A pained expression appeared on the young boy's face as a flame briefly licked his frail body.
His eyes shot open, revealing blue eyes. Struggling to his feet, he looked around, his surroundings becoming clearer as sweat dripped down his forehead.
At some point, a screen appeared in front of his head, visible only to him.
[Condition: Destruction is the origin of the beginning]
[Complete!]
[Congratulations!]
[System Activated!]
[You have arrived at the Challenge of Equilibria World]
A ton of questions flooded his mind. According to his memory, he had been dead after an effort fighting back the lunatic patient, but he failed. He couldn't live unless... this was all just a dream?
Even so, he quickly dismissed the thought. The pain in his hands from the fire was far too real to be an illusion.
"I'll figure it out later," he muttered and focused on the path ahead, ignoring the system.
In his eyes, it was a broad land where dead bodies littered the ground everywhere, from the young to the elderly. The one thing they all shared was the same trait: they had died only moments ago.
But it did not matter to him. What he cared about was the massive firewalls burning all over the place.
A few minutes later.
Quickly, he moved his frail legs, glancing around in fatigue to find an exit.
Before long, he had found an exit.
"Finally!" The young boy smiled in satisfaction, but it didn't last more than half a second before his expression began to change as he heard the sounds of footsteps nearby.
"Damn! Someone over there".
He quickly glanced around in worry, finding somewhere to hide. His sixth sense believed that they weren't good people.
However, time wasn't on his side.
"Dammit!" he cursed.
Two figures emerged from the corpse-filled wall just a short distance away, walking toward the young man.
"I want to sleep!" one of them groaned, yawning widely. He looked utterly tired.
Beside him stood a muscular goblin, who glanced at the man with a tired but slightly annoyed expression.
"Stop whining. How many times have you said that already? You should focus on gathering Keith grass before it dies, or the master will kill us," the goblin said firmly.
The man nodded, yawning again. "Relax. We have plenty of corpses. That kind of grass will grow abundantly for us."
The large goblin sighed. "You don't understand. Our master knows every corpse here, so don't do anything stupid."
"Now move quickly! If you don't, I'll report your thoughts to our master!"
Hearing that, the man sighed, showing no emotion.
"Fine"
A few minutes later, the sounds of the two figures gradually faded into the distance. From beyond corpses, something began to crawl out.
"The Keith grass? What the hell? Wait, that man is a goblin," the young boy grimaced as countless pieces of new information swirled in his mind.
"I need to check this. I think my eyes have some matter, " he muttered, managing to get up from beneath the burned corpse he had hidden under.
He had partially guessed what was happening around him, but there were still things he needed to confirm. With his past knowledge and studies, he refused to let something absurd trick him.
He carefully shifted his small legs, ensuring no sound.
Time passed. Eventually, he reached the area where the two were picking grass. It wasn't much different from what he had seen earlier.
"Wow. Is this real? Why don't I feel that surprised? It even feels a little familiar. Guess that's what happens when you watch anime every day," he sighed, trying to explain it all logically.
Then, his gaze fixed on the two figures plucking grass, leaving all questions behind.
The grass in question, called Keith, was a rare ingredient for healing potions. However, it only grew in the ashes of dead bodies.
Now, everything was clear.
This place looked like a factory where potions.
By now, he was certain: he had been reborn in the world of a lunatic patient's novel.
"Damn it… not even my death was normal."
Then, after a pause, he added, "No… I think I should thank him. I've been given a second chance."
Creak!
"Huh? What was that sound?" The man plucking grass froze and glanced around, searching for the source of the noise.
The young boy grimaced, silently cursing his carelessness. His meaningless movements had accidentally caused a noise when he brushed against a nearby corpse.
For now, he had to pretend once again to be just another lifeless body.
"Hmm... Maybe just a rat?" The man lightly rubbed his chin, lost in thought. Then he glanced at the large goblin and said, "Hey! Did you hear that?"
The large goblin had heard what the man said, but he only shook his head and lowered his back to continue stuffing grass into his pack.
"Get back to work. It's probably just a rat."
The man shrugged his shoulders and smiled.
"No. You're being careless. If it's a robber, our master'll kill both of us. He will be furious about someone stealing grass from his factory."
The man glanced at the large goblin again, smiling slyly.
"Right?"
The large goblin sighed deeply and nodded.
"You're right!"
The man didn't say anything more and only smiled again.
Yet, this situation was far from ideal for the young boy. Now, regret overwhelmed him.
"Damn it! Why'd you trust him, you dumb goblin?" the young boy scolded angrily.
"Should I run, or keep hiding like this?"
"No... I should've run from the beginning. Why the hell am I even following these two bastards? I'm gonna die again!"
Once more, countless thoughts raced through his mind. Of course, overthinking was yet another one of his flaws.
If he moved, certainly he would be seen. But he didn't move; he went to his fate for luck.
Regardless of the choice he made, there was always risk.
Finally, he chose to send his fate for luck. Anyway, his body was too weak to flee from both guys.
The large goblin slowly stepped to the sound of the source, while that man also did, but he was behind the muscular goblin.
The large goblin took his hand to the corpses, flipping them over.
"Nothing."
Yet, he didn't stop but checked the other corpses.
"Haha! Gotcha, you damn thief!" The sound of laughing echoed loudly. Then the man shouted at the large goblin in fun,
"Hey! Come here! I found him!"
The muscular goblin heard that, but there was a bit of suspicion. He stepped slowly to the man and said,
"Why didn't the thief scream or move?"
"Haha! What, you don't trust your best buddy? Relax! I cut his neck before he could even blink." The man laughed loudly, forcefully shooting at the corpse's abdomen.
Still suspicious, the goblin moved closer and flipped the body over.
"Hmm"
Unlike what he thought, the corpse in front of his eyes was only an old corpse; it had died at least 20 days ago.
He grimaced in anger, turning his face back to the man.
"You idiot! That's just—"
Instantly, the slight light quickly slid into the air.
"Aah...aa...a."
The muscular goblin fell to his knees on the ground and slowly looked up at the man with a distorted expression in terrible pain.
"W-why?" He managed to say something, but his neck was partly cut.
The man only smiled. He said while slowly licking the knife filled with the blood of the muscular goblin.
"Simply, I like blood!"
"Now, die!" The man gripped his knife, cutting with all his power at the large goblin's neck.
In an instant, a stream of blood sprayed out in a violent burst, splattering across the grass, the dirt, and both of them. The goblin's head fell, rolling... until it landed right in front of the young boy's face.
The man spat at the lifeless body.
"Stupid. This place's only got rats."
The man glanced around again and left the area.