Chapter 3
Creeeak--!
"Ugh? What was that!"
The ring began shrinking on its own.
The moment it touched my middle finger, it changed.
At first, its diameter had clearly been much larger, but before I knew it, it had shrunk to fit my middle finger perfectly.
...
Fortunately, it stopped shrinking there. I hurriedly started to pull the ring off, but then paused.
'...What the hell is this? It definitely doesn't seem to be from Earth. Could it be an item?'
If it was an item, how much would it be worth?
"...If I'm going to sell it, I need to get it off first, right? Ngh... uuuugh...!!"
Huff!
This is driving me crazy. It won't come off at all.
If I pulled any harder, I might strip the skin off my finger.
I gave up on forcing it off for the moment and searched the house for some oil.
But the ring wouldn't come off even after I tried cooking oil, soap, and even smeared both all over it.
I still had plenty of work left to do, so I couldn't keep messing around like this.
'It's not like anything's going to happen to my finger, right?'
I decided to deal with the most urgent matter in front of me first.
I went back outside and began growing the peach trees. But perhaps because I'd exhausted myself so thoroughly, I failed to meet my quota that day and ended up going to sleep early.
And the next morning.
...No, noon.
"Ngh... ugh. Wh-what the hell!"
'Two thirty?'
How had this happened?
I had definitely gone to sleep around ten last night, so had I really slept for more than fourteen hours?
I stared at the clock in shock. I could count on one hand the number of times I'd ever slept for more than ten hours, so how had I been passed out for fourteen?
Of course, there were days like that, what with circadian rhythms and all...
But there was another, more reasonable possibility to consider.
I looked at the ring on my right middle finger.
"What... are you?"
There was no doubt about it.
As soon as I'd put it on, my energy had drained away, and for the first time, I'd collapsed before even reaching seventy percent of my daily quota.
I'd also slept so deeply and for so long that I hadn't even heard the alarm.
Most importantly...
'My mana hadn't recovered.'
No, if anything, even more of it had drained away.
My head spun as if I were suffering from severe anemia, and I lacked the strength to stand and take even a single step.
It was unmistakably mana depletion.
"Ha..."
I clutched my head and tore at my hair.
In movies and manga, the items people obtained at times like this were always overpowered,
but I was in the exact opposite situation.
"Reality is bleak... Instead of helping me, it gives me a debuff."
I tried pulling it off again, thinking that maybe my finger had shrunk overnight, but it still wouldn't budge.
I slumped against the wall with the expression of someone who had lost his country.
I held my hand wide open toward the ceiling, my gaze fixed on the nuisance.
"Phew-"
'Huh? Wait.'
But then I noticed something strange.
......Why is it gold?
The ring had definitely been made of wood until yesterday. But now, it had taken on a lustrous golden hue.
I examined and touched it more closely, and realized it wasn't simply discolored.
"The material itself has changed. I remember the texture of that wood exactly."
Other people might not have noticed, but I was a professional. No matter how far I'd fallen, could I really fail to recognize a material I had always worked with?
Only then did I begin examining the ring from every angle. Horns, a mask, feathers.
'What a primitive-tribe-ish design.'
It was well made, but it wasn't keeping up with the trends at all.
I gave a weak chuckle and struggled to get to my feet.
There was nothing I could figure out here and now, so I decided to go to the city and find out, come what may.
"Ha... I wonder how long it would take to run to Cairo."
Bang-
"Cairo? Hmm, I wouldn't know. But you'd have to crawl there, not run."
"...Huh?"
Was I dreaming?
When I opened the door, a familiar face was standing there: a well-built middle-aged man in flashy floral clothes and sunglasses.
"W-Why is Mr. Kim Young-hak here...? Am I dreaming...?"
"Looks like a dream?"
WHAM-! CRASH!
Something slammed into my abdomen and sent me rolling across the floor. Pain soon began rising slowly from my internal organs.
I clutched my stomach and groaned.
"Ngh... urgh..."
Ugh. I couldn't move even a single step. His power was on an entirely different level from the 'ordinary people' I'd fought in school. I didn't know for sure, but at this level, he had definitely broken several ribs.
When I stopped moving entirely, Kim Young-hak grabbed a fistful of my hair.
"Quit whining and come with me, you bastard."
"Ugh...! Uuuuuugh!!"
Yank-!
Dragged out by my hair, I was thrown straight onto the sand in front of the peach trees.
"What the hell is this? You making a flower garden?"
"......For you, Mr. Young-hak."
"Shut up, you bastard! Are you kidding me?"
WHAM! He kicked me in the abdomen again. By now, I didn't even have the strength to scream.
"I liked how well you talked, so I trusted you with this, but you're barely working at all. You're sleeping your ass off past two in the afternoon!?"
"It's... not like that."
"Not what? I fucking hate bastards like you the most—parasites who kiss ass like crazy to your face, then slack off behind my back and just try to coast along!"
...A parasite?
"Th-then what am I supposed to do?"
"What?"
"I can't do anything because of this ring!"
Kim Young-hak blinked as though he found my claim absurd.
"......What? Did I hit your head just now? You bastard. Where the hell is this ring you're talking about!!"
'...What?'
I definitely struggled to raise my right hand, but he only shouted at me to stop talking nonsense.
......If he could see the gold ring, he was the kind of man who would cut off my finger to take it.
"Y-you can't see it? This?"
"Ha... You don't need to say anything else. Applicants are flooding in anyway, so I might as well kill you and bring in someone else."
He trudged toward me and raised his foot. If that foot came down on my neck, I'd die instantly.
…Ah—the world really is fucking awful. I may not have been a saint, but I'd worked hard and lived without doing anything bad.
Was this really how it was going to end?
A hollow chuckle escaped me.
"Huh? You can barely stay conscious and you're laughing? You think I won't kill you—!"
Kim Young-hak's foot began descending.
In that fleeting moment, I prayed.
'God, Allah, Buddha...! If there is a god, please save me and punish that bastard!'
And then I cursed.
'That fucking Gate. Those monster bastards I'll tear to pieces. I'll find the bastard who made it even after I die! I'll find him and...'
"I'll tear him limb from limb!!! Aaaah!!!"
Whoooosh-
“…Huh?”
At that moment.
I felt my body falling downward. No, more precisely, it felt as though I were being swallowed by another dimension.
The answer came from the mouth of Kim Young-hak, who was being caught up in it with me.
"W-What? Fuck, what's happening? A Gate... suddenly...!"
Flash-!
My entire field of vision was swallowed by darkness.
***
"Ugh... ugh."
Where am I?
When I opened my eyes, everything around me was dark. I could make out a faint light in the distance, so I used it as a guide and slowly raised myself.
"Ngh... ugh. My body's still a piece of trash."
Rustle...!
"What, leaves?"
I felt as though I was about to collapse, so I reached out blindly and felt leaves beneath my hand.
After waiting a moment, my eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, and I was able to take in the scenery around me.
"A forest. It grew so lush despite being this dark...?"
This situation made no sense according to common knowledge.
...And then there was Kim Young-hak's final cry.
Though I'd never experienced it before, I somehow knew. This was inside a Gate.
I'd struggled so hard just to become a Hunter trainee, only to get a free pass in this ridiculous way.
'And in this condition...'
"Heh heh, if this is whatever god granting my last wish before I die, then that god is insane. If I don't get treatment right away, I feel like I'll die from internal bleeding. What am I supposed to do?"
I grumbled as I shuffled toward the light. Still, who knew? Perhaps that place was the gate to heaven.
A short while later, I arrived at a place that looked like a stone altar. A huge tree stood in the center, and beyond the altar stretched a fairly large open space.
It was rectangular, too.
"How strange..."
I crawled up the stairs on all fours and reached the altar. Then something caught my eye.
'What is this.'
A mummy was embedded in the tree. Light was leaking from its eyes.
As I cautiously approached, I felt a cool sensation in the middle finger of my right hand, followed by a pop.
...Did the ring come off?
At the same time, my vision began rapidly growing hazy.
On top of that, my abdomen was gradually swelling. It was an obvious sign of internal bleeding—a very serious case.
'I want to collapse.'
But why?
Before I knew it, I was feeling around for the ring.
"Heh heh... What am I doing?"
At last, click. My fingers closed around the ring.
"Good, here you are."
Holding the ring I'd picked up again, I crawled on my knees toward the mummy.
I no longer had the strength to stand.
I panted heavily and spoke to the mummy.
"...It's yours, right?"
It must be yours. That's why you called me here.
I felt around for the mummy's hand, then slipped the ring onto its middle finger.
"...I don't know what's what anymore. Anyway, I don't care about anything else, but if you lose it again, you're dead."
...Thud!
.
.
.
{A fragment from an unknown age. I must find a form suited to the mind.}
{Let's see... movies... video... games... a system. Yes, that should work.}
Ding-
[Piranian's Ancient Ring begins to resonate.]
Ding-
[Unique mana has been detected. Piranian's body accepts a new mind.]
Ding-
[The power has been bound to you.]
Ding-
...[Are you ready to transfer into a new body?]
----------------------
Accept(Y) Reject(N)
----------------------
...What kind of scam message is this?
What kind of suffering are you planning to put me through after I survive this?
I refuse.
Ding-
[Acceptance confirmed!]
What the hell, you crazy bastard! I said I'm not doing it!
Ding-
[You will be sent back to your original world!]
Huh? Huh? Hey! Hey!
[Countdown.]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
.
.
.
Whoooosh-!
[The transfer has been completed!]