"Shit… that hurts," Henry muttered, wincing as he cradled the side of his head. He pushed himself up with trembling arms, the damp ground cold against his skin.
His vision swam. Tall, looming trees circled him like silent watchers, their gnarled branches stretching overhead. Smoke curled lazily in the distance, drifting from beyond the tree line.
The air was wet and thick, tinged with the sickening stench of rot. Each breath burned his lungs and left the coppery taste of blood on his tongue.
He coughed, then steadied himself. "Where the hell… am I?"
As he shifted to stand, his eyes dropped and froze.
Green feet. Not human green, sickly unnatural green. Filthy toenails clawed out from leathery skin, cracked and caked with grime.
"What the....?!"
Henry scrambled backward in panic. His heel caught on a root, and he crashed to the ground. But the grotesque feet followed him because they were his.
"No… no way." His voice trembled as he sat up, slowly lifting one foot, then the other. Calloused soles, hardened skin and long, skeletal toes.
With rising dread, he dragged his hands across his legs, his chest, his arms. The skin was tight, rough, stretched over a bony frame starved of strength. His ribs jutted out beneath his fingers. When he reached his head, he found it bare, bald, smooth and foreign.
"What… what am I?"
Suddenly, a sharp pain speared through his skull. He collapsed with a cry, gripping his head as a storm of images and voices burst into his mind, fragments that weren't his. Unknown faces. A language he never learned.
He writhed in the dirt until, as quickly as it came, the pain faded. Gasping for breath, he opened his eyes.Slowly the memories settled in his head and he descoverd what has happened to him
A glowing blue screen hovered before him.
[Status]
[Name: Henry]
[Race: Goblin]
[Class: Marksman]
[SP: 0]
[Level: 1]
[EXP: 0/100]
[Evolution Crystal:0]
[HP: 15/15]
[Strength: 10]
[Agility: 10]
[Stamina: 10]
[Vitality: 10]
[Skills: Locked]
Henry blinked. "So ... I died on earth and was reincarnated into blue online!"
It was real. The screen, the status. Blue Online. The full-dive VR game he'd obsessed over. Except this wasn't just a game anymore. It was too vivid. Too raw.
"Nuela....." Henry whispered with a sad expression on his face and then a smile slowly tugged at his lips. "No more school… no more bullies… I've been reincarnated with powers."
He jumped to his feet and pointed at a brick lying nearby. "Alright, let's test this earth bending, go!"
Nothing.
He frowned. "Okay… wind control!" Still nothing.
He tried everything he could remember from his time in the game, fire magic, healing chants, shadow manipulation. Not even a spark.
"What the hell? This system is garbage!" he growled.
The screen popped back up at his frustrated thoughts, but this time, new details caught his eye.
[Evolution Crystal: 0/10]
[Skills: Locked]
[Quests: None active]
He studied the screen more carefully now. This wasn't a starter account. 'So the creature I was reincarnated into doesn't have any skill' he thought grimly. 'And if I want power... I have to earn it now.'
To get stronger, he'd need to evolve literally. Collect crystals, complete quests, level up and Survive.This was no longer a game. It was survival.
"Damm, no respawn" he muttered, then turned toward the smoke in the distance.
The wind shifted.
The scent hit him first, burnt wood, scorched flesh.
He followed it cautiously, weaving between twisted trees until the camp came into view. The smoke billowed from the center of a goblin camp—what was left of it. Makeshift huts were reduced to smoldering rubble. Charred bodies littered the ground, twisted in their final moments.
"So this is how death feels like" Henry muttered as he scanned the camp with his eyes.
In the distance, something moved.
His eyes narrowed. Just beyond the camp, in a small clearing, three small creatures darted about furred, agile, unaware of his presence.
"Form the memories I got, I could tell this are the baby wolves that destroyed the golbins camp''