Cut. Slash. Step. Cut. Slash. Step.
Yup, this again. In just one night, Benjamin Rover had gone from an unemployed webnovel addict to being stuck in this godforsaken place cutting the remaining blood vessels connected to the heart. If luck was on his side, maybe his actions would cause a fatal injury?
'Speaking of luck, should I be thankful for my good luck of surviving or spiteful about how I got transmigrated in the first place?' Ben was leaning towards the second option.
He had to rest every once in a while to deal with his aching body. Eventually, after what Ben estimated to be another hour, the remaining blood vessels couldn't hold the dead heart anymore, causing it to fall to the ground.
"I guess this is my battle spoil. I wonder how much this would sell for?" Being broke in his past life, Ben's first instinct was to evaluate the profits. The heart was way too big for him to carry, though.
The cuts on his hand were also deepening. After all, cutting with his tag was like wielding a knife without a handle.
'I probably should've cut off some fabric from my shirt or pants first and wrapped my hand with it before going all sicko mode, but what's done is done. What's important now is to treat this injury.'
Ben took off his shirt, cut off the sleeves into rectangular strips, then awkwardly tied them around his hands while gritting his teeth. Now that the adrenaline was gone, the pain was coming in full force.
"Agh, this pain can suck my dick…but 'dick' is too short of a word for my dick, so suck my antidisestablishmentarianism you prick. Haha!" Laughing in pain helped Ben cope. Level 1 of cursing was spitting out profanity. Level 2 was repeating vulgar lines you heard from music or the internet.
Ben had no idea how to tie anything other than his shoelace, so he spent an embarrassingly long time tying his makeshift bandages correctly. He was probably going to get ten different infections.
'I'm also getting quite thirsty. I think I swallowed a little bit of that golden blood before, and I'm not dead, so maybe I can drink that? But maybe that blood was the cause of all my cramps…"
Ben came up with multiple theories about his situation, but because he didn't have enough information, he wasn't able to come to any conclusions.
'The best thing I could do right now is to kill the other heart. That way, there's a better chance of this thing dying, and if I really have no other choice, I can quench my thirst with that golden red blood. Honestly, didn't taste that bad.' The dark red blood was also an option, but Ben didn't know if it was safe.
Ben decided to walk back the way he had come. His theory was that he was melting because he was trapped between the two hearts, and that the heat came from the golden red blood. If he continued walking in the original direction, who knew what he would find next? Fear of the unknown is one of the most primal instincts of a human, after all.
'If I even am human.'
…
"Fuck, why is it so hot?" Ben hadn't seen a glimmer of light since he left the dead heart, yet he already felt like it was the middle of summer.
'Maybe this area is just hot?' Whatever the case, Ben sped up the pace so he doesn't get cooked alive. The cramps were getting slightly more bearable. Just slightly.
…
'Man I'm thirsty. How come I haven't seen anything yet? Did I walk in the wrong direction? Or maybe there isn't another heart here?'
…
'There are two paths? Well, right is always right.'
…
'How much longer?'
…
'Am I going to die here?'
Ben was completely out of it. All he knew was pain, thirst, and an overwhelming desire to collapse and rest. The only consolation was that the heat was going away.
'Hm?' Ben finally saw an eerie red glow in the distance. And now it was time to…
'Follow the light!'
His pace quickened, his breath became rougher, as Ben finally saw some hope. He really didn't care what he drank at this point. The thirst was too overwhelming! And he also felt some hunger creeping in…
'What the hell is wrong with this body? Is it strong because it requires sustenance, or does it require sustenance because it's strong?' Well, Ben, maybe you should focus on the thing ahead of you.
'Yeah, I should do that…wait, why did that thought seem kind of…foreign? Does that even make sense? I'm getting too tired…' As Ben got closer, he could see another organ that was just slightly bigger than him emitting a crimson light. This light wasn't burning, nor was it freezing; it was…numb.
'I feel like I'm beginning to lose my 5 senses. This isn't permanent, right? Also, that thing looks like a liver. Haha, the knowledge of a transmigrator!'
Ben couldn't wait, he walked right up to the liver and took a huge bite out of it. And immediately puked.
"Ughhhh…holy macaroni on a pineapple cheesecake, what the fuck was that? It just straight up tastes like vomit." Ben didn't like eating livers back on Earth, but this was ten times worse.
'What if liver king was the one who transmigrated? Would his steroids come with him?' Ben's thoughts were getting more and more random, and his thirst was still there. So he started sucking the liver.
"Mmph!" With each gulp, Ben wanted to vomit his stomach out, but he forced it back in."
"Why did the heart blood taste so much better? Is it because I only drank from the veins? I also feel like a vampire." Recalling the vampire fanfictions he'd read before, Ben shuddered. "I really hope I don't become one…this is just me trying to survive! Yeah, trying to survive…"
Ben then struggled to cut off one of the veins and drank the blood from it. It tasted slightly better, but it was still shit.
'Wait, no, I'm losing my taste!' Ben was so immersed in trying to drink the blood that he forgot that he was slowly losing his senses. Just like at the heart, speed was key!
'How did that even happen? Does the liver mess with my thoughts as well? These veins are also tougher than the ones at the heart. I'll slash the liver instead.'
Unlike at the heart, he wasn't panicking about dying, allowing him to make a more rational decision.
'Come to think about it, why didn't I just go straight for the heart? Was I just intimidated by the size? Am I stupid? Or maybe my thoughts are being manipulated? But if my thoughts are being manipulated, the manipulator would be quite stupid to let me have such suspicions.' Thanks to reading countless webnovels, Ben was great at analyzing and coming up with theories.
With the cloth bandage wrapped around his hand, Ben gripped the tag tightly and slashed the liver.
Spurt!
Blood flew all over him. Again. This time, he tried to drink some of the blood, taking advantage of his numb taste buds.
"Again!"
Spurt! Spurt! Spurt!
Jack slashed like his life depended on it, because it probably did.
'Wait no, I'm Benjamin, not Jack the Ripper.' Ben's thoughts were becoming increasingly chaotic, motivating Ben to go faster and get the hell out of here!
'Hehe, this is good practice. I'm probably going to be fighting a lot in this world!' Ben became crazed from drinking so much blood. Blood was good! He was no longer thirsty, his body no longer ached, and he felt more energetic.
With the liver only being slightly larger than Ben, it quickly shriveled up and died.
"Ueghhh!" Ben's senses also came back, causing him to vomit copious amounts of blood.
"Phew…fuck, I think I almost turned insane? Hehe. This monster is scary as hell! Even its organs are so threatening! But how the hell do I get out of here?"
With the crimson light dissipating, Ben quickly looked around at his surroundings. Fleshy walls, fleshy floor, fleshy ceiling.
"Shit!" Ben couldn't find anything that resembled an exit or a weakness. It all looked the same.
'Alright, fine, I'll just keep walking then.' He briefly considered climbing up the veins and slashing the ceiling to see if it was weak or not, but quickly discarded the thought. Why would the top be weaker than the bottom?
'Now, I can continue walking forward, go back and choose the other path, or go back to the heart. I think I should go back to the heart and check if the other direction has multiple paths as well.'
With an energized body, Ben started the long walk back to the heart. He felt a little like he was wasting time considering how much he was backtracking, but in such a dangerous environment, it was better to take it one step at a time.
…
'It's getting hot again.' While Ben couldn't see much, he knew he was on the right track from the heat.
'Now that I listen carefully, it does sound like two sets of heartbeats. Where the hell is the other heart then? Wait, didn't I cut off the blood vessels from one heart? Why are there still two sets then?'
Goosebumps rose over Ben's body as he considered the implications.
'Did this thing grow another heart?!' Ben now felt a little silly hoping the creature would die of blood loss. He also felt like he was about to crash out.
"And I crash my way through this meaty tunnel~"
"This organ really needs a pummel~"
Ben started to sing out of frustration.
…
"A glimmer of light enters my sight, oh fuck, the blood vessels regenerated?" Ben sort of expected it, but when he actually saw it, he was still shocked.
'Will the liver regenerate as well? Surely it's harder to regenerate than some blood vessels? Also, do I really have to do this again?' Ben heard the loud thumping of the heart and dreaded it.
"Ah, fuck it. AGHHH!" Ben let out a battle scream to hype himself up, covered his ears, and ran towards the heart.
BA DUM. BA DUM.
It was hot! It was loud! But Ben could handle it. In fact, it felt easier than before.
When he was only a few meters away from the heart, he stopped covering his ears, jumped up, and slashed down with the tag.
Spurt!
A substantial amount of golden red blood gushed out of the heart. Even though he jumped, Ben only slashed a small portion. It was just way too big!
Some of the blood got in Ben's mouth, which he drank as a precaution for the future. A warm and fuzzy feeling went down his throat. If one looked closely, you could see his throat glowing a little.
"Die!"
Ben made sure to create as many gashes as possible to accelerate the blood loss of the heart. The veins pumped wildly, and the heart was thumping erratically.
The tag started to cut through the makeshift cloth, but Ben barely noticed, continuing to cut up the heart and drinking the blood like a madman.
"Hahaha! Aghhh! Die! Kill! Become one with the shadows! Go to your resting place! Courting death! I'll send you to the afterlife!" Maybe Ben did become a madman, either from reading too many webnovels or being stuck in this hell. Probably both.
Ben also slashed any blood vessels that were close to him, causing a downpour of blood. Without the blood vessels, the heart would regenerate slower and lose blood more quickly.
"Huff…huff…almost there!" Ben's ears were bleeding, his head was throbbing, and he felt like his arms were about to fall off, but seeing the heart not doing any better than him, he continued to push through.
'Wait, let me try this.' Ben suddenly felt inspired, and started running while dragging the tag behind him through the heart. Or at least tried to; the heart wasn't paper after all.
"Hahaha!" At this point, the bottom half of the heart was completely covered in scars, and the thumping became weaker. Ben started feeling bloated from drinking so much, but he also was feeling hunger pangs.
He looked at the half dead heart.
"Should I…?" Thinking of how terrible his thirst was, Ben decided to take a bite out of the heart to satiate his hunger. He really didn't want to experience that again.
"Man, I feel like a cannibal." Ben took a bite out of a relatively unharmed part.
'Mm, tastes kind of tough and bitter, but it's much more bearable than the liver.' Ben had to chew for a while before swallowing. He then continued devouring intact parts of the heart that his mouth could reach.
"Yeah, that should do it." Ben wiped his mouth, which didn't really do much since he was covered in blood. "The blood is becoming that cold dark red blood again. I should get going."
Ben walked into the darkness, feeling quite spent.
'Exploring a dark, meaty cave, hehe.' Burp. "Ugh, fuck, I feel kinda high right now. Really losing my sanity here…"
This thought made him sober up, as he started to speed walk.
After what felt like another hour, Ben saw that the passage was narrowing.
'Well that's new.' He slowed down his pace, looking around with caution. Not that he could see much.
'This blood stench is also getting quite annoying.' Ben had an intense desire for a warm shower.
The tunnel continued to get narrower, with the walls only being a couple meters away from him. Ben felt a little claustrophobic.
"Hold on, is this…a dead end?" Ben saw that the walls, the ceiling, and the floor had converged into another meat wall right in front of him.
"Fuck this shit!" Ben started to actually crashed out and stabbed the wall in front of him.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He continued slashing the wall like a madman. And as if to respond to his plight, the whole place started shaking. No, the ground was lowering, the ceiling was rising, and a space appeared in the wall in front of him!
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Ben shouted with joy, not expecting something to actually happen. He was on full alert though, because who knew what was behind that space?
Water started gushing in through the space. Or more precisely, seawater. Seeing this, Ben no longer hesitated and jumped straight through the hole.