SPLASH!
The freezing river swallowed me whole. The torrential current immediately dragged me under, battering my battered body against submerged rocks. I didn't fight it. I let myself be swept away, holding my breath for as long as I could. The water would wash away my scent. The current would displace my location.
A minute passed. My lungs began to burn.
I blindly grabbed a thick root dangling into the water, hauling my body into a narrow crevice beneath an overhanging riverbank.
I broke the surface. Just enough to expose my eyes and nose.
Silence.
High on the cliff above, the massive silhouette paced back and forth. Sniffing the air.
It had lost the trail.
I remained perfectly still. The freezing water bit into my bones, yet my heartbeat rapidly decelerated. Strange. There was no panic. Just a cold, detached observation: I was still alive.
Eventually, the bear left. I decided to move to the bank and haul myself out of the river.
I stopped behind a massive tree with aerial roots and slumped to the ground.
The sky above was a brilliant blue, a stark contrast to the terror I had just evaded. Purely out of habit, my hand reached into my pocket. The pack of cigarettes.
I braced myself to check the contents. It should have been the last one. Soaked and ruined by the water. Honestly, I should have run out this morning.
But when my fingers slipped inside... there was another cigarette.
And next to it, another.
The pack was firm. Completely full.
Infinite ammo? No. Infinite cigarettes.
I let out a low chuckle. A dry, humorless sound. "What kind of miracle is this, God?"
I lit one up. The smoke billowed upward, forming a perfect ring in the still air.
Then, I realized something else.
I stared down at my hand. It was still trembling slightly.
But not from exhaustion. Nor from the cold.
The crystals.
They weren't just sustenance. They were stimulants. Doping.
My body was being forced to operate far beyond normal human limits. Like an old engine flooded with rocket fuel.
It felt incredible.
I felt strong. Hyper-aware. Alive. Unlike anything I had ever felt in my old world.
But beneath that chemical euphoria, a cold dread began to creep in.
An engine pushed past its absolute limits tears itself apart.
How long could my human body endure this feral energy before my blood vessels ruptured? Or worse, before my cells mutated into something completely unrecognizable?
This world was handing me power, but it was slowly corroding my humanity in the process.
"Haa..."
I crushed the cigarette out against the damp earth. The ember hissed faintly before dying.
I stared at my open palm, the sheer, paralyzing unknown sprawling out before me.
I didn't know what my enemies were. I didn't know the rules of this savage new world. And the most terrifying part... as the feral energy continued to pulse relentlessly through my veins, I didn't know if I was still a human trying to survive, or just a new monster waiting to be born.