I Became the Wrong Race

3 – Crash (3)

My senses woke up as if cold water had been poured onto my head.

Whether it was due to drowsiness, fatigue, or the pain that had blurred my senses, I hadn’t noticed several things that now imprinted onto my brain in an instant.

I was a monster.

I was the kind of monster of a dark fantasy filled with beasts, life forms, and even humans.

I was the very monster that scoundrels with human faces would fear and meet only in nightmares.

As a member of that race, I was standing here.

As the wind blew, it fluttered my clothes. Even though it was a cold wind, I hadn’t felt it. This was the proof that I had already turned into a monster.

What had happened?

Why was this woman showing me animosity?

If I thought about it, the answer seemed rather simple.

My fallen body couldn’t have been intact. If the discovery was just a bit earlier, I would have caught the rare sight of a regenerating Homunculus.

In a dark fantasy world filled with anomalies, such a spectacle would have led to an easy conclusion.

To the woman, I was a monster in her eyes. There was no cause for doubt, nor was there any substance behind the firm monster.

I had no idea why she didn’t preemptively attack, why she didn’t strike while I was asleep, but I couldn’t think of it kindly.

If there was even the slightest chance of me dying, I couldn’t just let it slide by me.

I stood quietly, facing the wind.

As my long bangs slightly brushed my eyes.

I saw the weapon in the woman’s hand.

It was a stone sling. Upon closer observation, I could see another weapon at the back of her waist.

It was so long that it was pulledIt didn’t happen. It seemed to anticipate a pressing situation.

The sling itself wouldn’t be a big deal for me, but if well-aimed, it’s a different story. Even as a Homunculus, getting hit in the head would lead to loss of consciousness.

It was due to the fact that this race hadn’t lost its sense of pain or touch.

She probably drew the weapon with that in mind. Although she wasn’t spinning the sling just yet, the physical abilities of anthropomorphic beings generally exceed those of humans.

She could throw it the moment I attempt to rush in and attack or subdue her. So, I won’t hasten.

While the initiative seemed to be in the woman’s grasp, upon closer inspection, it appeared to be under my control.

“Your attitude from earlier seems to have changed, do you have a reason?”

No answer comes. Her tail is swaying from side to side, assessing, and her blue-grey eyes are scanning me.

I stand tall in her gaze. I couldn’t properly see into the sling. It was empty, or, it meant that it had a small projectile.

The sling bullets in the game come in three types: coal, lead, and iron.

What’s likely inside now is lead. It’s the smallest, but most potent, with excellent piercing and accuracy.

Although the sling’s base accuracy is low, based on the woman’s age and demeanor, she seemed to be skilled enough to hit accurately.

If she was seriously aiming for my head, could I block it?

Even with the reaction speed of a Homunculus, wouldn’t I have to sacrifice my arm?

If I sacrificed an arm, how long would it take to regenerate?

Unlike my novice self, the woman was unwavering as she stared at me.

It wasn’t just a matter of faith.

A form of certainty was felt. The kind of certainty that suggested she already knew who would win or lose this fight.

I pondered as I faced this certainty.

The thought crossed my mind that it might be better to rush in and attack first, but I dismissed it.

An existence that could have finished me off long ago has spared me, and there must be a good reason for that.

But I could not understand her reasoning. Although I tried to extract an answer out of her, all I was met with was her emotionless face and gently twitching tail.

Having never owned a cat, I could not decipher her non-verbal cues.

To begin with, do anthropomorphic beings express their feelings similarly to animals?

Even though they’re already certain, what do they expect from me being careful with my response?

Eventually, the tension built.

Suddenly, her tail stopped wagging.

“You’re late.”

Swoosh.

Then, I heard a noise behind me.

A sound following the woman’s statement even faster.

The noise of something rapidly cutting through the air. Reflexively turning, I shielded my head out of instinct.

Thud!

Something pierced my arm, bringing sharp pain.

Familiar heat and cold, and the hot sensation characteristic of flowing blood, beyond that, I saw an arrow protruding from my arm.

A long arrow. A low-quality arrow that can be purchased at a low price, optimized for mass production.

The arrowhead was sticking out like an awl, having pierced through my flesh.

It wasn’t from her.

Then I noticed the humans scattered around the forest.

Squatting, dressed in shabby clothes, wearing a leather coat made of pieces of human skin rashly sewn together, they were armed with hunting short bows, javelins and the like.

They were familiar faces. Those I never thought I’d spot in this frozen land.

Cannibals.

“He blocked it!”

Someone shouted in surprise. But I couldn’t view it as entirely a block. I had just been lucky.

And the luck wouldn’t last.

A chilly premonition stirred my brain. As I crouched down, something whistled past where my head had been a moment before.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been invisible, but not to my eyes. A lead bullet with a drawing of a blazing mountain. A precise shot from her sling.

Screams echoed out!

The screaming cannibal’s skull had been crushed, and he fell backwards. I grasped the situation faster than the sounds of his fall.

The shot fired from her sling wasn’t aimed at me. But without a hint of relief, another arrow whizzed past my side and embedded into the ground.

It wasn’t a single shot. Guided by my intuition, I looked in the direction of the incoming arrows.

Among the sparse coniferous trees, a cannibal revealed itself.The tribes looked at me in horror, but with steady hands, they had their bows drawn and aimed.

They are experienced hunters of humans. As far as I know, that’s what they are.

The most common enemy in Grimm Darker. Twisted humans who follow the path of bandits and monsters.

Cannibals. Poor bastards who try to survive by hunting the most prey in a world where food is hard to find.

In the game, they were annoying yet pitiful. But at that moment, only one emotion boiled within me.

It was unjust.

My arm was burning, itching. Even though I’d grown used to the pain over the year, my resentment sprang forth.

Why me, of all people?

What on earth did I do to have to face these cannibalistic bastards here?

What sin must I commit to end up in such a place?

If this is punishment, then my crime is being a poor kid who played the game well.

Living a sh*tty life, trying to understand my sister by playing hard and setting records.

That was my crime. The jurors, staring at me with bloodshot eyes, seemed to think so.

My sister probably committed a similar crime. Raising her only brother to the best of her ability and occasionally playing games to relax – probably deemed a sin.

The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

I gritted my teeth, grunting.

My sister, slaughtered at the end of torture in this strange land, felt pitiful.

The fact that I had to know that all homo sapiens were slaughtered without even a remaining corpse, made my teeth chatter.

The vampire bastards who still came to mind despite all this.

Anger is meant to evaporate. I consciously held onto my subsiding anger.

That was my mourning.

[Mourning]

[The character becomes temporarily immune to abnormal statuses and increases constitution in hit rolls, damage rolls and defense rolls.]

[Remaining duration: 60 seconds]

I opened my eyes wide and faced the numerous shafts aimed at me.

The first shot aimed at my head is pure luck. There’s nothing to fear as long as that is handled. I kicked the ground as I leaned forward.

The snow billowed up and my body shot forward as if being pulled.

“Huh…?”

The distance was shrinking. I accelerated uncontrollablyuntil they were in my face.

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Frozen cannibals pointing their bows at me, a middle-aged man wearing human skin as a cape, staring at me with cloudy eyes.

My momentum pierced through his worthless body.

He doubled up, mouth spewing blood. Instead of being disgusted by my bloodied clothes, my rage led me.

I caught sight of a man pulling a mando from his waistband. He had a good physique. However, not as much as me.

Crack!

The sound of collapsing jawbones and breaking necks. The human whose head was hit by the back of my hand fell dead.

What should have been filled with shock and guilt was consumed by surging anger.

A low growl slipped out. The cannibals were taking the spot my eyes had grazed over.

Number-wise, they held the advantage. But those human-eating pigs became scared.

Like a human in front of a beast, they couldn’t move properly.

Fear slowed their legs, hesitation acted as a brake on their thoughts.

In the collision of reason and fear, my monster-like body moved freely.

“Run—”

So, I killed them all.

My thrown fist broke their chests. The person launched by my sweep fell to the ground, rolled over after hitting a tree.

When I crushed the fallen human’s head with my foot, a spear pierced my back. I pulled the spear out and swung it, their neck folded backward.

A mando stuck in my side, but I didn’t care and bashed the head with my fist violently till it burst open.

“Uh… Aargh!”

I grabbed the fleeing one’s nape, threw him into the air. He crashed into the ground, arms and legs flailing. With a comical scream, he died.

“The talk, the talk is different! The talk!”

I lifted the one who was screaming as if they were having a panic attack and strangled them. The screams ceased.

As I dwindled the remaining cannibals, it became winteThe layered forest had grown quiet, and in the end, an eerie silence rested all throughout.

On the blood-streaked snow, I haggled for breath.

Now, with a tingling sensation of new life sprouting in me, I looked down at the last standing person.

“Mo, Monster.”

Indeed, it was just as he said. I stood silently in the havoc I had wreaked.

A spear pierced through my back and a knife stuck to my side, my arm bristling with arrows like a porcupine.

But, I was still alive. An undeniable testimony to my being a monster.

I guess, in a monstrous manner, I ought to wrap this up. As I felt the tiredness being swept up to me and took a step forward.

Crack!

Without warning, the head of the last cannibal, leaned against the tree, burst open.

A perfectly egg-shaped bullet rolled about, as if it would fit just right into the palm of my hand.

Then I reminded myself that I had a companion.

An unknown woman. A snow leopard who had ample opportunity to knock me down, kept her gaze steady.

As I turned my head, she was looking at me with the same expression she held when she first asked me about my identity.

An expression that seemed to be waiting for something. It took me quite some time to realize that I owed her an answer.

“Do I really have to say it out loud?”

“Asked you about my identity”, I pointed my eyebrows at her and waited for her to respond.

“Just as this lad said.”

She would see the last of the broken cannibals aimlessly towards the direction in which I nodded.

A snow leopard staring at me with blue-gray pupils wants an answer. I responded with a sigh.

“Monster.”

Even while my arrow-pierced arm was regenerating and the wind blowing the smell of blood, a knife that was stuck in my side fell to the ground.

The snow leopard blinked her eyes for a while, and eventually nodded her head quietly.

“That’s good.”

Upon seeing her smile slightly, I let out a bittersweet laugh.

Good, my ass.

Feeling the comforting breeze, I relaxed my tensed fists.