Blood Sip, Skill Snack

Chapter 1

People satisfied with the present dream of a rosy future.

Those unhappy with the present reminisce about the good old days.

And for those whose present is a complete dumpster fire, they dream of going back to the past.

For someone whose past, present, and likely future are all a disaster, they dream not of returning but of reincarnation or transmigration.

It's telling how many feel so disillusioned with life that the self-deprecating phrase "life's a total mess" became trendy.

Culture reflects reality, and reality is mirrored in culture.

That's probably why themes of regression, possession, reincarnation, and transmigration overflow in today's webtoons and web novels.

I, too, was among those readers fond of such themes, preferring transmigration even over regression.

I never knew my parents. It was just grandma and me, and she passed away the day of my college entrance exam.

Life was never easy, but from that day on, it was hell.

So, even if I could go back, reliving that hellish time... the current dumpster fire seemed better.

Of course, I knew it wasn't possible.

If going back to invest in the right stocks or strike it rich with Bitcoin were real, there wouldn't be poor folks left in the world.

But one can dream, right?

Even if I couldn't afford my grandma's hospital bills no matter how much I worked, even if I thought, for just a moment after she passed, that at least I didn't have to worry about those bills anymore... Even a jerk like me can dream, can't I?

But then.

Screech!!

Was I too lost in that dream?

Was it guilt over my grandma that made me do something I'd never normally do, like throwing myself onto the road to save a child?

Crash!

A loud noise, and I felt myself flying, but, curiously, without pain.

Honestly, my first thought was sympathy for the driver.

But then, the thought of "death" flitted through my mind, suggesting I hadn't completely lost touch with reality.

Flash!

Blinded by an intense light, when I next opened my eyes, I found myself in a completely different world.

It was like something out of a TV show or movie, a cathedral or temple in Vatican City, but even more grand and majestic.

And then, a term crossed my mind.

Truck-kun, or the reincarnation truck.

A tongue-in-cheek term created because of the cliché of dying and being reincarnated in another world after getting hit by a truck.

Surprisingly, I had actually crossed over to another world and met a being called a goddess in a temple.

Skipping over the aggravating details of that encounter, the important part is that I received a cheat-like ability.

The ability to copy someone's powers and even their appearance by drinking their blood, called [Blood Truth].

This skill has three major features.

Stage 1: Drinking even a drop of blood allows me to randomly use one of the target's skills, with more consumption unlocking a greater variety of skills.

Stage 2: Consuming a certain amount of blood enables me to use [Perfect Copy], replicating the target's appearance as well.

Stage 3: After satisfying the conditions for Stage 2, continuing to drink even more blood allows for the use of abilities stronger than those of the original (the one from whom the blood was taken).

Moreover, I can register up to three individuals from whom I've drunk blood and "save" them for future use.

Sure, they said there'd be rewards for honorable deeds... but I let that go in one ear and out the other.

Just hearing about it, this ability sounds like an absolute cheat, right? Yeah, I thought so too at first.

I figured I'd escaped my crappy current life for a fun "isekai cheat life"... but that was a load of crap.

Not only did I lose all the conveniences of modern civilization I'd taken for granted, but the biggest issue was a serious flaw in this ability.

The prerequisite of needing to drink someone's blood, meaning I had to at least injure them to the point of bleeding, was problematic since my physical abilities hadn't improved at all.

And where I woke up was just the icing on the cake.

Aren't you usually summoned by some kingdom to defeat the Demon Lord in these transmigration stories?

Expected to be treated like a hero and equipped with weapons or armor, I found myself with nothing, just suddenly awake at the edge of some strange village.

Even the people here, unlike on Earth where even old farmers or 10-year-olds might not be that strong, seemed like they could easily bench "three plates" with their monstrous muscles.

I was 178cm and 80kg, not exactly small back home, but here I was just a minnow among sharks.

The locals might look similar, but they might as well be a different species, given the vast differences.

Even these superhumans had to risk their lives against simple monsters like the [Horned Rabbits] commonly found near the village.

Without magic or special skills, monsters were essentially humanity's natural predators.

If these muscle-bound freaks struggled with them, what chance did I, whose only exercise was breathing and walking, have against such monsters?

To make an analogy, it's like expecting prime Mike Tyson to struggle against a rabbit, and then there's me.

No legendary items, no grumbling but insanely powerful companions.@@@@

As a last resort, I even tried drinking blood from an already dead creature, dipping into the blood of a [Horned Rabbit] the villagers had caught.

Blood from a living creature would be gross enough, but from a corpse... just thinking about it makes me nauseous.

"Address and social security number."

"Samyang-dong, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul―."

After defeating the Demon Lord, I found myself back in Seoul, with scenes shifting rapidly until I was finally in my old one-room apartment.

Isn't it usually the road where the accident happened that you return to? Why here?

Maybe that goddess took some sort of care, but it ended up screwing me over more.

Five years had passed, so someone else was living in my room, and from the perspective of the woman who just came out of the shower, I suddenly appeared like a thief.

Plus, from her standpoint, some stranger had burst in and cursed, which, looking back, was a terrifying situation for her.

Thanks to that, instead of a glorious viewing... ahem, I ended up being treated like a criminal at the police station.

Me, a world savior, now a perverted petty thief in my current life?

"Hey, man. That address you blurted out is where you were caught stealing, right? Speak up properly!"

"It wasn't stealing. I used to live there but...sigh, how do I even explain this."

"And this guy?"

Swoosh!

An attempt to hit me with a folder, like something out of a movie, failed with just a slight tilt of my head.

"Oh, dodging?"

Normally, even the tough guys would get a bit nervous under police interrogation, but I was innocent and felt quite bold.

After all, it wasn't my fault, was it?

Especially after surviving 5 years of war with terrifying monsters in another world.

The cop in front of me might look grim and be pretty big, but compared to the monsters or even the muscular folks in Rayon, he was nothing.

To me, he was just laughably insignificant.

"Stop bothering me and just conduct a proper investigation..."

Whack!

"Ouch!"

"Talking back now, thief?"

Then another detective smacked the back of my head. The pain was one thing, but I was shocked that I had allowed someone to hit me unawares.

Even if I wasn't using my powers, how could I not react to a normal human striking me?

My senses should have been honed sharp from 5 years of brutal fighting, as keen as any wild monster's.

"Could it be?"

I quickly try to activate [Blood Truth], worrying that maybe I'd lost the ability upon returning to this dimension.

【Activating [Blood Truth].】

"Phew...that's a relief."

Fortunately, the semi-transparent status window I was accustomed to seeing in Rayon also appeared here.

It felt strange to see such a thing on Earth, but it was a relief nonetheless. However, then I noticed something was off.

"Oh no?"

There was a big problem.

"Damn it!"

"What the hell? Where'd you learn to curse?"

Whack!

The hit to the back of my head was stronger than before, but this time, I didn't even feel the pain.

【Stored slots are empty.】

"Where did all my saved ones go!"

Upon checking, I found that [Blood Truth] had no saved data. It was as empty as it had been during my first 6 months in the other world, when I hadn't drunk anyone's blood.

Losing Snokau and Kalkalima hurt, but the real loss, of course, was Belaruel.

There were moments I genuinely thought I was done for!

All that struggle, gathering their blood!

And now, just like that, it's all gone?

Crash!

"Big trouble!"

For some reason, the police station erupted into chaos.

【Stored slots are empty.】

My mental state shattered, I could only stare blankly ahead.

But then...

"What?! Are you serious?"

"Yes! A has appeared right across from the police station!"

That's when a word that electrified my ears was mentioned.