Feeling hot and sweaty, he opened his eyes to find he was lying in an old bed made of straw. He gasped and clutched his chest as he took deep breaths to try and calm himself down. a few minutes later he was calm enough to look around the dark room and from what he could see in the dark it seemed like he was in an old-looking room made of stone, filled with what looked like blankets on the ground.
'where the hell am I?' he thought as he saw in the dark what looked like other straw beds and what looked like dead children covered with blankets.
Seeing this in the strange dark stone room made his heart beat faster in fear. maybe it was the stress of dying or the dark making his mind play ticks on him, but this sight even though he couldn't see much it still made him involuntarily puke. but not much came out.
It took about 20 minutes before he calmed down enough to think properly.
'what the fuck is going on?' his hands shaking as he thought of all the possibilities that could be the reason, but none of them made any sense.
'I died, right? yeah, I think I did. i... I remember.' he thought to himself as he tried to stand up but fell as his body was numb and shaking.
'T-the people that made those isekai shows tend to gloss over the trauma of dying apparently because I can't even stand, let alone try and think of what to do... then again those protagonists are usually super talented and can adapt almost immediately.'
He spent an unknown amount of time trying to calm down and stand up and after falling a lot, he eventually was able to stand even though his body was still shaking a bit.
'This is either a dream... no, it's definitely not that.' he thought as he tried to convince himself that it was a dream but gave up on that as everything was too vivid, from the touch of the wall he was leaning on to the smell in the dark stone room he found himself in.
'I need to get out of here... I don't know what is out there but it's better than staying here.' he thought as he walked along the wall, doing his best to not step on any of the bodies that he could faintly see.
Moving to the left of his straw bed as his hand rubbed the wall as he walked, his mind wandered a bit.
'since I'm here, that probably means I now have a different body. I can't tell, though, as it's too dark, but my hands seem smaller, so I'm probably a kid.'
'I wonder what happened to my friends. the last thing I remember is that vehicle crashing against us... I hope they are alive and if not, I hope they are here as well.'
'normally one wouldn't assume they've been reincarnated into a new world, but I think I was because I'm 100% sure I should be dead. so it's either isekai or I'm in hell.'
after walking around, he managed to walk into the four corners of the room and felt up all four walls. There was no door, and his body stopped shaking at some point.
'I'm starting to think I'm actually in hell.'
'Or since there are bodies all over the place, this may be a mass grave and the way out is up... well, since this is a room, there's probably a way out if I go up... but where would they be... if the entrance is like a... um, one of those platforms that go up and down, then I'm screwed and if that's the case, then I'm the world's unluckiest person.'
he thought as he gingerly walked past the bodies, doing his best not to step on them.
'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' 'Ew' "OW!" as he was focused on walking, he yelled, his voice echoing throughout the room as he stubbed his toe on what felt like a raised brick.
'why is my luck so shit?' he complained internally as he held his hurt foot.
a moment later the pain subsided a little. 'fuck, my second life, on a completely flat floor, i somehow managed to stub my toe on the one raised brick?'
'and why don't I have shoes?... well thinking about it, if this is a mass grave, then they probably took things the dead won't need off... well, at least I have a shirt and pants on, so they didn't get buried naked...' "hmm."
he decided to gingerly feel around where he hurt his foot, but it took a minute to find the brick he hit.
'here it is, maybe this isn't just a random raised brick.' he thought as he felt around the raised brick with his hands. 'god, I wish there was light. I can't see shit.'
as he felt the raised-up brick, he moved his hand up to the top and forward, looking for an even higher raised-up brick.
'it feels like a staircase, but what if there's a hole in it?' he contemplated for a moment before he decided to crawl up the stairs slowly on his hands and knees. 'I just need to go slow.'
he then slowly and carefully ascended the stairs. because he can't see that well, and eventually hit the ceiling. "Ow. fuck, why is the ceiling so low?" he complained as he rubbed his head.
'Fuck, there better be a door up here somewhere,' he thought angrily as he felt around the ceiling for a door of some kind.
He felt around for a bit and felt something like a wood and metal handle but stopped before trying to open it. 'Now that I'm thinking about it, what if there's someone up there and they kill me thinking I'm a zombie?'
'Personally, I don't want to experience dying again,' he thought as he took a deep breath to calm himself.
'Okay, let's go,' he thought as he gingerly pushed on the wooden door, making it creak loudly and causing him to freeze in place.
"..." 'Well, if no one knew I was here before, they definitely know now,' he thought as he waited for any kind of response, but even after 3 minutes, nothing happened.
'Nothing happening is making me more anxious than if someone opened the door.'
After a moment of hesitation, he opened the door above him and saw a bright light and what looked like a monster looming over him. '...' He was so surprised he froze for a moment and fell back into the basement.
But to his second surprise, the monster isn't moving.
'Wait a sec. It kinda looks like a statue.' This, however, made him more nervous as he tended to overthink.
'Fuck, what if there's a monster that can turn things to stone?'
Upon observing the statue longer, he built up his courage climbed out of the hole, and closed the trap door to get a better look at the statue. To his third surprise, there were many statues, all blocking the front door of what looked like a church.
The statue in front of the trapdoor looked like an old man, but it was hard to tell as part of his head was missing. He was sitting on the ground in front of the trapdoor, looking like he was praying.
'What happened here... Wait, now that I think about it, there wasn't any smell of rotting corpses down there, so maybe those bodies were stone as well?' he thought as he walked to the door to see a bunch of broken statues holding the door as if they were trying to keep something out.
'Well, that's not ominous.' As he looked around the room, he found a door that wasn't blocked and entered it.
Inside looked like a hallway leading to several other rooms, so he checked each one. The first one was a kitchen, the second was a pantry with no food, and the last two were large bedrooms. The final door at the end of the hall was an office-looking room with lots of old and dusty books in it.
'Shit, I was hoping to find something useful before trying to get outside, but it seems there's nothing here – no food, no water, and no weapons. I really think God hates me.'
'Not only did I wake up in a dark basement surrounded by dead kids, I was lost down there for a while, stubbed my toe, and hit my head. And now I find out I'm in what looks like a church with windows too small and high for me to get out of, and there's an ominous statue in here blocking the door.'
"Sigh...Maybe I'm just doomed," he said as he rummaged around the office, looking at the books. He opened one up.
"Hmm. Yep," he said as he closed the book. 'I can't read.'
On the desk were some papers, an old candle, and a dried-up inkwell. He then looked in the desk's drawers and found old papers, quills, and a rock.
'Why is there a rock in here?' he thought as he picked up the rock and looked at it.
"Hmm... This might make a good weapon if I throw it hard enough. It's a good size, but it's kinda light...'
"Why does this look familiar?" he asked himself as he looked closer at the palm-sized rock.
"Ugh, it's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember."
He sat on the old chair, making it creak and wobble, then stood back up afraid it would break. 'Not sitting there.'
He then sat on the ground and stared at the rock, trying to remember what it was... But that didn't happen even after what felt like hours to him.
"Nope, can't remember." 'Let's keep it so I don't forget it,' he thought as he put it in an old but decent-looking sack he found in one of the rooms. Then he left through the front door and found a place with a bunch of old shoes, but they weren't in good shape.
'Well, beggars can't be choosers,' he thought as he looked through the old shoes and found a pair that fit.
'At least I don't have to walk around barefoot now.'
'Hopefully, these don't break too soon.' He then found a way to get out of the church through a large enough hole on the left side and found himself in a small courtyard overgrown with tall grass.
Looking around, he found his way to the front of the church and saw more human statues. Most of them are broken and scattered around, with plants growing on them.
'Oh no, I don't like this,' his head sweating from his nervousness.
'What the hell happened here? It's like some natural disaster swept through this city,' he thought as he walked down the eerie quiet street.
'Well, seeing as I'm probably the only living soul here, this has got to be one shitty reincarnation.'
As he explored the small city, he didn't find anything useful yet. 'Fuck, this place is big. I might die of thirst before I get out of this creepy-ass place.'
He then found a well next to what looked like an inn from medieval times. 'I wonder if they're still open.' He laughed quietly at his terrible joke as he found a well near the back side of the inn.
'Thank God, hopefully, the water's still good.' He put the bucket into the well, and it fell and made a splashing sound.
'Yes, water.'
He then tried to pull up the bucket but found it impossible as the rope snapped.
'FMSL.' He then went into the inn to see if he could find anything that might be useful.
Upon entering the front door, he sees what looks like the reception area. To the left is a large dining room with lots of tables, and to the right are the bathrooms. Next to them are stairs that lead to the second floor of this three-story inn.
"Hmm." 'I think I should head to the kitchen first. Maybe they have some bottled water. This place looks less old than the church. Is it because the church is old or is it because of something else?' he thought as he walked through the dining room, past the bar counter, and into the kitchen.
'Wow, this is a nice kitchen for a medieval-looking city.' He then looked for water and food, but there was only various alcohol and some moldy food in the pantry.
'From what I remember in the past, people mostly drank alcohol as it was cleaner than water... Ugh, I never liked the taste of alcohol, and now it seems to be the only thing I have to drink.'
'Just kill me now.' He then opened the bottle and drank a little because he was thirsty.
"Cough, fuck, that's terrible," he said as he put the bottle down and the lid back on it.
'Nope, still don't like the stuff. Let's see if we can find something to eat.'
After putting one bottle in his old bag, he left to search the rooms upstairs but only found clothes and some old weapons, most were too big and too heavy for him to use properly. But he did find some daggers he could use, so he took them and strapped four daggers to his waist.
'These daggers should do for now. Now that I think about it, the weapons and clothes on the statues were also turned to stone, so whatever happened here was probably not a disease,' he thought as he walked past some statues that looked like adventurers; some even had plate armor that also turned to stone.
'The only thing I can think of is it's a curse,' he thought as he was going to leave the inn, but it was getting dark, so he decided to spend the night there, having to sleep without eating.
'What kind of shitty reincarnation is this?' was his last thought before his exhaustion from exploring the strange city made him fall asleep quickly.