01: The Nonexistent Soul
At the center of the universe, in a realm beyond human understanding, stood Medea Pideth Machina. With the cosmos at her feet, she manipulated the souls of countless beings and sent them to different worlds for her own purposes. Her eternal, all-powerful existence had become incredibly boring. The same old stories of "heroes" and "disasters" no longer offered the excitement she so craved.
"Again with the same threads!" Medea exclaimed, her voice echoing like a symphony of broken glass. Her hands, made of pure energy, braided the souls destined for the world of Glass, the same one to which she had sent Kyo, who would one day be the hero of the Vassal Book. "Justice, evil, sacrifice... It's all so monotonous, so... predictable."
Just as she was about to complete her task, one of the souls in her collection caught her eye. It wasn't like the others. The souls she usually handled had clear colors, legible histories, and defined essences. But this one was a mixture of black and white, a yin and yang in constant motion, without a single memory in sight. It was as if it had no past, yet at the same time, it was everywhere.
Medea stopped, her boredom momentarily forgotten, as a curiosity she hadn't felt in millennia filled her.
"What is this?" she whispered to herself. "An empty soul, yet full. No memories, but with an all-encompassing resonance."
A wicked smile appeared on her face. "This could be interesting. Very interesting."
She decided to change her plans. Instead of sending that soul to a predetermined form, she would create a new one. A creature she could play with, one that didn't follow the rules of her monotonous life. With a snap of her fingers, she generated a new breed of monster: the goblins. Their skin was a pale green, and their eyes glowed with a reddish light.
"The soul is empty," Medea thought. "I'll give it a body that's a canvas. A monster. An entity that is the personification of evil in that world. And we'll see what happens. Will the soul be corrupted? Will it break? Or will it generate something new? Either way, it will entertain me."
With a resounding laugh that shook the stars, Medea cast the soul into the world where the shield-bearing hero would be vilified, in the form of the newly created goblin.
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At first, everything was total darkness, an infinite void. There were no thoughts, no memories, not even the notion that I existed. It was nothingness, a silent, eternal peace. Then, a light began to shine, a tiny point that spread out, dissolving the darkness. Then I noticed: my eyelids. I felt their weight, their texture, and that unconscious urge to open them.
The first thing I saw was a roof of green leaves, a canopy of foliage moving in the breeze. The sky, a blue so pure it hurt, peeked through the treetops. I heard birds singing, insects buzzing, and grass rustling. I smelled wet earth and wood. The sense of reality overwhelmed me. The last thing I remembered was lying in my bed, ready to sleep after an anime marathon. Was I dreaming? It had to be a dream. Maybe a lucid dream?
I pushed myself up off the ground, feeling the cold, damp earth beneath my feet. Instinct led me to stand up, though my body felt different, shorter and more agile than I remembered. My hands... my hands were at my knees, and they felt strangely light. I had slender arms and pale green skin.
Confusion washed over me. I looked at my hands. They were small, a sickly green, with long, sharp nails, almost claw-like. I turned my head, taking in my surroundings. I was in a forest that seemed alive, too real to be a mere dream. The sound of water flowing nearby drew me in. I stumbled, my new body still uncoordinated, and came to a small pond.
I approached cautiously, tilted my head, and saw my reflection. What I was looking at in the water wasn't a human. My face was thin, with a wide, high forehead. My eyes, once brown, shone with a deep red color. My nose barely protruded from my face, and my mouth, a thin line, gave me a serious and thoughtful air, even though inside I was screaming. My ears, pointy and thin, poked out from the sides of my head. My skin, a pale green and hairless, made me look like a creature from a fairy tale. But not a fairy, a monster.
"AAAAAAH!"
A scream tore from my throat, high and shrill, like the screech of a wild animal. It was my voice, but it didn't sound like mine. I backed away from the pond, stumbling over my own feet. What the hell was this? I felt fear, despair, and a profound rage. I tried to pinch myself awake, but the pain in my arm was real... too real.
"It can't be. This isn't a dream," I thought, my heart pounding in my chest. "Am I dead? Have I been reincarnated? As a damn... goblin?"
The name immediately came to mind. The pointy ears, the green skin, the short stature, the red eyes... Every detail fit. The idea was so absurd that it made me laugh hysterically, a laugh that sounded like a maniac's.
I began to look around urgently, trying to find any clues. As I did, my mind, uncontrollably, flooded with memories of countless isekai anime I'd watched. There were Re:Zero, Konosuba, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Mushoku Tensei... Countless stories where a protagonist from my world ended up in another, whether as a hero, a sage, or, in Rimuru's case, a simple slime.
"But... which one am I in?" I wondered, a knot forming in my throat. The only certainty was that I was in a forest. That didn't give me any useful information. I needed to know the name of the world, the rules of magic, the existence of heroes... anything. I needed that information urgently, as my life depended on it.
But if I was a goblin now, I knew the world wouldn't welcome me with open arms. The people of these worlds usually feared and hated monsters, especially goblins, who were often portrayed as malicious and depraved beings. If I ran into a group of adventurers, they would most likely attack me without hesitation.
"Please, Kami-sama, God, Jesus, any divine entity from my world or this one..." I thought in silent plea. I fell to my knees, my claws digging into the damp earth. "I beg you, with all my might, that this is not the world of 'Goblin Slayer'. Because if it were..."
A shiver ran down my body. The thought of the brutality and horror that reigned in that world made me tremble. There was no escape for a goblin there. Humans didn't see goblins as living beings, but as pests to be exterminated in the cruelest possible way. I remembered the scenes, the fate of the women, the Goblin Slayer's sadism.
"If it were that world, I wouldn't stand a chance. My soul, my consciousness, my very being... everything would be shattered. I'd be better off killing myself now and ending this torment before it even begins."
I shook that thought from my mind. The idea of suicide was a cowardly way to escape. No matter what world I was in, whether it was Goblin Slayer's or not, I couldn't give up. My life, even if it was a monster's now, was all I had. I needed information, and to get it, I had to find a civilization. I chose a random direction, oriented myself by the sun, and started walking.
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The forest was dense and vast. Every step was an act of faith. The bushes scratched my skin, the branches tangled at my feet, and the sounds of the night began to come alive. Despite everything, I kept going. The adrenaline from my awakening had dissipated, leaving a void in its place. A void that my stomach quickly filled with a deafening roar.
Hunger. A basic, visceral need that my goblin body felt with brutal intensity. Memories of my previous life brought to mind warm dinners, greasy pizzas, and the comfort of a full refrigerator. Here, in this forest, there was none of that. I had no idea which fruits or vegetables were edible, let alone how to hunt or fish. The knowledge from my previous life was useless in this regard. I was an otaku, not a survival expert.
The sun began to set, painting the sky in oranges and purples. The cold of the night made itself felt. I sat at the foot of a tree, my knees against my chest, feeling my energy fade. Despair overtook me.
"I'm going to starve to death," I thought, with a bitterness that burned my throat.
Despite the pain in my legs and the weakness of my body, I kept going. Hunger was a fiercer monster than anything I could find in the forest. Every step was an effort, a battle against resignation. Despair had become a constant companion, whispering for me to give up. But my will, my inner otaku, refused to yield. I had seen too many isekai protagonists overcome adversity to give up in the first chapter.
Suddenly, a salty breeze hit my face. The unmistakable smell of the sea. The salt, the breeze, the iodine... My eyes widened. The sea? I had been walking in a random direction, but luck, or perhaps fate, had led me to the coast.
A new wave of energy surged through me. I started to run, my thin legs moving with a speed I didn't know I had. The trees began to thin out and the sound of the sea grew louder, a constant and soothing roar. And then, I saw it.
The sunset over the sea. The sun, a sphere of liquid fire, was slowly sinking into the horizon, painting the sky in orange, red, and purple hues. The waves gently crashed against the shore, creating a hypnotic melody. The sight was so beautiful that I stopped dead in my tracks, unable to look away. In that moment, I wasn't a goblin, I wasn't a reincarnated otaku, I was simply a living being witnessing the majesty of nature.
I started walking again, my heart filled with an emotion I hadn't felt since my awakening. My bare feet sank into the sand, the cold, salty water caressing my ankles. It was a sensation so simple, so pure, that I felt overwhelmed with happiness. It was a small sign that, despite everything, beauty still existed in this world.
I walked along the shore, my eyes scanning the vast expanse of the ocean. The beach stretched out to my right and in the distance, a silhouette was outlined against the sky. Some lights flickered in the nascent darkness. Some structures... a town.
It was a sight that filled my heart with such overwhelming hope that my eyes welled up with tears. They weren't tears of sadness, fear, or rage. They were tears of pure, immeasurable joy. Tears that a reincarnated goblin otaku never thought he would shed. It was a town, a civilization. I wasn't alone. I wasn't going to starve to death in this forest.
"I did it," I whispered, my voice breaking with emotion. "I did it..."
I fell to my knees in the sand, my weeping uncontrollable. The despair of the last night, the fear of death, the loneliness... everything vanished in that instant. With the sight of that town, a thread of hope had anchored itself in my heart, giving me the strength to keep going.
TO BE CONTINUED