The sea had slow, undulating waves, reflecting the glaring sunlight. A white bird leisurely flew over the sea, basking in the warm light. There was a light breeze, ruffling the bird's feathers.
Suddenly, a man popped out on the surface, gasping for air. The bird flew away in fright.
"We fucking did it, HOLY fuck, *inhales through teeth*, oh yeah." Ben had finally escaped! And part of the sea was turning red.
'Most of the blood on my clothes had dried by now though. Oh, a person? And he's walking on the water…Jesus?' Ben thought maybe this was just the afterlife.
'I guess hell is a lot different than what humanity thought. Wait, why would Jesus be in hell? And how would I die in my sleep anyway? Oh he's noticed me.'
The man on the water walked towards Ben. He had a tall, masculine frame, tan skin, a thin waist, and the same clothes as Ben, but a shade darker. There was a golden tag on the left side of his chest that had foreign letters.
'Wait, I can read it! Oh thank you author, maybe I am the protagonist after all!' And just like that Ben was back to thinking he was in a webnovel. 'Let's see, if I translate it to English, it means…drill sergeant? Fuck, am I in a Korean novel?'
Ben remembered how literally every Korean webnovel he's read has in some way or form included Korean military training.
The man looked surprised for a moment before yelling at him. "Who told you to come back up? Are you trying to escape your training? Get back down there 28!" The man sounded exactly like how he looked.
"Roger that sir!" I shouted back, acting like how a private should according to my knowledge from the internet, movies, and books. The power of a transmigrator!
"What'd you just say?" The sergeant had an incredulous look on his face.
'Fuck, I just said English!' Ben could read and listen to the foreign language, but he couldn't speak it. It would be really nice if he had the original body's memories!
Ben saluted, took a deep breath, and went back underwater, leaving an extremely confused sergeant.
'Why the hell did he point towards his head? And why were there so many dark spots on his uniform? Did he get hurt?' The sergeant had many questions, so he decided to monitor 28 more closely.
Ben swam downwards and away from the sergeant. The water stung his eyes, and his mind was in a storm.
'Why the fuck can't I speak the language? Am I doing something wrong? And if I don't have any memories, how can I understand the language?' Ben gained some information about the world and his situation, but that only made him even more confused.
'Ok, this body can hold its breath for around 2 minutes. I'll dive deep and away from the sergeant in the first minute, then resurface in the second minute. In the meantime, I'll consolidate my knowledge.'
'First, I'm in the fucking military! It seems like the privates or cadets are numbered, and I'm currently undergoing water training. Maybe there are other cadets as well.'
'Second, I can instinctively understand this world's language, but I can't recall any information about it. This implies that I've absorbed the knowledge of the owner of the original body, or this body has innate language understanding skills, or the original owner's intuitive understanding was left to me, or…you know what, I can't figure this out for now.'
'Third, the sergeant wants me to do something underwater. I'm just holding my breath for now, but what if he catches me slacking? Well, he probably won't kill me, right? Although I was dropped in such a dangerous area…'
Ben was running out of breath, so he started swimming towards the surface. He glanced back every now and then to make sure there wasn't something trying to eat him.
Just as he was about to rise to the surface, he saw a figure standing above the water. Ben looked at the sergeant. The sergeant looked back at Ben.
"What the fuck are you doing! Have you forgotten how to breathe? Why are you just holding your breath? You constipated or something? Why haven't you brought back any Godflesh?"
The sergeant started to berate Ben like he owed him money, but Ben actually enjoyed it. Not because he was a masochist, but because of all the information he's revealed.
Ben continued to stare at the sergeant as if he were dazed, making the sergeant slightly uncomfortable.
"What are you just floating there for? Chop chop, you wanna lose against your classmates so badly? This is why you're at the bottom! You're a fucking disappointment to your family! A disgrace! A sore loser! A…"
'Okay Jesus I get it, I'll start moving.' Ben didn't expect to get cursed out like that as he took a deep breath and dived back down.
'The sergeant mentioned breathing underwater…should I try inhaling a little?' Ben tried to inhale through his nose, only to immediately choke and snort it out.
'Ugh, life just can't be that easy, huh? What about through the mouth?' Ben inhaled through his mouth, which went straight down his throat.
'Man, I haven't eaten or drank anything normal after my transmigration. It's a miracle I'm not sick yet.' Ben kept experimenting, but he could not for the life of him find out how to breathe. It was like telling someone to beat a chess master when you didn't even know how the pieces moved!
At the same time, Ben was constantly in fear that the monster would come after him again. He did leave a trail of blood after all! If the sergeant were reliable, he never would've been eaten in the first place!
Ben was quickly running out of breath due to his attempts, so he broke the surface of the water again. The sergeant's face was red from anger, but he was mostly just exasperated.
"Look, kid, we've been here for like what, 3 days now? Most of your classmates have now gone home. Hell, if you don't even know how to breathe underwater, then what have you been doing the past 3 days? You know I can't monitor everyone. Did you have fun playing in the water?"
Spittle flew over Ben's face, which made him want to dive back down again.
"Hell, I couldn't find you no matter how hard I looked! And eventually, you show up back here like it's the most natural thing in the world. Tell me, what the hell happened?"
Ben thought the sergeant was suddenly showing a lot of concern. The gears in his head rapidly turned as he pointed to his mouth, then made an "X" shape with his fingers.
"Are you telling me ya turned mute?" Ben nodded. "Then how did you speak back there?"
Ben sighed and decided to "demonstrate" by saying, "Old fucker, I don't understand your language."
The sergeant's face blossomed with a deep shade of red. "You fucking messing with me?" For a moment, Ben almost thought the sergeant understood what he said. "Are you speaking gibberish just to mess with me?!"
Ben quickly shook his head.
"Fine, how about you just come with me then."
The sergeant squatted down and reached his hand out. Ben grabbed his hand, and he was promptly swung onto the sergeant's back.
'Holy fuck, that scared me! This guy's pretty strong, huh?'
Meanwhile, the sergeant was considering what he should do.
'This kid probably lost his memory…I told him that he was supposed to search for Godflesh, yet he didn't react at all. He also seems quite calm, even though he's ranking at the bottom of his class. The most surprising thing was that he accepted the fact that he was supposed to breathe underwater like it was nothing! You'd have to be at least Rank 4 for that, and that's if you're lucky!'
'I also lied to him. He's in the middle of bumfuck nowhere! This place is a couple of kilometers from the island. 3 days did indeed pass, but it was after the training was over! He really has divine luck. How the hell is he still alive?'
The sergeant brought him to a small white ship with dark blue flags. The flags blew leisurely in the wind, while the ship rocked in place.
'A ship? So we're not close to land at all? Is this world so cruel as to send young men into the middle of the sea for some "training?"' Ben didn't suspect that the sergeant was lying when he said "show up back here."
"Back so early? Did you find the lad already?" A man on the ship called out to the sergeant. He was wearing a naval cap, with a white shirt and white trousers.
"Yup, fucker's alive and kicking. Call back the other sergeants, we're heading back."
"Roger that."
The man in white pointed upwards with his index finger, causing a thin white light to shoot from his finger.
'Holy fuck that's awesome! So there is magic in this world…' Ben observed in excitement, seeing the potential for his future.
A few minutes later, waves began to shake the boat as people sped through the water and jumped onto the ship. They were either dressed in blue or white, although Ben noticed that none of them had any tags on their chests like the sergeant.
'Did they swim through the water really fast due to enhanced physicality, or is it because of magic?' Ben saw the superhuman feats and fell into deep contemplation.
"Set sail!" The man in white who was originally talking to the sergeant commanded. Now that Ben took a closer look, most people had black epaulettes, with a varying number of yellow stripes. The man in white had 5 stripes on each epaulette, which seemed to be more than everyone else on the ship.
'This is quite similar to Earth…' Ben observed his surroundings, trying to gain as much information as possible.
A woman dressed in blue with three stripes kneeled with one knee on the ground and pressed her hands against the deck. The ship shook and soon started to move.
'That's definitely magic. Quite a convenient replacement for an anchor.' Ben was quite impressed. 'That said, everyone is wet. Won't we get sick?'
Nobody could answer his question as the ship started to sail, with the sun shining brightly overhead. The ship went quite fast, surprising Ben yet again.
Around 5-10 minutes later, the ship docked at a moderately large island. Ben could see what appeared to be a fishing village. Red houses with black triangular roofs surrounded the coast, with people bustling about.
The crew started to disembark, and Ben followed the sergeant. Amazingly, as soon as Ben stepped onto the island, he felt a large gust of wind drying him off.
'Is this intentional or a part of nature?' Ben pondered as the sergeant led him into a decently sized house. It was moderately wide and looked like it had three floors.
The sergeant went inside and closed the door, shocking Ben. Just as he considered whether he should follow in, the sergeant came back out with a stack of yellow paper, a quill, and some ink.
'The technology of this world seems really mismatched,' Ben observed. The sergeant led him to another building, this one a lot larger and grander. Ben thought it looked kind of like a barn.
The moment he went inside though, Ben realized this was nothing like a barn. It went from dirt to a grey, concrete ground. The walls were painted in white, and lamps with black casings hung from the ceiling. The most eye-catching thing was the round table in the center, surrounded by twelve seats. Lined against the walls were countless storage supplies, ranging from wood boxes to metal containers. It was quite the mixed aesthetic.
"Well, well, well, look who we have here. Naeron Sky. What trouble did you get into this time?" An elderly woman mockingly greeted Ben.
'So my name is Nayron Sky. Or Naeron. Naeron seems better, so I'll spell the English version like that.
"Hi!" Ben greeted back. With his name being Naeron now, he didn't need to deal with any Ben Rover into Ben Dover jokes, so that was good.
"Excuse me?" The elderly woman seemed confused.
"Elder Hua, allow me to explain." The sergeant stepped forward. "I believe Ben here encountered an accident during the training, causing him to have amnesia."
'Amnesia? How the hell did he come to that conclusion?' Ben was flabbergasted. 'Also, Ben sounds like a name some drunk white dude named their kid, while Hua sounds like a Chinese name. Maybe I'm in a webnovel made by a collaboration of different authors?'
The sergeant put the paper, quill, and ink on the table. "Since Ben has lost his ability to speak properly, I'll let him communicate with us via an alternative method. Ben, if you will."
Ben went to the table and sat down, while Elder Hua stood next to the sergeant.
"As expected of Elder Sky, you quickly found a precise solution to the situation," Elder Hua praised.
'Elder Sky? So the sergeant is an Elder? Also, surely this guy isn't my father?" Ben had a headache thinking about how messed up his relationship with Elder Sky was if he really was his father. 'This guy treated me like a lazy private in the military!'
"Can you write?" Elder Sky asked.
Ben shook his head.
How about drawing?
Ben responded by dipping the quill in ink and started to draw on the paper. He was actually not bad at art due to the art classes he was forced to attend when he was little. Ben drew the sea, then himself, and finally, the monster. He drew the monster in a vague fish shape, since he only saw its outline right after he escaped.
Inside the fish, he drew a tunnel that led to a heart, which then led to two paths, with a liver in the right path.
Looking at the drawing, Elder Hua was shocked.
"This is…the hollow fish?!"