Ch 1 – Awakening
'Cold…' I thought as the chill bit my skin. I felt like I was lying on the floor naked while I remembered I was in the middle of the dark lord's sea of fire. My limbs were cold and stiff. My head felt heavy as if a barbell pressed on it.
I opened my eyes. Slowly, my sight could catch the sight of a blurry foreign modern room.
'Huh?' I wanted to make a frown on my forehead but my face was stiff. I felt like a frozen zombie. On top of that, I did lay on the floor, naked.
My gaze darted around the white-dominated room which was more suitable to be referred to as a modern laboratory. Okay, definitely not just a modern laboratory since there were a lot of weird devices. Something I thought I could only see in sci-fi movies.
Thousands of dark transparent crystal's pieces around me with some weird-looking cables hanging around on both sides of me. They had the same color as the rest of the room. Weirdly, there was no one in that room except me. At least, my eyes didn't catch any of them.
"...?" I wanted to ask myself 'Where am I? How did I get here?', but my throat was dry. I couldn't get out my voice. I even had a hard time opening my mouth. I was so thirsty that I could finish a whole jug of water in less than a minute.
For sure, I knew this wasn't heaven. Well, I hoped... I would be very disappointed if this was the afterlife. I tried to move my stiff body, but I couldn't.
I searched for a way out. Instead, another thing crossed my mind.
'Status.' Since I wanted to check if I was still in Terra or had returned to my world, I decided to open my system.
The menu showed me the current information I had.
[Name: Axl]
[Age: 21 years old]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Corrupted Hero]
[Level: Max]
[HP: 289.000/289.000]
[MP: 50789/50789]
[Status: Freezing, Thirsty (Please drink water), Demonic Curse (permanent)]
Asides from it, it also showed a lot of announcements about my victory over the dark lord. Like some new skills, new items, and an announcement that my armor had been destroyed. But rather than that, I focused on my status.
'What the hell...? Demonic Curse? Corrupted hero?' I was sure this was because of the dark lord's skill.
'Oh, c'mon! You are dead, yet you are still giving me more trouble?! I had to rebuild more than 30 towns and villages because of you and your asshole demon army. And I almost turned into a monk 'cause you kept sending honey traps!' I grumbled internally.
Yeah, that dark lord had sent me a lot of beautiful girls and boys to seduce and kill me along my journey. From an energetic young girl that looked like an elementary school kid, a nice mommy type that was ready to pamper me, to a muscular man in a leather bondage belt that sneaked into my bed. Luckily, I wasn't tempted by any of them. Well, I wasn't sure the dark lord sent the last one, so I gave him to the watchmen.
I blinked several times to clear my mind before I used my skill.
'Dispel.' The negative status disappeared except for the curse and my thirst. Now, I could move my body freely.
Slowly, I stood up. My legs felt weak, but they held me up. I needed water but I didn't bring any in my inventory.
"Okay, what now?" I muttered in hoarse voice, trying to process the drastic change around me.
I was in a modern laboratory which meant I should be in my original world, but I could use my system which meant I was still in Terra. This confused me.
I moved my head and turned my body around to get a better view of this place, hoping I could find some water. Then I was stunned when I saw a weird-looking plate that looked like a stage behind me. The top of it was where the cables came from. Judging from the scene, that was where I was before my body kissed the floor.
A second later, my ears could catch a whooshing sound along with the clattering sound of footsteps.
Spontaneously, I turned around. My sight could catch five people in tight robotic uniforms with a cool-looking white heavy gun in their hands. All of them wore a helmet so I didn't know what they looked like.
I was about to speak, but then I gasped in panic as I remembered I was naked. Quickly, I covered my dong with my hand. But they raised their weapons and pointed them at me.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! I'm not a pervert!" I declared in case they thought of me as one. But they didn't answer me or lower their weapons.
"I'm not an exhibitionist either!" I added.
But they answer me with something else.
"Put your hands up," one of them ordered in a male robotic-like voice.
I frowned. It wasn't just their appearance but their voices were also weird.
"But, I---" I was about to say my reason for my nudity and ask for clothes, better water, but they repeated.
"Put your hands up or we'll shoot."
"Okay, okay!" I moved my hand from my dong reluctantly and brought both of my hands up slowly. My eyes were on them. My ugly frown worsened due to my confusion, their voices and their lack of common sense.
'Shit, I wonder if they laughed at me behind that helmet!' I cursed them.
"Drop your weapon," they ordered again.
"Sorry. But I don't have a weapon," I replied. I could create a Mana weapon out of my Magic Power but all of them were in me. I didn't have one in my inventory either. Moreover, I was naked, I couldn't hide one.
But they answered me in the same order.
"Drop your weapon, human," he said.
"What weapon?!" I half yelled in frustration. From what he said, I concluded he wasn't a human. Aside from humans, there was a lot of race in Terra. So I assumed I was in another unknown place of Terra that I hadn't discovered yet and their civilization was more advanced than the rest or even my original world.
But, they didn't care.
"Drop your weapon or we'll shoot you in 10..."
"I don't have a weapon!" I declared in annoyance.
"9..."
My jaw dropped.
'Are you kidding me?!' I screamed internally.