The jungle did not wait for courage. It roared.
Mist tore apart as monsters burst from the canopy—fangs, claws, wings of shadow and fire. Each one was born of chakra, the formation itself spitting out horrors to crush them.
The others scattered in panic, blades flaring, mantras echoing. Some tried to form groups, others ran blindly.
And in the middle of it all… stood Aryan.
He tugged his black space-cloak out of his shirt, snapping it around his shoulders with a flourish that looked cooler in his head than in reality. Then he yanked out his Void Gauntlets, slipping them on with a grin that could only belong to an idiot demon about to start chaos.
He slammed his fists together, sparks crackling.
After his practice in cave of desires, he has already mastered the skill of using gauntlets to a level of perfection at least from his point of view.
"Nuh-uh, you can't catch me!" he declared, puffing out his chest like a superhero in a six-year-old's body.
System:
[Correction: You sound like Dora the Explorer taunting a demon lord.]
Meera, standing behind him, blinked. The others froze. He's… running?
Because instead of squaring up against the monsters like everyone else, Aryan turned on his heel—
And ran.
Acceleration Skill activated first Surge for the first ten seconds, everyone thought he was insane. His tiny figure darted between roots, cloak flapping behind him like a crow in a storm.
Then—
WHOOSH!
His body blurred. Reflexes sharpened. His speed surged +40%.
"What…?" gasped one candidate.
"Is he… accelerating at a pace of chakra 4 Stage 5 user and taunting those beasts by slowly accelerating and mocking them?"
Meera's eyes widened. He's baiting them. He's dragging the monsters away!
System:
[Correction: He's running like his mother just found his exam paper.]
Aryan's laughter echoed through the trees. "Catch me if you can, losers!"
Second Surge at 100 seconds, his movements fractured into afterimages. His cloak snapped like a whip, and even the beasts chasing him lost track. Their claws swiped air, snapping trees in frustration.
"His figure…" whispered another candidate.
"…he's vanishing and reappearing like Mad monkey of Shadow Monk Sect!"
Meera clenched her fists. This isn't just speed. This is mastery. He's making fools out of them.
System:
[Correction: He's just a fool making fools out of them.]
Third Surge at 1000 seconds, Aryan's acceleration stacked again—
120% speed boost.
His outline flickered like lightning, as if reality itself couldn't hold him. He zipped through the jungle like a storm given legs.
And with him… came half the monsters.
Beasts roared as they chased the "blazing comet." Their claws dug trenches. Trees fell in their stampede. Aryan, oblivious, waved behind him:
"UNO REVERSE CARD, you idiots!"
System:
[Congratulations. You've invented Monster Train Simulator.]
Aryan's "strategy" wasn't graceful. While sprinting, he punched trees with his Void Gauntlets—raw, stupid haymakers. But the gauntlets amplified his force to match a Chakra Stage 5 cultivator's brute strength.
BOOM!
A tree trunk exploded. It toppled into two beasts, crushing them flat.
BOOM!
Another fist shattered roots, tripping a shadow panther into a pit.
System:
[You're supposed to fight the monsters, not do gardening.]
Meera's jaw dropped. He's… he's using the jungle as a weapon. Turning nature itself against them. This is genius.
Aryan grinned, clueless. "See? Easy!"
In minutes, Aryan burst out of the jungle's edge—faster than anyone else. He skidded to a stop, panting, eyes glittering.
Then he frowned.
"Wait… these trees… they're filled with dense chakra. Should I… absorb them all up?"
System:
[Warning: Bad vibes detected. Whatever you're thinking—it's illegal for the environment. Don't do it.]
Aryan tapped his chin. "But I don't even have a Chakra Stage 2 manual. How will I cultivate?"
System:
[well for the first time after coming in this world, I am grateful that you don't have something that can ruin the whole Jungle into disaster.]
Then he remembered the Stage 6 cultivator—Raghava, the guy fried by lightning.
"Bingo!" Aryan smirked.
He shot back inside with Acceleration, his speed stacking even higher until he blurred like a storm current.
In a clearing, Raghava's charred corpse lay smoking. Aryan crouched, poked it with a stick.
"…crispy."
System:
[Respect for the dead = zero.]
Aryan rummaged and yanked off a space ring. Sliding his hand inside, his eyes widened.
Glittering spirit stones. Scrolls and chakra manuals.
Chakra Stage 2. Stage 3. Stage 4. Stage 5.
But not Stage 6.
Aryan squinted. "Wait… if he didn't have a Stage 6 manual, how did he reach Stage 6? Eh… must've cheated. Well, so can I!"
He stuffed the Stage 2 level 1 manual into his cloak, whistling.
The rest? He dumped back. "Sharing is caring."
System:
[hey, are you dumb? You could have get basic knowledge from all those books so why dump them when you can just keep them?]
Aryan whisper, "well technically I am stealing, so I shouldn't steal so much that I can't return afterwards, you know how much I think for others too."
System says sarcastically:
[yeah, definitely, you are the true destiny one, One who always tells truth right?]
Aryan: "well, then, I say truth, and I am smart, that means I'm a genius!"
Meera (watching from afar): He openly admits he's a genius. He doesn't even care who hears it. Truly terrifying.
Aryan dropped the ring by the corpse, dusted his hands, and bolted toward the jungle's centre. His footsteps tore earth apart.
Around him, chaos erupted: cultivators fighting for their lives, beasts devouring the slow, screams echoing.
And Aryan?
Aryan strolled into the heart of the storm, humming, flipping open the Stage 2 manual like it was a comic book, his reading and processing speed of his brain got increased too with use of his acceleration skill.
System sighed.
[History will call you either a legend or the dumbest genius alive.]
Aryan grinned. "Why not both?"
At the very centre of the Jungle it beats with chakra so dense that air quivered.
Everyone froze feeling dense thing inside their hearts, thinking something is going to happen, and it is pretty bad.
Aryan squinted. "Well… guess it's mine now."
System:
[WAIT—]
BOOM!
His Void Gauntlet slammed into the earth.
The forest went silent. Not even the monsters dared to breathe. Then the world ruptured.
At once, the world screamed.
The Heart of the Jungle ruptured, spilling raw chakra into the air like a geyser of molten light. It wasn't flowing into him—it was being dragged, ripped, devoured. The Sanskrit inscriptions across his body blazed awake, rivers of molten gold surging from his skin as if his veins themselves had turned into scripture.
SSSSWWWIIIIIISSSHHHH!
Leaves disintegrated midair, crumbling into ash. Towering trunks shrieked as their lifeforce drained, cracking into charcoal black. Beasts howled in agony as the chakra sustaining them was torn free, sucked screaming into Aryan's body. Even the mist bled dry, unraveling like silk caught in fire.
The entire jungle bent inward toward him—five kilometers of life force collapsing into a single point.
Aryan's tiny frame stood at the eye of the storm, cloak snapping, void gauntlets glowing like dying stars. His mouth curled into a grin too wide, too reckless. "Feast mode: activated."
System:
[Correction: You're not cultivating. You're committing environmental genocide.]
The ground split open with cracks of light. The sky above dimmed, clouds swirling in a vortex as if the heavens themselves recoiled. Meera, watching from afar, staggered back, her breath ripped from her lungs. "He's not… absorbing it. He's consuming it!"
And at the center, Aryan roared—not in pain, not in fear, but in sheer, stupid triumph—as the jungle's chakra crashed into him like a tidal wave, reshaping the boy into something no one could name.