Chapter 3 _ The Collapse of Dignity, or the Law of the Strong Devouring the Weak
As night fell, the city began to show a face I had never known.
Leaving the brightly lit main streets of stone behind,
I wandered into narrow alleys where shadows clung thickly to the buildings.
(I’m hungry… My throat is completely dry…)
My stomach growled.
Back in my old world, I could open a refrigerator and find something.
At a convenience store, warm meals were always waiting.
But here, there was no such thing as free salvation.
That was when it happened.
My vision exploded in sparks, and my body slammed onto the stone pavement.
“…Gah—! It hurts…!”
“Hand over your money, fatass.”
I looked up to see two men grinning crudely down at me.
When I hesitated, a merciless kick buried itself into my side.
“Guh—! Agh…!”
“If you want help, spit it out already!”
My face was ground into the dirt, blood from my nose staining the stones.
No matter how desperately I screamed that I had nothing, the only response was more violence.
“…Tch. What, just another ‘doll’—a reincarnator?
How disappointing.”
To them, I wasn’t even a human being capable of feeling pain.
Just trash with no money.
After being kicked around like refuse, my consciousness sank once more into darkness.
I don’t know how much time passed.
I woke to a dull, throbbing pain throughout my body.
The city lights had grown sparse, and an eerie silence hung in the air.
Staggering forward, I spotted a man in the corner of an alley.
He had pitched a tent made of stitched-together rags and was simmering stew over a small fire.
“Um… excuse me. I haven’t eaten anything…
I don’t have any money, but… just a little, please…”
Seeing my pitiful state, the man grunted.
“Yeah, sure. Go on. Eat.”
He shoved a bowl toward me.
(Ah… there are still kind people out there.
Even in another world, maybe it’s not all hopeless…)
The stew was warm—so warm it nearly made me cry.
It was delicious.
After finishing it and thanking him, I turned to leave—
—and felt a large hand clamp down on my shoulder.
“—Alright. My turn now.”
A chilling whisper brushed against my ear.
Before I could resist, I was slammed to the ground.
My clothes were violently stripped away,
and something unspeakable began.
“Stop…! Please stop! I don’t want this…!”
Pain exploded through me.
My dignity—my soul—felt like it was being shattered from the inside.
There was no such thing as “kindness without cost” in this world.
The price of one bowl of stew was my body.
Until he was satisfied, again and again,
the man forced his desires upon me.
By the time dawn’s pale light crept in,
I was trembling as I pulled my clothes back on beside the man, now snoring in deep sleep.
With unsteady steps, I walked back into the dim alley.
Without looking at me, the man muttered,
“In this world… the weak get eaten. That’s all there is to it.”
I don’t even know if I heard those words properly.
With every step, a dull pain shot through my lower body.
“What the hell… what the hell is this…!”
My scream came out as nothing more than a hoarse sob.
Back in my old world,
I had mocked others online and reveled in it.
I had used cheats and pretended to be “the strongest.”
I complained endlessly about my inconvenient life.
But there, at least, there was the police.
There was law.
Everyone was protected—at least to some degree.
This place was different.
No one would save me.
Useless as I was, I was nothing more than meat to be trampled.
“I want to go home… Please… send me back…!”
With my face smeared in tears and mucus,
I wandered the morning streets.
My life in another world—only the first day.
My pride had been completely shattered,
and in its place, a single thing began to take root—
a filthy, desperate will to survive.
