As a very famous person once said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
And that's exactly how human beings have been able to survive and thrive for so many centuries.
We are master adapters, We adapt when we move to a new place, when we are in a new job or in no job at all, when there are natural calamities, when climate conditions change, when we are surrounded by unpredictable political, social, and living conditions, and the list goes on.
Up to this point, humans have been highly capable of surviving in a multitude of environments and situations.
Humans even though are frail creatures they are beings capable of adapting to extreme changes in the environment.
They are beings capable of bringing a miracle even in the most direst of situations. I can be considered one of the members of this amazing species.
I can be considered showing the amazing adaptability of this species at its finest at this moment.
I am a normal person named Austin who was living his life just for living but suddenly died while watching a horror movie due to a heart attack.
After death what a person would normally expect is nothing, because no one knows what happens after death but I somehow transmigrated into a fantasy world.
Well, I don't know whether it's normal for people to transmigrate after death or if I am an exception, but I know that I am going to live a considerably different life from now onwards.
At first, it was really hard for me as I didn't know whether I was Austin or Dustin, it became really confusing sometimes between these 2 identities but now I don't have these problems as both personalities and memories have synchronized into one so I am both Austin and Dustin.
If I had to tell about my life as Dustin then I was a child who was abandoned at the door of the village chief of the village I currently am living in.
The village chief may look like a bad person but he has a heart of gold, he adopted me, a child who had no place to go.
If I had to describe the village in one word then I would choose poor, people barely meet their daily to daily needs, and living in a village that is at the border of the continent with a lack of resources is tough itself.
The village chief who in a sense can be considered my father lives at the border of the village.
It may look ridiculous that the village chief is living at the borders of the village that is near the dark forests but the reason he is getting this sort of celebrity treatment is because of me.
It is not because I made some kind of mistake but my existence is itself a problem in the eyes of the other villagers.
The old man's name is Thomas without the last name just like me as in this world the last name is sort of considered a privilege of nobles or members of higher society.
The old man usually deals with any kind of conflict in the village as there are no government officials or police officers anywhere close to the village.
It had been a year from when I magically became Dustin from Austin. I am going to be of 6 from 11 December which is nearly 8 days away as today is 3rd December.
I am still having trouble adapting to this new world and how things work here even though I have adapted to my new body.
The thing that is definitely similar to my old life is the number of friends I have in this world which is equal to 0.
I mean it is not my fault that my face is average and people don't fall for me at first glance, and neither I have charisma or intelligence to manipula-I mean befriend the neighbour kids.
I was walking around the village to pass my time as obviously there is no net or phone to pass my time in this world and I don't have friends to play with me.
"hey, Creep who allowed you here "
"boss, this boy needs a beating"
It looks like I was wrong after all, you don't need friends to play after all it can be idiots who make life more entertaining.
I looked behind me and there stood 3 generic bullies found in any kind of face-slapping story.
Bully 1 whose name I don't remember, Bully 2 whose name I never knew, and Bully 3 who is equal to not existing as he never speaks or takes any kind of action.
These 3 think they bully me while in reality, they are my entertainment in this boring world.
I smirked and brought a huge smile to my face as I walked toward them and stood face-to-face with them.
"wh-what"
Bully 1 was probably scared by my domineering attitude as he stumbled for words for some time and then just said one word.
I looked at him and then looked behind him with a fear-stricken face, I changed my expression to someone who was deeply afraid for his life and seeing my expression the kids looked behind their backs several times and of course, there was nothing there.
"W-What are you looking at, you creep"
"yea, do you think we will buy your stupid act"
I acted more scared and started to shake and fell on my knees, even my eyes started to shake like I was experiencing a great terror, Overall it was a convincing act.
"The-they are just kids please don't hurt them, I am sure they didn't want to do anything bad"
The bullies' faces became more pale and pale as they, again and again, started to look behind them.
I wanted to give them one last scare that might or might not become a trauma for life but then suddenly bully 3 broke for a sprint and started to run without looking back at his comrades.
"STO-STOP"
"WAIT FOR US!"
The bullies who were dumbstruck by the betrayal by their comrade also started to run in fear of the imaginary spirit I had created but you got to say it's always the quiet one who brings amazing surprises.
I observed these idiots running, and then I got the answer to my question.
Oh! That's why he ran so fast.
If you observed them carefully then you would notice even though bully 3 ran ahead of time the other bullies were catching up to him.
It might be possible for him to be slower than his comrade but that was too slow even for him according to my observation of him for one year.
While he was running his right leg was disharmony with his body, in simple words his right leg was injured.
He probably realized if there was an actual ghost there then the only chance for him to survive was to run first.