Chapter 3 I Don't Want To Die...
[You have arrived at your destination]
[Planet: Earth]
[Age: 4.268 Billion]
[Tier: A]
[Description: A world with millions of known species alongside millions of unknown species. It is filled with different climates, from hot to cold, an enormous amount of intelligent races, and high concentrations of mana, some areas richer than others. You cannot ascend past the Astral plane on this planet unless the conditions are met.]
I slowly began opening my eyes that immediately landed on the system notification telling me what planet I was on.
I felt unimaginable pains coursing through my body, but those pains were nothing compared to the amount of psychological and emotional pains I was going through.
After finally pushing myself off what seemed like the forest ground, I finally got a chance to look around at the area around me.
My eyes trailed off before my chin began to rise as I stared at one of the trees with an agape expression. Even though back when I was on earth, there were countless trees in the world ranging from extremely small to huge trees like the ones in the rainforests, none of them would be able to compare to the tree I was looking at.
In fact, none of the trees back on earth could compare to any of the trees I was standing in front of.
"What the..." I couldn't help but mutter those words as I retreated in fear, my hands shaking while my eyes did not waver from the tree.
After looking up at the trees for a while, I was distracted once again by the clothes I found myself wearing.
'Clothes?' I looked down and saw that I was currently wearing the clothes that I had died with, a hole with a bloody texture in the middle of my chest.
"So that's how I died" I muttered before
[Ding]
[Mission has been received]
[Trial mission: Survive for 7 days]
[Conditions: -
-All system-related abilities have been locked
-All blessings have been locked
-All affinities have been locked]
[Reward:
-1 Immortality Token
-Appraisal
-(The rest of the rewards will be given depending on your achievements and actions during the trial period. You will be graded for your performance)
I looked up at the trees, seeing their size before looking down to see a few ginormous footprints. A shudder could not help but shoot down my spine while my skin began to crawl at the thought of how bad the next few days would be if I even survive that long that is.
I could immediately conclude that I probably wasn't on Earth anymore, or at least not the Earth I've grown to know.
[Ding]
[You have received Chrono's blessing]
*Shriek*
Before I could even comprehend the notification that came up in front of me, a loud shriek derailed my thought process, forcing me to peel my eyes off the notification to look toward it.
When my eyes finally looked at the location the shriek had come from, I could not help but widen them, terror engraved deep within them with a single glance.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" A sky-piercing scream came out of my mouth as I fell back onto the muddy floor,
Using my fingers, I tried to grip the muddy ground, clawing away at it fanatically as I tried to get away.
To think a single glance at the creature would cause my legs to become dysfunctional almost immediately...
*SHRIEK*
The shriek grew louder and closer as well as the sounds of its legs piercing into the wet ground. Fear was trying to seep into me at a tremendous pace, one that I could not handle/
Before I could even move 3 meters away from my last location, its entire body had become visible to me.
A huge centipede, almost 2 meters in length and could stand 4ft high charged at me with its claw-ended maw pointed to my throat. Not only was the speed horrifying, the power it was coming at me with could be felt through the loud and powerful vibrations it caused every time one of its legs pierced into the ground.
It was only then that I felt a slight feeling within my legs, adrenaline coursing through all my veins, being pumped into every cell by my heavily thumping heart.
In the next second, my vision had turned red, and I had already turned away from the centipede, running at full speed towards one of the trees at a speed I would not believe even the fastest runners back on earth would be able to rival.
Without thinking, I grabbed a fist-sized rock nearby and catapulted it towards the centipede, yet to my dismay, the rock simply ricocheted off its rock-hard scales like a bouncy ball hitting a hard surface.
My face grew paler and paler by the second as I snatched rocks off the ground and tried my best to shoot them toward any exposed soft spots or weaknesses in its body.
I had only hit its eye once, yet not only did it not hurt it significantly, it had only angered the centipede into charging at me with more fervor.
'I don't want to die!' Was the only thought going through my head. Everything else was occurring almost on instinct as if I had awoken a beast inside of me that would do everything to survive or kill the abomination that had been running after me this whole time. Images of my family and my loved ones, all of those who I had lost to those disgusting horrible long-eared beings, flashed before my eyes.
I was on the verge of crying, however, before my panic could grow even further, a cold expression washed over my face while three words rang out in my mind, giving me everything I needed for that moment in time.
"I am not going to die." My voice echoed throughout the forest while the sound of my own voice gave me enough courage to do the most reckless thing I had ever done.
'Fight.'
'Kill...'
'Survive!'
The whispers of different voices grew louder and louder while also becoming a choir in my ears as if thousands of different individuals were telling me to fight as if millions were telling me to move, to live, and fight.
My eyes were engulfed in a crimson light while a blood-red wave shot out of my body, an illusory visage of millions of eyes looking at the centipede with instinctual rage.
The black-scaled centipede that was once running after me froze its place, the fervor it once had extinguished from its eyes like an unprotected ember in the stormy winter.
Unbeknownst to me, as the surge of crimson aura shot across the forest, every single beast, insect, or animal, in general, looked in my direction with fear. Fear that whatever had emerged in the middle of their forest would soon take over and destroy everything within its sights.
In a cave dozens of miles away from where I was sat a large figure covered in shadows, making it so anyone who would enter would on see the silhouette of the terrifying being that they had just come to face.
The sleeping figure slowly opened its eyes before a membrane-covered eyeball slid to the sides of the eyes, leaving their verticle slits for pupils visible for the world to see. Its wings unfolded and spread themselves wide while Its piercing red eyes darted in a certain direction as it got up.
Once it left its cave, it was finally able to get a better view of the red aura washing over the forest, as well as a red beam of lighting shooting towards the skies, enveloping everything in a crimson hue...
'That thing... for something so weak to have such a powerful killing intent...' The figure narrowed its eyes and its legs began to shake violently. This was no longer a difference in strength, but a difference in class.
In the other corner of the forest stood a monkey with fiery red fur. Its eyes pierced through the forest before they finally narrowed down after they landed upon the figure in the middle of the crimson spire.
"Father, is something that matter?" A smaller red monkey asked while dropping to the ground and kneeling towards the other.
"Yes my child. It seems like there is a new candidate. One that can reap the crown for himself."
Back where I was, I found myself standing in the middle of the forest with sweat dripping down the drenched clothes that I had on.
Eventually, I collapsed onto one knee because it was only then that I felt the exhaustion of whatever I had done seep into my body, almost knocking me unconscious. something I tried to fight with all my power to the end.
Yet, even after trying so hard, I could feel my consciousness slip out of my mind, sinking me into the darkness of the abyss.
***
When I opened my eyes once again, I quickly scanned my body but was surprised after seeing that I was not injured in the least.
By the time I had woken up, there was not a single scratch on my body.
Images and scenes of the invasion and the deaths of those I loved most flashed before my eyes at unbelievable speed and frequency, but even after feeling the desire to cry my head out, I simply shut my eyes and shook my head, as if trying to shake those memories and thoughts out of my head.
'I need to get out of here... From what I knew, there is no way that this place was about to stay dormant or peaceful for long. Even though I knew that I should have thrown all my previous knowledge about the world out of the window, I still chose to use that knowledge just in case I was wrong.
Better safe than sorry.
Getting off the ground with my newly invigorated body, I swiftly began traversing the forest with huge trees and animals that were many times bigger than their earth counterparts.
'Wasn't this supposed to be earth?' I inwardly cried
At the same time, I used a walking technique that I had learned back I was on Earth that would allow me to traverse places like forests or jungles by landing on the side of my foot first before slowly beginning the rest of my foot onto the ground to minimize the sounds of crunching or twigs breaking. I had already mastered it to a certain extent to the point I could jog while using it.
My speed while jogging wasn't spectacular, but it would do for now. However, I do have to note that even though it could be considered jogging, I was still moving at a slower speed than the average jogger due to me having to use the walking stealth technique at the same time.
After traversing around 50 to 100 meters, I finally heard the sound of rustling as a small yet extremely quick figure moved towards where I was laying barely a minute ago.
'I was lucky…' I could not help but feel a tinge of cold sweat forming at the back of my neck as I tried to move even faster, away from where I last laid.
After around 5 minutes of jogging away silently, I finally heard another sound that echoed throughout the silent forest, a sound that had immediately sent a shiver through my spine the moment I heard it.
'Crap' my eyes shook and my heart dropped as I finally realized where the sound had come from.
Looking down, I looked at the foot I had landed on just to see a twig that had broken into two.
While this might not have meant much back on earth, everything on this planet was much stronger, larger, and more powerful than their earth counterparts. While before, a bat might have been able to locate everything within 30-60 meters with their echolocation, a bat in this world would probably be able to double if not triple that number.
*SCREECH*
*SQUEAK*
*ROAR*
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