Rise of the Demon King: Caleb Gonzales's Rat Race

Caleb scurried across the forest floor as he tried to escape his pursuers. He tripped over a root and rolled across the ground. Leaves flew into the air. When he finally stopped rolling, he laid on the ground, still dizzy from his tumble. He quickly regained his bearings and ducked into a hole. The moment he did so, a wolf burst into view, snarling, and he almost squeaked. It sniffed and scanned its surroundings for its prey.

Fortunately, the only good thing about his body was that it was small enough to hide in places where the wolf couldn't reach. As he watched the wolf search frantically for him, he cursed everything and everyone for his predicament. Most of all, he blamed the system that had brought him to this place and turned him into a demon rat, of all things.

Hours earlier, Caleb groaned as he regained awareness. The last thing he remembered was playing a video game before falling asleep at the keyboard. Normally, this wouldn't set off alarm bells since it was something he did quite often, much to his relatives' vexation. Strangely, he didn't hear them nagging at him for wasting electricity, which should have been the first sign something was off.

Blinking away his sleepiness, he quickly realized that he didn't recognize where he was. This was certainly not his relatives' house. In fact, he was clearly outside. He thought that he might be dreaming, as he almost never went outside. However, there was no denying the bright sunlight shining down on him and the leaves falling from the trees onto him.

Scrambling to stand up, he found his limbs wouldn't listen to him. Frantic, he looked down and saw with horror that he no longer had a human body. No, he had an animal body, if the paws in front of him were really his. Hoping he was wrong, he tried to flex his fingers, only to see the paw in front of him wiggle. He almost fainted at the sight as his body swayed.

He had to calm down. This wasn't the time to faint. He needed to assess the situation and determine what happened to him. Of course, he already had an idea of what was going on. This was the generic plot of a w******l where someone transmigrated into the last game they played. It was such a common plot that he could probably name at least a dozen off the top of his head.

There was only one issue. Why was he an animal? Normally, wouldn't he be the hero in this situation? There were plenty of webnovels where the protagonist woke up or arrived in the new world as the savior. At the very least, he should have transmigrated as a human if they weren't going to make him the hero. It made no sense to transmigrate him as a random animal. That was basically telling him to just die.

As Caleb observed his surroundings, he knew he shouldn't have answered the message. When Caleb had first seen the popup about an unread message in his inbox, he had thought it was spam. It was a reasonable assumption to make since he didn't know anyone who would want to message him. He wasn't ashamed to admit he was a friendless loser who preferred to stay indoors and play video games.

Of course, curiosity got the better of him, and he opened the message to see what it was about. What he hadn't expected was for it to be an invitation to beta test a game that was a spinoff of another game he had played. It had been a real shock, and he thought for sure it was fake or a scam. He should have deleted the message, but he ended up clicking the link, which sent him to another page to sign up for the beta test.

What happened afterwards was as clear as day, but it wasn't solely his fault. Who on earth expected to be transmigrated after beta testing a game? If it were that common, more people would be swept into another world. Shaking his head from those thoughts, he focused on the more important thing at hand. What did he need to do to survive? He was obviously at a disadvantage.

Not only did he wake up as an animal, he woke up as a tiny one considering how everything around him towered over him. That left very few options for what animal he could be. Based on his observations, he had a bad feeling about what he could be. He would only know for certain if he found something to see his reflection in or someone told him what he was now. Neither of those options were feasible, but there was something he wanted to confirm.

With a squeak, he said, "System."

[Error. Anomaly detected. Patching through to the administrator.]

[Connecting...]

[Greetings, new user. How may I help you?]

The first thought that crossed his mind was, what the heck was that. He wasn't blind. He clearly saw a message saying there was an error and an anomaly. That was never a good sign. Was it simply going to pretend it didn't say that? Unfortunately, it looked like the system either couldn't read his thoughts or was simply ignoring his concerns. It was already off to a great start.

"I think there's a mistake. I shouldn't be here, or at least I shouldn't be an animal," he squeaked.

[Scanning...]

[There is no error.]

He wanted to scream that it was a lie, but instead squeaked, "Check again."

[Confirming user...]

[Caleb Gonzales]

[Male]

[16 years old]

[Parents died while the user was young and was raised by relatives. Relatives view the user as a parasite and are determined to kick the user out when the user is of age.]

[The user has no friends to speak of and spends time playing video games and reading webnovels. The probability of the user living a successful life is slim.]

As he stared at the screen, he couldn't even put up an argument. Everything it said was true, no matter how painful it was to hear it being voiced by the system. If the system had all this information, then it really was no accident that he was brought here, but for what purpose? Since it clearly knew he was a loser, there was no reason to pick him. He needed to find out more. Before he could speak, the system continued.

[It has been determined that the system will bind itself to the user and guide the user in living a successful life in this new world. Please prepare yourself.]

Suddenly, Caleb was assaulted with pain. Unable to remain standing, he fell onto his side, and his body twitched. His mind was so overwhelmed by the pain that he was unable to focus on the messages that popped into view. Finally, his mind couldn't withstand the pain, and he passed out. The last thing he saw was another message from the system.

[Binding successful.]

[Enjoy your new life, user.]