Chapter 3: TRAINING MISSION
"Hot..."
"Did I wake up late today too...?"
Hari slowly opened his eyes, still feeling as though he had barely slept. For a moment, he expected to see the familiar ceiling of his rented room. Instead, a vast blue sky stretched above him, dominated by a massive sun that looked almost twice the size of the one he remembered from Earth.
He blinked several times.
"Where am I?"
The warmth pressing against his skin reminded him of the heat, and gradually, memories of the previous day returned. He remembered the white room, the young man in the white suit, the explanation about divine employees, and the horrifying revelation that failing his training mission would mean dying forever.
Then there was the transmigration itself.
"So I transmigrated, hmm..."
He lifted his hand and examined it closely.
"My hand is white, not the usual brown. Is it too white? Maybe it's the skin tone of Europeans. I don't have any close contact with them before."
He turned his hand over, inspecting the skin from different angles. It certainly looked different from the body he remembered. Curiosity soon overcame his initial confusion, and he began checking the rest of himself.
"Let's check my body, then... Oh, I got a six-pack!"
Hari's expression brightened.
"My junior is also big. A twenty- to twenty-five-year-old body. I like it."
He examined himself with considerable satisfaction. Whatever else had happened, his new body seemed to be a considerable improvement over his old one.
"Now let me check my face... I should find a mirror first. Anyway, where am I?"
Only then did Hari finally look around.
"What the f#@$..."
He was sitting on top of a mountain.
The peak rose several thousand feet above the surrounding land, and there was no sign of a road, a building, or another human being. As far as he could see, a vast green rainforest spread across the landscape, its thick canopy stretching toward the distant horizon. The mountain stood like an isolated island above a sea of vegetation.
Hari turned slowly, hoping to find something familiar.
There was nothing.
No apartment. No restaurant. No friendly face. No sign that anyone had ever been there.
He felt like the lone survivor in the world.
"DING."
A blue, transparent screen suddenly appeared in front of his face.
Hari flinched and stared at it. A loading button was displayed on the screen. He waited, unsure whether he needed to touch it or whether the strange system would continue on its own.
Then—
"DING."
The screen changed.
"DEMO DIVINE EMPLOYEE SYSTEM STARTING"
"TRAINING MISSION STARTING"
A new message appeared beneath the announcements.
"MISSION: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
SURVIVE AND FIND HUMAN SETTLEMENT IN 30 DAYS
MISSION REWARD: CANDIDATE'S SYSTEM WILL ACTIVATE COMPLETELY"
Hari read the mission carefully.
Survive. Find a human settlement. Thirty days.
For several seconds, he remained silent. Then the screen vanished, leaving him alone on the mountain once more.
"Devastating..."
He had expected transmigration to be exciting. Perhaps he had imagined waking up in a comfortable room, meeting helpful people, or receiving some kind of explanation about his new abilities. Instead, he had been dropped onto a mountain in the middle of an unfamiliar rainforest and given a deadline.
He had no map, no equipment, and no idea where the nearest settlement might be.
The only reasonable first step was to climb down.
Hari examined the mountain carefully. Some sections were too steep to descend safely, so he searched for a route without sheer cliffs. Eventually, he found a side that looked manageable.
He approached a suitable section, gripped a stone, and began climbing down.
At first, he moved cautiously, testing each foothold before trusting it with his weight. The ground was uneven, and a careless movement could send him tumbling down the mountain. He concentrated on keeping his balance and finding secure places for his hands and feet.
After a while, he began to get the hang of it.
His new body was much better than the one he had possessed on Earth. He could support his weight more easily, and his movements felt stronger and more controlled than he expected. Even so, climbing down a mountain was hardly a pleasant activity, especially when the descent stretched for thousands of feet.
Two hours passed.
His muscles began to ache. His throat felt dry, and hunger slowly crept into his thoughts. He looked around for something to eat or even a leaf that might hold water, but the area around him was nothing but rock and stone.
There wasn't a single leaf in sight.
Hari considered resting. His arms and legs were already becoming sore, and continuing without a break seemed foolish. But he was also aware that stopping for too long might make it difficult to get moving again.
He looked down the mountain.
There was still a long way to go.
"If I rest now, I might not be able to move my muscles again."
He swallowed, trying to ignore his thirst.
He estimated that he needed at least ten hours to reach the bottom. The thought was exhausting, but the alternative was worse.
He wanted to live.
He had already died once. He had no intention of dying again just because he had been too tired to climb down a mountain.
So Hari continued.
The hours dragged on. He focused on one foothold at a time, then the next, forcing himself to keep moving. Gradually, the effort began to consume his attention. His surroundings became blurry, and his thoughts grew sluggish. His breathing adjusted to the rhythm of his movements until each breath seemed to come naturally with every shift of his body.
His arms moved. His legs followed. He gripped stones, found footholds, and continued descending.
It was as though his body had become a machine.
One more hour passed.
Hari was now only half-conscious, concentrating on the repetitive work of climbing. His thoughts were scattered, and he barely noticed what was happening around him.
Then something strange appeared in front of him.
A thin, white, fog-like strand formed in the air.
Hari inhaled.
The strand entered his body with his breath.
At first, he was too exhausted to pay attention to it. But as he continued breathing, more strands began to form. They appeared with each breath and entered his body, gradually becoming part of his breathing rhythm.
His body began to pulsate.
The white strands seemed to spread through him, reaching every part of his body. His blood vessels, nerves, and muscles were bathed in the strange white fog as it flowed through him. Whatever it was, the process continued without requiring any conscious effort from him.
Hari remained unaware of the change.
Three hours later, his consciousness gradually cleared.
He blinked and looked around, trying to understand why he suddenly felt different. The exhaustion that had nearly overwhelmed him was gone. His muscles no longer felt sore, and his body seemed to have recovered a surprising amount of energy.
He tested his arms and legs.
They responded readily.
"How...?"
He looked down the mountain again and was astonished to discover that only thirty percent of the descent remained.
He had expected to struggle for much longer. Instead, he was already much closer to the bottom than he had calculated.
Hari resumed climbing, now with renewed strength. As he moved, he noticed another unfamiliar sensation. Something seemed to travel alongside his nerves, stimulating his muscles and helping them move.
He concentrated on the feeling.
"Is that mana? How come I can use it as part of my body? Is it because this body was created for becoming a divine employee?"
He flexed his fingers, then moved his arms and legs, trying to understand the sensation. The energy seemed connected to his movements, but he didn't know how it worked or why he could use it.
"Anyway, it is my body now. I should research after reaching somewhere safe."
That was a problem for later. Right now, reaching the bottom mattered more than understanding the strange energy inside him.
Thanks to his improved body, Hari reached the foot of the mountain a few hours earlier than he had expected.
He stood on level ground and took a moment to look back at the enormous slope he had descended. The climb had been exhausting, but at least he was no longer stranded on the peak.
Unfortunately, his thirst and hunger soon returned.
He needed water and food before he could think about travelling any farther. Hari entered the forest and began searching for anything edible.
The rainforest was dense, with unfamiliar plants growing in every direction. He couldn't assume that everything resembling food was safe to eat, so he looked for things that seemed similar to fruits he already knew.
Eventually, he found some wild strawberry-like plants and several other fruits. He ate enough to recover some energy and began considering where he should spend the night.
For the moment, he thought it would be best to stay somewhere near the mountain.
He had noticed something unusual during his descent. There had been no living animals, birds, or even insects near the mountain. The same absence seemed to extend for several kilometres around it.
That was strange.
A rainforest should have been full of life. Even if there were dangerous predators nearby, surely there would still be insects and birds. Yet the mountain's surroundings had been eerily empty.
Hari wondered whether a large predator lived around the mountain. If so, leaving the area as soon as possible might be the safest choice.
But after thinking it over, he decided to spend the night there.
He had two reasons.
The first was the complete absence of insects. Insects lived almost everywhere, and even large predators generally didn't bother eliminating them. If there were no insects for kilometres around the mountain, then perhaps the cause was not an animal at all.
Maybe the mountain itself kept other living creatures away.
The second reason was simpler: Hari had spent around ten hours climbing down the mountain and had encountered no danger. Whatever the explanation, the area had seemed safe throughout his descent.
If it wasn't a safe zone, he might already be dead.
He decided not to take unnecessary risks. He would rest there for the night, then look for water and a route toward human settlement the following morning.
The next day, Hari climbed a few hundred metres up the mountain again. From a higher position, he hoped to identify the surrounding terrain and locate a river.
He reasoned that a rainforest of this size would almost certainly contain a river or a large pond. If he could identify the valleys and depressions in the landscape, he might be able to determine where water was likely to collect.
He surveyed the area carefully.
After some time, he decided to move north.
Hari began walking, keeping the terrain in mind as he travelled. After around two hours, he heard a sound that immediately caught his attention.
Running water.
He followed the sound, moving faster as it grew clearer. A few minutes later, he found a small river flowing through the forest. The water was clear, and Hari hurried to its edge.
He crouched down and drank several mouthfuls.
The water was refreshing. He had never appreciated plain water as much as he did at that moment. After the long descent and hours of walking, it felt like one of the greatest comforts he could have found.
Once his thirst was under control, he began looking for something useful to carry water in. He found hollow tree stems that could serve as makeshift containers and collected them for the journey.
After resting for a few minutes, Hari decided to move on.
The mission was still active. He had thirty days to find a human settlement, and wasting time beside the river would not help him complete it.
He tried to think logically about where people might live.
If what God had told him was true, the civilizations that had existed before the cataclysm had already been destroyed. The survivors of the previous civilization would have had to start again from the beginning. A newer civilization would likely have developed near a reliable source of water.
Even if the survivors had retained some technology, rebuilding a civilization would take time—perhaps a few hundred years.
That meant the river offered his best chance of finding people.
If he followed its course, he might eventually reach a settlement.
With that plan in mind, Hari began walking alongside the river. He collected fruits whenever he found suitable ones, keeping an eye on his surroundings as he travelled deeper into the rainforest.
For a few hours, nothing particularly alarming happened.
Then he began hearing the sounds of crickets.
Hari stopped and listened.
The noise was unmistakable. Unlike the area around the mountain, the forest here was alive with insects.
He remembered the absence of living creatures near the peak and the strange sense of safety he had experienced there. Now he was hearing the very sounds that had been missing.
He had left the mountain's protection.
Whatever made the area around it safe no longer seemed to apply here.
Hari looked into the dense forest. The trees and undergrowth offered countless places for something to hide, and he had no idea what kinds of creatures lived in this world.
He knew he was no longer safe.
By the time evening arrived, he decided to stop travelling and make camp. Continuing through an unfamiliar rainforest in the dark would be dangerous, especially when he had no proper equipment.
He needed food, too.
Hari found a branch that he could use as a makeshift spear and managed to catch some fish from the river. He ate them raw. He didn't have the courage to build a fire in this strange new world, not knowing whether the smoke or light might attract unwanted attention.
After eating, he gathered leaves and branches and built a temporary shelter against a large boulder. It wasn't comfortable, but it offered some protection and gave him a place to rest.
Exhausted from the day's journey, Hari settled down and fell asleep.
The next morning, he felt something cold against his cheek.
He stirred, then slowly opened his eyes.
A white deer stood beside him.
Hari stared at the animal. Blue markings covered its body, giving it an appearance unlike any deer he had seen on Earth. He watched in quiet fascination as the markings shifted from blue to yellow after a few seconds.
For a moment, he forgot about the mission, the strange world, and the dangers of the rainforest.
"What a cute animal," he murmured.
He reached out a hand, intending to pat the deer.
"I need to give it a pat."
The animal remained close enough that he felt encouraged. Hari leaned toward it, moving slowly as though he were approaching a shy creature.
"Come here... come here," he coaxed gently.
His hand drew nearer to the deer's glowing head.
Then the creature opened its mouth.
Inside was a set of sharp, majestic, lion-like teeth.
The deer snapped its jaws together with a menacing sound.
"BITE, BITE."