Zo stood in the middle of a sea of green grass that wasn't just plants; it looked as if every blade had been polished with emerald water. The nature around him was provocatively perfect; the air was so pure it hurt the lungs that had grown accustomed to city dust and car exhaust, and the purple sky was completely clear of any aircraft or human trace. This world looked like a painting drawn by someone suffering from "perfection obsession," while Zo felt like the only polluted spot in this scene.
He lowered his gaze to his palms, which were trembling slightly—not out of fear, but because of that latent energy gnawing at his nerves. "Controlling anything with a single touch..." he whispered the words as if tasting a strange metallic flavor in his mouth. He repeated the sentence a second time, then a third, until the truth settled at the bottom of his mind. It wasn't an anesthesia dream before death, nor was it visual hallucinations; the terrifying pain that had torn his body apart moments ago, turning it into shreds before it was glued back together with a "finger snap" from that foolish entity, was real enough to make him believe anything now.
His family had been wiped out, his friends had become mere memories in a world where everyone's heads exploded with a small "pop." But the strange part? Zo didn't feel the urge to cry. He felt a vast emptiness, a black hole in his chest that could only be filled with one thing: messing with this world just as they had messed with him.
Zo bent down slowly and picked up a small, grey, and dull pebble that weighed nothing. He closed his eyes and imagined. He wasn't just imagining an external shape; he was building the entity's "chemistry" in his mind. He was looking for a luxury befitting a puppet that had snapped its strings and decided to become the mover. "I want a power that screams in the face of this world... I want something as black as the hearts of these Rulers."
The pebble began to vibrate violently between his fingers, and a sudden heat scorched his palm. Suddenly, threads of black and golden light exploded from the stone; the material expanded and swelled like magical dough. He saw bones grow from nothingness and intertwine with a satisfying cracking sound, then they were clothed in chiseled muscles pulsing with life, and shiny black skin emerged like molded night. In a few seconds, a horse stood before him that no human eye had ever seen. It wasn't an ordinary horse; it was massive, a huge mass, breathing hot steam from its nostrils like a dragon trapped in the body of a beast. And the "Absolute Touch" did not stop there; a saddle of pure, engraved gold emerged from the horse's back, and a bridle studded with silver glinted under that purple sun like a star fallen to earth.
Zo looked at his creation, passing his hand over the horse's neck to feel the heat of its blood and its pulse. "Wow... this is truly cool," he said with a cold smile. "You are not a horse; you are an arrogant pebble... I shall call you (Pebble)."
But when he looked at himself, he felt disgust. He was still wearing his torn school clothes, stained with his own blood from his "former" life before the reboot. The smell of death and the past emanated from him. He touched his shirt, imagining something simple. He didn't want shiny armor that made him look like a hero in a video game; he hated heroes. "I want to hide in broad daylight... I want to look ordinary to a terrifying degree."
The clothes transformed in an instant into a shirt and trousers of raw linen, comfortable and far from any luxury, then he imagined a conical straw hat, just like the hats farmers wear in remote areas. He placed it on his head, tilting its brim to sink his eyes into a mysterious shadow, leaving only his sarcastic smile visible.
He mounted "Pebble," feeling the power of the mighty muscles under his legs. "Take me to the nearest gathering of human beings," he ordered the horse in a calm voice that carried undeniable authority.
The horse took off like an arrow, at a speed that made the air whistle in Zo's ears. The trees and landscapes turned into blurry green and purple lines. "Wait! Slow down, you beast, I'm not in a race to break records!" Zo yelled, pulling the reins hard. The horse began to calm down, trotting with dignity along a dirt road that began to appear in the middle of the dense forest.
After about an hour of silent riding, a sound reached his ears, piercing the silence of the forest. A sharp female scream, followed by harsh, disgusting laughter reeking of dirty intentions.
Around a bend in the road, the "cliché" scene Zo had read about in hundreds of boring stories appeared: a young girl, looking like a simple villager's daughter, her clothes ragged and her face covered in dirt, trapped between five bandits. They were stereotypical to a ridiculous degree; disfigured faces, rusty swords, and cheap, lustful looks. They were approaching her slowly while she retreated, weeping, mourning her dark fate.
"Pebble" stopped automatically in front of the scene. The girl looked at Zo, the tears freezing in her eyes for a moment, and saw in him the savior who had descended from the sky. Her look said: "Please, save me from this nightmare." Even the bandits stopped, their laughter shrinking to be replaced by caution as they looked at that majestic horse and the mysterious rider in the straw hat.
Zo looked at the girl calmly... then looked at the bandits who had begun to raise their swords in preparation to confront him. Then, with complete coldness, he lowered his gaze to his horse.
"Son of a bitch!" Zo suddenly yelled, hitting the horse's neck with his hand in anger. "I told you to take me to a human gathering... not to a gathering of filth! Do you see me as a hero in a cheap ten-cent novel? Do I look like someone who cares about rescuing damsels? Go, you stupid beast!"
A stunned silence prevailed in the place. The girl opened her mouth in shock to the point that her scream froze in her throat, and the bandits stood like statues. They had been completely ignored, not even considered a threat or human beings worthy of being spoken to. Zo felt insulted that his horse thought, even for a moment, that his master might care about such a "farcical play."
The horse moved, passing the dirty human circle, leaving behind a cloud of dust covering their shocked faces. Zo didn't look back; for him, rescuing a girl meant "gratitude," and gratitude leads to "companionship," and companionship means "responsibility." And responsibility was the prison he had just escaped from.
While moving away, Zo felt a strange euphoria rising in his chest. "This is true freedom," he thought, leaning back, resting on the golden saddle. "No moral laws, no society watching me, no author forcing me to be the good, boring person. I am the master and the slave; I am the law and the ruin." He felt greatness rushing through his body like magic, as if he held this entire universe between his finger joints. The sun was setting, coloring the horizon with fiery colors, and the scene was perfect for a legendary hero riding towards his great destiny.
After hours of riding in which Zo enjoyed imagining how he would control this world, high wooden walls and primitive watchtowers appeared in the distance. "The village," Zo thought victoriously. He prepared in his mind to make a grand entrance, an entrance that would make the guards kneel in terror, the women whisper in admiration, and the men tremble with jealousy. He wanted to appear as a "Final Boss" character that appears at the beginning of a game to shock everyone.
But, it seemed that the world—or perhaps that entity Zo had mocked—had a backup plan to break this arrogance.
A few meters from the main village gate, where the guards and passersby had already begun to notice that luxurious horse which did not match the cheap straw hat, "Pebble" decided to stop. Not a gradual stop, but a sudden, sharp stop, as if its hooves had been embedded in reinforced concrete.
Because of his euphoria and false greatness, Zo was not holding the reins, but rather leaving his hands in the air as if greeting an imaginary audience.
The laws of physics, which apparently still work in this damn world, did not spare the "master of reality." His body propelled forward like a projectile due to inertia. Zo flew through the air, and in those fractions of a second where time seemed to slow down, he saw the surprised looks of the guards turn into muffled laughter.
"BOOM."
Zo collided with the ground directly on his face, in the middle of a pile of dirt and dry straw in front of the village gate. His straw hat rolled far away to settle under the feet of one of the guards, and all his dignity that he had built in his imagination over the past hours vanished.
Zo remained lying on his face, feeling the taste of mud mixed with straw in his mouth. The pain was minor thanks to his enhanced body, but his pride was bleeding profusely. As for the horse, "Pebble," it remained standing behind him in complete coldness, breathing calm steam, as if, had it been human, it would have exploded with laughter at its owner's stupidity.
"Damn this world... and damn the pebble that created you," Zo murmured while still stuck to the ground, unwilling to lift his face and confront the eyes watching him. "This is the true farce... and I am now its tasteless joke."