Oops, I Accidentally Ascended to Godhood

A familiar man could be seen, well-dressed, his uniform straightened to perfection, his back upright as he sat at the center of a round table. Around him were officers, each bearing decorated badges on their uniforms. All of them had their eyes fixed on a screen playing a video.

Shockingly, the footage showed Tarkan beating and manhandling the receptionist at the Terra Association building, demanding information about a certain officer's whereabouts. The video paused right as Tarkan held up a photo of Sergeant Felix.

The scene changed again. Now it showed Cassian, and the fight between him and Tarkan. The moment Cassian was flung against the wall, the video froze once more, catching the dramatic impact mid-motion.

"Sergeant Felix, to what do you plead?" asked one of the officers. His badge carried more decorations than any of the others. His gaze was focused on the man in the middle, who sat with his back straight and hands resting calmly on the table.

"Guilty," Felix replied in a calm, steady voice. His expression remained unchanged.

The officer nodded approvingly at the answer.

Bang!

"You vermin are what's spoiling the Terra Association's name!"

One of the officers suddenly slammed his fist on the table, his face twisted in anger.

"Do you know why the Terra Association was created?" not waiting for a reply he continued, his voice rising. "It's to groom capable individuals who can help us in the war. And to think, a sergeant sold out the Association, reduced to a mere pawn? It's a slap in the face to the entire Terra Association!"

"Calm down, Ray," another officer beside him said quietly.

"What do you mean, 'calm down'? There's nothing to calm down about!" Ray roared, pointing furiously at the paused footage. "That boy clearly awakened a speed talent and lied to the Terra Association about it! And at the end of the day, that lie might have been what saved his life, only because a certain sergeant decided to sell his bio to someone trying to kill him!"

Ray's face darkened as he stared at the officer beside him like he had just murdered his parents.

"People are losing their trust in the Terra Association, and you have the nerve to tell me to calm down?" he shouted.

"Quiet."

The officer with the highest rank, the same one who had questioned Felix earlier, spoke with cold authority.

The raging officer immediately sat down, straightened his back, and went silent.

The room followed.

"Sergeant Felix," the high-ranking officer said, "you've broken the core principles and policies of the Terra Association. From partiality, to bribery, to the breach of confidential information. From now on, you are relieved of all your duties as a sergeant. You are hereby dismissed."

Bang.

The wooden hammer struck the table.

Felix, who had remained silent the whole time, heard the verdict without protest. But his hands clenched tightly, a subtle twitch in his fingers betraying his calm exterior.

---

Tarkan sat cross-legged, staring at the letter sent to him by the Terra Association. His brows furrowed.

If he was being honest, he hadn't expected the content of the message. It surprised him even more than the fact that they reached out at all.

He had expected threats, or perhaps a notice of charges, especially after wrecking part of their building. But instead...

The message was an apology.

It stated that the Terra Association regretted the incompetence shown by its internal staff. The bounty placed on his head had officially been removed. Sergeant Felix had been punished for his misconduct. All charges related to Tarkan's assault on the Terra building had been dropped as compensation.

Sigh

Tarkan let out a breath of relief. This saved him a lot of stress, especially when it came to trading.

The Terra Association regulated almost every trade and transaction in the second dimension.

With a bounty on his head, even stepping into that world would have made trading nearly impossible. Most deals were handled under the Terra's supervision to prevent scams.

A wanted man like him would have been denied every exchange, or worse, reported on sight.

And worse yet, Tarkan didn't even have proper information about the second dimension. He was walking in blind.

Another deep breath escaped him as he settled into a more comfortable meditative position.

He activated his mark.

"See you later, guys," he said to Slim and Ricky, who were staring at him as he disappeared.

--

Tarkan suddenly appeared, glancing around at his surroundings.

To his relief, the accursed view of towering trees wasn't what greeted him this time.

Instead, he found himself standing on a muddy landscape. Off to the side was a massive, jagged rock.

Tarkan went on full alert, scanning the area.

That was when the familiar dizziness hit him like a hammer. His legs buckled, sending him crashing to the ground.

The pain surged through him, a searing burn, but it wasn't even one-tenth of what he had felt before.

Still, it was enough to make him grit his teeth hard to keep himself from screaming. Any sound could give away his position. He couldn't risk that.

After a while, the pain faded. Catch the formatted version at M|V|LEM_PYR.

Tarkan stood up, sweat running down his forehead. But in spite of everything, he felt a trace of happiness.

His timer had upgraded.

He couldn't help but feel curious, what power it had unlocked?

Onk, onk, onk...

Sob... sob...

Just as he was about to check his panel, strange noises echoed in the distance.

Pig-like grunts.

And the unmistakable sound of people crying.

Following the direction of the sounds, Tarkan moved carefully to an uphill slope. He lay low, observing the area ahead.

Below, he saw what looked like a village, or at least a rough settlement.

At first glance, he thought it was a human settlement. But as he stared more intently, his face changed.

They looked human.

But they weren't.

Their bodies were human-like, at least in shape, but their heads were all those of pigs. Curly tails stuck out from their backs. They held crude weapons, stone axes, jagged blades, clubs.

They stood around a cage.

Inside the cage, a girl around his age sat crying, surrounded by the pig-headed beings, who were grunting and "onking" loudly with snot dripping from their snouts, as though celebrating a new catch.

But what disturbed him the most wasn't that.

Further from the main group, four pig-people stood near a large fire, roasting meat.

But it wasn't animal meat.

It was a human.

A man, skewered from mouth to stomach, rotating slowly over the fire.

His face was burned, blackened, but still intact enough to show a twisted expression of horror and pain. His mouth had been open when he died, screaming in agony. His eyes were now lifeless.

An expression that made it clear he had been roasted alive. Most of his lower torso had already been eaten, his body chewed apart. The pig creatures laughed and grunted as they tore off his charred limbs, devouring them hungrily.

Tarkan's whole body tensed.

A chill crawled through his spine as he took in the gruesome scene.