Thinking back, Qin Rong couldn't help but think of all the stuff he'd miss out on now that he was dead.

All those manga and comics he'd never finish.

All the TV shows left unwatched.

All the foods he was too poor to eat.

Not having the chance to snap the neck of that bastard that killed him.

That's what bothered him the most. He knew it was someone on their team that did it. He couldn't be sure who since there was a lot of people there. Was it Phish, the snippy bitch or maybe it was that pervert, Coyote. Heck, it might have even been Mr Stark, just to cut ties with him.

It was hard to say and he knew he'd never learn who killed him. It was frustrating but such was life. Or death, in this case.

Speaking off, he was a bit confused. He'd been aware of his floating status but he'd never heard of a afterlife that subsisted solely on floating in a void. Was it like one of those novels where souls got picked up by systems and were sent off to do tasks?

But if that was the case, where was his welcome party?

With that, Qin Rong called out, trying to get anyone to respond. After many tries, he stopped, getting bored of the useless endeavor and chose to relax. He might as well if there was noting else to do.

Minutes turned to hours into days and perhaps years but still no one came.

Qin Rong remained calm, used to being alone and isolated so it wasn't much. It was just boring.

After what felt like a decade, a light appeared before him, a faint voice speaking distantly. He couldn't hear the words but they sounded pissed. Just as the light consumed him, a second voice called out.

[Ah shit, wait a sec-]

***

Qin Rong felt weak.

Everything hurt and his body felt like it was near death. Something was caked on his face and smell made him want to puke. The only reason he hadn't was that there was nothing to vomit out.

Panting, Qin Rong tried to calm himself, as he'd learned to do as a child and figure out what was happening. Going from an empty void to pain and hunger was startling to say the least.

Slowing his breaths, he tried to listen out for anyone. After a minute, he could almost make out wind, but it was faint which meant he must be indoors. His hands had been twitching for a while, so he knew he was lying on a stone floor, the only part of which that was warm was the place his bare chest was on. Everything else was cold, so most likely, he was either in a basement or in a cave but he was weighing in favor of the former. The stones were clearly bricks.

After minutes of struggling, Qin Rong gained the strength to roll over onto his back, wincing as pain laced through him. Open fucking wounds on his back!

Biting his lip, he suppressed a scream of pain as he struggled to get upright. The exercise was, as expected, painful but worth it. His head was muddled from hunger and possibly head injury, but he couldn't be sure until he got a look at himself.

Where the hell was he? He wondered, trying to wipe whatever was on his face. It was wet and smelled gross but it was a smell he knew.

Rotting food and puke.

Where ever he was, they'd tossed rotting food to a starving person. This person had probably tried to eat it and then puked it out when they got sick. Qin rong would have felt disgusted if not for the cruelty of such a action.

Just how desperate for food had this person been?

Finally cleaning his face off, Qin Rong took a look around the room he was in. It was dark and dank, so he was definitely in a basement. Possibly a prisoner considering the condition. It wasn't a large room and single source of light was a window a couple meters above him.

It was night time. The moon shone through the window, illuminating the room somewhat. It wasn’t a very large room but one he could walk and stand in. A couple feet away was a large door.

When he went over to try and open the door, he noticed how big everything was compared to him. His hands were tiny compared to what he assumed was a regular sized door.

Was he a child?!

Recalling that misty place he’d been floating in, he concluded that things were strange right now and he’d have to figure out just how strange later. First, he needed to escape.

He felt around the door, trying to find the hinges so he could just undo them. As expected from a prison, they were on the outside. He didn’t bother to call out for help either, since if he was locked inside, he doubted that one ones who did so would care enough to let him go.

As his stomach screamed out in hunger, Qin Rong pushed it aside and tried to think of a way out. So far the only way out was the window but it was really high up. He could scale and jump the wall but in such a weak body, it’d be difficult.

Should he wait for his wardens to return or run?

Before he could come to a decision, he heard voices closing in. There were two of them and they sounded like older men. Wary, Qin Rong took up a look around the room, hoping to spot something that could block the door but the place was empty.

“Damn.” He whispered, his first words in this world very fitting of his character.

His eyes landed on the window once more. The space between the bars looked large enough to fit a child so perhaps…

“Hope the runts not dead yet.” One of the men complained from outside. “Not worth much if it’s a corpse.”

This child already died, you bastards! Qin Ron glared at the door, wanting so badly to beat the shit out of those men who spoke so flippantly about a kid. How scary it must have been, to be trapped in such a dark place and yet still try to hard to survive.

And still die anyway.

His rage helped him move as he ran at the wall, his light body zooming across the short distance. Before he hit the wall, he jumped pushing himself off the wall higher. With expert precision, he soon reached the window, dangling from the edge.

As expected, his body was weak from hunger so it took a moment to get up and through the bars. In that short span of time, the door to his prison opened.

“Rise and shine, ya litt- H-hey, where did it go!?” The man shouted, his voice a lot closer than before. From below, he continued to shout. “Get down here, you little worm!”

For reasons unknown, Qin Rong felt his neck burn. He cried out, scratching at his skin as he slipped between the bars onto the grass outside. Despite the pain, he continued forward, crawling away until the voices faded.

Even then he continued forward, his steps unsteady as he tried to get further away. He didn’t understand what had happened before but he was not going to stick around.

He found himself in a forest, the trees towering over him and protecting him from sight. Leaning against a tree, he tried to catch his breath, his throat still burning slightly from whatever had occurred before.

Qin Rong couldn’t feel anything there but figured it might be something internal. A microchip, perhaps?

No, things looked a bit medieval for that. Or maybe his wardens were old fashioned? It was hard to say.

“I think it went this way.”

“Shit.” He muttered, crouching down. He hadn’t expected them to find him so quick. He was small and weak but nimble so he’d hoped he’d gotten far enough.

No such luck.

So he ran on stick thin legs and an empty stomach, somehow evaded his pursuers until he reached a cliff. Far below him, he could hear the crashing waves of a river below him.

He considered jumping but to brave rapids in the dead of night was surely suicide, especially with a body as weak as his. Cornered, he searched for a means of escape but was quickly found by his captors.

“No where else to hide, little brat.” One man sneered, a rope hanging from his hands as the second man blocked off his only other route of escape. Both were masked by darkness but Qin Rong could already tell he was outmatched. They were adults and he was a child with no weapons or time to come up with a plan.

So he did the next best thing.

He jumped.

***

As expected, the water sucked him in, crashing over him and tossing him about to and fro. He wanted to scream but was quickly smothered by the waves that sought to drown him. As he finally sank beneath the water, he felt his consciously fade.

Was he going to die so soon? Was his last thought before darkness overtook him.

***

The morning sun rose slowly, bringing to light all that had been hidden hours before. The birds called out to the sky, soaring from their nest to find food and landing by the water. One such bird landed by the side of the now calm river to take a sip.

As it drew close, a small hand burst from the water and grabbed the creature. It struggled fruitlessly as the rest of the hand emerged from the water revealing a small child. Before the bird could even regret it’s choice to drink by the water that morning, it’s neck was snapped.

“Whoo! Breakfast.” Qin Rong coughed, panting as he tried to catch his breath. He looked at the now dead bird and sighed. It wasn’t much but it was definitely better than nothing.

As he prepared the bird, he tried to understand everything that had happened before.

He had definitely died before but now he was alive in the body of some kid. Like those novels his co-workers liked to talk about. That he could accept. His job made it imperative for him to adapt to changes, no matter what.

Still, being reborn in the body of a half dead kid was a bit much.

Brushing at his hair, he finally took notice to himself. He still didn’t know what he looked like now. His hair was kind of long, brushing his upper back but the color was… surely it wasn’t really blue, right?

He placed his meal by the fire to cook and walked over to the river to take a better look at himself. What he found was… both horrifying and awesome.

He was absolutely beautiful.

Even as emaciated as he was, he was still a sight to behold. His hair, though matted and tangled was a vibrant and luminous shade a blue, just a shade darker than the sky above. Eyes of pure gold stared back at him, surrounded by thick lashes that captivated the eye. Even his skin, pale possibly from his lack of exposure, was appealing, making one think of a peel egg.

This body… it was a boy, right?!

Qin Rong quickly checked, sighing with relief that had not lost such a thing to the gods of rebirth. What cruelty it would be to unmanned after being killed.

Still, the question remains, what should he do?

Whoever those guys were before seemed to have either given up on him or went some other way to find his body. He had no clue why they wanted him so badly but he couldn’t rule out that they might still be looking for him.

They claimed they needed him alive for something. Perhaps they were interrogating the kid? That would explain the starvation. Children were a lot easier to break than adults but what would they need him for? Had he been the only one or were there more within those walls.

All this ran through his mind as he ate, grimacing at flavorless bird meat easing his empty belly. As expected, it wasn’t all that filling but it was better than nothing.

He quickly destroyed his campsite and got dressed, leaving the area after covering his tracks.

He had get something more filling to eat.

***

After wandering the forest for a bit, Qin Rong couldn’t help but sigh.

“I’m going to starve!” He snapped, not caring about scaring off any potential game. It not like any had come even close to him since he’d been walking around. As if they could sense his intention to kill them, everything ran from him.

Every time they looked back (which they did every time), they’d give him a look of pure betrayal, as if he’d wronged them.

“I just want to eat, damn it!” He complained, tossing himself on the ground. In situations like this, he’d have just eaten some of the numerous berries and mushrooms he’d spotted but nothing looked familiar to him.

His old body had adapted to poisons and was basically immune but this child was nothing like that. Even worse, even if he wanted that immunity, his body was too weak to even try.

Just as the notion of munching on grass flitted by in his mind, the scent a freshly cooked meat hit him. Jumping up, Qin Rong ran toward the smell, uncaring if it was those guys again.

He just wanted to eat!

He was soon met with a high brick wall with spikes embedded at the top. Snorting, Qin Rong climbed a tree nearby to scale over the wall, rolling to stop as he jumped in. Within was a large luxurious garden, with flowers and plants that were clearly not the ones he knew.

He allowed himself to take a few fruit from the garden, figuring that people wouldn’t plant poisonous fruit in their own yard. He packed them away in his knapsack that he’d made that morning. It was mostly empty but now housed a vine he used as rope and a bunch of fruits.

Walking in deeper, Qin Rong kept his ears, making sure he wasn’t seen. There was no way of knowing whose yard he’d just broken into. Despite that, his mind was almost solely on the smell of meat coming from the place.

He soon found a small table with two equally small chairs on either side. On the table was a covered plate but he knew what was underneath.

MEAT!!!

Rushing over, he tossed the cover aside to reveal a bounty. A large roast chicken, mashed potatoes and rice as white as snow. It steamed in the air, meaning it was fresh. Qin Rong openly drooled over it.

Part of him felt bad for his desire to eat another’s food but the person who it belonged to was clearly well off so surely they wouldn’t mind him having a bite, right?

With that to ease his conscious, he dug in, cramming as much food as he could into his mouth. While he wasn’t a big fan of western food, Qin Rong was not a picky eater so went enjoyed himself immensely.

He was enjoying himself so much, he failed to notice the approach of another child until they were right behind him.

“U-um, excuse me?”