Larry woke up for the second time after getting shot in the face, but this time no white walls or gods with a child’s voice were waiting for him. Instead, he woke up in what looked like a medieval tavern. Wood and shady people everywhere. The furniture was impregnated with the stench of booze, attesting to the countless spilled beers and hard nights of drinking. Fabrics covered the windows to cushion the insides of the tavern against the light of the outside world. The walls were decorated with horns and red colored shields, and a single rusty chandelier hung from the ceiling, the wax from its candles dripping onto the floor below it, creating tiny waxen stalagmites.

Larry felt his head pulsate, and a numb pain danced through his skull, sending shivers down his spine, causing him to convulse. He gently touched his forehead. Right there, where the bullet had hit him, and where a god had touched him, his skin was slightly rougher than normal. He rubbed the scar, trying to find out how visible it might be. If this scar stays forever, I’ll shoot myself just to get back up there and complain about it, Larry thought.

Suddenly, a ping sound filled his mind, and the noises of the tavern faded away. His vision grew blurry. A blue screen appeared before him, and messages flashed before his eyes.

Welcome to your new life. From now on, you will be supported by this world’s built in system.

Larry could feel soft vibrations in his head, as if a bee had crawled up his nose and somehow found its way into his brain. It was not comfortable.

Status initialized. To use Status, touch your head directly and wait until a pop-up appears.

Larry stopped touching his scar, and the blue screens disappeared instantly. He heard his surroundings grow louder again, and his vision went back to normal. Larry looked around the tavern.

No one seemed to pay any attention to him, so he probably was the only one who had seen what just happened. He put his fingers on his head again. After a few seconds, the Status opened again.

Welcome to Status. As a reincarnated being, your physiology had to be adapted to this foreign environment. Your species has been changed to this world equivalent of Human. Your species has been mutated to better reflect your original species. Your species is now Parasitic Human. The mutation has locked some of your attributes. You are now unable to increase them. The mutation has unlocked new attributes. You are now able increase them. The mutation has …

Larry dropped his hand again, and the screens that flooded his vision were gone. He knew what this meant. A smile crept across his face, and he felt his dry lips part like zippers.

I’m in one of those video game worlds! Like those stories I read on the internet. Damn, If my body didn’t feel like shit right now, this would be the best moment of my life. Well, afterlife. For now though, I need something to drink. My throat feels like someone dragged it through a desert. I’ll check out this Status thing after I get some water or something.

Larry was currently sitting at some smelly wooden desk, which fit perfectly together with the generally stinky atmosphere of the tavern. With it’s dim lighting and few guest, it didn’t impress Larry in a positive way., to say the least. The tavern had this buy something or piss off kind of feeling. He noticed a small bag on the desk. Larry opened the bag and emptied it on the table. A few bronze coins jingled across the table, and some of the shadier figures in the tavern glanced his way. At least he wasn’t sent here without any money. He licked his teeth. He signaled the waitress, a busty woman with long, blonde hair and young face. She clearly saw him wave, but hesitated to come over. For some reason, she looked annoyed. Then she turned around and walked towards the counter, where she started cleaning dishes. Apparently, she had decided that Larry wasn’t worth the effort. Larry waved harder, and the waitress ignored him harder.

Fantastic, Larry thought.

He scooped up the coins and walked up to the counter, where the waitress was. Only now did he realize that he didn’t wear his own clothes anymore. He sported a dirty, white shirt and short brown pants. He wore bandages around his feet instead of boots. To sum it up, he looked like a beggar. The waitress eyes him again, dropping her glass into the wooden sink unenthusiastic. She was definitely not impressed with Larry.

“You gotta pay, if you order,” she said, not even looking his way.

“A glass of water,” Larry ordered, and threw his bag of bronze coins towards her, to prove he had money, and was willing to spend it. He wasn’t actually planning on spending any money here, which is why he order the water, but he doubted she’d give him anything if she thought he was broke. The waitress caught the bag. She undid the little string that kept the bag closed and looked inside. She chuckled.

Larry watched the waitress disappear into a room behind the counter, probably to get the water. When she was gone, he started to hum quietly, to kill some time. He noticed his voice sounded different.

My throat must be in a worse condition than I thought.

The waitress returned and poured a glass of water out of a fancy looking glass bottle she had brought.

What tavern stores it’s water in a bottle?

The girl put down the glass of water and his coin bag in front of him. She smiled at him, and a malicious kind of joy radiated from her toothy grin.

“You got balls, kid. You know what, as long as you finish the drink, it’s on the house. Not like you’d be able to buy anything with that little bronze anyway,” she said.

On the house, as in ‘The water in here isn’t free’? This place is even sleazier than I thought. Also, kid? I’m twenty-three. I might even be older than you, judging from your looks.

Whatever.

Larry grabbed the water and smelled it. It was actually water, as far as he could tell. He downed it in one go. The fluid took care of the disgusting fuzzy mouth and dry throat. Turns out, reincarnation feels a lot like hangovers. Water had rarely tasted this satisfying.

“What in the green Hills!” the waitress screamed in surprise. She ripped the glass out of Larry’s hand and shook it, as if to check where all the water had gone. She gave him a sceptical look, carefully eyeing him.

Man this girl is weird.

Someone behind Larry spoke up.

“You downed that water like a parched sailor.”

Larry turned and saw a giant of a man approach. With his beard and log-like limbs, he looked like someone had pressed a bear into a pink colored sack and called it human. He wore a rusty armor, with leather strips and metal plates that desperately tried to contain the man’s massive frame. He sat down next to Larry, his stool creaking under his weight. He dropped his arms on the counter with a loud thump.

“I’ll pay the next few rounds, Olivia,” he said to the waitress.

“You trying to kill him?” she answered, but put another glass in front of Larry, and one in front of the man. She observed Larry in anticipation.

“Name’s Jorg," the man said. "Drink as much as you want. That is, if you can.”

He gave Larry a friendly pat on the shoulder. Larry introduced himself to be polite. He didn’t know what was going on, but since he was getting free drinks, he wasn’t about to complain. He grabbed the second glass of water and downed it as fast as he could, finally quenching his thirst. He had not realized just how dehydrated he was, until the liquid had touched his lips. Larry noticed that both the waitress and Jorg were looking at him, as if they had just see a magic trick.

Different world, different people.

Larry tried to think of an excuse to leave the tavern. Usually, if someone offered to pay his drinks he’d be happy to stay all night, but currently he desperately wanted to check out that Status thing. Ultimately Larry decided he’d just tell them he was busy. Wasn’t their business what he was up to anyway, was it? He tried to stand up, but Jorg grabbed his shoulders and pushed him down.

“You just drank a two glasses of the nastiest stuff you can buy around here. You’d be better of sitting,” Jorg said.

“It’s just some water,” Larry said. Had they giving him something strong without him noticing?

“Just some water? Never seen a man drink as much water as you and not vomit his brains out. I took a sip from it and I’m already tipsy. Sit, kid.”

You gotta be kidding me. The people in this world get drunk from regular water? How do they even survive? Well, at least I’m still able to drink it normally. Also, there was that ‘kid’ again.

“Ok, why is everyone here calling me a kid. What’s up with that, huh?”

Jorg laughed.

“Look at yourself, buddy,” Jorg said. “You can’t be older than a sixteen cycles. Although, someone who drinks water like you deserves to be called an man, in my books.”

Confused, Larry looked at Jorg. Sixteen cycles was probably the equivalent of sixteen years on earth. Maybe. But he wasn’t sixteen. He was twenty-three, and as far as he remembered, no one had ever mistaken him for a teenager. Did the teenagers in this world just look older? Or maybe...

Larry looked at his own hands. They were tinier than he remembered. Also, there was less hair on them. He touched his face. Usually, he’d have some beard stubbles decorating his face, since he was to lazy to shave regularly. Now, there was nothing.

Oh man, they've made me younger. If I have to go through teen angst and random boners again, I swear to god...

“You know,” Jorg said, pointing towards a group of people in the back of the tavern. “Me and my buddies were planning on hunting later on. You wanna come with?”

Larry had to suppress a grin. Hunting with these guys meant he’d basically get a free tutorial on how this world works.

This is going great!