"Sigh. So boring."

On the way, a 27-year-old man walked holding a backpack in his hand. The backpack was large but not completely filled. The man stopped at the traffic light. With every passing second, more and more people stopped next to him.

The traffic light read 43. It was clear that they had to wait longer. And the road was full of cars.

Suddenly, he felt someone's hand on his back. In the next second, she pushed him towards the passing cars.

When he turned around, he saw a girl. His eyes became serious and he looked at her angrily.

In an instant, there was a sharp pain, and then nothing.

"What? Did that bitch really try to kill me... This... is the afterlife... Hmm... Is this hell? But wait... what's wrong with my body?"

Looking at his hands, he saw black skin and bones. His entire body, arms, and legs were black. And in some places, there were even several missing pieces of flesh, and bite marks.

"Is this from the accident?... No, no, no. This body can't be normal... What nonsense, I must be a walking corpse. Did I really get reincarnated?"

Looking around, he saw only wasteland and black sand. And very rare dried trees.

"This must be hell... Or maybe it's for the better. I'm tired anyway. Tired of living in this boring world."

Looking around and seeing nothing, he began to look more carefully. After a few minutes, he had a sudden realization.

"Maybe this will work? STATUS."

A terrible roar began to sound, but not near his ears, but directly in his head. The hellish sound seemed endless and was like the pounding of a hammer.

"Stop, shut up!"

In the next moment, the demonic song was stopped. Looking around, he saw nothing. And no one appeared.

"Could this demonic sound be from what I said...Better not say that word again. It'll be hellish again...But...I'm still in hell. Maybe it's a form of torture...Maybe I'm just suffering from madness."

Touching his new or old body, he walked to the nearest tree. It was dead, the bark cracked, as were several long thick branches.

"This tree, God knows when it died. And by the looks of it, it happened several centuries ago... And to the touch, it's almost like my skin."

Leaving the tree behind, the man walked on, where his eyes could see. He saw land somewhere, and sand in other places, but everything was black. And that was strange. There was no soul, not even grass.

"Am I in a desert or something like it? And this body is strange, as if it's dead. I don't feel hunger or fatigue."

Walking straight ahead, he began to look at the sky. It was painted in shades of gray and black. And there seemed to be no sun, but there was light. Strange.

It's unknown how much time had passed, but one day he noticed movement. Something small was walking on the ground. Approaching closer, he saw an insect. But... It was very big and looked scary. It looked like a walking corpse and was filled with some sticky liquid.

The cockroach, being the first to see the approaching corpse, didn't pay too much attention to it. But the corpse, having approached and examined it for some time, began to quickly reduce the distance.

Feeling the danger, the cockroach ran to the nearest tree and climbed up a branch. As it prepared to attack, its opponent approached faster and faster.

When the distance for a swing was shortened, the corpse struck down with all its might. But this miracle of a bug was strong and still ran away. The corpse struck the cockroach again, and this time it became slower than before.

After a few jerks, the cockroach finally stopped and stopped walking, and white mist came out of it and began to absorb into the astonished black man.

"Well, what is this? What kind of mist... Maybe it's like XP in games? Hmm."

He put his hand under his chin and began to ponder. And to avoid boredom, he started to slowly turn his head, first to the right, then to the left. After a few minutes, he began to applaud himself and exclaim loudly:

"I get it! Very funny! Who dragged me into the game? You can come and talk to me face to face... And where the hell are you? Sent me at least to a world with beautiful girls and cool stuff. Not this crap... Phew, almost went through hell again."

Looking around, he saw no one. His newfound hope began to crumble.

"Well, um, where are you? Please, answer."

Only the wind whistled nearby, and around him was nothing but bare desert. With shattered hopes, he continued walking on the black sand.

After an unknown amount of time, he saw something big and black in the distance. He was ready to shout for joy, but quickly regained his senses and calmed down. Remembering the cockroach he killed on the first day (or so it seemed to him) in this world, he realized that what he saw could be something hostile.

But boredom and monotony were weighing on him, so in the end, he decided to take a closer look. He would decide what to do next when he got there.

As he walked, he began to ponder everything that had happened during his time here. He didn't feel hungry and quickly concluded that his hunch was correct. He was truly undead, though he hadn't fully proven it yet. Then he wondered, "What kind of creature does this body belong to?" It was bipedal, black, full of wounds, and almost naked. What could it be? Certainly not an elf, as he, or rather, I had something between my legs that was at least as big as my ring finger.

And I'm as handsome as a homeless businessman. Only blind people can be attracted to me, and even then, only until they touch my skin.

So, the elf is out. What's next? Dwarf. No, I'm too tall and not hairy enough. So, no. What else could it be... well, demon. Hmm, maybe, but I've only seen myself in this world. And I don't have a mirror. From all of this, I can say that I am undead or some kind of creature that I don't know.

Thinking this way, he slowly approached his goal. No matter how much time passed, the weather was always the same, always cloudy and the sky filled with dark clouds.

As he approached, he saw many trees, bare and with black branches. Touching one of them, he was very surprised. The tree was made of stone.

He swung the stick he had torn off one of the trees he had encountered before in the wasteland. When he hit the branch, the stick in his hand broke. He looked at the now useless stick and threw it away.

"Well, it's strong. Even my weapon broke, which means the stone tree is stronger... And now I have two problems. First, how to break off a branch. And second... I fucking broke my only weapon against cockroaches! I won't fight with my hands or feet. Shit!"

Everything was covered in curse words. He began to look around, maybe he would get lucky and find a stick. For more than an hour, he turned around, and with each passing minute, the panic grew stronger. But as he moved less actively, he stumbled upon something. Looking at the culprit, he saw a stick sticking out of the sand... A stick...!!!

He was ready to dance with joy, but quickly regained his composure and began digging in the sand with his hands.

For over five hours he dug, but the end was never found. However, the stick he found was already over 10 meters long. He was so focused on digging that he didn't even realize how much time had passed.

He dug without stopping until one of the sand mountains at the entrance began to flow back directly onto his head. Looking up, he was scared.

"How long have I been digging? And what is this? Damn, it's the same stick. Ahh, why didn't I realize it from the beginning? It's a root... sigh, I was so happy. This is unfair."

It took him over 10 minutes to get out of the hole he had made himself. Looking at the long protruding root, he started cursing it.

As he paced around in circles, an idea came to him. He jumped back into the hole, picked up the root, and started carefully moving it to the side. Soon, a faint but distinct cracking sound was heard.

"Could it be? Am I lucky?"

But the stick, which he was pulling to the side, began to return to its original position.

"No way, you bitch. Are you serious?"

With these words, he moved like a drug addict who hadn't received a dose. But the stick, as if alive, did not want to surrender to this scoundrel. But finally, with a traitorous creak, the stick broke, and he fell with it in his hands.

"Here you go, you bastard! It's a good thing I don't feel any pain, or my ass would be in trouble."

Looking at the stick in his hand, he couldn't help but grin, revealing his blackened teeth.

"Well, I finally have a weapon against cockroaches. Although it's not better than the first one, at least it's made of stone...and heavier. So, is my first quest completed? I obtained an oak...stick, in the shit? And what's this?"

There was something soft and black on the top of the stick.

"Where did that come from? It's moving. Ew, let go of the stick, you bastard!"

He began to swing the stick in different directions, but that thing wouldn't let go, the creature. Seeing the root, he started hitting the thing with the stick on it. The blows were accompanied by quiet, painful moans.

Soon, the thing fell off, and a white mist began to emanate from it and quickly went into his body.

"Again? So, it really was alive. But this might actually be convenient."

He didn't get to enjoy his victory for long. Thousands of black excrements started crawling towards him.

"Well, screw this!"