Pov: Vik
I am awake now after a chaotic day yesterday. First, I met two injured strangers. I helped one of them, trying to save his life, and then I gathered some fruits for them to eat. Later, when the boy Lu Xiaoran woke up, he mentioned something about a giant snake being in the afterlife and then fell asleep again.
I'm not complaining, but neither of them really thanked me. It hurts to see someone you saved faint at the sight of you. I get that anyone sane would faint seeing a giant snake holding various fruits.
After that, Roman and I decided to sleep for the rest of the night and continue our conversation in the morning. Now that I'm awake, I see old man Roman standing close to Lu Xiaoran. I crawled over, and to my surprise, Lu Xiaoran had woken up. He stared at Roman with sadness and said, "Why, Roman? What happened to you? Why did you die too? I told you to avoid danger and go to my mom with my body."
I think he still believes he's dead and this is the afterlife. Roman replied, "No, young master. We aren't dead yet. We owe our lives to Vik here. Thanks to his kindness, we get to see another day. We are in his territory. He is the one who healed your wound."
As he said this, he pointed at me. Suddenly, I felt a bit embarrassed by the praise, but I smiled and crawled over to them. I said, "Hi, I'm Vik. I found you both in a tough spot, so as a decent person, no, as a good snake, I helped you. There's no need to thank me, but I'd like you to tell me about this world and your situation since I'm new here and haven't explored outside this place."
I started asking them about the world and its history. We began a long question-and-answer session. From what I learned, my thoughts about this world were wrong. Their history is similar to Earth's until a thousand years ago when a catastrophe struck. According to Roman, strange portals appeared all over this world called blue star in its native language. These portals released fierce monsters that killed every living creature they encountered.
Fortunately, this world's technology was on par with Earth's modern technology; in fact, they were very similar. I can even think of this world as a parallel to Earth. Back to the topic. At that time, the weapons this world had were enough to fend off the monster siege but not for long. More powerful monsters began to emerge. Along with this danger came an opportunity. Humans in this world encountered a strange power called spiritual energy, or Qi. This event marked a new chapter in their history, as they could study and harness this magical energy, which gave them supernatural powers to fight against the beasts. The power system started with chosen individuals awakening their abilities, and they were further divided into ranks from F to S based on their strength.
But all this was just the first phase of the catastrophe. The second phase brought an apocalypse-like situation. The beasts from the portals began appearing naturally in the world, and new land masses emerged. The land area of this world multiplied, and the satellite communication humans had set up became unresponsive. This situation was dire for humanity, leading to a loss of almost 90% of the population. But help came, not from another strange power, but from their own kind.
The new land masses contained not only beasts but also humans—humans from another world. As this world expanded, it connected with different worlds and collided with them. This collision merged it with two worlds: one focused on cultivation, where people flew on swords seeking immortality, and the other was a magic world filled with wizards and knights. Both worlds became part of blue star, transforming into the eastern and western continents.
There are also northern and southern continents, with the northern continent inhabited by the original humans and the southern continent primarily ruled by beasts.
As I said, humans from both worlds shared their knowledge of their power systems with the original humans, but not without conflict. However, they eventually agreed to unite against the beasts and formed the United World Alliance. Following a complicated history and a hundred years of fighting, humans regained control. The terrifying part is that this world is still growing, and experts predict a third phase of the catastrophe.
Currently, we are on the northern continent, and from what Roman told me, we are near the Great Fire Forest, a forbidden area. It's called this because a great fire erupted there a hundred years ago. This forest is home to many beasts, and the fire spread rapidly, being impossible to contain. Seeing this anomaly, the United World Council decided to surround it and summoned their strongest forces to build a great wall with spatial restrictions.
Sigh! I had no idea how my small experiment could create such a huge anomaly in this world, and it seems I've been asleep for a hundred years. I'm beginning to think I should be responsible for the disaster in this large forest. How can I atone for my mistakes? Mom, Dad, please forgive me. Your son is a monster—not in body, but because of the crimes he committed.
After begging for forgiveness to my deceased parents, I turned to Roman and asked, "Now that I understand the general history of this world, can you tell me about your situation? Why were you ambushed, and who is trying to kill you?"