The sounds of rats gnawing on flesh, claws scraping against wood, and their squeals jolted me awake from my slumber, and my eyes snapped open. Faint darkness greeted me, barely illuminated by passing balls of golden light that briefly lit up the darkness before vanishing into the depths as they moved further and further away from me.

  They were torches, but what the hell were torches doing in my room, alongside rats? Was I even in my room?

  I blinked, and regretted doing so almost immediately; pain shot through my eyes, digging into them like aggressive bolts lightning shooting across the night sky. I winced as the pain intensified, and my face contorted as my muscles stiffed from the pain; it was almost unbearable.

  I would've screamed, but I had no idea what was happening to me, or if that would make it worse, so, I could only grit my teeth in silence, and hope it'd end soon. And, to my surprise, it did end; the pain in my eyes gradually got less and less, transforming into a dull, persistent thing into a faint sensation, until it was no more. I blinked, expecting yet another stab of pain, but none came. In fact, it felt rather pleasant to blink now; I also felt like there was a certain thing in my eye, an extra substance that hadn't been there prior to the pain.

  Suddenly, another torch danced by in the dark, and my eyes involuntarily followed it.

  [Firewood Torch:

  A torch made by Old Man Gru's 67Th child, Boboro, a kingpin in the firewood business who went into the family business at a young age. It is designed to burn for exactly 3 days before crumbling into rotten wood, distributed and sold by the Copper Teeth gang, one of the many gangs under Boboro's command in Match lane.]

  I blinked, and the transparent prompt with the information that was floating in front of me went away, leaving me utterly bewildered and confused.

  What was that just now? Did something happen to me, was I now some lab rat, testing a new experimental weapon for the government? Is that why my eyes were burning earlier? But, how did that even work?

  It didn't make sense, none of this did, how did I even end up here to begin with?

  I suddenly found myself attempting to retrace my actions of the past, right up until this point, but, my mind drew blank; I could recall nothing, only my name, which was apparently Eric Goldspoon, nothing else. How was such a thing even remotely possible? A part of me, the part that knew I shouldn't be here, was screaming in confusion, despair, and anger. But, another part was calm, eerily so, too.

  The two parts clashed, creating a strange sense of unreality and dissonance within me; who am I? Was any of this even real? Was I real?

  The loud and distinct snapping of bone suddenly caught my attention, and I shifted my head to the right, attempting to peer into the thick darkness ahead. All I saw was the vague shadow of what appeared to be a rat, but I wasn't too sure.

  [Slightly Mutated Rat Beast:

  It was once a normal rat, but, after one too many human fingers, it began to change under the influence of ?????????; it grew larger, smarter, and stronger, dominating its kin and developing a predatory intellect. Now, it lurks, waiting for the right opportunity to devour more human flesh. This beast is an opportunistic scavenger by nature and usually wait for the gangs to discard the 'waste' bits of the human body such as the intestines, and bones, but doesn't mind nibbling its disease filled teeth on live human flesh if given the chance.]

  I gazed at the prompt, utterly stricken by fear, bewilderment, and a bit of awe.

  What?

  Have I gone mad? man-eating rats, cannibalistic humans, and mutations?

  This couldn't be my homeland, could it? Surely this had to be another world, as there was no way such things existed in my world, I mean, maybe cannibalistic humans, but man-eating rats, unknown things influencing it, and mutations? Absolutely not. The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed; I must have, through some unknown method, traveled to another world, one that was far worse than my old one.

  Hmm, that felt right, but not quite; If I had a say in the matter, I certainly wouldn't have picked such a gruesome 'start' and horrible world, so, that could only mean one thing; I was abducted and flung into another world in violation of my will. Yes, that had to be it! But, who could've done such a thing, and why? What could I have possibly done to offend a being of such power?

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  None of it made sense, and that bothered me a great deal, but, nothing could be done; my current priority should be getting away from the rat in the distance, finding some food, shelter, and gather information about the world at large, then, I could maybe tackle the matter of my abduction, maybe. Mind made up, I tried gather the necessary strength to move, and my will took action, but my body did not respond, in fact, I felt no sensation from it at all; the only thing that reminded me of the fact that I had a body was the distinct numbness I felt from my neck down.

  Wait, numbness? That didn't sound good, why would my entire body feel numb? Was I paralyzed or something? An idea flared up in my mind, and I expressed my intent to know more about myself, and a familiar transparent prompt popped up, containing information about myself.

  [Name: Eric Goldspoon

  Status: Paralyzed (Debuf), Infected (Debuf), Severe Malnutrition (Debuf).

  Race: Otherworlder

  Stats:

  Body: -2 (-1 Due to Debuff)

  Mind: 2

  Soul: 5

  Skills:

  View Information (0)

  Edit Information (0)

  ]

  Well, would you look at that. Why did I have so many debuffs? And, how did I end up paralyzed in a ditch somewhere? How does one get paralyzed from the neck down and still live? Well, I'm alive, but the previous owner of this body isn't so, clearly it isn't survivable. How was I not only alive but thinking with extreme clarity was beyond me, maybe it was due to my race? Who knows,but, regardless, I was grateful.

  Now, I just needed a way to get rid of these debuffs.

  Looking at the skills section, my eyes gleamed at the sight of the two skills, especially the one that allowed me to edit information. Couldn't I just edit out these debuffs, theoretically? With a thought, the skill activated, and the status effects were gone, all of them, too.

  I gasped for breath, and sensations hammered into my brain as my power finished its work, granting me back access to a once paralyzed body.

  With a thought, I summoned my 'status screen' as I began calling it, once more.

  [Name: Eric Goldspoon

  Status: None

  Race: Otherworlder

  Stats:

  Body: 2

  Mind: 2

  Soul: 5

  Skills:

  View Information (0)

  Edit Information (0)

  ]

  That was better, significantly better, actually; although I didn't know what kind of person I was and what type of life I lived in my past life, with my old body, I knew this was leagues above it in raw stats. Although I didn't know how good these stats were when compared to a native, so I was probably feeling good over garbage. But, none of that really mattered, what did was the fact that I could now breathe, speak, and most importantly, move.

  Pushing myself off the ground, I began stretching, only to pause the moment I began as I realized something; I was naked, completely naked, too. My head rapidly whipped around, darting from left, to right, and then to the back and front of me, frantically looking if there was anyone secretly peeping on me, but, there wasn't a soul in sight, only perpetual darkness faintly illuminated by fast moving Firewood torches and faint human silhouettes.

  From the looks of things, I was in an alley, an incredibly long, narrow, and stink one at that; my nose was constantly being assaulted by a vile scent that smelled like everything bad and disgusting, and the entire alley reeked of it, too.

  To make matters worse, I was completely barefoot and the ground felt slimy, sticky, cold, and wet, and I struggled not to throw up; it was truly nauseating.

  Just why? Why couldn't I have a better start, why did I have to take over a body rotting in such a vile and disgusting place, with not even a hint of proper hygiene and cleaning adequate? But complaining wouldn't help me right now, but getting out of here certainly would, but I needed clothes, I couldn't bring myself to walk out there naked. No matter how this world was, it couldn't be so bad where not having clothes was a normal thing, right?

  Surely not; I refused to believe it, or try such a thing. So, I turned away from the exit and to the wall of trash behind me, sighed, and began my scavenging efforts while keeping an eye out for that mutated rat. I didn't know where it went, but it was around somewhere, I could just tell. Wooden cups, spoons, and blacked out pieces of wood were tossed aside in my quest to find anything even remotely suitable for fashioning into clothes, but I was left disappointed: there was nothing of use in the pile of wooden trash, and I looked through it thoroughly, save for a few spots containing milky white bones and flesh that stank of human refuse.

  The faint sounds of something scraping across the ground alerted me, and I turned around to see a familiar mutated rat with a human leg bone with bits of white and pink flesh in its mouth, but, it was clearly straining as one end of the bone, specifically the part where the was supposed to be, was slightly tilted and dug into the wet, slimy and disgusting wooden ground, producing the faint scraping sound that had alerted me earlier.

  Bile rose from my stomach, but I forced myself to swallow it back; what was I going to use to wipe my mouth, or clean myself if any of it splashed on me? God forbid I had to use something from this place, then, an infection would be the least of my problems; I could always cleanse myself with my skill, but just because one could do something, didn't mean that they should.

  Besides, who knew if there were limitations on the skill, best not to test the limits over superficial things.

  [Slightly Mutated Rat Beast:

  It was once a normal rat, but, after one too many human fingers, it began to change under the influence of ?????????; it grew larger, smarter, and stronger, dominating its kin and developing a predatory intellect. Now, it lurks, waiting for the right opportunity to devour more human flesh. This beast is an opportunistic scavenger by nature and usually waits for the gangs to discard the 'waste' bits of the human body such as the intestines, and bones, but doesn't mind nibbling its disease filled teeth on live human flesh if given the chance.]

  [Hozar's Femur:

  Hozar Zami was once a member of a now disbanded gang, primarily operating in the outer edges of the waste pit, who, after finding a clean bottle of water, was killed and dismembered by N.O 4, cooked, and picked clean by him and his brothers, but, for superstitious reasons, they didn't touch the Femur and instead tossed into the myriad lake, and now, it has somehow ended up here.]

  I blinked, so this really is a place where cannibals not only lived, but thrived. How was I, who couldn't even withstand seeing a few pieces of human bone and flesh, survive in such a place?

  I might be cooked.