Soren practically threw himself toward the lakeside, nearly scrambling on all fours.
His palms slammed against the cold, damp mud, splashing water across his sleeves, yet he didn’t notice at all.
The moment his gaze landed on the lake’s surface, the ragged breathing that still carried a sob caught in his throat.
In the next second, a sharp scream burst free.
“Nooo, why did I turn into this?!”
The wind stirred countless tiny ripples across the lake, but it couldn’t obscure the reflection that stabbed painfully into his eyes… the unfamiliar reflection of himself.
His once slightly youthful round face had become slender.
His skin carried an almost translucent cold pallor.
Soft white hair draped down to his shoulders, and among the strands stood two small black horns.
The horns were smooth, gleaming with a pearly luster.
When his trembling fingertips touched them, he could feel the warm connection where the roots joined his scalp.
He could even sense blood pulsing within them.
His eyes widened abruptly, and the reflection in the lake widened its eyes as well; the pupils that had once been dark brown had now become pale blue, the corners a bit upturned, carrying a strange softness he had never possessed before.
What shattered him even more was the tail that had appeared behind him at some point.
Its tip formed a fluffy pink heart shape.
Earlier, when he’d lunged over here, it had accidentally swept through some water weeds.
Now it swayed lightly along with his panic, but the instant he saw its full appearance, it drooped like a deflated balloon, limply resting against the wet mud.
“Getting transmigrated is one thing!
How did my species change too?!”
Soren’s voice carried a sob as he growled and reached behind himself to grab the tail.
The moment his fingertips brushed the heart-shaped tail tip, it trembled as though it possessed a will of its own, winding around his wrist.
Soft warmth hid within the fluffy touch, but the reality of that contact only made him panic more.
He raised a hand to touch the pair of horns atop his head.
His fingers slowly slid from the base to the pointed tips.
Their texture resembled exquisite jade, yet warmer than jade… every touch reminded him of the truth.
This wasn’t a dream.
He had truly become a “monster” with horns and a tail.
The tail continued gently rubbing against his wrist as if comforting him, and before long, Soren gradually calmed down.
His fingertips unconsciously rubbed at his chin while his brows knitted together tightly.
He tried hard to recall the chaotic memories from before his transmigration.
The first thing that surfaced in his mind was the calico kitten curled beside a tire at the street corner.
At the time, he had just left school after makeup classes when he saw a massive freight truck rumbling down the road.
The little cat had still been foolishly sitting in the middle of the street licking its paw, seconds away from being dragged beneath the wheels.
“Let me think… I remember doing the stupid thing every transmigrator does.”
He muttered softly, tapping his temple with his fingertips as if trying to make the memory clearer.
“When I saw that kitten about to get flattened into cat paste by a truck, my brain didn’t even process it.
I just rushed over.”
He paused, scratching his head in confusion.
“Thinking about it now, it’s honestly ridiculous.
I don’t even dare grab chickens normally, but somehow I dared to snatch a cat right in front of a truck… Though I don’t even know why I wanted to save it.”
“My body just moved on its own.
I rushed over, scooped it to the roadside, and then… then something hit me, I think.”
“And when I opened my eyes again, I was here.”
As he spoke, he suddenly shook his head hard, tossing away those irrelevant memories, then raised a hand and slapped his own cheeks.
“No, why am I even thinking about that?!
The important thing right now is figuring out what world I transmigrated into!”
He lowered his head to look at his clothes.
They were still the casual outfit he usually wore.
“If it’s just some ordinary medieval world, that’d still be okay.
Worst case, I could find a village and survive doing odd jobs.
At least there wouldn’t be too many deadly dangers.”
But the moment that thought surfaced, he suddenly remembered his unusual appearance.
The horns on his head.
The heart-shaped tail behind him.
And those pale blue eyes.
No matter how he looked at it, he definitely didn’t resemble anything from an “ordinary medieval world.”
He instantly panicked again, subconsciously hiding his tail behind himself.
Even his voice dropped lower, tinged with lingering fear.
“What if this isn’t a normal world… What if it’s some horrifying setting where there’s a giant golden guy sitting on a golden toilet while four Chaos Gods from the subspace cause trouble everywhere… If that happens, having the blessings of the Four Gods would be seriously bad…”
At that thought, he couldn’t stop himself from shivering.
Even his fingertips turned cold.
“With how I look, forget blending in…
The second I show my face, I’d probably get labeled a heretic or some little creature that crawled out of an alien portal and get kicked to death on the roadside.”
The more he thought about it, the more panicked he became.
He raised a hand and ruffled his hair.
“Ugh, this is so annoying.
Where the hell did I even get thrown into?”
Abruptly, then, his eyes caught sight of a familiar creature sleeping near a distant cliffside.
“That thing looks really familiar… That scrawny body, the distinctive mask, and that familiar cloth covering…”
The instant he recognized it, joy welled up inside him.
“Thank goodness, it’s the world of Genshin Impact.
Then I don’t have to worry about my appearance anymore.
I mean, this is Teyvat; humanoid creatures like me are totally normal here.”
The thought filled him with relief, and he immediately turned and walked into the distance.
“Sigh, whatever.
Forget all that for now.
Priority number one is filling my stomach and finding somewhere to stay.”
“Hmm… the clothes I’m wearing probably aren’t too revealing either.”
As he muttered to himself and tugged lightly at his clothes, a cold figure silently watched him from beneath a distant tree.
After observing him walk away, the figure vanished from the spot in an instant.
…
Soren’s footsteps gradually slowed.
The curiosity in his eyes had long since faded, leaving behind only confusion as he swept his gaze across the surroundings.
Sparse shrubs lined both sides of the dirt road.
A thin layer of sand coated the leaves, and whenever the wind blew, grains rustled loose and scattered away.
Forget fruit trees… there wasn’t even a single bush bearing wild berries.
He subconsciously touched his stomach.
It had already begun to feel hollow.
The half apple he’d eaten earlier had long since digested, even the lingering sweetness in his mouth disappearing without a trace.
“I’m so hungry…”
Dragging his feet, he spoke in a weak, aggrieved voice while unconsciously clutching at the corner of his clothes.
“There aren’t any fruit trees around here.
I can’t even find a damn thing.”
Whenever the wind blew, he had to raise a hand to shield the horns atop his head, afraid they’d ache from the gusts.
Behind him, the heart-shaped tail drooped listlessly.
Occasionally, the tail tip brushed against his ankle, but it no longer held the earlier liveliness.
It only made him feel lonelier.
The dirt road stretched on as though endless.
Ahead lay glaring yellow sands and a blurred horizon.
Behind him, even the footprints he’d left behind were already being swallowed by drifting sand.
Soren bit his lower lip and recalled the distant outline of Mondstadt.
“I don’t dare go to Mondstadt either…”
He muttered, stopping in place while twisting his fingers into the hem of his clothes.
“What if the Knights of Favonius mistake me for some kind of monster and arrest me?
Or everyone in the city starts staring at me…”
He remembered the reflection he’d seen earlier by the lake.
The pale blue eyes.
The black horns.
No matter how he looked at it, none of it resembled an “ordinary traveler.”
If he really rushed into Mondstadt, he might end up surrounded as a freak before even finding food.
The wind swept more sand through the air, stinging lightly against his face.
Soren instinctively shrank his neck and buried his face deeper into his collar.
His hunger only worsened.
He was running out of strength to even keep walking.
All he could do was slowly move forward while leaning against the nearby shrubs, panic and anxiety twisting in his chest.
“What am I supposed to do… I can’t seriously starve to death in this forest, can I?”
The tail behind him gently wrapped around his wrist as if trying to comfort him.
Albeit that faint warmth was nowhere near enough to dispel the hunger and the anxiety buried deep inside his heart.