Reborn as a goat

As the sun cast a warm glow over the meadow, Yuji gazed at the floating screen before him, where a word kept blinking: [Synchronize failed] ‘Error,’ ‘Error,’ ’Error]

As Yuji shifted his gaze around, he noticed goats of various sizes scattered across the endless grassland. Some grazed contentedly, while others leaped over one another, playfully experimenting with their “pew pew” in hopes of creating a clone of themselves.

But what truly caught Yuji’s attention was a single goat with a rope tied around its neck, being pulled away by a human. The goat’s hooves dug stubbornly into the earth, resisting every tug. What made the scene bizarre wasn’t just the goat’s defiance, but the way it shouted—loud and clear—toward the open grassland, as if addressing someone far away.

“Who is smiling now? I am the chosen one—I... cough, stop pulling, cough. Wait! I am not finished!” the goat bellowed, its voice carrying across the field. It wasn’t speaking to the human, who seemed completely oblivious to the goat’s words, but rather to someone—or something—not present.

The human, veins bulging in frustration, yanked harder on the rope and delivered a sharp kick to the goat’s side. Still, the goat’s mouth didn’t stop for a second. “Old man, tell Gildir he is a loser. I have been chosen before him!” The goat shouted, its gaze fixed on a distant point, as if certain its message would reach the intended recipient.

The human, unaware of the goat’s strange declarations, continued dragging it away, grumbling about stubborn animals. The goat, meanwhile, kept shouting in that same direction, determined to have the last word, even as it was pulled farther and farther from the field.

—

“Did that goat just talk? Can goats actually talk? Am I hallucinating? How can a goat speak?” Yuji would have reacted like this if he didn’t already know that goats could talk. This was not his first encounter with a talking goat—it was far from the first. And as for why this goat could converse, he knew the answer well.

Slowly, Yuji glanced down. Instead of seeing his own hands and feet, he saw only a pair of hairy goat legs. Yes, a pair of goat legs—the reason he understood this goat.

He wasn’t born as a goat. Until yesterday, he was also a human. His full name was Miyagi Ashnoir Yuji. No, he wasn’t Japanese; his father was simply a manga lover, which explained the name. Yuji never blamed his parents for this eccentricity—he lost them both in a train accident when he was still a child. The accident happened because they weren’t wealthy enough to afford a car, a fact that always lingered at the back of his mind.

After their deaths, his grandmother took him in and raised him with quiet resilience. The year before, he graduated and started his first job at one of his country’s largest, if not the largest, companies. He still recalled the pride and joy in his grandmother’s eyes when he handed her his first paycheck—a moment that felt like a small victory against the world.

That joy proved fleeting. A trivial argument with his manager cost him his job and left him blacklisted in the industry.

When his grandmother fell ill, he couldn’t take her to the hospital because he couldn’t afford it. The shadow of his blacklisting followed him, closing doors to every new opportunity. By the time he finally secured another job, it was too late—his grandmother passed away, leaving him utterly alone.

He couldn’t control his anger and decided to take revenge on the manager’s unsatisfied wife. Everything went as planned, and he got his revenge, spending every day and night with his manager’s wife. He received a better job with a better pay cheque. But yesterday, he woke up to find himself inside a short, hairy creature—a goat.

He had been transmigrated—not as a dragon, not as the young master of a powerful clan, nor as a pathetic young master—but as a goat on a farm. At first, he thought he might be dreaming, but the scent in the air, the realistic objects around him, and various other pieces of proof confirmed that he was indeed transmigrated as a goat. Even though he had been transmigrated as a goat, he received a system. A system with a glitch.

Yesterday, when he woke up, he was greeted with a massage. ’Error,’ ‘Error,’ ’Error. No matter what he did, this was the same message the system kept showing him repeatedly.

Thinking about the system, Yuji let out a sigh. That’s okay, so what if he received a defective system? He accepted his fate. He lost everything in his previous life. There was no one alive who would care for him. Doing work 9 to 5 every day till he died, he didn’t want to live that. He doesn’t regret anything except one thing, the boobs of his boss’s wife. They were great, and there’s no shame in accepting the truth; the manager was a lucky guy.

Thinking about the system, Yuji let out a heavy sigh. It was fine—so what if he had received a defective system? He had already accepted his fate. After all, he had lost everything in his previous life. There was no one left alive who cared for him, no one waiting for him. His days had been spent grinding away at a meaningless 9-to-5 job, trudging through life until death finally claimed him. He didn’t want to live like that anymore.

Still, there was one thing he regretted—just one. The memory brought a faint smirk to his face. His boss’s wife... her boobs. They were magnificent, and there was no shame in admitting it. The truth was the truth, and Yuji wasn’t about to deny it. The manager had been a lucky guy, and Yuji couldn’t help but envy him for that small slice of perfection.

—

“You outsider, why haven’t you left yet?” An angry shout snapped Yuji out of his thoughts. Turning around, he saw a herd of yearling goats, their bodies marked with various shades of white and brown stripes. Their eyes glinted with hostility, fixed on him like predators sizing up their prey.

“Goat bullies!” Yuji thought frantically, his mind racing to find a response that might defuse the situation. But the reality was clear—he had no idea how to handle this. This was the second time he had encountered this group of goats, and the first meeting hadn’t been pleasant either.

Life as a goat was proving far harder than Yuji had anticipated. It had barely been a day since he woke up in this bizarre new body, and already the herd had rejected him outright. No matter how much he tried to reason with them, his status as an “outsider” seemed to overshadow everything else. Maybe if he moved somewhere else—found a different herd—they might accept him. But for now, that felt like an impossible dream.

Yuji sighed deeply, trying to shake off the helplessness that clung to him like a heavy blanket. What now? Would he just sit there and take their abuse? Or should he try to fight back somehow? He let out a bitter laugh at the thought. His Taekwondo lessons—his entire arsenal of past training—were utterly useless here. He couldn’t even move properly in this goat body, let alone defend himself.

Summoning what little courage he could muster, Yuji tried to reason with them, his voice steady but tinged with frustration. “Listen, I’m just trying to understand. Why am I being treated like this? What did I do wrong?”

His words hung in the air for a moment, but the cold stares from the yearlings told him all he needed to know—they weren’t interested in listening. Instead, they stepped forward as one, their hostility palpable. The leader goat—the one who had shouted first—snorted in disgust as it stomped its hooves impatiently. “You don’t know? You don’t know what you’ve done, you outsider?” Its tone dripped with venom, as though Yuji’s mere existence was an insult to nature itself.

“You should never have been here,” it continued. “You don’t belong here. You’re nothing but an abomination!”

Yuji’s gaze flicked nervously from one goat to the next. They were all eyeing him now, their movements slow but deliberate as they took small, menacing steps forward. The tension in the air was suffocating. From the back of the herd, a smaller goat snickered and turned to the leader. “What’s the delay? Why are we wasting time talking?” it sneered with cruel amusement. “Why don’t we just take care of this outsider already?”