Lord of Rot

The convoy stopped.

”You! Hands on your head!” an Imperial Soldier shouted at Leech, raising his Longsword.

Leech shot out a hand and grabbed the blade. His fingers clamped down like iron pincers, and with a twist of his wrist, he yanked the Imperial Soldier forward, Longsword and all.

He slammed his elbow into the Soldier’s chest. The Imperial Soldier coughed up blood and was sent flying backward like a cannonball, while the sword remained firmly in Leech’s grasp.

’I got the sword!’

He flicked his wrist again, sending the Longsword spinning twice in the air before catching the hilt.

With a couple of casual swings, he sliced through the ropes binding the other prisoners on the cart.

The man sitting to Leech’s right ripped the gag from his mouth and let out a savage roar, ”ROAR!”

”A Dragon Shout. I knew it,” Leech muttered. ”Good luck to you.”

Leech vaulted off the cart.

More Imperial Soldiers tried to surround him, but he quickly drew his sword and lopped off their heads. With his overwhelming power, decapitating a man was as easy as snapping a rapeseed stalk with a stick.

”Shoot him with arrows!”

Arrows flew at him, but Leech easily parried them with his Longsword. After becoming Extraordinary, his power was on another level. He couldn’t dodge bullets, but he could just about handle arrows, especially from the small bows the Soldiers were using. Even if he got hit, the injury wouldn’t be too serious.

’Did I really transmigrate again?’

Leech felt that something wasn’t quite right.

”ROAR!”

The roar came from the sky.

A pair of black wings blotted out the sun. Leech looked up. ”According to the timeline, it shouldn’t be appearing yet!”

”It’s a dragon!”

”Dammit!”

The Imperial Soldiers and prisoners watched in terror as a colossal dark shadow descended from the sky. Its mere landing crushed a crowd of people, splattering blood and gore everywhere.

Several carts were pulverized into a meat paste under the dragon’s rear. Only a single wheel shot off, rolling further and further down the slope.

Its wings beat down, and the resulting gale sent everyone stumbling and staggering.

Leech was also nearly blown over by the fierce wind. His body swayed uncontrollably, and he had to instinctively take half a step back to steady himself.

The Giant Dragon lowered its head, bringing it close to Leech. It was as massive as a mountain!

WHOOSH!! A gale blasted from its beaked, keratinous nostrils, blowing Leech’s hair back and stretching the skin on his face until it distorted.

’The wind pressure is even stronger than riding on the back of a rocket at high speed!’

”Leech Clarence!” the Giant Dragon spoke.

”What’s your name?” Leech asked.

”You dare ask for my name?” The Giant Dragon opened its cavernous maw, a mouth like the open gates of a warehouse, large enough to swallow countless Leeches.

A putrid stench rushed into Leech’s nostrils, making him wrinkle his nose in disgust.

”According to the plot, you shouldn’t care about a small fry like me. No, wait, according to the game’s progression, I haven’t even created my character yet.” Leech shook his head. ”Just eat me.”

”Interesting. You’re not even going to resist?”

”I don’t think I can beat Odun—oh, right, that’s you.” Leech reversed his grip on the Longsword and held it to his own neck. ”This is a terrible start. Please allow me to use the old save-and-load trick.”

PFFT!

The Giant Dragon watched in shock as Leech decisively killed himself.

’He’s insane! How did he know this world was fake? This is the most profound scene from his memories; it should have triggered his most genuine emotions! I’ve already taken on the most powerful identity. Why?’

...

”Ugh...”

Leech opened his eyes.

A familiar ceiling.

’It seems to be my bedroom.’

He felt under his pillow for the air conditioner remote, aimed it vaguely at the AC unit on the opposite wall, and pressed the button.

BEEP. The air conditioner turned on.

Cool air washed over him, and he rolled over comfortably.

”Last night, while I was downloading an adult game, I think I randomly booted up Skyrim 5...” He propped himself up on his elbows and laboriously moved from the bed to the chair beside it.

He tapped the keyboard gently, waking the computer from sleep mode.

”As expected, vanilla Skyrim just can’t hold my interest anymore. Ooh, has it finished downloading?”

The only reason he’d open Skyrim again was for a new mod. But usually, he would just download it, install it, check it out, and then immediately uninstall and delete it. The fun of gaming was never about actually playing the game.

His stomach rumbled. Leech picked up his phone, ready to order some takeout to fill his belly.

He glanced at the bottom-right corner of his computer desktop.

”Thursday, 7/6/2023”

”Crazy Thursday. Nice. I’ll get some Burger Boy to bulk up.”

Leech went to the bathroom, then suddenly remembered he hadn’t ordered anything to drink.

He found a jar of honey in the cupboard, scooped out a spoonful, and mixed it with hot water.

He stirred it and took a sip. ”This is much worse than the one Miss Oak-Basin made. I guess it’s because...”

Leech suddenly froze.

The name that had just popped into his head was like recalling a character from a dream, leaving him somewhat unable to distinguish reality from illusion.

The memories grew clearer and clearer.

”Hello, delivery!”

”Oh! Coming, one second!” Leech’s train of thought was interrupted. He got up to get his food, left a quick five-star review, and then sat back down at his computer to munch on his burger.

But that dream felt more and more real, so real that it lingered in his mind.

He wolfed down the burger in a few bites and opened his browser to search for keywords from his memory.

He only found a novel called *The Rotting Lord*. The author’s name was ”White-Stockings Auntie.” The hardcore title and the equally hardcore author name gave him no desire to click on it.

But in the end, he clicked it anyway.

’This is nothing like my experience. Only some of the character names are similar. This book clearly tried to rip off *A Song of Ice and Fire* and failed, and even stitched in some *Mount & Blade*. It would’ve been better if they hadn’t. The army of the dead and the succubus maid I was waiting for never showed up. It’s a classic bait and switch.’

After casually gifting the author an Alliance Leader tier donation, Leech closed the novel.

’Was it a dream, or was it real?’

That world may not have had electricity or the internet, but he had ambition there, and there were many good things he wanted to obtain.

Unlike on Earth, his sphere of activity was limited to his home. All his connections to the outside world were through the internet; even his neighbors were strangers.

Whether he worked hard or not, what he got in the end was more or less the same.

He opened his phone. His friends list was a long one, but aside from the constantly scrolling ads and referral-bonus schemes in the driving school group chat, the rest were completely dead.

He then opened his social media feed. A friend he hadn’t spoken to in years had gotten engaged. A comment of ”Congratulations” was their final point of contact.

The rest were just people showing off their kids, posting sentimental life lessons, or pictures of sunsets and car steering wheels.

He suddenly wanted to go back to that dream. He wanted to return to the ball and once again take the hand of some noble lady, to unleash his own charm or willingly become a captive of hers.

At least it was more exciting than living in this world.

’A dream is just a dream, after all.’

Leech stretched. Compared to obsessing over a dream, maybe playing the newly downloaded adult game would be more interesting.

”Hm?”

The game he’d downloaded wouldn’t open. It launched normally, but there was no picture or sound.

He tried opening Skyrim 5, Bode’s Gate, and Civilization again. Those games all ran normally.

”Did something go wrong?”

Leech logged back onto the website and downloaded a few more new games, but without exception, none of them would open.