At dusk, a loud bang echoed through the town as hundreds of soldiers shoot their muskets at a person covered in a black veil. The man, with blinding speed, manages to dodge the incoming bullets and uses a hidden blade to block one that was headed straight for his side.
"Reload, you dumbfucks! He's escaping!" the Captain yelled at his men as they frantically reloaded their rifles.
The man in the veil simply grinned as he sprinted away, clutching a wooden box in his hand. 'I don't know if this "Fated Talisman" is real, but after going to hell and back to get it, it must be,' the man thought to himself as he opened the box to reveal a yellow paper inscribed with foreign words, either dyed with red ink or blood.
'Why would they guard this single piece of paper with thousands of soldiers and hide it in a twisted labyrinth with countless traps? Will it give me ungodly powers if I use it? I don't even know how to use it,' the man chuckled to himself, knowing the effort he had put in to obtain the seemingly useless artifact. Although it was useless to him, he knew he could sell it for a high price in the black market.
As he escaped from the pursuing soldiers, the man suddenly felt a headache and realized that the wooden box was glowing. However, before he could inspect it further, he was ambushed by an assassin and fatally stabbed in the heart. "To think the legendary Wandering Gosu would be so easily killed. Were all the things I heard about you just exaggerated rumors?" the assassin coldly spoke as he took the wooden box. However, when he opened it, he found a bomb instead.
"Looking for this?" Wandering Gosu revealed the real "Fated Talisman" in his hand and the assassin's eyes turned bloodshot red. But before he could do anything, the bomb exploded, killing the assassin and causing Wandering Gosu to die as well. As he died, Wandering Gosu thought about his life, wishing he could be born again with a loving family.
He closed his eyes with a smile on his face, and the talisman in his hand burned to ashes. He wakes up to find himself in darkness, hearing inaudible screams. He thinks he might be in hell, but the screams soon become clearer and he wakes up to find his friends were just playing a joke on him.
"So, this is death, huh?" he thought to himself.
If death was like a deep and never-ending slumber, he wouldn't have minded it at all. He would have slept through it all, but with the inaudible screams that he could hear, it was quite annoying and prevented him from being able to rest.
"I guess those are the screams of the hundreds of thousands of people I have killed," he sighed. "I might be in hell right now."
Soon, the inaudible screams became clearer and clearer, and his pitch-black vision started to show signs of visibility.
"Hey, Leanne! Wake up! We were just messing with you!" a voice shouted.
"Dude, are you sure he's not dead?" another voice asked.
"Why the f*** did you hit him so hard? We'll be in trouble if he dies!!" another voice exclaimed.
As the voices became clearer, so did his vision. He suddenly felt a stinging pain in his head and woke up, groaning in pain as he held his temple and massaged it.
"What the hell is going on here?" Wandering Gosu asked, still trying to shake the confusion from his mind. The pain in his head was intense, making it hard for him to think straight.
He opened his eyes and saw seven unknown men dressed in peculiar uniforms. They didn't look like soldiers, but rather, students. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he realized that his hands were covered in blood - it was coming from a head wound that he had touched.
"Am I alive?" he thought, still in shock.
"Don't scare us like that!" one of the students exclaimed, laughing nervously. "We really thought you died."
"You fucking dick," another student added. "Don't act dead on us. I'll kill you myself."
Wandering Gosu tried to make sense of what was happening, still grappling with the intense pain in his head. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked, his voice filled with frustration and confusion.
'Are they speaking Tagalog? No? Why do I hear a mix of English on their language?'
Wandering Gosu was confused. He had learned over 40 languages from his travels around the world and was fluent in every one of them. He even knew a few dialects in Southeast Asia, but this mixed language had left him a bit bewildered.
"Are you even listening to me, you little shit?" the brawny student shouted before throwing a punch at his face.
"Hey, don't! He might actually die!" another student yelled.
Before one of the students could call him out, his fist was already in motion. Just as it was about to reach an inch from Wandering Gosu's face, he moved one step back and successfully dodged the punch.
"What the hell? Did you dodge my punch? You freaking coward!" Infuriated, the brawny student threw another punch, this time aiming right at Wandering Gosu's stomach. However, Wandering Gosu, who had finished recalling his thoughts, easily slid through the gap between the student's attack. He then struck a punch to the center of the brawny student's chest.
"Oof! You son of a bitch!" The brawny student was pushed back, coughing out saliva as he struggled to catch his breath. Wandering Gosu's punch may not have dealt significant damage, but he had made sure to hit the student's vital spots.
Seeing that the student's arm was shaking uncontrollably, Wandering Gosu sighed helplessly. 'This body of mine is so weak.'
Wandering Gosu, who had accumulated vast knowledge from his travels around the world, was familiar with the concept of reincarnation. He concluded that his soul must have transferred from one body to another.
Although he was unsure what he had been granted by the Fated Talisman, he wasn't unhappy with his second chance at life.
'A second life is not so bad, after all.' With this thought in mind, Wandering Gosu inwardly nodded to himself and a smile appeared on his face.
"You bastard! You dare grin after you punched me? I'll kill you!"
The brawny student charged at Wandering Gosu like a raging bull. Wandering Gosu observed him and saw several weaknesses in his defense, but with his own small and frail body, his counterattacks were limited. If it were his original body, he could have killed the student with ease, but even now he could still do it with limited options. However, his instincts told him that resorting to murder was not a good idea, so he chose the option that would cause the most damage while also keeping him safe.
"C*ck shot!" Wandering Gosu yelled as he dropped to a knee and punched the brawny student in the groin, causing intense pain that even the other students watching cringed in response. The brawny student curled up on the ground, groaning in pain.
Wandering Gosu spoke in Tagalog, "That hurt my wrist," and looked down at the brawny student, whose eyes were red and teary.
"What are you guys looking at? Attack that little sht!" The brawny student's roar snapped the other students out of their shock, and they quickly started attacking Wandering Gosu. Despite being outnumbered 1 to 6, Wandering Gosu was able to dodge and evade all of their attacks and counter with the same "C*ck shot" technique.
In just a few seconds, all the students were on the ground, groaning and crying in pain. Some even passed out from the agony.
"You'll pay for this!" The brawny student threatened in anger, but he could barely stand due to the pain in his groin.
Wandering Gosu nonchalantly responded, "Yeah, for sure..." before leaving the area. However, as soon as he entered the long hall, he felt the urge to vomit and quickly ran to the nearest restroom he could find. When he entered, the students inside were startled and quickly moved away in disgust as they heard the sound of his vomiting.
"Argh! My head! Am I really going through a painful memory lane? Sh*t! I expected this to happen, but I didn't think it would be this painful!"
Wandering Gosu groaned in pain as the memories of the person he was reincarnated into flooded his mind like a movie. 18 years' worth of memories rushed into his head in just a few minutes, making the experience incredibly painful. But as soon as the pain subsided, Wandering Gosu was both shocked and relieved.
"Holy sh*t, I not only reincarnated, but I also transmigrated to the future and traveled to a whole new world!"
Wandering Gosu's eyes widened as he flushed the toilet. He then went to the sink and washed his face, taking a good look at his new reflection in the mirror.
"My face is so ugly," he muttered to himself.