Paul

Paul slowly recovered his consciousness as he struggled to remember what just happened. They were in a shop moments ago, drawing cards for a weird game. Then everything just went black. Now here he was, struggling to even open his eyes.

While he couldn't see anything with his eyes still closed, he could feel as though his body was floating on a liquid surface. The sound of gentle water splashes reached his ears, as though he was currently drifting in a river. After who knew how long, he finally mustered enough strength to open those heavy eyelids of his, taking in the magnificent sight before him.

The stars were numerous, illuminating the endless night sky. Constellations drew pictures that could have come to life in a more imaginative person's mind. However, this only served to trigger an alarm in the genius engineer's head. In the city where he used to live, the night sky was never this clear!

Where am I?

The rational side of him kept searching through his memories, desperate to find some form of answer to that question, but all attempts were in vain. Now that his eyes were open, he could see that it was not just his imagination – he was indeed drifting downstream on a river surface at the moment. Fortunately, the river flow was slow and stable. Otherwise considering that he barely had the strength to even open his eyes, he might just die helplessly from banging his head into a rock if he were unlucky enough!

What seemed like hours passed, as he continued drifting downstream. Initially, all he could do was observe the plants growing along the banks of the river. Bit by bit, he started to regain the strength required to control his body. Once he felt confident enough, Paul started to move his body, slowly making his way over to the river bank with a swim.

Confusion was the only thing Paul felt even as he climbed ashore. Where the hell was he? In all his life, this was the first time that he had actually entered a river! Such a significant milestone, yet he couldn't even remember how he got there? That was just tragic!

Paul was a person who hated to just put aside a matter that he didn't comprehend. He had always meticulously researched and tried to get to the bottom of the matter, only stopping after he had exhausted all possible options. With that, he sat down on a rock by the riverbank.

Everything that happened before started to come back to him as vivid scenes played in his head. He had stepped up along with his colleagues and drew cards from the boxes in a strange shop along the street.

Wait! What was the name of the shop again? …The Life Game! Could it be...?

A thought that hadn't occurred to him before was finally chosen as the most probable answer, even though the existence of that option was the most improbable thing in itself!

Was I thrown into a virtual reality game where I could live a separate life? If so, what would the winning condition be? There were two cards drawn, one showed the picture of the Grim Reaper, while the other showed bright light shining down from the heavens. Those must be the clues that were given to me.

Paul casually observed his surroundings as he continued to ponder, but as he looked down towards the river once more, he was shocked by what he saw!

It was only possible to see his reflection due to the bright illumination from the infinite number of stars hanging in the sky, but what was reflected wasn't him! His face was no longer his own. What replaced his original childish face was now one that had sharp and pleasant facial features. It seemed that he had become better looking after entering the virtual reality game! What a great game! But still, that was beside the point.

He slowly reached up towards his neck as he continued to stare at his reflection in disbelief. Finally, he could feel it with his own hands. There was a deep long slit across his neck! Fortunately for him, it wasn't bleeding at the moment. Otherwise he would have definitely died from such a deep wound!

But how was it not bleeding?

Paul was no medical expert, so he only wondered about it for a moment before giving up. Since it worked in his favour, he would just accept it for now. Even so, it would be foolish to leave such a deep wound exposed. There would be endless troubles if the open wound were to get infected after all! Tearing his sleeves off, Paul wrapped the cloth around his neck as a makeshift bandage before he decided to start exploring the area.

The most rational action would be to move along the bank of the river. This way, he would be able to retain access to fresh water. As for food, he tried to look out for fruits that grew on trees. However, he hadn't moved too far before catching sight of a wild boar quenching its thirst by the river.

Having no form of wilderness survival skills whatsoever, Paul had no idea how dangerous a wild boar could be. All he could think of were the cute little pigs that always showed on TV cartoons, and that roasted pork tasted delicious.

Or did it? Why would roasted pork be delicious?

Paul's thoughts stirred for a moment, but he quickly shook off the hesitation in his mind. He grabbed a small fallen branch that was lying on the ground, and approached cautiously, careful not to startle the wild boar.

But his actions were in vain. There was no way that an amateur like him could hide his presence from the acute senses of wild animals. Sensing his approach, the wild boar immediately perked up its head and stared straight at him.

Usually if a wild boar saw a human approach, it might even have gotten aggressive and charged at the human. However at that moment, fear flashed within the eyes of the wild boar as it just stood there petrified. This was a scene that felt completely normal in Paul's eyes though. The cute pigs in TV cartoons were always weaklings that couldn't do anything by themselves, ending up being eaten by others.

Even so, seeing his assumptions seemingly being affirmed, Paul's confidence level rose. He picked up the pace and started to approach the wild boar faster, ready to kill it with the fallen branch in his hands. The wild boar nervously took a few steps back, but when Paul got too close for comfort, the natural beastly instinct within the wild boar finally gave it the strength needed to attack!

Paul was shocked! The speed and power at which the wild boar charged with was completely out of his expectations. He tried to dodge to the side, but one of the wild boar's tusks still found its way to his abdomen area, piercing right through his skin and tearing his flesh!

However, Paul was too pumped to feel the pain at all. He quickly wrapped his arms around its neck, trying to control its movements by sticking to it and hugging it tight. The wild boar squealed loudly as it struggled to break free, smashing into trees as it staggered around with Paul in tow.

Paul really wanted to start hitting the wild boar with the branch, but it took both arms to wrap around its thick neck. And he had a feeling that the moment he let go, the wild boar would easily escape into the forest. Then he would have lost this rare opportunity to obtain meat for food!

The gears in his mind spun quickly as he tried to come up with a way to take down the boar, but he just could not think of any! Alas, he started to throw rationality to the back of his mind.

Desperate for a solution, Paul bit down hard on its left ear, forcefully tearing it away from the wild boar's head with a strong yank of his neck!

Horrified, the wild boar could only squeal helplessly as blood spurt out from the new wound on its head. But Paul wasn't done yet!

Seeing how his previous action worked, Paul did the same to its right ear, detaching it from the wild boar as well. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth as Paul then went on to bite down hard on its neck!

The thick fur of the wild boar served as a protective layer though, preventing his bite from drawing blood. All he could yank out with his jaws were thick fur bristles, yet doing so again and again finally exposed the skin underneath. With the hard clamp of his jaws, Paul bit hard into the neck of the wild boar again and again, which eventually succumbed to the blood loss and collapsed.

Seeing how he finally succeeded, Paul finally relaxed his grip around the wild boar's neck and got up. Looking at the wild boar that was still barely twitching on the ground, a sense of accomplishment came over him.

Yet at the same time, the events of the past ten minutes struck him like a thunderbolt.

What did I just do? I killed a boar by biting it to death? And where were the ears of the wild boar? Did I just swallow them raw after tearing them from the boar? I did? Me?

Looking down at the wound at his abdomen that wasn't bleeding, an unbelievable thought started to surface in his mind. This was when he realised something – after such a desperate struggle, he wasn't even panting at all! Was this humanly possible?

His index finger slowly reached out to his nose as he tried to feel for the exhalation of air from his nostrils.

There was nothing, not a single bit of air flow.

That deep slit on his throat, the wound on his abdomen that never bled, and now the lack of a need to breathe. In fact, he hadn't felt pain from his wounds at all, even until now! These were traits that were uncharacteristic to the living!

Was it part of this virtual reality game's features? That must be it! If that's the case then I would definitely abuse this feature as much as I can! It seems that I don't even have to cook the wild boar, the ear tasted fine as it was!

Thinking about how much energy and time he could save by not having to build a fire to cook the wild boar, Paul grinned in satisfaction and got ready to feast.

At this time, the body of the wild boar stopped convulsing. It was finally dead. But just as Paul was about to start his first ever meal in this new body, he felt a stream of energy rise up from the boar carcass. This energy gave off a feeling of something dark and sinister, as though it was the antithesis of life itself. However, Paul felt surprisingly at ease as the stream of energy slowly made its way towards him and entered through his forehead.

He could feel the energy diffusing throughout his body, sending an unknown strength into every single cell. It caused an unspeakable sense of comfort to rise up in his heart as he felt his body get slightly stronger. However, the energy dissipated quickly, leaving him yearning for more.

Paul did not know what that energy was for certain, but his thoughts immediately focused on the memory of a particular card which he drew back then in the suspicious shop before he lost consciousness.

The Grim Reaper!

He previously came to the conclusion that he had been thrown into a virtual reality game, and that the cards he drew were the clues to beating the game. After experiencing what just happened, he was even more convinced now! By killing the wild boar, he had received a slight boost to his strength, completely in line with being a Grim Reaper that took away lives!

This was it!

While he still hadn't understood the meaning of the other card, he had at least unravelled the mystery between one of the two! If he was just fumbling around mindlessly before, he now had a vague direction on how to approach this game!

A grin spread across his face as he sat down and started tearing the meat away from the wild boar to fill his stomach.

He had already figured out his next step, and started to worry about his three companions from before.

These colleagues of his weren't the brightest even back when they were working together. In addition, they were given different clues since they had drawn different cards. Would they be able to figure out what to do from the clues that they were given?