Total darkness. Lukas didn't know how long he had been like that.
Maybe a few seconds or an eternity. Maybe both.
The only thing he remembered was the white void… and before that, that strange mechanical voice echoing inside him.
Something about transmigration? System? Incompatible or something like that. Lukas' mind was confused.
The words still seemed to vibrate in his mind.
"What was all that…?"
He tried to speak. But nothing came out.
But something was different. He felt… weight again.
Not the weight of his human body like before. It felt extraordinarily lighter. More compact. The darkness then began to change.
First, a diffuse blur. Then another. As if someone were slowly increasing the brightness of a screen. His vision then began to form and clear.
But it wasn't normal. It wasn't like opening his eyes in the morning after a night of sleep.
It was as if several small windows were being opened at the same time. He could see, but in a fragmented way. Multiple angles, multiple depths.
At first, everything was blurry and strange.
"Am I… dreaming?"
That was his first logical conclusion. It could only be that. After all, he had gone to sleep, and now he was in this situation.
Yes, that explained it. But as his vision became clearer, something began to bother him.
The world around him was green. Completely green. And it was gigantic. A green wall rose before Lukas.
No, it wasn't a wall.
It was…
'A blade… of grass?'
A single blade. But thick like a trunk. Tall like a building. His field of vision then expanded even more. He saw other green trunks. And behind them…
Immense brown columns that rose to a distant sky, covered with leaves. Trees. They were definitely trees, despite their sizes seeming colossal.
He was…
'I'm in a forest…?'
'How the hell?'
'I was in my room, sleeping a few seconds ago. Wasn't I?'
He tried to remember the exact moment, even though he was a bit groggy. He had most certainly fallen asleep in his bed.
Then he remembered the darkness. The void. The white light.
'Transmigration?'
His stomach, or whatever it was now, churned.
'No… no, no, no, no…'
'This can't be real.'
He tried to blink. But nothing happened. The image he saw didn't darken. In fact, there was none of that automatic movement of closing and opening eyelids that he was used to.
He tried again. Forcing it. Nothing.
'I… don't have eyelids?'
The realization made him enter a small panic for a second.
He tried to raise his hand to touch his face. But what moved was not the hand he had long been accustomed to.
But rather, something thin. Segmented and dark.
It was a leg, definitely. Then another. And another.
Lukas froze.
Very slowly, he forced himself to look down. Or rather… direct his vision downward. And that's when he saw it. The body was small. Rounded and brown.
Eight thin legs resting on the damp earth. He stood still for long seconds. Not knowing what to think. Not breathing, or perhaps breathing in a way he didn't understand.
'Is this a prank?'
He tried to laugh.
But there was no sound. He tried to scream, but nothing came out. Just a slight movement of the small mandibles he didn't even know he had.
'I… I turned into… a spider? Didn't I?'
The word echoed inside him as something too absurd to be accepted. No, he needed to stay calm. A dream. It could only be an extremely real lucid dream.
He had heard about dreams like that. Full of details and intense sensations.
But then, the wind blew. And he felt it. Not just the touch of the air against his body. He felt vibrations. The ground beneath him transmitted small waves.
Something was moving a few meters away, light and rhythmic footsteps emerged.
He knew exactly the direction. He knew it was large. He knew the approximate distance. And he had no idea how he knew that.
His body reacted before his mind could process it.
Two front legs lifted slightly. His body adjusted. Ready to run.
'This is too real…'
He thought he could feel the texture of the earth under his legs. Every small grain, every irregularity.
He could distinguish the difference between a stone and a piece of dry bark just by contact somehow.
He could see in detail things that before he absolutely could not.
This didn't feel like a dream. Dreams were blurry and unstable. And this place was absurdly sharp. Detailed and consistent.
He began to move. Slowly at first, testing. The eight legs moved in perfect coordination.
There was no stumbling or hesitation. It was as if he had always known how to walk like this. He took a few steps, then a few more.
The movement was smooth.
Natural… and instinctive.
'This can't be happening!' He tried to force himself to wake up.
He tried to close his eyes, or tried to imagine that he was closing them. He thought about his room. About his bed. About Miyo. About the fan spinning. But it didn't matter, nothing changed.
When he focused his vision again, the forest was still there.
It was gigantic. The distant sky filtered through the canopies. A sharp sound then echoed from above. He raised his gaze. A shadow crossed the tops of the leaves.
Something flying. And definitely bigger than him. It was large. Very large.
His entire body reacted. In pure instinct.
'Damn. I need to hide!'
'NOW!'
He shot under a small stone, which to him looked like a shelter. His body pressed against the ground, motionless.
His heart, if it was still a heart, beat fast.
He felt his own internal vibrations. He felt the air passing through small lateral openings.
He felt the tension in the tiny muscles of his legs.
'Shit. Shit. I really turned into a spider…'
The conclusion finally imposed itself.
It was no longer denial. It was no longer a dream. It was reality.
Then, suddenly, he remembered something. He remembered his wish.
'If I could be an animal in the next life…'
The phrase echoed in his mind. And the shiver that ran through his small body was very real.
'No… this is madness… all of this is madness!'
But everything made sense now.
The voice. The percentage. The transmigration. The Incompatible Plan.
Had he died? Somehow, while sleeping?
That question came cold.
'So I died…'
And now… this was it.
He had transformed into a small brown spider in an unknown forest.
He slowly came out from under the stone. The danger had passed. But the world remained immense and apparently hostile.
He felt too small. Too fragile. Anything could crush him. A bird, a human, another larger spider.
The perception of that made a real fear settle in. It wasn't the abstract fear of the future. It wasn't the anxiety of looking for a job.
It was the primitive fear of ceasing to exist at any moment.
And, ironically… he had never felt so alive.
Every vibration was clear. Every movement of the air was perceptible. Every change of light was noticed.
It was intense, raw, and real.
He took a few more steps. Testing his limits. He climbed up the side of a small root. And he did it effortlessly.
His body adhered to the surface.
He stayed there for a few seconds. Looking at the enormous world before him.
'How the hell did this happen?'
There was no answer, only the sound of the wind in the leaves. And then…
'Ding!'
The sound echoed again, clear and metallic inside his mind.
He froze. And then the mechanical voice emerged.
[The Mystical Transformation System has been successfully implanted!]
[The 'Status' function is available]