Otherworld Ground Rules
“…I've really gone and done it.”
I got hit by a truck for real, and now I was in another world.
I knew it the moment I opened my eyes — no, even before that.
The scent of grass rode a cool breeze and washed over me. Birds chattered among themselves. The clear sound of running water told me, without looking, that a crystal-clean valley stream was nearby.
“Heh heh… not bad…?”
I had been waiting for this moment. Every time a truck rolled past, I would think, If I just throw myself in front of that thing, boom — otherworld, lmao. Of course, I was too scared to actually do it.
Rustle.
I sat up, and an endless meadow softer than any bed stretched out before me.
“Ahh. This is the stuff.”
Another world. A medieval fantasy realm where humans lived alongside elves, dwarves, beastmen, and every other demi-human race that only existed in Earth's imagination. A world of magic and swords, where kings and nobles ruled their domains, and monsters and magical beasts roamed free beyond the city walls.
“Yahoo!!”
I sprinted down the hill toward the village spread out below — a place that looked, at a single glance, unmistakably otherworldly.
…And then I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Wait. Truck, otherworld. So… what comes next?”
The obvious thing sprang to mind.
“Status Window!”
Name:Seo Hyun-woo / Race:Human / Level:1
Class:None
Strength:10 / Stamina:10 / Agility:10
Mana:10 / Spirit:10
“Hmm. Got that classic flavor. But…”
Normally when you get isekai'd, you start with some special ability. That didn't seem to be the case here.
“Heh. 'Normally.' That's funny.”
Mulling this over, I picked up my pace again. The thing about otherworld life was that the story changed depending on the first heroine you met. Run into a beautiful princess and you become a hero who rescues her and lives happily ever after. Meet a cute little mage and you end up a ninth-circle archmage. That kind of thing.
I stepped into the unnamed village in search of the heroine who would shape my otherworld life.
“Alright, show yourself. My heroine number one…!”
I rolled my eyes this way and that as I walked toward the center of the village. And before long, she appeared like a ghost. Or rather — she came flying toward me at ghostly speed.
Either way, she was a beautiful girl.
A slender frame. A single scrap of ragged cloth barely clinging to her body. A thick iron collar around her thin neck. And yet her milk-white skin seemed to glow. Brown hair and red eyes naturally brought a vampire to mind. Her beauty seized my gaze completely. Every other sense scattered like smoke, and my eyes locked on her alone.
She bolted past me in a frantic scramble. Maybe she wasn't my heroine after all. I tracked her with my eyes until she vanished behind me.
And so, walking along in a daze—
Thud—.
“Eek!”
“Oof!”
I slammed into something hard as a boulder. The voice I half-caught suggested a cute face, but the bruise blooming on my chest told a different story.
“What the hell? Watch where you're going!”
A cute voice asking a not-so-cute question. Aimed at me, no doubt. This was another classic heroine-meeting setup, of course. But a boulder-hard heroine was a bit much…
I slowly turned my gaze toward the cute little boulder.
“You. If you let that bitch get away, you're done for.”
The cute boulder had, as expected, an adorable face. Not a rock at all — a small girl with a whip in one hand. A tight leather jumpsuit clung to her tiny frame. Black hair tied in twin tails, emerald eyes gleaming.
“You're a… kid, right?”
“You little—! I'm a hundred and fifty years old right now…!!”
She clenched a fist soft as cotton fluff and threatened me with it.
“That bitch's mana is getting farther away by the second. You. What are you gonna do if you don't catch her by the end of the day?”
“Why do I have to catch her?”
“Because you made me lose her…!!!”
Her cotton-soft fist trembled, and black mist rose from it, staining her hand dark.
“Do you seriously not value your life? Are you catching her or not?”
Gulp—.
Normally in otherworld stories, dying just meant you got sent back in time. But still—
“I'll catch her.”
She was terrifying.
“Good.”
She snapped the whip in her hand open, and it transformed into a sheet of paper as if by magic.
“Sign it.”
“What is this…”
“That bitch is my slave. You made me lose her, so you're filling in.”
Flutter—!!
She shoved the contract right up in my face.
“If you don't catch her by the end of the day, you become my slave.”
“How is that fair…!”
Had there ever been a more one-sided contract?!
“Fine.”
I signed it anyway. The killing intent radiating from that cotton-soft fist carried enough destructive force that even a freshly transmigrated newbie like me could feel it loud and clear.
And one more thing: protagonists who get isekai'd almost never end up as slaves.
“Go. Get lost. Bring her back, fast. That bitch is expensive.”
“…Alright.”
The thing about otherworld life was that you got knocked around left and right at the start. The ones who snapped and snarled at you like that usually warmed up in no time and started acting like they'd give you the shirts off their backs. Because those were the ground rules of another world.
“Ah, um. What's your name…?”
“Riabella Morvelien Evernacht.”
“Right, Ria. See you in a bit.”
“What?!”
It was way too long to remember. “Ria” was a cute little nickname that suited her looks, wasn't it?
“Hey!! You rude little—!!”
Leaving Ria sputtering behind me, I took off after the red-eyed beauty. The second ground rule of another world: take the mission you've been given seriously. A chaotic, slapstick storyline was a given — and the protagonist, meaning me, had to throw himself into that story with everything he had. I'd never seen a protagonist who didn't, and just putting in the effort was enough to make great rewards come pouring down.
Besides, there was no way a contract that unfair would actually hold. I had a feeling that contract was going to make Ria into one of my sub-heroines.
I skipped along with light steps and called out,
“Where are you! Beautiful girl!!”
“Where are you!!! Waaah…”
Hours had passed since the sun went down. Midnight couldn't be far off. But of the beautiful girl I'd lost, there was not a single trace to be found.
I asked passersby. I asked a rough-looking beastman. I asked the fruit seller, the fishmonger, the salt merchant. I even asked a refined-looking person on a white horse.
“Damn it… I'm going to end up a slave…!”
At first I hadn't been that worried. But with the sun gone and the night dark, the question of whether a lone body dumped in a completely foreign otherworld could even survive started to gnaw at me.
“It's an unfair contract, so… it'll be fine… Ugh! Where are you!! Beautiful girl!!”
And then—
“L-let me go…! I don't want to…!!”
“Kuhehehe… You don't want to, you want to, you like it? Heh heh, by the two-syllable rule, that means you like it. Come on, let's go—!”
“Kuheheheng, as expected, boss is so smart.”
“Kyaa—!”
A delicate voice drifted from a back alley. An unfamiliar voice. But somehow, a voice I'd been hoping to hear.
“That's her.”
I knew it on instinct. It sounded like the voice of someone with shimmering brown hair and vampire-red eyes.
Tap-tap—!
I kicked off the ground and ran. Toward the back alley where that voice was coming from.
“Just around this corner…!”
“Kyaaaak—!!”
A sharp scream cut through the air from beyond the corner.
“Hey!”
I rounded the bend and there she was — the red-eyed beauty. And the slabs of meat who'd apparently been harassing her until a moment ago.
“Huh?”
“Kyaaaaak—!! Gross!!”
The red-eyed beauty was screaming, both hands stained with blood.
“Uh, um…”
“W-what? A-are you with them too? Is that it…?”
She trembled, her blood-reddened hands shaking, asking if I was going to kill her too.
“N-no…! More importantly…!!”
Crimson flames were wreathing her neck. The thick shackle that should have been locked around her throat lay loose on the ground for some reason.
“That is…”
Magical runes were visible on the inside of the shackle. Drawing on my years of experience with otherworld stories, I was pretty sure that shackle coming off was what had sent her into a rampage.
“Kyaaak!! Stay away!!”
“C-calm down. I'm not going to hurt you…”
“How am I supposed to believe that…! I've had a really long day, okay…?! Can you just leave?!”
“No. I can't do that.”
“Then…!”
Fwoooosh—!!
The flames around her neck swelled into something enormous. As they stretched long down her back, they looked like the wings of a phoenix — or maybe a superhero's cape.
“You can die with the rest of them.”
The moment she finished speaking, she came flying at me. They say time slows to a crawl right before you die. Maybe it was because, following the ground rules of another world, players who could see status windows were basically pretty strong.
Whoosh—!
I tilted my head and slipped past her leading hand.
“Oh-ho.”
Whoosh—!
Fwoosh—!
The second and third strikes — a fist and a kick — I dodged those too, in just two steps. Before I knew it, our positions had swapped.
Crap, if she runs back into the alley…!
“G-give that back…!”
“Huh?”
The flames wreathing her body died down. A flustered expression. Trembling fingertips pointed at the shackle lying by my feet.
“Give it back…!”
“R-right. I'll give it back, so don't worry.”
Clank—.
I picked up the shackle and slowly approached her.
“Easy now. Calm down.”
She looked tense. Not wanting to startle her, I moved as slowly as I could.
“Here. It's yours.”
Just as I almost reached her—
“Hup!”
Snap!!!
In the fastest move of my thirty years of real life and one day of otherworld living, I locked the shackle around her neck.
“Kya!”
“Yes!!”
The flames that had been writhing around her throat vanished the instant the shackle clicked shut, as if they'd never been there.
“D-don't you run away, got it!”
I grabbed the chain attached to the shackle and issued a stern warning.
And then—
Ding—!
Dokkaebi 'Yu-hwa' has been registered as a slave.
Activating Yu-hwa's Status Window.
Slave Slot:1/3
Several notification windows appeared before my eyes all at once.
“W-what…!”
“What do you mean, what…! Let go!!”
Yu-hwa raised her nails and swung them at my face. Too close. I couldn't dodge!
Kang—!!
'Yu-hwa' refuses to submit.
Protection function has been activated.
“Huh?”
The space between Yu-hwa and me rippled, as if a barrier had been thrown up. Her large pupils trembled wildly, and she asked in a low voice,
“What did you do to me…!”
“W-well… I'm not really sure, but. You. You're my slave, apparently…”
“What…!”
Judging by her reaction, it was the real deal.
Another world.
Coming here was the best decision I'd ever made.