Loser's redo: Transmigration in a novel

Expecting to find himself back in his original body, Zick slowly opened his eyes.

What entered his sight were two red eyes that looked right at him. For a second Zick's whole body went stiff from goosebumps.

Blinking his eyes, he felt the mysterious feeling go away and regained his senses.

The two red eyes belonged to a doll the same size as him. This doll had a pensive expression with blonde hair cascading behind her.

'Where is this?' Zick looked around warily.

He was in a dimly lit room, which had many dolls of different shapes and expressions. But no doll had any positive emotion on their face, all were having a pensive or rather intrigued look.

In the full-body view mirror in the corner of the room, Zick was able to look at himself.

He was back in his original appearance and had peak rank knight strength.

'Is this reality or subconscious world?' Zick was not sure, but there was a sense of tension in the air which made him be on his guard.

Looking around, he found some dolls incomplete or destroyed. In the right corner of his vision, a stairway appeared.

Finding steps, Zick didn't hesitate and headed toward them with haste.

Creak~ the steps were old, looking ready to break any instant.

Reaching the top of the steps, Zick found a gloomy hall with different dolls in the cases decorated on the wall. There were no incomplete dolls in the room which looked like a basement.

At that moment, Zick could see weird energy being released by the dolls. When he closed his dragon eye, the energy vanished.

'It's my first time seeing such a weird kind of energy and every doll has a different energy wave from each other.' Zick considered while he dashed forward.

His senses could not extend more than a meter from him. This restriction was very strong, Zick could not tell what it was no matter what.

Running for a few seconds in the hall filled with dolls, Zick could see the end of the room at last. This room was quite long, and the only source of light was the lamps that glowed in a dull yellow light.

"A customer? That's rare, it's been more than 10,000 years huh?" An eerie voice entered Zick's ear.

A small reception entered his sight at the end of this room. He could not see it till now as a wall was covering the area.

"Who are you?" Zick spoke while keeping a vigilant look.

"You have no right to know that. Choose a doll and get going already." The robed figure sitting on the chair didn't seem to like Zick's behavior. It was not possible to discern its gender through voice, it sounded like a broken radio.

"Can I return to reality if I pick one?" Zick asked with no hesitation.

"Of course, entering the doll gallery is your fortune, dragon slayer kid." The other party had already seen through Zick.

Not saying anything, Zick first headed toward the door which looked like the exit, and tried opening it.

But the door didn't budge an inch. Zick could only heave a sigh and start looking at the dolls.

"You can leave only after choosing a doll. As I said, it's your fortune to come here, you must have come after clearing the trial posed by the regretful neckless. That is one of the many ways to enter this place."

"All the dolls in here can be beneficial to you, it is a reward for clearing the trial." The cold voice of the robed figure could be heard.

Zick didn't look at the reception and instead looked at the dolls.

He didn't think the trial to be that hard for him. As long as a person didn't hesitate and was vicious enough they could complete this subconscious world.

Zick had only one question: "What is the purpose of this doll gallery?"

Silence descended upon the room, the robed figure seemed to have frozen in place.

"You don't have the right to know." Its answer was filled with animosity.

Zick didn't bother probing anymore.

'It did tell the truth, this doll can probably strengthen me.' Zick looked at the dolls who had a variety of different poses.

He searched for the doll with the most amount of power.

The place was unnaturally clean with no existence of dust at all. Zick still didn't find any doll with a smile or any positive emotions yet. This showed that the dolls all held some kind of negative energy.

'That one seems powerful.' Zick looked at the doll with messy red hair with a crown on her head sitting on a small throne. There was a sense of hollowness in its eyes as if the world looked insignificant.

'The dolls in here do have a vividness to them. They looked extremely real.' Zick had to admit their realism.

Zick didn't rush, he continued venturing deeper into the hall. He had been ignoring the doll while heading to the end, so he didn't see most of them.

Especially, Zick felt that something bad might happen if touched the dolls.

'What kind of place is this? I have never heard of it anywhere. From what that robed figure said, no one in 10,000 years has come here, the conditions to enter this place seem too strict.'

'I might not get a chance to come here ever again, I should make the most of it. If I can gain a useful skill here, that would be for the best.'

He found many dolls that gave out energy matching the density of the red-haired one, but no one surpassed it -- they were evenly matched.

The red doll upon the throne gave regal energy as if everything should follow its wish. While the other gave a variety of different senses of energy.

The one Zick stood in front of right now had black hair with glistening green eyes like crystal, there were chains around her body tightly keeping it in place.

This doll gave out energy that gave another feeling that it could devour anything.

'All the dolls are women or girls, there must be a reason behind this.' Zick deduced.

He continued looking around, and at that instant, an energy that surpassed the other dolls by a large margin entered his sight.

'This energy wave...its strength is more than thrice...no five times that of the red-haired and the other which was comparable to it.' Zick moved towards it immediately.

This doll was not in the case, instead, it was within a coffin kept supported by the wall.

The doll within it was around the same size as a young girl.

Within the coffin was a doll with pale skin and dark black-red eyes, her whole eye's white membrane was black, and her pupil and iris were deep red.

Looking at this doll, Zick felt his skin crawl. There was a sense of discomfort that came from all parts of his body.

Berserk energy unparalleled to any of the dolls was coming out of this doll's eyes.

'I choose this one then.' Zick was firm on his decision, he felt this doll to be the strongest in this doll gallery.

"Ohh! I thought that you would choose this one. I suggest you rethink your decision, this doll was something that belongs to someone who once wreaked havoc in the whole universe."

"Hundreds of Gods died like flies...This doll ended up here because of coincidence." The robed person was not willing to explain further.

But just from what Zick heard, hundreds of questions rose within him.

'Kill Gods like flies and the universe?' Zick couldn't stop his thought from wandering off.

"So? Did you decide? Choosing this doll would just earn you the animosity of the other gods." The robed figure was unwilling to part with the doll.

"Please answer my question first, will I get a portion of the ability belonging to this doll?" Zick asked the most crucial question.

"....Yes, but you must know that it isn't worth offending hundreds of Gods...."

"I choose this one," Zick spoke with no hesitation.

So what if God becomes offended by him getting this doll's power?

They cannot interfere with the world as far as he could see. Their wrath was worth a breeze to Zick.

'Above the grandmaster realm, the God realm lies. I will rise to that level someday too.' Zick felt aspiration boiling within him.

"You...." Seeing Zick's firm stance, the robed person could only shut up.

Zick touched the doll's head at once, it had a cold surface. With a dazzling glow, the doll turned into the black miasma and entered Zick.

"Hmph, good luck being chased around by gods in the future." The robed man vanished into thin air.

The world started turning round and Zick's vision turned black.

SWISH~

A cold breeze brushed past Zick's skin, he also felt the cold ground below his back.

His eyes fluttered open to find a black sky filled with stars.

'I am out this time for sure.' Zick breathed out turbid air.

Zick propped up his upper body only to find The cat and Levienel staring at him warily.

"What happened?" Zick asked naturally.

The cat had its fur standing on the edge as it saw Zick: "Human...What did you bring out with yourself?"

At that instant, Zick noticed a thin layer of miasma covering his body. Slowly this miasma was entering his dragon eyes.

It felt like this black miasma had no end, it kept pouring out of his body and entering his dragon eyes at a rapid rate.

"Ahhhhh!!!!" Zick screamed at the top of his lungs. He felt like this black miasma was entering his eyes and was directly trying to rip apart his soul.

The hat from Zick's head had already fallen while Zick was howled here by Levienel so it exposed his broken horn.

Right at this moment, his horn started vanishing, assimilating with the black miasma, not only them but even the small shards of dragon scales in his knees, elbows, and other parts.

"Ahhh!!!" Zick could not stop screaming, and a trail of black blood fell from Zick's dragon eyes. His eyes had already turned black-red by now, just like the dolls.

Both Levienel and The cat felt their body losing mobility at that instant. They could not move their body at all in front of that black energy.

The black miasma entered Zick's dragon eyes and was now connected to his mana nerves. It directly started changing the nature of his mana.

Another wave of pain traveled through Zick's body, making him scream louder.