"Fuck, this desert is endless"
A monotone, synthesized voice replied from beside him.
[Yeah, it is.]
Kenji blinked, turning his head to look at the source. It was a robot, about waist-high, shaped like a small, silver trash can with two spindly legs that somehow kept pace with him. Its single, blue optic glowed steadily.
He'd named it Robox40 because, well, it looked like a box and it was a robot. Originality wasn't his strong suit, especially not when he was dying of thirst.
"Huh? What do you mean, Robox40?"
[I mean that this desert is endless,] the robot repeated, its tone unchanging.
Kenji stopped, kicking a spray of sand. His patience, already baked thin by the sun, was starting to crack.
"Huh?"
The robot's blue light seemed to focus on him.
[We are on planet Q741. This geographical feature is known colloquially as the Endless Desert. Its name is literal.]
The words hung in the scorching air. Endless. Literal. Kenji's mind, sluggish from dehydration, slowly pieced it together. "So... I will die now?"
[Yes,] Robox40 confirmed, with all the emotional weight of a weather report.
[Probability of survival without immediate hydration and shelter is 0.001%.]
"Great," Kenji muttered, resuming his pointless trek forward. "Just great."
It had only been an hour. One hour since he'd blinked his eyes open to the blinding glare of this alien sun.
One moment, he was… somewhere on Earth. Doing what? He couldn't remember.
There was no flash of light, no truck-kun, no dramatic final monologue. Just a void, and then this. This planet, this heat, and this weirdly blunt robot who had introduced itself as a standard-issue planetary guide unit.
He'd asked it where the nearest city was. It had pointed in a random direction.
So, he'd started walking, and the robot had followed, offering unhelpful facts about sand composition and atmospheric density.
He didn't even know how he'd died back home.
Was it a car crash? A sudden illness? Did he choke on a sandwich?
The not-knowing was almost as maddening as the heat.
For hours, they walked. The sun beat down, turning his skin a painful red. His head pounded, a relentless drum matching the rhythm of his trudging feet.
Water wasn't just a desire anymore; it was a holy grail, a concept so beautiful and distant it felt like a dream. Every dune they crested revealed only more dunes, a cruel, rolling sea of sand mocking his efforts.
And then, he saw it.
At first, it was just a flicker of movement on a distant ridge. Not the wavering of heat, but something solid. Something alive. Hope, sharp and painful, lanced through him.
"Robox40, look! Is that a town? An oasis?"
[Negative,] the robot stated flatly.
[That is a Q741 Dune Wolf. It appears to be hunting.]
Before Kenji could process the words "Dune Wolf," the creature was already moving.
It was a monstrous thing, larger than any wolf he'd ever seen, with coarse, sand-colored fur that made it a terrifyingly effective predator in this environment. It bounded down the dune with an unnatural speed, its paws barely seeming to touch the ground. Saliva dripped from jaws that held teeth like daggers.
Kenji's survival instinct, buried under layers of heatstroke and despair, screamed to life.
He turned to run, but his legs were leaden, his movements clumsy and slow. He was a man dying of thirst, not an athlete. He managed two steps before his foot caught, and he went down hard, his face planting in the hot sand.
He rolled over, scrambling backward, a pathetic whimper escaping his lips. The Dune Wolf was on him in an instant. He saw a flash of yellow eyes filled with primal hunger, and then a searing, unimaginable pain exploded in his leg.
He screamed as the wolf's jaws clamped down, the teeth sinking deep into his thigh, grinding against bone.
The pain was all-consuming, a white-hot fire that burned through his entire nervous system. He thrashed, beating at the creature's head with his weak fists, but it was like hitting a furry boulder.
The wolf shook its head, tearing and ripping. Kenji's vision swam, the golden desert turning a blurry, dark red. His own screams sounded distant, as if they belonged to someone else.
This is it, he thought, a strange sense of calm settling over the agony. This is how I die. Again.
The world faded to black.
A gentle coolness washed over him. The searing pain was gone, replaced by a feeling of floating in a calm, quiet space. Kenji's consciousness drifted back slowly, hesitantly.
Was this the afterlife? Part two? He hoped it had better scenery.
He forced his eyes open.
He wasn't in a desert. He was lying on something soft, in a room dimly lit by a strange, purple glow emanating from glowing moss on the stone walls.
The air was cool and smelled of damp earth and something faintly sweet, like night-blooming flowers.
He sat up, his body feeling strangely light and whole. He looked down at his leg. There was no wound. Not even a scar.
His clothes were different, too—no longer his tattered Earth jeans and t-shirt, but simple, brown trousers and a loose-fitting tunic.
Before he could even begin to question his new surroundings, a transparent blue screen flickered into existence in front of his face, startling him so badly he fell back onto the soft bedding.
Bright white text began to type itself out.
[Loading...]
[Welcome to Planet Y41: The World of Aethelgard.]
[System Initializing... User Soul Signature Confirmed.]
[Assigning Unique Talent... Shuffling Potentialities...]
Kenji stared, his mouth agape.
A system? A talent? This was straight out of the web novels he used to binge-read.
Was this his second chance? A cosmic do-over?
The text on the screen continued to scroll, the words glowing with an ethereal light.
[SHUFFLING THE TALENT... RARE... EPIC... LEGENDARY... MYTHIC...]
The words flashed faster and faster, a blur of colors, before landing on a final, dazzling result that pulsed with golden light.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[You have acquired the SSS-Class Unique Talent: Infinite Growth!]
[Talent Description: Your potential is limitless. All forms of growth, including experience gain, skill acquisition, and attribute development, are accelerated by 1000x.]
Kenji read the words once. Then twice. A thousand times?
He felt a giddy, hysterical laugh bubbling up in his chest. After dying twice in the most pathetic ways imaginable, he'd hit the cosmic jackpot.
An SSS-Class talent! A 1000x growth rate! He could become a king, anything he wanted! The possibilities were endless! He was finally the protagonist!
His triumphant celebration was cut short by a small, trembling voice from the corner of the room.
"Um... excuse me?"
Kenji's head snapped toward the sound. Huddled near the stone doorway was a little girl, no older than seven or eight.
She had wide, terrified blue eyes and messy silver hair that fell over her face. She was clutching a worn, stuffed rabbit to her chest as if it were a shield.
She took a shaky breath, her tiny voice barely a whisper.
"I'm glad you're awake... because I think we're about to die."