The shelter was quiet. Morning light spilled through the gaps in the leaf canopy above, soft and golden. Nox crouched beside the small cub who was curled into a fuzzy ball beside his makeshift bed.
He held the salvaged bag fashioned from giant leaves, inside of it contained the milk he'd extracted violently from the now distant mutated goat. He opened it with mechanical care, tilting it slightly toward the cub.
"Here. Nutrients."
The cub blinked sleepily and sniffed at the air, ears perking up. With a squeaky "nyu~," it stumbled forward, latching its mouth onto the edge of the container and lapping noisily. Nox didn't flinch, but he did tilt his head with a faint twitch in his eyebrow.
"You're... inefficient. Over 60% of that is dripping down your fur."
While staring at the cub who was creating a mess, he experienced something for the first time in his life, A flashback.
The shelter blurred, sounds dulled. A pressure behind his eyes pulsed, unfamiliar, foreign. Like a memory... but not from observation. It wasn't calculated or archived.
It just appeared as a roaring silence enveloped his mind. Burned into his vision was the final image of the lion. Its massive body broken and bleeding as it fight.
Nox had turned to leave, the cub squirming in his arms. The lion had lifted its head with effort it should not have had. And in its eyes-
No fear. No rage. Just... something hard to categorize.
Gratitude.
There were no roars, no snarls. The lion lost it's focus on the fight as it stared at the man running with her cub. Seemingly not affected as the mutant bear attacked her mercilessly.
Nox blinked. The memory shattered.
The shelter reassembled around him. The cub was pawing at a stick now, proudly attacking it as if it were a rival predator. Still a mess. Still squeaking.
"...Flashback?" he said aloud, tone unreadable. "Involuntary visual recollection of an emotionally impactful moment. Not standard behavior."
He narrowed his eyes. "No external trigger detected. Internal conditions... emotional overflow?"He stared at his own hands. They hadn't moved during the flashback. He hadn't lost control.
But something shifted inside, barely noticeable. Like a program running in the background that wasn't supposed to be there.
The cub bumped its head against his knee again and let out another squeaky "nyu~".
Nox had a dangerous but purposeful idea. He calculated everything in his head before he made up his mind.
"...This is dangerous," he muttered.
But not irrational.
It wasn't about sentimentality. It wasn't even about the cub. This was strategy wrapped in opportunity. A path with multiple outcomes, each carrying a different weight, a different kind of consequence.
One would lighten his burden. The other... increase it, in a way that came with gain. And maybe a new problem.
"I'll need to confirm the state of something I left behind."
No specifics. No need. Not yet. But the decision had already taken root. Quietly, he secured the cub, then gathered wood and made a fence. Making sure it was tucked safely in the shelter.
Then, without a word more, Nox stepped out into the forest, the weight of a necessary and morally gray purpose pressing forward in his chest.
Nox moved forward, each step being taken with utmost caution. He passed by huge trees that has roots bigger than his size.
As he walked, he didn't fail to gather data from every plant and herb he came across with. Gathering those he deemed okay for experimentation and leaving those that seems filled with poison.
As he walked, he came across a huge tree that made me feel confused. As an A his past life, he has perfect memory. Despite being in a human body, his intellect did not change.
This tree was not here when they crossed this path before. Curiosity overtake Nox's mind since while he moved closer to it.
The tree was so out of place compared to those around it. It was so tall that even it's body had the width of 5 meters.
(Analyzing terrain anomaly...
Memory cross-reference: No record of this tree on prior traversal.
Tree characteristics: Morphology resembles Dracaena cinnabari, yet scale is anomalous.
Structure dimensions: Height—unknown. Trunk diameter—approx. 5 meters.
Foreign element detected: Door-shaped formation with decagon-shaped indentation.
Conclusion: Artificial modification highly probable.)
Nox approached the massive tree, head tilted slightly, eyes scanning its surface with intensity. His fingers grazed the rough, crimson-toned bark that is warm to the touch.
The door-like structure was seamless, as if part of the tree itself. In the center, a perfectly carved decagon-shaped recess stared back, like an unblinking eye.
He ran his palm across the indentation, then instinctively tried to apply force. Pressing, pulling, attempting to pry it open. Nothing budged.
He moved to the side, attempting to strip a section of bark from the tree to see beneath but his sharpened blade barely scratched it. Not even the edge of a steel-hard branch could penetrate the surface.
Nox paused. (Material analysis: Indestructible by current tools. No visible mechanical mechanism. Possible key-based activation?)
He stared for a few moments longer, scanning, memorizing, cataloging. Then he took a mental snapshot and stepped away.
(Insufficient data for further interaction. Marking location for future analysis... Proceeding with primary objective.)
Along the way, Nox encountered more vegetation. When suddenly, he heard a croak that came with something that smashed his mind to the point of almost fainting.
Nox's body reacted before his thoughts could catch up. The moment the sound hit-
Crooooaaaak
—it wasn't just noise. It punched through his consciousness like a hammer made of static. A white-hot spike shot behind his eyes.
His knees buckled, vision blurred, and only through sheer instinct did he hurl himself behind a thick root as he curled his body to hide.
(Analyzing auditory event...Source: Amphibian—suspected mutated frog species.
Effect: Induced cranial overload. Non-physical. Sonic? Psychic? Unknown.
Visible threat: None.
Conclusion: Hostile anomaly capable of affecting neurological stability.
Threat rating: Extremely high.
Nox's breath came shallow. Even thinking too hard seemed to hurt. The croak hadn't just been sound, it had pressure, weight. The world felt wrong for a few seconds after it ended.
He peeked with minimal movement. Through dense underbrush, he caught a glimpse of it, small, almost laughably so.
A frog the size of a clenched fist sat on a blackened rock. It looked smooth and wet, but shimmered strangely like light didn't fully know how to land on it. Every few seconds, it pulsed slightly. no eyes, no mouth visible.
(Visual observation: Surface distortion. Refracted air around subject. Similar to heat haze.
Hypothesis: Emission of sub-auditory or psychic wave?
Recommendation: Maintain maximum distance. Do not engage.)
Nox plotted a path. He moved low, slow, and far. He circled wide, climbing a short slope and using exposed roots as footholds.
For nearly twenty minutes, he crept silently. He didn't run. Running might draw attention. There was no way to know if sound triggered the creature or anything triggered it.
Eventually, the pressure eased. The headache dimmed. The air stopped buzzing like a taut wire in his head. Only when the frog was long out of range did Nox allow himself to exhale fully.
(Conclusion updated: Frog class—anomalous entity. High-threat, non-contact.
Classification: Avoid at all cost.)
...