The silence was the first thing. Not the hushed calm of a sleeping city, nor the ringing void left by the train's vanished roar. This was a silence that pressed in, thick and ancient, unbroken by human sound. It was the silence of deep earth, of forgotten ages. And it was absolute.
Kai gasped, a ragged, involuntary intake of breath that burned in his lungs. His body felt like a crumpled paper doll, tossed and discarded. Every muscle screamed in protest, a dull ache throbbing behind his eyes. He lay on something soft, yet oddly coarse. Earth? Moss? He couldn't tell. His mind, still reeling from the impossible, disorienting pull, struggled to piece together where he was. The last thing he remembered was the blinding, swirling vortex, the gut-wrenching sensation of being stretched thin, then… nothing. Utter, profound oblivion.
He pushed himself up, his limbs feeling like lead. A grunt escaped his lips as a sharp pain lanced through his side. He opened his eyes, slowly, cautiously, half-expecting to see the familiar, grimy ceiling of his Mumbai apartment, or perhaps the worried face of his mother.
Instead, he saw green.
Not the pale, dust-laden green of roadside trees in Bandra, nor the cultivated, manicured hues of a city park. This was a vibrant, aggressive green, almost luminous in its intensity, a colour that seemed to pulse with an inner life. Towering trees, their trunks impossibly wide and gnarled, stretched towards a sky he didn't recognise. Their leaves, larger than any he had ever seen, formed a dense canopy overhead, filtering the sunlight into shifting patterns of gold and emerald. It wasn't a Mumbai morning. It wasn't even Earth.
Panic, cold and visceral, clawed its way up his throat. He scrambled backwards, pressing himself against the rough bark of a colossal tree trunk. His breath hitched, rapid and shallow. His mind raced, desperate for a rational explanation. A dream? A hallucination brought on by exhaustion? No, the pain in his side was too real, the earthy scent too distinct, the chill in the air too sharp.
The forest was alive, but with an alien vibrancy. Strange, oversized flowers, with petals like polished gemstone and stamens that glowed faintly, dotted the undergrowth. Vines as thick as his arm snaked up tree trunks, adorned with berries of electric blue and vivid scarlet – colours that screamed both beauty and danger. The ground beneath him was a riot of mosses, fungi Kai had never encountered, and roots that writhed like slumbering serpents.
And the sounds. Beyond the oppressive silence, there were sounds. The rustle of unseen creatures in the dense foliage. A high-pitched, almost musical chirping from overhead, followed by a deeper, guttural croak that made the hairs on his arms stand on end. The air itself felt different – clean, crisp, with a subtle, earthy tang, yet also carrying an unfamiliar, almost metallic sweetness he couldn't place. He inhaled deeply, feeling his lungs expand with an ease he hadn't known in the polluted city.
He reached down, his fingers brushing against the moss beneath him. It felt strangely spongy, cool and damp. He picked up a handful of soil. It was dark, rich, teeming with unseen life. This wasn't some remote corner of India he had stumbled into. This was… entirely alien.
"No, no, no," he muttered, the words feeling foreign on his own tongue. He pinched himself, hard. A jolt of pain. He slapped his cheeks. Nothing changed. The vibrant, impossible forest remained.
His backpack. Where was his backpack? He frantically patted himself down. It was gone. His phone, his wallet, his apartment keys, his escape fantasy novel – all vanished. He was truly, utterly alone, with nothing but the clothes on his back: his faded office shirt and trousers, now rumpled and dirt-stained.
He tried to stand, bracing himself against the tree. His legs trembled, but held. The pain in his side sharpened, and he cautiously felt around. His shirt was torn, and beneath it, a long, angry red bruise was forming. No blood, thankfully, but it was tender to the touch. He must have hit something hard when the train lurched. Or when… whatever happened, happened.
He took a shaky step, then another. The ground was uneven, roots forming treacherous obstacles. He stumbled, catching himself before he fell. He needed to move, to find shelter, to understand. But where to go? Every direction looked the same – endless, vibrant, and utterly terrifying forest.
He forced himself to breathe, to think. What would the hero in his novels do? They wouldn't panic. They would assess the situation.
Okay, Kai. You're not in Mumbai anymore. This is… different. Very different.
He looked up at the sky. It was a clear, brilliant azure, but the sun, or whatever celestial body hung there, was far larger, casting a brighter, almost piercing light. It also seemed to have a faint, almost imperceptible ring of colours around it, like a prism scattering light. Or maybe that was just his eyes playing tricks on him.
He turned slowly, taking in his surroundings again. He was in a small clearing, surrounded by those gargantuan trees. The undergrowth was dense, but not impassable. He needed a plan.
Survival instincts, honed by years of navigating Mumbai's merciless public transport and office politics, kicked in. First, water. He felt a parching thirst. Second, shelter. Third,… what? Food? Danger?
As he deliberated, staring blankly at a particularly bulbous, glowing mushroom, it happened again. The air in front of him shimmered. Not a distortion of the light, but a sudden, almost imperceptible shift. Like a ripple in glass. And then, it solidified.
A transparent screen, shimmering with a faint, ethereal glow, materialized directly in his line of sight. It wasn't projected onto anything; it simply was. It hovered about arm's length away, slightly above his eye level, like an invisible tablet.
Kai stared, his jaw dropping. His breath caught in his throat. This… this was impossible. Yet, here it was. Just like in the novels.
He instinctively reached out a hand. His fingers passed through the screen, as if it were pure light. He tried again, tentatively, moving his hand back and forth. No resistance. Yet, the display remained perfectly stable, perfectly legible.
Text, in a clean, elegant script he instinctively understood, began to scroll across the shimmering surface. It wasn't English, or Hindi, or any language he knew, yet his mind processed it as if it were his native tongue.
[SYSTEM STATUS]
HOST DETECTED: Kai (Unbound)STATUS: AwakenedINTEGRATION: 100%
[BASIC ATTRIBUTES]
NAME: KaiRACE: Human (Earth Variant)AGE: 30LEVEL: 1 (Initiate)
STRENGTH: 5AGILITY: 6CONSTITUTION: 7INTELLIGENCE: 8WISDOM: 7CHARISMA: 4LUCK: ??? (Undetermined)
[PRIMARY TALENT]
UNIDENTIFIED TALENT: SSS-Rank (Dormant)
[SKILLS]
BASIC SURVIVAL: Level 1 (F)(Rudimentary knowledge of foraging, shelter building, basic first aid.)
BASIC WEAPON PROFICIENCY (UNARMED): Level 1 (F)(Minimal combat experience.)
[CURRENT OBJECTIVES]
1. SURVIVE.2. EXPLORE.3. GROW STRONGER.
[NOTE: Further System functions will unlock as Host progresses.]
Kai read, then re-read, each line. His brain struggled to process the information, trying to reconcile the fantastical with the terrifying reality. System Status.Host Detected.SSS-Rank. It was all there. Every trope from every webnovel he'd devoured late into the night. But this wasn't a story. This was his life now.
A hysterical laugh bubbled up, then died in his throat. He felt like he was losing his mind. "SSS-Rank? What is this, some kind of video game? Is this a joke?" he whispered, his voice hoarse. The screen remained impassive, static. He poked at it again, a frustrated jab. His finger still passed through.
He tried thinking. Menu? Skills? Nothing. The screen stayed on the basic attributes.
How do I… how do I even know what these numbers mean? Strength 5? Is that good? Bad? Is it like a game where I level up?
As if in response to his unspoken question, a small, subtle shimmer appeared next to the word "LEVEL: 1 (Initiate)". A faint, almost imperceptible glow. It seemed to indicate that this was his current standing. And then, a tiny, almost subliminal pulse near "GROW STRONGER" under Current Objectives.
So, I need to get stronger. How?
He paced in the small clearing, his mind racing. This was beyond anything he could have imagined. A completely new world. A System. A SSS-Rank Talent. The memory of the appraisal device shattering back in his dream-like transition flashed through his mind. Was that what it was? This 'SSS-Rank'? What did it even do? The word 'Dormant' under it offered little comfort.
He tried to calm himself. Take a deep breath. Focus.
Alright, Kai. This is your reality now. No Mumbai. No Mr. Chopra. No deadlines. Just… this.
The thought, strangely, brought a sliver of clarity amidst the chaos. The mundane, suffocating life he had yearned to escape was truly gone. This was the ultimate escape. But it came with the ultimate price: survival.
He looked at the objective again: SURVIVE.
He was parched. His throat felt like sandpaper. He glanced around. Those strange, glowing berries on the vines… were they edible? He remembered a basic survival tip: Never eat something you can't identify unless you're absolutely desperate. He wasn't absolutely desperate yet.
He needed water. A stream, a pond, anything. He tried to remember basic orienteering from a nature documentary he once watched. Look for lower ground. Listen for water sounds. He strained his ears, but only heard the alien chirps and croaks of the forest.
He decided to move in one direction, a random choice, hoping to find a change in terrain. He picked a path through the slightly less dense undergrowth, stepping carefully, eyes scanning for any signs of danger. Every snapping twig, every rustle of leaves, sent a jolt of adrenaline through him. He was no hero. He was just Kai, a thirty-year-old accountant from Mumbai, utterly out of his element.
The trees seemed to grow denser the deeper he went. The air grew cooler, and the light from the strange sun became even more filtered, creating an eerie, perpetual twilight. He noticed that some of the flora here also seemed to glow faintly, casting a soft, bioluminescent light on the forest floor, especially where the canopy was thickest. It was beautiful, in a terrifying, alien way.
He felt a sudden shift in the ground. It sloped downwards. Hope flared within him. Lower ground often meant water. He pushed forward, tripping over a gnarled root and landing with a painful thud. He winced, rubbing his bruised side. CONSTITUTION: 7. Was that why he didn't feel more broken?
He got up, determined. The air grew damper, and a faint, trickling sound reached his ears. Water! He picked up his pace, pushing through a curtain of dense, vine-like plants.
And then he saw it.
A stream. Not a wide river, but a clear, babbling brook, its water flowing over smooth, colourful pebbles. The water itself had a faint, iridescent sheen, catching the filtered light and shimmering with subtle hues of blue and silver. It looked pristine, inviting.
He knelt down, careful of the unfamiliar plants growing along the bank. He cupped his hands and brought the cool, clear water to his lips. It was sweet, cleaner than any water he'd ever tasted in Mumbai, with a refreshing coolness that seemed to wash away some of the fear and disorientation. He drank deeply, multiple times, until his thirst was quenched.
As he drank, he noticed something in the water. Small, luminous fish, no bigger than his thumb, darted between the pebbles. Their scales glowed with a soft, internal light, like tiny, living jewels. He watched them for a moment, mesmerized, a brief respite from the terror.
He sat back on his heels, feeling a slight surge of energy. SURVIVE. Check. For now.
He looked around. The stream offered some natural protection on one side. The terrain here seemed less chaotic than the clearing he'd woken in. Perhaps he could find a suitable spot nearby for a temporary shelter.
Just as he was contemplating his next move, a different sound reached him. It wasn't the chirping or croaking. This was something heavier. A rustle, closer this time, followed by a low, guttural growl that vibrated through the forest floor. It was a sound that instinctively screamed 'predator'.
Kai froze. Every nerve ending in his body screamed danger. His eyes darted around, trying to pinpoint the source. The System screen, still hovering impassively before him, seemed to mock his vulnerability. BASIC SURVIVAL: Level 1 (F). BASIC WEAPON PROFICIENCY (UNARMED): Level 1 (F). He was utterly, hopelessly outmatched.
The growl came again, closer. And then, a flash of movement in the dense foliage across the stream. Something large. Something with sharp teeth and an undeniable predatory aura. He couldn't quite make out its shape through the leaves, but he saw two pinpricks of light, glowing with an ominous, hungry red, staring directly at him.
His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat against the silence of the forest. He scrambled to his feet, a primal terror seizing him. The comfortable illusion of safety the stream had provided shattered.
This wasn't a game. There were no respawns. No cheat codes. And the only thing he knew for certain was that something in this alien, vibrant, beautiful, and utterly deadly forest wanted him.
His SSS-Rank Talent, still dormant, offered no immediate answers. His Level 1 skills were pathetic. He was just Kai, alone, a meal waiting to happen. The glow of the luminous fish in the stream, once comforting, now felt like a spotlight on his exposed position.
He had to run. But where? And from what?
The glowing red eyes moved, slowly, deliberately, parting the foliage. A low snarl rippled through the air. Kai could almost feel its breath on his skin, even across the stream. He could make out a hulking shadow, sharp claws, and a massive head. It was a beast. And it was hungry.
His mind screamed. His legs, however, were frozen. His breath hitched again, but this time, it was from raw, unadulterated fear. This was it. This was how his great escape ended. Not by a spreadsheet, but by a monster in a glowing forest.
The beast took a step forward, emerging slightly from the shadows. It was vaguely canine, but far larger than any wolf, with iridescent fur that shimmered with the forest's strange light, and teeth like jagged daggers. Its eyes glowed with an intelligent, predatory hunger.
Kai swallowed, his throat dry despite the water he'd just consumed. He had no weapon. No strength. Nothing.
The System screen, still hovering, remained on [BASIC ATTRIBUTES]. And then, for the briefest of moments, a single word flashed beneath [CURRENT OBJECTIVES]:
1. SURVIVE.2. ESCAPE.
Escape. The beast crouched, ready to spring. Kai felt a surge of adrenaline, cold and electric. His instincts, dulled by years of urban complacency, screamed for action. Run. Now.
He turned, blindly crashing through the undergrowth away from the stream, away from the glowing eyes. He didn't know where he was going, only that he had to get away. The forest was no longer beautiful; it was a green, pulsating labyrinth of death. The echoes of its alien life were now the echoes of his own fear. His journey in this new world had truly begun.