I died.
The last thing i could remember was my body being slowly ripped apart as i burned to ash, my vision was blurry before it went completely dark them my mind went blank but the pain kept him conscious.
"So this is how I'm going to die?"
That was the last thing i was able to say before i finally gave up.
.
.
.
At first, he couldn't see or hear anything, then slowly, the chirping of birds became more louder.
"Huh?"
I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the ground, the forest trees provided a good shade to protect me from the sun, the branches were waving from side to side as the the gentle wind passes by.
I forced myself to sit up.
"Where I'm I?, Is this heaven?"
The last thing I could remember was the machine blowing up and the quick but painful death I had after my body was ripped apart by the exploding force.
I finally stood up and stared at my body, for some reason, I looked a bit younger than I was. Or maybe it's because I was actually younger, about seventeen years old if I'm correct. The clothes I was wearing were covered with blood which appeared to have flow down my neck.
I touched my neck and felt a scar, the previous owner of the body might have been killed by someone, his neck was slashed and he bled to death. That must have been a horrible way to die, maybe it was better I died a faster death.
But the question was why was I transmigrated into the body then?, Are they others like me?, I clearly remember that there were a lot of people there too, or was I the only one?. Well, I'll figure that out later, I have to get out of this forrest before whatever that killed the previous owner come to kill me too.
I started walking towards the direction I was facing, without knowing where I was going or what was there. I walked about thirty minutes before I suddenly heard a loud thud.
I paused for a while, before quickly hiding in a nearby bush.
THUD!!!
I heard the thud again, this time it was louder. I braces myself for the worst case scenario and slowly approached the direction of the thudding, using the bushes for cover.
Finally, I was close enough to see an elderly man swinging his axe at a tree. With each swing, his body was shakes with the tree, showing how hard he was struggling to cut down the giant tree.
He kept the axe and sat down on a log that was close by and drank out of a bottle then stood up after a while and continued with his work.
Staring at the elderly man made me feel like I knew him. I decided to approach him, cautiously taking each step towards him. When I was close enough, I decided to call out to him.
"Excuse me" I said.
The man stopped at quickly turned around, wielding his axe like a sword that was ready to cut through anything. As soon as he saw me, he paused before yelling.
"Where have you been boy!?, Stay where I can see you!. You know I'm supposed to take this woods to the next to town in the next ten days, so you better get to work if you want to receive any payment!"
"Y- Yessir!" I stammered before answering.
A glimpse of the memory of the previous owner of my new body was revealed to me. Apparently, the elderly man was a lumberer who cuts woods from the forest and takes it to town, the previous owner had pleaded with the man to be his apprentice as a way to raise money for his family.
"What in the name of the goddess happened to you!?, Why are you covered with blood?"
"Umm... It- It's" I stuttered trying to come up with an excuse. I couldn't just openly said that 'the boy died and I'm taking over his body', no, I might look crazy. "It's sap"
I managed to come up with something.
"Are you sure?" The man said, staring at my neck.
"Yeah. Turns out the tree over there was still young, and I tried to cut it down"
I giggled awkwardly as I scratched the back of my head.
"You can't go around cutting trees, haven't you learnt anything from the past few days" He lecture. "You should----"
I didn't listen to the rest part till I heard him said:
"That's when you'll know that the tree is ready. If you just try to cut down any tree, the goddess Hilda might get mad at you!"
Now I was sure that I transmigrated into a fantasy world. But stuffs like that only happens in anime and manga, that I totally impossible!, It was supposed to a fiction, right?, Or maybe that was what I thought. The fact is that I'm in another world, so I might be able to do it.
"System open!"
I yelled but nothing happened.
"Are you sure you're okay, boy?" The man asked with a confused look on his face. "It's getting late, let's go back home"
"S- Sure" I replied, completely ashamed of myself.
I helped the old man to carry the logs that were arranged on the ground to the carriage.
"That one with be the last tree I'll need before delivering them" The man said, referring to the giant tree he was trying to cut down.
Since I didn't know what to say, I just nodded affirmatively.
After arranging the logs on the carriage, I sat on top of it while the elderly man rode the two black horses.
The entire journey was long and silent, that was until the elderly man broke the silence.
"So boy, what are you going to do?" The elderly man said without looking back.
I thought for a while. What am I really going to do?, I just came into this world and I don't know anything about it. Maybe I should just go to my new family and try to live the peaceful life that I couldn't live when I was still alive, or in this case, when I was an adult.
"I don't really know" I replied, waiting to see how he was going to respond to my answer.
"You don't plan on staying in this wretched play forever, or do you?" The elderly man asked, without waiting for an answer, he continued. "I suggest you go to the capital, it will be easier to support your family from there. They are always looking for youths for one thing or the other, I bet you'll do fine"
"The capital huh?" I silently whispered to myself. I could try to find out more about this world. "System open"
Nothing happened.
"Show me my stats, status, system call, hmmm" i tried again and again but nothing happened.
Since I died and reincarnated in another world, wasn't I suppose to have a system or anything that could help me survive?. Maybe it's broken, or I need to do something to activate it. But until then, I just need to lay low.
"I'm dropping you off here" The elderly man announced.
The carriage stopped at a T-junction and I jumped down.
"Thank for everything"
"No problem. Here, you can have this" The elderly man said and handed me a pouch of gold, it wasn't full, but I know it was a lot. "And you can have this, in case you plan to go to the capital"
The added and gave me a hatchet before driving off the straight road, I turned turned to the dusty road on the right and walked to my new home.