Reyansh slowly opened his heavy eyes and looked around.
As far as his eyes could see, there was nothing but a dense jungle. But this jungle looked absolutely nothing like Earth.
The tree trunks were black and gleamed with a strange, silvery tint. The branches of some trees weren't swaying with the wind, but were moving up and down as if they were breathing. The grass growing on the ground was a light blue color, and here and there, a strange white light was filtering out from beneath the soil.
Reyansh's throat was completely parched.
His right arm... was broken. Probably from when he fell here through the portal. Even the slightest movement of his arm sent a current of sharp pain jolting through his entire body.
"Amazing, man," he muttered to himself, wincing in pain. "I arrive in another world and get a broken arm as a welcome gift. Nice!"
Somehow gathering his courage, he stood up and slowly began walking forward.
With every single step, he felt as if the entire jungle was staring at him.
As if it were alive.
After walking a short distance, his eyes fell upon a strange tree.
Hanging from that tree was a massive fruit. It was roughly as big as Reyansh's height. And the strangest part was that it was hanging right against the ground.
Reyansh's eyes lit up.
"Thank God. Finally, something to eat at least."
He quickly approached it and pulled out his pocket knife.
"Just gotta cut it, right?"
The moment the tip of the knife touched the fruit—
Thud!
A powerful, invisible force sent Reyansh flying through the air like a piece of straw.
"Aaaargh!"
He went flying backward and slammed straight into the hard trunk of a tree.
It felt as if all the air had been knocked right out of his lungs.
A pain so excruciating flared up in his broken arm that, for a second, everything went completely dark before his eyes.
"What kind of nonsense is this?!" he groaned in pain, somehow managing to push himself up onto his knees. "Is this a fruit or a grenade?"
Angrily, he looked at the knife clutched in his hand.
And his eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
The entire blade of the knife had been completely flattened.
It looked as though someone had ground it plain against an iron machine.
Reyansh let out a tired, cynical laugh.
"Wow. Now I've seen everything."
He put the useless knife back into his pocket and walked onward with heavy steps.
Time began to drag terribly.
The first day passed somehow, but the second day was nothing short of a nightmare.
The hunger was no longer just in his stomach; it felt like needles pricking his entire body.
His steps had grown so heavy that several times he thought he would just collapse right there and never wake up again.
And the night.
At night, this jungle turned into death itself.
From somewhere in the distance, blood-curdling sounds would echo continuously.
Sometimes it was the growling of a ferocious beast, and sometimes it sounded exactly like a human crying.
On the second night, Reyansh had a true brush with death.
He could clearly feel something massive circling around his vicinity.
The sound of dry leaves crushing was coming from right below him.
He had even stopped breathing.
As the sound drew closer, Reyansh forgot the pain, immediately grabbed the bark of a tree, and climbed up.
His childhood habit of climbing trees truly saved his life today.
Below in the pitch darkness, two large, glowing eyes searched for prey for a while.
Then, that terrifying creature slowly vanished back into the shadows of the jungle.
Reyansh spent the entire night clinging to the tree trunk, shivering.
By the time morning arrived, his body had almost completely given up.
His vision was beginning to blur.
Around noon on the second day, he suddenly heard the sound of flowing water.
At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him due to hunger and thirst, and that it was just a hallucination.
But then came the splashing sound again.
The clear sound of flowing water.
Life suddenly rushed back into Reyansh's fading eyes.
He gathered whatever little strength was left in his body and began running toward the sound, madly tearing through the bushes.
The moment he crossed the final bush, his eyes widened with joy.
Flowing before him was a small, incredibly beautiful river.
The water was so clear that the small pebbles lying at the bottom shone like pearls.
Reyansh stumbled forward and fell to his knees at the riverbank.
For the first time in two days, tears welled up in his eyes.
"Water..."
He cupped his trembling hands, scooped up some water, and gulped it down immediately without a second thought.
The water was ice-cold and sweet as nectar.
However, the moment that water traveled down his throat—
A cold, mechanical voice echoed right inside his brain.
Foreign water entered host body.
No mutation points gained.
Reyansh froze mid-sip.
"Who's there?" he snapped, quickly looking around. "Who the hell is that?"
But there was no one to be seen for miles.
He stood there completely confused for a few seconds.
Then, he shook his head.
"My mind is seriously losing it from hunger."
Just then—
The watery bush right next to him suddenly rustled.
Reyansh instantly took two steps back.
His heart began pounding rapidly again.
Something was trapped inside the bush, thrashing around.
Carefully, he stepped closer and closer.
And then, he saw it.
A fish.
But he had never seen a fish like this in his entire life.
Its skin was almost completely transparent.
Even outside the water, the faint blue veins pulsing inside its body were clearly visible.
Its entire body emitted a soft, magical glow.
But that wasn't the strangest thing.
The strangest thing was its aroma.
A deeply sweet, intoxicating aroma.
It was so potent that the mere smell of it made Reyansh's mouth water.
The hunger in his stomach instantly turned wild and uncontrollable, like a savage beast.
"Is... is this a fish or biryani?" he murmured softly, completely hypnotized.
The fish was trapped, flopping around between the bushes.
Without wasting a moment, Reyansh immediately whipped off his shirt, used it like a net, and snagged the fish.
The moment it came out of the water, it stopped thrashing.
Reyansh lifted it in his hands.
Its skin felt strangely cold.
But that aroma had now completely wiped out Reyansh's capacity to think or reason.
The agony of two days of hunger and thirst was now entirely beyond his control.
"Seriously," he said, staring at the transparent fish.
A strange madness flickered in his eyes.
"I feel like I could just chew this thing down raw."
For a few seconds, he tried to restrain himself—a battle between his humanity and savage hunger.
But then, he gave up.
"To hell with it. I can't hold back anymore."
He brought the fish close to his mouth and took a massive bite.
But the moment that fish entered his mouth—
He didn't even need to chew it.
It suddenly melted like ice.
It felt as though its entire body turned into a single drop of water.
And in the very next instant...
An icy, piercingly cold wave rushed down Reyansh's throat and surged through the veins of his entire body.
His eyes snapped wide open.
His broken right arm suddenly began to tingle violently, as if thousands of ants were racing through it all at once.
And then, that same robotic voice echoed in his mind once more—
You have consumed a foreign type organism.
One Body-Type Mutation Point gained.
Reyansh's breathing grew rapid.
A massive transformation was taking place inside his body.
No-color fish consumed.
You have gained the ability:
Cellular Healing.