'Fuck!' Melvin cursed in his mind after such a long time of not doing so, he had a strong feeling he would see something very bad when seeking further clarification, and he was right.

But then again the word poisoned was telling enough, it was just that he felt somewhat overwhelmed by everything so far and the last thing he needed was that, more worries.

This also made him certain of the fact that his sense of nausea and light-headedness was probably due to the effects of the poison in his body, and not because the smell was so strong that it made him sick, although it did make him want to vomit his already empty stomach.

'So I will die in two hours if I don't seek treatment?' Realizing the severity of the situation, especially from where he was right now, in the depths of a pit filled with dead bodies he couldn't help but despair a little.

'I can't stay like this' He thought with a bit of resolve, he knew that staying in the same place mentally and fretting over every little thing would only bring him to death even quicker.

Although there were still a lot of things that puzzled him in that interface like titles and some other things, he had to guarantee his survival first and foremost, and so the moment he knew that time was ticking away he couldn't just sit still.

After the things he had been through, he wasn't willing to just let life pass him by anymore. Knowing that he had been granted an opportunity to make something out of his life, he was determined to take full advantage. Thus, with a newfound resolve, he made all of the other interfaces disappear before he attempted to stand up once again.

He drew in a deep, foul breath, and he immediately regretted preparing himself in such a way as the stench overwhelmed him. Gripping the waist of the corpse to his left and the back of the one to his right, he exerted more strength and, with a swift movement of his legs, he began to rise to his feet.

As he neared the point of standing upright, his footing faltered as the uneven surface of the bodies beneath him shifted unexpectedly. This sudden instability caused him to lurch forward. Quickly reacting, he dropped to his knees and hands, breaking his fall.

Kneeling on all fours, a troubling realization dawned upon him: the pit he found himself in was rather too deep, measuring around six meters in height.

It became apparent to him that climbing out would be quite a challenge. His gaze wandered involuntarily to the numerous corpses strewn about, and a very plausible idea began to take root.

'But to do that, I need to be able to just stand up first.' Melvin thought with some exasperation at his situation, and with that, he attempted to stand up once again.

Thanks to the time spent on all fours, he grew accustomed to the unstable ground beneath him. Carefully gauging where to apply pressure to avoid slipping, he gradually rose to his feet, finally achieving success.

Strangely, he couldn't help but feel very proud at that moment.

Although what he did was very negligible and small compared to what he needed to do to survive, Melvin knew that although it seemed simple it was anything but.

He could feel that his control over his body was very weak and unsteady, making even the simplest movement of his body require tremendous effort and attention.

Melvin didn't know whether it had something to do with the actual poison still coursing through his body, or something more fundamental, like the fact that this wasn't his body and his soul was still getting used to it, he reasoned with arms flailing around in an attempt to keep his balance.

Either way, he knew that something was very wrong which increased the difficulty of this exponentially.

Now upright and with a clearer view of his attire, his focus inadvertently shifted to his clothing. He wore a pair of cheap black pants, their coarse, thin fabric uncomfortably brushing against his skin. On his feet were simple leather boots, and adorning his upper body was a low-quality green shirt with poorly drawn purple roses.

The shirt bore several bloodstains, though he didn't dwell on it. In this pit of despair, blood seemed to be in abundance, and he had no desire to overanalyze its presence on his clothing as it seemed rather clear.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Arms still slightly flailing around to keep himself balanced, he began pondering how should he go about his plan.

Glancing to his right, he spotted a pile of corpses stacked at the edge of the pit. This seemed like a practical starting point, offering a pre-established foundation that could save him some time.

Just as he was about to move his legs in that direction he stopped, and began to debate, 'No, if I use the corpses there then the area close to the pile will get too low, and might cause the foundation to become even more unstable...'

Reaching that conclusion, his eyes immediately shifted to his left, directly next to the corpse he was standing on with his left leg was a young man who seemed somewhat older than this new body of his. Observing how skinny he was, Melvin felt like he would be the perfect first brick in the elevated platform of corpses he was planning to build.

With his legs still unmoving, he very gently and slowly bent down his legs and moved his torso to the left. Using his left hand he grabbed the collar of the black robe the young man was wearing and pulled using all of his strength, which to his shock wasn't so bad because the body easily followed.

This time using both of his hands, he gripped the corpse's head and pulled it to the area in front of him, and with a tremendous effort, he was finally successful as the upper body of the black robed corpse lay on top of the two he was standing on.

Because of the way he previously pulled the corpse, it was laying on its stomach which comforted him about what he wanted to do next because he dreaded looking into the young man's soulless eyes.

He began to coil the robe's hood until it formed a firm bundle, grasping it firmly with his right hand. With his left hand, he gripped the right knee of the corpse from behind and lifted it.

As the corpse lifted off the ground, it tilted slightly to the side, revealing the man's face. Melvin quickly averted his eyes and began walking slowly toward the piled-up corpses at the edge of the pit on his left.

Although he almost fell several times in the process, he was finally able to reach his destination and with tremendous difficulty carried the corpse and put it on top of the others.

Observing that the pile had now reached his waist with the addition of just one corpse, Melvin took a moment to catch his breath and he began to calculate how many more corpses he would need. "I'm approximately 1.8 meters tall, I think? So, maybe four or five more should do it," he murmured to himself.

As he was catching his breath, he unconsciously moved both of his arms to his waist, something he used to do out of habit whenever he was working out, and the moment his left hand gripped his waist, he felt a jolt of pain which made him grimace and he immediately shifted his eyes to take a look in that direction.

In his green shirt, there was a very thin and wide tear that he hadn't paid much attention to before, there was also a lot of blood around that area, and he immediately thought of something.

Quickly lifting his shirt, Melvin revealed a deep wound near his belly button. Although the injury appeared to be closed, the faint remnants of where a sharp object had pierced through were still visible. Yet, what captured his attention the most was the greenish tint surrounding the wound—a telltale sign of the poison referenced in his status.

Melvin was certain that that's how the previous guy, or as he was called Jacob died, and he couldn't help but think, 'A knife filled with poison? How terrifying is this?'

Such a vicious method of murder made him feel terrified of what he was getting into, and he thought with some apprehension, 'No wonder the very first quest said to investigate Jacob's murder, it must be something big...'

Melvin had some understanding of video games, but he was a bit hesitant to use the logic of games in his previous world to analyze questions about this one. Although the main interface could be said to be exactly like them, he knew that this was a whole world, and even more advanced than his previous one at that.

With a big sigh, he decisively dismissed such thoughts for now and continued what he was doing, 'Getting out of here is the priority, I'll understand more when death is no longer but two hours away.'

His black boots ruthlessly walked on bellies, backs, genitalia, faces, and all other kinds of body parts, and he just wished he could turn off the sensory inputs his feet were giving him as they were only making things more difficult for him psychologically.

The combination of physical pain, odors, and visual stimuli overwhelmed him, prompting occasional dry heaves. Yet, with his stomach empty, these efforts only served to further exhaust him as nothing came out.

His body was already sweating bullets and his discomfort reached a terrifying degree, but he soldiered on and continued carrying nearby bodies on top of the pile at the edge of the pit.

He continued working hard, his feet would slip from time to time which would cause him to fall, but he would just catch his breath and stand up once again.

Soon, a naked body belonging to a woman seemingly in her forties was placed with great difficulty on top of the pile that had already reached his face.

Melvin's right hand unconsciously grabbed into the earthy walls of the pit as he started breathing in deeply to recuperate some of his energy. Once he felt ready, he let go of the wall and grabbed into some of the bodies and he started stepping on others as he climbed very, very slowly.

He understood that this was the difficult part since the pile was very unstable, and one wrong move would topple everything down with it. Fortunately, as he summoned every bit of focus and remaining strength that he had his right hand finally landed on top of the last woman's lower back, and his left hand stretched out to grab into the wall of the pit.

'Thank god', he thought, when he noticed some still living roots that belonged to some plants in the area he was trying to hold, which indeed helped him gain a better grip, and so using that as an anchor he pulled himself forward and started standing up on top of the pile.

The moment his body was completely upright, he was finally able to see new things other than corpses, soil, and the cloudless sky.