'I am tired, and wanna go to sleep, but even though I want to, I can't.'
'There's no way I can!'
There was complete heavy darkness around me. Like I was dead. Now stuck with this view for eternity.
Obviously, I had died.
My throat felt piercingly dry. It was like when I had slept for twenty hours, but even worse. I felt like emptying a lake filled with cold water, and it still wouldn't be enough. It wasn't natural.
With that thirst came sweat. How could I ignore that? It was drenching every part of my body. I could feel my eyelids opening and closing as well, but everything was overwhelmed by the intense, burning pain in my right arm and left foot.
But… it also meant I had a physical form.
This shouldn't be possible in the afterlife…
I am alive.
'System! Status! System!' I practically screamed in my mind. Nothing happened.
Thum! Tham!
I tried to move, but my hands and legs were held by something heavy and hard. I couldn't produce much force either. It seemed my limbs were stretched to the limit.
The tight grip on them—I haven't been in handcuffs, or any kinky stuff, but I had an idea of how it would feel to have thick, rusty metal cuffs around my wrists and ankles—gave me a hint about my situation.
The more I thought about how tight the cuffs were, and how much blood I was losing every second, the more dreadful it became. I realized one thing…
'This was absolute hell!'
'System, this is not gonna work out. Do you want me to bite my tongue? I will really do it!' I remembered—I saw it at my death. That robotic voice. It was definitely something like the system in those web novels.
I forced my jaw open and pushed my tongue between my teeth. 'This is your last warning. Do you want to lose your precious host?!' Blackmail always worked, no matter what it was used against.
A few seconds passed. There was no reply. 'Maybe everything was just a drunk dream, and I'm just laying in a ditch with broken bones…'
This had happened before...
I sighed and calmed my racing thoughts. 'Alright, if this is what you want…' I actually bit my tongue—just lightly, of course. My final attempt. Then I could yell for Pickle or William to get me out of this ditch.
Cletch!
I froze, and my eyes widened to the limit.
Salty, sweet, and… delicious. Strange liquid filled my mouth. I had bitten harder than I wanted. No… I just bit it lightly. I know I just pressed it lightly! It shouldn't…
But the reality was: my tongue was fucking bleeding!
Am I about to die?! As a virgin, really?
No, no, I can't die yet!
I was just stupid! Systems aren't real, obviously. Mom wasn't wrong—my brain had actually rotted!
Why did I do something so stupid?!
But before I could think further about how much of a disappointment I was, I pulled my tongue into my mouth and started smacking it against my mouth walls—all without ever intending to.
I started to suck and swallow—
The saliva and blood dripping freely from my tongue that had a gaping hole. Boiling hot blood poured directly down my throat into my stomach, relieving some of my thirst.
Only after I felt no more blood leaking out—just the burning pain—did I stop.
'Delicious!'
"…What the fuck?!" This was purely instinctive. Like I had lost control of my body…
And why the hell did it taste like sweet lemonade?
No, first of all, a tongue shouldn't be pierced with such a light bite!
I tried to feel my tongue again, pressing it against my upper mouth wall. My mouth agape, breath hastening, eyes shaking.
A burning itch overwhelmed everything I was feeling. The flesh on my tongue tore itself into a small string, like a thread, and then… it mingled with the other side of the gaping hole.
I clenched my hands and eyes, twirling my toes. It was the worst pain I had ever felt.
The burning itches and the tongue that felt like spikes, with those weird stitches, kept repeating for what felt like eternity.
Then, all of a sudden, it stopped.
I brought my trembling tongue against my mouth wall again, and my pupils dilated. The hole was gone!
'This ca-can't be the real world, right?'
I somehow, even after that intense pain, felt like biting my tongue again.
This time, even harder—to get more of that delicious blood…
'I need it!'
I started to lose my cognitive function due to that intense thirst, but before I could bite my tongue in half—
[Ding!]
I felt my mind clearing. Immediately, I pulled my tongue back, taking shaky breaths with trembling eyes. The sound of thousands of giant temple bells felt familiar.
I heard it before dying…
Finally!
Hell yeah! I actually died!!
It wasn't just a dream.
I actually got a second chance…
My lips slowly curled upward, my eyes growing a bit wetter.
I opened my eyes, expecting something more than darkness.
And yes, it was there—a red screen with golden borders…
[Congratulations to the host for surviving the transmigration process!! Survival rate was 0.001%]
My face lost some color, but I quickly shook it off. My head rose a bit as I started to laugh like an evil mastermind revealing his plans.
Simply because—
I am the protagonist! Tell me another man surviving at 0.001% chance.
After a whole minute of laughing, I took a deep breath, calming my racing thoughts. 'Be humble. Be humble… until you're overpowered and rich with a harem of baddies. Be humble.' I repeated it a few times in my mind.
Immediately, I locked in, trying to command the system to introduce itself.
The screen glowed, then a swirling loading animation started playing, evoking my PTSD.
Every time I found a good 'video', my internet had to blue-ball me.
Fortunately, the screen lit up, and a small window opened on the right side of the dark red screen.