Rabbit Eyes 1 – A New Life

Open your eyes—

A resplendent, faceless figure speaks to me in this never-ending void. The echoes reverberate through my skull, awakening me.

Where am I? Is this afterlife? Such thoughts were irrelevant, as I felt no control in this timeless space. A fever dream perhaps, I thought. Perhaps this is the brief respite everyone has before they’re sent into emptiness after death.

Death?

That’s right. I remember now. I was hit by a truck. 

In an attempt to escape from that place, I ran onto the road in a panic and—

The details were lost on me, as probing further caused a headache in my mind.

And in my haziness, I felt the sensation of another. I was embraced with gentle hands. Who was it? Who’s cradling me in their arms? As her fingers brushed along my hair, I could almost see her non-existent expression turn warmer. 

Shiro… do not worry. You are safe now. 

Shiro… that is my name.

I will protect you from them. So until then, please…

Gradually warmer, until it slowly becomes unbearable.

And then—

 

Wake up.

I woke up. In the space between a blink of my eyes, the white ceiling was gone.

A distinct, grassy scent fluttered into my disoriented senses, and I dazedly raised my body with a loud ringing in my ears. My throat feels dry.

A wave of sudden nausea tipped over my balance, pulling my body into a strange crash down into a ditch behind me. Muddy water splashed onto my back while I made a hasty stumble out of the trench. Was I outside? The light and humid winds blowing in the air seemed to tell me so. This looked nothing like a hospital. In fact, I don’t appear to be anywhere close to civilization.

Following a strange gut feeling, I opened my eyes only to be greeted with an unfamiliar sight.

What in the…

I’m in the middle of grasslands. The vast blue sky was my ceiling.

Where there were… two suns. 

Surely, there was something wrong with my eyes, because that wasn’t all I was seeing. A holographic floating panel lay before me, the likes of which would only be seen in certain games.

[You have taken 1 damage.]

A combat log.

No way right? After all, that’s something that only happens in a game.

…A… game.

Things began to click within me.

Two suns. A familiar grassland clustered in yellow.

And a ‘system notification’.

It couldn’t be. I pulled out a tuft of grass nearby, and immediately another panel appeared.

[You have obtained Pommel Grass x1]

[Pommel Grass – Common Material]

“It’s… impossible.”

‘Items’? A dream? But the pain in my back still feels so real.

Then… as much as this is impossible for me to believe, this situation could only be considered as that. Rather, it was the only logical, yet illogical conclusion that I had come to at this moment.

The one phenomenon documented in a whole shelf of light novels, titles I had memorized; Transmigration into a different world.

…If so. Then something like this— “Status Window?”

[White – LV 1][9/10 HP][0/10 EXP] 

…It appeared. Imagine my shock as my hands passed through the status window as if it were intangible. It followed my line of sight constantly, and would only disappear when I lost my focus on it.

Gulp.

Then, this was it. I had transmigrated. Transmigrated into the world of a game as a Level 1. I lay back down on the grass and shut my eyes.

“Ha… hahaha… hahahahhahahaha!!”

I’m laughing like crazy, my breathing turned heavier and the pounding in my chest too fast to stop. The knowledge that something you’d see in a novel is happening in reality.

Knowing that adventure awaited me, completely different from the mundanity of my life.

I clenched my fingers one by one, feeling the spring and vividness of my body. As I calibrated my senses, I realized that it wasn’t just my imagination that I had gotten much healthier. My body was more toned and felt lighter.

Was I inhabiting a new body, or had my body experienced some kind of change in order to assimilate into this world?

I had a sickly body in my previous life, one plagued from misfortunes and a low self-esteem. This inclined me towards the first possibility. But as I had realized that the clothes I am wearing were the same as they were before, I couldn’t simply dismiss the latter either. If only there was a mirror around, I could see how I looked that way. Recalling an excerpt of a survival documentary I’d read before online, I turned towards the trench and followed along it.

The route eventually led me deeper into a plantation, where a small river flowed. I stared down at the water surface and saw my own reflection.

It was definitely me. Except a little younger? No, I had a feeling it was because every part about my body felt ‘renewed’. The eyebags that formed a part of my once droopy eyes had vanished, leaving me with a sharper look on my face. Any traces of wrinkled skin had now been restored completely too. My black, tousled hair also felt trimmed and parted cleanly even with the lengths of my fringe. As for my clothes, well. They were now a tight fit, probably due to the lean muscle that was now on my body.

I took one last look at myself and rolled up my sleeves. In any case, the first priority now is to decide my future plans from here on out. Everything might still be a dream, but since it has happened, I do plan on making the most out of this opportunity. 

Disconnected from my original world? Reluctance or lingering regrets? Don’t joke with me. I have nothing inhibiting me at all. 

—I had no attachments to my past. To be exact, there were things that I didn’t want to remember. That was why I enjoyed stories that brought the protagonists into another world. It was easy to discard your past responsibilities and burden, and start anew. 

It was a free pass at a second life, in a place where no one knew the past you. Of course, I still have many things I need to work on. Changing myself wasn’t going to be easy. I know, even if my body has changed, my mind is still just as weak. But the first step to change always started from the decision to.

“Haaah, …now then.”

I am a Level 1 character. And how do levels affect a person specifically? Speaking in terms of an RPG, the 4 main parameters that a character could raise was his “Strength”, “Dexterity”, “Intelligence” and “Luck”. Of course the effects of these stats varied from game to game, but they generally followed this mold.

I’m curious about how this world works in detail, but for now I decided on a simple goal. I want to find a way to get in touch with civilization. I want to meet new people. I want to experience adventure.

Simple was best.

The commonplace of a fantasy world starts in every human city, although I certainly do not mind entertaining the idea of co-existing with other elusive races like the elves. However I don’t have to look for it right now. I have no idea where I am at present; the yellow grass spans as far as my eye can see, and it might take days or even months to find a way out. 

Thus the first logical thing that I have to do is to gather sufficient food and water. If I’m not wrong, this looks like a beginner level area. There are plenty of shrubberies around this natural plantation that I can forage from. As for shelter, good thing I’d learnt how to camp in the past.

Alright, we’re set. With some semblance of plans in mind, I set out to work.

Afternoon passed by in a flash, and I had managed to procure food successfully. A blue fruit the size of a pebble which had a strange sour taste.

[Pletuplant – Common Material]

[Consumable: -1 Hunger. Slightly aids in stamina recovery.]

Was there a reason for restricting all that information from the player? Then why could I see my own level and experience gauge? Why even have the status visible to me?

Popping another berry into my mouth, I began to think of the various scenarios that the protagonists had put themselves under in this situation. But they’d always started with a fully equipped status unlike mine. This world took a more hands-on approach to understanding the concepts of its System. …Nothing comes to mind, if only there was a guide to give me a hint.

 

…Wait, Guide?

It wouldn’t hurt to test something. Picturing a spherical shape of orange in my mind, I extended my palm forward and yelled: “Fireball!”

[You have not learnt this spell.]

[You do not have the required class to cast this spell.]

[You do not have sufficient MP to cast this spell.]

The System gave new alerts.

Yes! 

I immediately opened my status window again. Bingo, I was right. 

The Status Window had ‘evolved’.

In the same way the System informs you of taking damage and shows you information in the form of a HP bar, I am now able to have the ‘Class’, ‘MP’ and ‘Stats’ parameters available to me. 

In addition, it seems like I’m able to see my ‘Rank’ and ‘SP’. SP definitely refers to either “Skill Points” or “Status Points” in this case which I would probably get with each level up, and Rank probably gauges my relative power level according to the world?

I’m sure things will get clearer as I gain more experience, so I decided to stop experimenting for today. From how the status looks, this seemed to be the full extent of the parameters that I could see now.

I took out my outer jacket to hold all the harvested fruits and tied them like a pouch around my waist. As night fell, I looked for natural shelter inside the hollow of a tree and packed the bedding with dry leaves. Next I took out a purplish flower and inspected it.

[ Urserret – Common Material]

[ Ingredient: Poison/Herb. A naturally grown toxin against insects.]

The saying is actually true, that one can find anything they need to survive within the wilderness. It was extremely handy for insect repellent to exist here, and it was very convenient when it was an ‘item’ which I could easily find with a simple glance. Items had a faint glow when I actively looked for them, which made the search incredibly straightforward.

As I rubbed the Urserret petals along the walls of the tree bark, the herb gave off the distinct smell of lemongrass. It was stronger than I thought. While waiting for the smell to settle, I picked up some small branches in case I needed a fire. It started to rain so I returned to the tree hollow to take shelter.

As I stared outside the small hole of the tree listlessly, I popped another nut into my mouth and chewed on it. The sound of the rain in the dark began to make me feel sleepy. I finished up my quick vegetarian dinner and laid down. I unfurled the jacket used to hold the fruits and wrapped it around my body as a blanket once it grew colder. Aaah, the rain is leaking from the top… I covered my head with the jacket, but my legs became the next recipient for the prickling chill of the cold night.

It’s a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t enough to wake me up.

…I’ll work on improving the shelter tomorrow.

Haha… I missed this. Outdoor camping alone like this.

As I readjusted my body to a comfortable sleeping posture, my eyes naturally closed. A long day is finally over.

Then… I’ll see you tomorrow again, new world.

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