"Wow, what is this place? It is like Amazon rainforest. even the trees in there are really this big?" he wondered, looking around feeling mesmerized.
He was given the chance of a new life. He was going to use it well. He wouldn't spend all his time studying, preparing for exams, or chasing internships. Furthermore, he had no intention of chasing after a girl for a long time. He was going to enjoy being single.
He took a deep breath. The scent of uniquely beautiful flowers filled his nostrils.
"This is what living is all about," he said. Voices of birds were coming from the trees, and a light breeze was blowing nicely.
"I wonder what I am now. An alien peasant or something? Maybe I'm in a place like the movie Avatar; I thought I would be born as a baby," he thought excitedly. This time, he took his eyes off his surroundings and looked at his hands. He wanted to see what he looked like. Until he found a mirror or something similar, he could only see his body for now.
But as he saw his hands, he noticed a problem. Because this thing was not a hand. Or rather, it wasn't a human hand.
"This... what is this... what am I now? No way," he said, looking at his webbed hands. When he quickly turned around, he saw a massive green tail swinging behind him.
"What am I, a lizard? A frog? A Komodo dragon? Oh my God... what exactly was my sin?" he said, collapsing onto the ground in tears.
But suddenly, instincts foreign to him told him he was in danger. Lifting his head from the ground and looking around, he locked eyes with a strange, massive creature. This thing was something like a mix of a bear and a dinosaur.
Surrendering to his instincts, he began to run as fast as he could. He started running on all fours. But he also had hands in the front. In other words, he had four legs and two hands. "Sh*t, what am I?" he thought.
However, no matter how much he followed his instincts, he couldn't control the body he wasn't familiar with, and a moment later, he tumbled and slammed into the ground. Before long, the massive creature he had just seen was looming over him. The last thing he saw was a mouth opening with a roar, revealing hundreds of sharp teeth lined up inside. The last sound he heard was the sound of breaking bones of his new body.
...
When he gained his consciousness again, he saw the dinosaur-bear hybrid creature from before trying to chew on a strange, lizard-like creature. He recoiled in fear.
"I guess that thing in its mouth was you," someone said from right behind him.
The man in the Hawaiian shirt stood with both hands in his pockets, looking at the creature chewing on a lizard with disgust.
"Did it hurt?"
"IT HURT LIKE HELL!" James shouted with anger and fear.
For a while, both stood without speaking. But the sound of tearing flesh coming from right next to them was extremely disturbing.
Unable to stand the silence, James spoke
"You came quickly this time."
"You were fast too," the death clerk said with a laugh.
'If I punched this guy in the face, would I be subjected to a divine punishment... I don't think so, what I'm experiencing right now must already be a divine punishment,' James thought, staring at the grinning man with eyes full of murderous intent.
"Let's go… When they realized they sent you to the wrong place this time, they gave me this," the death clerk said, showing a small black box he took out of his pocket. When he opened the lid of the box, James saw a red button inside.
"When you press this, we'll arrive directly at the office... Hey, what are you doing?"
James quickly grabbed the box from the Death Clerk's hand and pressed the button without a second thought.
They found themselves back in the same office again. James headed quickly toward the young woman's office.
"Hey, hey, calm down. You are already dead, such anger is unnecessary," the man in the Hawaii shirt shouted from behind, but James ignored him and the other employees.
Some of the office workers had stood up and were watching what was happening with excitement. None of them had ever witnessed something like this in an office environment before, so it was a significant event in their lives.
James quickly opened the door to the office and threw the box in his hand against the wall.
"Just erase me. I want my existence to end. Do you understand? How can you kill a person twice in one day?"
The woman's attention, however, was on the shattered box that had hit the wall. She slowly bent down and picked the box up from the floor.
"This contained the energy of an entire star. How could you just throw it?" the woman said with tearful eyes.
"Ma'am... I died twice today."
"Oh, sorry about that… the system works randomly. This won't happen again next time."
"Next time? I just told you I want to stop existing. Do you have any idea what kind of trauma you just put me through? You turned me into a lizard and caused me to die within two minutes in a horrible death!"
"Ah... that wasn't a lizard. It was a Vexenusus. It's actually an intelligent being on its own planet. In less than two million years, they will establish a civilization like humans. They've already developed their hands, did you see?... However, you had a bit of bad luck over there... before you could take control you died."
James let out a deep breath. It was impossible to find common ground with this woman. The points from which they approached the situation were too different. He felt like he was about to lose his mind.
At that moment, the door to the room opened, and a tall, middle-aged man walked in.
"Hello, you must be James Smith. I am the department head. Please allow us to compensate for the consecutive mistakes we've made. We haven't encountered such an error since the beginning of our existence."
"How are you going to compensate?"
"Our employee ignored the fact that you are a race that has taken the first step toward modernization and put you in a Vexenusus body. Furthermore, while doing this, she didn't realize it's impossible to adapt while your memories from your previous life are still intact."
'Finally, someone speaking the same language as me,' James thought. He was a bit more hopeful now.
"Now, I will choose your new body... not randomly. Additionally, besides keeping your memories, I will have one more gift for you. Do you accept?" the man said kindly.
'I guess I can't experience anything worse,' James thought.
"I accept. But if anything happens to me, I don't know how your judicial system works, but you can be sure I'll sue you," James said.
Apparently, he had made the right threat. Because he felt dozens of employees in the office who heard him, the woman and man in front of him, and even the clerk in the Hawaiian shirt, hold their breath and tense up.