After a few minutes of pain, the intense pressure gradually eased up, leaving behind a dull, persistent ache. "Okay…"
"Breathe, Victor, breathe," the young man, Victor, murmured, slowly opening his eyes, and felt something rough on his fingers, which he glanced in the direction of his fingers and noticed the edges wrinkled and stained with a faint brownish-red.
"You've got to be kidding me," he groaned, discovering that a thick white bandage swathed his head after carefully feeling the surface even more and decided not think about it as he cautiously lowered his hands, his bandaged right arm now feeling heavy and alien and took a deep breath and exhaled a few times, trying to regain some semblance of peace when his mind has calmed down from the pain. "Honestly…"
"That hurts like a bitch." He sighed, attempting to sit up again by carefully supporting himself on his elbows despite the lingering discomfort from the dull abdominal ache and sharp head pain. "I just don't understand…"
"What the hell is g-huh?" he muttered, really annoyed by the confusing situation, before his expression frowned when he finally realised something was off. "Wait a goddamn minute!!"
It was…his voice.
"What the hell?" Victor blurted out, discovering that his voice sounded different and unfamiliar from what he remembered, as it appeared smoother and youthful, which caused Victor to frown more deeply, with a shiver running down his spine.
"Is this… is this really my voice?" Victor whispered, feeling dumbfounded with his voice cracking slightly. He tried it again, louder this time. "Heeeellllllooooo?"
"You got to be fucking kidding me," He groaned finally understood that he wasn't imagining, but his voice did sound younger and smoother—like a teenager, not the gruff, weathered voice of a man who had smoked his way through three packs a day for the last three decades.
"No, no, no," he muttered, running a hand through his hair, wincing as a jolt of pain shot through his head. "This is… this can't be right."
"I… I sound like a fucking kid," Victor hissed at the bedsheet, his voice cracking with a hysteria he couldn't control. He immediately tried to get off the bed without thinking, ignoring the dizziness that threatened to topple him.
!!!!
The movement sent another jolt of pain through his bandaged stomach, forcing him to gasp and sit back down. "Okay...okay…"
"I need to calm the fuck down like I usually do," Victor murmured, trying to quell himself and his uncontrollable hysteria. After a while, he tried again, whispering this time, but the unsettling youthfulness remained. "Maybe this situation is temporary."
"Or there must be some rational explanation," Victor rasped, forcing the words out of his mouth while trying to remain optimistic in this situation with his eyes squeezed shut, and covering his face with his left hand. "Don't be fucking stupid, Victor."
"There will be no real comfort in thinking like that," Victor croaked, slightly shaking his head and his voice trembling. A sob soon escaped his lips, a pathetic mewling sound that mirrored the terror gripping him.
Was this some bizarre punishment? A cruel joke?
With a sob that turned into a choked cough, he scrambled to sit up again, ignoring the stab of pain in his stomach. "Fuck, fuck, fuck…"
After a while, Victor's sobs began to subside, replaced by a trembling silence. His eyes, still squeezed shut, were filled with a mixture of fear and confusion. A new wave of nausea washed over him as he tried to steady his ragged breathing.
Suddenly, a sharp breath escaped his lips as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. A dark rectangle, a television, sat across the room. With trembling hands and his heart pounding in his chest, he turned his head towards it.
A cold dread settled over him as he caught his reflection on the black screen. A younger face stared back at him, an unfamiliar face yet undeniably his own. The lines around his eyes were gone, replaced by smooth, youthful skin.
"What the hell? First, it was these injuries, then my voice became way younger like a brat and now this?" he whispered, becoming hoarse each minute. "What the fuck is going on???"
A chill ran down his spine as he tried to comprehend the impossible, and a couple of wild theories began to form in his mind. Could this be some sort of strange dream, a fever-induced hallucination? But the sharp pain in his side and the sterile hospital room argued against that.
"Th-thi-thiis can't be real," he muttered, scanning the room frantically, searching for any clue, any explanation as his voice rose in panic. His eyes landed on the remote control, and he immediately reached for it with his fingers trembling. He turned on the TV, hoping to find some news, some explanation for this bizarre situation.
As Victor fumbled with the remote, he channel-surfed frantically, his eyes darting across the screen. None of the news channels, reality shows, or soap operas made sense to him. The world seemed different, somehow. The faces, the voices, the language—it was all off. He couldn't quite place the difference, but something was undeniably wrong.
After searching for information for a while, he stared blankly at the screen, the remote forgotten in his hand. A wave of nausea washed over him again, and he pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt dizzy and disoriented.
"This can't be happening," he muttered, his voice barely audible. "This isn't real."
He discovered a unique phenomenon that existed in this world known as "Gates."
These mysterious portals called gates suddenly appeared across the globe, serving as gateways to otherworldly dimensions filled with monstrous creatures. These creatures, diverse in shape and size, possessed extraordinary abilities and posed a significant threat to humanity.
The gates' unpredictable appearance made them a constant danger. They could open anywhere, from bustling city centres to remote wilderness areas, unleashing chaos and destruction. As the monstrous creatures poured forth, they attacked and consumed everything in their path.
"It's like something out of a cheap sci-fi novel," he muttered, feeling fear and disbelief at the gruesome thought. "A world where monsters are real. And somehow I found myself stuck in it."
"Could this be reincarnation?" Victor wondered, recalling a few genres from different novels he had read for fun. The idea had always seemed like a creative plot device, not a real possibility. "If it really is…"
"Whose life am I living? Was I a good person? Do I have a family waiting for me somewhere?"
These were among the questions that swirled in his mind, causing him uneasiness. But he immediately shook his head, deciding to push the thoughts aside as he understood it would change anything and sighed, "Let's not think about it for now."
"But still, it is crazy to think that beyond that normal, beautiful sky, danger can happen anywhere, everywhere," Victor remarked, glancing out the window at the blue sky, his voice filled with a mix of disbelief and resignation. "That is the reality of this world."
While his mind felt a bit lighter, Victor picked up the remote that had fallen from his hand and immediately flipped through the channels, hoping to find something to distract him despite his trembling fingers.
"Honestly, how could I have ended up in a world like this? Honestly, what shitty luck that I have." Victor absentmindedly muttered, skipping past several channels ranging from a reality show, several sports games, to several news broadcasts, with none of those shows seeming to grab his attention or even spark his curiosity. After a while, he sighed heavily, looking at the commercial on the TV. "So…."
"What now? What should I do now?" Victor blurted, feeling a bit lost as he put the TV remote down to his side, but he immediately shook his head, dispelling the feeling that clouded his thoughts and pondered what he should do next. "Obviously, finding out more about the person this body belongs to would be a good start, but what's next?"
"Hmm…" He groaned, resting his back on the pillow, when no idea came into his mind, and silently stared at the ceiling before absentmindedly turning his sight toward his frail left arm, and a thought soon occurred to him. "That's right…"
"That would work too as a goal," Victor murmured, clenched his good hand into a fist, a small but firm gesture of resolve. "Improving this frail until it somehow becomes adaptable in this dangerous situation, and that I don't become the damsel in distress."
He couldn't help but smirk at the thought of achieving the perfect healthy body, healthy mind concept that he had always wished for, due to experiencing the poor choices he had made in his early days of his old life. "Anyhow…"
"All of this is going to be so much fun," Victor murmured, feeling a surge of thrill and excitement that somehow bubbled up within after his mind had become much clearer with feasible goals to achieve, alongside the certain appeal of becoming one of those "hunters" he had read in his books and manhwa. "But yeah…"
"I gotta take it easy. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will my awesome new life be."
As he was about to rein in his emotions, he remarked that a translucent, shimmering screen, like something ripped from a sci-fi comic book, suddenly materialised right in front of his face out of nowhere, leaving him bewildered by the unexpected sight. It was a vibrant, almost electric blue, the edges hazy and undefined.
『Initialising Zeroth System』
"What the...?" Victor rasped, feeling taken aback. He immediately got up to have a better look, and out of curiosity and confusion, he instinctively reached up to swat at the apparition. His fingers passed harmlessly through the screen, with the cool, shimmering surface seeming to distort his own reflection back at him.
The screen itself then flickered, the blue light pulsing erratically. Text began to appear, pixelated and distorted, scrolling rapidly down the translucent pane.
『Re-establishing connection between the user and the system』
『Identifying the User's database for confirmation』
Then, a jarring halt. The scrolling text froze, and the screen's colour changed from electric blue to bright red.
『ERROR』
『ERROR』
『Warning: Critical Error Detected』
『Foreign Entity was detected within the user's database』
"Huh?" Victor blurted out, his eyes widening at the unexpected turn of events. Before he could fully comprehend the controls, the already ominous reddish screen soon took another sudden turn.
『Commencing analysis for further asses-@#&$%@%&#』
『ERROR』
『ERROR』
『Warning: System No.00120104 Integrity Compromised』
『Commencing Emergency Repair Sequence』
『ERROR』
『ERROR』
『Emergency Repair Sequence Failing』
Victor's jaw dropped. What was this? Foreign entity? Emergency repair? What in the world was going on?
He blinked rapidly, squeezing his eyes shut and then reopening them. The screen was still there, pulsating a sickly red, the text flickering ominously before another unexpected situation took a turn.
『Warning: Unidentified Interference Detected』
『Initiating Emergency Protocol』
『Commencing Elimination Prot-@$#%&^%^$%#$』
『ERROR』
『ERROR』
『Emergency Protocol…Unsuccessful』
『Elimination Protocol…Unsuccessful』
『Initiating Contact with System Administration for Assistance』
『...』
『Connection Failed』
『Initiating Contact with System Administration for Assistance』
『...』
『Connection Failed』
『Initiating Contact with System Administration for Assistance』
『...』
『Connection Failed』
『...』
『Commencing Temporary System Reboot Protocol』
『Warning: Reboot May Cause Unforeseen Consequences 』
"Wait, what!? Temporary reboot protoc-?" Victor uttered as his confusion intensified, only to be cut off abruptly as the room blurred from focus in his eyes. "Fuckkkk…."
To Be Continued