“Ugh…” → Ryu
I just woke up and I couldn’t tell what happened. I was talking with Shen about a weird message we got at the same time then we both had a strong feeling as if something wasn’t right.
Who would have thought we’ll get transported to another world? This is not even funny. → Ryu
“Ah… It seems your wish came true, haha~ I wonder if you’re happy or confused just like I am right now.” → Ryu
I said with a wry smile. I got up and saw myself inside some woods with huge trees.
“How can trees grow so much?” → Ryu
I looked up and I was astonished by the view.
“Huh? What is this?” → Ryu
In front of me, a window with the same frame as those in games, levitated. On it, there were two buttons with the words [Keep Appearance] and [Change to Original].
“Right now I look like myself, no? What do you mean ‘original’? The character from the game is the original while I’m the ‘created character’?” → Ryu
I laughed in a dry voice.
Haah… What a headache. Very well, I’ll change to my character, if I get to have the same physic then it would be more useful than staying in this city-body. → Ryu
I started thinking rationally. Even though I practiced some kickboxing and visited the gym, the muscles in-game are more trained and ready for combat. After changing, I looked exactly like my character. It had golden sharp eyes with the forms of my face more accentuated making for a handsome young man in his twenties. A haircut with shaved sides and hair falling on the right side from the middle, something like those popular Korean haircuts. My body is a little bit thinner than my real one but the muscles are better trained with a back like that of a tiger. The clothes I have on are the training equipment I normally use to wear at home.
“Hmm…” → Ryu
I tried to feel my face.
Yep, I can’t tell how ugly I am. → Ryu
Even though I looked handsome, I never truly liked how my character’s face was made. After understanding the new body, I started thinking that maybe this is like the game. While thinking like this, I discovered a new window with my skills and stats, also there seems to be an inventory in which I can put my stuff, like one of those spatial storages from novels.
—– START OF STATS —–
« General Information »
Name: Ryu
Sex: Male
« Skill Points »
Health: 480,000
Mana: 175,000
STR: 400
AGI: 320
DEF: 390
VIT: 450
INT: 310
Avg Attack Power: 1,500 (AP)
—– END OF STATS —–
I didn’t really give too much importance to the status but I tried to see how the storage works. I simply had to hold the item I wanted to insert inside the inventory then think of the item as being inside it.
“How convenient.” → Ryu
I smiled.
“Now let’s see the skills of the Spirit Fighter.” → Ryu
The skills were just like Shen’s but in place of [Energy Beam], there was [Ice Ball] and in place of [Seismic Step], there was [Frosty Area]. The same « Area of Effect » ability like [Seismic Step] but rather than a shockwave, this skill creates a freezing zone which slows down and deals damage to everything around for 3 meters.
“This is really awesome! Is this what Shen meant by controlling mana? It’s so cool!” → Ryu
The terrain around me was completely destroyed. Of course, I didn’t know the deeper meaning of controlling mana at that time, it was just by doing what the descriptions of the skills were telling me to do with their effects in mind. I played some more with my skills when I heard some rustling in the distance. It seems that my senses are way stronger than before.
“Something big is coming…!” → Ryu
Suddenly, I see through the trees a huge wild Iron Ox with red horns and six legs running like crazy toward my way.
“Crap!” → Ryu
I turned around to run when I heard a scream.
“WAAH-! Mama! Waahh Help me-!”
It was the cry of a little boy around the age of 14. The little boy was being chased by an ox and was almost close to being trampled to death. Without thinking, I ran after the ox and right when I was beside the kid I activated [Sliding Step] to get in front of it and punched with all I had.
– BOOM! –
The punch was strong enough to put the ox in place, after that I did a [Whirlwind Kick] and made a turn of 360 degrees and kicked the head of the ox, again with all I had. The kick slashed right through the air and sent the ox flying to my left, knocking it out cold.
“Huff, huff…” → Ryu
I was breathing heavily.
That was dangerous! Luckily enough, I just played around with the skills and learned how to use them, or else I might have been the one trampled… → Ryu
“Even so, didn’t it get down a little too fast?” → Ryu
I was pretty confused but I stopped thinking about it. I turned around to see the kid on the ground breathing heavily, looking at me with astonishment.
“Uh, are you alright?” → Ryu
Oh man… I don’t know how to deal with children. I don’t hate them, but I really don’t know how to handle kids. → Ryu
“Y-yes!” → Boy
The little boy got up from where he was sitting and said in a hurry.
“Okay. Now, was there anyone else with you? Or are you alone?” → Ryu
I asked while thinking of how many people had even worse luck than this boy and actually got killed.
This is more dangerous than I thought. In this moment of confusion, how many people had it worse than him…? → Ryu
I felt saddened at these thoughts.
“I’m-I’m alone…” → Boy
The boy started crying.
“There were two people on the other side of the forest but when I tried to find them, in their place appeared this ox with scary red eyes and blood dripping from his mouth…” → Boy
He couldn’t continue, he was scared and couldn’t stop crying, he hugged me and started sobbing loudly.
So someone was already killed… What bad luck. → Ryu
I patted the boy’s head and waited for him to calm down when I suddenly heard a voice in my head.
Oy Ryu! → Shen
Was that Shen’s voice?! From where?! It was as if he just talked in my head, was that what they call telepathy? He can talk through telepathy?! HEY SHEN! Can you hear me?! OOY! → Ryu
I tried desperately to reform the contact with him but I didn’t know how. I felt frustrated at my own ignorance.
Damn it! I remember him saying some other stuff about energy field and mana, right? What was it again? If what he said was true then isn’t this world like a gold mine for him? Aah… I won’t have to worry about him for now, haha~ → Ryu
I felt calmer about him now. If his knowledge about the control of mana was used in this world then not even 10 oxen would be able to even scratch him. After the little boy calmed down, I asked him for the location of where he found those people. We walked toward that direction then I saw another young man, kneeling down.
“A survivor!” → Ryu
I was happy to see that someone was still alive after the ox attacked.
“Oyy!” → Ryu
I tried to call out for him, only to see that he was actually kneeling in front of a half-eaten corpse.
“Ugh” → Ryu
I covered the eyes of the child and tried to evade the view. It made me sick in the stomach and I felt like puking.
“This… This must be a dream…”
The young man said with lifeless eyes.
“I tried everything but I won’t wake up from this nightmare…”
He then inserted his hand inside the corpse and brutally tore out one rib.
“The only thing I still can do… is to die and wait to wake up.”
He pointed the rib at his own heart and prepared to strike.
“!!!”
I was shocked by his actions.
“Wait! Stop!” → Ryu
I screamed out but he didn’t hear me.
“W-what’s happening?” → Boy
The little child shock off my hand and saw the corpse together with the young man that was preparing to suicide.
“AAAH!” → Boy
The child screamed from fear and he fell down again.
“Don’t look!” → Ryu
I had no time to save the young man so I rushed at the child and covered his eyes.
– PHUCK! –
The young man stabbed his own heart and died instantly while spitting blood.
“…”
I felt numb.
I couldn’t save a life that was right in front of me… → Ryu
The child trembled and cried with hushed sobs.
“…”
I looked at him and hugged him.
I need to stay strong… at least for this child… → Ryu
“It’s alright… I will protect you. This way, let’s go and search for a village.” → Ryu
We left toward the opposed parts of the woods, away from the two corpses.
I’m sorry I can’t give you a proper burial, but I’d rather won’t give this child any more traumas than he already had to endure… → Ryu
We continued our travel inside the woods for more than half a day. In the end, we were able to find a village with thick walls.
.
“Oh! From where did you find these nice Iron Ox King’s horns? And they seem fresh too, did you just hunt him?” → Merchant
A fat merchant asked me about a pair of horns from atop the table. After we calmed down and tried to forget about what just happened, we continued moving in the search for more survivors. Happily, there were no more players transported in those parts of the woods but the beasts were present all over the place, we got pretty tattered there.
Holy crap! So it was a King Iron Ox?! → Ryu
I felt my back turn cold, I still couldn’t believe how I dealt with that ox so easily, and on top of that, it was a King Ox! That’s comparable with a field-boss of the 58 level. Only later I found out that I used almost half my mana only for the two skills, but this information I will get it only when I’ll start to talk with Shen.
“W-well, he got in my way and as punishment, I took his horns for sale.” → Ryu
Not quite the truth, but not wrong either. → Ryu
I tried to seem tough so I could get some respect from the merchant.
“Hoho, aren’t you the fierce one? Well, for such nice horns I’ll give you 20 silver each, how about it?” → Merchant
The merchant said the price with some expectations in his eyes, he knew from the clothes that I wasn’t from these places.
A total of 40 silver?! That’s incredibly expensive! In-game you’ll barely get 2 silver! Hmm… But from how he talks I might be able to get some more, let me pull a little more money from his pocket. → Ryu
“Sir, if this is a joke then I wish for you to stop. How can I sell these horns that have been cut not even half a day ago with only 40 silver? They are undamaged and of the highest quality. I wish you’ll consider trading with me more seriously or I’ll just leave and sell them to a better place.” → Ryu
A little lie and it also sounds pretty forced. But if I still can’t raise the price then I’ll just take the 40 silver, no need to try more than this. → Ryu
“Please excuse my rudeness, warrior. I just tried my luck, please don’t feel offended and let me buy your horns for 30 silver each, is this good enough sir?” → Merchant
The merchant looked at me with a new light, he was able to see a good merchant in me. Even though in-game I had more than 400 gold, for just some materials you wouldn’t be able to make more than 60 silver each day, maybe one gold if you searched for all the field bosses on the map. But with this pricing, I could make more than 20 gold on a daily basis.
“T-that’s acceptable, I wish we’ll make more trading in the future.” → Ryu
I tried to keep my poker-face till the end. After I got out of the armory shop, I found the little boy waiting for me at the entrance. When I first saw him, he was a little human boy with black hair and blue eyes, but after he chose [Change to Original], he changed into a fairy with short black hair and sharp eyes, with a pair of black wings on his back, long ears and 2 antennas that appeared from his forehead. His eyes got bigger and his skin whiter, looking like a little prince. Even though he was a fairy now, he looked a little bit more mature than with his original body, even his temper seemed to mature together with his appearance, which is pretty ironic to call a fairy mature.
…I really can’t understand this world. → Ryu
“So, Ronald, right? What are you going to do from now on?” → Ryu
“Can’t I come with you? I’m still not used to this world yet… and I wish to learn how to fight like you!” → Ronald
His black eyes shone at the thought of fighting like me. Sadly he couldn’t, his class was Sword Master, fighting like me would be a little weird, especially that he needed a weapon to fight. Being a Spirit Fighter I wouldn’t necessarily need a weapon to use my skills. It’s not like I need gauntlets to punch, right?
“Haaah… Very well, but you must do what I say, okay? I don’t want to go running around searching for you, understood?” → Ryu
“I’m not a kid! Of course, I’ll just follow you.” → Ronald
Ronald felt indignant for being compared with a brat that would run around blindly. After that, we searched for an inn to sleep. The next day I brought some food, a cheap sword for Ronald and some cheap gauntlets for myself.
’Uuuh… All my items from the game disappeared… It seems they really got deleted… I was right, uuh…’ → Ryu
I cried after all the items I had brought with real money. While going around the village, we found a carriage with the route toward a city near the village. I talked to the owner of the carriage and he agreed to take us with him with the condition of protecting his carriage. The way from the village to the nearest city took us two full days.
God! If it takes so long only to the nearest city then what about going to the Dark Forest between the 2 continents? It might take months! Or even years! → Ryu
The idea of meeting with Shen seemed excessively distant now.
Sigh…let’s wish he’ll succeed in his telepathy control. → Ryu
On our way toward the next city, we encountered demonic beasts like huge apes with spikes all over their bodies, lizards that spit fire, huge poisonous snakes and monstrous bears. Ronald, 10 more mercenaries and me had to fight like crazy day and night. Everyone was quite surprised at Ronald and me for having such monstrous powers. The two of us would kill any monster in one or two hits each, making everyone open their eyes in awe.
After arriving near the city, I was shocked by the huge and imposing walls.
These walls are around 20 floors height… How in the world did they build this? → Ryu
Even though this world was from the game I played with Shen, the only resemblances were the classes, skills, items and some monsters, nothing else looked that close to the game I knew. In the middle of the city there was a big round fountain and a free space with a circumference of close to 20 meters around the fountain for people to walk at ease, around the fountain there were benches on which some people sat down with worried faces.
Wait, they… Aren’t they players too? → Ryu
I saw some people with normal human features, not muscular and not overly handsome or some weird tattoos on them. they were normal humans with clothes like those from my world.
It seems that nobody dared to change their appearance yet. → Ryu
“It was your fault! Why did you make us press that stupid button?! If it weren’t for you, now I would be staying home, happily eating my tasty food and not this hard bread!” → Fat Man
“Ah quiet! And then what? Become even fatter? Besides, how should I know we’ll get transported to another world just because of a click? Do you even think before blaming someone?!” → Not So Fat Man
“Goddamn it, both of you! Can’t you just shut up?! Why not think of a way to get out of this mess first!” → Young Man
An 18 years old young man shouted at them, he had a normal physique and a long, blonde hair with an average look.
“Get out of this mess? How? Going back? We tried to go back for 2 days already, there’s no going back! We’re going to die here!! AARGH!!!” → Another Man
Another man with a weak mentality started screaming till he got smacked in the head by a little beast-man tiger. The little tiger looked like 15 years old but he was actually around 30 years old.
“You too, keep quiet. You guys are not the only ones being transported in this world. We need to group up and find ways to survive. Fortunately, we are inside a city so we can find ourselves some jobs, we won’t die of hunger.” → Beast Man
The beast-man thought of everything calmly then he asked.
“By the way, why don’t you lot change to your characters? With the bodies from the Earth, it would be harder to get used to this world. Hurry and change.” → Beast Man
“Ugh…”
They turned red from the embarrassment, their characters were female Dragoons and fairies, how could they say it to this young but old beast-man? They felt really ashamed.
“Oy oy oy… For real?” → Beast Man
The little tiger was dumbfounded about such an idea.
“Damn horny brats… what’s even sadder, there might be bigger idiots than you who changed just for some minutes of pleasure.” → Beast Man
The little tiger felt disappointed in the new generations.
“…”
After the beast-man said that, the 4 idiots started to think with their lower parts.
“How disgusting.” → Ryu
I said without thinking. Looking at their pleased faces, I was really astonished about how easily some people can lose their rationality to their instincts.
“Hm?”
The little tiger turned around.
“From your clothes, I can tell that both of you are players like us, right? Good thing someone actually choose a male character for once.” → Beast Man
I entered into a conversation with the tiger and I found out his name was Gregor and his class was Martial Arts Master. Just like me, he didn’t need a weapon to use his skills. We continued to exchange information’s and I found out from him that this world is actually 8000 years in the future from what the game was showing. He found out about this from the city’s library’s most hidden books. He also found out about the teleporting points being destroyed by the river of time and nobody knew what kind of magic it was used to create them. He also told me that writing history was banned and what little history was saved can be found only on the most distant cities or villages from the capitals of any kingdom, even so, is not that detailed. I found out about the 2 warring empires, how the kingdoms around the empires we’re their subordinates and about the fact that we are situated in the Sirio Kingdom, the most W kingdom from the Vestria continent, in the City of Valor.
