Hoot, hoot.
The call of an owl beside me woke me up.
“Whoa!”
I flailed in shock when a pair of huge yellow eyes met mine in the darkness, and I fell to the ground.
THUD.
“Ughhh.”
It hurt like hell. I couldn’t even breathe properly. My brain only started working again once I could finally catch my breath.
‘This hurts like shit.’
I forced myself up, but my body wouldn’t move properly. Fortunately, although I felt as though tree branches had scratched me, there hadn’t been the disaster of some part of my body being pierced or a bone breaking. This game was more than capable of inflicting a Bad Event like that.
‘……The stars are pretty, though.’
The searing pain in my arms, legs, and back made me lie down for a while. The night sky above me was utterly beautiful, packed with glittering stars regardless of my current situation. There were an incredible number of them, just like the night sky I’d seen at a rural vacation cottage last summer.
‘I guess this body’s pretty tough.’
Apparently, this body was sturdier than I’d thought. Sturdy enough that I could still look at the stars and think they were beautiful in the middle of all this.
‘I can’t see a thing.’
There were only stars in the sky and no moon, so there wasn’t enough light. I couldn’t see anything properly inside the forest. Still, remaining here wasn’t an option. If I hadn’t known about this forest, I might’ve chosen to sit here and wait for morning.
‘Not a chance.’
This game always kept its characters moving, advancing quests, and fighting monsters as though something were constantly chasing them. Reality might be different in some ways, but I had no intention of nodding off while sitting here and waking up without a head.
‘Isn’t there even a branch around?’
I wanted to find at least a branch I could use as a walking stick, but there wasn’t one. Even as my eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, I couldn’t see a suitable branch. No, even after adjusting, all I could make out were extremely faint outlines.
“Whew. Let’s go.”
I cautiously moved my feet and began walking. Which direction was the territory again? I should’ve at least checked that from the tree before falling. Fortunately, the cracked jar that could now be called my only remaining weapon hadn’t broken.
I walked forward, sweeping the empty air with my left hand while holding my right arm ready to bring the jar down at any moment. Had I been walking for about ten minutes?
“Ugh, fuck. The self-loathing is hitting hard.”
I looked ridiculous, and my miserable situation felt deeply unfair. That damned game had already cost me two computers, and now I’d been abducted to another world. Sure, my old life had been so boring I felt as though I was losing my mind, but this situation was enough to actually drive me insane.
“Hm?”
How long had it been since I lowered my aching arm after holding the jar aloft and simply walked? The stench of blood and metal stabbed into my nose. The farther I went, the worse the nauseating smell became.
Tap.
My foot struck something. I bent down and felt around with my hand. It was hard. When I tapped it, it made the hard ring of metal. Carefully tracing its shape with my fingertips, I thought it was a sword. It was somewhere between sixty centimeters and a meter long.
Fine. Honestly, I had no idea.
If I touched it wrong, it felt like I’d lose a finger.
Squelch.
“Urk.”
While reaching for the hilt, I grabbed something unidentifiably soft and squishy. The sensation, the chill racing up my spine, and the smell carried by a sudden gust of wind made me vomit.
“Bleeergh.”
My stomach must have been empty, because nothing but dry heaves and watery saliva ran past my lips. I hurriedly grabbed only the sword and fled the area.
***
I walked along a path through the forest, using the sword as a walking stick. The sky was gradually brightening with the gray light of dawn. Maybe it was because my stomach had been emptied by the vomiting earlier.
GROWL.
I was hungry. On top of that, I felt exhausted even though I’d only missed one night of sleep. It was probably because I hadn’t rested properly after falling down the mountainside and had kept moving.
I needed somewhere to rest.
Once the sun rose, it would be time for those things to sleep.
‘Then I won’t have to worry about being attacked in my sleep.’
It had been the same in the game. If characters didn’t sleep, their health continuously decreased, and in severe cases, they even started rebellions.
‘For a fucking game, it sure cared about realism.’
I could feel my body growing more sluggish. My eyes felt so dry it was as though they were about to fall out. If I looked in a mirror now, wouldn’t all the blood vessels in them have burst?
WHIRR, WHIRR, WHIRR.
At first, I thought I’d misheard because I was tired.
I hadn’t.
THWACK.
“Keh-heh-hehk.”
‘What?’
The world toppled sideways.
Why was the ground suddenly so close?
I felt dirt and sand crunching inside my mouth. My hands and feet trembled intermittently. The back of my head burned as though it had been scorched, and my vision shook. I realized something was wrong, but it was already too late.
Clatter.
A bloodstained stone rolled away from the back of my fallen head. Had someone hit me with a sling?
Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.
I heard footsteps dragging across the ground. A green bare foot with grotesquely overgrown nails appeared before my eyes.
“Krrrk.”
“Kereherero.”
Four more green bare feet appeared. The last thing I heard before losing consciousness was the creatures chattering among themselves.
***
“Gasp!”
I came with a ragged breath.
RATTLE. RATTLE.
I tried to force myself upright, but my body didn’t budge. Hadn’t it been dawn, with the sun beginning to rise?
It was dark.
Darker than the night sky from earlier.
The only relief was a torch hanging from the wall, its flickering flame driving away a little of the darkness.
“Krrrk.”
That unpleasant, phlegmy sound came again. When I turned my head, I saw yellow goat-like eyes in the darkness.
What the hell was that now?
What emerged was a goblin gripping a staff decorated with the bones of animals I couldn’t identify.
It wore a crown woven from bird feathers and plant stems, as though it were imitating some prehistoric shaman. Unlike the other goblins, which covered only their private parts, this one wore rags that looked as though they’d been scavenged from somewhere.
They looked like my clothes.
I lowered my gaze and found myself nearly naked, wearing nothing but my underwear.
My arms and legs were bound to a wooden cross. Human and animal bones lay scattered everywhere around me.
“Krrk, krkekuh.”
The shaman goblin issued instructions with a finger tipped by a filthy nail. It seemed to be ordering the creatures that had followed it. Ten goblins then left the cave and returned carrying a huge cauldron.
“W-What are you doing?”
They placed the water-filled cauldron over a brick hearth and shoved dry branches underneath it. The shaman goblin chanted a long incantation that was impossible to understand for about three minutes, then fired a ball of flame the size of a fist.
CLAP. CLAP. CLAP.
The other goblins burst into applause. The shaman goblin smiled triumphantly.
“…This is driving me insane. Seriously.”
These bastards intended to boil and eat me.
“Waaaaaah-!”
I thrashed and shook my entire body.
CREAK. CREEEAK.
The cross-shaped wooden frame binding me groaned. But it only creaked. It showed no sign of breaking. Perhaps amused by my struggle, the shaman goblin approached me.
“Wow. That face is a work of art.”
The goblin looked like the ones from cartoons or the internet, but rendered into photorealistic reality, it was hideously ugly. That creature smacked its lips while looking at me. The teeth visible through its open mouth were sharp like a shark’s.
CRUNCH.
“AAAAARGH!!!”
You fucking bastard!
It bit into my forearm and sucked my blood. After drinking for more than ten seconds and quenching its thirst, the creature roughly wiped the blood from its mouth with its sleeve. Its yellow goat eyes gleamed in the torchlight.
“Y-You fucking…!”
I spat out the curse to shake off my fear, and it seemed to work. My heart pounded violently, and I wanted to smash the head of that bastard grinning so vilely. An unfamiliar warmth spread through my entire body from somewhere near my heart.
CREAK. CREEEAK.
This sound was different from the creaking before. The cross binding me shook as though it might break at any moment. The shaman goblin visibly panicked.
SQUELCH.
“Ghk.”
It stabbed a bone awl into my side.
GUSH.
When the shard of bone came out of my side, a handful of blood poured out. This body had survived falling down that mountainside, yet a single stab to the side drained my strength pathetically. Regardless of my thoughts, blood continued flowing from the hole in my side.
As my blood began soaking the ground, the shaman goblin danced in circles around me. It began chanting another incomprehensible spell. Then fifteen or so goblins formed orderly rows and knelt.
It looked like a religious ceremony performed by some deranged cult. After circling me several times, the creature wiped the beads of sweat from its forehead. Then it raised the bone awl that had stabbed my side once again.
“Kirukachan!”
““Kirukachan!!””
SQUELCH.
The bone awl stabbed into my stomach once more. Apparently, that was the climax of this fucked-up cult ritual, because some of the goblins even shed tears. The one small mercy was that the bone awl hadn’t gone in as deeply as I’d expected. It was only one or two finger joints deep.
My body no longer moved.
Had they coated the bone shard in poison?
Several of the kneeling goblins approached and untied the ropes binding me.
They grunted and strained as they dragged my body. I had to be heavy for creatures less than a meter tall. I dropped to the ground. The awl was pushed out by about one centimeter.
“Kikek.”
A goblin with a sling made of plant stems and leather tied around its waist struck me across the head in irritation. Apparently, I was extremely heavy.
‘You think I’m going to die here?!’
I struggled however I could with a body that refused to move. My arms, which were beginning to move little by little, bore down on the goblins carrying me.
I shook against their bodies and interfered so they couldn’t carry me properly. The closer we came to the cauldron, the more intensely I felt its heat. The other goblins tossed in unknown vegetables they had hacked apart at random.
“Kak! Kak!”
Two goblins lost their grip while carrying me and kicked my body again. Every time my body shook, I felt the bone awl being pushed farther out.
Just a little more. Just a little…!
“Krrk.”
The goblin with the sling grew excited and swung the strap at me like a whip.
SMACK! SMACK!
“Kyaruchan!”
The shaman goblin, which had been resting, shouted. Startled, the other creature hurriedly yanked the strap back.
TWANG.
The bone awl caught in the strap and fell to the ground.
Strength returned to my arms and legs, which had felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton. The awl, gleaming with my blood, rolled across the floor.
“K-Kek!”
I seized the sling-wielding goblin by the throat. Its eyes rolled wildly in panic as I hurled it straight at the shaman goblin. Without even watching the two creatures tangle together, I grabbed the bone awl lying before me.
“RAAAAAH!”
I repeatedly stabbed the stomach of a nearby goblin with the awl, then threw it into the huge cauldron.
“Come at me, you sons of bitches!”
***
“Krrrgh.”
The bone awl pierced the shaman goblin’s chest. The creature died with one final scream that sounded like phlegm rattling in its throat.
FSSSSSH.
The corpses of the goblins I had killed scattered into glowing dust. Something dropped where the bodies had been.
“H-Hah, hahahahahaha…!”
It was a single Copper Coin.
***
[Stamina falls to ‘0’ from excessive physical exertion.]
[Physical abilities gradually decrease. Stress increases.]
[Bad Event! Random Quest ‘Kidnapping’ triggered.]
[This quest cannot be refused. Shut up and suffer.]
.
.
.
[The Lowest-Grade Vampire Shaman Goblin drains the character’s blood.]
[V-Virus infection begins. Divine Blood weakly resists the profane.]
[An unknown entity watches you.]
.
[Condition met: The character is afflicted with ‘Paralysis’.]
[‘Paralysis’ remains active while pierced by the ‘Cursed Bone Awl’.]
[‘Unyielding Will’ weakly resists the status effect ‘Paralysis’.]
.
.
.
[The character has slain 13 Common Goblins and 1 Goblin Mutant.]
[The character has completed the Random Quest ‘Kidnapping’.]