"Urgh..."
My head felt heavy and hurt. A terrible dizziness assaulted me, as if countless sharp needles were stabbing me all at once. The pain was so intense that it pierced to the depths of my consciousness.
I woke up because of this headache, which had suddenly struck me out of nowhere.
What happened yesterday!?
I couldn't remember doing anything that would have caused this pain to hit me.
What the hell is that awful smell!?
I had just woken up from the severe pain in my head when a sharp, foul stench suddenly stabbed into my nose. My house wasn't so dirty that disgusting smells would spread through the air!
"Ap...!"
Before I could get control of the pain in my head, the foul stench stabbed into my nose again. Thick, fishy, and nauseating. My house had never been this filthy, with a horrible smell spreading through the air!
"Mmbbuerggghhh"
My stomach churned violently. I vomited instantly, unable to hold back the overwhelming nausea caused by this horrifying sight and stench. What kind of insane situation was this!?
Th-this... this is a human head!!
These piles of flesh are parts of human bodies!!
"WUAAARRRGGGHHH"
I screamed and ran, putting as much distance between myself and this place as fast as I could. Just imagining it made me shudder. What kind of place was this!?
"Chuaakk!! Chaaakk!!"
An unclear shout came from the side. As if things weren't already absurd enough, a human-sized pig in tattered clothing stood on two legs, holding a huge butcher's knife pointed at me!
It shouted incomprehensibly, as if threatening me.
"Cchhuuugghhh Carkhhh Caarrkkeehh!!"
What the hell are you saying!?
Speak clearly!
The creature spoke in a language I couldn't understand while waving its huge butcher's knife at me.
*Braaakkhhh!
Suddenly, a door burst open with a violent crash.
"CAAAKKKHHH CUAAAKKHHH!!"
A similar creature—a bipedal pig—charged inside, shouting frantically at the pig holding the knife. It waved a rusty, poorly maintained sword, slashing through the air as if issuing a warning.
After shouting frantically at the pig with the butcher's knife, it looked toward me, standing frozen in place.
"Cuaakkkk Caaakkkk!!"
The pig with the junk sword shouted again, ignoring me as if its duty to deliver the warning was complete. Then it turned and hurried outside.
"What the—"
I didn't finish the sentence I was about to say. The pig with the butcher's knife lunged, directing its huge blade at me!
"Ugh."
I wanted to back away and run immediately, but unfortunately, as soon as one foot took a step backward, the pain in my head returned—an excruciating pain.
Now of all times!?
"Damn it!"
The butcher's knife had already lunged and slashed toward where I stood. Fortunately, with everything I had, I dodged the huge blade, and it only cut through empty air. If it had hit me, I would have suffered a large and painful gash.
"Urgh, BUAARRGGGHH"
I had managed to evade the huge butcher's knife, but unfortunately, the unbearable headache struck again. Worse, the vicious attack from the pig standing on two legs didn't stop.
After its huge blade missed me, a fist slammed into my stomach.
It hurt like hell!!
*Bukh!
The impact rang out loudly as the massive fist struck my body.
*Crash!
The pig didn't stop there. It launched another attack. A powerful kick flew into my chest, sending my body flying backward.
No sound came from my throat. Only the suffering breath was forced from my stomach, knocking my body down just like that.
*Bang!
My body stopped flying after crashing into the room's wall. My vision slowly faded. It seemed I was at death's door.
Through my increasingly darkening vision, I vaguely saw the pig holding the huge butcher's knife panic as it looked behind itself. It ran toward the only door in the room.
For just a few milliseconds, a red glow radiated from its body, seemingly piercing straight through it. Without warning, the pig was instantly split in two.
Three people appeared behind the cleaved body. One of them ran toward me, shouting something, though I couldn't hear even the slightest sound. A moment later, my vision completely collapsed.
Darkness swallowed everything.
"Arrrrgggghhhhh"
"RUN!"
"Don't just stand there! Run!"
"Dog-like monsters!"
"Aaaaaaaa...."
Screams split the air. Anger, fear, despair, and frustration echoed everywhere.
Various monsters were slaughtering the villagers. The bipedal pigs I'd seen earlier were there, clawing, slashing, and tearing human flesh without mercy. It was a massacre driven by nothing but brutality.
Before I could even respond, the scene changed, replaced by the sight of a motherly woman standing before me.
"***** Run as far as you can! Save yourself!"
The woman's gentle hand suddenly wiped the tears from my wet cheek, reassuring me as I stood there, frozen and silent.
"***** Run!"
The visual image moved rapidly left and right, as if depicting my refusal of the woman's request by shaking my head.
"***** Please, run. Save yourself. Your mother and father will hold them off, okay...?"
The scene moved up and down in a slow rhythm, signaling my agreement.
The next second, the image spun backward. That meant I had agreed to the woman's request. Slowly, the scene pulled away from the place where the woman who called herself "Mom" stood.
This indicated that I had begun running away from her.
"Run! Don't look back! Don't stop!"
I heard the woman's voice screaming loudly and desperately from behind me as I ran away from her.
Strangely, the visual movement suddenly slowed. Then the image gradually spun around, turning back toward the rear.
I felt that I was ignoring the woman's request. Although I wasn't very pleased with the behavior displayed by the person I felt was supposed to be me, some part of me cheered in agreement with this decision.
Curiosity about what was happening also took control of me.
What the hell!
I take that back!
I regretted agreeing to this decision!
I shouldn't have looked back!
There, the body of the woman who called herself "Mom" was already inside the jaws of a massive wolf, ridden by a muscular, green-skinned, bald-headed figure.
"Urgh!"
Huh?
What happened?
Suddenly, I began trembling violently and let out a groan?
The visual image shook violently. A pained groan escaped the throat of the body's owner—the person I felt was supposed to be me.
As his view slowly rolled downward, I saw the tip of a sword sticking through the front of my chest, drenched in fresh blood.
Was this person—me—impaled!?
"...Kagh!"
The sword was yanked out roughly. The visual viewpoint plunged as the body collapsed onto the ground.
Slowly, the scene floated upward, changing the visual angle. It was as if the image shifted from a first-person perspective to a third-person view.
The visual scene revealed the entire village, which had been destroyed. Green-skinned creatures and pig monsters were wreaking havoc throughout the settlement.
The view widened to show everything. Many of the creatures attacking the village were the same ones I'd encountered when I first woke up—pig-headed creatures standing on two legs!
The focus now shifted to the body of the boy who had collapsed, the boy whose perspective had been shown at the beginning. The bald, green-skinned creature carried him away.
His body was carried like an object and handed over to a pig-headed creature. The creature tossed his body into a cart, along with several corpses of villagers, and hauled them away.
The scene then sped up drastically, like a video on fast-forward. The cart was pulled toward a massive cave.
What is this?
A monster settlement?
Not far from the village?
No... wait... The creatures hadn't actually traveled from the village that quickly. The scene had been sped up.
Based on an estimate of the time compressed by the accelerated visuals, the monsters' lair was only about two or three hours away from the village on foot.
Why would the villagers dare settle this close to a monster lair?
Were they unaware of the danger, or had they lived there too long to have any other choice?
Wasn't the risk to their lives enormous!?
From the earlier view of the village, the houses in the settlement were already fairly developed, especially for villagers who had supposedly only settled there temporarily.
That showed the villagers had lived there for a long time, right beside this monster settlement.
So what made these monsters slaughter the villagers?
While I was too focused on thinking about those still-mysterious questions, the scene changed. It showed the inside of the cave, and the visualization slowed back down to normal speed.
The connecting passages and rooms themselves had been laid out with precision. The cave was clearly habitable, and I was still observing everything from a third-person perspective.
Several rooms inside the cave came into view. Although I couldn't freely control the scene, it remained focused on the body of the person whose perspective had first been shown—the boy's body.
Not long after, the scene sped up again.
A pile of corpses was dumped in the corner of a stone room. Several pig monsters went in and out, taking the lifeless bodies one by one and chopping them up on wooden and stone tables.
Ugh...
Disgusting.
If I had a body, I would have vomited countless times by now.
They chopped human bodies apart as if they were livestock feed. Fortunately, the footage was playing at high speed, which eased my nausea a little.
Were they villagers?
Or human bodies from somewhere else?
There was no further information.
The visualization only showed pig monsters entering and leaving the room, taking corpses from the pile, chopping up the bodies, then leaving with the processed meat.
After the scene repeated several times in accelerated form, it slowed down again and proceeded normally.
In the corner of the room, one of the bodies in the pile suddenly moved. It woke up, sat there dazed, stood up in a panic, and then began vomiting violently.
Th-this...
I understand now...
This boy's body is me. His actions and behavior were exactly the same as what I had done when I first woke up.
That explained why the visualization had focused only on this boy's body.
So... I'm currently occupying this boy's body...
The boy's body was thin, with black hair and the build of a twelve- to fifteen-year-old. This body would become the vessel for my soul.
On the other side of the room, the pig monster chopping up the corpse suddenly jerked in surprise. It shouted something incomprehensible at me—no, at the person occupying the boy's body, not at me, who was currently watching this third-person scene.
*Crash!
Another pig monster appeared from behind the door after kicking it open. It swung its rusty sword through the air while shouting incomprehensibly at the pig holding the huge knife, as if warning it, then left just like that.
Finally, the butcher pig lunged toward me.
This scene was exactly the same as what I had just experienced firsthand moments ago, before I became nothing more than a consciousness watching this visualization.
I, having taken over the boy's body, collapsed from the pig monster's attack.
Three knights came from behind the door and split the pig monster in two. Afterward, a female knight approached my unconscious body—the boy's body.
As I watched strangers arrive to save me at the end of the footage, the visual perspective began spinning violently. The entire scene—the location, the cave chambers, and my position as an observer—twisted like a whirlpool sucking away my consciousness.
Gurg...
I began suffering from intense dizziness and nausea because of what was happening.
When the vortex subsided, the scene changed completely.
I was now in a vast, empty space. The ground beneath my feet looked like the surface of calm, clear water, while an expansive sky filled with white clouds stretched overhead. Strangely, even though the ground looked like water, I could stand firmly without feeling the slightest bit wet. The sky also seemed incredibly close.
Wait!
Legs!?
Yes!
I saw legs below me, along with the body attached to them.
I had a body now!
No longer a bodiless third-person view!
Legs, arms—then I felt over my entire body all the way up to my head. I had a complete body!
But... this body was small, different from my adult body before.
Was I currently inside that little boy's body?
Most likely. When I first woke up and the memory scene was shown, the visuals had focused only on the boy's body...
So... this is my reality now.