First thing's first, he was hungry.
Not the normal "I skipped lunch" kind of hungry. This was the my guts are about to eat themselves alive kind of hungry.
His body screamed for food, but his brain, at least the small rational part still working, told him searching in the dead of night was asking to die. He didn't have weapons. He didn't know what lurked here. Stumbling around with his stomach growling like a broken engine was just a way to end up as someone else's meal.
So. Priorities.
Food could wait. Shelter couldn't.
The forest was… creepy.
Not just dark, but alive. Every snap of a twig underfoot felt like a gunshot. Every rustle in the bushes felt like eyes watching.
He hated it.
After what felt like forever, he spotted a hollow at the bottom of a massive tree. The thing was a titan, bark thicker than a house's wall, but down near the roots, there was a gap like nature had carved him a hiding spot.
Perfect.
Well, not perfect. The inside smelled damp, like rotten leaves, but it was better than curling up in the open. He pulled together some fallen branches and shoved them against the entrance, a weak attempt at a door. It didn't really block much, but at least it made him feel safer.
And then… he just collapsed. His body said "nope," and the world went dark.
Birdsong dragged him back.
At first it was annoying, too sharp, too cheerful for how awful he felt. But then warm sunlight leaked through the cracks in the branches, stabbing at his eyes until he squinted awake.
When he crawled out, the sight hit him hard.
A perfect blue sky. Clouds drifting lazily. Air so fresh it stung his lungs in a good way.
For the first time since yesterday since whatever the hell happened to throw him here he actually smiled. Just a little.
And then his stomach growled so loud he almost laughed.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Food time."
The forest, though? Not helpful.
He searched under bushes, scraped at bark, even checked around rocks like some desperate idiot. Nothing. Just moss, dirt, and his growing frustration.
Then light.
Not sunlight. Something else.
He froze. Ahead, a smaller tree stood out. On its branches, fruit glowed faintly, like little lanterns in the morning haze.
Glowing fruit.
It looked suspicious as hell.
But his stomach didn't care. His stomach just screamed eat it, eat it now.
He grabbed one, stared at it in his hand. The glow pulsed faintly, almost alive.
"…This is either my breakfast, or my last meal," he muttered.
He bit into it.
Bittersweet. Weird. But edible.
And more importantly… he didn't keel over. No poison, no instant death.
"…Good enough."
Restraint shattered. He stuffed his face like a starving animal, fruit juice dripping down his chin, hands moving faster than his thoughts. He ate until his stomach ballooned painfully, until he leaned back against the trunk groaning.
Finally. Full.
Next goal: people. Civilization. Anything.
He pushed himself up and started walking. His body still felt weak, but something kept him moving. Hope? Stubbornness? Who knew.
The forest eventually thinned, and he stumbled into a wide, open field. Relief bubbled in his chest.
And then the cold hit.
Instant. Brutal.
Like stepping naked into a freezer the size of the world. His breath fogged instantly, his skin prickled with needles of ice. His teeth chattered so hard his jaw ached.
"What… the… fuck…" he gasped, hugging himself.
It was no use. His legs buckled. His body hit the grass. The world went black again.
When he woke up again, he was trapped inside something sticky, surrounded by complete darkness. He couldn't see a thing, let alone figure out a way to escape. His breathing grew rapid, panic setting in as his heartbeat raced faster and faster. His vision blurred again until he heard it. His "imaginary" second heart began to beat. The moment it did, his eyes flared, glowing as bright as the sun.
Suddenly, he could see everything his veins, arteries, blood vessels, and even his cells. Then, as he tried to understand where he was, his sight pierced through the stickiness. He was inside something wooden. Looking up, he saw them the glowing fruits he had eaten earlier. He was inside that cursed tree. So those fruits hadn't been normal at all.
But how was he supposed to get out? The sticky liquid clung to him so tightly that he could barely move. His eyes slowly dimmed back to normal as panic set in. Frantically, he realized the tree was much harder on the outside than the inside. If he could move his arms and legs, maybe he could break through but the suffocating stickiness made it impossible.
Then he noticed something far worse. He was drowning. The tree wasn't just holding him it was digesting him. The liquid had already reached his lips; if he didn't move soon, he would suffocate inside.
The moment his entire head, along with his body, was submerged, he started to choke and suffocate. His movements slowed, then stopped. After a while, his body fell completely still.
And then it started again. His second heart.
Unconsciously, his bloated stomach began to flatten, his frail frame swelling with new strength. Within seconds, his scrawny body bulked up, muscles tearing and repairing stronger, tendons hardening like steel. Then, just as quickly, his frame shrank back to its starved state but the change had already been carved deep into his body.
Without his will, his body began to move. His arms sliced through the liquid as if it were nothing, and with a single violent punch, he shattered the inside of the tree. The trunk split in half, and a piercing shriek echoed from it. After a few moments, silence returned. His body spilled out onto the ground, unconscious, while a small, bean sized gem rolled from the dying tree, landing beside him.
_________
Time passed before he slowly stirred awake. The first thing he saw was the gem glinting faintly on the ground. Groggily, he forced himself up and looked around. The once towering tree now lay lifeless, the surrounding area devastated.
"What happened after I blacked out?" he muttered. Then, like a floodgate bursting, the memories returned.
"Yes, that's right… I was almost killed by this thing."
The fruits he had eaten weren't normal. They created illusions so vivid they felt real. If not for his second heart…
"Oh, that's right," he realized. "When I transmigrated yesterday, this happened then too. I had no strength at all not even enough to stand."
Yesterday had not been an illusion. There was something undeniably special about his second heart. Without it, he might not have survived at all. With his scrawny, starving body, he had only been able to stand after his second heartbeat had rung out. Yesterday and now... it couldn't just be a coincidence.
When he had been suffocating in the tree, he had wished for strength, the strength to punch through and survive. And then, as if answering his desperation, the second heartbeat had returned, granting him that exact power.
Now that he remembered it clearly, he looked down at his stomach. The bulge was gone. His body seemed normal again. But there had to be a price. Nothing that gave strength so easily came without one.
Just like his eyes he didn't know what it had cost to gain those either, but there was most definitely a price he had paid for them too.
"Is this… some kind of boon for coming here? Then again, how did I even get this?"
*Sigh…*
Not even a full day had passed since he came here, and he still couldn't catch a break.
"For now, let's forget about it. It's time to find civilization."
He once again started to walk, but this time he actually reached the full open field.