Darkness. Confined…
That's all he could sense when he regained consciousness – trapped in a cramped space. He tried to shout for help, but couldn't even manage a groan; he couldn't hear a thing.
Right, he was dead.
After calming himself and calmly recalling the events leading up to this… he realized he'd died. He'd rushed into the street to save a little girl playing by the roadside, but at the moment he embraced her, he'd missed, and then saw the car's bumper looming into his vision.
Thinking about it, Ryu Takeno couldn't help but chuckle wryly.
His one act of kindness, his only attempt to save someone, ended up being nothing more than a spectacle for someone else's amusement… Yes, that little girl was an illusion created by some unknown god, just to add a bit of spice to their boring existence. For an immortal being, money, women, power – none of it held any interest, couldn't stir any emotion.
So, it devised a game, using the lives of others for its own entertainment.
And unfortunately, he was the unlucky sucker who got chosen.
It was that casual, that simple. Like the death of an ant. Human life was so insignificant in the eyes of a god.
Would you care if an ant died?
…No.
Most people wouldn't, and even he would have answered the same.
But before he died, the god, surprisingly, showed a little bit of conscience, saying it would give him some compensation and a chance at reincarnation.
Luckily, he was an orphan, no parents, no relatives. No one would grieve for him, which was perhaps the only benefit of being an orphan in this situation.
Since he was reborn, the first thing to do was to figure out his current situation.
Where was this?
Was he still human after being reborn?
Or was he still in the womb, yet to be born?
Ryu Takeno hoped so, but sadly… he probably wasn't human anymore.
He was enveloped by something soft yet tough, submerged in a liquid. A human womb wouldn't be structured like this.
And there was a strange instinct urging him to break free from this encasement, to crawl out.
This was clearly not the human birthing process.
Bursting out of his membrane, crawling out – if that happened to a human, it would be terrifying. He'd probably be killed as a monster the moment he was born.
No, no, no. Ryu Takeno didn't want to be killed again so soon after being resurrected.
Crack~
With continued effort, he finally used his head to break through his encasement. After tearing through the membrane, Ryu Takeno finally saw what the world outside looked like.
He'd been reborn!
But the joy lasted less than a second, because the sight before him quickly extinguished any happiness.
Snakes. So many snakes. Countless snakes were emerging from eggs similar to his own, each already several meters long. These weren't just snakes; they were pythons.
What was this? Snakes on a Plane?
Seeing these behemoths, Ryu Takeno froze in terror.
Whoosh~
A cold breeze dried the viscous liquid on him, and the icy chill jolted him out of his fear.
A bad feeling sprouted in his heart, spreading rapidly to his entire brain.
I… didn't get reborn as a snake, did I?
He twisted his stiff neck, slowly looking back, praying, "Don't be a snake, don't be a snake," but reality was brutally honest. Ryu Takeno saw an egg identical to the others, and half his body was still inside…
Damn it!!
At that moment, Ryu Takeno thought of a certain plant, and thousands upon thousands of horses trampled over him, their expressions of disdain clearly visible, as if mocking his stupidity.
To have such high hopes for such a cruel god… he was indeed a fool!
Screw his conscience! He didn't have a conscience! Turning him into a snake was the height of it! Turning into an animal was such an old trope! If he hadn't become a non-speaking snake, he would have cursed out his whole family, even if it meant being punished by that god. He'd already died once, becoming a snake – what could be more despairing?
Oh, there was something worse.
What he saw next, Ryu Takeno could only describe with two words…
"σ(っд;)っ The FUCK?"