Chapter 4 - I Don't Want To

Chapter 4 - I Don't Want To

The old man offered a cup of tea to Elias.

"Umm… how do I say this?"

Elias looked at him, puzzled. "According to me, you're more deserving because you've experienced hardships that even a hero would struggle with."

"The guy I swapped you with only wanted to create a harem of monster girls. We're overflowing with transmigrators who only think with their lower bodies."

"I don't care about that, but more than half of them die before they even complete a minor achievement. They rely too much on the gifts given to them and end up dead without knowing how."

"They die early, the world they were sent to becomes more chaotic, and then we have to send more transmigrators. It also tarnishes my reputation."

The old man sighed deeply.

Elias remained silent, absorbing the information.

"Then why me?" Elias couldn't make sense of the old man's words.

"Well, I wouldn't say you're not interested in a harem, but you're more responsible. So, I thought sending you as a hero wouldn't be bad." The old man's eyes shone with a peculiar joy.

"What do you think about it?" he continued.

"This…" Elias hesitated.

"Mhm," the old man looked at him expectantly.

"I…"

"Mhm."

Elias tried to find the right words, but they wouldn't come. The old man waited with hopeful eyes.

A whole minute passed.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS!" Elias roared with all his might.

"Eh?" The old man's mouth fell open.

Crack.

The teacup in his hand developed a small crack.

"Sigh."

"Tell me why." The old man placed the cup on the table.

"I don't want to die protecting people I'm not even familiar with," Elias said firmly, looking straight into the old man's eyes.

The old man's cheerful face remained unchanged. They stared at each other for a full minute.

"HAHAHAHA," the old man broke into laughter, unable to contain himself.

"Now, why the hell are you laughing, old bastard?!" Elias cursed in his head.

"Oi, human! I can hear you~" There was a sharp glint of ferocity in the old man's eyes.

Elias's scalp went numb, and his face paled.

"That's why I chose you, human." The old man's voice was cheerful again.

"I want those people down there to understand that they should stop relying on us. Most of the transmigrators do complete their purpose, but because of their gifts, they sometimes become the greatest obstacle to their own world."

"How do I say this? Uh…"

"These transmigrators become the next dictators, and due to some restrictions, we can't pull their gifts or them away to pass them to other worlds or people."

"This is the main reason why we now send people according to their character and all that blah blah blah." The old man looked bored now.

He snapped his fingers.

Elias and the old man disappeared, reappearing in a cacophony of colorful dots.

"These colorful dots resemble worlds," the old man explained.

"The ones that shine and disappear are the worlds that have gained balance."

"The ones dimming their colors are on the verge of destruction, losing a tremendous amount of their life force."

"The completely black ones are the worlds of chaos."

The old man sighed occasionally as he explained.

Among the vast sea of these endless colorful dots, the majority were dim and completely black. If ten worlds were randomly picked from this sea, three would be black, four to five would be dim, and the rest would be healthy.

"Which world will you be sending me to?" Elias asked, looking at the old man.

"That's not under my control. It's random," the old man replied seriously.

Elias fell silent. His heart felt heavy.

The old man raised his hand and formed a fist in front of him. The colorful dots trembled for a split second before floating towards his fist, concentrating into a sphere where they floated freely.

Their surroundings turned completely white, devoid of any other being.

The sphere of colorful worlds floated in front of Elias.

"Place your hand on it and good luck," the old man said cheerfully.

Before Elias knew it, his hands were already reaching for the sphere. The moment he placed his hand on it—

FLASH.

Elias disappeared from the white surroundings. The sphere reverted into the vast sea of colors, and the old man vanished.

The old man reappeared in his palace and picked up his cracked teacup.

"Ingril, show me where he went," he commanded, sipping his tea.

Ingril appeared before him, kneeling.

"Your Excellency, he went to the realm of Dracia," Ingril reported obediently.

The old man spat his tea on Ingril and looked at him in shock.

"Tsk, tsk."

"We lost another talent." The old man sighed.

---

In a dimly lit room, a man in his twenties lay dead on the floor. He was malnourished, his body covered in bruises. His lifeless eyes were wide open, signifying the suffering he endured while alive.

Click.

The door creaked open, revealing a man in silver knight armor.

"Tsk, now I have to clean this mess," the knight muttered disdainfully.

The knight grabbed the boy's head and dragged him out of the room.

In a huge courtyard where people in expensive dresses sipped wine with etiquette, the knight walked towards the edge. There, a man stared into the dark forest beyond the courtyard's boundary.

The knight placed the dead body in front of the high-status man. A purple glint flashed in the man's eyes as he looked at the corpse.

"Throw him into the Forest of the Fallen," he commanded.

The knight grabbed the boy's hand and hurled him into the sky with all his strength.

---

The body soared through the air at great speed, quickly disappearing from sight. It crashed into a black, withering tree.