"Shit! I'm late!"
Clutching a lopsided stack of books to his chest, Sato Hiroshi, twenty years old and chronically underpaid, glanced at his watch and felt his soul leave his body.
"Fuck! I'm gonna get fired! Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
He bolted down the street, shoes slapping against wet asphalt, breath ragged as he cut through the morning crowd. Apologies spilled from his mouth as he weaved between umbrellas and annoyed pedestrians. He took a sharp turn—an intersection—
Crash!
There was a flash of white. A horn. Weightlessness.
Then nothing.
His work bag burst apart beneath the truck's tires, books scattering and shattering as blood soaked into paper and pavement alike.
…
"W-Where… am I?"
Hiroshi's eyes snapped open.
Darkness.
Not the kind that came from closed eyelids or a power outage, but a suffocating, absolute black. Cold stone pressed against his palms as he pushed himself up, heart hammering. The ground was uneven—rocky, earthy—and the air smelled damp and stale.
He took a step. Then another.
His foot scraped against stone, the sound echoing strangely, as if swallowed by the dark. Panic crept in, tight and sharp.
Then he heard it.
"Kyaah!"
A woman's scream—raw, terrified.
Hiroshi froze for half a heartbeat before his body moved on its own.
"Hey!" he shouted, sprinting toward the sound. "Hold on!"
Nothing made sense. The darkness thinned as he ran, his vision adjusting unnaturally fast. Jagged walls emerged from the black, dripping with moisture.
A cave.
Why am I in a cave?
The screams grew louder.
He rounded a bend and skidded to a halt.
A girl lay on the stone floor, struggling weakly, surrounded by small, hunched figures with green skin and long ears. Their laughter was harsh and animalistic.
"What the hell…"
Hiroshi's blood ran cold.
Goblins?
The word surfaced from somewhere deep in his mind, half disbelief, half dread.
Did I… reincarnate? Like those isekai anime? Did I really die while running to work?
Memory slammed into him—metal, horns, pain.
Oh. Right. There was a truck.
His jaw clenched.
Why am I wasting time? I need to save her—
Something yanked him off the ground.
"Gah!"
He was lifted effortlessly, feet dangling. Hiroshi twisted around and found himself face to face with another goblin—taller, broader, with scars crisscrossing its leathery green skin. Its yellow eyes gleamed with cruel amusement.
The goblin's voice was rough, words grinding together as it chuckled.
"Guruk… kakag, rrrshak… hehehe."
Hiroshi's mind blanked.
What is he saying?
No, why was it talking to him like—
His gaze dropped.
Green fingers.
Short. Clawed.
Not human.
A sick realization crashed over him.
'Shit…'
I am a goblin.
The cave seemed to close in around him as the goblin's laughter echoed through the darkness.
And somewhere behind him, the girl's screams continued.
...
A week passed since Hiroshi's arrival in this world.
He was one week old.
The thought still felt absurd every time it crossed his mind.
In just seven days, he had learned a lot.
First—this world was dangerous.
Strange beasts roamed the lands beyond the cave. The goblins only spoke of a few: Night Wolves lurking in the nearby mountains, brutal Orcs, and massive Ogre tribes that crushed everything in their path. Yet even from those fragmented conversations, Hiroshi understood one thing clearly.
This was a fantasy world.
A real one.
Magic might exist too, though he couldn't confirm it yet. Goblin tribes weren't exactly known for their scholars.
Second—he had learned the language.
Sounds that were once meaningless—guruk, krrash, nak—slowly formed intent, emotion, and eventually words in his mind. By the end of the week, he could understand most of what the others said.
Third—his body.
He had grown.
Compared to the wrinkled, barely moving creature he'd been when he first opened his eyes, the change was shocking. Muscles had formed. His limbs obeyed him properly now.
Monsters grow fast… he realized.
Far faster than humans.
And goblins… goblins were trash.
He learned that quickly.
No special abilities. Weak bodies. Low intelligence.
And one thing they possessed in abundance—an overwhelming, disgusting libido.
That was why goblins were mostly hated.
Female goblins were rare. Extremely rare. To reproduce, goblin tribes kidnapped weak human women from small villages.
Hiroshi felt sick every time the subject came up.
So that girl…
He didn't need to finish the thought.
It seemed he had been born exactly like that.
The only reason he hadn't sunk into despair was the thing floating quietly in front of his vision.
[Multiversal System]
With a thought, a translucent window appeared.
[Status Window]
[Name: N/A
Gender: Male
Race: Goblin
Class: N/A
Stats:
Strength: 2
Agility: 3
Vitality: 2
Intelligence: 10
Charm: 0
Skills: None]
Hiroshi stared at it silently.
No name.
Monsters didn't get names unless they were strong. Names were privileges reserved for champions, leaders… exceptions. And for some reason, Hiroshi hadn't been accepted as his name.
He exhaled slowly.
His stats were miserable. He had tried everything—running through tunnels, forcing himself to endure pain.
And in an entire week, he had only managed to raise Vitality by one.
"Pathetic…" he muttered.
But the system's true value wasn't in leveling.
Another window surfaced.
[Multiversal Travel: Locked]
[Condition: User too weak.
Requirement: Reach ten stat points in every physical stat.]
Not reincarnation.
Not isekai.
Actual world-hopping.
"That's insane."
If he could survive.
If he could grow strong enough.
Then this cave—this body—this fate—weren't the end. Maybe he could return home someday.
Hiroshi clenched his small green fist.
He pushed himself off the stone he had been sitting on and walked toward the rest of the goblins, their crude voices echoing through the cave.
To be continued...
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How was this chapter? Liked it?
Also, what world should Hiroshi enter first? Oh, and... what should be Hiroshi's monster name?