Chapter 1:

Chapter 1 - My Adventure Begins!

Life In Another World Is A Total Scam!


“W-where am I?!”

“Hey, don’t panic! I can explain what happened to you!”

I found myself in a dark area only illuminated by glowing balls of white light. In front of me was a man dressed in a crimson suit with a black top hat. He had long, white, straight hair that almost covered his eyes.

“Am I in space?!”

“Sadly no, you’re in a purgatory of sorts.”

“Wait! I’m DEAD?!!!”

Holy shit! Am I actually dead?! No, that’s impossible! The last thing I remember is entering that store. Then that guy came in with a gun and!… Oh, I really am dead. I lowered my head in disappointment.

“I know it’s a lot to accept, but hey, at least you didn’t suffer”

“How do you know that? Are you like a god or something?”

The man pointed his finger at me.

“Bingo! My name is Zien, god of the afterlife!”

“Huh, I don’t remember hearing about you in any mythology.”

“How would anyone know what happens after death? Or about the gods of the universe?”

“Makes sense. People don't come back after death.”

“Yep, at least not with their memories, that is.”

“Oh, so you do get reincarnated after death.”

“Yep! Humans got that part of the afterlife right! Although there is an important detail they left out.”

“What would that be?”

“Earth isn’t the only place you reincarnate.”

“Really?” I said with intrigue, snapping out of my sadness

“Giovanni, you were big into anime and video games, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Then you would be familiar with the concept of isekai.”

“You mean…”

“That’s right! You can reincarnate into a fantasy world!”

“Wait, seriously?!” I said with a sparkle in my eyes.

I couldn’t believe it, isekai is real! And I’m the protagonist!

“So, is it just like the fantasy worlds from anime?”

“Exactly like it! There’s magic for you to learn, fantasy races like elves, beast people, demons, and dwarfs! Dragons! Dungeons! Magical cities! You name it, it’s probably there somewhere!”

“Hey, that sounds awesome and all, but I have a serious question.”

I raised my head up and looked Zien straight in the eyes.

“Are there like, hot girls who’ll join my party, fawn over me, and do whatever I say?”

“Of course there are! And the best part is,” said Zien, leaning into my ear. “You’re of legal age in that world. So you can have sex.”

That set my mind. I was going to this world. But I still had one more important question.

“So, you said there were beast people, right?”

“I already know what you’re gonna say, and yes, there are catgirls.”

I needed no more convincing; I was going to this world now.

“I assume you want to reincarnate there?”

“Listen, that place sounds like paradise. I want to go there.”

“It may sound perfect, but there is one catch.”

“What is it?”

“You don’t get some cool power or weapon before you’re sent there. But don’t worry! Magic is easy to learn, and suitable weapons aren’t scarce.”

“Guess I can’t expect to have everything given to me. I’ll just have to earn it!” I said with a determined smile.

“So, you still wanna go?”

“Of course! Not getting a special power won’t deter me one bit!”

“OK, I see no reason to wait further, so let’s send you to the fantasy world!”

Zien put out his hand and a glowing blue circle appeared beneath my feet. There was a flash of light, and suddenly, I was in a forest.

“Alright!!! I’m actually in a fantasy world!” I said, jumping up and down in excitement.

The trees surrounding me were tall and thick, with circular lime green leaves.

“Wow, this forest looks so cool! I don’t know where I should explore first!”

I began walking through the forest, just admiring its otherworldly beauty. Every plant I saw was unique. There were magenta mushrooms with black spots that came up to my waist. Patches of tall blood-red grass with thorns all over, short clumps of what looked like light blue hair. Flowers with triangular silver petals and bright yellow stigma, and a dark green plant that looked like a large flower bud. Out of curiosity, I poked the plant with a stick, to which it erupted with a thick white goo that melted it.

“OK, stay away from those plants.”

I wandered around a little more until I saw what looked like a wild boar. Its fur was black and dirty, and it had long, rough, whitish tusks protruding from its face.

“Wow! I’ve seen wild boars at the zoo before, but never this close!” I thought.

I hid behind a bush and began watching the boar; the beast seemed to look for something as it kept sniffing bushes and turning away.

“I wonder what it’s looking for.”

Eventually, the boar found a bush with red berries and gobbled them up. I looked at the bush in front of me and saw the same red berries all over it.

“Shoot! I gotta get out of here! If that boar comes over, it might see me!”

As I slowly crawled away from the bush, I felt something snap beneath my hand; the boar turned its head and charged.

“SHIIIIIT!!!”

I sprinted away from the area but the boar quickly caught up; it jumped at me and hit my back with its tusks. It nearly made me fall to the ground, but I kept going as I knew stopping meant death. Frantically, I looked around for something that might stop the boar, like a thick tree branch I could beat it with or even a sharp rock. That was when I spotted a patch of the flower bud plants.

“If those plants can melt a stick, I’m sure they’ll melt the flesh of a boar.”

The wild beast charged at me again, though I dodged its attack by jumping to the side. I hobbled my way over to the plants, with the boar following close behind. Then before I stepped on a plant, I jumped out of the boar’s way. It charged the patch and stepped on a plant that melted its hoof; the beast fell over and triggered more plants. Acidic white goo shot up through the boar like a geyser, leaving holes in its body. The boar instantly died, not even getting time to squeal in pain.

“Holy shit! That boar almost killed me! I’m lucky to be alive right now!” I said, sitting down on a nearby log.

It took me a minute to process what had just happened; it was all so sudden, and I barely had time to think.

“This is not what I expected. Don’t isekai protagonists usually get sent to a starter town or something? Zien could’ve at least given me a warning about this, like a ‘hey, you’re gonna get thrown in a forest with boars that try to kill you!’ This world sucks BAAAAALLS!!!”

Then it hit me, something I should’ve realised the moment I got sent to this world. This wasn’t some awesome isekai world where I’d go on epic adventures. Get a group of girls who fight over me and gain powers that’d make me a literal god. This was the exact opposite, a fantasy world that sounds super cool, but in reality, sucks!

“I should’ve known it was a scam! There’s no way the only catch to a fantasy world is that I don’t get sweet powers!”

I kicked the boar’s head in frustration and one of its tusks popped out of its head.

“Ewww! That’s gross!... But this tusk might serve as a decent weapon. I’ll take it with me.”

It was a lot larger than a normal boar tusk and a little heavy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. To test it out, I whacked it against a rock, to which the rock broke in two.

“Oh yeah, this tusk will work perfectly as a weapon.”

I continued to wander around the forest, trying not to run into any more trouble. But that’s when I spotted something I’d seen before millions of times in anime and video games. An enemy any gamer or anime fan would surely recognize. A humble slime, its body was spherical, light purple, and had 2 white dots which I presumed to be the creature's eyes. Not wanting a repeat of what happened with the boar, I turned around and walked in the opposite direction. I thought it was safe until I heard slimy slithering coming from behind. I slowly turned around to see the slime about 6 feet away from me.

“Why’s this thing following me? Is it gonna attack?”

I felt frightened. In most fantasy worlds, slimes were low levelled enemies even a noob could kill. But given my lack of knowledge on this world, this slime could be some super powerful monster and I won’t even know it. The slime made its way over to me. I stood up tall in response. Trying to make myself look more threatening. But it did absolutely nothing, and the slime kept slithering.

“Damn! Why did I think that would work? Slimes are stupid. Of course that wouldn’t intimidate them!”

The slime was about 3 feet from my foot. I was about to run away when I saw a large patch of those plant bud looking sprouts.

“Shit! I’m trapped! If I try to run away, those plants will melt me alive!”

With nowhere to go, I knew fighting was my only option. I gripped the boar tusk with both my hands and smacked the slime with it. Unfortunately, I only hit just the front part of the slime. So the attack launched the goopy foe at me and onto my head! I tried to scream, but the slime’s inter goop muffled it. Everything was purplish and looked like it was underwater. I frantically tried to pull the slime off my head, but it wouldn’t come off.

“This is how I die, isn’t it?! Running around like an idiot with a slime on my head! Why was I such a fool and believed Zien when he told me this place was awesome?! I wish I’d just told him to reincarnate me back on earth!”

“I DON’T WANNA DIE A VIRGIIIIIIII-!!!”

Blinded by my panic and the slime, I didn’t notice the tree right in front of me. I ran into it at full speed, fully expecting to die. But to my surprise, not only was I unharmed, the slime had fallen off my head as well. It was reduced to a grey puddle of goop on the forest floor.

“Guess all it needed was a proper blow… Wait, if that’s true, why didn’t it die when I first hit it? Did I not hit it hard enough or something? Or maybe the wrong spot?”

Whatever the reason was, that was the second time in less than an hour I’d nearly died! And I was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Who knew what other horrid monsters could lurk in this forest?! Not wanting to wait and find out, I headed off into the forest, praying I’d find civilization. As I continued to wander through the forest, something dawned on me. I was getting hungry.

“I don’t know how big this forest is, or how far away some form of civilization might be. So securing food is a must!”

The only problem with that is I don’t know what’s safe to eat. And trying to figure that out could cost me my life. I looked around and spotted a tree with some lumpy purple things growing from it.

“That might be edible,” I said while walking over to the tree.

I plucked a fruit from the tree and smelt it.

“Kinda smells like an orange.”

Still a little nervous that it might be poisonous or something, I gave it a lick. The taste of sweet citrus permeated my tongue.

“Not bad…”

Knowing I didn’t really have any other options, I took a bite out of the fruit. It had a strong fruity flavour, almost like a mix between pineapple and an orange.

“Damn! This stuff is good!” I said, taking another bite.

Soon, I had eaten the entire fruit, leaving only the dark green stem. Since this was the only food I’d come across, I knew I had to take it with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a bag or anything I could carry things in. But then I remembered what Zien had said about this world being just like an isekai.

“If this world runs on isekai logic, that might mean there’s some kind of RPG menu!”

I started tapping the space in front of me, hoping some kind of menu would appear, but nothing did.

“Maybe it’s voice activated.” I thought.

“Menu!”

“Open menu!”

“Inventory!”

“Stats?!”

“Open!”

No matter what I said, nothing happened. So either this world didn’t have a menu, or I just didn't know how to access it. However, I still had to carry stuff with me. I knew making a bag wasn’t an option since I didn’t know how or have any materials.

“If only I’d died with something useful! Like a backpack full of survival gear! Even something like a pocket knife might be of use!”

Knife. That word triggered something in my brain. It may have been a little odd. But in my situation, it might just work.

“If I take a stick and sharpen the tip, I could use it as a kebab! Then I could carry the fruit around with me!”

I picked up 2 rocks, and in midair, bashed one against the other until it had a sharp edge.

“Learned that trick from an anime. Thank you, Professor Rock. ”

Then I tore a branch from the tree and ran the sharp edge of the stone along it until the branch tip was spear-like.

“Alright! I actually made a spear! Haha, never thought stuff I learned in survival games would be so useful!”

Next, I peeled the bark off the branch. Figuring it would make the fruit dirty if I didn’t. My make-shift kebab was finally complete, I walked back over to the tree and began sticking fruit on it. I held it up triumphantly and shouted,

“Behold, my genius!”

With a good amount of food and a way to carry it, I set off to wander this forest once more.

"God, how big is this friggin forest?! I've been here for at least an hour and all I've seen are trees! I was hoping to find other life besides more monsters. But so far, the only living creatures I’ve seen are a boar and a smile!”

I pounded a log with my boar tusk in anger, making it crack. From the crack, a tiny green worm crawled out. I stared at the creature, filled with rage.

“This world has a god, and he’s messing with me…”

Wait, this world did have a god! Zien! He must’ve been watching me and planted that worm there!

“Zien, you bastard! Stop screwing with me! If you sent me here to die, then just kill me! What’s the point of letting me live if I’m just going to suffer?!”

It was small and likely a joke, but the worm thing pissed me off to no end. Was he mocking me? If he was, why? He was the one who sent me to this world with nothing. In one hour, I’d nearly died twice. How many people can say they've nearly died twice in their lifetime? How many more times would I just barely escape death until I ran out of luck? And when I died, what would happen? Would I see Zien again or some different god?

“I’m stuck here for the rest of my life, however short that might be.”

I punched my fist in the air.

“But I swear! I won’t let this world kill me! Whatever Zien tries to throw at me, I’ll it’s goddamn ass! You hear me, Zien?! You won’t kill meeee!”

Feeling very confident, I continued my adventure through this seemingly never ending forest.

It didn’t take long before I spotted something else, or rather heard something. It sounded like grunts and growls, but not the kind you’d hear from a monster. What I heard sounded more complex, almost like a language. Excited I may have finally found semi intelligent life, I rushed over to see what that noise was.

“After nearly an hour of searching, finally! Something that would wanna kill me!”

But I was wrong, so very, very wrong. What I had stumbled across was intelligent life, but also a monster.

“Goblins…” I muttered.

Taylor Victoria
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