Finding myself in a huge forest with super huge trees, I've been moving from tile to tile but as expected, I couldn't see an exit. I probably don't have to point out how cumbersome it was, but it sucks! Yeah, same as how life sucks for me even after my death, and I don't even know how I died back then. All I could do was sigh, and look at whichever direction I find sentimental…to say so, it's basically every direction to exist. It's not like the concept of cardinal direction changes wherever I might be.
North is north.
South is south.
West is west.
East is east.
Okay, only three chapters have passed but here's a quick recap.
I was with my sister and just thinking about what happened to her… I don't want to consider anything, nor do I want to consume my time moaning about spectacular trivialities.
Of course, it's not as if it doesn't cross from time to time.
However, no excess words can ever fill the void in my mind and heart, from figurative to literal.
…My heart is gone?
The question in my head was that how did I even die?
To sum up all my assumptions until now, I died being killed. Yes, I died being killed with a sword stuck in my chest when I woke up─and that's something too obvious a lack thereof of common sense would only make someone miss about. Wryly, why is it that my mind doesn't seem to be right, like a cog has been lifted out and the crankiness…
The feeling of waking up.
Again─after death was that groggy feeling as if I've woken up from a bad dream.
The morning sun, the water that would go out from the faucet made to wash my face, and my sister that would wake me up. I've come to realize that around the time that I've been moving around the vast forest without having any feeling of being tired. Waking up in another world─taking up on a story about an Isekai reincarnation, transmigration, or perhaps, being summoned?
Isekai, parallel world, multiverse, alternate universe, reverse world, flip dimension, world line, the idea of quantum physics, another world.
What should I even consider?
Still, I haven't confirmed that I'm indeed in a parallel world.
It's just a theory on my part, and it could actually be that I'm just thrown somewhere far out of civilization. Maybe because there wasn't any summoner to tell me what I have to do? Though knowing that into confirmation wouldn't cut out the surprise anymore.
It turns out I knew such a concept exists even though I'm practically your stereotypical study freak.
Now, my guilty pleasures come to the surface. Every now and then, I would read light novels as a reward to myself. Order them in bulk at Amazon and anticipate the delivery when the family isn't home.
Isekai─a subgenre of high fantasy popular in Japan and even overseas.
Is that what I'm really at?
…Or is it just my wishful thoughts whispering desires to my subconscious?
Anyway, there was something more bizarre than that.
And that was waking up with a sword stuck in my chest, blood spillage onto the solid ground, and heavy hemorrhaging right off the bat. It was utterly abnormal that I wouldn't die then─and the biggest revelation was that all the blood went back to my body the moment I gained consciousness. Well, not quite accurate. There was a gap─the so-called time difference, a delay, latency, or more like, "It's the ping!" I gained consciousness first, and I only had my blood come flying back to me when I realized it.
That time I took the sword out of my chest, the shock got through me, and a wail resounded to the whole forest…
I could still feel pain, but why is it that I'm entirely indifferent regarding other matters?
"The only thing I could feel is pain."
For a tell without show, my emotions weren't showing in my face. Nor could I feel them─only unease and pain. Then while I say unease, it's an entirely steady feature that I can't even call it a problem.
The sword, you ask?
It was broken up to the point that extends to the other end, at my back and from the looks of it, my inside had also taken damage. The sword cut right through me and how it would go broken is still a mystery.
At this point, it's all trivial.
Holding the sword got myself restored of the blood that was spilled all over the ground, shockingly as my internals got restored as I felt them go to healing phase. It was better than that, it was the hell out of regeneration. I didn't even drink an immortality elixir.
I don't know what I'm referencing out here but the extension of the surprise is yet to be completed. The certainty that the sword that was instilled in my chest, also, got itself restored and in my end, was no doubt the truth of it─what I saw wasn't an illusion. It was not an illusion that the broadsword that killed me restored itself.
The sword was also in our family's possession…
Also, that's not important.
I felt the need to think of a strategy.
I made myself an enemy of the forest for the time being because for the most unknown reason, that makes me a monster magnet. Dealt with too much or more hemorrhaging and my body returns back to the state of uninjured from injured, either they were heavy or slight. Vice versa, my body keeps healing despite getting severe injuries from multiple times at a whopping second.
It feels like at every second, my life memories would flash before my eyes.
Although in the next instant, I would find myself all healthy again.
Again…
And, again!
A large bear kept chasing me.
To come across with this kind of animal, I'd doubt this is a parallel world.
An alternate dimension?
"Come again, Christopher? A parallel universe? You're getting deluded."
For all I know, this was only some random forest.
Getting chased by a bear, it felt like the biggest hurdle for someone who just arrived to a new world. If I hadn't gotten a cheat on my own, I would have thrown myself to death─once more.
The ferocious beast attacking me was constantly on the go while I've been crossing straight to the forest. I ran out of fright but every time I trip over just overgrown roots, it would catch me and make a plaything out of my flesh, blood, and bones.
I'm scared! Of course, who wouldn't?! I could still feel pain, and the shrieking, screaming, and shouting I've been doing all the time only got louder and louder. Is this what they call the 'all bark and no bite' idiom? I doubt so, but it sure felt that way.
I was scared, literally that I couldn't even remember that I was holding a sword.
I don't know for the exact reason but in times I'd get caught, I'd always come back to my toes and sprint away. It might just be my terrible luck but if I'm not mistaken, I'd get torn to pieces. One limb goes missing every time I run but it just regrows back like nothing happened. I can't remember how many of those turns happened but there's really no telling it.
Though upon the final repetition, I finally changed the course of my mind.
"Right, right! I'm gonna fight back if I want this to stop!"
After gaining distance, the darkness sighed and I suddenly got glued to killing the opponent.
A ferocious black bear.
Grizzly or whatever, I don't know.
The big bear roared enough that it surprised the hell out of me, it came to me that I'm a statue standing with no weapon to wield. It jumped at me and I couldn't resist being caught by its sharp claws although I blocked its bite by letting my left arm get torn off.
"It hurts badly! It seriously hurts. I want to piss my pants!"
Again, I screamed from the pain.
Still, I haven't noticed the sword held in my right hand.
As my left arm was shoved into the infernal and stinky carnivorous mouth, it got cut off leading me off dropping to the ground at my back. Seconds later was that miracle, simply an impossible footage to see as my left arm restored itself, blood by blood, tissue by tissue, down from the bone marrow, the bones itself, until the arms rejoined its main part, up to the nails and fingertips.
Again, I'd normally be amazed by it.
Although my mind did, my eyes didn't enlarge one bit and my face muscles were steady.
Talk about disharmony.
The hell of an event took out the breeze of surprise that was instilled in my head. It was the fear of having to encounter a ferocious beast that almost gave me a heart attack.
Dumb.
I haven't had the slightest bit of noticing the sword in my right hand.
Dumb?
More like an idiot.
I started running once I got my feet back up from the ground.