Ugh… My head… Is it morning already? But it seems darker than usual. And… This doesn’t feel like my bed?

I open my eyes fully, allowing them to adjust to the darkness for a few seconds.

A cave?

Where am I?

I try to look around, but my neck doesn’t move how I expect it to.

I try to look down at my body.

I can’t.

This body… Isn’t mine.

This body… Isn’t human.

Could it be? No, No way…

I stumble around, trying to learn to walk.

This is a dream, right?

I trip, falling flat onto my stomach. A sharp rock stabs into my stomach.

This pain… This is real.

But, what am I?

I stumble around some more, finally reaching a small, still pool of water.

What I see in the reflection is a small animal, probably only around two times bigger than a rat. The body shape is like a cross between a mole and a small pig. Two absurdly large ears protrude from either side of the head. Right next to the ears are two beady black eyes, on the sides of the head. A prey animal.

Thin, bristly fur covers every part of the body besides the feet, which are thin, hairless hands with fingers that become thick claws halfway down.

What is this… Me?

I close my eyes, and think.

What was I doing before I woke up here?

Let’s see… Last night I stayed up late playing games, as usual. I ended up staying up until eight or so in the morning, then went to bed. And now, I’m a strange, small creature in a dark cave.

Yeah, there’s nothing else I can think of. This is that.

I thought I’d be more excited, but I’m… Scared?

Huh.

What should I do now?

I guess… Food?

Yeah sure, that seems important.

I begin walking down the dark tunnel, slowly getting faster as I become accustomed to this body.

Ah, wait, I guess I should at least try that once.

Ahem,

{Status!}

…

Nothing.

Well, didn’t expect much anyway. Back to walking.

[Yawwn…]

GAH!

What was that?

I swear I just heard something make a noise… Where did it come from?

Ugh, this cave is freaking me out. Why is it so damn dark in here! There’s some weird glowing moss that shows up in patches every once in a while, but other than that, It’s pitch black in here!

Urk… I’m getting hungry already.

Judging by my appearances, I’m definitely not the type of anima- no, monster, who eats meat. But, if I’m not a carnivore, what am I supposed to eat? All I've seen is rocks! Maybe that moss is edible? I guess it couldn’t hurt to try some the next time I come across a patch. Well, no, it definitely COULD hurt. The moss could be poisonous for all I know. But I don’t think I can worry about that, I need to eat something, and that moss is the only potentially edible thing I’ve seen. I’m sure there are bugs I could find, but it’s going to be hard to find any with how dark it is, and they definitely won’t fill me up.

Moss it is.

It’s really strange how different the senses of this monster are compared to the senses of a human. I mean, obviously my sense of touch is different because my body is entirely different now, but there’s also quite a difference for everything else. First of all, my hearing is insanely good now, I can hear water dripping from really far away. My eyesight is… bad. I’m not blind, but everything is blurry. When there’s no glowing moss to light up the cave, I’m pretty much completely blind. And my sense of smell is good. Too good. A dark, dank cave isn’t the best place to suddenly wake up with a godly sense of smell. As for taste, I don’t know. But I’m about to find out, because I just came across another patch of moss.

Apprehensive, I walk up to it.

Am I really doing this? I guess I don’t have much of a choice. It’s either eat this, or die.

I open my mouth, and quickly take a large chunk of the moss into my mouth, chewing it as fast as possible to hopefully miss the taste.

It doesn’t work.

My mouth is overpowered with two distinct flavors, dirt and another flavor I can’t even describe. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever had, in the worst possible way.

I desperately want to spit it out, but I force it down my throat quickly to get rid of the taste.

That was a mistake.

The sensation of the half-chewed moss going down my throat is bad enough to make me tear up.

Ah, I made the wrong decision. I’d much rather die than eat that.

<Brrring!>

Oh, could this be?

<Acquired minor paralysis resistance level 1>

It is! Finally something familiar! I was worried when nothing appeared after I tried thinking of the word ‘status’, but it looks like I was right, and this world does indeed have some sort of game-like system.

But, how can I check my status if not like how I tried?

Of course, with apprais-!

[Where… am I?]

GAH!

It happened again? What is that? It definitely said something this time, but I didn’t quite catch what it said…

And, it seems like it came from inside my head?

Gasp! Is someone attempting to communicate with me via telepathy? Perhaps the person or thing who sent me here is finally going to explain everything to me?

…

Or not?

Rah, this is so frustrating! Someone keeps talking inside of my head, scaring the shit out of me, then not even being kind enough to explain anything or apologize!

Argh, whatever! I don't have time for this, I gotta get back to eating this gross miss!

I take another bite, forcing it down after the taste becomes too strong to deal with.

Bleh! I hope I can find a better source of food eventually. I definitely do not want to survive off of this moss.

[What's happening?]

Woah! Hello? The voice came back! ‘What's happening?’ huh… so whoever that voice is coming from doesn't know anything either? Dammit! Well, might as well try to talk to them anyway, couldn't hurt. But how do I talk via telepathy?

Hello? No, that didn't seem to do it.

Maybe I need to focus harder.

{Testing, testing? Hello?}

[Hello? Who are you?]

{Ohh! It worked!}

[What worked?]

{The telepathy!}

[Telepathy?]

{Yeah! It’s how we’re talking right now! Probably.}

[Nevermind that, do you know what’s going on?]

Aha! This person might not be able to tell me anything, but at least this is an opportunity to show off my knowledge!

{Well, somewhat.}

Yup, that’s good. Gotta be humble, act like what I know isn’t a big deal.

[Then spit it out.]

Huh? Isn’t this person being a bit rude? What the hell! I’m trying to help them, and they dare be rude to me? The audacity! Sigh, whatever. I should simply turn the other cheek, returning rudeness with rudeness is no way to live!

{W-well, if you’re in the same situation I am, then it seems we’ve been reincarnated into another world.}

[Reincarnated? The hell is that?]

Ehhh? No way, this person is completely clueless? Damn, they’re screwed. I feel bad. Hmm, I guess… if we found each other, I could teach them how to survive in this world. Though, I don’t wanna get killed because I was trying to help someone who couldn’t help themself… Argh! Whatever! Might as well help, if this person ends up dying, I might never find another person I’m able to talk to, and that might make me go crazy!

[Helloooo? Are you gonna answer?]

{O-oh! Yeah, sorry. I was doing… something.}

[So, what is it?]

{Reincarnation is, in this case, when you die in your own world, and then your soul gets sent to another world.}

[Huh. So that's what happened to us?]

{Maybe? I don't know, there's really no way to tell. Instead of worrying about that, we should meet up and focus on surviving.}

[Sure.]

{I think the best way to do this is probably for us to just both wander randomly until we meet.}

[Hmm… nah.]

{What do you mean ‘nah’?}

[Isn't the best thing to do when you're lost staying still? It'd be bad if one of us ended up finding a place where the other was, but we miss each other because we’re both wandering.]

That's a good point…

[And besides, I don't really feel like walking.]

Ah, that was your true motivation.

{Sure sure, fine. You just stay where you are, I'll try to find you.}

It's probably better that I'm the one doing the searching anyway. Sigh, what a pain.

I turn away from the moss and begin walking down the dark tunnel ahead of me.

This is fucking scary! Hopefully that wasn’t just a fluke earlier, and getting skills is easy, cause I definitely want some kind of night vision soon. It’d be bad if I just walked right into some giant scary monster’s nest because I can’t see where I’m going.

[Hey.]

{Hm?}

[On second thought, I’ll start walking too after all.]

{Oh, ok. Why?}

[N-no reason. Just felt like it.]

{Okaaaay…}

This person is super weird! Can I really survive if I’m also trying to keep someone this incompetent alive too? They’re way too impulsive! And, now that I think about it, what if they aren’t trustworthy? What if… they're a murderer!? No no no, no way, calm down. They probably aren’t a murderer. Even if they are, I could definitely defend myself against them, since I'm more knowledgeable about this kind of world. At least, I think I could. I mean, for all I know, they could have been reincarnated as some kind of super strong monster, like a dragon, and they’re just trying to get me to come to them so they can kill me… Wait, what if they aren’t even a reincarnated person like me? What if they’re some kind of monster with hypnosis or some other kind of mental attack, and they’re just luring me towards them? Argh, thinking about this stuff is useless! All of these improbable scenarios have one thing in common: if they’re true, I can’t really do much about anything. So, there’s no point in worrying. If unavoidable death is what awaits me, why should I worry about it? It’s unavoidable anyway!

Yeahhh, that’s better. All calm now.

While I was thinking, I came across A fork in the road, with a few possible paths. Closer to the middle, there is a small, bumpy tunnel that has a pretty extreme downwards slope. Above it, there is a path absolutely filled to the brim with moss. The last path is a tunnel that looks the same as the one I came from, positioned to the left of the other two paths.

That moss path seems enticing, but it’s too high for me to get to, so I basically have to choose between the normal path, and the small, sloping path.

The choice is pretty obvious here, right?

Well, might as well ask the other person what they think anyway.

{Heeey. I found a fork in the road.}

[Mm. Me too.]

{Cool! So there are a few paths in front of me, but only two are accessible.}

[Same here.]

{There's a normal looking path, and a scary looking small path that goes downwards.}

[The paths here look the same.]

Are they pranking me? No way two different places in the cave have similar paths! Ugh, maybe I should just let this person die after all.

{R-really? That's weird.}

[Yeah. Although, one of the other paths might be accessible here.]

{Oh?}

[It's filled with glowing moss, and it's just a bit above the path that goes down.]

…what? Doesn't that sound exactly like the path here? No, but they said theirs is accessible.

{Are you sure you can get to that path?}

[Yeah sure. It'd be hella tough, but I could probably do it.]

{Alright, you go that way then. I'll take the left path.}

[Got it.]

I begin walking down the path to the left, sticking to the wall so I could be as far from the path that went downward as possible.

Man, that's weird. I guess there really are two different places in this cave that look the exact same. What are the odds! Unless… they aren't different places? Maybe… just maybe…

What if we’re not communicating from different places in space, but rather different places in time? Gosh, that'd be so freaking cool! Ahh, this is getting me excited… but how would we even know for sure?

Hmm…

Oh, if one of us scratches a mark in the rock, and the other sees that mark, we’d kno-

[Hey, I got a problem.]

Gah! Why is it so terrifying whenever they talk unexpectedly…

{What is it?}

[So, you know how I said I would go to the mossy path?]

{Yeah?}

[I didn't.]

{Why not? Was it too hard to reach after all?}

[No way! I could definitely make it up there! But, my body won't listen to me at all!]

{Hm? What do you mean?}

[Unlike when I was human, I can't directly control my body at all. Earlier, I thought I could at least influence what my body did, but I don't think that's the case anymore. I tried everything, but my body went down the left path for some reason.]

{Huh. That's weird. Maybe it's the type of monster you are? I know some animals on earth had limbs controlled by their own separate neurons or something like that, maybe you're like that?}

[I don't know, I'm pretty sure I'm a mammal.]

{You've seen yourself?}

[Just glimpses of my sides, mostly.]

{I see.}

[Oh, and by the way, ever since we started talking, my body stopped moving.]

{Really? That's weir- hold on…}

I haven't been moving since we started talking.

I'm gonna try something.

I hold up my front right hand in front of my right eye, covering up most of my vision in that eye.

[Huh?]

{What?}

[My body just covered its right eye?]

{I knew it…}

[What?]

I don't think they'll like what I'm about to say, but…

{I think… we might have the same body.}