I awoke with a start.
Sitting up in a hurry, I looked around, clenching my rapidly beating heart.
"Where am I? Fuck, my head..."
I grabbed my pounding skull, trying to make sense of the situation.
I was currently sitting in an alley way. But if I recall correctly, I was trying to get away from-
Get away from...
"Huh...?"
Why can't I remember?
No, before that, wasn't I standing in front of Ethans room? He had gone missing for 5 days and I went to his house to find him.
What happened after I opened the door?
"What the hell?" I muttered.
It was like my memories were being wiped in real time. How did I go from being in a house, to being in an alley?
"Early onset dementia? I'm not that old yet, right? I'm only 24."
Some might say "24!? Damn!!" But to that I say shut your fuckin mouth.
"Not good, I'm getting distracted. Why am I here?"
Steadying myself against the wall, I struggled to stand up straight. For some reason, my entire body felt like shit.
"First, let me see where I am. Just sitting on my ass won't do much."
Walking out of the alley, I looked around.
"What in tarnation?"
I was surrounded by multiple high rise buildings littered with neon signs and adverts. It felt like I was in one of those fancy ultra urban cities, like Tokyo or New York.
Which is odd, since I'm a country bumpkin. The tallest building in my town was the nearby McDonalds.
Don't get it twisted, it looked incredible. I've never seen anything like it.
It just wasn't where I lived.
I ruffled my hair in frustration. Everything about this is confusing me.
I limped down the street while cursing my circumstances. It was night time, so there weren't many people around to see me struggling to stay upright.
I didn't know where I was going, I just wanted to clear my mind. Stress and pain filled my head like an overflowing sink. I barely even registered my surroundings, I just moved forward.
Just like I always had.
The scenery moved by in a blur of time, and eventually my thoughts became empty.
What must have been hours passed by until I finally saw someone.
In my blurry vision clouded by pain, I saw three small green figures.
"Hey...! Could I ask you gentlemen for some help?" I yelled to get their attention.
They turned to me, and I froze, as my vision suddenly cleared up, and I got a good look at who, or what, I was talking to.
Dark green skin, long noses, crooked joints, disgustingly distorted limbs, and grossly rotund stomachs in comparison to their thin frame.
"Damn, I've never seen downs syndrome like that before..."
Although I joked, I was actually close to shitting my pants. No matter how much I thought of it, only one word seemed to describe what I was seeing.
"Gyaablins(goblins)..."
"KIEEEEK!!!!"
They shrieked and ran towards me.
I didn't hesitate and bolted in the opposite direction.
"You're fucking kidding me!!!"
And so began the chase.
Sprinting away with all my might, I looked back to see that they were slowly getting further away.
Luckily, their legs were quite short, so I outran them quite easily.
Turning the corner and diving into another alley, I caught my breath.
"What the fuck is that shit!?! Where the hell am I?!"
Doubts about the city I was in filled my mind. Goblins weren't real, so what the fuck did I just see?
"Ack!!"
My entire body screamed in pain, and I ended up letting out an involuntary groan.
"KIEEHH!?!!"
The three stooges heard me and ran around the corner with vicious crooked smiles on their faces.
Scrambling to get up, I just about turn the corner when-
SHIK
SPLURT
"Gah, damnit!!"
A chipped dagger flew through the air and landed in my shoulder.
-Third Blessing, [Can't Stay Down]-
I heard something in my head, but ignored it.
I wanted to collapse and scream, but the moment I did that, I would die.
Pulling myself together, I scrambled out of the alley.
"Help!! Someone help me!!"
I screamed out of desperation, but I only heard the mocking laughter of goblins.
"Whats so godamn funny..!"
I grit my teeth and continued running with all my might, but I was running out of stamina.
Slowly but surely, they gained on me. Adrenaline could only do so much for me here when I was already in a shitty condition.
But I wasn't without salvation.
When I turned the corner, a person came into view.
It was a brown haired young women with dog ears on her head.
"Hey!"
I yelled to get her attention, she was stepping out of what seemed to be a bakery.
Locking the door, she turned to see who was yelling, and froze.
Running straight at her was a man covered in blood from head to toe. His face was soaked with crimson as it seemingly spilled from every orifice on his body.
More blood leaked from his eyes, ears and mouth as he screamed frantically.
His arm hung limply as a dagger stuck out of his shoulder, drawing even more blood.
And worst of all were his eyes. Bloodshot and mixed with tears, his pupils seemed to glow with a terrifying crimson light.
When the young dog lady made eye contact, her instincts went haywire.
"Please! You gotta help me! I'm being chased-"
-Second Curse, [Elders Gaze]-
"Elders whuh?"
CRUNCH
Suddenly, the young woman assumed perfect boxing form and threw the straightest jab id ever seen.
Unfortunately, it was aimed at me.
I felt a sense of weightlessness, as though flying through the air, and felt my back smash against the concrete, knocking the the wind out of me.
-Third Blessing, [Can't Stay Down]-
As I lay there, vision fading and mind slipping, I could only wonder what my crime was to be put in this situation.
"Eh...? Ah! I'm sorry!!"
Hearing those words, I fell into a cold, dreamless sleep.
.....
....
...
..
.
Beep, beep, beep, beep-
My eyes peeled open as the Incessant beeping in my ears grew louder. At first I couldn't make out much, but as the world slowly regained color, I was finally able to make out my surroundings.
The first thing I saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
"Huh. Never thought I'd be the one saying that someday." I thought.
"Kidding. Isekai isn't real."
Visions of goblins screamed in my mind.
"Or, maybe it is...?"
Disoriented, I sat up from the hospital bed, I already knew where I was.
If I hadn't died, and that young lady called for help, the most reasonable chain of events would be for me to wake up in a hospital.
But the number one thing on my mind wasn't the goblins, not the girl who knocked the daylights outta me, not even how I ended up in this situation in the first place.
"Is my insurance gonna cover this...?"
I was worried about money. The lifeblood of society, the fuel that keeps the engine running, and my number one opposition.
Lemme just state this.
I'm not a very fortunate person.
A lucky day for me means not getting fucked over at every corner.
Things you may be able to save up with ease, withers away at the touch of my hands.
Here's a couple of examples.
Losing money to every vending machine I've gone to.
Losing my wallet every time I use an Uber.
Websites bugging out and charging me multiple times.
Card declining at a starbucks.
Getting mugged every other month.
House breaking down in a natural disaster, multiple times!
With this kinda luck, you can probably tell what happened when I went into stocks.
As a result, I have a very love-hate relationship with money.
I'm worried that the precious moolah I precariously saved will evaporate. And for good reason, as I don't think "goblin attacks" are covered by my insurance.
Just as I was about to start panicking, the door to my hospital room opened, and a woman in nurse attire stepped in.
She looked at me and froze, which I hope won't be a recurring theme, before running out.
"Doctor!! The patient is awake!!"
"He's what!?"
A couple seconds after the nurse ran out, a man with feminine features and pink hair ran in, his doctors attire in a mess.
"What on earth...? Hey, you haven't resurrected as a zombie have you?"
"Obviously not?"
What kind of doctor asks something like that to a patient who just woke up?
"Sorry, that was unprofessional of me."
The doctor apologized an introduced himself.
"My name is Dr. Balisong, your assigned physician and the person who saved your life."
I nodded to that, pretty simple so far.
"You were brought in due to a variety of life threatening internal injuries. Due to this you have been unconscious for-"
"Hold on! Internal injuries??"
Balisong sighed. "Yes, internal injuries."
"Didn't I have I knife sticking out of my shoulder though? How did my insides get messed up?"
"Oh, the knife was actually the least of your worries. We patched that up real quick with our healers."
Healers? What, do they practice magic? What does that even mean?
"So what's wrong with my guts?"
"Oh, pretty much everything that can be wrong with them. Your skin was all red and inflamed, and your organs were bruised and torn in just about every way imaginable."
"Huh...?"
"Not just that, but your brain was also all sorts of messed up. To be blunt, it's a miracle you're even alive. When I first saw you, I thought they wheeled in a corpse."
Was that why my body felt like shit?
Hm.
"Excuse me, but do you have any idea how you got like this?"
"No clue."
"... I see. Your surprisingly calm about this."
"Ah, I'm more worried about the hospital bill."
"Ahh... About that..."
Oh, he's about to ruin my day isn't he.
"You don't... Happen to have insurance do you?"
"Huh? Of course I do."
"Not on our end you don't."
Aaand there it is.
"In fact, on our end, you don't seem to even exist?"
Wait what.
"Don't you have my id?"
I had a couple things in my pocket when I woke up, my id being one of them.
"We did, but it's not on the system. It's not in any system. Almost like you came from another world."
'Another world.'
Another world.
No.
You're fucking lying to me.
Please say you're lying to me.
"Hey, quick question, are goblin attacks common here?"
Please say I'm crazy.
"Hm? Not unless you live near the extra-dimensional gate."
...
...
"I'm cooked."
×Chapter 2: Bad Luck×