Varun POV

  Over the past few months, Varun had realized he had a lot in common with a certain lasagna-loving orange cat; Mondays were the worst. After staying out for a late-night screening of Oppenheimer, he was in no mood for the dreaded Monday morning check-in.

  Suppressing a yawn, he stole a glance at Aditi sitting opposite him, who was losing the same battle—not that it mattered anyway; she never got in trouble. Rohan, their manager, droned on and on about ‘dashboard design consistency’, as if the fate of the company depended on the right shade of grey.

  “Varun, I expect you to follow the template to the letter.” The words snapped him out of his musings.

  Rohan was wearing a light purple shirt, which likely had to undergo five different crease checks before he left for the office. He expected the same attention to detail from his team, with Varun often catching flak for minor oversights.

  “Sure, I’ll check the colors again. But I see you’ve reduced the recommended pricing. Shouldn’t we try to optimize for margins?” Varun asked. He was more than a little miffed that Rohan had changed his recommendations with no discussion.

  “The original recommendation didn’t account for the actual business context, so we felt it was better to present a more realistic number to the client. It shouldn’t just be about optimization,” Sid said, supporting Rohan.

  The AC hummed overhead, the conference room lights adding their own steady buzz to the silence. Varun glanced at Sid, who sat upright, hands folded, eyes locked on the manager across the table. It was strange. They used to spend hours mocking office meetings like this back in college, when Sid was all caffeine and chaos, rattling off jokes and theories like a kid on a sugar rush.

  But this Sid? The one who chose his words as if each syllable cost him. His voice was calm, almost rehearsed, and his eyes flicked toward the manager mid-sentence, like checking for permission to keep going.

  The only times he saw the old Sid break through were during those off-the-clock moments, when the manager wasn’t hovering and Aditi was nearby. Sid would crack a grin, throw out a silly comment, maybe attempt a pun. She’d roll her eyes. Varun would laugh. It felt like college again.

  He had spotted Sid at the screening last night. How was Sid sitting here like sleep was optional, while he was fighting yawns?

  “We could also show two recommendations,” Varun said, but the rest of his sentence broke off as if the world were shattering.

  Varun’s stomach dropped. He tried to scream, but no sound came out, only a cold, suffocating silence. His body felt like it was being stretched and compressed, forced through a tunnel of nothingness. Fear surged through him, raw and paralyzing. He did not know what was happening.

  The smell hit first; rich, wet earth like the first monsoon rain, spoiled by the sharp odor of bile. Varun rolled over, gagged hard, and forced himself upright, swaying like a drunk. His eyes widened at the sight before him.

  Trees, massive ones, with trunks wider than his arm span and peaks obscured by a thin mist. The ground was soft with moss and leaf litter. There was no conference room, no office, no Bangalore traffic - only towering trees, each one spaced with uncanny regularity.

  Aditi crouched by Sid, shaking him awake, panic etched across her face. Rohan sat on the ground, clutching his laptop bag as if it were a life jacket, his eyes darting everywhere.

  Varun shifted his feet unsteadily, one hand on a nearby trunk. His head throbbed with every heartbeat. “Where… where are we?” The question slipped out, barely above the rustle of leaves.

  No one responded. Rohan glanced at him, then turned away, eyes flicking through the trees with quick, panicked movements. Aditi’s lips parted as if to speak, but no words came.

  A low groan broke the silence. Sid rolled onto his side, face twisted in pain, one hand clutching his ribs as he pushed himself upright.

  “This… this is not real, right?” Aditi pulled out her phone, hands trembling.

  Varun checked his phone. Icons loaded. Battery full. No bars. He tipped the screen toward the others. “I’m not getting any signal. You?”

  “Nothing. Dead zone.” Aditi dimmed her screen and slid the phone away.

  Rohan patted his pockets, then stilled. “I… I left my phone in the conference room.”

  “Someone’s there,” Aditi’s voice cracked as she pointed through the trees. She was scanning the area when she saw the distant silhouettes. She began shouting and waving her arms, trying to get their attention.

  Varun saw the other group wearing formal clothing. It seemed highly likely that their colleagues had suffered the same fate as they had. Hope it’s someone decent, he told himself. I have no patience for those arrogant managers.

  Aditi’s antics paid off as the other group noticed them and began moving in their direction.

  “Can you walk?” Varun crouched beside Sid, he looked rough.

  “Let’s just wait here.” Rohan stepped in, looking at Sid with a gentle smile on his face.

  “Ah, shit, it’s Mahesh and his cronies.” Varun’s shoulders tensed.

  Every office had a guy who rose through connections. Mahesh was that guy. The CEO’s distant relative with an MBA from some pay-to-pass school abroad, after cracking none of the good ones at home. His greatest strength? A rock-solid confidence in abilities he did not have. Most days, his team existed just to clean up after him. Two of his teammates followed behind him; not so much colleagues, more Crabbe and Goyle with LinkedIn profiles.

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  “Rohan!” Mahesh strode toward him, relief and panic tangled in his voice. “What the hell’s happening? One minute we’re in the office, the next we’re in…” He gestured at the endless stretch of trees. “Here!”

  Mahesh looked disheveled; he had likely retched, evidenced by the sour smell on his breath. His mannerisms were tense and erratic, as if control was slipping through his fingers.

  “We’re just as clueless as you.” Rohan kept his tone even.

  “Clueless? You don’t look clueless.” Mahesh grabbed Rohan’s collar, eyes wide, hands shaking. “You know something, don’t you?”

  “Stop.” Sid pulled at his arm, voice trembling. “Let’s all calm down.”

  “I am calm.” Mahesh’s voice cracked. His grip loosened, and he stepped back, hands still shaking.

  Varun stepped between them. “Like hell you are. You want to fight?” He squared his shoulders and lifted his chin, eyes moving across Mahesh and his underlings.

  Mahesh held his glare a moment longer, jaw tight. Then he ripped his gaze away, shoulders stiff. “Fine,” he muttered. “Standing around here is pointless.”

  “We’re probably not alone here. Let’s look for other people,” Sid said as he spread his arms wide. “Can we pick a direction and just walk?” he asked, turning to look at Rohan.

  “Where should we go? North? East? I don’t see any paths here.” asked Aditi, also turning to Rohan for guidance

  “Let’s just pick one at random and start walking. Also, let’s mark the trees along the way; it’ll help us avoid walking around in circles,” Rohan said, picking up a sharp stone and carving an X-mark onto the moss on a nearby tree trunk.

  “Okay, let’s go that way. Varun, make sure you’re marking the trees along our path,” Mahesh said, pointing toward the direction they had come from earlier.

  He wants to take charge now, huh? Despite almost losing it, he doesn’t want to give up the initiative. Varun nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

  The trees seemed to stretch forever. Fog curled between trunks, muting sound. It felt designed, deliberate, like the set of a game. Varun’s mind felt slow, like it was buffering reality. This is like an isekai setup. No, that’s ridiculous. He brushed the thought aside, yet the words slipped out under his breath: “System… status… stats…”

  Mahesh turned toward Varun, irritation edging his voice. “What are you mumbling?”

  Varun kept his thoughts to himself. “It’s nothing.” He averted his gaze, choosing silence over another argument.

  A sharp scream broke the silence, and the group snapped to their right.

  “Run, run!”

  Three figures were sprinting toward them as if chased by something unseen. Two girls led the way, and behind them, a man followed, casting regular glances over his shoulder. They closed the distance faster than expected, and Varun saw what was pursuing them—a brown boar with a metallic sheen to its fur.

  The boar’s amber eyes flared, and it shot forward like a bullet, faster than any animal had a right to move, nearly impaling the man through his thighs. Fortunately, he pivoted at the last moment, escaping with a painful graze instead of a crippling wound. The boar skidded to a halt, momentarily confused by the larger crowd before fixing its gaze on a new target, Rohan.

  “Move!” Mahesh thrust his arm forward. One of his underlings bolted instantly, while the other froze. Mahesh hesitated, torn between fight and flight, then ducked behind a trunk.

  The boar charged at Rohan. Rather than turning tail and exposing his back, Rohan dodged at the last second, matador-style, and landed near Varun. The boar stopped effortlessly and turned again, eyes locked on Rohan. Its eyes shone amber again; Varun’s gut told him it was about to charge again.

  “Look out!” Varun yanked Rohan in as the boar lunged. It blurred forward again, missed, and slammed into a tree, wedging between the trunk and a boulder.

  “Thanks.” Rohan steadied himself.

  “Let’s go before it gets loose.” Aditi ran towards Sid as Mahesh appeared from behind the tree with a pointed stick.

  Sid scanned the surroundings for something he could use to hurt the boar. “Kill it before it gets free!”

  Aditi grabbed a fallen branch. Her hands shook, and it slipped from her grip. “We do not have to kill it. We can leave.”

  Mahesh stabbed the boar with a pointed stick. “It’s going to chase us again!”

  The boar shrieked, but its metallic-like fur deflected the blows, preventing him from piercing its hide.

  Sid moved fast, adrenaline overriding hesitation. He clambered up the boulder, pointing to a smaller rock perched precariously on top. “Help me push this!”

  Rohan joined him. “Spear!” he called out, gesturing for Mahesh to hand it over. He wedged the blunt end beneath the moss-covered rock, the wood creaking as they leaned into it. Inch by inch, the heavy stone shifted.

  Below, the trapped boar thrashed violently, kicking one foreleg against the tree for leverage, trying to get itself out of its predicament.

  Sid met Varun’s eye, jaw tight. “Now!” The rock slipped and fell, crashing down on the boar’s skull with a sickening crunch.

  Rohan’s hands shook, and he knelt, staring at the lifeless boar.

  Sid slid down from the boulder, staring at his trembling hands. “God. Oh God.” He doubled over, dry-heaving into the moss.

  Aditi backed away, eyes wide, whispering, “This is insane. This isn’t real. It can’t be real.”

  Even Mahesh was silent, his jaw tight, fists clenched so hard his knuckles whitened.

  A soft glow drew all eyes to the boar’s corpse. A small, translucent crystal materialized above the boar’s corpse, swirling before settling to the ground.

  “What… the hell is that?” Aditi whispered.

  Nobody moved for a long moment. Even Mahesh, usually loud, stayed quiet.

  Varun crouched, hesitating before picking it up. The crystal felt warm against his skin, a soft hum pulsing from within, as though something stirred inside.

  For a second, he thought he was having a stroke. Ghostly letters and numbers flickered in the air in front of him, overlaying his vision like an AR display:

  [STATUS UNLOCKED]

  [Skill Crystal Detected—Compatible Skill: Dash (Common)]

  [Would you like to absorb? Y/N]

  Name: Varun Sharma

  Race: Human (Tier 0)

  …

  …

  …

  The crystal brightened and then dissolved into motes of light.

  His breath caught. “Oh… shit.” He stumbled back and blinked until the floating text winked out, leaving the air blank between them.

  Rohan’s face stayed pale. “You okay?”

  Varun looked around. “Did you… see that? In the air?”

  They glanced at one another, then at him, waiting for an answer he could not give. As his breath slowed and he found his footing, he realized what silence meant—that no one else had seen anything.