The Anomaly's Path

My eyes snapped open.

That was the first thing I registered—my eyes were open, which meant I wasn’t dead. Already a better start than I’d expected.

The second thing I registered was pain. Everywhere.

My head throbbed like someone had used it for target practice. My muscles ached like I’d run a marathon through hell. My mouth tasted like something had crawled in and died.

Ughhh...

I tried to move. Bad idea. My whole body screamed in protest, and I flopped back down onto whatever I was lying on. Dirt? Leaves? Something rough and uneven pressed into my back.

Where the hell am I?

I forced my eyes to focus.

Above me, there was nothing but green. Leaves, branches, vines—all tangled together so thick I could barely see the sky. Just patches of light breaking through here and there, flickering across my face like someone was messing with a flashlight.

A forest. I was in a forest.

No. Not a forest—a jungle. The kind where vines hung from every branch, where plants I’d never seen before crowded every inch of ground, where the air was so thick and heavy it felt like breathing through wet cloth.

Sweat was already beading on my skin, trickling down my neck, my clothes sticking to me like a second layer.

Right. The trial. I’m in the trial.

”Nova?” I called out. My voice came out rough, cracked, like I hadn’t used it in days. ”Nova, you there?”

Silence.

Just leaves rustling, birds calling somewhere far away, insects buzzing too close to my ears. Nothing else. No voice in my head. No sarcastic comment. No annoying glitchy bastard telling me I looked like shit.

”Nova!” Louder this time. Desperate. ”Come on, you glitchy bastard, this isn’t funny! Stop hiding or whatever the hell you’re doing!”

Nothing.

I waited. Counted to ten. Twenty. Thirty. Still nothing.

He’s not here.

The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. Nova wasn’t here. The voice in my head, the one who’d been with me since day one, who never shut up, who always had something sarcastic to say—he was gone.

Just... gone.

He said he couldn’t come with me. Said I’d be alone in the trial. I thought he meant he just couldn’t talk to me—that he’d still be there somehow, a quiet presence in the back of my mind. But there was nothing. Just empty space where his voice used to be.

I clenched my jaw and forced myself to breathe. Panic wasn’t going to help. Nova wasn’t coming back. I needed to think.

I looked around, trying to figure out where I was and what I was dealing with.

First: I was alive. That was something. The trial hadn’t killed me yet, which was more than the original Leo could say.

Second: I had no clue where I was. Just jungle in every direction. No landmarks, no trail, nothing familiar. The air felt different too—thinner, maybe? Or maybe I was just imagining things.

Third: I had nothing. No weapon. No food. No water. No Nova. Just the clothes on my back, a body that ached from head to toe, and a head full of questions.

”Fuck,” I muttered.

I pushed myself up on unsteady legs. They wobbled beneath me, weak from however long I’d been out. Hours? Days? There was no way to tell. My muscles screamed in protest, my head throbbed with a dull ache, and my stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.

Great. Not only was I hungry, thirsty, and lost, but also alone. Perfect start.

Thanks, fate, or whatever’s behind this. Fuck you in a very special way.

I sighed and started walking, pushing through the undergrowth, stepping over roots, ducking under branches. The jungle pressed in from all sides, endless and unfamiliar.

And as I walked, my mind drifted back to the quests.

Ten years. That was all the time I had before the Abyss King and his armies would descend on Aetheris. Ten years sounded like a lot, but I wasn’t so sure about that anymore. I had a bad feeling about it—the kind that sat in your gut and wouldn’t go away.

And now I was alone in here. If I survived this trial, things would change. Butterfly effect or whatever. The future I knew from the game might not play out the same way.

Too many things to deal with. Too many variables. It felt like I was running down a path with no end, and I couldn’t turn back even if I wanted to.

But that was future me’s problem. Right now, I just needed to survive this trial.

_

I kept walking.

The jungle stretched in every direction, nothing but green as far as I could see. No end to it. No sign that anything existed beyond these trees.

I walked for what felt like hours. Pushing through bushes, stepping over roots, ducking under branches. Sweat poured down my face, soaked my clothes, made everything sticky. Bugs buzzed around my head, landed on my arms, bit me.

I slapped them away and kept going.

My legs hurt. My stomach wouldn’t shut up. My throat was so dry it hurt to swallow.

I need water. Soon. Really soon.

However, there was nothing.

Just trees and more trees, vines and leaves, plants I didn’t recognize and couldn’t trust. I thought about eating some of them—there were berries, fruits, things that looked edible—but I wasn’t stupid.

One wrong bite and I’d be dead before I found help. Dead before the trial even really started.

I wasn’t a hunter. I wasn’t a survivalist. I wasn’t one of those guys who could live off the land and wrestle bears with his bare hands. I was just some idiot from Earth who got dumped in a death world with no backup, no guide, and no clue what I was doing.

I kicked a rock in frustration. It bounced off a tree and disappeared into the undergrowth.

”Damn it, Nova. You couldn’t have given me a survival guide before you left? A map? A sandwich? A bottle of water? Anything?”

The jungle didn’t answer.

Nova’s voice echoed in my head—the last thing he’d said before everything went white.

”I know you’re strong enough to survive. So please—take care of yourself, Leo.”

...And now he was gone.

I shook my head, forcing the thoughts away.

Just Keep moving forward and find water. I’ll worry about everything else later.

Eventually, I found fruit.

They were growing on a low-hanging branch, small and red and smelling vaguely sweet.

I stared at them for a long time, trying to remember if red berries were safe or poisonous. In every movie I’d ever watched, the protagonist always knew which plants were edible. They’d take one look and say ”oh, that’s safe” and eat it without a second thought.

I wasn’t that guy. I was the guy who’d probably pick the poison berry and die in the first hour.

They look okay to me. The color seems normal. I can’t see any weird spots or smell anything bad.

I picked one and turned it over in my hand. It looked fine. No discoloration, no strange marks, no sign that it would kill me instantly.

Screw it. If I die, I die. Beggars can’t be choosers.

I took a bite.

It was tart. Juicy. It wasn’t some amazing fruit, but it wasn’t terrible either. Actually kind of refreshing. I waited a minute, then another, checking for any signs of poisoning. Nausea? Dizziness? Sudden death? Hallucinations?

But nothing happened.

I ate the rest in about three bites and grabbed a handful more for later.

Okay. Food sort of handled. Now I needed to find water.

I kept walking.

The sun started to set—or at least, the light started fading. The jungle grew darker, shadows stretching longer, sounds changing from bird calls to something else. Crickets. Rustling in the undergrowth.

I needed to find water, and I also needed shelter. Somewhere I could stay for the night before darkness fell and I became monster food. Whatever lived in this jungle, I didn’t want to meet it in the dark.

Come on, come on. There has to be something—

Then I heard it.

A faint, distant sound drifted through the air—the rhythmic rush of flowing water. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.

My heart jumped in my chest. I stood still for a heartbeat, listening until I could pinpoint the direction. There—to the left. It was definitely a stream, and it sounded close.

I didn’t just walk; I ran.

Branches whipped across my face and gnarled roots reached out to trip me, but I didn’t care. To me, that sound meant survival. It meant I could last another day. It meant hope. The gentle rush grew louder with every step, the sound of water tumbling over rocks pulling me forward.

I burst through a thick wall of vines and stopped dead in my tracks.

There it was.

The stream was maybe ten feet across, with clear water flowing over smooth stones. I looked up for a second—when had the moon even risen?—and watched the light glint off the surface. It was beautiful.

I stumbled toward the bank and collapsed to my knees. I didn’t care about my clothes or the mud; I just leaned down and drank until my lungs burned for air.

The water was cold and clean. I drank until my stomach hurt, then drank some more, then splashed it on my face, my neck, my arms. When I finally came up for air, gasping, I felt almost human again.

Water and food were done. Shelter was next on the list, but before I could even move, I heard it.

A sound behind me.

I froze, my heart skipping a beat. It wasn’t an animal or an insect—it was something heavy and deliberate. I could hear the distinct crunch of something large stepping on dry leaves.

Slowly, I turned around. The treeline was impossibly dark where the moonlight couldn’t reach, but I could see shadows shifting in ways they shouldn’t. Then I saw them—eyes glowing faintly in the blackness, watching me.

My hand tightened around the wooden stick I’d picked up earlier. The sharp-ish end felt pathetic, like a child’s toy against whatever was lurking out there, but it was all I had. When the shadows started to move closer, I didn’t wait to see what they were.

I ran.

Branches tore at my clothes and thorns sliced my skin, but I didn’t stop to look back. I just sprinted along the stream, praying it would lead me anywhere away from those eyes. Eventually, the sounds of pursuit faded away. Maybe I outran them, or maybe they just stopped, but I didn’t care.

I ran until my legs finally gave out. I collapsed against a tree, gasping for air while every nerve in my body screamed. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might actually explode, and my lungs felt like they were on fire.

What the hell was that thing...?

I didn’t have an answer, and I didn’t want one. I just stayed there with my back against the rough bark, clutching that stick like it could actually protect me, and waited for dawn.

I closed my eyes and listened to the jungle breathing around me.

It was going to be a long night.