Is this death?

“Ugh!?”

The searing pain exploded from Livia’s left shoulder.

Livia stared blankly at the bone arrow, the crow feathers on its tail still trembling slightly.

So this was what it felt like to have flesh pierced—not like the sound of a blood bar dropping in a game, but a delayed, agonizing pain that made every nerve ending scream, tinged with the taste of rust.

“It hurts! So painful, painful, painful, heal… right, healing potion…”

She fumbled for the crystal vial at her waist, only to find the broken chain of the cinching belt.

The goblin wielding the cleaver was squatting five steps away, its sharp claws holding her potion bottle, examining it in the daylight, its mouth split open to reveal shark-like triangular teeth.

“Huh!?”

Fear, like a cold snake, slithered into her spine.

Livia finally realized that these creatures were cooperating; they were organized and intelligent!

The ones with shields were drawing attention to themselves at the front, the archers were blocking their movement, and one that always stayed in the shadows was setting traps.

Beneath their ugly green skin beat hearts adept at killing.

“You, are you okay, Eek!?”

Alice was also pushed back by a goblin attacking from behind. She belatedly realized that they were trying to separate her and Livia.

She was surrounded by those small green figures, front, back, left, and right. In the distance, a lean goblin had already drawn its bone bow.

‘Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!’

“Alice, quickly dodge, that bow and arrow really hurts, Ah—!”

As the second arrow pierced her calf, Livia heard a whimper escape her throat.

Sooo—Painful—!!!

No, no, no, no!

Damn it.

This is wrong, this is completely different from the adventure in the other world she had imagined!

Why, why did so many goblins suddenly appear? Why were they using weapons? Why were they coordinating so perfectly, as if they had consciousness and could think.

They were so weak, how could they!

The rotten leaves slipped under Livia’s feet, as she fell into a state of utter shock.

The white-haired loli stumbled to the ground, then got up from the muddy ground without regard for her appearance, her shoulders trembling violently.

“Alice, hurry, this world is completely different from what we imagined…”

She dragged her injured leg, supporting Alice, and slowly retreated to the gnarled roots of the ancient tree.

Fortunately… she still had the raw materials for making healing potions on her, powders.

This method was more direct, but also more stimulating, and would cause the wound to scar, but at this point, she couldn’t afford to worry about such things.

“Here, healing powder.”

Livia grabbed a handful of powder from her pocket and gave some to Alice, then sprinkled the rest all over her shoulder and calf, gritting her teeth, her face pale from the pain.

In all her life, this was the first time she had felt such pain.

She hadn’t even felt this way when she died.

It had happened in an instant, without even the real sense of death.

But now.

An emotion called ‘death’ loomed over her, forming a dark cloud.

The goblins didn’t pursue immediately, but slowly closed in in a fan shape.

The sunlight suddenly dimmed for a moment. Livia looked up to see the largest one licking its cleaver. Tiny sparks flew as its dark green tongue scraped across the blade.

Cobwebs by the tree roots clung to her face, like a gentle kiss from death.

“I’m done for. What kind of twisted world is this? We can’t move now. We can only fight our way out.”

Alice frowned and stood up, a vexed expression on her face.

“Hmph, how can such a small matter trouble me, Lao Li. Haven’t we always played Beat Saber together? Just like that, chop! If we don’t kill them, we’ll be the ones to die.”

She said, blew the copper whistle with a ‘toot toot toot,’ and drew her sword to thrust.

“Right… right!”

Livia gritted her teeth.

An inch longer, an inch stronger.

Her weapon was still the longest. As long as she could maintain a safe distance and use the goblins’ bodies as shields against the arrows…!

Feeling that the pain in her calf didn’t hinder her movements, Livia instantly charged out, wielding her spear like an impenetrable iron curtain.

The goblins clearly hadn’t expected the two girls, who had been on the verge of despair moments ago, to suddenly erupt and launch a near-suicidal attack.

That’s right.

Humans are fragile creatures, so fragile that even a scratch from a feline animal is extremely uncomfortable, leaving faint scars that last a lifetime, and they can’t even repair cavities on their own.

When encountering mad dogs, wolves, or leopards, they would avoid them at all costs.

But.

All of that was based on the desire to remain unharmed.

If one were already low on health, or even fighting for their life, then the fearsome upright apes were not something that mere goblins could compare with!

“Gurgle gurgle—!”

The goblin wielding the cleaver was instantly pierced through the throat by Livia. Its scream soon turned into the sound of boiling water in a kettle.

That was the sound of blood rushing to its throat.

Before she could feel joy, a sharp knife was slashed towards her in front of her.

She instinctively raised her spear. Fragments of the broken spear shaft grazed her cheek with a ‘whoosh,’ and she took the opportunity to thrust the remaining two sections of the spear forward, piercing the goblin’s head.

“Gah!”

At the same time, Alice’s rapier pierced the hearts of three goblins. As they panted, they found more monsters swarming towards them, stepping on their corpses…

When Livia’s third spear section completely shattered, they were forced into a dead end against the rock wall.

Alice’s right arm had a wound that was deep enough to see bone. Blood matted her golden hair into dark red streaks.

“Haah… Livia, what’s going on with them… why are there so many and they just won’t die…”

The goblins let out baby-like cries and danced twistedly around the two, encircling them.

The atmosphere was extremely eerie.

“I’m sorry…”

Livia knelt on the ground, gripping the remaining spearhead. The bone-chilling cold seeped from the rock crevice behind her. “I shouldn’t have been so careless and relaxed… If I had known, I should have investigated more thoroughly, been more rigorous, and not rushed in so recklessly. I didn’t expect… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…!”

“I’m the one who got you into this, it’s all my fault. We, we, sob… Gulp.”

Livia bit her lower lip tightly.

Regret and endless self-blame were tormenting and destroying her sanity.

The intense emotional fluctuation made her stomach churn, but because she hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, she could only support herself on the ground and dry heave.

“Hmph! I don’t blame you at all! Our thoughts were exactly the same!”

Alice tightly gripped her rapier. A hint of determination appeared in her sapphire eyes, which were trembling with fear.

“Who knew these damned goblins were so insidious? We’re both already doomed. Now, even if we die together, at least we’ll have seen each other one last time. It’s better than dying inexplicably in reality! Besides, they’ve killed so many of their own, if we split up and run, we might be able to escape. Go!”

Alice suddenly ran to the right, and Livia shakily picked up the large stone on the ground and stood up.

That’s right…

What kind of disheartening words are these.

Haven’t we survived yet? Isn’t there still hope?

Whatever, let’s just do it, no matter what happens, and at least not regret it!!

“Ughhhhhhh!”

The white-haired loli, now seemingly mad, tightly gripped the stone with both hands, lifting it high above her head, and smashing it fiercely at the goblin squinting its eyes in front of her, as if mocking her.

Splash!

“Laugh, laugh, I’ll make you laugh!!”

Livia didn’t know where the strength came from. The desire for destruction spread through her heart non-stop. Her actions startled the surrounding goblins.

They took half a step back.

This detail did not escape Livia’s eyes. As if discovering a weakness, Livia happily turned her head.

“Alice, they’re afraid, they’re scared too, we just…!?”

“Eek—!”

Alice’s scream pierced Livia’s eardrums.

Livia froze in place, seeing the golden-haired girl’s ankle entangled by vines, lifting her upside down. Her rapier was stuck in the dirt five steps away.

Something warm and liquid splashed onto her face.

It was Alice’s blood.

Livia’s pupils reflected her best friend’s convulsing body—four bone spears had pierced that delicate body from different angles.

Tree shadows wove a spiderweb on Alice’s blood-stained golden hair.

“No.”

Livia helplessly reached out, watching her best friend’s toes swing in the air.

Like a puppet, but now, it was the bone spears piercing her body that pulled Alice.

Blood dripped down her golden hair, creating deep red ripples in the pile of dead leaves.

“Quick, run…”

More blood foam emerged from Alice’s mouth with every word she spoke.

She tried to grab the bone spear that had pierced her abdomen, but her fingertips, adorned with light pink nail polish, only managed to draw blood on the rough bone spurs.

“Let her go, let go, let go—!”

Livia heard a beast-like roar escape her throat as she picked up the meat cleaver from the ground and turned sharply.

“Heh heh heh, the weakest prey in thirty years.”

A hoarse Common Tongue voice echoed from the tree canopy.

Livia looked up, and a drop of warm blood fell into her left eye.

The Goblin Shaman hung upside down from an oak branch. Its rotten deer-antler helmet revealed a face crawling with maggots.

It held a human bone staff, the infant skull carved at the staff’s head spewing blood from a distance.

“The power, has grown again, heh heh heh heh heh—!”

“Ugh!”

Alice’s scream suddenly intensified.

The bone spears piercing her body began to grow barbs, blooming into flowers of flesh and blood within her.

The Shaman’s laughter shook a rain of blood from the treetops.

As Livia, crazed, charged forward, the magic vines released by the Shaman suddenly yanked her, slamming her into the tree trunk.

“Gah! Cough!“

Broken ribs pierced her lungs. She seemed to hear her own words from a few hours ago, “Isn’t this low-level commission a godsend? Trash goblins, we can complete it with our eyes closed~!”

—Swish, swish, swish.

The bone spears were withdrawn, and Alice fell to the ground, her pupils starting to dilate.

Livia watched her best friend point to her back with her last bit of strength, her blood-stained lips forming the shape of ‘run.’

This was a gesture they had repeated countless times, but now it became a farewell of eternal separation.

“Run… Alice, where else can I run…”

As a poisoned stone axe split her shoulder blade, Livia fell to the ground in agony, seeing the truth.

All the goblins’ eye sockets writhed with black tendrils, their movements perfectly synchronized, like puppets controlled by the same strings.

The infant skull on the Shaman’s staff was smiling, with Alice’s broken rapier in its mouth.

“So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is…”

I understand…

This Shaman is definitely not normal!!!

But now.

Everything was too late.

There was no time…

This is it.

The other world?

“Ha, haha, hahaha, cough, ha.”

She chuckled in a low voice, crawling slowly on the ground, embracing her best friend’s body.

There were no arrogant protagonists, no invincible powers, no effortless mowing down of enemies. It was just a cruel and real world where one couldn’t survive without giving their all, without facing death with every decision, and without being flippant or underestimating the enemy.

“We, we were chosen… we transmigrated… but why is our strength…”

Livia despaired and closed her eyes, pushing off the muddy ground with her feet. Both of them tumbled into the cave behind them.

No…

It wasn’t about being chosen.

Just one of the myriad of beings.

To be able to die and be resurrected in reality, and even to meet her best friend, was enough to marvel at a miracle. What else could she ask for?

Truly, a grave mistake…

In the darkness, a sticky fungal carpet spread beneath her feet. Before Livia’s pupils could adjust to the dimness, she heard the dull thud of sharp thorns piercing flesh.

—Chirp.

Intense pain erupted from her waist.

“Cough, gag.”

She saw her own blood spattering onto a stalactite, reflecting the grinning face of the Goblin Shaman behind her.

The entire cave was illuminated by the flickering light of countless torches. In the corner of her eye, she saw chests of gems reflecting the light.

“You… damn thing…”

With her last ounce of strength, Livia plunged her sharp fingernails into the Shaman’s eye sockets.

In those blood-stained pupils.

She saw her seventeen-year-old self laughing at Alice in the high school laboratory, “Hahaha, after the exams, we’ll team up and travel the world!”

“Huh, what if the plane crashes? I’m not going.”

“Bad luck! Then let’s die together. It’s a shame neither of us has a girlfriend. Kid, when are you going to find one? If I find one first, I’ll drive you crazy.”

“Haha, haha…”

The voices in her memory grew fainter and fainter.

Before darkness consumed her consciousness, she finally smelled the sweet,腥 odor of her own internal organs.

So this was the smell of death.

—It was so similar to the smell emanating from the pile of scrap metal three days ago.