Quests of the Wanderer

"Blue and cloudy sky? Where was the blood-drenched firmament, the roiling black storm clouds, the infernal sun of hell, with never-ending rivers of lava? This doesn't look like the hell I had imagined," Ash muttered, confusedly sitting down with crossed legs on the ground while observing his surroundings in bewildered contemplation. The air, crisp and untainted, was a foreign caress against his skin.

"Just…what in the bloody blazes is going on here?" Ash's eyes swept across the impossible vista. "Trees that defied logic, their emerald heads scraping the cerulean canvas, stretched as far as his gaze could reach. A world unblemished by the choking miasma of pollution, a symphony of rustling leaves replacing the cacophony of city life..." 

"Yep, I've also joined the World Travelers Club; otherwise, there is no way to explain how an unlucky guy who was just moments ago crushed under a car comes to the middle of such a dense forest. As far as I remember, on Earth, there is no such place where trees with a height around 150m can be seen normally."

"Damn it, why the hell at the last moment did that crazy b*tch not play cards according to common sense?" Ash grumbled, slamming a fist onto the yielding ground as the memories of the moments before his death flashed before his eyes.

Flashback---

"Sigh, today, again I was fired from my job for such a shy excuse as being a little introverted. God knows why that fatty has so many problems with me. Yes, I don't like talking too much with others, but why the f*ck does his big ass have a problem with this? He probably wanted to fire me so he could more openly try to get under the skirt of Betty... Anyway, she is a whore. If he had asked her directly, she would have happily spread her legs for him in exchange for a promotion. In the last two weeks, I have seen her kissing three different boys... Would she also give me a chance if I offered her a good deal?..."

Forget it, better stay away from that kind of girl. God knows what kind of dirty things she has done with others, Ash thought, shivering as various disturbing videos he had seen on the internet in the name of research content for his novel came to his mind.

"Sigh, but now I am again a jobless bachelor. What should I do? Should I talk to Uncle Ben? He probably has a job for me, but the only problem is that he is very strict and his temper is also not good. I still remember when 2 years ago I accidentally broke his phone; he made me work two months in his factory for free before releasing me..."

Let's discuss it with Mother tonight. But now, what should I read today? Nowadays, finding a good novel on an online platform is no different from finding money on the road, especially one in which the MC respects common sense and works hard to become powerful instead of becoming godly powerful after getting weird opportunities for literally no solid reason in just a matter of 20 chapters."

In the middle of the afternoon, under the scorching heat, a boy scrolled through his phone broadly while walking towards his home. He moved his eyes away from his phone as he came to the crossing, and after a quick glance at the traffic light, which was currently red, he sighed helplessly and patiently waited for the light to turn green. Since the sun was right on top of his head, he put his phone back in his pocket as sunlight directly reflected on his eyes, making it very uncomfortable.

"Oh!? That lady, even after being the mother of a 10-year-old girl, still looks so stunning. Her figure is quite impressive, especially her breasts; her husband must consider himself very fortunate to have such a beautiful lady as his wife. Sigh, when will I find a girl for myself? I'm already 24 years old, and there is no sign of any girl in my life. I heard my mother saying that after your 30s, unless you have a good enough job or a substantial bank balance, finding a good girl is nothing but a dream."

"Although my face is not anything worth mentioning, and I am unemployed, spending most of my time at home reading novels and playing games, at least I should get one chance to have a close relationship with a girl, right? Maybe I should talk to Zeny; that guy is very popular among girls. Perhaps he can do something about his poor childhood friend's love life. Huh? Why does this little girl's actions seem so familiar?"

Ash mutters while raising his eyebrow, "Mother is happily talking on the phone without caring about anything else. The surroundings are as clear as my pocket; the traffic light is red, and the little girl is playing with her ball on the footpath, on the edge of the road..."

"Yep, same third-class clichés script," Ash nodded his head. His mother was a big fan of family drama serials on TV, and he was also forced to see one or two episodes during dinner time before he started living alone in the city. This kind of scene is very common in family TV serials. They always use this trick to make the hero and heroine fall in love with each other. Ash generally started waiting to see the legendary moment of a car/truck sending that girl to another world or some idiot jumping in front of the car/truck to save the little girl if she were really stupid enough to lose her ball and run in the middle of the road to grab it.

"Now, that girl should drop her ball and run behind to catch it without caring about anything else... Oh, ohh, f*ck, she really dropped the ball. I knew it. Today's writer can really predict the future... But then why isn't my book getting famous? Don't tell me I still haven't awakened my powers. Also, did that lady not care about her daughter at all? How could she not notice her daughter walking past her?"

While Ash having doubt in his eyes that he misjudged the relationship between the little girl and the hot lady who seemed to be having too much fun on the phone to notice her surroundings, the girl had already come to the middle of the road and with a triumphant squeal, she lunged for it, finally catching the ball, oblivious to the red blur bearing down at her an alarming speed.

Behind the wheel of the sports car sat a middle-aged woman who was angrily scolding her husband for not picking up their children from school, and now they were standing alone outside the school. Clearly, she didn't have much focus on the road, as she was too busy venting her anger on her husband to think about those insignificant things.

"Here comes the main protagonist of the show. I should make a video of this accident; the newspaper companies will definitely pay me a lot for such hot news," Ash muttered merrily while starting to record on his phone with bright eyes filled with anticipation. However, the thought of saving the poor little girl never crossed his mind even once. After all, why would he save a random girl who, of her own free will, came running in the middle of the road instead of informing her mother? Also, she is already 10 years old; there is no way her family or school teacher ever told her that she shouldn't run on the road without checking the traffic light or informing her guardians. It is better to let this kind of troublesome kid die rather than run other people's lives in the future.

"Lucifer was right; children are indeed more evil than devils," Ash nodded his head excitedly while looking at the mother of the girl, who finally realized that her troublesome little girl was about to go on a trip to another world.

The screech of brakes pierced the air, the lady hurriedly dropped her phone in shock and quickly ran toward her daughter, yelling loudly at her to get out of the way of the car.

On the other side, as if the angry aunty behind the wheel had finally won the argument with her husband and was finally willing to focus on the road, eyes wide with terror seeing a little girl about to be hit by her car. Terrified at the thought of changing her permanent address after the police caught her, the angry aunty frightened to death, wrestled the car off course with a strength born of desperate maternal instinct. The phone slipped from her trembling hand, clattering onto the asphalt like a discarded talisman.

Across the street, the little girl stood frozen, the main source of all the mess the ball fell from her hands and bounced away like a mocking echo. Her mother, heart pounding a frantic tattoo against her ribs, reached her in a heartbeat, tears mingling with the acrid scent of burnt rubber. Their terrified screams had given way to trembling sobs, a testament to the brush with mortality they had just shared.

Crussssss...

The loud sound of tires dragging on the road left black smoke, and the hot lady literally had a heart attack at the shocking scene. At the last moment, the angry aunty finally somehow managed to change the direction of her car, avoiding colliding with the little girl.

"WHAT THE HELL!!!"

This was the last thing Ash spat out from his mouth in horror before his happy moment turned into a nightmare. The heroic angry aunty crushed him under her car, smashing into a restaurant behind and killing more than ten people before hitting a solid, iron-like wall and coming to a stop...