《The Game We Live In!》


 New World?

    Blood rushed through my veins as I run with all my might.


    Adrenaline was the last energy source I had left after hours without food, constant running and endless fighting for survival.


    Conflicting memories swelled inside me. I tried to ignore the pain in my head and body. I wasn''t sure what happened but my experience as an addicted fiction novel reader allowed me to guess one thing ¡ª transmigration.


    That was my only guess.


    Transmigration was a common phrase used in the many novels I used to read that meant the soul moving from one body to another.


    From the memories that were invading my head, I conjectured that I transmigrated into another world. The main reason for my conjecture was the fact that this new world only had one continent.


    Screams of pain and loud beast growls behind me, brought my thoughts back to reality as my already overworked body pushed into sprinting even faster.


    I was sure that I had never run this fast before. I still didn''t understand what was going on.


    I hadn''t even had time to rest before I had to run because beasts had attacked.


    I finally breathed a sigh of relief as I reached a large forest. The foreign but familiar memories had led me to this forest. Before the beasts had attacked we had planned to leave the town and hide in the forest before leaving towards the city.


    Our cars were too loud and would be destroyed. The only way to survive was to leave the town quietly. That''s exactly what I did as I cautiously run into the large forest.


    Alerting the beasts of my location would be the death of me so I ran slower and more cautiously but just as I slowed down, pain ¡ª immense pain, forced me to a complete stop.


    Without the adrenaline running through me, the pain had completely surfaced. I had to rest. My eyes blurred from the pain. I forcefully willed my body to climb a weirdly large tree that I had found after minutes of searching.


    With one last push, I had reached a large branch that was thick enough to allow three men on. My legs failed to keep me up any longer and my body fell.


    Thankfully, I wasn''t free falling and could feel the painful wood of the tree''s large branch right under me.


    ''I never thought sleeping on a tree would feel this great.''


    My vision blurred one last time before my consciousness and the sound of the multiple footsteps following behind me faded into darkness.


    ***


    I was half-awake before the sun had risen. Considering the fact that I fell unconscious during the day yesterday, then I had slept for a pretty long time.


    My consciousness hadn''t fully awoken as I tried to digest the many, many things that had happened during the last few hours.


    My death, my transmigration. A lot of it didn''t make sense for now and the one thing I desired was answers. I sighed as I thought about my current circumstances.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    It was hard to think about or explain, the fact that somehow I felt like I had lived two lives. The memories that had made my head sore were felt like they were my own.


    I was sure that I had experienced both lives. It was a hard to explain concept and I didn''t feel like I got to this body yesterday. It felt like I had lived in this town as Blake, an orphan since birth.


    Maybe I somehow got memories of my past life or maybe I transmigrated, who knows?


    There was no doubt of either of my lives being a dream or illusion because if that was the case then my life itself would be an illusion. At that point, I would doubt life itself.


    A sigh involuntarily escaped my mouth as the vivid sound of the screams, of those at the orphanage who I had left to die out of the selfish desire to live, rang in my head.


    Being an orphan wasn''t so bad in our small town. We were taken care of pretty well and my only issue was the occasional bullies at school.


    Still, this was nothing big as I had many ''siblings'' who looked out for me and I did the same.


    Who would''ve thought that the world as I knew it would crumble.


    My body shuddered as I thought of the unimaginably powerful vicious beasts that had fallen from the sky, literally. Meteorites had fallen from the sky one day with no warning. The government had not even predicted that something like this would happen and I remember us watching the news and seeing how the scenes of meteorites and beasts were shown everywhere around the world.


    The earth from my past life wasn''t so much different to this one except for one vital fact. The continents, while the earth I previously lived in had multiple continents this one only had one. Many different races still existed but they were more united with all countries being less strict about their border rules and migration being more simple.


    After that chaos ensued. Thousands of people in our town died from just the meteorites. The beasts that came out of the meteorites made the astonishing nightmare even worse.


    Contact with the outside world was immediately eliminated. Everyone''s first thought was to run away to the city or somewhere safer. But I still remember the miserable expressions of everyone when we hit the barrier at the end of the road leading to our small town.


    A large number of beasts found our location because of the noise our relocation made. Many people died from just trying to find a way out.


    This led to us running back to the town where we were basically wiped out.


    I watched everyone I knew die right in front of me. The few lucky survivors I was part of stayed in a large house which we made our temporary base as we waited for help any kind of help.


    We knew our deaths were inevitable if we stayed there and just waited so we decided to fight when the beasts had finally found our location.


    My selfishness and fear of death caused me to run away at the sight of the vicious beasts leaving my ''siblings'' and friends to die.


    This is when my previous life memories or my transmigration had taken place. A hopeless life with the only possible outcome being my death.


    I wondered if things would have been different if I had awoken my memories earlier. The experience from my past life could have made things much better.


    ''My death was already horrible enough. I never thou¡ª''


    A loud yet somehow weak growl woke me up from my rampaging thoughts.


    My body, out of instinct, reacted with a jump. This caused me to fall off the branch I had been sleeping on. I could feel my body in freefall and before long I had hit the ground hard.


    I didn''t even have time to tolerate the pain on my back and buttocks from the impact of the fall as I heard the beasts growl grow nearer.


    I jumped once more out of instinct as a claw swept past my previous position.


    My eyes adjusted to the morning light as they opened gradually.


    My eyes widened, my heart raced and I felt weak when looking straight into the eyes of the famous predator.


    The lion. I was hopeful because this lion looked different. Its red fur stood out but what gave me hope wasn''t its appearance.


    It was its pitiful state. It was apparent that this beast had been fighting recently since it was half-dead. Not only that, the lion was young. I wouldn''t call it a cub but I was sure that it wasn''t fully grown.


    ''I guess this will be a fight between teenagers.'' I couldn''t help but chuckle at my bad joke as our eyes locked on each other. I knew we both thought the same thing.


    One of us needs to die for the other to live!

 A past filled with anguish

    If I didn''t have my past life experience, my first thought would be to flee.


    But it was different now killing a weakened beast would be simple. And to be truthful, I really had no choice. Behind me was another tree and by my side was the large tree I fell from.


    By my other side was a bush that I could possible run to but right behind this bush was another tree. In conclusion, I was cornered. I could either fight to the death or let this beast kill me.


    Suddenly, the red lion pounced on me and I tried to the fullest of my abilities to dodge but I was weak. The lack of food and sleep was not the only reason but it was also because, unlike my previous life body, this one was an average person''s body.


    I was used to a more experienced and well-defined body. You could say I was previously a super machine and now my body''s state was below an average person''s. It was a huge change that would take time to get used to.


    Still, I was narrowly able to avoid the claw that went past my face. The precision of the beast surprised me. If I was a second slower I would be dead the beast had perfectly aimed for my vital spot.


    The lion didn''t expect to miss and fell to my side. Its injured state was the main reason behind its fall.


    Taking advantage of this chance, I retaliated by using my elbow and aiming for one of its hind legs.


    I chose to aim for its joint this is because I had noticed how injured that part of its leg was.


    Unfortunately, the beast was slightly faster than me and kicked with its hind legs.


    I crossed my arms and blocked. The claws on the lion''s legs cut through my skin and pushed me back a few meters before I crashed on the floor.


    I could feel the pain as blood flowed from the wounds. The beast did not even give me a chance to rest as it once again leapt towards me with its mouth wide open.


    The torn skin of my arms flapped in the air as I moved my arms and jumped out of the way as the beast''s jaws almost clenched down on me.


    A painfully hot sensation overtook my hands. The claw cuts were pretty deep and the blood gushing out was considerable making me weaker with every passing second.


    ''Even if I win I''m probably going to die.'' The pain alone made my consciousness flatter. I had to stop the blood loss but I wasn''t given a chance.


    A quick backflip allowed me to increase the distance with the beast and at the same time, it allowed me to dodge a claw strike that hit my previous position. I instantly regretted doing that since it only caused my arm''s injuries to worsen.


    Luckily, I noticed that the beast had overexerted itself. It couldn''t stand straight and limped towards me while growling in anger.


    I looked around anxiously and saw a sharp stone as large as my foot on the floor beside me.


    Before I could react the beast had already lunged again with its jaw wide open. Thankfully, the beast was slower than before so I was easily able to roll to the side of the stone.


    I picked up the stone, held it like a knife and took a fighting stance. The beast looked quite awful now. One of its legs was definitely very injured but it still had that bloodthirsty look in its eyes and I knew it wouldn''t give up.


    This time I took the initiative to attack and aimed for another spot that was injured. Its stomach.


    The beast tried to move or retaliate but I ducked under its front leg. My body rolled sideways under it and I plunged the stone into its gut.


    The momentum allowed me to roll away and I quickly stood by the beast''s side. It tried to claw me but I easily dodged again.


    Tears of pain flowed from my face since I had stimulated the injuries on my arms.


    The stone caused the already open wound of the red lion to burst and blood gushed out. I could see its pained expression and how weakened it had become.


    It lunged at me again, this time dodging was even easier and I sidestepped. The lion''s nose was smashed in by my knee.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Instead of the lion being knocked away like I expected, it caught my knee in its large jaw.


    "Arghh!!" A scream escaped my mouth as I tried to shake the lion off.


    I noticed that it would not let go so I used my fingers like claws and dug into the beast''s eyes before it could react.


    A loud muffled shriek sounded and the lion''s clenched teeth loosened. Before the beast could clench down on my leg again, my other leg kicked it on the exact spot where the large stone was still stuck in.


    The force from the kick was so much that the bones in my toes immediately broke. The shoe I was wearing was instantly torn to pieces and blood filled the half-intact sock under it.


    The lion fell to my side lifelessly but I could tell that it was still alive.


    I went approached the beast''s body and removed the rock that was sticking out from its stomach. The forceful removal of the object caused even more blood loss.


    My vision blurred but I didn''t stop. Positioning the stone with both hands, I struck the lion''s neck with all my power. I repeated this till bone-cracking sounds echoed around the area we were at.


    The last time was after I felt that it had taken its last breath and my body had no more energy.


    A sigh of relief left my mouth as the pain around my body soured. I realised that I had underestimated the beasts of this place as I looked down at my bloodied body.


    I could feel my consciousness fluctuating. The sounds of multiple loud footsteps approaching caught my attention. It was impossible for me to fight anymore after this.


    My heart raced. My sense of smell was overwhelmed by the corpse and blood smell all around me.


    ''What a crazy morning.'' My thoughts were incoherent and I was sure that I was dying right now. I felt no fear, the only thing that pained me was that I die alone in both lives.


    ''What a short and useless life. Maybe I''ll reincarnate again, who knows?''


    Suddenly, the blood and sound of everything around me disappeared as my 5 senses could only sense one thing. I felt like I had fallen into a trance-like state.


    Inside the corpse of the lion''s body. The exact part I had broken open ¡ª its neck. There was a glowing small red ball inside the neck open bone.


    The thing that caught my attention was the glow of the ball and its enticing smell.


    ''I don''t think I''ve ever smelt anything as nice as this in my life. Maybe God brought me good food before my death.''


    If I was in the right state of mind then I''m sure I wouldn''t have eaten a glowing orb from a corpse but well there are no ifs in life.


    All I can say is that it tasted great.


    A bright light that seemed familiar flashed and a set of golden words on a beautiful screen appeared in front of me.


    [Congratulations! You have survived 72 hours and killed a minimum of one beast.


    You have passed the first level of the universal dungeon quest and gained:


    +2 common coins.]


    [The second level has now begun: PREY BECOMES PREDATOR!


    Kill all the beasts in the universal dungeon (The area of your town)


    Time limit: 7 days


    Failure penalty: death ]


    ''Bastard!''


    After that my consciousness immediately dissipated.


    ***


    I''m dead.


    That was my first thought when looking at the dark space? Room? I was in.


    There was no light at all. All I could see around me was nothing.


    Overflowing anger came over me as I thought of the illusionary screen and words I had seen before dying.


    The first time I remember seeing that message was before I knew about my past life.


    The message had suddenly appeared in front of everyone just before the meteor shower of beasts had occurred. We were shocked to see a game like a screen with the words:


    [Global Quest: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!


    Survive in the region or dungeon you are placed in for 7 days or kill at least 1 beast and survive 3 days.


    Failure penalty: death]


    After that, well chaos ensued and I transmigrated.


    ''What a horrible start. I would rather be a bullied fallen genius in a weakening sect. Maybe a crippled young master wouldn''t be bad either?''


    Sigh.


    Wille I was ranting a sudden red glow lit up in the distance and caught my attention. Slowly and cautiously I walked towards it.


    When I was near it I was startled too. My mind had cleared up now and I was sure that I had seen the same glowing red ball from the lion''s corpse.


    I vigilantly touched the orb and before I could react a flood of memories entered my head. A bit of it was weird ¡ª small fractions of broken memories.


    I could see multiple lions around me discussing in a language I couldn''t understand.


    The next scene was of me fighting with multiple human figures and slaughtering them. I wasn''t even able to feel pity as the following scene was already shown to me.


    Multiple humanoid figures with grey skin were chasing after me. I almost died just from trying to escape.


    After this everything went blank. Another set of complete memories invaded my mind involuntarily.


    These memories were about the red glowing ball. According to the knowledge, these red balls were called ''essence''. Absorbing essence could make me stronger.


    And not only that, essence could allow me to get memories and sometimes even abilities of any beast that I killed. The reason I got this was because I had somehow awakened a powerful ability called essence absorption.


    A cheat ability!!


    That was the first thought I had in my head. I had finally gotten my own unique cheat ability. Every decent protagonist needed one.


    I especially wanted one.  After transmigrating into such a horrible world I really needed one.


    My previous life was horrible. I don''t pity myself but being a weapon used for other people, people with money and power, was an unpleasant thing, to say the least. There was no hope of escape.


    What I sought most was power. Power meant freedom no matter what world you were in. No one else could give you true freedom except yourself. That''s something I could carve into my bones, those were my beliefs after my experiences.


    All that didn''t matter because now... now I had hope!


    The dark space, which I had come to know as my mind space was filled with my maniacal laughter. Tears fell down my face as my heart raced.


    I could finally gain freedom.