the height was rather low for a table, I merely had to sit on the ground to use it. On top of the ''table'' were a few pieces of paper written in a strange language, and a couple of pens of varying colors. There was also a small drawer in it which stored a few stacks of gold coins. These coins had a fine engravement on it and seemed to be have signs of being touched recently. It was most likely some sort of currency in this world. Finally, there was a closed safe box that had a dialpad and a keyhole. There wasn''t any chance of me opening it any time soon. Seems like the hunter was rather well stocked up with almost about anything here. Did he get some of these furniture from around the buildings here? And these items as well? ...Hmm. Something did not add up about the hunter''s lifestyle. While he had successfully told me the whereabouts of his hideout, I still could not find it in me to ''know where he was''. It was as if I wanted to deliberately ignore his existence for my own convenience...? ...? For now, I felt that it was slightly improper for me to intrude in his place and not find out where he was, thus I made a mental note to look out for any clues to his whereabouts. "That''s right... for someone this amazing to have collected all of this... I must give my thanks..." For now, I decided to use the things around here frugally since they did not bdelong to me. Feeling a little hungry already after I woke up, I grabbed a packet of instant noodles with a brand that I was unfamiliar with and a placed its contents into a bowl. When I heated some water in the electric kettle, I saw a faint blue light emitting from the bottom. Instinctively appraising the kettle, I realized that I was right about its magical nature.
Mana Kettle
There were no description boxes unlike the ?Mana Compass?, but it definitely made use of the ?Blue Pill? as well. Holding it up for an inspection while it boiled the water, I saw a small hole at the bottom. Sure enough, there was the pill which was half-disintegrated into powder stuck in the hole. It seemed to be correct to say that mana in this world could substitute well for electrical energy on Earth. There was another object that triggered appraisal in this enclosed space, and it seemed to make sense as to how the hunter handled his dishes.
Mana Sink
Mana was rather convenient, I thought as I sat down quietly before the cabinet table. I looked at the papers with an unfamiliar set of wording and symbols, and squinted my eyes. As expected, I still cannot understand this... Is this the language of this world? I don''t recognize this kind of writing on Earth, but it is also possible that I just have not seen it before when I was alive... The hunter has these papers in his hideout, then does that mean he knows how to read these? Or did he just happen to scavenge them off these lands just like most of the things here? I did not know a lot. But for now... I indulged myself in a long-deserved meal. It was just a simple meal of instant noodles with a light seafood flavouring, but it was the best meal I''ve had ever since coming to this world. [Arc 1] Chapter 13 - Base of Operations [Part 2] Feeling a little satisfied from the quick meal, I bent backwards lazily. "This hits the spot~" Filling another bowl with water from the beaker, I drank an appropriate amount such that it wouldn''t keep me bloated. "..." Resting like this gave me quite a bit of time to think about my plans moving forward. Well, to search for the man that had kindly led me to this place was one thing, but I needed to set my priorities straight first. As I began to perspire a little from the warmth of the soup stock, I begin to feel a little cold as the sweat evaporated from my skin. I left my outer coat as it is on the sofa and wore back my black long-sleeves. It became a little more comfortable now that I felt less chilly. Hmm...? Oh right... those insects... but when did I bandage myself? ... Now that I saw my own body carefully, it seemed to be covered in bloodied bandages, but they didn''t hurt so I didn''t notice them at first in the dark. It felt a little strange, but as I touched them with the intent of appraising the bandages, it showed up not as an item, but one that merely read:
Recovery possible in 1:17:03
A timer...? The last few numbers that are being reduced were the seconds, so it''s an estimated hour or so before ''recovery'' is possible huh. Was this a healing item? It just looked like a bandage to me. And things that weren''t identifiable tend to be normal things on Earth. For now, I felt that it was best to leave it alone for now. I wore my clothes properly this time as made a mental note to check on it after the hour. ...Ah, I should be ''healthy'' now right... I''ve consistently ran red the last time I checked... Haaah... I felt depressed thinking about it. To think the situation had turned for the better so suddenly, even I did not expect it to go so well. I really needed to thank that hunter. Giving my sincere gratitude to the hunter internally, I resolved myself again to look for the man whom I did not know the name of yet when it was possible to do so. As I checked my status to observe how much value was increased from that meal, I noticed that the numbers had turned green as an indicator that I was currently ''healthy''. So did orange mean ''within a reasonable range'', and red meaning ''critical range''? It seemed simple to understand, and again, it did not serve much of a purpose as I could tell that on my own.
Stamina [93]
Hunger [95]
Thirst [95]
But before the ?Status Window? faded away after the stipulated three seconds, two additional clauses were added below the ''sustainability'' parameters. As if reading my thoughts, they reflected what I had just deduced.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
-Healthy-
Trial [13]
A line that just says "Healthy". What is this? The color green as well, doesn''t it mean that it corresponds to the values above it? This is useless...! Fuck. ...No wait. Perhaps... this is... a ''universal'' indicator? This might be useful! If it does indeed turn to "poisoned" when I am indeed in such a state, then couldn''t it also detect early signs of poison? Maybe common coughs and fever would be pushing it, but when that time comes, it wouldn''t hurt to check my status window out. I''ve gotten something useful, a little bit. Well at this stage, it was nothing more than a ''detector''. I did not have any actual skill yet. I had already half given up on it to be completely honest. The second line was the word "Trial", coupled by the number "13" coded in black. It did not seem to have any meaning, what did trial refer to? Was this a test product? Was I being tested? Thinking too much did not help at all, seeing that the number did not change. So I ended up deciding to keep an eye on it every now and then to see if it jumped after doing a particular action. After a few more times, I eventually gave up the frequent checks and only did so when I wanted to check my own ''health indicator''. This increase in the information shown under my Status Window revealed new possibilities for the appraisal skill. I started to think about what could''ve happened to it, and what triggered the manifestation of its ''evolution''. Maybe I needed to simply use it frequently enough. Or was the words that I said the ''keyword'' to unlocking it? ...That couldn''t be true, I did yell out a few embarassing words I thought would qualify as ''skills'' the moment I arrived in this world. ...Wait. Those names weren''t on a technical level... were they? What did I say earlier...? ...''Healthy''? Was it a coincidence? Gulp. No way... right? Let''s try it out. "Health. HP. Mana. MP. Experience. Experience points. EXP. XP. Strength. STR. Dexterity. DEX. Intelligence. INT. Luck. LUK." For now, these were the things I wanted to check. I even did the short forms for these values, so that the wording would cover as much grounds as possible. So that there wouldn''t be any more misunderstandings. ...I should have thought of doing so from the start. Maybe the circumstances back then did not give me time to do so, or I was simply confused. But this time was different. I was now in a safe place. ...I narrowed my eyes, and cleared my throat. "?Status Window?"
HP [4/5]
MP [0]
XP [1]
STR [0]
DEX [1]
INT [1]
LUK [0]
Stamina [93]
Hunger [95]
Thirst [95]
[Arc 1] Chapter 14 - Initiation "..."
HP [4/5]
MP [0]
XP [1]
STR [0]
DEX [1]
INT [1]
LUK [0]
Stamina [93]
Hunger [95]
Thirst [95]
-Healthy-
Trial [14]
"...Okay." I decided to hold off the self-admonishment for now and looked more carefully on the screen. Just a bunch of letters and single digit numbers, but for me who''d experience in games with levelling systems. Or rather, too much experience, this was just like one of those! It turns out that the ?Status Window? required audible prompting of keywords in order to reveal more information benefial to the ''player''. Still, my stats were unbearably low. It was hard to look at... Honestly, it was by some chance or miracle that I was still living right now, and none of these things here were the results of my effort. I was a freeloader, those stats seemed to remind me of that. What about my level...? It''s probably at 1 huh. "Level. LV. LVL. Rank. Class. Job. Title. Occupation. Skills. Abilities. Items. Effects. Aura. Unique Skills."
Level 1
Pop. Just the level had been unlocked on the blue screen. It was displayed on the most left of the ?Status Window?. It was rather disappointing. But maybe I had missed some of them? I spent a few more minutes writing down keywords that I''d said before and those that did not work using the piece of paper on the cabinet table. Then I tried and tested almost every single word possible that popped up in my head at the moment. Still, there was no luck. I guess this is the limit... Amidst the discovery of new information displayed, I noticed that "Trial" had gone from 12 to 14. Did something change? Did my actions in altering the ?Status Window? affect this value? I still had no clue if it was a good or bad thing, so I left it alone again as I could not come up with a conclusion. For now. That was it. I had unbearably low parameters, to the extent of my STR, or strength to be 0. While MP or mana (probably) was 0 as well, I could assume that the number does not necessarily reflect the individual''s current aptitude for things. Maybe it did, but I felt like it was more of a system that granted ''additional status'' on top of your own physique and talent. Thinking so made a lot of sense, it wasn''t as if I had literally no strength at all; While it wasn''t fit enough to lift a boulder, I was still fairly confident of throwing or or two punches before my arms gave way. ...Cough. My XP, or experience points (probably), started at 1. Or had I done something deserving of that 1 point? I could not remember killing any monsters ever since coming here. No wait, I did kill a fair bit of ?Mutated Mana Worm? and ?Mutated Lilac?. While they were all small insects which even a baby could reliably kill (probably) if in small numbers, they were still monsters. I had assumed that nothing was granted to me when a level up did not come to me, but it seems like the system was registering ''effort'' properly. It was still too little, but I began to appreciate the fact that the Goddess was watching. Maybe. Alright. I prepped myself as I got back up again. Lifting my shirt to check my injuries made from mostly the Lilacs, the timer had only a few minutes remaining. I wanted to see if anything new came up when the remaining duration hit 0, so while waiting, I walked over to the sofa beside the ?Mana Sink? with the dishes and hovered a ?Blue Pill? over it. The sink absorbed the pill entirely and entered a small hole on its left. The dishes were cleaned at an incredible speed, and they dried them automatically too. Thinking that mana was far too convenient again, I returned the bowls to the stack near the sink. I could see where the pill was located that it only used 1/4 of itself to supply mana for the sink. Seems like that was its consumption rate. I got another drink from the jug and slumped onto the sofa, continuing to monitor the timer.
Recovery possible in 0:00:01
Recovery Complete. +1 HP
An additional window layered over the timer window for 3 seconds, and disappeared again. Sure enough, my HP which was 4/5, had returned to 5. There was no visible feeling of rejuvenation, but it seemed that I had completely recovered. It was quite a bit of work for someone like me who wasn''t used to ''hard work'' anymore, but I still had to at least ration the resources properly in case... in case the hunter no longer showed up around here. It wasn''t an excuse to hoard everything on my own, but a precaution, I reminded myself conscientiously. This world did not take too kindly to otherworlders, and even the man who had a decent stock from surviving for this long had no guarantee that his life wouldn''t be forfeit at the very next day. But of course I knew that the hunter was used to danger, so I wasn''t too worried that he would turn out like me easily. On another page which I had sectioned properly, I made a checklist of the food, drinks, medical assistance items, and miscellaneous stuff that couldn''t be classified as the other three. Additionally, I made a few other columns that might seem useful in the future in case I chanced upon them and was able to bring it back down here. It wasn''t going to be easy... I sighed. When I had finished writing, I looked up at the ceiling deep in thought. Just in the worst case scenario that the hunter would not come back here, this hideout would become my base of operations for the time being. The air vent above seemed to circulate air to a certain extent, but it had limitations from being underground like this. Underground huh... I still did not know many things about this world, but it was clear that I would rot away in this place if I did not leave to find help or more resources to sustain my livelihood. But I was scared. I was too afraid of what lurked outside of this safe zone. What if I was swarmed by monsters again, what if I drank the wrong thing again? It was a traumatic experience, my hands began to shiver as the memories of that day began to leave my supervision and wander about, further fanning the ferocity of this world into my mind. It was going to etch into the deepest parts of my head to stop me from doing anything else. Yeah, I shouldn''t do anything else... as long as I was here. It might not be as good of a place like before, but I could see it as my ''apartment'' if I really compromised. ...It''s... fine... right...? Silently without thinking, I raised up the ruby-glassed shard tied as a necklace around my neck and stared at it wistfully. I was being strange... this world was merely out there to kill me. Everything out there was hostile without a doubt, and they gave no room for reasoning. Then why was I not welcoming death? Why had I become stubborn all of a sudden? Was it simply the fact that I had become more coward from seeing those aberrations in the night? Was my true nature purely a coward? ...I wasn''t sure, but I guess I was rather frustrated. Angry, that the Goddess who put me here without a second thought. Nothing was explained to me, and she expected me to... expected me to... ... ...huh?Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. What did she expect me to do in this place? It was nothing but me pointing fingers at my own misfortune, but what did the Goddess expect out of me really? Was it really just for nothing? Even if I wasn''t the ''hero'', I had still came here with my previous memories intact. A reincarnation usually held them back in your past life, but this wasn''t a case. I was transferred here, and maybe she expected something out of this body. I had died on Earth, and came to this place in exchange... Technically still a return after a death, in other words, the afterlife. To survive? To repent? Sure, I wasn''t exactly clean of everything while I lived my carefree days in my apartment, but what sin had I exactly committed to warrant such a treatment? ...Was I being too self-centered. I had no clue. I had no skills, no powers. And I had gotten to this point by sheer luck. Was this world made to test the transfers to such a degree...? In that case, the one who made this world had no thought for difficulty adjustments. This was a shitty game. Haha... if this was a game, then I''d be ten feet under right now. ...A game huh... If it is a game.... Like a game which had revealed some of its mechanics to me, my mind twisted its logic conveniently for me to accept it. I knew he had come out again, but I didn''t feel disturbed by its presence sharing a portion of my mind right now. I needed a clear direction from now onwards. A clear direction, like one in a quest. A storyline. A game. If it is a game... if it''s a game, then... if it''s a game then that means... it''s beatable. My lips curved into a smile. I was pretty good at games. Games were my territory as I honed my skills in perception rather than mechanics. Players who frequented my playthroughs of various games, would call me "The Rabbit". Not because I was the first at clearing a powerful dungeon, nor because I was the first to obtain powerful equipment, nor was I the first to reach the highest level. I was just good at gathering information to reach the true end-games. To discover easter eggs which most would not have noticed. I was a highly-skilled information dealer. And if I say that this world is beatable, then it must have been made up of information. It was there, I could see it. Strings of numbers and code, forming the concepts of levels, mana and monsters. "Huhu... huhu... huhuhuhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.... HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!" As if possessed, I continued to laugh coldly. My unfocused eyes staring at the ceiling, flickering in between insanity and understanding. What''s wrong with me, I wonder. I felt as if someone had just cracked open the restraints inside of me. Someone wanting to pry out my darker emotions on purpose. It took a long while for me to lose my breath, and then my head dropped back down to look at the cold hard floor. The memories of having killed a man resurfaced. The memories of witnessing the death of an ''innocent'' returned, but it no longer haunted me. No one was ''innocent'' in this world. They were merely sinners, or a lump of code. They were objects required to clear the game. The game, yes the game. What a nice-sounding word. What a beautiful word which encapsulates the concept of victory and defeat. A law that the powerful must obey the weak, such is the charm this word gives. A game. "That is... indeed a game. A game that we must definitely beat. Yes, life is just a shitty game. You and I both know that." Talking to no one in particular, I gripped the necklace around me even more tightly until my palm bled. Something was pushing me to do this... something was trying to pull the other me out into the open, as if they were sick of me being the one in control of this body. I felt nauseous, but I felt great too. I felt liberated, like a thousand needles leaving itheir punctured areas all at once. My shackles were being destroyed one by one. "Our body isn''t compatible with fear. Throw those away." Fear of the unknown, fear of the powerful. So that irrationality would be erased. Instantly, something inside my heart was lost. My mind turned extremely cold, as I began to understand what was happening to me. That certain someone was rewriting my mind to keep himself in control. My other personality brought forth by the hallucinogenics. Someone which had a detestable moral code, yet he had always brought forth results. ...Does that mean I was ready to accept that? ...Fine. To shoulder my own emotions in place of the weak me, I knew I had to change. And if I would no longer hesitate in the future to live, then he would do it. I would relinquish control to beat the game. "You said you wanted to live here? Are you an idiot, are you a parasitic scum of a person who can only live off the efforts of others? Just like your parents who''d left you with all that money, you want to live that kind of life again? Even when you know inside that this isn''t a second chance? This is hell, and you want to live comfortably?! What a joke. Your resolve is lacking. Watch your own incompetence disappear, and thank me." Continuing on a one-man act, my hands clutched the sides of my head... resulting in a very painful migraine. It felt as if all blood was going to be drained out of my ears. My brain was going to burst, scattering pieces of guts all over this place. My fingernails felt as if they were torn off, and scalded by lava. My eyes contorted as if an army of fire ants was crawling underneath my eyeballs. This was a change which was going to thoroughly remap my way of living. "Our body isn''t compatible with compassion. Throw those away as well." What had my parents taught me all this time...? Those values were less than dirt in this forsaken world. It had no meaning. And to live, my decision could not be clouded. They must not be held back by people who wanted me to save them. I simply did not have room for such complacency. "Our body isn''t compatible with love. Discard them. Feed them to the dogs. People who group together and convince themselves that they need each other, are just weak." The ruby shard shattered and the string was forcibly torn off my neck. Without love, so our mind can think clearly from now on without someone to depend on. It would only hurt afterwards if I lost them like my parents. ...Parents. ...Who are they? ...I was born in the darkness? I see. I''ve been living alone from the very beginning. I was already a strong boy at a young age. I conquered a mountain of games, and I should continue treating everything like game from now on. ...Ah, a game. "...That''s... right, Whi...te... You... you are... you are now... perfect..." Once those words left my mouth, my body dropped down to the floor as if resembling a puppet whose strings had been cut. Maybe I had been too tired from the change. Maybe it was strange to exhaust myself so much from having my sense of ''self'' erased. My throat was so dry it hurts. A set of heavy wheezing, I allowed myself to catch a moment of breath in the midst of a painful feeling of suffocation lingering in my chest. Sweat trickled down from my forehead as I laid down on the ground with my eyes half opened. But at least, I was still able to see it. As if rewarding me for my new mental outlook, or maybe, out of malice. I did not know, and I was not prepared for it. A notification alert. Piiin~
Conditions [Survival''s Resolve Type A9899508] have been met You have cleared the trial for the skill [Blackheart] Do you accept? Accepting prevents other new skills to be obtained. [Yes] [No]
[Blackheart] The user receives the calling of the demon Diabolos, and gains Taunt against non-humans. Attacking them directly cancels the effect. [Taunt - Draw an enemy into a state of aggression towards the user for an indefinite period of time]
"...Hooohhh..."
The goddesses had convened a regular meeting for the condition of the "Corrupted World". As they watched the final participant achieve the ''qualifications'' to attend the trial, whispers, murmurs could be heard. [Survival''s Resolve Type A9899508] belonged to the A class, and it had been a while since a human had reached that point. The numbers were a result of quantifying human emotions and thoughts, and the higher the alphabet from A to Z, the stronger a person''s ''core'' was. Even if their alignment belonged to one of evil, the system had finally judged the human to have been rehabilitated into a "lawful" existence. This individual in particular... had a pair of charming eyes. They were eyes that seemed to see through the existence of this world. No way, right? The goddesses were not omniscient, and thus a seed of doubt was sowed. Even the goddess who was in charge of his transfer process was rather surprised. The purpose of this world was supposed to be confidential to its residents. That mortal was not supposed to know. ...But alas, the goddesses could only watch without interference. They would see how far he would go through the future trials he will be put through in the Corrupted World. This young man. White Shigaraki. He was already rehabilitated, but the goddesses decided to monitor him closely for the time being. While his ''given ability'' wasn''t combat-oriented, it still was considered a ''Crowd-Control'' effect. [Blackheart] They felt that it was a pity. White had probably drawn the short straw amongst the powerful abilities within A ranking. The goddesses didn''t have much expectations of his given skill and focused more on his character. Blackheart had a weaker form called Provoke, with it being time-restricted and had a weaker ''taunt'' effect. Still, no one who used it did well during the trials, thus Blackheart would probably be the same regardless of its minor upgrade. The goddesses might have been a little too rash in their observations, but that could not be helped. They came into existence before the skills were created, thus they only had knowledge of those that were used in the worlds that they governed. The ability Blackheart was left unnoticed, along with the sudden notice of another skill the youth had, and the meeting ended shortly after. Tr~ing.
You have obtained the skill [Blackheart].
[????? ????-??? --????????]
Tr~ing.
You have obtained the skill [Dreamwalk].