Warning, warning. Because this author got blacklisted and framed by some ill‑intentioned people, I was forced to write this warning before the story. It’s better if you read the warning chapter first before you start this.

Note: Any title with “2.0” in it is a later, polished version of the text.

Story starts—

—Heaven?

Tufts of white cloud floated in a sky of pure blue, filling my vision. The breeze carried the scent of untouched nature.

A warm, gentle wind brushed over my whole body. I felt… free. Completely free.

Free!?

Wait, where are my clothes!?

And also, why am I here?

Calm down. Calm down and analyze. Before I woke up I was…

No idea. Blank.

Kidnapped?

But even if I was, there’s no reason to hang me up on a pole like a pig ready for slaughter.

A dream?

My wrists and ankles, bound tight, started to throb in protest. The pain shot through me and killed that idea.

Then the smell of roasting meat drifted over as the wind shifted, breaking my train of thought.

I followed the smoky, charred scent with my upside‑down field of view… First thing I saw was an endless green grassland. I was at the very edge of it, under a cliff face where there was only gravel, no grass. Around me stood three tents, kind of like yurts?

No, way rougher, zero craftsmanship…

And I was strung up right between the three tents like a cow or sheep ready for the spit. Looked like they were going to light a fire under me and roast me alive?

My gaze stopped at the source of that roasted‑meat smell.

“Urgh…” A wave of nausea surged up.

Every instinct screamed that I could not make a sound—I forcibly swallowed the urge to scream.

What did I see?

Beside a pile of half‑burned charcoal lay two human skeletons, gnawed clean by something. Bits of meat still clung to the bone.

People?

Movie props?

They looked way too real.

Am I going to end up like that?

This is not something you joke about!

Fear and a cold chill ran up my spine like an electric shock.

I couldn’t just stay like this. Whatever these things were—cannibals or something else—I had zero intention of letting myself get roasted and served as dinner.

Calm down… I need to calmly deal with this. There’s only one conclusion: get free, then run for it.

The rope was twisted from some kind of bark, rough and stiff, wrapped tight around both wrists.

Fortunately, whoever tied it sucked at knots. With a steady rhythm I twisted my hands and slid my right hand free with almost no effort. With the right hand out, the left came loose too.

As my hands came free, my back slammed hard onto the ground.

“Ow, ow…”

Good thing it wasn’t that high. If I’d landed on the back of my head, I might’ve blacked out on the spot.

Once I was completely untied, I looked around.

Whoever tied me up was nowhere in sight. Inside the tents?

I wanted to bolt. My body refused.

Not because I was embarrassed about being naked. It was because I realized I was missing something important. The moment that hit me, anxiety surged up from somewhere deep, even stronger than my fear.

It was nearby. In one of these tents. I wasn’t mistaken. I could clearly feel it.

I crept toward the nearest tent.

“Mmm… mm…”

Just as I got close, a woman’s muffled whimper came from inside.

That scared me. This is bad for the heart.

I made sure not to let my shadow fall on the tent in the sunlight, circling around to the sun‑facing side.

Then I lay flat and gently lifted a flap at the bottom of the tent, peeking through the gap.

The stench hit first. Inside, six thick wooden stakes, each about two meters high, were driven into the ground. A woman with a long ponytail was tied to one of them… struggling to get free, only able to let out muffled “mm, mm” sounds through a gag.

Her face and body were filthy, but even that couldn’t hide how beautiful she was, or the curve of her figure. The problem was her clothes—shredded to the point that all the “important” places were basically uncovered…

Her silver hair stood out especially, gleaming even in the dim light.

A fantasy‑novel kind of beauty. A foreigner?

Even someone like me, used to 2D anime girls, was a little dazzled.

If I save her, does that count as setting up a death flag?

With that tiny, stupid hope, I glanced around inside. No creatures in sight. I slipped in quickly.

When she saw me, her eyes flew wide, a flash of terror crossing them.

Expected reaction… A naked guy suddenly appears, it’d be weirder if she wasn’t scared.

…Or maybe she thought the tent’s owner had come back.

Either way, I didn’t have time to care. I raised my left index finger to my lips, telling her to keep quiet.

She nodded hard. I moved closer to untie her.

Up close, she really was unbelievable. Dirt smeared her face, blood stained the corner of her mouth, bruises covered her shoulders and thighs. It was a mess, honestly hard to look at. But her sapphire‑blue eyes were still bright, full of life.

Didn’t feel like the type who lives behind layers of makeup.

She looked about twenty? A few years older than me?

“Thank you.”

As the ropes fell away, she rubbed her wrists and whispered her thanks.

“D‑Don’t mention it. Let’s move.”

I was a little nervous.

Being able to talk normally, though, was great. I’d been worried she’d be a foreigner… For a patriotic guy like me, foreign languages are hardcore mode.

Also… while thanking me, why was this big sister staring at my completely bare body the whole time? Stare all you want, but not even a hint of embarrassment? Do I not trigger a single blush flag for you?

No, even if she did blush I probably wouldn’t see it through all that grime.

—Ah, eye contact.

This was not the time for dumb thoughts… We really had to go.

I checked outside the tent first. It was clear. I stepped out; the woman followed, walking straight toward those two skeletons.

Someone she knew? None of my business either way.

I slipped over to the second tent and lifted a small flap—instantly, a rotten‑meat stench poured out and made me gag.

I steeled myself and looked again.

A naked woman—or rather, a naked female corpse.

Four small, red creatures were gnawing on her already congealed flesh. Besides her relatively “fresh” body, there were rotting corpses and piles of bones everywhere.

Those little things were straight out of a horror movie: red skin, pointed ears, sharp teeth, bodies covered in little raised bumps. Smaller than human babies, too.

Judging from the destroyed female bodies, they’d been born from these women, then killed them and used their mothers as food.

My thoughts jumped back to the woman I’d just freed. If I hadn’t saved her… there’d be a lot of “adult content” leading up to this.

I’ve always liked morbid stuff, and with my chest full of anxiety right now, I actually didn’t feel much fear. Or anything else, really.

The smell was just disgusting.

As long as it wasn’t happening to me, I could live with it.

Humans are like that. I was curious what these little monsters were, but now wasn’t the time to let curiosity off the leash. If there were small monsters, then there had to be bigger ones.

Could be some local tribe’s “spirits” for all I knew.

“Namo…” I muttered a quick prayer and left that tent, heading for the final one. Same routine: peek inside.

No living creatures. Still the same gross smell. Whoever lived here clearly didn’t care about cleaning.

A few gold coins and gems glittered on the ground.

Pretty sure they were real. That shine…

Amazing I still had the greed to care at a time like this.

There were also longswords, axes, bows, arrows, and other weapons piled off to one side along with random junk. My clothes were in that heap too.

“!”

Two things next to my clothes caught my eye.

My phone. And a long black sword bag. Thank god…

I rushed over, grabbed the sword bag, and relaxed when I felt the weight of the blade still inside. Come to think of it, my memories were intact? I just couldn’t remember how I got here. Temporary amnesia?

Eh, whatever.

I drew my beloved blade and looked it over. It was my sword—a tangdao, Chinese saber style. Thanks to some circumstances, I’d had it with me since I was a kid. It was like a personal talisman. Being separated from it had made my anxiety spike, and I was sure of one thing: without this sword, there’s no way I’d sleep at night.

That’s what long‑term dependency does to you…

Next up: the phone.

I turned it on. It was definitely mine, but the battery indicator was gone… Forget it.

I quickly dialed the police.

The call connected, but no one answered. What?

Just then, the silver‑haired woman walked in. I glanced at her while dialing my family’s numbers.

“Benefactor, what is that?”

“A phone.”

I answered without thinking.

“Phone?”

She looked confused.

So she really had no idea what a phone was. Native, then?

Too much of a hassle to explain.

“In short, it’s for communication. And don’t call me ‘benefactor.’ Just call me Lan.”

No need to doubt it: “Lan” is my surname and my given name, a single‑character full name. It’s real.

The calls to my family connected too, but nobody picked up. And “family,” huh?

Just thinking about them gave me this weird, unpleasant feeling. Forget it. I gave up.

“I’m Milia. Lan, can we move together? The odds of getting back to the city alone are really low…”

A city? Either way, teaming up was the smart choice right now. I had no reason to refuse. She looked serious, voice firm—but her gaze kept flicking down to a certain part of my body.

Pervert? Are you a pervert?

A true man doesn’t panic at a time like this.

“Sure. Let’s hurry and get ready.”

I met her eyes with a confident smile.

Honestly, with her clothes shredded, everything above her waist was exposed. It was hard not to look.

Milia, however, didn’t seem embarrassed at all about being on full display.

“O‑Okay.”

When she noticed where I was looking, she suddenly turned away and walked to the weapon pile.

Guess she did care.

I hurried to grab my clothes—spread them out and saw my jacket and white shirt stained with blood, with a clear bullet hole at the right shoulder.

Not a fatal wound, but it made me realize I’d been shot.

The problem was, my body felt perfectly healthy. Even the scars from my childhood were gone.

What the hell…?

I vaguely remembered hitting something before losing consciousness, but I couldn’t recall how I got shot.

Tch. No matter how hard I tried, nothing came.

Anyway, I really didn’t feel like putting that stuff back on. My underwear was missing too.

I just pulled on my pants, laced up my sneakers. At least my belt was still there. Lucky.

I slipped the phone into my pants pocket.

Given the situation, I took my sword out of its black bag and tucked it through my belt at my waist.

I really wanted to take all the gold and gems, but there was too much. No way. And everyone knows greed gets you killed… I just grabbed a few handfuls of coins and gems, stuffed them into a small cloth pouch I found on the floor, and tied it tight to my belt.

During that time, Milia had strapped a broad longsword at her waist and a quiver at her hip, with a longbow slung across her back.

There weren’t any spare clothes, so she was still in her ripped outfit.

The way she looked now… instantly reminded me of some H‑game heroine after a “costume break,” in an outfit I’d never seen before. Dark tights, earthy long boots, and what must’ve once been a green one‑piece dress. Thanks to the crossed leather harness at her waist, it now looked like a short skirt.

The tight, light gear made me think of a hunter class. First time seeing it outside cosplay. Probably felt more real than cosplay too.

No. Not the time to admire her.

“Let’s go.”

“Mm.”

We had just stepped out of the tent when—

“Grrk!?”

“!”

“Ah!?”

We ran straight into the owners of the tents.

Green skin. My mind immediately jumped to a certain fantasy monster.

They had no hair, bodies as skinny as ten‑year‑old children with round, bloated bellies. They wore rags and hides, but somehow still failed to cover the important parts.

…In my understanding, these were what you’d call goblins.