The days slowly began to pass.
The perception of time in this alien forest was completely different. On Earth, days were determined by phone batteries, alarm sounds, traffic, and the rush of the city. Here, time was driven only by the terrifying game of light and darkness.
When the sky above turned pale blue and silver, Reyansh walked.
When the sky began to change into a deep purple color, he searched like a madman for some safe place to hide.
And when the entire forest drowned in pitch darkness, he did only one thing—try to stay alive until the next morning.
In just the past few days, his body had changed completely.
Now he did not feel as heavy and weak as before. Climbing trees was no longer a task for him. His hands no longer shook while catching rough and thorny branches. His fingers, as if on their own, found a strong grip.
Cellular Healing had joined the broken muscles inside his body time and again, making them far tougher than before.
Many times, he himself did not realize how fast he had climbed up a tree. Where before it took him several panting minutes to climb a tall tree, now he reached the top in just a few seconds like a monkey.
His body was molding itself according to this alien forest.
But not just his body; his brain was also changing.
Reyansh did not speak as much as before.
In fact, many times the entire day would pass and not a single word would come out of his mouth even to talk to himself. In the beginning, this felt strange, but now he had become accustomed to this silence.
Making too much noise in the forest meant—inviting death.
Slowly, his breathing had become faint on its own. While walking, his steps fell so slowly and measuredly that even the sound of snapping dry leaves did not come.
Now, without thinking, he checked the wind direction and walked opposite to it, so that his scent would not reach any predator.
And the strangest thing that was happening to him—
Now he could hear this forest.
Not just the sounds of animals, but the patterns of the forest.
Which beast comes out of its burrow at what time.
Which insects suddenly become quiet right before night falls.
A smell of rotting meat coming from which direction means that a large predator is present there.
Where birds suddenly fly from trees, which means that something heavy is walking below.
And the most important thing—when the entire forest suddenly goes into a pin-drop silence.
He had learned that this forest does not speak, but it certainly gives warnings.
On that day too, Reyansh sat on a thick branch of a very tall black tree, looking downward.
Below, by the edge of the river, some small, four-legged creatures were drinking water. There were faint white spots on their backs and they looked like deer, but there were sharp teeth in their mouths.
Before, when Reyansh was new here, he looked at them and just thought whether they were dangerous or not.
But now, he noticed other things.
Their way of walking in a herd.
Their speed. Their stopping pattern.
Which animal is drinking water first; perhaps it is the leader.
Which animal always lags behind; perhaps it is weak or sick.
Who keeps raising its head to sniff the air even while drinking water.
He was beginning to understand that every single creature in this forest is made for only one purpose—to survive.
And the other name of survival was: fear.
Reyansh descended from that branch slowly, without making any sound.
He checked the Bone Dagger tucked in his belt, gripped his wooden spear tightly, and looked around.
Today he wanted prey.
For the past two days, he had not found any big beast. He was managing on small insects and those red fruits. But now the demand of his body had increased.
Cellular Healing was working continuously. Minor scratches filled up in just a few minutes, but the price of this magical healing was—energy. Terrifying energy. If he did not eat real meat today, his body would begin to turn weak from inside.
Reyansh began to walk along the edge of the river slowly, bending his knees slightly. His eyes were continuously scanning the ground.
Footprints.
Broken small branches.
Some slight depression made in the moist soil.
Now his brain, like a tracker, automatically began to read the marks.
After going some distance, he suddenly stopped with a jerk.
He sat on his knees below and touched the soil.
The marks were fresh. Of some small and heavy beast.
But... he was getting a strange feeling. He was not alone.
Reyansh first looked at the surrounding bushes. Then slowly, without moving his head, he raised his eyes up toward the trees.
And the very next moment, his eyes narrowed..
On a thick branch right above him, a thin, long creature was hanging upside down. Its body was like a massive lizard, but its hands and legs were very long and spider-like. Its skin matched the bark of the tree with such perfection that if Reyansh had not looked up, he would have never even noticed it.
That thing was not moving at all. It was waiting for Reyansh to pass below it.
Reyansh made no sudden movement. He just backed away very slowly, inch by inch.
Just then, the eyes of that creature suddenly opened.
Poisonous yellow eyes. Completely without any emotion.
Both, a human and an alien predator, kept looking into each other's eyes in absolute silence for a few seconds. No one was blinking. Both were estimating each other's strength.
Then, that creature perhaps decided that the Bone Dagger and spear in Reyansh's hand were not worth taking a risk for.
That thing suddenly disappeared upward into the dense darkness of the trees. So fast, that Reyansh could not even see its movement properly.
Reyansh stood right there in an alert position for a few seconds.
When he became assured that the thing had gone, only then did he slowly let out a long breath.
This place will kill me one day just by giving a heart attack.
But the truth was, now he was not as scared as before.
Or perhaps, his fear had changed.
Before, he used to panic; his breath would grow short. Now his brain did not panic upon seeing danger, but rather calculated it.
That very night, Reyansh sat hidden inside a hollow part made within a very old and massive tree..
Outside, it was raining very heavily. But this rain was also not like Earth.
The color of the water droplets was pale blue. And when those droplets fell on the ground or leaves, they left a faint, magical blue glow. The entire forest in that blue light looked like a dream of another world.
Reyansh sat quietly, hugging his knees to his chest, watching that blue rain.
After a while, he suddenly closed his eyes and tried to remember.
Earth.
His own room.
What did his phone look like?
Internet. What had he scrolled last on Instagram?
But as soon as he tried to focus on those things, his brain went completely blank.
He sat just like that for a few seconds. He felt perhaps he was tired. He put pressure again.
What was the color of the walls of his room? What was the wallpaper of his PC? Which song had he heard last on his headphones?
Nothing came to memory. Not even a blurry picture.
Reyansh's heart slowly began to grow heavy. A strange anxiety began to rise in his chest.
No, he closed his eyes even more tightly. How can this happen.
He put more pressure on his brain.
But the more he tried to remember, the more all of it felt blurry and distant.
He remembered Aarav's laughing face. He remembered his mother's crying voice. He remembered that panicked face of his uncle.
But the remaining things—those tiny things that make up a human's life—all of it was beginning to disappear.
Internet. Games. Memes. Matters of school and college. The faces of friends.
Everything felt as if it was someone else's life, or the story of some film that he had seen many years ago.
His breath became a bit heavy.
And just then, sitting in the hollow trunk of that tree, he realized a very terrifying reality—
This alien forest does not change just a human's body; it is also reprogramming his brain. It is erasing old memories non-essential for survival one by one.
Reyansh sat silent in that darkness for a long time. A strange emptiness had filled inside him.
About an hour later, the rain stopped slowly.
Then suddenly—
Reyansh's ears pricked up. His emptiness disappeared in a moment and survival instinct took over again.
A slight rustle had occurred in the bushes below.
Reyansh became alert immediately. He peeked downward from his shelter very slowly.
A small, four-legged beast was roaming on the ground.
Its body was like a wild boar, but iron-like tough, sharp thorns had come out on its back. It was sniffing the blue rain water from the ground.
Reyansh became completely quiet.
Now his body reacted completely on auto-pilot, without thinking.
He raised his spear slowly.
He felt the wind. The wind was coming toward him, meaning that beast would not be able to catch Reyansh's scent.
Reyansh descended below, sticking to the tree trunk without making any sound.
There was no hesitation now in his movement. Every step was completely measured and perfect.
That thorny beast was still busy sniffing the ground.
Reyansh had reached right behind it. The distance was only five feet.
For a few seconds, he just looked at that creature.
If this had been Reyansh's first week after coming to this world, in such a situation his heart would have been pounding like crazy.
His hands would have been shaking. He would have been panicking that this animal might turn around and attack him.
But today.
Nothing.
No fear. No anxiety.
Only a cold, calculated focus.
Reyansh pulled his spear back.
And putting the strength of his entire body, he struck it straight at the base of that beast's neck.
Splat!
The spear went straight through from one side of the ground to the other, piercing the thick neck of that creature.
That animal fell on the ground with a terrifying scream. It thrashed its legs for a few seconds, kicked up soil, and then became quiet forever.
Reyansh stood right there, looking at that corpse while holding the spear.
His breathing was completely normal. His heartbeat was completely calm.
And just then, he realized.
He had just taken the life of a living creature, and he did not feel even a bit of guilt or panic. He was just feeling that today's food is found.
Reyansh sat on the ground slowly. He looked at that dead beast, and then at both his hands smeared with blood.
I have truly become an animal, he said to himself.
He took out his Bone Dagger and began to chew the beast's meat raw after cutting it. Now he was not particularly affected by that taste.
As soon as he ate that meat, the system's voice echoed:
Repeated organism consumption detected.
Diminishing Returns Active. Mutation gain efficiency heavily reduced.
Reyansh's brows furrowed. The morsel stopped right in his throat.
He immediately opened his hologram screen.
BODY MUTATION: 9.2
NEURAL MUTATION: 0
SENSORY MUTATION: 1.3
ADAPTIVE MUTATION: 5.4
GENETIC MUTATION: 0
A new, red-colored line was shining below:
Warning: Repeated consumption of the same species or low-grade organisms reduces mutation gain exponentially. To achieve higher evolution, host must consume diverse and higher-tier biological matter.
Reyansh kept reading that screen without blinking for a few seconds.
Then slowly, his eyes narrowed.
Meaning.
He looked toward the corpse of that weak beast lying on the ground.
If I have to become strong in this world, if I have to evolve...
He clenched his fist tightly.
...then I cannot stay alive just by hunting these small and medium animals. I will have to kill different, and more dangerous things.
This forest suddenly began to feel even bigger for him than before. And many times more dangerous too.
The system was not giving him permission to stay alive by hiding. It was pushing him into the mouth of death.
But this time, there was no expression of backing away in Reyansh's eyes.
There was now only the hunger of a predator in his eyes.