"No! You can't do this!"
"Please, I'm begging you, spare these poor children!"
"Didn't you say you would let us leave? You executioners, you devils, Heaven will punish all of you..."
Bang!
With a single gunshot, the nun, driven into despair by betrayal, fell into a pool of blood.
"You just kept yapping on and on. Did you really believe everything I said? Hahahahaha! If I hadn't lied to you, how else would you have brought all these little brats right to our door? You really saved us a lot of trouble! Hahaha..."
"Since you're about to die anyway, I don't mind telling you. Our orders were to leave no one alive in this country. Other than that king of yours, who ran off with the royal family like a stray dog, everyone left here, old or young, has to die!"
One of the soldiers beside him immediately frowned. "Simon, you've said too much."
"What's there to be afraid of? They'll all be dead in a moment, and dead people don't talk."
"Fire. Kill them all!"
The soldiers raised their guns with savage grins, and streams of flame spat from their barrels.
The last thing reflected in the nun's eyes was child after child being gunned down.
As she listened to their helpless, desperate cries, two lines of tears filled with regret slid down her face, and then she sank into eternal darkness.
"I'm sorry..."
Even at the very end of her life, the nun never saw any light of salvation descend upon them.
All that remained was despair.
...
September, 1506.
Flevance of the North Blue was destroyed by neighboring countries in war, and the "White Town" was consumed by flames.
Throughout the entire ordeal, neither the World Government nor the Marines took part in any rescue effort.
As far as anyone knew, the only survivors were the former royal family of Flevance, who had contacted the World Government early, abandoned their country, and escaped with their lives.
Yet faintly, through the pitch-black clouds, there seemed to be a thin ray of sunlight breaking through the despair.
...
Although the "White Town," Flevance, had been destroyed, the aftermath still had to be handled.
For example, the corpses the fire had failed to burn completely.
If they were not dealt with in time, then plague would become the first wave of revenge from those "white ghosts."
So one corpse after another was transported and piled up at Flevance's border. Once the fuel arrived, they would all be burned together.
The mountain of bodies looked like a scene straight out of hell.
An ordinary person would probably have nightmares for three straight days after just one glance.
So even the soldiers responsible for moving the corpses rarely lingered here. Every time they finished dumping a load, they left immediately, eager to get away from this death-filled, ill-omened place.
After all, what was there to guard in a pile of corpses? It wasn't like the dead could stand up and run away on their own.
And yet, in the eerie silence, several corpses really did begin to move.
Thud...
Haa... haa...
As a few bodies rolled down from above, a blood-soaked, thin, miserable figure finally struggled his way out from underneath, gasping hard after nearly suffocating to death.
Then the stench hit him all at once.
The smell of blood, rotting flesh, and a hundred other indescribable horrors rushed straight into his nose.
"Urgh...!"
He immediately started vomiting violently, and when he finally saw the surroundings clearly, he threw up even harder.
"So hell really exists after death... and it's this terrifying?"
"No... this isn't hell... this is Flevance. My name is August!"
By the time he had vomited until there was nothing left, he had finally finished merging the memories of both lives.
In his previous life, he had been a so-called self-made young entrepreneur, one who looked fairly successful on the surface.
At only thirty years old, with just a tiny bit of help from his father-in-law and mother-in-law, he had easily earned several fortunes.
Then, determined to prove that he was not some pretty boy living off others, he threw himself into the company with all his heart. After a full day of exhausting work, he ended up in a car accident while driving late at night in a fatigued state.
When he opened his eyes again, he had arrived here, in a place that looked like hell itself.
And the body he had transmigrated into had been just as unlucky.
August.
That was his name.
He had been born in an exceptionally beautiful and prosperous place in the North Blue, Flevance.
He had also once had a warm and happy family. His parents had been well-known merchants in the area and controlled no small amount of wealth.
From childhood, he had received a good education. He had been open-hearted and generous by nature, and with the excellent looks he inherited from his parents, he had grown into a handsome boy who was well-liked by everyone around him.
If things had ended there, he probably would have considered himself fortunate to have transmigrated into such a person.
But as more and more memories surfaced, and terms like White Town, White Lead Disease, One Piece, World Government, and Celestial Dragons flooded his mind, he finally realized what kind of horrifying world he had come to.
And his current situation was just as terrible.
He had read famous shonen manga like the Big Three before. Who didn't have a childhood, after all? It was just that once he started devoting most of his energy to his career, he rarely kept up with them anymore. He only checked in occasionally to see how the plot had progressed.
For example, he had heard that the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika had been mocked for ages back then.
"What terrible timing... and what an awful place to end up in."
After sorting through his memories, August could not help but let out a bitter laugh.
Living in Flevance, the land known as the White Town, was no blessing. Nearly everyone here had contracted the incurable White Lead Disease, and by his generation, people often died in endless agony before even reaching adulthood.
Looking at the clear white patches on his arm, August knew he was no exception. It seemed that being able to live one more time had already used up all the luck he had.
And even worse, if he had arrived just a few days earlier, he might still have had a chance to flee with his parents and slowly search for a way to cure the disease.
But now it was already too late.
To bury the truth, the World Government had practically stood by and allowed Flevance to be destroyed in war. Naturally, his parents had died under blades and bullets just like everyone else.
And there were also the deceived nun and those innocent children who had died under gunfire...
Even a simple recollection of it was enough to make August clench his fists without realizing it.
Because after the memories of both lives fused together, there was no longer any distinction between him and the original owner of this body.
There was only one person left.
August.
He could feel every bit of it as if he had lived through it himself.
Sooner or later, he would seek justice for his parents and for everyone in Flevance who had died.
But for now, that would have to wait. At his current stage, he simply did not have the power or the ability to do anything.
"The most urgent thing right now is getting out of here alive. I've finally gotten a little used to the smell, but if those soldiers find me, I'll probably have to transmigrate again... assuming I even get that chance."
After muttering to himself, August immediately tried to flip over and stand up, only to tumble straight down from the pile of corpses.
His condition was already terrible.
He had no idea how long it had been since he had eaten or drunk anything. And after vomiting so violently just now, he felt dizzy, weak, and on the verge of collapse.
"Damn it!"
Leaning against a corpse, August forced himself into a sitting position and took a few rough breaths. Hunger and weakness assaulted his nerves in wave after wave.
In this state, trying to leave without being noticed and cross the border was nothing more than a fantasy.
At the very least, he needed to recover some of his strength first.
But the bad news was that there was no food here, no water, and the longer he stayed, the greater the chance those soldiers would return.
"Damn it... if something as ridiculous as transmigration can happen, then shouldn't there be some kind of cheat too?"
The moment those words left his mouth, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
[Wish Order System has been bound. Beginner Gift Pack distributed successfully. Please check it yourself.]
(End of Chapter)
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