I’d been on the road for two days now, and I was liking this new body more and more. I was constantly hungry, thirsty, and weak, but all these inconveniences were temporary. The growling stomach, the dry mouth, even the fatigue—they all vanished the moment my body reset to its default state. I noticed regeneration worked like this back during the zombie banquet. Those brainless morons greedily stuffed their faces with my flesh, but the second it grew back, their stomachs emptied.

  No surprise there—it was the basic law of energy conservation. Nothing came from nothing: mass and energy couldn’t just appear or disappear. Guess I paid attention in school if I still remembered this nerdy crap.

  But here was a thought—what if I ate something? Despite being immortal, my body functioned pretty much like a normal human’s. When we ate, food affected us: nutrients got absorbed, energy was spent, toxins left their mark. But if my body always reverted to its original state, did that mean everything I consumed just… reset?

  Would have been hilarious if the universe collapsed after my snack. But to test that, I’d needed to find something edible first.

  I checked every village I stumbled upon, but it quickly turned into groundhog day. All settlements followed the same blueprint: monotonous streets littered with zombies—some shuffling, some sprawled out. The ones on their feet, by the way, ignored me completely. Guess without the blood trigger, they were harmless. Inside the houses, I scavenged for food, but everything had long since rotted—just like the buildings themselves.

  As I trudged through endless fields, I started losing hope that this world held a single living soul besides me. I never liked zombie apocalypse settings, so this wasn’t exactly a welcome twist. But before I could curse my luck out loud, I bumped into something… odd.

  To be precise, I met my own reflection.

  “Weird…” I muttered, glancing around.

  I had a good-looking, sturdy body—shame it was naked. Every piece of clothing I touched crumbled to dust, so I’d been airing out the family jewels. I’d say I was sixteen or seventeen: short black hair, a face pretty enough to border on feminine, perfectly straight teeth, sharp turquoise eyes with a gaze like an eagle’s—

  Oh shit, my own attractiveness distracted me.

  I reached out to touch the “mirror.” Instantly, the skin on my fingers burned away—but instead of shock, I felt curiosity. I pushed my arm deeper. Pulling it back wasn’t an option. Not because I got stuck like some adult-film cliché, but because there was nothing left to pull. My forearm was gone. Blood gushed onto the ground, and I immediately remembered my lovely neighbors.

  Full regeneration would take minutes. The zombies wouldn’t reach me in time, so no worries there. But what about this barrier?

  The only idea I had was to run alongside it, hoping for an exit.

  Two days later, I returned to my starting point. How’d I know? The lake shaped like an 8 was a dead giveaway. Gulping water, I processed the revelation:

  If I ran alongside my reflection and looped back, logic said I was trapped under a dome. Probably magical. So, two news items—one good, one bad.

  Bad: I had no clue where the exit was.

  Good: There was still a chance the rest of the world was intact.

  …Though why assume the “rest” existed at all? Across my rebirths, I’d seen worlds that defied all norms. Once, I was even reborn as a smell.

  But forget that! If this barren space was the entire world, then scrap the good news. The only way out was to cross the barrier completely.

  One problem: it burned even bones. Sure, my finger regrew earlier, but what if I lost my whole skeleton? Where was the limit? If I was reduced to dust, could I restart? Although dust was too optimistic an outcome. Most likely, I'd be reduced to atoms.

  “Screw it,” I said, backing up for a running start.

  Life in this hideous prison was no better than constant death. Staying here would turn immortality from a gift into an eternal prison.

  Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Time to trust my atoms to figure shit out and reach the other side.

  I sprinted and leaped, aiming to hit the barrier all at once. The last thing I needed was my legs staying behind, endlessly regenerating next to the burning wall.

  Now… we wait.

  The damp chill of Zombieland gave way to its polar opposite. Ash flakes drifted lazily from the sky, landing in my mouth. Coughing, I rolled onto my side and realized I was lying on cinders.

  "Am I in hell?" I wiped sweat from my brow.

  The ashen wasteland blurred into the gray sky, erasing the horizon. It felt like stumbling into an old film reel.

  I bit off a chunk of skin from my thumb to test the regeneration. Blood dripped from my trembling hand, then slowly vanished as flesh knitted itself back together.

  With a relieved sigh, I spread my arms and grinned.

  My half-baked plan actually worked. But something still nagged at me. Turning around, I saw no trace of the barrier. Waving my arms through the air yielded nothing.

  Meh. Not like I was going back. Time to focus on the future. The whole stupid reincarnation arc seemed to be over, and I needed to learn how to live all over again. What was just as important was that I had to consider the fact that I’d keep dying like some worthless animal. Death pulled me out of the cycle of rebirth just to keep tormenting me within a single body. And yet, that didn’t mean I should just sit around doing nothing, waiting for the sword of Damocles to fall on my head.

  So... what did I actually want?

  Funny—after all these years, I never bothered thinking about it. My mind was too busy screaming about what I didn't want.

  Uhh...

  Err...

  Welp...

  Only one desire came to mind, but I wasn’t sure it was possible.

  Or was it?

  Enough daydreaming. Let's be practical: I wanted to eat. And drink. Clothes wouldn't hurt either. Back to square one, then. Bigger dreams could wait.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Time to move. Hope this shithole had an exit.

  Journey Through the Ashen Wastes—Day Five. The scorched earth didn’t exactly fill me with joy. The only sights around here were the charred bones of giant creatures and the ruins of once-thriving cities. Though, for all I knew, they might have been barely scraping by—I just phrased it like that for extra drama.

  Most of the day, I couldn’t even see where I was walking. The howling wind kicked up ash, creating that eerie "gray snow" effect. Nights were even worse. The eternal cloud cover plunged everything into total darkness, temperatures dropped below freezing, and enormous creatures slithered out of the shadows. I didn’t even get a good look at whatever bit my head off yesterday. But the day before that, a scorpion the size of a cow stung me. Who the hell knew what its venom was made of, but every pore on my body swelled up and started oozing pus. Hurt so damn bad I decided not to wait for regeneration to kick in and just strangled myself instead.

  Speaking of, I wasn’t the first to run into these monsters. Along the way, I’d stumbled over plenty of skeletons—even stripped clothes off one of ‘em. Hope he didn’t mind.

  If I ignored a couple of unpleasant incidents, it was mostly peaceful out here. But these kinds of treks, where almost nothing happened, just made me yawn. Maybe I’d gotten too used to the usual chaos.

  Luckily, tonight, a lone flicker of light glimmered on the horizon—something finally happening.

  These were yet more ruins of a burned-down city. Around the campfire, a half-circle of partially charred logs was arranged. On one of them sat an old man, stretching his hands toward the flames. He was horrifyingly thin, with a patchy beard and a few stray hairs clinging to his scalp. His teeth were barely even teeth anymore. His white pupils suggested he was blind.

  How the hell did he even travel this wasteland alone? I wondered. Maybe he wasn’t? But there was no sign of anyone else’s belongings.

  I sat on the log beside him, and he immediately heard it.

  "Who’s there? Melony?" the old man asked, startled.

  What? I understood their language? Guess my soul had fully merged with this body now, so I must’ve picked it up subconsciously. It was the first time this had happened, so I was genuinely surprised.

  "Melony, is that you?" He stretched his ash-stained hands toward me.

  "Don’t wanna disappoint you, but I’m not Melony," I replied, staring into his hollow eyes.

  "Then who are you?"

  "Does it matter?" I dodged the question.

  Truth was, I hadn’t even come up with a name yet. Should probably get on that.

  "Fair enough... If you wanted to kill or rob me, you’d have done it by now," he muttered, turning away. "Where are you headed?" He kept the conversation going.

  Damn, I felt both uneasy and weirdly exhilarated. When was the last time I’d actually talked to someone? Sorry, imaginary friends—you didn’t count.

  "Fuck if I know. I’ve been wandering aimlessly for almost a week now. Or has it been a week? Maybe even two... Whatever. You tell me—does this shithole of a desert ever end?"

  "You set out on a journey knowing nothing about this death trap?"

  "I’m one lucky bastard, so death ain’t shit to me. And hey—don’t answer a question with a question, alright?"

  Wait, I literally just did that... Well, I got a pass. I was the protagonist, after all.

  The old man gave me a strange "look."

  "A day’s walk north lies the edge of this cursed desert. Unfortunately, the mad Titan didn’t get to burn the whole region to ashes."

  Oh, here came the lore.

  "Not from around here, so no clue what’s going on. Wanna fill me in?"

  He sighed heavily, turned away, and spat into the fire.

  "Happened two... yeah, ‘bout two years back. Far south of Talonia, near the sea, weird shit started happening. First, some kind of plague hit. Rumor had it, a bunch of fancy doctors rolled in from the capital, but word was they vanished there too... Dunno if they ever really came or if that was just knights flapping their gums. Point was, only the Titans knew what that sickness really was. But it was just the start. The dead—get this—the dead started diggin’ themselves outta their graves! Even skeletons stood back up! Refugees babbled about ghosts floatin’ in the sky, but I never saw ‘em myself. Worst was yet to come. You seen the remains of the Sky Moles?"

  "I saw some giant skeletons, not sure if those are the ones."

  "Yeah, yeah, those’re them. We lived in harmony with those creatures—some villages even fed ‘em, and in return, they kept ‘em safe. No bandit or pirate was dumb enough to mess with ‘em! But when the plague hit the Moles, they went mad. They were herbivores, but they started eating people like ghouls possessed ‘em. Our soldiers couldn’t hold ‘em back, and there was no time to wait for reinforcements from the capital—the dead were pushing north, wiping out village after village. Only thing left was to pray to the Titan of Crimson Flame, protector of our lands. And, well... you see how that turned out."

  “Yeah, he really went above and beyond,” I said with a grin.

  "Except for one thing. Tell me, how long ago did you last see the remains of our guardians?"

  "Like, four days back? Why?"

  “Then either you walk damn fast, or your sense of time’s busted. Every other traveler says it’s a ten-day journey from here. Get what I’m saying? We begged the Titan for protection—and he burned all of southern Talonia instead.”

  “Damn...” I had nothing else to say.

  I mean, yeah, at least the Titan stopped the invasion. Maybe he launched a preemptive strike, figuring the plague had already spread. But burning a quarter of the region to ashes? That was beyond overkill.

  Still... felt like the guy was holding something back.

  “What about the barrier?” I asked.

  “Barrier?” he blinked, puzzled.

  Guess he didn’t know. Interesting. Could anyone even see the damn thing from this side?

  “Huh? What?”

  Time to play dumb. Or maybe I never turned off dumb mode?

  “You just asked about—”

  “Did not. You got hearing problems or something? But fine, I’ll let that rudeness slide this time!” I came up with the dumbest excuse on the fly.

  Shouldn’t have added that last line...

  “What? What the hell are you babbling about?”

  “Why don’t you tell me about this place instead? Looks like it used to be a town,” I changed the subject like nothing happened.

  “Yeah. These are the ruins of Grand Sizo. Once upon a time, this was my home...”

  “But you survived. Did the Titan warn people in advance?” I scratched the back of my head.

  “I wish,” he growled and spat in the fire again. “That day, I was in Apelfaund on business. That’s the only reason I’m still alive. Every day since, I’ve wished the Titan’s flame had reached me too...”

  “Why rush to the afterlife? You’ve got maybe a year or two left, enjoy it. After all, there’s jack shit waiting on the other side, so you might as well make the most of what you’ve got.”

  “That’s the thing—I’ve got nothing,” his voice dimmed. “My fiancée is dead. And I’m trapped in this decrepit body. How old do you think I am?”

  “Beats me... eighty?”

  “Ha-ha-ha! I’m twenty-seven.”

  “Well, the 9-to-5 grind did its job.”

  He didn’t laugh. Just kept going.

  “One glimpse at the Titan’s Hand was enough to steal my sight. Sapped my strength too. But if he’d spared her... Maybe I could’ve held on a little longer.”

  “You mean your fiancée?”

  “Yeah... Her name was Melony. We were supposed to get married that spring.”

  Doubt she’d have married you looking like this, buddy.

  “If she’s dead, why’d you mistake me for her?” I asked.

  But the old guy—no, the young man—said nothing. His wrinkled face just wilted.

  “You think there’s a chance she survived?” I asked again.

  Still no answer.

  Should I tell him he’s wasting his time? Nah. Brutal truth wouldn’t help him. He already knew. Deep down, he knew.

  “Then I’ll believe it too,” I said.

  “Thank you...” he gave me a pitiful nod, “looking” in my direction.

  We chatted about this and that for a while after. That’s how I found out there was a town nearby. According to him, it was a remarkable place. And if a blind man said it was worth a visit, then hell yeah, I was going.

  I asked if he wanted to go there together, but he turned me down. So I kept going alone. Shame... I was hoping he’d offer me something to eat. I had no money, and I wasn’t betting on getting fed for free in the next town.