The goddesses were tired. The amount of humans on Earth had a finite number, and passing onto the reincarnation cycle, or forced ejection from their own world to another. It wasn't a good practice. But they had to. The many other worlds that each Goddess governed, there were too many anomalies.
Demon Kings, monsters, corrupted politicians befitting the medieval ages of these worlds.
These humans were people with values, or at least the goddesses had assessed them to be. And so they sent them to prevent the world from losing its neutrality.
But one day, a Goddess had mistakenly sent a human without such values. He was a murderer in his past life. While the starting actions didn't seem big initially, ripples started to spread and come in contact with each other like a butterfly effect. Betrayal leading to negative emotions, breeding hate and revenge. Various conspiracies and plots that culminated from the earthling sent to resolve problems, became the problem instead.
From the consequences of that human's actions, the world it was in was doomed to fail.
And so the goddesses became dejected. The scarcity of such humans had already dipped over the years, and a wrong choice would result in something like this? The goddesses felt like the majority of humans did not appreciate their second chance at life. So another world was created. To create a world, the power of many goddesses were required. The birth of life. It was created in the likeliness of its neighbours, yet it had a flaw that the goddesses had purposefully left it with.
The magic systems, monsters and even citizens worked against the favour of those who would eventually be sent to this place. And they would send in people whom they deemed to require such a baptism. A hell created in the mirage of a perfect world, a test for those who would eventually succeed after clawing their way from the bottom.
They would finally appreciate life after managing themselves in a place where the conditions of survival were harsh. But it turned out to be a mistake, the cesspool of self indulgence and neglect grew even strongly in this place.
Why? The goddesses thought as they viewed the world from above. Why has this happened? They did not understand the true nature of humans. The residents of the new world could not cope on their own, but they continued to be selfish.
It wasn't as if the goddesses had left them with no choice, those who earnestly wanted to carve out a way to live, would do so with some leeway in their new lives. But people... humans continued to be selfish. They always sought more, treating themselves as the center of the pack. Egoistical, self-centered... Thinking, why does things happen to me? Why must it be me? Why was I chosen to suffer? And so those ugly feelings pit forth against each other, straining the relationships in this damned place.
The world plunged into darkness, and there was no longer hope in rehabilitating them.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The goddesses were already tired, and they did not have the obligation to save these humans in the first place. Thus it slowly became a place like the afterlife where humans served their penance for all the sins they'd committed in their lives. The worlds continued to move in parallel, advancing the stories of each of them, but only that corrupted world stayed in place.
----------------------------------------
White did not bother collecting the remains of the dead man whom he did not even know the name of. Even though he had already realized that the Mutated Lilacs did not melt or bite through fabric, the flames were spreading faster than he had anticipated.
For now, he decided to move out of the forest where the Lilacs crawled. Perhaps he might come in contact with other monsters lurking inside. His best bet was the open grounds of the wasteland. He backtracked following the marks of the trees. They would soon be burnt by the flames spreading wildly. That was another reason he needed to get out of here, there might also be monsters awakened and provoked by the fire.
Thinking back, it was rather uncharacteristic of him to risk his life doing something so showy. Preferably, he would have done the entire thing more discreetly. But then again, he chuckled after thinking about it once more.
"Keuk, keuk..."
Since he was back in control over his body, he had begun to realize it as well. No one was here to judge his actions, this was a different world as compared to Earth.
Either way, there was little to work with. White wasn't exactly a grand strategist, but he wasn't an idiot either. If one would take a step back to access the young man, they would most likely have the iimpression that he possessed a rather quick-witted mind.
This considerably savage method to secure his most optimal route of survival, White could not help but sigh and mull over the plan's overall lack of elegance.
----------------------------------------
White had already checked the contents of the pack around his waist. There were quite a few items in there, but for now he took out a small 500ml bottle of water.
He was rather parched from all the heat and action, so he drunk it without hesitation. There should be no poison in them considering it was from the Hunter's actual rations.
"Ahh... that's much better..."
His thirst was finally quenched. Then he took out a small packet of biscuits and ate it as well. He felt considerably better than before.
｢Status Window｣.
Stamina [6] Hunger [21] Thirst [41]
Still, he was too fatigued to run. So he took his time getting out of the burning forest.
----------------------------------------
For now, he sat down onto the ground with the torchlight at the ready in case Lilacs appeared again.
He tucked the knife that still had its sheath at the pocket on his back, and dumped the contents of the bag out on the ground.
"A set of coordinates..."
He held a crumpled piece of paper up to the torchlight. It was probably where that man's hideout was, seems like it was true after all and it wasn't too far from the forest where he had set the trap at.
In addition, there was a compass.
4 packs of biscuits. 2 500ml bottles of water.
6 small ziplock bags with a small blue pill in each of them.
A moderately bigger one which held a bunch of green berries.
"Haahhh..."
It was nighttime already. For now, he decided to pay the hideout a visit.