As Yaro stepped into the darkness, he realized that it wasn’t as bad as he had expected. Although it appeared to be impermeable from the outside, he could actually see up to three meters around him.

In front of him, Number 4 was waiting impatiently. “Come on,” he said, seeing that Yaro had stopped.

Yaro nodded and continued walking. After a moment, he turned to Number 4. “Farmer 4 - do you mind if I call you Farmer 4?”

Number 4 did not respond, so he took it as tacit approval. “So what did you do before becoming a lawslave, Farmer 4? Uh, in your past life?”

Farmer 4 turned to look at Yaro. His gaze was blank, and it was clear that he did not understand.

“I was a painter in my last life,” Yaro offered. “I was the best, ahead of my time even. Unfortunately, they all wanted a painter who was of my time, not ahead of it. Those knuckle-draggers, what do they know about mosaics! I could have been a star if I had been born a few centuries later.”

Yaro looked over at Farmer 4, but there was no response.

“Never got a girl in my past life, nothing serious anyway. That was a big regret!”

No response.

“Half-near drank myself to death.”

No response.

“What about your previous life, Farmer 4?”

Farmer 4 looked over at Yaro, and gave him a serious look. “Obey the Lord.” He turned back to the darkness. “We must keep quiet.”

“Geez, you’re a thrill to have around,” Yaro muttered.

He did not feel any ill will towards Farmer 4, but he thought it was clear that the man was not playing with a full deck!

Slowly, they made their way through the dark expanse. The ground was covered in long grass, but apart from that there were no signs of life.

Still, after Farmer 4’s warning, Yaro made his way cautiously. It was clear that there were dangers lurking in the darkness, although it was unclear what exactly they were.

He took the opportunity to familiarize himself with his new body. If he got into a fight, he wanted to be as prepared as possible.

Surprisingly, Yaro found that he was taller than his previous self, or at least it felt that way, but he still had fluidity in his motions. He did not have any of the awkwardness one might expect from being placed in a completely new body.

Perhaps it was due to the strange rules of the world, and how they applied to lawslaves.

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He could not see his face, but he was not particularly handsome in his previous life, so he was not worried.

If he could describe his previous life’s physique in terms of stats, he would say that God gave him 100 points in painting talent, and virtually nothing in any other category.

His parents were not destitute, but by no means rich. They did not leave him any pocket change.

He wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t a genius.

Girls did not despise him, but he did not ‘get around.’

He was short and slightly chubby.

He was unlucky, unsociable, and generally unliked.

This life was…well, different!

He did not know what stats he had been granted yet, but unfortunately, his freedom bar had been set to the very floor.

“Stop,” Farmer 4 said, squatting down on the ground.

Yaro halted.

There was a bluish, flat rock roughly the size of a palm tucked in the grass.

“Careful, there may be a beast protecting underneath,” Farmer 4 warned.

A beast? Do you mean an insect?

Yaro thought it was ridiculous. If there was truly a beast, wouldn’t they be able to see it?

The stone was only a palm’s breadth wide!

Still, Yaro pointed the hoe at the stone, prepared to strike down whatever emerged, while Farmer 4 carefully maneuvered his own hoe beneath the blue rock.

“On three. One. Two. Three.”

Farmer 4 quickly pressed the hoe down, popping up the rock. There was nothing beneath, only an indentation.

“Good find. Blue rock,” Farmer 4 said.

Blue rock? Nice one, Yaro wanted to say. Real descriptive!

However, because he knew of the limited mental capabilities of his partner, he chose not to comment. It was important to build up comradery in such circumstances!

Also, he had a feeling his humor would only fall on deaf ears anyways. Farmer 4 struck him as a man who was too stupid to insult.

In such a situation, was there really any point in speaking?

Farmer 4 put the rock in one of his many pockets, before nodding to himself. “Blue rock is good. Next one, you try.”

Yaro nodded, and they resumed their walk.

An hour later, they came across a patch of red-tinged grass.

Yaro spotted it first. “Is that a treasure?” he asked.

Farmer 4 looked and nodded. “Good find. Red grass.”

Red grass, blue rock?

Yaro stopped to ponder. Could this farmer’s mind really be so simple, or is there a chance that it's the world that is bad at naming things?

He was in a completely foreign place, after all. Perhaps it was his own sensibilities that were out of touch.

Yaro shook his head.

What was the use of having such thoughts?

“Go on,” Farmer 4 said. “Dig underneath. I’ll watch out for beasts.”

Good man, Yaro thought to himself. Please, watch out for those bugs! I would hate to have to step on one!

Despite his sarcastic thoughts, Yaro crept forward and slowly wriggled the hoe underneath the roots of the red grass, prepared to jump away at the first sign of a ‘beast.’

Perhaps, this really was a world where tiny creatures could fell an adult man-er lawslave!

He focused intently. This lawslave wants to live to his second day!

“Three. Two. One.” Yaro counted, before pushing the hoe down and turning the grass up, pulling it through the soil, exposing the little hair-like roots.

Nothing.