Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Lessons in Survival
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......
Hwan-in opened his eyes and frowned at the unpleasant sense of déjà vu.
He stood alone in a pitch-black, shadowy void.
Just moments ago, he'd been sitting and resting amid the corpses of the eight Green Monsters he'd slain, but now...
By this point, irritation was starting to bubble up inside him, but before letting anger take hold, he scanned his body and surroundings, trying to grasp the objective facts.
'My head felt like it was splitting open, and then my vision went black.'
Maybe the pain from cauterizing the wound with a red-hot knife had triggered cardiac arrest belatedly.
It was agony he never wanted to relive... no, considering the pounding headache, it could've been a burst brain aneurysm that killed him.
So was this the afterlife?
The surroundings were utterly dark, as if swallowing all light, while only his own form stood out in vivid color—a detail that deepened his suspicions. And that wasn't all...
'No wounds.'
Not just the injuries from battling those eight Green Monsters, but the scrapes and punctures from six days trudging through the jungle, the blisters and calluses from swinging weapons—all gone.
His clothes, filthy with dirt, leaves, sweat, and the blood of slain monsters, were pristine as new.
Having already experienced two scientifically inexplicable phenomena—being transported to another world and the Green Monsters' superpowers—Hwan-in figured he could believe this place was the afterlife if that's what it was.
Cause of death? Too many possibilities to count.
Maybe something he'd eaten had finally caught up with him, or an infection from those thornbush scratches had lain dormant and flared up.
'......'
Starting to accept his death as fact, Hwan-in closed his eyes briefly in resignation before taking a step forward.
If he'd known it'd end like this, he should've freed his Emergency Ration.
Bound tighter than a watermelon rind, it wouldn't be long before the bird starved or got devoured by some monster.
What happened to him now? No grim reaper or afterlife messenger in sight—probably just myths people cooked up. So did he just walk until he faded away?
Or reincarnate as another creature?
He didn't care either way, but if reincarnation was on the table, he'd prefer a bird this time over a human—something that soared freely through the skies on instinct, unburdened by deep thoughts.
'......?'
As Hwan-in strolled leisurely, he noticed a faint glow shimmering beneath his feet.
Not just there—far ahead, it rippled like a river of dim light.
'The River Acheron?'
Recalling the Greek myth of the river encircling the underworld, he shook his head lightly and followed the glow.
It was mystical, if nothing else.
'If I reincarnate, I'll forget all this anyway.'
Thinking he'd never recall such an ethereal scene again, Hwan-in slowed his pace with a touch of regret.
As he walked along the dreamlike river of faint light, he sensed something approaching from ahead.
'......Bugs?'
A few ants approached along the river... no, floating in the air, they passed straight through his chest.
Hwan-in touched his chest where the ant had pierced through and glanced back. It was already vanishing into the river of light.
'......'
Looking ahead at the approaching sensation, he saw various insects—two or three of each kind—drawing near.
Butterflies, honeybees, mantises, stag beetles, crickets, cicadas, hornets, flies, spiders, mosquitoes, dragonflies, grasshoppers...
Bewildered by the incomprehensible scene, Hwan-in resumed walking. But starting to move didn't make the insects approach any faster.
'Does this mean my next life is as a bug?'
Muttering inwardly as they all pierced through his chest one by one, he paused at the next arrival.
A black-spotted white dog, like a dairy cow.
Skinny enough to show ribs, with half-lidded, slanted eyes.
The stray he'd beaten to death on the back mountain in his school days.
As the first creature he'd killed with clear intent, Hwan-in remembered it vividly.
The stray passed through him too, bringing a slight pain and a heaviness to his body.
The pain was odd—not like a stab, slash, or blow to a specific spot, but a strange sensation spreading across his entire body.
Next came three young cats, barely past kittenhood.
Calico, white, and black.
'......'
That first winter after starting work, as Hwan-in turned the key in the car his father had gifted him, a grinding drdrdr sound mixed with a cat's tearing scream.
Opening the engine compartment, he'd found three dead kittens tangled in the belt.
These were those cats.
Like with the stray pack, a mild pain washed over him as the trio pierced through.
Closing his eyes, Hwan-in looked down at the ever-flowing river of faint light.
'Is this river making me face every life I've taken so far?'
Forcing him to confront them and atone?
Hoo. With a light snort, Hwan-in pressed on with steady strides.
After that, smaller lives approached.
Mostly flies and mosquitoes, mixed with mayflies, ants he'd crushed while jogging, and fish from company fishing trips.
'No plants, huh.'
He smirked inwardly.
Plants were living beings too, yet only insects, animals, and fish appeared.
'......'
Startled at mocking some unknown entity, Hwan-in halted briefly.
Since arriving in this bizarre world, his emotions had grown more varied... a creepy feeling like he was becoming someone else.
But what did it matter now that he was dead?
Resuming his walk, Hwan-in let out a small chuckle at the horde surging toward him from ahead.
Dozens of Green Monsters, interspersed with Beast-Head Monsters and a standout Gray Monster.
All ones he'd bashed or stomped to death.
'Mm......'
As the first Green Monster passed through, an incomparable pain hit—far beyond the bugs or beasts—along with mounting heaviness.
Like a mild headache radiating through his whole body. Repeated dozens of times, it was no small torment, but the pain itself wasn't the issue.
The problem came around the tenth: his body felt like sodden cotton.
'Kuh.'
Now he saw—the more that passed, the worse the pain scaled.
By twenty, the mild throb sharpened to needle pricks, movement sluggish like in water.
At thirty, it felt like being hacked apart by blades, every step weighted with chains underwater.
'Hoo......'
As the lacerating agony morphed into burning alive in an oven, the thirty-sixth and final Green Monster passed.
Nothing more approached from the far river of light.
His body burned hot. Ten more and he might not have endured.
Letting out a small sigh, Hwan-in trudged on, chains of sensation yanking from behind, each step a struggle.
'Mm.'
As he advanced, the burning faded, replaced by cool refreshment.
Fresher than the crisp lake water soothing his lungs yesterday.
The binding heaviness lifted too.
Chains unraveling strand by strand, his body lightening—almost floating. Shrugging his shoulders in liberation, Hwan-in strode forward with a smirk tugging one lip.
'Like a soul purification rite.'
Cleansing for reincarnation.
Burning away the soul's impurities—surely something like this.
Savoring the overwhelming coolness and freedom, he noticed the world brightening.
Sensing the vividly glowing path ahead as the end, Hwan-in entered the light calmly, unhurried.
"......? Ugh."
Awaking with a jolt in his head, Hwan-in groaned at the sudden pain surging everywhere.
Pain aside, the loss of that freedom and refreshment hit hard as withdrawal.
Just moments ago, wings spread to the sky; now, shackled by an indescribable weight.
"Kuh."
Trying to rise, excruciating pain in his right thigh drew another groan. Amid severe joint aches, muscle soreness, and bruises, he barely propped up his torso.
His body trembled like aspen leaves.
Glancing around laboriously, he spotted the scattered Green Monsters and sighed.
His mind reeled. Wasn't I dead? If not, what was that river of light?
Lifting his shaking arm, his watch read 11 a.m.—about three hours passed out.
"......Hooo."
A long sigh of emptiness and deprivation. Too many tangled feelings to even twitch a finger.
But he wasn't dead. Couldn't just lie there dazed.
Hauling himself up with effort, Hwan-in leaned on a tree, painfully donned his clothes, and surveyed the area.
"......"
Limping and staggering, he gathered his spear, stone axe, shortsword, and Black Club.
He wanted them all, but in this state, extra weight meant collapsing before reaching the hideout.
Already sweating coldly and gasping after minimal movement, he stripped a intact Green Monster pelt.
Bigger and broader than expected—stitched together, it'd serve as a blanket.
Stacking weapons on the pelt, rolling it up, and tying with vines, Hwan-in pushed through brush to find his Emergency Ration.
Squawk.
"Still alive, huh."
No sounds earlier, he'd feared it crushed. But the Emergency Ration was fine, squawking triumphantly at his approach.
Gathering it too, Hwan-in used his spear as a crutch toward the hideout... but his eyes locked on the staff-wielding Green Monster's rod.
"......"
After a moment's thought, he grabbed it silently. Using spear and staff as trekking poles, he hobbled onward.
Hwan-in dwelled on the river of light. Focusing elsewhere might break him.
A mere hallucination? But the memories and sensations were too vivid—enough to dismiss this whole world as illusion if so.
Inexplicable. Fainting without warning and seeing that.
......Wait, was there a precursor?
His eyes narrowed on the staff in his right hand.
It started after touching it. And the Green Monster had swung it to unleash powers.
Did it double their speed too?
"Hah, hah, hah......"
Time mattered little; mechanically stepping, his condition worsened.
Cold sweat poured, weapons and pelt bundle crushing his shoulders.
Emergency Ration weighed his right arm to numbness.
Right thigh below gone insensate; creaks that started on one side now racked his whole body.
Head fever blurred vision to haze. Trees and brush tinted brick-red, pumpkin-orange.
Saffron, pale yellow, grape-purple, turquoise paints splattered through the forest.
Hwan-in realized his state was dire.
Hallucinating wide-eyed. Am I really dying now?
Stubborn to the end—do what he could—he staggered on, reaching the cracked earth hiding his shelter.
Descending the narrow crevice narrower than a ravine, bumping walls, he squeezed past the root curtain, slumped against the dirt wall, gasping.
"Hah, haaah. Haaah......"
Chills wracked him.
Dropping shoulder bundle and Emergency Ration, the bird squawked as the bundle hit it.
With numb fingers, he untied the vines, spread the pelt over his leaf bed, and collapsed onto it.
"Ugh, ugh......"
In delirium, he was glad for the pelt.
Stiff as half-tanned hide, but it'd block the chill his leaves couldn't.
Shivering, he dragged remaining pelts over, curling shrimp-like.
Hoping sleep brought recovery.