"Hey, wake up… I'm heading to school soon, and you have a university class today too, right? Get up, I made something for breakfast."
_Is that beef… I love beef in the morning…._
"What, you got a job? Don't kid me. You'd be better off finding a rich woman to marry… you have a talent for being a househusband."
_I told you I got a job… Besides, I don't want to get married…._
"Hey… meet… this is Kyle, my boyfriend… I know, I know, I should just focus on my studies, and that men are savage wolves, but Kyle is different… he's a good guy, right Kyle?"
"H-hi, I'm Kyle. I-I'll make her happy, I guarantee it 1000%. If I can't make her happy, you can throw me in the r-river."
_Ughhh… Stop joking… Is she blackmailing you, Kyle? Let me tell you, she's a gold-digger. Even I, as her sibling, have trouble because of her._
"Hey… thanks for coming to my wedding… ehem… why is this so awkward… You must be tired. I prepared a VIP seat for you, so you can watch your little sibling get married, hehe."
Oh, geez… I'll just sit in the back… I don't want to see Kyle pledge his loyalty to a gold-digging devil like you… Congratulations on your marriage, my weird sibling…
"Heeeyyyyy…. I'm pregnant! Can you hear? I'm pregnant! You should have seen Kyle's reaction over there, he was crying so hard. He's such a crybaby. Anyway, are you happy, 'Uncle'? I have a child now, but you're still not married…. Kyle and I have decided on a name for our baby… can you guess the name?
_What is it… Don't give it a weird name._
"Hehe, it's the same as yours, my dear sibling… The name is…"
My eyes snapped open. Pain shot through my body. My heart felt stabbed. My lungs felt punctured. My bones felt broken and reconnected.
But strangely, my body was whole again. No blood, no visible flesh, no wounds. Yet the pain remained. Internal injuries? I didn't think so… My head was still spinning. My eyes felt like they were being pierced, but I could still see clearly.
I rolled over, writhing in agony. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to cry my eyes out, but I knew something would hear me. Whether it was a goblin, or
something worse. I wanted to vomit, but my stomach was empty, leaving only my dry saliva.
I tried to stand, but my legs struggled to support my weight.
"I haven't eaten… I'm so hungry," my stomach growled. My tongue wanted to taste something other than my own saliva. My body was weak, without any strength.
I looked around. The corpse was gone. This place was different from before I arrived. I didn't know which way was forward or back. I didn't know right or left. I didn't know which direction I came from. I was lost in this cave tunnel.
I'm hungry. I'm scared. Where should I go? Those words echoed in my head. Should I risk walking and possibly meet more goblins, or wait here to die of starvation?
I forced myself to step forward. Whether this led to an exit or not, I didn't want to die. I wanted to live. I wanted to go home. If I wanted to live, I had to move. If I wanted to go home, I had to keep moving. Fear still shrouded me, but I had to move.
Step by step, minute by minute, there was only a straight path in the tunnel. The pain I felt was still there, but it was slowly fading. Whether the pain was actually subsiding or my nerves were just damaged, I didn't know. Clearly, this world was different from the one I knew. I guessed I'd healed thanks to that strange potion—one of this world's miracles.
My thoughts kept drifting. Mostly curses for being thrown into this world, the rest about my hunger and exhaustion. I'd lost all sense of time. How many minutes or hours had passed? I no longer knew. One disturbing thought was the torches. This cave tunnel was dotted with them at irregular intervals—sometimes just a few meters apart, other times dozens of meters—creating pools of darkness in between.
The only sound was footsteps, and even those were my own. The sound of my own heartbeat was so loud it disgusted me. I would never get used to this silence.
A few steps ahead, I found a corpse. This one looked fairly fresh, even though the stench of decay was already noticeable. I approached slowly, bracing for the worst, but nothing happened. It was truly just a corpse. I patted it down—body, clothes, checking every pocket. The clothing didn't look like anything from my world; it looked more medieval. I found a broken piece of armor, dented as if from a hard blow. I guessed he died from that impact. His ribs were cracked, his internal organs clearly visible, though blackened and rotting.
"Dammit… what kind of place have I gotten into…?" I regretted entering this place, but I figured it was better than dying earlier to the goblins.
Among the blood and flesh, I found a bottle, exactly like the one I drank from. Even though the bottle was tightly sealed, its smell was still pungent, tempting, making me want to drink it all. But I didn't know what it was. Clearly, this thing had saved me. It felt like a waste to drink it now.
The only other thing I found was a rusted spear, probably belonging to the corpse. The spear felt heavy. I was starving, and my hands had no strength. Lifting this spear was difficult. But it was the only thing that could protect me.
I tried to lift it firmly, swinging it a few times to get used to the weight, but it only made me more exhausted.
That rusted spear was too heavy. The iron tip felt rooted to the earth, the rough, damp wooden handle sawing at the already wounded skin of my palms. Every time I swung it just to test the weight, my shoulder muscles screamed, my possibly still-cracked ribs groaned silently. My breath came in short, ragged gasps, mixed with the metallic stench of my own dried blood and the rot spreading through the cave tunnel.
Swinging it occasionally to get used to the spear only made me more exhausted. I felt like an idiot.
Move… or die. Those words kept spinning, just to convince myself. That voice was gone now. Only the biting silence of the cave remained, broken by the distant drip of water and the monotonous death-drum of my own heartbeat. I dragged the spear, its iron tip scraping against stone, producing a sharp grinding sound. That was the only thing that accompanied me.
My shadow moved on the wall, large and threatening, mimicking my every step. Minute by minute, or hour by hour—I didn't know anymore—until I finally reached a room with a large wooden door. I sensed something inside, something that could kill me in an instant. I wanted to turn back. I was scared. But I was in too deep now. I was starving, and my only hope lay ahead, be it death or a piece of bread.
I steeled myself and opened the door, gripping my spear tightly in readiness. The door's screech echoed down the tunnel, followed by silence again. Was this place empty? I couldn't see or hear anything. Maybe I was just afraid for no reason.
A small sound. From ahead.
---
I froze. Blood froze in my veins. The rusted spear almost slipped from my sweat-slicked grip. My eyes strained, trying to pierce the darkness. What was that?
"Krrk... Skreee..."
The sound was… wet. Disgusting.
Was it a goblin? Or something worse? The memory of the serrated stone knife slicing my thigh, the dull pain tearing through muscle, nearly made me vomit again. My empty stomach groaned in agony.
Don't find me. Please. Go away.
But the scrabbling sound grew clearer. Something was ahead, I was sure of it. But should I go forward? I might die, but I'd also starve to death if I ran.
A new sound. A rhythmic dripping. Water falling. From the cave ceiling?
The disgusting sound kept coming. I guessed the creature wasn't bothered by the water, or maybe it couldn't hear it. If it could hear, I'd have been dead the moment I opened the door.
The sound grew louder, closer. My body shuddered. A large silhouette emerged. The sound wasn't just from one or two, but like dozens of strange noises merged into one. And it was headed straight for me.
"Dammit, what is that…?" I muttered, gripping my spear tightly.
Then a short silhouette, shorter than the previous goblin, emerged from the shadows ahead. Its eyes glowed a pale red in the dark. Its skin looked pallid. Its form was human-like, or more precisely, baby-like.
No, that wasn't a baby. A baby couldn't possibly live here. Their silhouettes multiplied. Their faces seemed distorted, blended together, swollen, and they were smiling—smiles so wide they seemed to tear their mouths. Their teeth were dirty, blood-red.
"Dammit, they're monsters… they're not babies… they're monsters."
The large silhouette gradually became visible. A clump of flesh full of heads and hands began to emerge. Sounds of gnashing, swallowing, all merging into one chaotic rhythm. The flesh clump split apart, forming terrifying little monsters. They pulsed, like a single heartbeat.
My body trembled. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't possibly fight them all. Run? Where could I run? There were so many of them. I gripped my spear tightly. My hands were still shaking. I had no strength left. But I had to kill those monsters. I had to.
The monsters walked, crawled, even slithered. Their bodies were like babies, but they were truly monsters. All I had to do was stab them, and this hell would be over.
I swung my spear. For some reason, it felt light. Was it the adrenaline again? It felt a little different. But what did I care? My situation was life or death.
Blood flowed. Flesh and organs were visible. I killed one monster. I could kill them easily. One swing and they died. One stab and they died. Their skin tore like tissue paper. But… I had to kill them, yet they looked like babies.
"Calm down, dammit… they're not babies, they're monsters. They're not babies, they're monsters." I repeated that phrase over and over, even though my body was reaching its limit.
Swing after swing of the spear, I had killed dozens of those creatures, but they seemed endless. Stab after stab, my arms began to tire. There still seemed to be so many of them.
I couldn't see clearly. The room was so dark. I could only catch glimpses, thanks to the torchlight from the entrance. This place was truly submerged in darkness.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Die. Just die. Die. For some reason, their movements began to feel faster. Too fast. A throbbing pain began in my wrists. Each swing was making my situation worse.
How many monsters had I cut down? How much blood had pooled? I didn't know. I just kept swinging the rusted spear with all my strength. A sharp, rotten stench began to rise, and on top of that, the giant clump kept getting closer and closer.
"Dammit, what should I do?!" I was frustrated. It was as if the angel's scythe was already tearing at my throat.
The monsters seemed slow, but their numbers kept growing because of that colossal thing. My brain worked overtime until I saw the torch. I could burn them.
"Burn them… dammit, but even if I burn them, I'll just die from smoke inhalation." My eyes kept darting to the torch, knowing I had no other choice.
I swallowed hard. My legs trembled, but I forced myself to be brave. This was the only way. I ran toward the entrance. The moment I turned my back, they suddenly moved with terrifying speed. By instinct, I turned back around. They slowed, but their blood-soaked smiles made me nauseous.
I realized turning my back would get me killed. I retreated slowly while swinging my spear. One head, two heads, no—heads, I hacked at them all, but their numbers kept increasing.
My legs were exhausted. My arms were spent. After I grab the torch, then what? How do I burn them? My head was filled with that thought, over and over. I kept convincing myself: *Don't be scared, don't be stupid.* Then I remembered I still had the bottle of red liquid.
"Damn you… damn you all, I'll kill every one of you," I spat as I reached the entrance. The torch was high up. I had to let go of my spear, but the risk…
"Now or never." I dropped my spear and reached for the torch.
Instantly, a sharp pain shot through my leg. Blood spurted. My leg was torn open, flesh hanging out. It threw off my balance. I was tired, I was hungry, and now this pain completed my misery. My eyes flew wide open. I tried to scream, but couldn't. My throat was raw, as if something sharp was stabbing it over and over.
*It hurts. This hurts so much.* The words repeated. I had to get up. Even through the pain, I had to get up. The agony pierced my whole body, but I had to get up. The blood kept flowing, tears streamed out—I couldn't take it, but I had to get up.
I tried to move. My arms and legs were numb but still movable. I tried to scramble out of the swarm of monsters. I tried to stand. I didn't know what to do, I only knew one thing: keep standing. They kept gnawing at my body, but for some reason, my body felt light. No pain. My body felt free.
"Dammit, I've gone insane," I gasped, grabbing the torch and setting fire to the monsters clinging to me.
The flames roared to life, hungrily. One by one, they caught fire, myself included. My skin and flesh began to melt, yet for some reason, I felt no pain at all. My body was numb.
I beat at them with the torch. Their skin was smooth but burned easily. Smoke began to billow. My vision started to blur. The heat of the flames reached my eyes. With my last ounce of strength, I hurled the torch at the giant clump of monsters.
Fire instantly took hold. A cacophony of screams erupted from every gathered mouth—a chaotic harmony. Yet, for some reason, I felt happy.
"B…astard… D…ie…"
With my remaining sliver of consciousness, I grabbed the red bottle. My clothes were on fire, but the bottle still hung in my pocket. The first gulp was sweet. The second, I felt nothing. The third, my tongue burned. The fire rushed into my mouth. I collapsed onto my back. The monsters, even with their bodies ablaze, kept biting me.
Damn… just damn…