Pov: Vik
I slowly tried to open my eyes as I woke up from my sleep. Yawning, I cleared away the drowsiness. However, what I saw in front of me was anything but normal.
Before me was the forest I had been in before I lost consciousness due to my little experiment. But this forest looked completely different. It was a blazing inferno. Trees and the ground burned continuously, with red hot flames shooting up. This scene felt like a forest had suddenly been placed inside a volcano. The strangest part was that I didn't feel burned by the fire. Instead, I felt refreshed by it; it was like taking a hot bath and releasing all my fatigue. My mind felt new, capable of faster problem-solving and better thought processing, like upgrading from an i3 processor to an i9.
I sighed, not just out of habit but because of this bizarre situation. First, a rock thrown by someone on top of a mountain killed me. Then I was transported to a void, where an unknown entity called the system wanted me to be its host, which I politely rejected. That entity then reincarnated me as a snake, and now I was just a snake trying to survive in this strange world. During my experiments to harness this world's power, I accidentally burned an entire forest. The best part? The fire didn't harm me; in fact, it soothed and calmed my mind. That's why I wasn't panicking.
First things first, I needed to put out the fire. I concentrated on the idea that if I started the fire, I could also stop it. I focused on visualizing the flames extinguishing on their own. I opened my eyes, but nothing happened.
I realized that it might not work like that. First, I needed to analyze the information I had from my experiment. Let's talk about "Force X." I understood its basic operations. This force responds to the consciousness of the user, no matter what creature tries to harness it. As long as it has clear consciousness, it can make this force respond. However, not all consciousness is equal; an ant's mind cannot process information as quickly as a human's. Yet, sometimes an ant can visualize a sugar block more perfectly than a human. So where does the difference come from? It comes from the power of consciousness and its ability to visualize.
From a scientific viewpoint, the power of consciousness is quantitative, while visualization is qualitative. Together, they create a power I can call psychic power. This, in turn, makes "Force X" respond to the user's thoughts.
I'd solved one mystery, but if that were all there was, anyone like me could be the greatest being in this world. This cycle felt incomplete. I thought deeply about when I conjured fire in that branch before I fell unconscious. Yes, I passed out. That might be the link. I could have lost consciousness due to mental strain, but I also felt weakness throughout my body, like I had expended all my energy.
Then it clicked in my mind: energy. If "Force X" bends other forces, there must be an "Energy X" that operates on a material level. Someone can use "Force X" to imagine and conjure fire. For that fire to burn without fuel, it would require a lot of energy.
I finally pieced it together. "Force X" makes bending the fundamental laws easier. Then "Energy X" executes that imagination in the material world. This world must be filled with "Energy X," and its inhabitants likely draw this energy from nature or store it in their bodies, like characters in cultivation manga do.
In short, in a material world, the amount of "Energy X" you hold defines your power level.
I had been wrong to solve this mystery hastily. My mind wasn't just like switching an i3 for an i9; it was more like upgrading to a supercomputer.
Returning to my current situation, if this fire also needs "Energy X" to burn, where is it getting its energy? I wasn't strong enough to make an area this large burn, but I would solve that mystery later. For now, I visualized the fire slowly extinguishing, this time because its fuel had completely exhausted.
Magically, the fire went out. What was even stranger was that it was absorbed into my body. The forest that had burned moments ago looked just fine. There were no animals, but the trees were intact, glowing a vibrant green, as if infused with new energy.
As I descended from the trees, I noticed the grass. The trees not only looked shinier; they had grown much taller, almost gigantic. And I also felt it. I was no longer a small black snake but a giant snake with ash-colored skin and scales.
I didn't know what that fire did, but it clearly made me a lot stronger.
I sighed again. I needed to reorganize my plans. I was no longer a small snake, but a giant snake, resembling an enormous anaconda.