Two crescent-shaped moons dimly shine in the cloudless night sky, one larger than the other. The larger one has a blue hue, while the smaller one has a red hue.

Stars fill the night sky. I have never seen so many stars on Earth it almost feels magical. However, there isn’t a single star or constellation I recognize.

The submarine rocks back and forth in the dark waves.

I exit the submarine for a better view.

The waves softly splash on the side of the submarine. A light breeze touches my face. It doesn’t feel like I am on an open sea.

I take a deep breath the comforting scent of salty seawater reminding me of Earth. Staring into the horizon I slowly make out the shape of mountains and land all around me, some appearing closer than others.

This is an inland sea.

The calm sound of waves is suddenly interrupted by a series of bubbling noises.

Before I can return inside the submarine along with me it is launched into the air before crashing back into the sea.

Balancing myself in the water, a massive mouth with dagger-like teeth fills my vision.

This might be my chance to break this cursed body. Sharp teeth chomp down on my body. A thick blue liquid dilutes into the surrounding waters.

The water now tastes a little metallic and acidic.

Looking down at my perfectly intact body I curse in my head. Realizing that liquid isn’t from me.

The creature retreats, twisting and coiling.

It looks like a giant sea serpent covered in scales with a couple pairs of flappers and a long tail.

The triangular-shaped head has two pairs of tiny eyes with an unusually large mouth.

The mouth is filled with sharp teeth but now many of the teeth are broken.

A thick blue liquid gushes out of its jaws.

This creature can’t break this body.

During my time in the lab I try to find weaknesses in this body.

My biggest fear isn’t death. If something can break this body it would be a dream come true for me.

My biggest fear would be some sort of sealing ways to trap or isolate this body.

An eternity in solitary confinement would be my worst-case scenario. So I must prevent any possibility of this fate or worse be turned into… I must not get eaten!

The submarine is still intact and floats back to the surface. I quickly try to swim toward it but another long massive body blocks my path.

This creature is much larger than the one that attacked me.

It whips its tail and a crashing force pushes me to the bottom of the sea.

I stir up the water trying to hide among the rocks on the seafloor.

Why are they attacking me? Do I look that delicious?!

The larger sea serpent swims near the surface while the smaller one races to the bottom.

The blue liquid has stopped flowing from its mouth.

It furiously whips and crashes its body on everything on the seafloor.

Sneaking around it I carefully swim up to the surface. While pulling the dagger from my leg.

As I get close enough to the larger serpent I stab and slice into it as hard as I can. A rush of blue fluid spills onto my face.

The large sea serpent twists and turns violently. I take my chance and rush toward the submarine.

Grabbing onto the submarine I begin climbing but before I can return inside the sea starts swirling around me. Losing my balance I fall back into the waters.

Beneath me the large sea serpent swims in a circle at an unimaginable speed. The water around me twists and turns into a small whirlpool dragging everything down.

Just my luck the creature has a special move.

While the larger sea serpent creates the whirlpool the smaller sea serpent launches at me from my blind spots.

Oh look They have a combo attack too.

It attacks again and again trying to bite off my limbs. It can’t wound me but I am dragged around in the water in all directions.

I stab my dagger into its head and body whenever I get the chance. Slowly the water around us begins to change color.

As I search for the smaller serpent and prepare for the next assault, I am suddenly surrounded by darkness.

The liquid around me becomes thicker like glue. My body is squeezed from all directions as I push, stab and slice around me.

It is extremely hard to push the dagger in and even harder to pull it back out.

My mind races as the awful feeling of claustrophobia begins to take over. I keep stabbing with the dagger in every direction. Oh no oh no oh no no no no no…

The liquid around me grows thicker enveloping my entire body and I feel myself being pushed down through endless darkness.

I gather all my willpower, clear my mind and with all my strength stab once more with everything I have.

This time instead of pulling the dagger out I keep pushing and slicing tearing apart with both hands. I tunnel my hand, arm, head, shoulders, and the rest of my body into the rip I create.

The fluid around me slowly becomes less viscous.

The dagger strikes a solid mass in front of me like an iron wall. I pull my body closer and stomp onto the solid mass. As it cracks I continue digging myself in further and further.

Finally my dagger slices an opening and salty water rushes in covering my hand then my arms face and the rest of my body. I pull the opening wide and kick back.

Returning to the embrace of the seawater I stare back. Within the cloud of dark blue liquid the large sea serpent coils into a ball twisting and turning.

A deafening high-pitched scream pierces through the waters. Covering my ears I turn around and swim back to the surface. Luckily I can still see the submarine floating above.

I rushed toward the submarine swimming as fast as I can.

But halfway to the submarine I am once again being dragged down by my leg.

Why?! I taste horrible. You can’t even chew me, you'll get a blockage swallowing me. Why?!

The smaller serpent refuses to let me go as I kick and kick at its head. Raging with frustration I raise my dagger with both hands.

Aiming at the center of its head I thrust the dagger down with lightning speed hoping to end it once and for all. But before it can reach its head a massive tail swipes my arm to the side and my dagger lands on the serpent’s eye instead.

It twists its head and the dagger slips from my hands.

The tail swipe comes from the large serpent. It wraps itself around the smaller serpent and carefully pulls the dagger out of its eye with its mouth.

Staring back at me it swallows the dagger before my eyes.

It has some intelligence. Is the smaller serpent its child?

Why are they attacking me?! There are so many other things they can eat!

Weaponless I float in the middle of the sea keeping my eyes locked on the two serpents.

My other weapon is inside the submarine but they won’t give me a chance to retreat.

As I think through my options the two creatures lunge at me together.

The larger serpent bites and clamps onto one of my legs while the smaller serpent latches onto my opposite arm. They twist their heads trying to pull me apart.

It’s no use, my body stays together still without a scratch.

With my free arm I pull back and punch into the damaged eye of the smaller serpent. I push my hand deeper into its eye socket firmly gripping the inner structure to prevent it from pulling back.

I swing and kick at the larger serpent but it holds my leg tightly.

Fine, I’ll take out the little one first!

I dig deeper into the smaller serpent’s eye socket with both hands. Finding a hard spot to grip, I hold on tight as it thrashes and twists.

With my other hand, I make a fist and punch, over and over, in the same spot on its skull.

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As I punch, the larger serpent pulls harder, dragging us all toward the seafloor. It twists its body around mine, wrapping tightly, trapping my punching arm, and squeezing harder and harder.

But I refuse to let go of the smaller serpent as it squirms.

I wiggle my arm free and gather all my strength for one final punch.

When my fist lands, I hear a crack, and the serpent’s skull craters inward. Blue liquid spills from its skull. With one last push, my fist sinks deep into the skull.

The smaller serpent stops moving, its strength completely gone.

My ears fill with a massive anguished screech as the smaller serpent’s body begins to float sideways, lifeless.

My hair suddenly lights up again, the same iridescent color returning to each strand. As if gaining a mind of its own, it twists into a spear shape and pierces into the head of the serpent with little effort. Another bright flash follows.

As my vision clears, instead of a golden light, a massive golden sphere floats above me.

The sphere resembles the painting from Dr. Keyser's living room. Its size is incomprehensibly large, almost filling my entire view. It appears as if an infinite number of spheres are folded around each other.

Is this the true form of the bright light? Dr. Keyser knew what was in this dimension.

Similar to the painting, there are trillions upon trillions of specks of light entangled within the golden sphere made of strings. The specks flicker like golden stars, but they grow dimmer the closer they are to the center.

A dark red speck of light floats up from the darkness beneath me toward the sphere. However, before the golden strings can reach the speck, iridescent strings shoot out from behind me.

The iridescent strings encase and entangle the speck of light, preventing the golden strings from touching it.

The strings pull the speck toward me. As they do, memories flow into my mind in a stream of vivid visions.

******

Deep in the freezing cold waters, my eyes open, shivering and screaming in hunger. I am soon surrounded by two large serpent-like creatures. They are our parents. They bring us food and care for us.

One of them looks just like the one I fought.

I am not alone. My siblings and I, together there are six of us small ones in this deep-water nest.

Slowly, we grow, inch by inch, becoming bigger and bigger. The larger of the two serpents—Dad—leaves the nest one day.

Our peace is quickly disrupted by two beams of light.

From the shadows of the water, a small submarine appears.

That’s Dr. Keyser’s submarine. Why is he here?

The submarine focuses its light on us, and two metal claws reach toward us.

But before it can touch us, a massive tail smashes the submarine aside.

Mom lashes her tail at the submarine repeatedly. It keeps moving, dodging side to side, up and down, evading the attacks.

Through the clear glass window, I see him—a much younger Dr. Keyser.

As the submarine evades Mom’s strikes, a latch opens at its bottom, and something pops out. A bright flash of light follows.

I lost sight for several minutes.

When my vision returns, our nest is shattered. Only two of us small ones remain in the broken nest. The water around us is saturated with blue liquid.

Before we can move, a metal claw clamps onto the last two of us.

It almost pulls us into a glass container before a high-pitched sound breaks the silence. A gravely wounded serpent wraps itself around the submarine.

It’s Mom—she’s here to protect us.

Suddenly, a massive numbing pain spreads across my body, and I lose consciousness.

When my vision returns, all I see is one of the larger serpents, severed in two, lying lifeless on the seafloor.

It’s Mom.

Dad has returned. He encircles Mom, making a soft moaning noise.

The submarine is gone, and I am the only one left in the broken nest.

That bastard killed the serpent and took their children!

I slowly move beside Dad and rest on him. He wraps his tail around me.

After covering Mom on the seafloor, we leave the nest. We relocated to a new spot on the seabed, much deeper than before.

Once in a while, we return to where Mom rests, staying there for some time before leaving again.

A long, long time passes. I grow much, much larger—still not as big as Dad, but large enough to defend myself.

This time, as we leave Mom’s resting place, I see it again. That submarine floating on the surface—the thing that shattered our family.

The reason for all of Dad’s suffering.

My blood boils with rage as I charge at it, sending it into the air. As it falls back down, a small creature drops into the water.

Blinded by fury, I open my mouth and bite down on the small creature with all my strength. It’s like biting into a sharp rock—pain suddenly fills my mouth.

That little creature swims toward the surface. I can’t let it get back inside.

Good thing Dad is here. He smashes it back down to the seafloor.

As it hits the seafloor, I chase it, smashing and destroying everything in my path. But it escapes.

When I look up at the surface again, I see Dad swirling in a circle, faster and faster, creating a whirlpool that drags the submarine and the small creature back into the sea.

I charge at it again and again, attacking, trying to pull something off—a limb, a hand, a foot, anything!

But nothing tears off, and it stabs me repeatedly.

Before I can attack again, Dad opens his massive mouth and swallows it whole.

Just when I think it’s over, as I prepare to destroy the submarine, the unthinkable happens.

A hole opens in Dad’s body. Dad screams and twists in pain, and that small, fragile-looking creature comes out of his body.

Impossible!

As it tries to flee, I bite its leg again to drag it back down. I can’t let it get away—not again, not after everything it has done.

As it raises its blade, I prepare for the end, but Dad comes to the rescue once more. He swipes the blade aside, and it lands in one of my eyes instead.

Dad helps me pull the blade out of my eye and swallows it.

In our final attempt, we each grab one of its limbs, hoping to pull it apart. But that small creature is too tough. Nothing we do harms it.

Suddenly, I feel a hand reach into my eye socket and grab hold of my skull. I thrash and twist, but it’s no use.

Punches land on my skull, one after another.

In one excruciatingly painful moment, it all ends. I can no longer feel my body. Everything turns cold again.

******

When the stream of memory ends, the dark red speck of light becomes translucent. As if all the colors of the light have been absorbed, everything it once was vanishes, returning to its most innocent form. It drops silently back into the darkness from which it came.

My vision returns to the middle of the sea.

As though time has paused and restarted, my hair reverts to its normal silver color, and the smaller serpent remains motionless, lifeless, still clutched by its eye socket in my hands.

The larger serpent releases me, its massive coils loosening as it hurriedly wraps itself around the smaller one. Protecting its head from my fists, it cradles the body gently, but it is already too late.

I loosen my grip, letting the smaller serpent’s lifeless form float away. The larger serpent guides the body softly to the sea floor, laying it down with care.

It looks at the still form in agony, wrapping itself around it and emitting soft, mournful sounds—a lullaby, comforting his child to sleep.

The larger serpent then turns its gaze toward me. Its eyes meet mine, filled with unfathomable grief, its stare piercing my chest like blades. I can feel its sorrow, raw and all-encompassing.

I had a family once. I can’t fathom the despair this creature must be feeling now.

They mistake me for Dr. Keyser because of that stupid submarine!

Regret and dread wash over me, leaving me motionless. My mind spirals, consumed by thoughts of all the ways this could have ended differently.

If only I knew… If only I hadn’t used that submarine. If only I tried running. If only… I had died instead. It’s not my fault. It attacked first. It wouldn’t let go. It’s not my fault!

The agonizing thoughts engulf my mind, and darker ones arise.

Should I kill it? Killing it will let it join its family in the afterlife.

The serpent lays beside its child, motionless.

I should just kill it and end its misery. They are just animals.

I clench my fist.

Just one swift and powerful kick, directly into its skull, would end it.

I sink onto its head. As if accepting its fate, it doesn’t move. It looks at me with lifeless eyes and closes them.

Deep within my essence, I beg for an alternative. As I lift my feet above my head, right before delivering a swift and painless end, my hair lights up again.

Strands of my hair bind together and transform into the form of the smaller serpent. It is as if the consciousness of the smaller serpent has returned.

It whispers soft sounds beside the ears of the larger serpent. The serpent opens its eyes again, and life returns to its gaze. It replies in a soft voice before closing its eyes again, this time in contentment.

Strands of my hair pierce into the head of the serpent. The serpent glows a dark blue aura. Memories flow out and into my mind.

I see visions of the two serpents meeting, loving, caring for their children, her death, his sorrow, this fight, and his child’s death.

All the memories of its love and children flow into my mind. The serpent's aura turns lighter, until it is completely white.

Its eyes clear, no longer in despair. All its wounds close.

The smaller serpent gently bumps heads with the larger serpent before fading and turning back into strands of hair, returning to its normal color.

It’s over. I have taken all its memories of its family. It’s as if it never knew them.

I am not sure if that was the right thing to do, but it seems like the final wish the smaller serpent had for its dad.

The large serpent looks once more at the smaller serpent’s body in confusion before swimming off into the dark sea.

Not the ending I hoped for, I guess reviving the dead isn’t in my hair’s skills list.

I slowly rise to the surface of the sea. When I resurface and climb onto the submarine, a ray of light breaks through the darkness.

A sun, much like the one on Earth, slowly rises from the horizon.

The seawater glistens in the sunlight, and the wind blows a bit harder. The land and mountains in the distance become clearer.

Every piece of fabric on my body is torn, but my body itself has not a single scratch.

Destroying this body isn’t going to be easy…

I run my hand through my already dry hair. Not a drop of water stays anywhere on my body when I return to the surface. Examining my hair, I once again try to control it or light it up, but nothing works.

It lit up three times: twice when something died in front of me, which seems to be the trigger.

The last time, I had no idea what triggered it, but what happened was completely different. I didn’t see the golden sphere the last time.

In all cases, it seems I am absorbing memories through my hair from the being to which it belonged.

I wonder what other skills or abilities are in my character tab…

After doing all sorts of stupid movements for a couple of minutes, I give up. There is nothing that popped up so no skill tab, character sheet, or system…

This is a trash isekai…

“Let me go back to my afterlife!!” I scream into the air, pretending some deity might hear my plea.

I rip the cloth off and retreat into the submarine, where I put on some new clothes.

After returning to my driver’s seat, I look around and find the closest large landmass I can see, then race the submarine toward it.

As I move toward the land, half-submerged, I remain alert in case I am attacked again. Fortunately, nothing happens, and I reach a red sandy beach by the time the sun is only halfway up the sky. The sun seems to move much slower than on Earth.

As I get closer to the beach, I slow the submarine and find a more discreet location to land close to the water’s edge. I exit the submarine and pull it ashore.

The submarine is extremely well-made. Even after everything, it only has a couple of small dents. I return to the submarine and take all my belongings with me.

I slowly move from the beach inland.

The plants and animals I encounter are not aggressive, but again, not a single one is familiar. Most plants have very large leaves, and some have large fruits hanging from them.

All the plants and vegetation look very tropical, and the air is thick with humidity.

There are sounds similar to birds, and others sound like low-pitched roars all around me, some close, some distant.

I take a breath once in a while, just to smell my surroundings. Some places have foul scents, like fecal matter, while others smell pleasantly sweet.

As I get deeper into the jungle, an interesting smell catches my attention. It smells like a mix of spices, very familiar ones, like those from Earth.

Someone is cooking...