At first, he couldn't see or hear anything, then slowly, the chirping of birds became more audible.
"Huh?"
He opened his eyes and found himself lying on the grasses, the forest trees provided a good shade to protect him from the sunlight which manage to pierce through the leaves and into his eyes, he closed his eyes and opened them again, this time more slowly. The tree branches were waving side to side as the gentle wind blew by, with beautiful red birds trying to build their nests.
He forced himself to sit up as he marvel at the sight around him.
"Where am I?, I-is this heaven?" He asked with mixed feelings.
[You have been chosen to be a god of death candidate]
"Huh?" He was shocked to see a floating screen in front of him.
[Your trial starts now!!!]
"God of death?" He asked himself. "How did I ever die?"
The last thing he could remember was his body being slowly ripped apart as he burned to ash, his vision became blurry before it went completely dark, his mind almost went blank but the pain kept him conscious.
"So this is how I'm going to die?"
That was the last thing he was able to say before he finally gave up.
"It was an explosion" he whispered to himself. "I didn't know what caused it but I end up dying from it"
He finally stood up and stared at his new body, for some reason, he was younger than he was in his previous life, or maybe because he was actually younger now.
The clothes he was wearing was completely covered with blood which appeared to have flowed down from his neck.
He touched his neck and felt a scar, the previous owner of the body might have been killed by someone, his neck was slashed and he bled to death. He tried to remember what happened to the body but he couldn't, he could only remember the pain he felt as he held and fell to the ground. That must have been a horrible way to die, maybe it was better that his death was faster and less painful.
He turned to the screen but couldn't find it.
"I must have been seeing things"
He started walking, staggering towards the direction he was facing, not knowing where it led to. He walked for a while and was about to change his mind about going the same direction when he heard a loud thud.
He paused, then quickly hid himself in a nearby bush.
**THUD!!,THUD!!!**
He heard the loud thud again, this time, it was louder. He braced himself for the worst scenario and cautiously approached the direction of the thudding, using the bushes for cover.
Finally, he got close enough to see an old man swinging his axe against an oak tree. With each swing of his axe, his body shakes along with the tree, sweats dripped down his face as he struggles to pull out his axe from the tree.
He pulled the axe out and kept it on the against the tree before he dropped on the ground then grab a wooden container and drank it's content then stood up and continued with his work.
Staring at the old man made the reincarnated soul feel like he had seen him before, or maybe it was because he had meant him before. He decided to approach the man, he cautiously walked to the man till he was close enough and called out to him.
"E-Excuse me, sir!"
The man stopped at quickly turned around, wielding his axe like a sword that was ready to cut through anything. As soon as he saw the seventeen years old teenager, he paused before yelling.
"Where have you been, boy!?, Stay where I can see you!. You know I'm supposed to take this woods to the next to town the day after days, so you better get to work if you want to receive any payment!"
"Y-Yessir!" He stammered before answering.
A glimpse of the memory of the previous owner of the body was revealed to the teenager. Apparently, the elderly man was a lumberer who cuts woods from the forest and takes it to town, the previous owner had pleaded with the man to be his apprentice as a way to raise money for his family.
"What in the name of the goddess happened to you!?, Why are you covered with blood?" The old man asked as he closely examine the boy's body
"Umm... It-It's" he stuttered trying to come up with an excuse. "It's sap!"
That was the only lie that he could come up with.
"Are you sure?" The man said, staring at his neck.
"Yeah. Turns out the tree over there was still young, and I tried to cut it down"
He giggled awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.
"I've told you before, Bell. You can't go around cutting trees, haven't you learnt anything from the past few days" He lecture. "You should----"
Bell didn't listen to the rest part of the man lectures.
'Has my name always been Bell' He thought as he tried to remember the name he had in his past life but couldn't. He couldn't remember much.
"That's when you'll know that the tree is ready. If you just try to cut down any tree, the goddess Hilda might get mad at you!" The old man continued.
Bell was know sure that he had been transmigrated into another world. But stuff like that only happens in anime and mangas, it was totally impossible!. But, the fact that it happened to him made him thought otherwise, he had always hated the world, blaming everyone for all the bad luck in his life, locking himself up and wasted his life watching anime and reading mangas, wishing for his life to suddenly change like how it happens in his mangas. But now, he wasn't sure what to do.
"Are you sure you're okay, boy?" The man asked as he noticed Bell's body shaking. "It's getting late, let's go back home"
"S-Sure" Bell replied.
He helped the old man to carry the logs that were arranged on the ground to the carriage and tied it.
"That one with be the last tree I'll need before delivering them" The man said, referring to the giant tree he was trying to cut down.
Since Bell didn't know what to say, he just nodded affirmatively.
After tying the logs on the carriage, he sat on top of it while the elderly man rode the two black horses.
The entire journey was long and silent, that was until the elderly man broke the silence.
"So boy, what are you going to do?" The elderly man said without looking back.
Bell thought for a while. What was he really going to do?,he has been given another chance in a world he knows nothing about.
'Maybe I should just go to my new family and try to live the peaceful life that I couldn't live when I was still alive, or in this case, when I was an adult.'
"I don't really know" he replied, waiting to see how the old man was going to respond to his answer.
"You don't plan on staying in this wretched place forever, do you?" The old man asked, without waiting for an answer, he continued. "I suggest you go to the capital, it will be easier to support your family from there. They are always looking for youths for one thing or the other, I bet you'll do just fine"
"The capital huh?" Bell silently whispered to myself. He could try to find out more about this world. "System open"
Nothing happened.
"Show me my stats, status, system call, hmmm" he tried again and again but nothing happened.
Since he died and reincarnated in another world, wasn't he suppose to have a system or anything that could help him survive?. Or maybe, in this world, there is no such thing as a system!.
"I'm dropping you off here" The old man announced.
The carriage stopped at a T-junction and Bell jumped down.
"Thank you for everything"
"No problem. Here, you can have this" The old man said and handed to him a pouch. "And you can have this, in case you plan to go to the capital"
The old man added and gave him a hatchet before driving off the straight road, Bell turned to the dusty road on the right and walked to his new home.