There I was, sitting with my back against the wall of the large, pointy-roofed house, its white walls painted red with my blood, my vision blurry and my head hazy.

I put some pressure on the wound in hopes of stopping the bleeding - “Well shit… I have a feeling this is the end…” I thought then looked around only seeing that my final days in this life would take place in between two dumpsters.

I let out a sight - a sign of me accepting my faith, “Maybe just bleeding out to death is alright.” I wondered lifting my hand off the wound and slowly my eyes closed.

A few minutes passed…

“This is taking a while…” I thought - opening my eyes and looking down to see that the bleeding from the wound almost stopped.

“God damn it…” I stood up realising I wasn’t going to die and instead was just laying around in some dirty alley, disgruntled I began heading home, complaining to nobody in specific on the way - “What’s the point of stabbing someone if you’re not going to do a good job?!” 

Earlier I got stabbed by some homeless guy - he wanted some change and I was less than eager to give away what little money I get from my job - so being the rational fellow he is he stabbed me, searched my pockets realising I had nothing but half a chocolate bar of unspecified an unspecified brand and decided to take it and run.

As I walked rain began to pour down - “Fantastic…” I thought - remembering my cat was going to be pissed since I didn’t let him in this morning - it’s not really my cat - he just kind of comes and goes. I never gave it a name, I’m bad with those.

On my way I tripped on a piece of paper which must have absorbed the rainwater becoming the worlds most slippery surface, I landed face-first into the puddle on the side of the road, I lifted my face from the puddle and was instantly blinded by the headlights of a car - “Looks like I get to die today a-” 

When I opened my eyes I was faced with the blinding light of the sun, confused I sat up - I looked down disorientated, everything was strangely big - the grass felt weird and thick - the leaves curled strangely and even the light of the sun seemed off - around me were fields of grass and flowers - mounds and hills littered the otherwise flat area.

I reached down with my hand to my abdomen feeling nothing out of the ordinary - "What the hell - isn’t this is a bit early?" I wondered looking around and realising that I in fact reincarnated… again.

The moment the confusion from my immediate realisation faded away, all colour must have drained from my face - now painfully aware of my situation, I let out a cry of rage in the empty fields around surrounding me. "FUCK!".

You’d think that after dozens of dozens of lives I’d get used to reincarnating - but I think my reality is a bit broken - I’m not supposed to remember all these lives!

I stood up - stumbling at first when I saw my foot was entangled in the roots and grass - it looked like I crawled out of a me-shaped hole in the ground.

"I hoped I was done!" I cried - my voice sounded dry and raspy as a slight breeze blew in as if to cool me off.

“That’s what I get for having any resemblance of hope…” I scolded myself.

I stumbled down the hill I found myself on - on it stood a large tree - it had a thick, dark bark with many branches that curved upwards - much like the leaves on said branches, when I made it down the hill I found what looked like a dirt road - overgrown and with large holes seemingly patches up with rocks,

"Not the reaction I expected - but that's alright." a voice said from behind - desperately I spun around only to see a black cat laying on the grass, it's fur seemed smooth and silky, it's eyes following me as I moved.

"Fantastic - this place has talking cats!" I complained,

"Ah - I take it you remember your previous lives already then?" the cat asked - its voice was masculine and deep yet very smooth.

"...do you have something to do with this hell I had to go through?" I asked,

"Don't think too highly of yourself - everyone dies and reincarnates - you just happen to have a good memory when it comes to that stuff." the cat replied, 

I sat down on the grass next to the road, placing my head in my knees.

A few silent minutes passed - "...so...what are you doing?" the cat asked, I looked up - looking him deep in the eyes, "I'll just sit here until I die..." I replied,

"..."

"..."

"...Are you being serious?" the cat asked - its tone suggested it was waiting for me to say it was a joke.

"I'll just keep doing this until I run out of worlds to appear in," I announced - my speech muffled.

"Sorry to ruin your plans - but there are infinite worlds." the cat said almost apologetically.

"..." I looked up at the cat blankly, "Sorry, could you repeat that?" the cat continued to look at me - an expression of pity on his face.

"There is an infinite number of worlds, you can't ever run out of them, and even if you did they go in a circle - you know," he repeated.

"...What do you mean? If there is an infinite amount how are they going in a circle?!" I demanded - the realisation of being double-stuck in the world dawned on me harder than before - I let myself fall onto the grass behind me - blankly looking into the sky above me - watching it's warm red and purple hues - with a belt of yellow light where the sun was setting, 

“This is what I get for having some sort of hope… Why would this time be different - of course, I’m back in some other world - FANTASTIC!”

“...right… regardless - I’m here to stop you death-spree,” the cat explained,

“Oh - I’m glad you decided to step in after two-thousand-eighty mother-fucking years of torture!”

“Actually - I’ve only been monitoring you for the last one-hundred - I needed a bit of a break after watching you go through life for aeons.” the cat sighed,

“Oh - I see - thanks for helping me out of that burning building! OH WAIT - THAT WASN’T YOU, THAT WAS THE FIREMAN!” 

“How do you know I didn’t help you through the fireman?” the cat asked smoothly,

“Because the fireman proceeded to decapitate me with his axe - remember, the whole witch trial thing I got involved in…IT WAS GREAT, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!”

“Alright - relax - I get it, you had a few tough lives and you’re a little tired of the same routine - you can’t solve your problems by jumping off a building or setting yourself on fire…”

“Got me this far…”

“You can’t! There is no end goal or some magic get-out-of-life card, you’re stuck here like everyone else!” 

I was slightly surprised by the rising tone of the cat, he must be getting pissed.

“Look - for one, this place looks really far from civilization, I don’t really feel like walking for potentially days in hopes of reaching a town,”

“So you plan to kill yourself?! How’s that even a solution - never mind a good one?!”

“You see - my feline companion - this is a very complicated concept, I don’t blame you for not understanding…”

The cat didn’t reply and just let me continue,

“If I die here - there is a decent chance that I’ll appear in a world where I’m born in a city,” I explained.

“Step one… death, step two… appear in a civilized place,”

“And if you don’t?”

“Go back to step one.”

“Look… I know this may be a foreign concept to you - but did you ever consider how you’re affecting your families?!” 

“I mean… it’s not my fault they decided to have a kid.” I shrugged,

“Yeah, but I don’t think anyone expected their child, a five-year-old might I - add to make a hemlock poison cocktail and off-themselves in the makeshift lab in the basement…”

“Meh - I don’t care…” I shrugged,

“Do you know how you affected your family that time!? They decided to drink the poison too because they got so depressed!”

“Oh I know - I felt sorry for them so I left them a vial each.” 

“I shouldn’t expect a sociopath like you to understand the concept of empathy - but you can’t keep doing this!” he insisted,

“Oh really? Watch me…” I immediately began holding my breath - my face turned blue before I fell back on the ground - opening my eyes a few seconds later - “Well shit… I hoped that’d work…”

“You tried this in so many worlds and you still think it might work?”

“It’s worth a try - you know - next time I get locked up in some dungeon - by the way, thanks for your help back there…”

I let out a sigh and stared off into the sky for a bit.

"There, there - I've been watching you for a while now and I decided you may need some help," the cat walked up to me placing a paw on my hand.

"Why?" I asked,

"Because I have the previously mentioned empathy - and I don’t feel comfortable letting you drive another young couple to suicide because their son decided to tie a plastic bag onto their head, plus you died over one-hundred times under the age of fifty… and about half of those deaths were your fault!" the cat explained - taking a deep breath when he finished,

"How were they my fault!?" I asked tilting my head up slightly to look it in the eyes, 

"...the bungee jump..." the cat's word reminded me of the life about five lives back - I got really depressed and signed up for a bungee jump - and while the instructor wasn't watching I attached the cord to my neck and jumped off.

"Ok... that's one." I replied slightly looking away,

"The goat incident," his words were filled with disappointment,

 "At least that was creative," I argued remembering the time I was reincarnated as a farmer's child - I got my memories back when I was about ten and got pretty depressed - with no painless way of killing myself I though up a plan, we were goat farmers - and we had these gun things that bludgeon the goats to death in an instant - but they were always kept locked away by my dad - so one day I cut the fur off a goat - made a goat costume and stood in line in the slaughterhouse.

The cat sighed again - "yeah, that's the disturbing part..." he replied,

"Regardless - I'm here to make sure you make it to the ripe old age of...at least adulthood," his voice sounded like he was almost pleading with me - "Well - if death's not getting me closer to non-existence, guess I have to figure something else out." I decided,

"Well - if that keeps you alive, I don't mind," he replied.

"Ok - well, cat... where do I live?" I asked looking around me seeing no house - "And why am I not like... an infant?" the strange circumstances I found myself suddenly confused me, 

"...About that - I don't know why you're... you know - not a foetus right now... so, I guess that's something you have to figure out yourself," the cat said - he sounded sincerely sorry but didn't sound like he planned to do anything.

"So... I don't have a house, family or source of income..." I asked,

"Right - you can manage, right, You've lived so many lives." the cat said reassuringly.

"Hey, cat - can you come here for a second?" I asked - uncertain it agreed and walked over - "Sure, why? -"

I grabbed it's hand and squeezed the pillow with my thumb and index finger making the sharp nail pop-out - "I'll give the next one a shot," I announced before moving the claw over to slice my wrist - the cat jerked the hand back cutting my finger in the process,

"Ow - the hell, cat?" I wiped the blood on my clothes - that's when I noticed how weird they looked, I was wearing a white sleeveless tunic looking thing - "Stop that - I'm not letting you die, damn it!"

"Come one - just one more time!" I pleaded, I stood up and looked around seeing not sharp rocks - and I'm not using round rocks ever again - I'm telling you, worse method ever.

"Let's make a deal - if you die of natural causes in this world, I'll tell you a secret way to get out of the cycle!" the cat suggested frantically,

When I heard the offer I froze for a moment - "So if I die of natural causes - you'll tell me the secret to ending my eternal misery." I asked,

"Yes - of course, that's only if you'll still be interested after experiencing the joys of life!" he replied, but by then I was already walking off down the road in hopes of finding a forest.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" the cat asked - it was a lot faster than me,

"I'm looking for a forest - preferably with bears or wolves," I replied - "That's not a natural cause! I mean old age or disease!" he elaborated.

"Alright." I continued walking regardless.

"Where are you going now?" he asked,

"I'm just going to go relax in the forest - preferably next to a decomposing corpse of some animal - it would be terrible if I caught some disease and ended up dying," I replied,

"Damn it - no, you have to die of old age - that's the new rule!" he exclaimed.

I let out a groan and stood still for a second before turning back and walking back to where I sat. "Fine..." 

"And where are you going now?" he asked - the tone sounded concerned,

"I saw the perfect rock earlier to induce a coma, earlier," I replied thinking about the round rock from before.

The cat stopped following me and just sat down - "Would you stop that! I'm telling you not to give up, yet!" his voice was different than before - he sounded legitimately angry.

"Cat - I don't know why you won't leave me alone - but I'm sick of the human experience - if I have to live to get the information from you I will, but I don't know what you expect me to do," I replied - my tone devoid of any emotion, 

Aside from anger and schadenfreude, I don't feel much in the way of emotions, I haven't for a long time - I got pretty good at putting up a facade for people - I spun around to face the cat, a wide grin on my face "You're right mister cat, I guess I should give life a shot - since this is my last one!" I exclaimed,

I saw the cat's expression remained unchanged - I loosed the muscles on my face letting it return to the neutral look - "It was worth a try..." I sighed,

"I told you - I've been watching you for a long time now..." the cat replied - I looked at him for a bit before looking down - "I'm sorry for making you worry so much..." I said in a quivering voice - the cat's expression softened - "Stop it, I know you're faking it - but it's still hard to watch." he scoffed.

I switched to smirk in almost an instant - "Well - I might just consider a career as a performer in this world." I said with a pout before sitting down on the grass and switching back to my normal expression.

"Right - can I at least get some information about this world," I asked,

He looked at me for a second - seemingly making sure I'm serious before replying - "Yeah - check your pocket."

I did as commanded and pulled out a small metal plate.

"What's this?" 

"Consider it a starter gift - it's against my personal code of conduct to help you - but since your current circumstances are so... odd - I guess this is necessary."

I looked down at the plate seeing what looked like a character profile about me - "Name... blank... I guess I'll come up with something."

"Age... eight... That's why everything is... big ... " I said looking at the trees around me, then I looked down at my hand seeing they were small too.

"Let's see... gender... female..." I looked over to the cat - "What the hell is this?"

"What?"

"I always reincarnated as a man or the equivalent in the given world - what the hell is that?" I demanded,

"Is that a problem?" 

"Yeah - a bit one - how am I supposed to play this game without a joystick?!"

The cat let out a sigh - "Look - your body is completely out of my control, I'm just here to keep an eye on you - if you have a problem with your body, send God a complaint!" he replied,

"You mean there is a God?" 

"Of course - who else could create all this?" 

"That bastard owes me some answers..." I mumbled in a low tone,

"Right... well - now that you know everything you need to know, I'm going to leave you - remember though - I'll be keeping an eye on you." the cat reminded me before disappearing into a puff of black smoke.

From the look of it, if I continued heading along the road I’d reach a massive mountain in the distance, I decided to nickname is ‘mount Neverest’ since it’s a place I’d never visit.

To the right side of the road was a forest of what looked like black trees with lime-green leaves with black branch-like patterns on them, the trees had branches which curved up kind of like the hair of those troll dolls that used to be popular a while ago.

As I walked I noticed the road was starting to get steeper and steeper, to the left of the road a cliff was visible, from the looks of it’d be walking along its side, that is if the road goes that far, worse case scenario I take a leap off the cliff and hope to be reincarnated in a world with flatter terrain… wait, no - the cat will give out to me…

Lucky the road did go all the way up, as I walked I realized another major difference between this world and the last one, the rock. Granted I know that Earth can have a lot of different types of rock, but this rock looked pale white, it wasn’t quite as nice a marble but wasn’t a weak as chalk either.

When I made it to the top of the cliff, I followed the road for another while until I walked past a weird-looking bush - it was just a small cluster of what looked like rolled-up leaves filled with a lot of small orbs, they kind of resembled crimson-red caviare, naturally my first instinct was to try some, I tried to take out just one of the orbs but it turns out they are all connected, I guess it’s more like a raspberry in that regard, I bit into it realising something strange, it tasted weird, it was sweet, sour with the tiniest hint of salt but it was more than that…as if there was an extra taste I didn’t have a name for…

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I decided that as fun as eating suspicious fish-egg looking fruits was, food poisoning in the middle of nowhere wouldn’t be as fun - imagine the conversation with the cat “Oh - it’s you again - it’s only been a day and you died of dehydration from crippling diarrhoea because you eat random fruit you found growing along the side of a road?”

considering the lack of modern infrastructure, abundant plant-life and talking cats, I’m inclined to believe this may be a less developed world, in that case, it’s good the cat didn’t follow me, a woman with a talking cat is guaranteed to be burned on a stake - not to mention a literate one.

One thing I noticed was the fact that despite the fact the sun was setting, it was still bright outside, granted the colours were changing, where previously a warm reddish-yellow light illuminated the world now the light was becoming a darker purple with hints of blue, maybe in this world day and night don’t differ in the same sense as on Earth, regardless I continued my way down the road until I noticed something in the distance, it was a town.

Going to a town for the night beats sleeping in the wilderness, even at this distance I could tell that this wasn’t a modern town, I was almost certain at this point that this is a medieval world…granted that’s just the general term used to describe the ‘castles and sword time’ by us non-historians.

The closer I got the more of the town I could see, the gates were relatively small located between two hills which were seemingly used as natural walls, with a drawbridge held by long black chains going over what looked like a man-made moat, the water in which poured in from three large holes in the wall, each had a metal grate in place, in a way they resembled sewer-pipes and that’s most likely what they were…

The walls themselves were built from that white rock cut into rectangular bricks of the white stone, there was a wall walk, fenced off from the outside and covered by a thin wooden roof held up by wooden poles placed in what looked like maybe three-meter intervals along the inside and outside edge of the wall walk.

As I approached the gate, I noticed a few guards sitting by a table, playing some sort of card game by the looks of it, their clothing looked mostly decorational, it consisted of cloth tunic with a stripy blue and purple pattern, they wore what looked like normal black trousers under it, over the cloth they wore metal elbow and knee protectors, metal boots or maybe just metal armour placed over the boots and smooth metal shoulder pads.

As for weapons they had a sword a the hip, it’s hard for me to decide if it’s a longsword or a shortsword so let’s just say it’s a medium sword, on their back, they had a shield with the same colour pattern as their clothes and propped up against the wall were three long sticks with blades attached to the end, kind of like spears.

Thanks to the preoccupied guards I was able to enter the town easily, or maybe people were allowed to just go in and out of towns…I guess this is an indicator that there is no big war going on here since the security would be a lot more serious.

When I entered the town I was met with a large variety of smells, sounds and colours, the area directly in front of the gates was filled with people, the city was lit with what looked like glass bottles of glowing liquids of various colours.

There was a large variety of shops too, I walked down the colourful streets of the town, seeing the colourful roofs of the houses, they were all very pointy and made of coloured tiles.

I continued walking through the town’s winding alleys and roads - as it stood I had three objectives - one; find a place to stay, two; find a job and or win the lottery and three; hopefully, find a way to not exist anymore.

I came across a large wooden sign with some sort of text I couldn’t read - the sign was attached to the wall at eye level, the language looked completely alien to me, it looked a bit like runes, but unlike the normal runes I saw on earth - exclusively on TV, of course, these ones were very smooth, curvy and organic looking,

I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned around to see a blue-haired man with large, round orange glasses, he said something to me which I obviously didn’t understand - he was smiling and didn’t look like he was going to stab me so I just assumed he was telling me not to wander around the town at night alone…

Before even waiting for me to say anything he kept walking and soon was completely out of my view… this brought up a pretty important question, did that man have blue hair? Was that the natural colour or does this world have hipsters too? Is the hair colour consistent across his entire body? 

Confused - and slightly concerned I decided to head down the alley and through the gate to the large area with the undecipherable text,

The place didn’t look as nice, in fact, it mostly consisted of wooden shacks and the occasional stone building with dull grey roofs - the ground was uneven and most windows had holes and smashed glass.

People were sitting around small fires with pots of some blue boiling liquid which created pale blue smoke which clung to the ground creating an artificial fog of sorts, the paved ground looked worse with large holes filled with mud and a lot of grass and other plants growing from the cracks.

I decided to investigate the blue pot and as I leaned in closer I began to feel light-headed - falling over and onto the muddy ground, I stood back up and saw the other individuals keeping their attention on me and laughing frantically - as if they saw a young child choke on cigarette smoke,

Well, I had a chance to see the nice-part-of-town, and now I had a chance to see the ghetto-part-of-town, I decided that I’d rather go back to the nice part, but when I turned around I found my way was blocked by a group of shady looking people, they wore cloaks and had swords on their hips, granted, I didn’t know if they’re shortswords of daggers.

I decided to that they were most likely not interested in me, however, I wasn’t willing to find out who their target really was and so I decided to look for a different way out, I walked through the shady looking district eventually finding an exit, I was about to leave when my path was blocked again by the same figures who seemingly dropped down from the roof of one of the houses.

I turned back again, hopefully, I was hoping to find a way out that wasn’t blocked by suspicious cloaked figures, after another few failed escape attempts I managed to spot what looked like a fence leading to a park - it was old and rusty but I saw it led to a larger flat area filled with grass and a few trees, with my sights set on the fence I began broke into a sprint, immediately fell face first and decided to switch to a quick jog instead - before I managed to get away I felt something pull me back, pushing me against a stone wall near the face which I hoped was an exit from this ghetto-looking area, I did manage to get a better look at the cloaked figure, they wore solid black masks with no eye-holes and the previously mentioned cloak, underneath they wore a black jumper with brown leather straps onto which small pouches and more tiny knives were attached - as well as a cylindrical wooden tube,

The figure took a step towards me which I interpreted as a good moment to get the hell out of there - I broke into a sprint, running through the alleys - thank god this body's muscles didn't all but disappear like my last one.

I must have caught the figures off guard because I didn’t head directly for the exit, instead, I headed for the closest thing to the main street in this mess of a district.

As I ran I came across what looked like a small weapon's shop, I based this off the large wooden sign with the picture of a sword and shield on it, I hopped inside shutting the door behind me, quickly I looked around the shop seeing a large balding man confused and slightly annoyed about why I just burst into his shop, he began saying something, the door splintered into bits as an explosion came from the other side - I poked my head out through the hole seeing one of the cloaked figures holding a cylindrical device I now assumed worked like a cannon against the door.

I felt a tug on my shirt as I was picked up by the shopkeeper who now looked terrified as he hurried off through the back-door of his shop, grabbing a shiny sword while he was at it - I must say, being carried isn't half bad.

We ran through what looked like a really big warehouse, towers of crates and boxes lay strewn across the entire area, what little blue moonlight came from outside through the small windows illuminated the mass of dust in the air,

Several explosions came from behind us again - I guess the cylinders worked like flintlock pistols - you only get one shot, you better not miss your chance to blow.

I felt a knock on my head - it was the shopkeeper trying to get my attention, he kept saying something to me but I didn't understand what he said so I just said the first thing that came to my mind "SORRY I DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH" I exclaimed - mind you, believe it or not - I do in fact speak English, the man just looked at me in confusion, by now I too was confused by the situation.

I saw a bright blue light appear behind the man, at first I thought it might have been something in the warehouse - but upon closer inspection, I noticed it was one of the assassin people with bright blue light coming from under their feet - was that magic? (Yes)

I saw the assassin person take out another cylinder - realising we were about to be shot I elbowed the man in hopes of getting him to either move out of the way of the blast or at least fall down - he didn't do either, in fact he just looked back at me only seeing the assassin as a side effect, that caused him to take a sharp turn to the right, narrowly missing the various small projectiles shot out from the weapon.

Ahead of us, I saw what looked like a large door - on one hand, this was great - it's a way out, on the other hand, we would have no time to open the door before becoming convenient knife storage devices.

To be fair, if the guy dies - he'll just respawn somewhere else, most likely without memory of this place.

I considered ditching him and using him as a distraction, but he went out of his way to help me...then again us dying together isn't much of a "getting-even" action,

On our way towards the gate through the tight hallway of boxes, I've noticed several pots of some back substance in jars and loose piles - I waited until I saw a pile big enough and grabbed onto the large piece of cloth under it, collapsing the entire pile of dust and boxes into a small barricade.

The man looked back looking relieved until the cloaked figures simply climbed over the blockade and continued their pursuit - although it looked like my plan bought us a few seconds.

When we were about to reach the doors the assassins were way too close, at this point, I was contemplating where I should get stabbed to avoid the suffering - although it looked like the shopkeeper preferred broken bones over stab wounds because he just charged head-first towards the door successfully crashing through it, causing bits of wood to fly out around us.

We now found ourselves in what looked like an even more shady part of town, and here I was hoping for some big market area,

The man was become visibly tired by now - breathing heavily and looking red-faced.

It looked like he was heading towards the large gate on our left, it looked like it led to a fancier place based on the more colourful sign - as expected he made a turn to the left only to be blocked by more of the same figures pointing their cylinder-guns at him, in an instant he tossed me aside before being shot, from the looks of it only his arm and leg were severely hurt - but soon another cloaked figure came over to finish the job - with a swift kick to the middle of the torso the man just...stopped...

“You wouldn’t happen to be able to speak English, would you?” I asked with one raised eyebrow, for as much as I didn’t mind death itself, the process of being stabbed could be pretty unpleasant - I mean nobody likes pain…except for masochists, but I never got those people, but you know - you do you. 

Regardless, the cloaked assassins didn't reply.

“Well…I didn’t live very long, but I made it to eight…I guess that’s something” was the only thought going through my head at the time,

In a flash, the image of the cat appeared - and his promise of letting me get out of this God-forsake cycle, 

“I can’t die yet!” I exclaimed - regardless of my statement I was picked up by one of the figures, I struggled and trashed in an attempt to escape - kicking and scratching the hand which held me by the neck.

“If not for that stupid cat, I might have thanked them…” I thought before drawing my leg back and planting it firmly in the figure’s gut - making them hunch forward as they gasped for air - quickly I reached down into my pocket, retrieving the metal plate and placing it between my middle and index finger in an attempt to create a makeshift brass-knuckle.

I planted my fist into assassin’s mask - I felt a crack but was unable to see it - I tried to go in for another one before another figure grabbed my hand and twisted it behind my back.

“Well… he can’t say I didn’t try…” I thought before closing my eyes in anticipation of the sweet release of death. 

From further down the alley I saw a vibrant blue light, I turned my head to see that it was the blue-haired guy from before, is this some kind of turf war? “I’m rooting for the blue-haired guy.” I thought,

In an instant the blue-haired guy moved from the end of the alley to inches away from me, a blue trail of sparkles leading back to where he was a second ago, on his hands were two glove-like items, each had three blades attached essentially creating artificial claw-weapons, in the split second after the moment he moved from one side of the alley to the other he turned his leg by ninety-degrees and planted a solid kick with the lower part of his leg to the cloaked figure’s neck causing it to fall over limply only twitching occasionally.

Two other cloaked figures appeared - as he went in for another kick the cloaked figure seemingly bent their body mid-air, coiling around his leg and planting a knife into his shin - the man let out a short yelp before grabbing the figure by the head and seemingly creating a red circle in his hand - a roaring flame appeared in his palm as a fierce grin spread across his face - the grin quickly faded and so did his flames when he turned to me and let out a sigh before saying something, he planted a quick chop to the assassin's neck causing them to fall limply to the floor.

The last one made a move for him, he quickly dodged the attack - stepping back, each step he took back was returned by the cloaked figure - eventually it took out a dagger which was seemingly coated with some sort of powder, his eyes focused on the blade, he never noticed the second dagger which headed towards his throat until it was too late.

With a bang, the cloaked figure fell to the floor - “thank fuck I didn't have to reload these gun things the assassins use”... I tossed the gun aside realising it was a one-time thing - I doubt this world would be that convenient...

He turned to me asking me something again, as expected I didn’t understand any of it - “I wish someone in this God-forsaken world spoke English!” I wished - the blue-haired guy asked me something again - “I don’t even know the language and the cat just left me here…” I complained aloud,

The blue-haired man paused for a second, “Oh...my god... you speak English?!” he asked seemingly surprised but in a good way,

“Fuck, I wasted my wish on you!” Pointing at the rather confused, blue-haired man - “Umm... I’m sorry? I think…” he replied uncertainly. 

“Well, at least I know there are some normal people in this world…” I thought before looking at his hair, glasses and the fact he just killed multiple people, “Well, relatively normal…” 

“Hey - so, why did you ignore my warning earlier?” he asked, 

“I can’t speak the language - or read it,” I explained plainly,

“Ohhh - I guess you must be from abroad then.” the man concluded before apologising - “Sorry about that, I didn’t realise.”

“Alright - let me ask you a quick question - what was your previous life?” I asked - “Earth” he replied,

“Right, I don’t know about you - but I’ve been through this kind of stuff before - and let me tell you this world is weird.” 

The blue-haired man raised an eyebrow - “How so?”

“I mean… I just appeared here earlier today - no language or anything.” I explained.

“Wait you mean to say… you’re literally just back from earth?” 

“Yeah - I got run over by a car." I clarified.

The blue-haired man stood there dumbfounded for a second - his claw weapons seemingly disintegrated into blue sparks before he moved his hand to fix his glasses. 

“Don’t take this the wrong way - but that’s hard to believe, and what did you mean when you said you have experience with this kind of thing?” 

I let out a sigh - “Doesn’t really matter - anyway, thanks for the help,” I walked over to one of the bodies,

“What are you doing?”

“These kinds of people always have some change on them…” I replied feeling around in the corpse’s pocket - taking out some coins - they glistened in the blue moonlight and looked like they’re the equivalent of copper coins - for some reason most worlds really like having the shiny metals as the more valuable coins - I placed them in my pocket with the metal plate before turning back to the guy.

“Guess I’ll leave the rest to you.” 

“I’ll…pass…” 

“Suit yourself.”

I didn’t take any gold from the rest for fear of being weighed down or being targeted as a rich individual.

“So - do you know why they tried to kill me?” I asked 

“Right - about that, some big aristocrat is going through this town today - for some reason these guys really want him dead - I saw them creeping around so I told you not to go there - I guess that though you were a messenger or something - since they never saw you around here before.” he presented his theory,

“So I really look that out of place?” 

“Yeah - I mean … you walked into the slums for no reason?” 

“I was sightseeing,” I replied.

“Anyway - it’s been a while since I saw someone with the ability to keep their composure in a fight so well - good job,”

“I mean - worst case scenario I’d be out of this world,”

“I don’t know - it looked like you tried to put up a fight to me.” 

“It’s complicated.” 

“Well - I’ll get going now.” I turned around ready to leave when I was stopped by the man “Wrong way.”

I turned around and followed the man out of the slum and into the main area of the town - a place filled with people and shops.

“You’re a life save… a double life save…”

“Don’t worry about it - it must suck not knowing anything about this world, eh?” he laughed.

“Don’t even get me started…”

“Well - looks like this is where we part ways, I’ll go look for a place to stay,” I explained,

“Yeah - I wouldn’t count on getting a room in here any time soon…” he replied,

“Why not? Is this place some big tourist attraction?”

“That’s not it - remember how I told you about the aristocrat - well, all sorts of people are coming from across the country to kiss their ass - the prices everywhere are pretty ridiculous - it’ll pass in a week or so.”

“In that case - mind doing something for me?” 

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Mind leading me to the main gate?” I requested - he agreed and we walked all the way out to the front gate - “Right - I’ll go find some place to sleep.” I explained.

“Are you sure you’ll manage?” he asked,

“I’ll be fine - I already have a good place,” I explained.

”I totally don’t - but it’d be pretty awkward to ask if I could crash at his place - so I’ll just go sleep in some field - chances are I won’t see this guy around ever again.” 

“Oh - I see, well I guess I won’t hold you up then - I’ll see you around.” he said - “By the way - I’m Adam,” he explained,

“Right - see you.” I walked off into the distance - walking back to the cliff area - I felt a grumbling in my stomach - “Damn it body - I don’t have time for food…” on my way I walked past the strange bush with the fruit…

“Disease or starvation…” I thought - but before I could decide I was already stuffing my face with the fruit, 

“These are actually really good - I can imagine these being good in jam…” I thought before feeling a tightness in my gut - “looks like I spoke too soon”

I ended up throwing up the berries over the cliff,

“Christ… my head’s killing me…” I mumbled to myself - “I’ve killed myself for less…” I though - almost like I was trying to threaten my body into not feeling like shit.

Eventually, I made it back to the hill I started off at - I found the me-shaped hole in the ground and slipped back into it - placing some of the grass and roots back over me before Looking up at the sky.

“This world sucks… and I can’t even kill myself… I wonder if I killed myself could I negotiate with the cat to let me try the same deal in the next world?”

“I have to say… I expected something a little fancier…” a male voice announced - I sat up ready to use my improvised brass-knuckle only to see Adam, I let out a sighed and laid back in the hole.

“You realise you’re stalking someone with the body of a child?” I asked,

“...Yeah well - I kind of expected you’d do something like this,” he replied sitting down on the ground cross-legged.

“So… you plan to sleep in the ground?” 

“Don’t change the subject - why’d you follow me?” 

“You rarely see someone from Earth - and not to mention the whole being one-day-old business - I guess I wanted to ask you some more questions tomorrow - but I expected I’d be waiting outside your house and not staring at you sleeping in a hole in the ground.” he laughed

“Ah yes, this changes everything - you’re didn’t come to stare at me - you came to sit outside my house through the night…”

“...you’re making this a lot worse than I intended…” 

“I’ve slept in the ground for a good few lives - you learn to appreciate it.” 

“Yeah - that’s another thing I wanted to ask about - are you saying you had more lives than just this one and the one on Earth?” he asked,

“yeah - dozens upon dozens that I can remember,” I explained,

“Damn… that’s a crazy concept for me to think about…”

“Why - it happened one - I can and did happen again.”

“You don’t seem to happy about that!” he laughed,

“That’s an understatement - but I have no interest in making friends here, you know?” 

“Damn - you’re really not sugar-coating it, are you?” he asked with a smile,

“Nothing personal - but I’ve been over this situation, and I’m not interested.”

“Well then you must know my offer - I have a spare room at my house, you can stay there, I can even teach you the language or magic.” he offered,

It’d be a lie if I said I didn’t consider the offer - both of those things are all but necessary to my survival - and I might not get another chance like this,

“It sounds like a deal I wouldn’t want to pass up, but what do you get out of it?” I asked,

“...”

“Aside from someone to talk to - I still want to pick your brains when it comes to the other world and Earth of course - plus I’d hate to pass up the opportunity to help a fellow Earthling,” he explained,

I let out a sigh “There is no way he’s being honest right now..” 

“Fine - it’d have to be stupid to pass up an offer to learn the language from an English speaker.”

“Good - then let’s get going.” 

He reached into his pocket pulling out a silver ring with a red gem - after putting it on the gem began to glow at a circle filled with runes appeared below up - “What the hell is this?!”

“It’s a teleportation spell!” he exclaimed and before I knew it I was standing in what looked like a flattish area next to a cliff - sheltered slightly by an overhand.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“This is my house,” Adam said pointing to the large - seemingly single-story house - it had a pointy yellow roof and tall fence going along its side - some strange flowerbeds decorated the front.

I looked to the side - seeing everything was far lower - in fact, it looked like we were on a mountain surrounded by thick forest - “Why does it look like… we’re on a mountain?” 

“That’s because this is a mountain,” he explained.

“I take back the comment about him being relatively normal.” I thought before following him indoors.

The floor was made of polished wood, the walls were nicely made from what looked like painted plaster, and the ceiling was a pure white, from the looks of it this was the living room, there was a blue fluffy rug in the centre of the room, there was a couch and an armchair both a matching dull blue, as for lighting it looked like the room had electric lighting, but upon closer inspection there were white crystals inside glass bulbs attached to the ceiling creating the illusion of modern lights.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about it - is this magic?”

“Yeah - but that’s nothing - there are some people with some really impressive powers.” 

“Huh..”

“Guess you really are new here if you don’t even know about magic…” he laughed,

“Is magic really so well known here?” I asked thinking back to all the things I suspect were magic from before - like the lights used in the town - or the glasses guy's teleportation thing.

“Yeah, it’s weird that you’re new to this world…in every case I’ve heard of - people are born here and later on in life regain their memories of the previous life,” Adam explained if he was telling the truth and I really am an anomaly…well, actually I don’t think that changes anything…

“Anyway, I guess that means you really know nothing about this world, huh?” Adam asked thinking back to how I ignored his warning back when I first saw him and how I didn’t know magic was a thing.

“Nothing,” I replied confirming Adam’s concerns.

“Except that there is this weird caviare looking fruit you shouldn’t eat,” I added.

“That’s kind of rough…” Adam said scratching his head, “Anyway - we can talk about it tomorrow, for today you should go get some sleep - preferably not in a field.” 

“You can take the room at the end of the hall, the on on the right is the toilet.“ he explained before heading down that same hallway but turning left to the door opposite the toilet door, “If you need anything just let me know,” he said before closing the door.

“Well…he certainly is trusting of others…” the voice from behind me commented it was that damn cat…

I turned around only to find that I was alone in the room, I headed to my room and went straight to sleep.

“Today was way too lively for me…” I sighed to myself before passing out in the bed,

When I woke up I had a chance to get a better look at my temporary room, there was a wardrobe, drawer, desk with a drawer built into it and a large chest, I also had a window which when looked through showed only the rocky side of a mountain.

I got out of bed and headed out through the hallway and into the living-room, it seemed a lot nicer with the warm yellow-red hues of what I assume is the day in this world coming through the window.

Adam was already awake and sitting on the couch mixing something in a bowl.

“What’s up, glasses guy?” I asked seeing Adam was already up and seeing that he was sitting hunched over a bowl, Adam looked up from the bowl and at me, “Oh, you’re up!” he looked down to the bowl, “Ah, well that’s just … my hobby - this world doesn’t have tea and I’m desperately trying to re-create it.” Adam explained,

“Interesting hobby, how’s it going so far?” I asked looking into the bowl seeing that Adam has in fact been mixing various dried up herbs together, “Well…let’s just say it’s been a few years…” he laughed blushing slightly, it was evident he was embarrassed due to his lack of actual results.

I sat down on the armchair, “This place looks so modern.” I commented.

“Thanks, I didn’t have much to do all these years to I went about rebuilding the home I remember,” Adam explained.

“All right, there are a few things I think I need to explain to you, especially since you’re new to this world.” the Adam said taking the bowl off the table and moving it over to what I assumed was the kitchen before coming back.

“But first, you said you don’t have a name, right?” he asked - laughing a bit as he asked the question.

“Yeah,” I said reaching into my pocket and pulling out the small metal plate from before,

“Did you have this when you appeared?” Adam asked looking at the small metal place in my hand.

“Yep, it was in my pocket when I appeared in this world for the first time yesterday,” I explained.

“Hmm, well, just come up with a name on the spot.” the man suggested.

“Okay…” 

“I’m surprised I never thought of that myself, after all… all names are made up anyway, but what should I call myself… this is why I could never become a parent, I’d ruin the scene when you have to name the kid buy just standing there for like twenty minutes straight and going like “Alright… just call the child Jim,” and the nurse would be like “But sir, it’s a girl…” and it’d be an awkward situation for us all…”

I sat there scratching my chin.

“Well - what kind of name would you like?” he asked trying to help me think of something,

“I don’t know - the fact I’m a girl this time isn’t making this easier…” I sighed,

“Wait…hold up - are you telling me that not only did you come from more than one world before this one - but you were a guy before?” Adam looked completely in shock.

“Yeah - although that’s weird even by my standards - I’ve been a dude my entire lives - and now… bam…” I sighed.

“I guess you could try and think of something that can be used for both genders - like Charlie,”

“...”

“...”

“How about Alex?” Adam asked.

“I guess, it’s gender-neutral…” 

“Now then, I need to explain some things about this world, Alex,” Adam said, both his voice and expression became more serious.

“Wait, no. I can’t… I keep imagining a video game character when you use that name...” I said interrupting Adam’s serious talk.

“Alright… I guess choose another name…how about Mary?” asked Adam.

“Nah, It’s bad luck to call myself anything livestock-related…” I said thinking about the goat incident, 

Adam wasn’t sure how to reply - and so he just moved onto his next suggestion…

“How about… Annabelle?”

“Too feminine…and it's like the doll…”

“What doll?” Adam asked.

“You know, the one from the horror film.” I explained, “I wasn’t really a fan of horror movies back on Earth.” Adam admitted.

“Whatever… how about Emily?” Adam asked.

“Nah, I knew an Emily back on Earth - it’d get confusing,” I replied.

“You know what… how about we leave the name for later.” Adam suggested, he sounded defeated.

I shrugged, “Sure.”.

“From what I understand, except yourself, everybody who comes from Earth is born here, we remember Earth like a vivid dream later on in life…we don’t know what exactly triggers the memories to appear but they usually appear by fifteen at the latest or not at all.” Adam explained.

I just sat and listened.

“As you saw before, this is a world where magic exists, and while from what I see we have a slight advantage over the people of this world when it comes to learning and mastering new abilities, strength-wise we are no different than them,” Adam explained,

“It’s important to keep in mind that this is, for the most part - a medieval society and as such it will seem a little dated to us modern people,” Adam spoke more matter-of-factly.

“I’m sorry to say that while I have confirmed the existence of animal-people they are in fact not cute cat-eared girls but rather feral beasts with claws and fangs,” Adam said with a sad sigh.

“As for the political side of things-” Adam began explaining but was cut off, “I’m good, I’m not bothered to learn about politics here,” I replied.

“Thank god, because I’m not bothered to explain…” Adam said breathing a sigh of relief.

Adam scratched his head, “I think that’s all the big stuff.” he said with a grin scratching his chin.

“Except for the cat-girl info, that info could come in handy…by the way, do the people of this world know about people from Earth appearing here?” I asked

“Generally no, plus if you keep insisting you’re from another world you could get in trouble with some questionable individuals… Granted their tolerance for the supernatural is greater than the peasants back on Earth since magic is a thing here… There is one specific group you should stay clear of - but that's a topic for another day.”

“Good to know… I’ll try and avoid being stabbed by the locals in the future.” I said resolutely.

“Good - now, like promised - how about we move onto some magic lessons?”