CHAPTER 3 — THE COST OF LIVING

  Thirty days.

  One full month without a boss, without factory quotas, without a paycheck.

  Here, time wasn’t measured in working hours, but in heartbeats. As long as mine kept thudding, it meant I hadn’t yet lost to natural selection.

  I sat on a high branch, unmoving. My muscles were stiff, locked in a static position for the past four hours. In the old world, sitting this still would have killed my back. Here, stillness was the currency used to buy an opportunity.

  Down below, the trap was set.

  Not magic. Not luck. Just basic physics.

  Gravity, tensile stress, and the coefficient of friction.

  I ran my thumb over the surface of my hand. The texture reminded me of coarse sandpaper.

  Back then, factory work had ruined my skin, leaving it bruised and fragile. But this forest did the opposite.

  Every scratch healed into a tougher layer of scar tissue. My body was no longer a piece of scrap worn down by labor; it was being reforged into combat hardware.

  Variable 1: Wind direction. Northbound. My scent was masked.

  Variable 2: Target weight. Estimated four to five hundred kilograms.

  Variable 3: Rope integrity. Triple-braided aerial roots. Tensile strength sufficient to withstand the initial shock.

  Calculations complete. Now, I just had to wait for the external variable to enter the equation.

  Snap.

  A branch breaking in the distance.

  My heart didn't race from fear. It beat with the steady rhythm of a metronome. Thump. Thump. Thump.

  Adrenaline began to flood my bloodstream—not as a panic button, but as fuel for focus.

  It was here.

  The horned bear.

  The monster at the apex of this sector's food chain. It walked with a heavy arrogance, ignoring the thorny bushes scraping against its thick hide. In its chest, a red crystal pulsed dimly—a biological reactor core powering a half-ton killing machine.

  I exhaled slowly, equalizing the temperature in my lungs with the ambient air.

  In the old world, I studied anatomy just to draw game characters.

  Here, that knowledge wasn't art. It was a map of vulnerabilities.

  Neck. Carotid artery. Eyes. Heart.

  I dropped down.

  Soundless. Landing with bent knees to absorb the impact.

  The bear turned its head. Its crimson eyes locked onto me. There was no dramatic roar like in the movies. Real animals didn't waste energy showing off their vocal cords before a kill.

  It lunged.

  The ground shuddered. The momentum of five hundred kilograms of accelerating mass meant certain death upon collision.

  I didn't run away. I sprinted across its path.

  Baiting it.

  Five meters.

  Three meters.

  I could see the vapor of its breath, reeking of carrion.

  Now.

  I threw myself down, sliding across the muddy earth just beneath its gaping jaws, and yanked the hidden knot in the dirt.

  SNAP!

  The braided roots pulled taut. The bear's front legs snagged.

  The law of inertia took effect.

  An object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force.

  Its legs stopped. Its body didn't.

  THUD!

  The behemoth was hurled forward, losing its balance. It slammed into the dirt and tumbled directly into the depression I had prepared.

  CRUNCH.

  That sound...

  The sound of flesh being pierced by something both blunt and sharp at the same time. Wet. Heavy. Sickening.

  I stood up, brushing the mud from my pants. My breathing was steady, only slightly elevated.

  I walked to the edge of the pit.

  Down there, the bear was still alive. Three sharpened ironwood stakes had impaled its abdomen and hindquarters. It let out a stifled groan, trying to rise, but the stakes were driven too deep, pinning its massive frame to the earth.

  Black blood began to pool.

  I stared at it.

  There was no joy. No triumphant cheering.

  This wasn't a gladiator match. It was problem-solving.

  Problem: Starvation & Threat. Solution: Elimination.

  Its eyes met mine. Wild. Afraid.

  It was a living creature. It wanted to survive, just like me.

  "Sorry," I whispered. Flatly. "Energy efficiency."

  I wasn't going to torture it. Letting it die slowly would only invite other predators, drawn by the scent of blood.

  I jumped down into the pit, landing on its immobilized back.

  The bone spear in my hand was raised.

  I recalled mammalian anatomy diagrams. The gap between the skull and the first cervical vertebra. The brainstem.

  The control center. Flip the switch.

  SHUK.

  The giant body convulsed once. Then, it went limp.

  Silence embraced the forest once more.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I pulled the spear out.

  My hands were shaking.

  Not from the horror of killing. But from adrenaline withdrawal. My body demanded more action, but my brain forced it to stand down.

  Now for the most important part.

  I used my stone knife to dissect the bear's chest. Slicing through thick layers of fat, separating muscle, until I found its core.

  A red crystal the size of a fist.

  Still warm. Pulsing.

  The moment my bare skin touched it, the sensation hit.

  It wasn't 'power' like in the fantasy novels.

  It was an invasion.

  "Argh..."

  I let out a low groan.

  It felt like thousands of microscopic needles piercing my palm, crawling up my arm, seeking out neural pathways, forcing their way into my bone marrow.

  The crystal wasn't giving me energy; it was rewriting my genetic code.

  My cells were forced to mutate.

  Torn muscles were repaired with denser fibers. Micro-fractures in my bones were patched with harder calcium.

  My biological system was being hacked.

  Update in progress...

  Optimization complete.

  The pain subsided, leaving behind an alien, cold sensation in my veins.

  I slumped down next to the bear's carcass. I steadied my breathing, noticing how much lighter it felt. My lungs were absorbing oxygen with a terrifying efficiency.

  I reached into my pocket. Pulled out a dented pack of cigarettes.

  Struck a light.

  Haaa...

  White smoke billowed out, a stark contrast to the metallic stench of blood filling the pit.

  **

  I stared at the drifting smoke.

  In the old world, killing an animal this size would require a high-caliber rifle.

  Here, I did it with sharpened wood and an understanding of basic physics.

  Was I becoming stronger?

  Or was I just losing the "humanity" that held me back?

  Emotions... empathy... hesitation...

  All of those were just latency in the process of survival. And this crystal seemed to be slowly patching out that latency.

  I pressed a hand to my chest. My heartbeat was slow. Extremely slow. Around forty beats per minute.

  Like an engine left on idle.

  "I'm still alive," I murmured to the silence.

  But my definition of "living" had shifted.

  It was no longer about experiencing joy or sorrow.

  Life was about function. About caloric input and energy output. About killing before being killed.

  I stubbed out the cigarette on the bear's thick hide.

  The work wasn't done.

  Skinning. Harvesting the meat. Preserving it.

  Forget feelings. Focus on logistics.

  I stood up, stone knife in hand, ready to work like a nameless butcher.

  The days that followed weren't a life, but rather, duration management.

  Train. Calories in. Calories out. Sleep. Repeat.

  Until I found myself standing before the mouth of the cave.

  A dark fissure at the base of a limestone cliff. A draft blew from within, carrying the thick stench of ammonia and an ancient dampness. It wasn't a tourist attraction. This was either a massive drainage pipe or... a nest.

  I lit a makeshift torch—a pine branch wrapped in sap.

  The flame flared up, struggling against the thin oxygen.

  I stepped inside.

  The firelight danced wildly, casting long, shifting shadows against the rock walls. Stalactites hung sharply from the ceiling, like thousands of hypodermic needles waiting for gravity to do its work.

  Structural Analysis: Sedimentary rock. Brittle. Humidity 90%.

  The texture of the cave floor changed.

  Crack.

  I looked down. It wasn't gravel.

  Bone.

  Thousands of bones piled ankle-deep. Deer skulls, wild boar femurs, and... something that closely resembled a human ribcage.

  Schk... schk... schk...

  The sound echoed from the depths.

  Not footsteps. Friction.

  Hard scales grinding against limestone.

  I extinguished the torch. Total darkness instantly swallowed the space.

  In a confined, unfamiliar space, sight was a liability. I shifted my reliance to my hearing.

  The scraping drew closer. Heavy. Long.

  An object moving with massive bulk, dragging its body across the floor.

  I held my breath. Slowed my heart rate as much as physically possible. Manual bradycardia.

  If this was a cave snake, odds were its eyes were blind or useless. It would 'see' through heat and vibration.

  Two yellow dots flared in the dark.

  I was wrong. It could see. Or it was bioluminescence.

  A serpent.

  Its diameter was the size of an oil drum. Its length stretched into the unseen shadows. Pitch-black scales absorbed whatever little ambient light existed.

  It stopped. A forked tongue flicked out, tasting the particulates in the air.

  It smelled me. The scent of an alien creature brimming with the bear's crystal energy.

  I couldn't run. The exit was too far.

  I couldn't fight. Its hide was as thick as a dump truck tire. My bone spear would just shatter.

  Rapid calculation.

  Option A: Direct assault. Fatality probability: 99%.

  Option B: Concealment. Detection probability: 100%.

  Option C: Environmental manipulation.

  My eyes darted upward. A massive stalactite hung directly above the serpent's head. It dangled precariously, connected by a thin neck of rock.

  I reached into my pocket.

  The bear's crystal.

  The object was still hot, unstable. Ever since I ripped it from its host, perhaps due to the impact, its energy had been leaking, seeking an outlet. Like a swollen lithium battery.

  If I threw it at the snake, its scales would deflect it.

  But if I threw it at the ceiling...

  The serpent hissed. It coiled its massive body, a spring ready to snap.

  "Structural stability," I mouthed wordlessly. "Zero."

  I hurled the crystal with all my might toward the cave roof.

  Tink.

  The crystal struck the main stalactite. It cracked.

  The pent-up energy inside detonated upon impact.

  BOOM!

  Not an explosion of fire, but a concussive shockwave.

  The cave ceiling collapsed.

  Tens of tons of jagged rock in free fall.

  The serpent had no time to dodge.

  CRASH! CRACK!

  A rain of stone slammed into its body. Sharp stalactites pierced through its scales, pinning the massive creature to the floor. It shrieked—an ear-splitting hiss—thrashing and destroying its surroundings.

  A boulder ricocheted toward me.

  THUD.

  A heavy blow to my left ribs.

  I was thrown back, my spine slamming into the cave wall.

  My lungs emptied instantly.

  Cough...

  Salty blood filled my mouth.

  My ears rang. A high-pitched tinnitus.

  Limestone dust billowed thickly, suffocating the air.

  Up ahead, the serpent's movements slowed. Stopped.

  Its head had been crushed by the largest stalactite.

  Silence.

  On its forehead, a crystal the size of a soccer ball gleamed in the dark.

  Its glow was unstable. Pulsing sluggishly like a short-circuiting nightlight, it emitted a pale purple hue that hurt the eyes if stared at for too long.

  Hah... Hah...

  My breathing was heavy. Every pull of air felt like dragging a cheese grater across the inside of my left chest. Broken ribs. Maybe two, or three. My lungs felt wet—a sign of internal bleeding.

  Medically speaking, I had less than an hour before hypovolemic shock shut down my brain function.

  I crawled.

  My right hand, covered in scrapes and fresh calluses, reached out, trembling.

  This wasn't greed. This was the only medicine available in this hellish pharmacy.

  Ten centimeters left.

  The air around the crystal felt statically charged. The fine hairs on my arms stood on end. There was a low hum, a sound inaudible to the ear but vibrating deep within my molars.

  This was dangerous.

  A crystal of this size... the dosage was likely lethal.

  But the choice was simple: die slowly from blood loss, or die quickly from an explosive evolution.

  I chose the latter.

  My palm touched the cold surface of the crystal.

  ZING.

  There was no sound of an explosion. The world suddenly went completely silent.

  The sound of dripping water vanished. The sound of my own breathing vanished.

  Then, the pain arrived.

  Not a warm current like before.

  It was a tsunami.

  AAAARGHHH!!!

  The scream didn't leave my mouth. My vocal cords were locked stiff. It was the silent scream of burning nerves.

  It felt as though molten lead was being force-pumped through the pores of my hand, tearing through my veins, crawling up my arm, shoulder, neck, and slamming directly into my brainstem.

  My heart stopped for a fraction of a second. Reset.

  Then it beat again.

  THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.

  Too fast. Two hundred beats per minute.

  My body convulsed violently, thrown backward until my spine hit the cold cave floor. But my hand... my hand wouldn't detach. The crystal stuck to me like an industrial magnet, continuously vomiting its energy payload into this fragile vessel of flesh.

  Heat.

  My blood was boiling.

  Error. System Overload.

  Hardware incompatible.

  Forcing update...

  I could feel my bones vibrating. The calcium within them was being forcibly compacted. My bone marrow churned, producing an unnatural amount of new red blood cells to transport the dwindling oxygen.

  My muscle fibers snapped, then reconnected. Thicker. Denser. More efficient.

  This wasn't healing. It was forced reengineering.

  My body was being overclocked. Forced to run past factory specifications.

  My eyes widened, staring at the dark cave ceiling.

  The blood vessels in my eyeballs ruptured, turning my entire vision red.

  In the midst of that brutal seizure, my consciousness fractured.

  **

  The dream came again.

  A boundless desert. Eternal night.

  I stood on a wet asphalt highway. Silent.

  I ran.

  Kept running. Chasing a horizon that never drew closer.

  The wind howled in my ears, but I couldn't feel its touch.

  The world shifted.

  A dining room. A lavish, long table filled with food.

  There was only one chair.

  I sat down. Ate. Alone.

  The clinking of the fork against the plate sounded overwhelmingly loud in this empty room.

  Tasteless; my tongue felt nothing.

  "Hah!"

  I woke with a violent jolt, as if I had just been pulled from underwater.

  The cave was quiet. Dark.

  My makeshift torch had died long ago.

  I lay on the stone floor. Cold.

  How long had I been unconscious? An hour? A day?

  I tried moving my fingers.

  They worked.

  I tried taking a deep breath.

  No pain.

  The broken left ribs... healed.

  The punctured lungs... sealed.

  I sat up slowly.

  My body's movements felt alien. Light. Too light.

  As if the gravity around me had been halved. Or perhaps, my muscles were now capable of resisting gravity with minimal effort.

  I raised a hand to my face.

  In the total darkness of this cave, I... could see.

  Not like daytime vision. It was monochrome.

  I could see the contours of the rocks, the texture of the stalactites, and the floating motes of dust.

  My eyes had adapted. Tapetum lucidum? Or retinal sensitivity enhanced a thousandfold?

  I turned toward the giant serpent's carcass.

  The crystal on its forehead was still pulsing faintly. Its light was dim.

  The energy inside was still swirling sluggishly.

  Growl...

  The sound broke the silence.

  My stomach.

  The hunger that arrived wasn't just a "need to eat" signal. It was an absolute command. The gnawing pain in my stomach was so intense I felt my gastric acid would burn a hole through my abdomen if not filled immediately.

  Metabolic cost.

  Evolution required energy. Healing required material. My body had just burned through every existing fat and glucose reserve. I was in a severe deficit.

  I stared at the exposed flesh of the serpent.

  White meat, thick, coarsely fibered.

  I crawled closer.

  The stone knife in my hand moved swiftly, carving out a chunk of meat weighing about a kilogram.

  No fire. No seasoning.

  I took a bite.

  Tough.

  It tasted like chewing on tire rubber soaked in metallic blood.

  But the moment the meat went down... pure pleasure detonated in my brain. Not a delicious taste on the tongue, but a sense of rightness within my cells.

  Dopamine. Serotonin.

  My brain was rewarding the behavior.

  Eat. Grow. Survive.

  One kilogram gone.

  Two kilograms.

  I ate like a meat grinder. My jaw felt stronger; my teeth tore through the tough muscle fibers without difficulty.

  I didn't stop until the pain in my stomach vanished, replaced by a comfortable heaviness.

  I leaned against the cold carcass, wiping the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand.

  I reached into my pocket.

  The pack of cigarettes was still there. Miraculously uncrushed.

  I lit one.

  A small spark flared. Tobacco smoke filled my mouth, mixing with the lingering taste of metallic blood.

  A strange combination.

  Civilization and savagery.

  I exhaled the smoke into the air. It curled, and my new eyes could see the turbulence patterns forming within it.

  I pulled up my torn sleeve.

  My arm muscles hadn't bulked up like a bodybuilder's. Instead, they looked wiry, like tightly coiled steel cables. Muscle definition showed clearly beneath the skin, which was now slightly thicker and rougher.

  I picked up a fist-sized piece of limestone.

  I squeezed it.

  Crack.

  The stone fractured.

  I pressed harder.

  Crumble.

  The stone shattered into gravel and dust in my hand.

  The average grip strength of a normal human was around 50 kilograms. This... was at least over 150 kilograms.

  I was no longer human.

  Nor was I a monster.

  My nervous system was calm. No anxiety. No overthinking.

  The world felt slower. Or was I the one who was faster?

  I stood up, walking toward the mouth of the cave.

  The morning sunlight greeted me at the end. Bright. Blinding.

  The forest stretched out before my eyes.

  Green, vast, dangerous.

  **