[Bad Luck]
...
|An unknown amount of time later, ? Pov:|
…
"Huh?"
My eyes snapped open, as I felt like my conscience had returned from the very afterlife.
"Where—?" Immediately after waking up, I blurted out a vague question that held no real purpose aside from expressing my confusion. I stopped mid-sentence, however, when I noticed everything around was dark, with no vestiges of light in the vicinity.
I could have been bewildered by such a sight. However, before I was able to even process what was happening, a certain sensation reached my brain and shifted my focus completely in a matter of seconds.
"...?!"
My entire body burned, and not in the sense that my body felt tired and my muscles ached.
No, I meant it literally.
I felt like I was on fire.
-Groan-
Annoyed by the pain, I pushed myself up from where I was lying and noticed that I had been submerged in some kind of liquid until then.
Liquid that made my skin feel like it was on the verge of setting ablaze.
"Fuck" I cursed, unable to stand the pain anymore, and standing up from where I was to move to another spot where there wouldn't be liquid.
-Splash!-
Unfortunately, before I was even able to take a step forward, I slipped on a rather smooth and rubbery surface and fell face-straight into the liquid.
"Shit!"
Immediately after, I began hissing in pain as the feeling of burning extended to my face, and some of my mouth too.
As I pushed myself up from the ground in a hurry, I tried to organize my thoughts and set the matter of the pain I was feeling aside.
"What the fuck is this?!" As a result, I ended up blurting that question to no one in particular, feeling overwhelmed by how chaotic my current circumstances were.
I woke up in a completely dark place, filled with some kind of acidic liquid, the floor was slippery and faintly viscous, and—
Oh.
Yeah, I remember now,
"I was eaten, huh?" I muttered, finally having realized where I was.
I was in the stomach of whatever ate me… And the liquid that made me feel like I was on fire was gastric juice.
As the realization dawned on me, I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.
"Hahaha… Seriously?"
And how couldn't I? After three years of struggling and living with zero dignity under a pig whom I could have killed a dozen times, I finally managed to escape after attempting a suicide attack against him.
However, before I could even get to enjoy a second of my newfound freedom, some fucking fish ate me?!
…
Damn.
"It's like bad luck follows me wherever I go in this new life…" I said, feeling like laughing loudly at how ridiculous the way things developed seemed.
But I mean, could you blame me? It was fucking hilarious.
"Fuck my life…" I groaned as I grabbed my face in frustration.
Though, that only lasted until a certain matter resurfaced in my thoughts.
"Right… I'm immortal now" I looked at my body… Or well, at where I supposed my body was. With everything in the dark, it was a tad hard to discern.
I remembered how that government agent severed my head with a sweep of his hand and sent it flying away when I was trying to go all Kamikaze against that fatty.
"And yet, it's still here" I touched my neck as I hummed in thought.
There was also the matter of being devoured by this giant fish, and somehow still being alive.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, a certain question popped up in my head.
'For how long did I pass out?'
I still had memories of sliding through the beast's throat and going straight to the stomach… However, that was as far as they reached. Anything beyond that was cut off, probably because I passed out.
As to why that was…
"Urgh!" I flinched, as suddenly a small fragment of a memory reappeared on my mind.
A fragment that had been filled with pain.
Pain that was a hundred times worse than what I was currently experiencing by being submerged in this thing's gastric juices.
Pain that flowed through every fiber of my being, and made my single existence pure suffering.
Like I had been…
"Digested, huh?" I muttered in disbelief.
I had a certain feeling that the reason why I passed out was because the pain was so much that my pain receptors got overloaded.
After all, I don't think having my body get dissolved in its entirety while still being awake was a pleasant experience.
But… How come I'm not being dissolved right now?
I'm feeling pain, yeah, but it's not to the point where I could say my flesh is being dissolved.
No, it just hurts at a superficial level…
"Huh?"
At that moment, a certain word passed by my mind.
'Immortal'
As that concept returned to my mind, I couldn't help but open and close my hand, trying to feel my strength.
And surely, I felt stronger.
Like every single fiber of my muscle mass had been strengthened, and not at a small scale… No, I felt at least several times stronger than before passing out.
However, a strengthening of this level could have only been achieved by damaging every single part of my body and regenerating them several times.
Which made me wonder, just how many times did my body go through the cycle of being dissolved to then getting rebuilt by my immortality?
How long did I stay unconscious while that happened over and over again, for my body to have become capable of becoming undissolvable by the gastric juices?
…
"Tsk"
Unable to reach a conclusion, I clicked my tongue and decided to focus on other matters. Thinking that it would be better if I ignored the fact that I probably stayed dead for weeks, even months maybe.
So, ignoring the pain that was coming from the parts of my body that were still in contact with the gastric juice, I stood up and touched the walls of flesh that kept me trapped there.
"Now... How do I get out of here?" I asked, trying to scratch or punch the walls of the stomach, only to realize that they were pretty resistant despite my increased strength.
I even tried biting them out of desperation. However, they were like bad-cooked jerky, as no matter how much I tried to tear them apart, the only thing I managed to do was stretch them a little.
In the end, after I felt like my teeth were about to come off, I gave up.
"..."
And, seeing no other option, I glanced to where I could feel that all the gastric juice was moving.
I couldn't see anything, but I knew where that way led.
"You've got to be kidding me" Grinding my teeth against each other, I clenched my fist in anger. Not even wanting to consider taking that path.
Then, as frustration began building inside me, I glanced back at where the walls of the stomach were.
"This is all because this fucking asshole thought it was a good idea to eat me right after I escaped from my fate as a slave…"
Then, as I passed my tongue over my aching teeth, a sinister look appeared in my eyes.
"They are going to get rebuilt eitherway" I muttered, as a grin couldn't help but emerge on my face.
"Let's see how you like being eaten from the inside out, you damn fish"
…
|Two weeks later…|
…
Floating above the sea surface, and surrounded by a giant pool of blood that intertwined with the salty water of the ocean, a huge figure that put even ships to shame could be seen lying completely still and letting only the air and the current move it from time to time.
Due to its huge size, at first glance, one would think of it as a small island rather than a creature. However, in reality, the figure was but a giant shark.
And not any shark.
If you asked any of the pirates that roamed these waters or the locals that inhabited the islands close by, they could certainly pinpoint it as Joe the Great Shark, a top-class predator that roamed these waters and made them its hunting domain. A living legend among the common folk that made everyone tremble in fear each time its fins emerged from the depths, and that for many represented certain death once it was sighted.
And yet, that same infamous and imposing being, whom normal people could only dream of defeating, was now floating completely dead above the ocean, and what was more suspicious, with not a single injury in sight.
It was like it had died from natural causes.
However, the blood around it said otherwise.
Blood that, strangely, could be seen flowing out straight from its mouth. Indicating that some kind of internal injury had been its undoing.
As to what caused that kind of injury…
The truth was, a few weeks ago, Joe had swam towards a spot in the ocean where he would often find dead bodies of humans, looking for a snack after being too lazy to try and hunt one of those slippery beings he called prey.
However, that proved to be an error.
For a month, the shark felt nothing unusual, as it usually went whenever he ate human corpses. His insides were quite strong, after all. A little decomposition of their meat did nothing to him.
However, at some point after that, a huge stomachache began assaulting him. One that felt nothing like any affliction he may have had before.
And, as the days progressed, the pain only worsened.
Its agony extended for two entire weeks after that, until at one point, he simply died without being able to do anything about it.
Since then, its body floated to the surface and stayed there for quite a few days. Not becoming the food of anything due to its tough exterior, and slowly swelling up due to being filled with the gases that normally emerge from the deceased.
During that time, some pirates and merchants caught sight of its sorry state as they traveled through the seas. However, none of them tried to scavenge its remains, knowing full well that its swollen appearance meant that it would explode at any given moment, and neither wanted to get caught up in such a gruesome explosion.
As such, the body simply continued floating adrift, swelling up with time, and approaching little by little the time of its explosion.
-Bang!-
-Crack…!-
Or that would have been the case… Until a certain crack suddenly emerged on its scale-covered body after some strange impact hit it from inside.
And, as that small fissure on its surface appeared, soon enough, all of the gas trapped inside its corpse began leaving its body at high speeds. Making the huge mass of decomposing meat slowly but surely begin shrinking.
-Bang!-
-Crack!-
The process did nothing but speed up when suddenly another impact came from inside, widening the fissure and giving the high-pressured gas more room to leave.
…
-Tsssssssss….-
-Bang!-
Then, just as everything seemed to become still for a moment, a final impact from the insides came, opening the shell-like skin, and giving free-way for all the gas to escape.
However, what came from the insides was not only gas, but a humanoid figure.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HOW'S THAT, YOU DISGUSTING FISH!"
At that moment, a burst of maniacal laughter reverberated across the surroundings, with its origin being the mysterious figure that had emerged from inside the dead beast.
A seemingly young but fit naked man, whose body, hair, and skin were all covered in mixtures of dried and still-fresh blood.
His grotesque appearance did nothing but add to his disturbing and crazed voice echoing across the vicinity, giving him a rather demonic and deranged demeanor.
"I'M FREE, I'M FINALLY FREE… HAHAHAHA!"
And, as he continued yelling to the skies, his eyes suddenly posed onto the horizon, causing a grin to spread to unprecedented heights across his face.
"Today… my new life begins… FROM TODAY ONWARDS, THE WORLD WILL LEARN THE NAME OF—!"
-ROOAAAAR!-
"Eh?"
However, before the unknown person was able to finish his sentence, a gargantuan roar suddenly came from the depths of the water beneath him, causing him to look bewildered at the ocean floor below him, and soon after widen his eyes like plates upon seeing a massive shadow rapidly approaching from underneath him.
"Oh, for fuck's sa—"
-ROOAAAAR!-
A second later, a titanic sea serpent emerged from the depths and devoured him along with Joe's corpse, diving back into the ocean not long after.
-SPLASH!-
Once its figure disappeared into the darkness of the abyssal sea, stillness filled the surroundings, leaving an eerie feeling that could terrify even the bravest of pirates or marines.
The only vestige of what had transcurred in that place was a puddle of blood from the deceased beast. A puddle of blood that, slowly but surely, began being washed away as the waves of the uncaring ocean began crashing back and forth.
…
-To be Continued…-