A heavy fog hung over the ground, making the air unusually humid. The trees here were thick and twisted, with roots quite high up, intertwining with parts of neighboring plants.

  This interweaving created a rather unsettling scene, resembling the petrification of hundreds of gnarled snakes in the midst of a battle.

  The area was mostly composed of a rather murky, tea-colored liquid, but here and there, muddy and dry patches could also be seen.

  Among these enormous trees, in the center of a small pond, stood a smaller one, with a rather peculiar appearance. It was quite smooth and beige in color. It had two symmetrical branches, and where they met, a smaller… twig. Even though this tree-like object had appeared only seconds ago, two larger branches began to move vigorously.

  ***

  Orion was momentarily frozen by the sight he had witnessed just two minutes earlier as he emerged from the tent. He only reacted when he felt something trying to enter his nose and mouth. Kicking his legs, he realized he was partially submerged in some strange substance.

  His feet could find no support, but by contorting and pushing with his hands in panic, he finally managed to figure out which was up and which was down and get his head out from under the surface.

  As he attempted to gasp for breath, he quickly realized his airway was still blocked.

  The liquid he found himself in had a consistency similar to honey, but even more viscous. It was heavy and difficult to get rid of. Only by putting his fingers in his mouth, trying to grasp it and throw it out, he finally managed to extract enough to fill his lungs with air.

  After a few deep breaths, the panic of oxygen deprivation slowly subsided, so he took a moment to clear his eyes and nose.

  As he regained his sight, he noticed he was sitting waist-deep in a small lake, though given its consistency, a more accurate description would be a putrid, sticky swamp.

  The pool of liquid was surrounded by thick roots, and the prevailing dimness made the surrounding colors rather muted. As soon as he took his first inhale through his nose, he immediately lost interest in his surroundings, as he was assaulted by retches triggered by an indescribable stench.

  This viscous liquid emanated an odor that could only be associated with rotting meat long preserved in compost.

  Making brachiosaurus sounds again, he tried to crawl out onto the bank.

  Grasping onto roots, he finally managed to reach a spot where the disgusting substance reached his knees, but its stickiness still made his steps significantly difficult. It didn’t help that each breath ended in another spasm.

  It took him a moment to reach dry ground, and as soon as he felt solid ground beneath his feet, he hurried away from the pond, passing or going under the roots. Only after a few minutes did the smell cease to be so overwhelming.

  Orion rolled onto his back and, using his arms, legs, and the ground itself, tried to wipe away the remaining liquid clinging to his body.

  After cleaning up a bit, he moved away from the stinking remains. Only now could he allow himself to think.

  He didn’t dwell on his situation, however. The afterimage of hundreds of corpses flashed through his mind, and his stomach threatened to refuse to cooperate again. This time, it wasn’t the stench that caused it, but the pure panic that flooded his thoughts.

  Orion wondered if there was anyone he knew among the corpses. Perhaps family? Colleagues from work? When he saw the bodies, he couldn’t, nor had the time, to look around for familiar faces. He would have to get himself together as quickly as possible and go in search of his close ones.

  The very fact that he had truly escaped this gray world and could even look for them was slowly sinking in.

  “You actually did it…” he muttered, looking up at the sky and smiling slightly. “No worries, I’ll get you out of there somehow. I’ll find a way.”

  Without waiting any longer, he stood and focused on his surroundings.

  There were significantly fewer roots here, as the plants seemed to be vying for access to the rotting pond. Despite this, the sky was still largely obscured by leafy canopies. Orion only now noticed how enormous the trees were, easily reaching the heights of twenty-story buildings.

  Around him were a few bushes, which he noticed were unlike any he’d seen on Earth before the System’s integration. They had strange, crescent-shaped, pinkish leaves that seemed subtly luminescent.

  He stared for a moment, melancholy, enjoying the colors and the distant rustling of leaves. Here and there among the bushes, he could even see palm-sized milky fruits, the sight of which made him instantly hungry.

  “That’s something new.” he whispered.

  Although he had been subsisting on beast flesh in the universe’s quarantine, it seemed that it wasn’t his actual stomach that was receiving the nourishment, but rather his soul itself. He also noted that this time the hunger wasn’t felt throughout his entire body. It was a simple hunger, but after all this time, it felt like he was experiencing it for the first time in his life.

  If he understood correctly from the conversation with the System and the notifications displayed, it seemed that his new body was currently about five minutes old, so the feeling could very well be real.

  Orion shook off his thoughts, walked over to the bush, and plucked the fruit, but didn’t dare eat it immediately without first checking if it was edible.

  Since he’d had a strange liquid on his skin moments earlier, he spat on his forearm and wiped it to ensure the fruit would come into contact with his skin. He then tore off a piece of the fruit, revealing a juicy interior, reminiscent of dragon fruit flesh, but instead of black seeds, it had pinkish streaks.

  After extracting the contents, he rubbed it into his cleansed skin. Glancing at the glowing leaves, he decided to repeat the process and cleansed his other arm, then rubbed the picked leaf with it.

  Since he had to wait a few minutes to check for a reaction, he decided to spend the time thinking about his next destination and scanning the area.

  Although he didn’t see any movement, he knew from experience that some beasts were good at hiding, so considering the noise he’d made earlier, he decided not to lower his guard. He put down the fruit and grabbed the first stone he could use as an improvised weapon.

  “Hello, new old friend.” he said to the stone, imitating the old man’s voice for some reason. Only with the rock in his hand did he feel he had a way to defend himself. Then, he began to consider possible scenarios.

  He might have ended up here because of where he died. Since he was drowned in some isolated location, it made sense that he would be transported far from his family. However, given the terrain’s very alien appearance, one could also expect major changes to the earth itself.

  Perhaps different continents were mixed-together, or even possibly completely modified. He remembered Neru telling him about dreams of other life in his universe. If so, it was possible that the planet itself had been merged with several others, thus expanding several times in size.

  Given the lack of information, it was only speculation at this point, but it was worth keeping in mind the possibility of encountering other life forms that might be aggressive.

  After considering other possible scenarios for several minutes, he noticed that his skin, where he’d rubbed the leaf and fruit, showed no allergic reactions. So he decided to take it a step further and approached the fruit he’d set aside. Examining it, he saw that no changes had occurred, so he allowed himself a small bite.

  Upon doing so, his eyes immediately began to water. Only now did Orion remember that for the past six months, when eating the beast’s flesh, he’d only felt a disgusting consistency, and before that, for a whole year, he’d been fed an unidentified pulp.

  Now, however, he could feel the wonderful, juicy sweetness and deep aroma of this strange fruit. It was precisely the sensation he’d imagined when he’d once seen a five-hundred-dollar mango online. The taste resembled a mash of watermelon and banana, heightened in intensity, and the consistency was slightly gelatinous, but not in an unpleasant way.

  The fruit quickly dissolved in his mouth, and although he was tempted to mindlessly devour the whole thing and then go for more, he forced himself to put it down.

  He moved a few meters away to avoid temptation, then sat down and focused on his surroundings. After waiting another half hour, he was certain he felt no ill effects, so he allowed himself to devour the remaining portion.

  He still didn’t dare reach for another one, but to avoid sitting idly by, he began stripping leaves from bushes and clearing branches. Although it was relatively warm, he was still naked, and it was inappropriate to seek out close ones in such a state.

  After spending over two hours, he crafted himself a crude version of a loincloth made of twigs and leaves, something that should act as a T-shirt, a sharpened stick, and an improvised woven bag, which he filled with fruits.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Testing the strength of his handiwork and adjusting the precarious sections, he nodded and set off in the previously chosen direction. The further he walked, the clearer the sky became, and he knew something was wrong. He received the full picture after about an hour and a half of walking.

  Orion slowed, open-mouthed, staring at the sky and the landscape.

  In front of him, high, sharp mountains stretched to the horizon. But it wasn’t the ground that caught his eye. There was a huge, golden-orange planet in the sky, which gave the impression that it was about to fall and cause a catastrophe.

  Dozens of other globes were visible nearby, but these were clearly smaller, similar in size to, or slightly larger than, the moon. Looking around, he noticed that he couldn’t see any sun, the main source of light being the enormous planet. Although it wasn’t as bright as day beyond the canopy of leaves, he assumed he would see the sun, but it was apparently night.

  For a moment, he mindlessly walked, admiring the mesmerizing view, but he tore himself away and looked down at his feet, stopping immediately. He was pretty close to the edge of the cliff. Fortunately, at this point, the ground was quite dry, mostly made up of larger rocks.

  Most likely the loose mud has already fallen, he thought.

  Orion came closer, and lay down on the edge, trying to assess how high he was. It looked like he was several hundred meters above the ground, but he saw no way to safely descend. The ground beneath him was rather barren, filled with crevices, the size of which was difficult to determine from this height.

  As his gaze wandered, he noticed that as he moved away from the mountain he was on, more greenery appeared in the form of grass, bushes, and smaller trees. The cliff edge receded beneath him, causing him to back away, fearing the ground might collapse. So he decided to walk along it until he found a way out.

  As he walked, he noticed a few other things. In some places, the foul-smelling liquid fell from the cliff, forming sticky waterfalls that fell vertically to the ground below and then poured into the nearest crevices.

  Every few hundred meters, he lay down and looked for a way to descend, but he found nothing. Orion assumed that he landed on something that looked like a small mesa with a narrowing base that he couldn’t see from above.

  This assumption was fulfilled after about three hours of wandering around the edge, as he noticed that he’d reached the place where he’d already been.

  “Fuck.” he muttered.

  It seemed he had no safe way to get down, but his rounds didn’t just bring the negatives. At one point, as he looked out over the landscape, he noticed in the distance what looked like a village surrounded by palisades. Knowing the direction he could go, he kept walking and thought.

  Orion had to find a way out of that place, but other than twisting an extremely long rope from the bushes, nothing came to his mind. He stopped, however, to look at the disgusting waterfall.

  “No, you idiot, you won’t do that.” he said to himself, but his mind had already formed a way. Even though what he was planning to do only worked in a certain video game, this waterfall here wasn’t made of water. This sticky substance could actually slow him down to the point where he lands safely on the ground.

  He gulped thinking about what he had to do, but he wasn’t going to act without testing. Walking through the place, he found some downed logs. So he decided to try to find one that weighed about as much as him.

  The big, rotten logs were too heavy, but he finally found one light enough to do the job. Although the one he chose was probably much heavier than he was, he decided it would be safer this way.

  Orion lugged it to the edge and, after a few breaths, rolled it into the trough of the foul-smelling liquid. The log slowly slid downstream, and soon, poking his head over the edge, he watched silently as it slowly drifted to the ground.

  To be honest, he had some hope that it wouldn’t work, but after a few minutes or so, the log settled gently on the ground. Orion sighed and took off his makeshift clothing. In his imagination, he would stretch out his hands and keep everything clean while his body slid with the current.

  He knew it was all just a silly wish, and he probably ended up covered in stinking snot again, but he decided to try anyway. So he lay in the fluid, a few meters from the drop point, trying to breathe through his mouth.

  “Aaaahahahahh. Weeeeeeee. Blueeeergh.” a few moments later, Orion was floating slowly downstream in the fetid liquid, alternately laughing madly, enjoying the ride, and making retching noises.

  After successfully floating down, cleaning himself up and getting dressed again, he looked up and immediately opened his mouth.

  “It’s a fucking floating island…” he said to himself, his eyes wide. Thoughts ran through his head about how this piece of land could ignore gravity, what could be the source of the stinking substance, why some of this disgusting goo falls like a waterfall and some of it goes around the bottom and disappears in the center of the island, and whether there was still normal water on Earth.

  Finally, unable to get any answers, he shook his shoulders and headed for the previously spotted village.

  He estimated it would take him about half a day to get there, so after a few minutes of walking, he occupied his mind, recalling talking to the System. It wasn’t until a moment later, as he walked, that he noticed that at the edge of his gaze, there was a barely visible icon. As he focused on it, it became more clear.

  “Huh. Is this the result of this whole installation thing?” he asked the air.

  After looking at the icon and pondering over it, three glowing words appeared before his eyes.

  [Status],

  [Skills],

  [Settings].

  Orion stopped, looking at three options. He was more or less able to recognize which thought the icon was responding to, so he focused on the last option. As if on cue, the options disappeared, and a window appeared instead. Although he knew intuitively that it wasn’t a physical object, it looked like it was made of dark glass, while also blurring away what was behind it.

  The design reminded him somewhat of the dark Aero theme, but the glow generated at the edges of the screen didn’t match this. The text in the window was white, conveniently and legibly spaced. Looking around, he noticed that the window was following his gaze. Accidentally glancing back at the island, the window no longer obscured his view, and he opened his mouth once more.

  “It’s not a fucking floating island…” he gasped. Previously, when he was on its surface and looked up, his vision was blocked by the lush leafy crowns. Now he could see that the island wasn’t floating at all, but was hanging on something that looked like a giant trunk. He assumed it was part of a plant, but on longer inspection, he began to get the impression that it had a rather muddy texture.

  The trunk stretched far upward, seemingly disappearing into the sky, giving the feeling that he was looking at some divine pot. The other strange thing was that when he looked at the island just after the descent, it was definitely solid. However, as he walked past that stretch, it seemed to him that this whole object, and the falling waterfalls, were becoming slightly transparent.

  After staring for a moment, he shook his head and turned towards a distant village, then called the window again. Finally, focusing on the content, Orion noticed that he could set what notifications should appear or turn on and off something called the ‘visual personal interface’, and once activated, change its configuration.

  With the intention to accept this option, several elements appeared at the edge of his sight, which, when he looked at them, clearly conveyed what they were for.

  “I have a damn HP bar. And this? Is this… ” he murmured. Aside from the mostly filled, red bar, he noticed next to it a blue one. This one was only about five percent full. Could this be mana? He thought.

  He sat on a nearby rock and then, after a moment’s thought, his attention wandered down. At the bottom was a grayish table divided into five sections. He tried to focus on it and push it with his mind, but it didn’t respond.

  Giggling, he mumbled. “Is it skills or maybe inventory? From what the System said, I should have some skills. Should I put it there somehow?”

  Eventually, his gaze wandered up and to the right. In addition to the previous, barely visible icon, there were now two more. One was a list, the other a table.

  He already had an idea of what the table might mean, but he grimaced, remembering talking to the System. Afraid of what he might see on the status window, he decided to focus on the list first.

  The System, in his doppelg?nger’s version, explained that he would have to learn and develop compatibility on his own to gain skills. He tried again to focus on the one with the question marks, which caused a new window to appear with its name and description, which still didn’t clarify anything.

  The level was clear, but what were those letters before the name? Category? Rarity? Rating? He wondered.

  Unfortunately, no answer came crashing down on him, so he abandoned the question of skills and returned to the settings. Looking through the available options, he learned that he could move, resize, change transparency, and disable individual elements. At this point, he was almost surprised that he couldn’t change the resolution of his vision, or adjust the anti-aliasing.

  He also saw information that additional abilities would appear as he progressed. At one point, his gaze settled on one particular option. After a moment, Orion laughed and agreed to enable the additional widget.

  “Sometimes a man misses time. Well, time heals wounds, but it will take some time to get used to. It’s finally time for a time. Alright, it’s time to stop.” he chatted to himself, admiring the System clock in the bottom-right corner of his vision.

  He had been cut off from keeping track of time for so long that the sight of the clock filled him with happiness, almost making him forget all other worries. But this clock, or perhaps its format, was rather strange.

  [A 07:12 / 10]

  Honestly, if it weren’t for the ‘clock’ label in the settings, he wouldn’t be sure what he was looking at.

  Does that mean there are now ten hours in a day on Earth? What about a 24-hour format? Are there twenty hours in a full day now? Looks like he’ll have to ask someone. The System assumed people received universal information in tutorials, and he believed that clock-knowing skill was basic enough to be included.

  He was pulled from his thoughts by a strange sensation of tingling, pressure, and then something warm running down his leg. But before he could look at it, several windows quickly appeared before his eyes.

  [Skill Acquired: [R] Pain Tolerance [Level 1],

  [Skill Leveled Up: [R] Pain Tolerance [Level 3 (72%)],

  [Skill Leveled Up: [R] Pain Tolerance [Level 4 (34%)],

  …

  [Skill Leveled Up: [R] Pain Tolerance [Level 10 (100%)],

  [Congratulations. Your Skill Has Evolved]

  [Skill: [R] Pain Tolerance [Level 10(100%)] → [Skill: [E] Pain Immunity * [Level 1],

  [Skill Leveled Up: [E] Pain Immunity * [Level 2 (12%)].

  Uh, I’m gonna have to move these messages to the left. No, it doesn’t matter now. Was this the trigger-requiring skill the System was talking about? He frowned, remembering that pain was supposed to be a signal that something was wrong with the body, and turned his attention to the source of the strange sensation.

  A strange, hairless creature was biting into his leg. Its upper part resembled a yellowish, wrinkled sloth with a slightly larger jaw, but the lower part went into an abdomen, similar to that of an insect.

  The visible part of it was sticking out of a burrow whose existence he hadn’t noticed until then.

  “Uhm, can you not? I’m kinda trying to think here.” he asked the creature politely.