SSEI | Chapter 2.1

[Warning: You have sustained a fatal injury before the match has even begun. If you do not secure a way to restore your missing body part within the arena, you will be forcibly sent back to the Sanctuary as soon as the match starts.]

A head without a body plummeted endlessly toward the ground. As fierce winds tangled through his white hair, Yuan’s thoughts drifted, hazy, as if he were in a dream.

Did severed heads actually retain consciousness for a brief moment before death?

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At least, he was grateful that he wasn’t writhing in unbearable pain during this short window of awareness. Yuan stared blankly at the vast sky above him, feeling oddly at peace. He didn’t even feel betrayed—perhaps, deep down, he had expected this all along.

‘So that’s why he has such a bad reputation. Of course…’

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For a fleeting moment, he had thought that man might not be so bad after all.

What an idiot he was.

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It was stupid to think that someone like him—a guy who had apparently abandoned his own partner in the last match—would actually take care of Yuan. The Red Man hadn’t even been angry when he killed him. That was what made it so terrifying.

Maybe, in his own twisted way, he had shown a bit of mercy by killing Yuan cleanly instead of tormenting him first. Yuan had briefly worried that he might get tortured instead, so at least that hadn’t happened.

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Still… what a bizarre man.

If he had planned to kill Yuan from the start, then why had he been so weirdly nice?

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No shouting, no hitting. Even during the fall, he had calmly given Yuan advice, almost like a mentor. And yet, without hesitation, he had cut off his head. The contradiction was too jarring—it was impossible to tell which side of him was real, or if both were.

At the very least, one thing was clear—he was not normal.

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Yuan sincerely hoped he wouldn’t end up on the same team as that guy ever again.

More than anything, he just wanted to last long enough to actually learn the rules of this insane survival game. If he kept dying this early, he wouldn’t stand a chance of escaping, let alone understanding whatever twisted world this was.

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But contrary to Yuan’s assumption… this match isn’t over yet.

Between the howling winds, a faint, persistent whisper brushed against his ears.

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[Warning: Once again, please secure a means to restore your missing body part before the match begins. If you fail to do so, you will be sent back to the Sanctuary immediately.]

It was the same whisper he had heard when entering the forest in the last match. Lork had called it the announcement system, and now, it was drilling into Yuan’s ears with relentless insistence.

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…Did this mean he wasn’t going to die just from falling?

Lork had said they were all undying, so maybe as long as the match hadn’t officially started, Yuan could somehow survive—even with only his head remaining.

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Lork had managed to find a way to survive before, so it probably wasn’t impossible. But finding a way to restore a severed head mid-match? That was way beyond Yuan’s capabilities.

Lork was a veteran. Yuan? Not so much.

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Without a clock, he had no idea how much time he had left. He guessed maybe thirty minutes remained, but it was just that—a guess. Not that it mattered.

Because in a few moments, his head would crash into the ground, his skull would shatter, and his brains would splatter everywhere.

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Or so he thought.

—SPLASH!

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The sudden impact sent shockwaves through Yuan’s entire head.

The sheer force of the collision was so overwhelming that his mind blanked out for a moment.

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Water.

He had fallen into the water.

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Despite that, the impact was still strong enough to rattle his thoughts, leaving him momentarily dazed. Was this lucky or unlucky? His skull hadn’t been crushed, but the pain wasn’t exactly mild.

His head sank rapidly into the water’s depths.

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Even though he no longer had lungs, he felt like he was drowning. His nose burned sharply, and an unbearable stinging sensation spread through his sinuses.

Even opening his eyes hurt—it felt like someone had thrown chili powder straight into them.

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Trying to swim to the surface was pointless. His only movable part was his mouth, and that sure as hell wasn’t going to propel him anywhere.

‘W-Wait, does this mean I have to stay like this for thirty whole minutes?! Just drowning on repeat?!’

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If this was going to be his fate, he would have preferred to just hit the ground and die instantly.

Had the Red Man actually considered his suffering when he threw him down here? If so, this was one of the cruelest forms of psychological torture—so clean, yet so merciless.

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The Red Man had already moved on, but Yuan would be left here, thrashing helplessly in agony for the next few dozen minutes.

He just wanted to die quickly at this point.

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Just as Yuan truly started wishing for an end to it all—

Something cold touched his cheek.

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‘W-What…?’

It was definitely flesh.

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Yuan wanted to open his stinging eyes to figure out what was happening, but by now, his head had already sunk deep into the murky, lightless depths of the water.

Even as he floundered mentally, the flesh slithered against his cheek and the nape of his neck, creeping over him in slow, deliberate movements.

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It was strangely sticky, rough in places—almost like a tongue. But no normal creature’s tongue should be this massive.

‘What the hell is this?!’

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A giant squid? No, that wasn’t right—squid and octopuses didn’t feel like this. It was something different.

Yuan panicked, instinctively struggling, but there was no way to resist when all he had left was a severed head.

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The slimy mass wrapped itself fully around his neck, then started crawling up, covering his entire face.

‘What is this?! S-Stop! What the hell are you doing?!’

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The warm, sticky sensation sent shivers racing across his raw, sensitive skin. Tiny bumps on its surface wriggled, tickling his throat, sending waves of revulsion through him. It wasn’t painful, but it was utterly disgusting.

He was being eaten.

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There was no doubt.

Whatever this thing was, it was tasting him. Licking him. And soon, it was going to swallow him whole.

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This world was already bizarre enough—so it wouldn’t even be surprising if some grotesque, unknown lake monster existed here. The water wasn’t salty, which meant it wasn’t from the ocean. A freshwater creature, then?

…Not that it mattered.

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‘Please. Someone, save me. I don’t want to die like this!’

He absolutely did not want to get eaten alive.

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What if being devoured here meant he wouldn’t even get sent back to the Sanctuary? What if he just… sank into the bottom of this lake forever?

His nonexistent heart pounded wildly with fear. If he had eyes, he would’ve been crying by now.

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And then—

The flesh slithered past his lips.

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Something wriggled its way inside his mouth.

‘What—?!’

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He tried to shut his jaws, but it was already too late. The slimy, bitter mass had shoved itself inside, filling every inch of space.

Yuan wanted to bite down and rip it apart, but it was too tough. Instead, the flesh squirmed and pressed itself against the insides of his mouth, writhing as if it were trying to eat him instead.

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It wasn’t just invading—it was consuming.

And now, it was forcing its way even deeper—toward his throat.

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Yuan gagged, instinctively trying to pull away, but there was nowhere to run. Even without a neck, the overwhelming reflex of nausea took over, making his vision blur with tears.

This wasn’t drowning.

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This was being stuffed until his throat burst open.

But just when he thought he was going to be completely overtaken—

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[You have secured a means to restore your missing body part. Match participation confirmed.]

…What?

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Yuan barely had time to register the robotic declaration before he suddenly felt his body—or what remained of it—rising.

The flesh that had consumed him began to lift him upward.

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What… did I just obtain?

He had done nothing but get eaten, and yet the system had acknowledged something.

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Then—realization hit him.

‘No way. Is this… a weapon?’

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A biological weapon.

Like what Lork had gained before—a living organism acting as a combat tool.

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How ridiculously lucky did he have to be for something like this to happen?

For the first time, Yuan felt like he might actually have a chance.

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…Now, he just had to figure out how to make use of it.

Though, first, he had a more immediate concern—

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Survival.

“Got it! Damn, look at this thing! It’s a giant clam!”

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“Wait… something’s weird. It feels too light for its weight—”

“H-Hey, look! Eren Noeul! Inside the shell!”

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—SPLASH!

With a massive splash, Yuan’s head was suddenly dragged out of the water.

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Voices—strangers, a man and a woman.

Their words barely registered before exhaustion overtook him.

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Feeling the warmth of air on his face again, Yuan’s mind, at last, slipped into unconsciousness.

***

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How much time had passed like that?

Even with his eyes closed, Yuan couldn’t ignore the sharp, stinging sunlight. He barely regained consciousness and opened his eyes.

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The first thing that came into view was the vast, endless horizon. It was an undeniably familiar place—the air filled with floating dust, the sky an ashen gray devoid of any hint of blue, and yet the sun blazed down with an almost unnatural intensity.

This was, without a doubt, the same wasteland Yuan had seen when he first opened his eyes. But the deep, cold lake where he must have originally fallen was nowhere to be found.

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‘…Huh?’

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

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It was hard to tell at first because the space was so wide and open that distance felt vague, but Yuan was moving.

Of course, he wasn’t moving on his own. He had been decapitated below the neck—how could he possibly move by himself? Instead, he was being transported inside some kind of box-like structure. The inside of the box was filled with the same warm, damp flesh he had felt just before passing out. The entrance of the box was sliced open in a long horizontal slit, leaving the sides relatively open, but it was difficult to check above or below.

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Judging by his height and the way his body swayed, it felt like the box he was in was strapped to someone’s back. Come to think of it, wasn’t this exactly how Lork had been carried around when Yuan stuffed his head into a bag?

There were so many things he wanted to know—how he had survived, who was carrying him—but right now, he could barely move. No matter how much he struggled to turn his head or speak, his head was firmly lodged in the squishy flesh and wouldn’t budge.

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And to make things worse, he had no lungs. Speech required inhaling and exhaling air, but he no longer had the organs to do so. No matter how much he opened his mouth or moved his tongue, no sound came out.