Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 1: Abyss
One hour after falling into another world, I was crouching in the middle of countless skeletons.
“What am I supposed to do…”
I had boldly climbed down from the mountain of bones I fell onto, but I had absolutely no idea where to go afterward.
In the end, I could only sit there helplessly.
All I could see around me was pitch-black darkness and piles of white bones whose owners I could never identify.
Human bones and animal bones were mixed together, forming small hills here and there.
A cold wind blew from somewhere deep within the darkness, and occasionally, the sound of bones falling from the piles echoed through the void.
I curled my legs up and shivered from the cold.
“Mom…”
I slowly raised my head while enduring the freezing wind.
“…I can’t just stay here forever.”
I instinctively knew that if I stayed like this, I would slowly starve to death.
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself to stand.
“Fuck… even if I die, I’m not dying here.”
Muttering the vow to myself in a trembling voice, I slowly began walking into the darkness.
Thankfully, my eyes had somewhat adjusted, so I could at least make out the nearby surroundings.
Step by step, I moved forward carefully.
Clatter!
“…!”
Even the sound of bones falling somewhere nearby made me jump in fear as I stopped and looked around nervously.
Because I kept freezing every few steps, what felt like thirty minutes passed, yet I had barely moved at all.
Exhausted, I decided to rest for a moment.
“Haah…”
I found a relatively empty patch of ground and sat down before looking back the way I came.
“At least I can’t see it anymore…”
The massive pile of bones where I had first landed was gone from sight.
Only smaller piles remained scattered around the darkness.
“…Alright! Something will work out somehow!”
I stood back up and resumed walking in the same direction.
After stopping to rest countless times and walking for what felt like forever, I finally found something that wasn’t made of bones.
“A door…?”
It was a gigantic stone door.
Carved into it was the image of the same goddess I had seen when I first arrived in this world.
Despite being surrounded by endless bones and trash, the enormous stone door looked strangely sacred.
“Well… I already came this far…”
Figuring it was still better than wandering aimlessly elsewhere, I approached the door.
Slowly, I reached out and pushed against it with all my strength.
“Grrrrrrgh!!!!!”
No matter how hard I pushed, the door didn’t move an inch.
“…What?”
I stepped back slightly and stared at the unmoving door.
“Hmm… maybe there’s some kind of mechanism?”
I desperately tried thinking of ways to open it.
I searched around for suspicious devices.
“Nothing on the left… then maybe… the right? Nope, nothing there either…”
I even prayed to the door.
“Goddess! Please open the door!!!!!”
I tried everything I could think of.
“Open sesame! Alohomora! Open the door!!!!!”
But despite all my efforts, the door remained exactly the same.
“So in the end… am I going to die here…?”
Completely drained, I sat down in front of the door and stared blankly at it.
Was I really going to die alone in this unfamiliar world because I couldn’t even open a single door?
Would I become just another pile of bones among all these countless remains?
“No…”
“I said no!!!”
I suddenly stood up and marched toward the door.
“OPEN!!!!!”
Grabbing the handle, I shook it wildly.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”
Instead of the door moving, my entire body shook violently.
But I refused to stop.
“PLEASE OPENNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!”
I screamed like a madman while yanking the handle with all my strength.
Then—
Creeeak—
The door suddenly made a grinding metallic sound before opening effortlessly toward me.
“Ah?!”
Unable to control the momentum, I fell backward onto my butt.
“Ugh…”
Rubbing my aching backside, I stood up and stared at the now-open door.
“…Fuck.”
“FUUUUUCK!!!!!”
Throwing both hands into the air, I screamed toward the heavens.
“IT WAS A PULL DOORRRRRRRR!!!!!”
For a moment, I ran around near the entrance in pure joy.
Then, filled with excitement, I carefully slipped through the gap.
Behind the door was a hallway completely white from floor to ceiling, just like the place where I first woke up in this world.
Pillars lined the corridor, each carved with images of the goddess.
And standing in the middle of the hallway was a completely white skeleton.
“Huh? Standing?”
Clatter, clatter—
The skeleton rattled as it stared directly at me.
“Uh… hello?”
I awkwardly raised my hand and waved.
The skeleton also raised both hands.
Halfway.
“Huh? What are you—”
Clatter!
The skeleton suddenly stretched both arms toward me and charged.
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!! DON’T COME HERE!!!!!”
Screaming at the top of my lungs, I immediately threw myself back through the doorway and shoved against the door with all my strength.
“CLOSE!!!!!!!”
Thankfully, the door moved exactly where I pushed it.
Before the skeleton could reach me, the door slammed shut completely.
“…What the hell?”
Leaning against the door, I struggled to catch my breath.
“Don’t tell me… what I just saw was real?”
Until now, I honestly hadn’t fully accepted that I was really in another world.
But seeing a walking skeleton—
Well, was “living” even the right word?
Either way, reality felt like it had slapped me across the face.
Shivering in fear, I collapsed onto the floor.
“…Maybe I should just go somewhere else—”
But then another terrifying thought struck me.
What if there were more walking skeletons out there in the giant darkness where I’d been wandering?
“Then there’s nowhere safe no matter where I go…!”
Grabbing my hair, I sank into despair.
I sat there for a long time, clutching my head in silence.
“…Fuck it. Dying here or dying there is all the same.”
Grinding my teeth, I slowly stood up and searched the nearby piles for a suitably sized bone.
“Hoo… hoo…”
Taking deep breaths, I gripped the bone in one hand and approached the door again.
Carefully, I grabbed the handle and slowly pulled.
Thankfully, the skeleton on the other side didn’t seem to be pushing against it.
The ancient door creaked loudly as it slowly opened toward me.
I focused intensely on the widening gap.
The skeleton wasn’t visible.
Slowly, I opened the gap further.
Raising the bone above my head, I steadied my rough breathing and cautiously stepped forward.
I pushed only my face through the opening and looked around.
“There it is!”
The walking skeleton had returned to the exact spot where I first saw it.
“Did it reset or something?”
Like a monster from a video game, it stood completely still.
“Then I’ll attack first!”
If it wasn’t moving, then this was my chance.
Trying not to make a sound, I quietly opened the door enough for my body to fit through.
The skeleton still faced the opposite direction, apparently unaware of me.
I gripped the bone with both hands and clenched my teeth.
“Hoo… hoo…”
“I can do this. I can do this. I have to do this. I have to.”
I repeated the words inside my head while silently creeping forward.
But when I got halfway there, the skeleton suddenly began moving.
Slowly, it started turning around.
The moment it moved, my body froze completely.
My stiffened legs refused to move.
And before I could react, the skeleton had fully turned to face me.
“Clatter?”
The skeleton tilted its head while raising its arms again.
“AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!”
I screamed and turned to run.
The skeleton rattled loudly as it chased after me.
I sprinted toward the door while it followed close behind.
“Don’t run!”
The moment I realized I was panicking again, I forced myself to regain control.
Thankfully, I was faster.
The skeleton couldn’t catch up.
While running, I glanced back repeatedly, judging the distance between us and adjusting my speed.
The gap slowly closed.
Breathing heavily, I tightened my grip on the bone in my hand.
Once we were close enough, I suddenly spun around and slammed my feet against the ground to stop.
The skeleton continued charging directly toward me.
Lowering my body beneath its outstretched arms, I lunged forward.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!”
Holding the bone to the side like a baseball bat, I aimed for its pelvis.
“DIE!!!!!”
I swung with all my strength.
My momentum and the skeleton’s charging speed collided violently.
The creature I once called a walking skeleton was now more of a crawling skeleton.
To make sure it stayed down, I repeatedly smashed the crawling thing until it became nothing but scattered bones.
“Huff… huff…”
After reducing it to pieces, I leaned on my knees and gasped for air.
The bone weapon I brought had shattered alongside it.
Now empty-handed, I stared deeper into the hallway.
“Please… let there be a way out…”
I slowly walked down the white corridor.
The farther I went, the brighter it became.
And at the end of the hallway…
“…A room?”
Not a giant room.
Just… a normal-sized room.
The room had no door, only an open space connected directly to the corridor, making it feel like the entire hallway existed solely to lead here.
The ceiling stretched impossibly high, almost seeming to connect to the surface above.
Inside the round, arch-shaped chamber stood several pillars carved with the image of the goddess.
Most were heavily damaged with age, making the carvings difficult to recognize clearly.
At the center of the room stood a pedestal about the height of a table.
And on top of it—
“A mask?”
Resting there was a mask shaped like the face of an oni, dyed the deep crimson color of fresh blood.
“…An oni mask?”
Why something that looked straight out of Japan existed in another world, I had no idea.
Slowly, I reached toward it.
“…It’s just a mask?”
“Not really.”
“GWAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!”
Letting out a bizarre scream, I threw the mask away and fell backward onto my butt again.
“Fuck! The mask is talking!!!!!!”
It was, without question, the single most shocking moment since arriving in another world.