Chapter 2: Solrick Terrestrial

  I opened my eyes to find myself inside a room filled with garbage.

  Rotting food, broken furniture, damp walls—the kind of place where air itself felt stale and stagnant.

  Strangely, I knew exactly where I was.

  “Look, look, a squirrel!”

  The voice was bright and fragile.

  From where the boy is pointing is a squirrel darting around the trunk of a tree, clinging to the bark as it scrambles upward, just out of reach of the dog below.

  The dog barked furiously, circling the base of the tree and leaping up in vain, its teeth snapping in the empty air.

  Inside a cramped apartment, a small boy stood by the window of his room, peering outside with innocent fascination. The world beyond the glass was new to him, full of movement and light.

  “Do you see that squirrel?"

  The boy eagerly asked while turning his head to look at the woman.

  The woman behind him did not share that wonder, though.

  She sat behind him, cradling a baby in her arms. Her eyes were hollow and unfocused, as though whatever spark once lived in them had long since burned out.

  “Mom, look.”

  There was excitement in his voice—but beneath it, I know, is something else. It’s a plea.

  “You little—"

  I closed my eyes so that I wouldn’t see it any further but then I heard a screech.

  “What in the—"

  In front of me is still a child looking outside of his windows, but it isn't from the room that he knows, and this isn’t the boy from a moment ago.

  The boy has a sliver of hair and golden eyes; he smiles happily as he, too, is watching a squirrel.

  But not the way they are playing.

  He is watching the squirrel being mauled by the fox.

  Blood splattered everywhere as the fox swung the squirrel's body left and right like it was in a frenzy.

  While the squirrel, despite the amount of blood on the ground enough to dye it red, is still screeching and then begins to scream.

  A scream of a human being.

  And it was like his own.

  "Ah."

  I began to breathe heavily and stepped back from the gruesome scene but then he caught something in the corner of his eye.

  A skinny man with long silver hair and golden eyes is standing next to me, panicking just like me.

  But when I turned—

  There was nothing there except a mirror.

  The man was me.

  "Arghhh."

  I jolted upright, pain exploding through my skull as though something inside it had cracked open.

  “D-Did I f-faint again?"

  Memories, not my own, have crashed down on my brain like a broken dam, leaving me unable to distinguish which memory is mine.

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  My back is drenched in sweat, and I am barely able to speak right now.

  But somehow, I managed to whisper.

  “I want to die.”

  It’s official, I have fallen into hell and it’s worse than I thought.

  This is a world beyond mine, a world where logic makes no sense at all.

  Gods, dragons, monsters, magic, and beings that far surpassed human limits all existed in this world.

  There were mages capable of reducing entire cities to ash with a single spell, knights who could cleave mountains apart with one swing of a blade, and priests who could restore a severed head as easily as reattaching a fallen crown.

  This was not hell, as I had first assumed. It was something far more absurd—a fantasy world, and I had somehow been reincarnated into it.

  This is the Iseki scenario that I had hoped for at my death, but it doesn’t turn out the way I thought it would.

  Unfortunately, I had not arrived as a hero blessed with divine protection or a noble heir gifted with overwhelming talent.

  Instead, I found myself trapped in the body of a twisted cultist that was wanted by the empire of this land.

  And it's not like I’m hunted for my power or my threat to society either, it was due to my heinous crimes and the hateful blessing that got me hunted.

  A man with an ordinary physique and abilities that were barely usable in a land where power determined survival. Worse still, I not only knew exactly whose body I now inhabited but also all the bastard's memories.

  None of which are not only helpful but also make me sick.

  Solrick Terrestrial, the leader of a cult that he created called the Truth Seekers.

  He was an infamous cult leader known for cruelty disguised as research and sadism justified as the pursuit of “human potential.”

  The crimes he committed were so shockingly brutal that the empire summoned an entire squad of elites just to hunt him down.

  Watching those horrors Solrick inflicted was enough for me to want to gouge my eyes out even if I’m not seeing it directly.

  What makes Solrick so bizarre and frightening is his nature.

  There was no tragic past that twisted him into what he became and it’s actually the opposite.

  He had been born into a noble family, raised with resources and guidance, surrounded by people who supported him.

  In return, he slaughtered them all.

  The pool of blood I had awakened in had not belonged to strangers—it had been his family, his servants, his benefactors—all sacrificed in a ritual meant to transcend mortal limits and reach the god he worshiped, the same being I had just encountered.

  I looked down at my hands and felt a quiet nausea settle in my stomach. They were steady, unscarred, perfectly functional—and yet they are the same hands that have killed and tortured so much to the point it created a pool of blood that almost reached his knee.

  The blood was gone now for some reason, though the memory of it lingered stubbornly in my mind.

  “Curse this…Damn, even the voice."

  Solrick’s voice was unexpectedly high-pitched, and hearing it come from his own mouth only made him angrier and at the same time, deeply unsettled.

  Lying back against the wooden floor, I stared at the ceiling and let reality sink in. I had already died twice.

  The first time had been slow and suffocating beneath twisted metal and rain.

  The second had been swift, a cold blade ending things before I could even process what was happening.

  Both of those experiences were so dreadful that I would throw away everything just to not face it ever again.

  But seeing the situation I’m in, the option to end it all seems more enticing than ever, even when those two deaths are haunting at the back of my mind.

  I raised Solrick’s hand close to my face and stared at it.

  The hand that has caused so much suffering should have its last victim be none other than the one who wielded it.

  I contemplated such thoughts for a while before putting my hand down on the floor.

  I don’t want to die again.

  It’s just like when I was back on my old world, I hoped for the sweetness of death and yet I still clung to this pitiful life of mine.

  If this world were hell, then I would endure it just like before.

  I wanted to live my life to its bitter end.

  “I guess I have always been stubborn, seeking something out of reach.”

  I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, inhaled deeply, and began to gather my thoughts—

  [User have been revived from death.]

  “Eek!”

  The sound escaped me before I could stop it. I nearly stumbled backward and my heart raced from the screen suddenly popping out.

  After all, I have been surprised like this multiple times and most of it resulted in death.

  Then another line appeared beneath it.

  [Mental strength has been increasing by 5 points.]

  “…”

  Right, this is the only perk of being a follower of that god.

  The ability to possess a status screen that could let me see the change of my state from improvement or negative status placed on me or the attack of the enemy.

  “Increasing 5 points, huh?"

  5 points is quite a lot for someone like me, though sadly it was mental strength.

  Right, it’s been so long since Solrick opened his status window so let’s check how much he has changed since he began committing himself to this ritual.

  With a single thought, the yellow screen appears once again before it expands.

  ||Status Window ||

  Solrick Terrestrial

  Age: 27

  Race: Human

  Blessing: God Of Truth

  Rank: 2

  HP: 100%

  Status: Normal (cursed)

  Overall stats: (78)

  Strength: 10; Defense: 10; Stamina: 10; Speed: 10; MP: 10; Mental Strength: 28

  Abilities:

  [Eye Of Truth]; [Thought Manipulation]; [Flesh Sacrifice]; [Death Opposer]

  *****

  He had already expected the rise in mental strength but there’s something else that caught his eye.

  “Oh, what is this?”

  Since when did Solrick have an ability called [Death Opposer]?