The Irony of Life

Beep…beep…beep…

Inside an incredibly clean room, an emaciated young man could be seen lying down on a hospital bed. His gaze was currently focused outside the window to his left, allowing him to see the view he would have embraced…if not for his current situation.

A few seconds later, he let out a soft chuckle filled with mockery aimed at himself. He then shifted his vision towards the monitor to his right, noticing that the constant beeping he heard all this time was now starting to slow down. At this moment, he knew that he was about to die soon.

"To think that this happened to me just because I got bit by a random mosquito," he muttered to himself with a tinge of regret, recalling his life before he was affixed to this hospital bed.

He was born with a weak body, which was complemented by a weakened immune system, making him susceptible to injuries and illnesses even with the slightest movement he made. Thanks to that, his life was filled with gazes of pity and disgust at him, but he disregarded them, maintaining a sense of indifference as he tried to live his life to the fullest.

Surprisingly, even with his weak constitution, he was able to live 18 full years to the greatest he could possibly make it. Remembering that he had only lived for this long, he could not help but lament softly, "If there is ever a next life, I hope there's a way in that life for me to live forever."

Beep…beep…

After he finished saying those words, he continued to look at the monitor, waiting for the constant beeping to stop as he felt that his body was gradually becoming heavier and heavier as his thoughts turned sluggish. Although he feared that he was going to die soon, he thought that feeling nothing was better than feeling pain every day.

Eventually, the beeping for the monitor ceased as a long monotonous tone resounded throughout the room. The young man, who was looking at the monitor a while ago, now had his head slumping on the bed railing as his eyes were closed. A melancholic yet calm air suffused throughout the room as the medical professionals entered the young man's room only after the monitor ceased to beep. A hint of remorse and sadness could be seen on their faces, but this was soon replaced with indifference, as if the incident that happened just some time ago was a daily occurrence to them.

Indeed, it was a daily occurrence to them. But to the young man…

It would change his understanding of the universe forever.

…

After an unknown amount of time, a small wisp of consciousness awoke in some place, feeling that it was currently surrounded by water. Soon after that, the consciousness gradually became stronger as it slowly gained a stronger perception of its surroundings.

'Where am I?' the consciousness thought to itself as it felt a sense of coldness behind it, as if it was truly cold behind its back. The consciousness then tried to move something, expecting that there would be nothing for it to move. Unexpectedly, something moved in accordance to its thoughts, moving the water that was surrounding the consciousness. It was then that the consciousness realized…

"I'm alive…?" the consciousness muttered to itself in a tone of disbelief. It then tried to move once more, only for the same feeling to arise. Normally, such a scenario would bring one immense regret, but to this wisp of consciousness, it instead felt intense joy as it shouted with glee, "I'm alive!"

"To think that there's actually life after death!" the consciousness said to itself, letting out a chortle as it tried to utilize its other senses. This consciousness was none other than the emaciated young man, hoping that there was a second life after his death. Realizing that his wish was granted, the feelings enveloping him at the moment ranged from joy, to shock, and even relief.

"I finally found the sense of sight." After some time, the young man moved a certain portion of his consciousness, allowing a certain part to move. Not long after that, the young man was greeted to the sight of a beautiful night sky, with the stars mingling with the three moons that joined them.

"Three moons?" This was the first thing that came to the young man's mind as he looked at the night sky. He then pondered over the current scenario in silence as he recalled his memories from the past. It did not take long for him to come to an answer as he muttered with slight uncertainty, "I'm in another world?"

Although he had no proof that he was indeed in another world, from the sight of the night sky alone, it seemed to be the most believable thing he could come up with. After coming to that conclusion, he then expressed shock over the fact that he was able to recall his previous life's memories without fail. With that in mind, he wondered if he was just like those protagonists in those web novels, reincarnating or transmigrating into other bodies with their memories from the past intact.

"By the looks of it, I guess I can consider myself as someone like them," the young man said to himself with a light chuckle, continuing to get a better grasp of the body he was in. At the very moment he urged his consciousness to move, he went ahead and tried to find out what type of body he was residing in. After a few more minutes, he had obtained his answer as a tone of disbelief covered his voice. "You're kidding me, right?"

As if he did not believe that his current body was what he thought it was, he willed his consciousness to move, only for the parts of the body he was currently looking at to move without fail. Surprisingly, even though he willed the body to move, he still could not believe his current predicament, thus moving his sense of vision towards the water covering him. With only one glance, he had no choice but to accept the fate of his second life as he said with a defeated sigh, "What an ironic second life. To think that I reincarnated as a mosquito."

As he was thinking about this, he could not help but think that it was slightly hilarious, seeing that the one who ended up killing him in the first place had now become his body in the second life. Nevertheless, since he was now a mosquito in his second life, he would try to live his life as a mosquito to the fullest as well. Although that was what he was saying to himself, he could not help but ask himself, "Do the heavens hate me or something? Surely they wouldn't put me in a body that had an incredibly short lifespan for no reason, right?"

Since he was bitten by a mosquito in his past life, he went ahead and assiduously researched the ins and outs of one, with its lifespan being the thing that stood out to him the most. Recalling the lifespan of a mosquito, he muttered to himself, "So I basically have around 5 weeks to live before dying again."

"Then again, it's better than straight out dying," he added soon after, knowing that the second life he had obtained was not common at all. "I wonder if there's a way for me to increase my lifespan in this world?"

As he muttered those words, he then heard the sound of footsteps gradually getting closer to where he was, being picked up by the antennae of his mosquito body. In an instant, he knew that those footsteps came from a human from sound alone. At first, he was wondering why the sound of footsteps was gradually getting closer to him, but after utilizing his vision to the fullest, it did not take him long to realize why.

"I should start moving," he muttered to himself as he used his limbs to turn his body over, allowing the wings that were submerged in water a while ago to face the harsh winds of the night. As he did this, he could not help but look at his surroundings a bit more, noticing that there were a few eggs and larvae on the same body of water he was in. Although he felt a bit saddened at the fact that he had no way to help them out, he knew that his greatest priority right now was to escape…

From the bucket of water he was in.

Without delay, he willed the wings on the back of his body to start flapping. Of course, being a human, he did not know how to flap the wings of a mosquito, which meant that his first attempt was a failure. He then continued to flap the wings on his body even more, only for him to end up failing again. Fortunately, just as he thought that he was going to die so early on in his second life, something in his mind clicked, allowing the wings on his back to flap according to his wishes.

Buzz…

Accompanied by a soft buzzing sound, the young man started to gradually fly off the body of water he was on, taking one last look at the companions around him that were soon going to die due to the footsteps he had heard. Letting out an inward sigh, he muttered, "I apologize for not being able to save you. Once I gain enough strength, I'll let your voices be heard once more."

"If I find out a way to gain strength, that is," he added, but kept this to himself as he flapped his wings faster, eventually leaving the vicinity of the bucket after half a minute or so. After that, rather than heading in a random direction, he decided to stay where he was, assessing his current surroundings as he utilized his vision to the fullest. In less than an instant, he was able to see a few crudely made houses dotting the landscape as a dirt road connected all of them. With that view, he instantly concluded that he was currently located in what seemed to be a slightly dilapidated village.

Creak…

Just as he was about to start moving this time around, he heard the sound of a door open as the footsteps he heard a while ago faintly resounded throughout the area, prompting him to focus his vision on where the footsteps came from. With a single glance, he found out that the footsteps came from a young boy that looked like he was just about to hit puberty. This exact young boy did not hesitate to move to where the bucket of water was before lifting it with a sigh of slight annoyance.

"Mother also has arms, but why does she always ask me to do it instead of her?" the young boy grumbled as he then flipped the bucket over, pouring the contents of the bucket all over the ground. After tapping the end of the bucket a few times to shake off the remaining contents, he then placed the bucket down where it previously was before heading back into the house where he lived in.

The young mosquito, who looked at this incident from afar, watched it all happen with indifference, only for a tinge of slight anger to emerge from him. But just as he felt that anger, it hastily subsided as he muttered to himself, "In my current state, I wouldn't be able to inflict any harm to that young boy. Of course, I could try and infect the young boy with diseases, but I'm pretty sure that his immune system would easily cure it…unless I grabbed some incredibly deadly disease."

"Anyways, was he wearing a robe?" he shifted his thoughts to the appearance of the young boy, mulling over the reason why the young boy was wearing a robe. It did not take long for him to form a few hypotheses, but as he did not have enough evidence to back all of it, he decided to keep it to himself for now.

After placing those hypotheses at the back of his head, he then started to head towards a certain direction with his measly mosquito body as he felt the pangs of hunger ravaging his body. Although the pangs of hunger were not that strong, it still gave him an uncomfortable feeling, prompting him to head in a random direction to find something to eat.

Just as he thought about eating to satiate his hunger, he started to think out loud, saying to himself, "The common food for a mosquito is blood, right?"

"Other than humans, animals also have blood in their bodies. Since this is a village, then that means there should be a small farm for animals, right?"

"Well, I guess that's where I'll head for now."

"…"

"Now that I think about it, where would that farm be?"