CHAPTER THREE: ...WTF?

Three months ago.

Ashcol Duchy,

Ethania.

...

In a room, the muted rays of the late summer sun fell upon the body of a young man. He laid on a large bed, tousled, slick black wavy hair framing his tan, freckled face. His eyelids fluttered briefly for a moment, eyeballs faintly rolling underneath, before cracking open the hardened seal of their natural secretions. They opened to reveal limpid dark irises to the world.

Clyde stared at the thatched ceiling above, confusion slowly clouding his features, his pupils contracting in doubt.

Glancing to the side, his gaze swept around the room, noticing it was rather sparsely decorated. A wooden farm hoe rested in the corner, and aside from the wooden work table and chair, the bed he laid upon and the open window framed outside by withering ivy, there was nothing else in sight. Bare.

Despite this, though, the room felt comfortable, minimalistic and oddly enough… Familiar.

Curious, Clyde sat up to get a better view of the… hut? Looking around, he realised that he was the only one in this single-room building.

"Where is this?" Clyde asked himself out loud as he walked around the room. Stopping by the window, he looked outside to see a small farmland with a pig and a few sheep in a pen. The animals quietly hid from the sun's glare under the shade of an apple tree growing beside the pen.

"Hey! Good afternoon Clyde!" A voice shouted from a distance.

Clyde looked out to the side and saw a man, probably in his late twenties, walking up to the window with a smile on his face. The man possessed vaguely Western features with a high nose bridge, a chiselled face, and a double chin. His eyebrow was bushy and his small beard was grown out, unkempt.

Clyde frowned minutely as he watched the man approach. Judging from his burly stature and the calloused palm which he waved in a friendly manner, the fellow seemed to be a labourer or manual worker of some sort. Why would I be this friendly with a labourer? Clyde asked himself, baffled.

"Good afternoon…" Clyde paused, realising he shouldn't know who this fellow was―yet somehow he did. "...Lorin?"

"How are you feeling now, Clyde?" the fellow continued, confirming the dreadful feeling in Clyde's heart.

"Huh?" Clyde faltered as his mind registered the fellow's question. "Feeling?"

Lorin nodded as he pointed at Clyde's forehead. "Maggie did you a dirty one there. We almost thought she killed you. How did you manage to make her so angry?"

Clyde curiously reached for his forehead upon Lorin's spurring. Bandages? he muttered, feeling strips of coarse cloth wrapped around his head.

"Who is Maggie?" Clyde asked, curious as to who would dare to hurt him―a Senior Inspector of the Korean police force―so badly.

Lorin stared back at him, worried. "Maggie," he repeated, "Farmer Jen's donkey?"

"Oh…" Clyde muttered. Somehow, it made sense. Yet, somehow, it didn't.

"..."

Lorin stared at him with increasing worry, prompting a question to form in Clyde's mind.

"Where am I, Lorin?" he asked.

"..."

Lorin simply turned around and began to leave.

"Wait!" Clyde called as he watched the burly fellow walk off. "Where are you going?"

Lorin mumbled something inaudibly as he quickened his steps down the dirt path, quickly vacating the premises. The gaze which he used to glance at Clyde as he left was one of pity.

"Wait!" Clyde called again, but sadly, the fellow had resolutely exited. Clyde sighed as he dropped his outstretched hand. He did feel the urge to chase after the fellow, but immediately felt it was unnecessary, as he already had the answers to the question he asked.

"Longboat village of Loue Province," he muttered, as he recollected a memory, " Ashcol Duchy, Eris… Ethania?"

A disturbing thought crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. I am sure this is all just some misunderstanding, Clyde sighed as he looked up at the clear sky.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. As he stared at the blue expanse above him, he noticed what looked like a rend in the sky. It almost appeared as if someone ripped a hole in the blue canvas with a knife, allowing those below to peek into the void hidden behind.

Blinking, Clyde shook his head before turning around with a sigh.

"I must be hallucinating," he muttered as he turned back into the hut. Behind him, the scar in the sky began to heal at a speed visible to the human eye.

"Where did I drop my phone?" Clyde asked himself as he rummaged around the room. But given how bare the room was, there was little to rummage. There was no phone in sight.

The dreadful feeling in Clyde's heart grew. He sat back onto the lumpy mattress in a bid to calm himself. The fact that he felt comfortable even on a bed that should have felt inhumanely uncomfortable caused the dread in his heart to thicken.

Clyde heaved a gloomy sigh as he pulled his palm across his face. His eyes grew bloodshot with worry.

"No," he muttered, shaking his head in denial. "No. No, no, no, no."

"Fuck!" He screamed as he stood up, kicking the wooden chair in front of him. An action which he immediately regretted.

But as he rolled on the floor, clutching his feet in pain, something flashed before his eyes.

[You have dealt 24.2 base damage | You have inflicted 24.2 effective damage]

[You have reduced the durability of the target | Target's durability will drop by 7%]

[Status effect induced]

"...Huh?" Clyde made a sound of confusion as he stared at the floating screen before his eyes.

"What the fuck?"

…

Clyde walked down the dirt path in the direction he 'remembered' a stream flowed. As he walked by with shaky footsteps, passersby avoided him. At first they appeared concerned, watching him move like he was about to collapse, but their concern soon vanished and was quickly replaced with fear once they noticed the desolate light in his bloodshot eyes.

He looked like a demon. Like someone possessed as he lumbered in the direction of the stream. The sky above was clear and blue. Not a cloud or scar in sight.

So it was in this manner, under the glare of the summer sun, Clyde arrived at the stream. He stopped at the edge as he fell to his knees.

Looking into the body of water, he stared back at an unfamiliar… yet familiar face.

His face.

"..."

"No," Clyde shook his head in denial.

"No."

"I am not dead?" he asked himself as he watched, the reflection of his own pupils dilated in dread and disbelief.

Am I?

…

Evening soon arrived.

Clyde still knelt by the stream as he gazed at his reflection. Then he sighed.

"It's all gone," he mumbled. "Over twenty years of hard work and diligence. Gone."

Tears ran down Clyde's face as he thought of all his past accomplishments vanishing with the wind like a puff of smoke. He sighed as he stood up before gloomy trudging back to his hut.

Arriving, he glanced down at the chair which he kicked away earlier. After hesitating for a moment, he sighed as he bent over to set it back upright. Then he sat on his bed, quietly staring out the window at what he assumed to be his future now.

A farm.

Several moments passed before a strange thought crossed his mind.

"S-system," he called out hesitantly.

"..."

"Status?" he called again.

Silence.

Clyde let out a gloomy sigh before releasing a suppressed chuckle

"I am a fool," he muttered aloud in self-reproach. "What was I thinking? That this is one of those stupid transmigration novels I read in highschool? Pathetic. I should just go kill myse―"

[Host soul unrecognised]

[Recalibrating…]

[Recalibration failed]

[Error code - 34057]

[Loading recognition protocols…]

[Load failed]

[Error code - 77980]

[Loading repair program…]

[Load failed]

[Error code - 57689]

[Loading debugging protocols…]

[Load success]

[Rebooting…]

[...]

[Reboot complete]

[Loading recognition protocols…]

[Load fail]

[Error code - 77980]

[Host data absent from database]

[Bypassing system SRV requirements…]

[Bypass success]

[Loading registration protocols…]

[Load success]

[Host data registered]

[Rebooting…]

[...]

[Reboot complete]

[Uploading host data…]

[Upload success]

[Downloading modified BIOS…]

[Download success]

[Downloading modified Architecture…]

[Download success]

[Installing…]

[Install success]

[Syncing database…]

[Sync success]

[Archiving cache data…]

[Archive success]

[Rebooting…]

[...]

[Reboot success]

[Launching system…]

[...]

[Launch success]

|Status|

Host Name: Clyde

Race: Human(Otherworldly)

Skeletal Age: 19

Gender: Male

Titles: N/A

Divinity: 0.2/????

Class: Commoner(Peasant Farmer[Novice])

Lvl: 2/10

XP: 87/100

Base attributes:

HP: 91/100

MP: 7.9/7.9

STA: 120/123

STATS:

STR:13.2

AGI: 11.1

DEX: 12.1

INT: 49.7

DEF: 1(+0.5: FEET)

PRE: 15

CHA: 20.3(-4)(-0.4)(-0.4)(-0.2)

Class Skills:

~ Commoner(Peasant Farmer)

Farming - Lvl 8

Foraging - Lvl 7

Hunting - Lvl 4

Fishing - Lvl 4

Basic Crafting - Lvl 5

Basic Culinary - Lvl 4

Class Attributes:

~ Commoner(Peasant Farmer)

Hunger Resistance - Hunger status is delayed for 36 hours after a full meal. Continuous activation of attribute for more than two weeks without three days of satiation in between will trigger the Starvation Status(All stats will drop at a rate of 20% per every three-and-a-half days until status is lifted.

Hardy Folk - Stamina drain is reduced by 20% once Stamina drops below 50%. This attribute is stackable with other attributes or buffs with similar effect.

Class Penalties:

CHA: -4

Items:

Coarse cotton shirt: Aerates the body. Provides decency. +0.1% heat resistance. -0.4 CHA. Conditions of Use; None. Durability; 0.8/1. Weight; 1. Special effect; None.

Coarse cotton hoses: Aerates the body. Provides decency. +0.1% heat resistance. -0.4 CHA. Conditions of Use; None. Durability; 0.7/1. Weight; 1. Special effect; None.

Crude leather sandals: Aerates the body. Provides protection to feet. +0.1% heat resistance. +0.5 DEF: FEET. -0.2 CHA. Conditions of Use; None. Durability; 0.5/1. Weight; 1. Special effect; None.

Crude leather pouch[Storage] 12 iron coins. Three large walnuts(consumable). A smooth pebble. Conditions of Use; None. Durability; 1/1. Weight; 0.2. Special effect; None.

Equipment: None

Inventory: (EMPTY)

|END|

Clyde stared at the floating screen in front of his eyes in silence. Dumbfounded. It wasn't until several moments later that he finally snapped out of his shock.

"Wait… WTF?"