Chapter - 2
Dying Again
There was a house surrounded by enormous trees. Calling it a house might have been generous. It was old, worn down, and barely looked like it was still standing. Some of its wooden walls were cracked, parts of the roof were broken, and the whole place looked as though a strong enough storm could simply decide to take it away. Still, it was just sturdy enough to provide someone with a roof over their head and a place to hide from the outside world. Inside that lonely house, something suddenly moved. A boy slowly opened his eyes. He was thin. Far too thin. His body looked weak and fragile, as though it had not received enough food for a very long time. His skin was unnaturally pale, almost as if there was barely any blood left inside him. Dark circles surrounded his eyes, making him look as though he had not slept properly in days. His black hair was messy and covered with a little dust. At first glance, he looked like a teenager. Seventeen, perhaps. Maybe even younger. There was something strangely childlike about his appearance. The boy slowly pushed himself upright. For a few seconds, he simply sat there, trying to understand where he was. Then his chest suddenly tightened. He bent forward and began coughing violently. His entire body shook with every cough. He instinctively covered his mouth with one hand. When the coughing finally stopped, he looked down at his palm. There was liquid on it. A dark, sticky liquid. Blood. His eyes widened. "What the..." He stared at his hand. "What the hell?" He looked around the unfamiliar room. "Where am I?" His breathing became faster. "And wait... how am I alive?" His memories came rushing back. The road. The truck. The bicycle. The car. His broken body lying on the pavement. "That bastard in the car hit me!" Evan's expression twisted with disbelief. "What's the actual point of all this?" He looked at the blood in his palm again. "And what the hell is the point of throwing up blood?" He wiped his hand against his clothes and looked around. The room was almost completely dark. Only a faint amount of moonlight entered through the broken roof. "Wait..." Evan slowly looked around again. "Don't tell me..." His expression became increasingly confused. "Did I somehow end up in another world?" He paused. Then he frowned. "But the car hit me hard enough to send me into another world? I was bleeding all the way there?" He looked at himself. "That's crazy." Before Evan could continue his increasingly ridiculous train of thought, a voice suddenly echoed through the room. It was slightly deep, strangely familiar, and completely emotionless. It sounded less like a person speaking and more like an announcement being made inside his head. "Health decreasing. Please cure yourself before you die." Evan froze. His eyes widened. He slowly looked around the room. Nobody was there. "What?" He turned his head from one side to the other. Then something appeared in front of him. A strange translucent window floated in the darkness. Evan stared at it. Several lines of information were displayed clearly before his eyes.
Name: Unknown
Level: 1
Class: Slave
Soul Rank: F
Life Force: 8 out of 10
Skill: None
Title: Unknown
Life Force decreasing. Cure yourself. Evan stared at the floating window. His mouth remained open for several seconds. "What?" He blinked. Then he pointed at himself. "Unknown?" His expression became offended. "My name is Evan Joseph!" He stopped. "Well..." He thought about it for a second. "Actually, no. Just Evan." He frowned at the screen. "The Joseph part was just some surname those orphanage people gave me anyway." He looked back at the System window. "But still! I have a name, you idiot!" He leaned closer to the floating screen. "And what kind of bullshit is this?" I am not a slave I was a begger who sometimes behaved like a slave I guess. His eyes moved across the strange information again. "Is this some kind of System window?" Before he could figure anything out, the same voice spoke again. "Life Force decreasing. Seven out of Ten. Treat yourself." Evan stared at the number. His face slowly lost its confusion and became exhausted. "Seven?" He looked down at his body. "It was eight a second ago." He swallowed. "What the hell is happening to me?" A horrible realization entered his mind. He had just died. Somehow, he was alive again. And now he was apparently dying again. Evan rubbed his face. "Where the hell did I get stuck this time?" He slowly lowered himself back onto the floor. "I just died. Do I really have to die again already?" He looked toward the broken roof. "Oh, God..." He had barely finished speaking when another wave of nausea hit him. His stomach twisted violently. Evan suddenly rolled onto his side and began vomiting blood. His entire body convulsed. A sharp, soul-shaking pain spread through him. It felt as though every bone, every muscle, and every nerve inside his body was being crushed at the same time. He gritted his teeth and clutched his stomach. "Damn it..." His voice trembled. "This hurts." He had already died once. Maybe dying a second time wouldn't be that difficult. That thought strangely comforted him. He lay there for a few moments, trying to endure the pain. But the pain was becoming unbearable. "Actually..." He slowly pushed himself upright. "This hurts way more than dying should." He forced himself to stand. His legs trembled beneath him. He nearly fell immediately, but managed to steady himself against the wall. He took several slow breaths. The small house had only one room that seemed remotely usable. Moonlight entered through the broken roof and illuminated parts of the dusty floor. Evan dragged himself toward the far side of the room. There was something that looked like a mirror hanging against one of the walls. He stopped in front of it. The faint moonlight gave him just enough visibility to see his reflection. Evan stared at himself. The boy in the mirror was painfully thin. His cheeks were sunken. His skin was pale. His eyes looked as though they had been pushed deep into his skull by exhaustion. His messy hair fell across his forehead, and there were traces of dust scattered through it. He looked like someone who had not eaten properly in months. Evan slowly touched his face. "Is this..." He stared at his reflection. "Me?" He looked at his hands. They were small. Younger. Completely different from the hands he remembered having. "So I'm actually inside another body." He took a deep breath. His chest hurt with every breath. "Great." He looked at the ceiling. "I die at forty-five, and I wake up looking like a starving teenager." He shook his head. "What kind of second life is this?" Evan looked toward the only door in the house. He had no idea what waited outside. But staying inside was becoming difficult. He took a few cautious steps forward. Then he opened the door. The sight outside made him stop immediately. A dense forest stretched in every direction. Huge trees surrounded the house, their trunks so thick that several people would have needed to stand together to wrap their arms around them. Their branches disappeared into darkness above him. The air carried a strange smell. It was fresh, but unfamiliar. There was something almost sweet mixed into it, something Evan could not identify. He stepped outside and looked upward. Then he froze. There were three moons in the sky. Or at least, Evan assumed they were moons. In his old world, people called those glowing objects in the night sky moons. But he had never seen anything like these. The largest moon was deep red. Its enormous surface seemed almost crimson against the darkness. The second was slightly smaller. It was pale white, but something black seemed to move within its light, as though darkness itself were struggling to break through its surface. The third was the strangest of all. It looked distant, almost impossibly far away. Its color was difficult to describe. At first Evan thought it was green. But the longer he stared at it, the less green it appeared. It was almost as though the moon was green while desperately trying to become blue. Evan stood completely still. "Okay..." He slowly looked from one moon to another. "Three moons." He rubbed his forehead. "Yeah. I'm definitely not home anymore." His attention shifted toward the forest. At first, he had thought it was simply a normal forest. Then he heard something. A strange sound came from somewhere deep among the trees. It was low and distant. Then another sound answered it. Evan's breathing became shallow. There was something alive in that forest. Probably more than one thing. And whatever those creatures were, he had no idea whether they were friendly. He took one cautious step forward. Then the familiar voice spoke again. "Life Force. Six out of Ten. Manden Fighter. You are dying." Evan stopped. He looked toward the empty air in front of him. "I know!" he snapped. "Shut up, you stupid voice!" He took another breath. "Seriously. Stop reminding me." He looked into the forest again. He knew enough to understand the situation. A huge, unfamiliar forest in another world almost certainly contained strange animals. Maybe monsters. And if one of those creatures found him in his current condition, it would probably tear him apart and eat him. Evan clenched his teeth. "No." He looked at his trembling hands. "I'm not dying here." He had already spent forty-five years losing to life. He was not going to let some random monster finish the job five minutes into his second life. Evan forced his weak body forward. Then he started running. It wasn't a proper run. His legs were barely strong enough to support him. His chest burned. Every movement sent pain through his body. But he kept going. He pushed himself as hard as he could, using every bit of strength this unfamiliar body possessed. Behind him, the old house disappeared into the darkness. The trees blurred around him. Then the voice spoke again. "Life Force. Five out of Ten." Evan's eyes widened. "Five?" He gritted his teeth. "Then run faster." He pushed harder. His breathing became ragged. His heart pounded violently inside his chest. Every step felt like it might be his last. Then, suddenly, something inside his body seemed to snap. Evan's legs gave out. He fell forward and hit the ground. His body slid across the dirt for several feet before finally stopping. Blood immediately spilled from his mouth. Evan coughed violently. "Damn it..." He tried to move his arms. Pain shot through his fingers. His entire body was screaming. Even placing his hands against the ground hurt. His fingers trembled. His shoulders burned. His chest felt as though someone had driven a blade through it. "When..." He struggled to breathe. "When does this torture end?" He lay there for a few seconds, staring at the ground. He could barely move. Then he remembered the voice again. "Life Force. Four out of Ten." Evan closed his eyes. "Yeah..." He took a painful breath. "I'm definitely going to die." He looked around weakly. "Maybe that's not so bad." A bitter smile appeared on his face. "I've already died once. Maybe the second time will be easier." He swallowed. "Although..." He looked toward the dark trees. "I'd really prefer if some monster just came and swallowed me whole." He sighed. "That would probably be faster." Then something caught his attention. A faint yellow glow appeared among the darkness. Evan turned his head. A small plant was growing a short distance away. Its leaves were unusual, and a soft yellow light seemed to radiate from its flowers. Evan stared at it. Then he noticed there were more of them. Dozens. Perhaps hundreds. They were scattered throughout the area, their faint yellow glow illuminating the ground around them. Evan slowly raised himself onto one elbow. His eyes moved over the plants. Then he noticed something else. Fruits. Small fruits grew beside the glowing flowers. They were a strange gray color. Evan stared at them for several seconds. His stomach growled. Loudly. He looked at the fruit. Then at his own body. Then back at the fruit. "Well..." He slowly smiled. "If I'm going to die anyway..." He crawled toward the nearest plant. His body protested with every movement, but hunger gave him a little motivation. "Maybe I should at least die after eating something." He reached the plant and carefully examined the gray fruit. He had no idea what it was. It could have been poisonous. It could have been completely harmless. It could have been something that would make him explode. But at this point, Evan wasn't particularly concerned. "It's probably toxic." He shrugged. "I'm already dying." He picked one of the fruits. "So I might as well eat something before I go." He brought it to his mouth. He didn't hesitate. He took a bite. The taste was strange, but not unbearable. Evan chewed slowly. "Huh." He took another bite. "Not bad." He continued eating. He didn't know what the fruit was. He didn't know what the plant was. He didn't know what this forest was. He didn't know what world he had been thrown into. Honestly, he didn't even know whether he would survive the next minute. But at least he was no longer hungry. Then the voice spoke again. "Life Force. Five out of Ten." Evan stopped chewing. His eyes widened. The fruit remained halfway to his mouth. The voice continued, calm and emotionless as ever. "You are healing." For several seconds, Evan said nothing. He slowly looked down at the half-eaten gray fruit in his hand. Then he looked toward the glowing plants around him. His tired eyes widened further. "Wait..." He swallowed. "What?"