Day 1, 1:15 PM
I approached slowly.
She still hadn't noticed me. Sitting on the ground, she seemed to have just woken from a long sleep, palms flat against the moss, head slightly bowed. Her long leather boots carried the dust of this place, and her beige coat, falling to the knee, suited the shadowy, green atmosphere in a way that felt almost deliberate. Beneath the coat, a light skirt covered the top of her hips, and the black scarf wrapped around her neck — the one I had noticed back in the Bloc — only softened her face further.
Her chestnut hair with its orange highlights, tied up hastily, let two stray locks fall across her cheeks. Her hazel eyes, when she finally raised them, seemed to search the soul.
I stood there, wordless, unable to look away.
— Done staring at me for the past five minutes?
Her voice was sharp, clear, like a blunt slap back to reality. She had clocked me without even trying.
— Oh, sorry. I was trying to make sense of the situation. I wasn't really looking at you.
An obvious lie. Her gaze slid over me — half suspicious, half annoyed — as if she knew exactly what I'd been thinking.
I straightened up and swept our surroundings with my eyes. The ground was blanketed in moss, and around us stretched enormous shadows — trees, maybe, or something else. Nothing moved. The silence, broken only by our breathing, pressed down heavily.
— I don't see anyone else. I think we really have been separated from everyone.
I'd said it mostly to change the subject. She, still seated, seemed to think aloud.
— Looks like you're right. It's just the two of us, lost in the middle of nowhere.
No sound, no sign of life — just this vast, indefinable space. The place was far larger than Point A. Its edges were impossible to see, as if the world itself had stretched to infinity.
And then, a sound.
Beep.
The sharp chirp of an electronic device broke the silence.
— Am I dreaming, or is that coming from my arm?
— Yeah... same here.
I looked down and felt a faint vibration against my skin. In an instant, an object appeared on my forearm, as if it had materialized there. A watch.
— Why do I have a watch on my forearm?
The black surface seemed to almost breathe. I had the strange feeling it was watching me right back.
— It's not an ordinary watch. You can tell it was made by this organization. And it's impossible to remove.
Her tone had shifted — lower, more focused. She seemed to know more than me about all of this, or at least think faster.
— Do you know how to turn it on?
— No. I can't find any buttons.
She moved her arm in every direction, ran her fingers over the smooth surface without result. I tried in turn, more or less at random. Nothing. Just a black, silent surface.
I started tapping everywhere, frustrated. Then suddenly, the screen lit up.
— Look! I did it!
— How?
— I don't know. I just tapped everywhere.
She stared at me. Her look alone was enough to tell me exactly what she thought of my intellectual capacity.
I shrugged with a dumb grin at the corner of my mouth.
— At least it worked. That's the main thing.
— You didn't need to tap it like an idiot. You just had to hold your face in front of the screen. Like Face ID.
I let out a slightly embarrassed laugh. Of course. Face ID. Obvious.
On my watch, two indicators appeared: a counter showing "100," and a simplified map I didn't yet understand.
— The counter shows a hundred people, and the other element... I don't know what it is.
— It looks like a map.
— It must be the one 404 mentioned. Look... Champi-Brume. That's the name of the territory we landed in.
I squinted, trying to decipher the symbols.
— If I'm reading this right, it shows our position with the name of the location. We're in one of the famous territories. I can also see Point A marked — it's to the southwest of here.
I was gradually understanding how the map worked: visited territories appeared with a geometric shape, a color, and a name. The others remained completely black — zones still off-limits, or simply unexplored.
I raised my eyes from the watch.
The landscape around us seemed to have come alive in just a few minutes. Mist was slowly rising from the ground, giving the forest an almost unreal quality. Giant mushrooms in shades of violet emerged all around, their caps diffusing a soft glow, as if light were trying to push through their translucent flesh.
— Look! On the map, Champi-Brume is represented by a mushroom symbol!
She had that look of wonder — a child discovering something for the very first time. I couldn't help but smile.
— That doesn't surprise me much. The word "champi" is right there in the name, and sure enough... this place is full of mushrooms.
She looked up, glanced around, and let out a quiet laugh — as if trying to ease the tension still hanging between us.
— And Point A is represented by a square!
I let her have it. I got the sense she was trying to reassure herself, to make sense of the absurd world we'd just been dropped into. I understood. I needed the same thing.
But soon, her smile faded. Her eyes hardened.
— Alright. How do we get out of here, and where do we need to go?
I lowered my head, thinking.
— We could go back to Point A. See if there's anything to do there.
She held me in a silent look, then let out a slight sigh and gave a slow nod.
— Fine. I'll follow you.
She raised her hand toward me. Arm extended, gaze steady, almost warm. It wasn't just a sign of agreement — it was something like a pact.
— My name is Aria. Let's try to stay together until we find a way out of this place.
I reached out my hand in turn, with a somewhat nervous smile.
— I'm Casimir.
The contact was brief, but enough to remind me that I wasn't alone.
We started walking. Giant mushrooms rose all around us, some so tall they seemed to graze an invisible ceiling. Spores drifted down slowly, like strange golden snow. Each step cracked the damp earth beneath our feet.
The minutes stretched out. Silence fell again, marked only by our footsteps and the distant rustle of leaves.
Aria stopped abruptly.
— What's that, over there?
I squinted. An indistinct shadow was taking shape at the end of the path.
— That... that's not a mushroom.
My heart started beating faster.
— But it looks like a village, doesn't it?
— A village out here? So we're not alone after all!
A flicker of hope crossed her face. I couldn't share it as easily. Something felt too still, too clean.
— Let's wait. Go carefully. I don't think those are people like us.
— We can't stay here either. We have no supplies, nowhere to sleep. Maybe we'll find something there.
I looked at the ground, then at the sky — if it even was a sky — and gave a slow nod. She was right. We had no idea whether there was a day/night cycle here, and hunger was already making itself known.
We started walking again, more carefully this time.
The place revealed itself gradually. Rudimentary wooden houses, packed earth underfoot, lamps hanging from thick branches. The atmosphere reminded me of those old tales where the heroes always end up getting lost in a forest before stumbling on a village that shouldn't exist.
— It looks like a village straight out of a fairy tale.
I caught the smell of woodsmoke, of sap, of damp soil. Silhouettes moved further ahead. Men.
Aria, without a second's hesitation, walked toward them.
— Hello. Sorry to disturb you. We'd like to know where we are.
I hung back slightly, wary. The men stared at her. Four of them stepped forward. Bare-chested, skin marked by labor, each sporting a thick beard. Woodcutters, by the look of them. But none wore a watch. Not the slightest trace of technology on any of them.
— Are you strangers to our lands?
The deep voice of one of them resonated across the clearing. Aria hesitated a moment.
— I think we are, yes. We woke up a little further back, over there.
She pointed toward where we had landed. They exchanged glances among themselves, and then one of them stepped forward.
— Strangers like you... we've been waiting for them.
People from outside. What did that mean, exactly?
I decided to speak up.
— I'm Casimir, and the person you're speaking with is Aria. Someone forced us — along with others — to come here against our will. But I can see you're not one of us. Could you tell us who you are, and what your role is in this place?
A large, heavyset man spoke.
— Forgive our lack of manners. We are Brad, Ben, Bucodu, and Born. We were born here.
Their welcome was too warm. As if they had long been waiting for someone like us.
— Our chief... he's not really himself anymore, said one of them, lowering his voice. He disappeared, taken by something none of us understand. Some say he was infected by a mushroom. Others say he simply stopped being human. Since then, we've been trying to find him... but those who go out searching never come back.
A tightness gripped my throat. Infected. Disappeared. All of it sounded very bad.
Another member of the group spoke, his voice heavy with grief.
— Last week, one of our brothers — Bikao — went out again to look for our chief. He never came back.
Brad, Ben, Bucodu, Born, Bikao... I looked at the men one by one. I couldn't help myself.
— No offense, but... does your chief's name also start with a B?
Aria gave me a discreet nudge with her shoulder.
— Casimir, please, she whispered, annoyed.
— No, the man answered simply. His name is Abb.
Of course. The exception that proves the rule.
I caught Aria's eye. She had understood, just as I had: something far deeper lay hidden behind this story.
— We'd be glad to help you, I said carefully, but we're not exactly... equipped for this kind of situation.
— I beg you. We can only count on people from outside.
Those words echoed in my head.
Then the words of 404 came back to me, sharp and cold: In each territory, an enemy will be waiting to fight you. If you manage to defeat it, the territory will be secured and you will be able to complete quests, build a camp or a village. Quests will be given according to the progress of the territory — each one necessarily contains some, both before and after defeating the enemy.
I looked at the villagers. Their chief, gone for fifteen years. Men going out and never returning.
This was it. The first territory. The first test.
And if we did nothing, we wouldn't get anywhere.
The villager's words kept ringing in my head. Fifteen years of searching with nothing to show for it. And today, two strangers out of nowhere were going to have to get involved. I didn't know exactly what I felt — something between apprehension and a curiosity I couldn't quite smother. Aria remained guarded, eyes alert, but I could read in her gaze a faint compassion for these lost men.
— Alright. With something to neutralize him from a distance, it could work, I told the villager.
Aria turned to me, stunned.
— Are you sure about this? It's way too risky. We just got here, we don't know anything yet, she murmured.
I took a slow breath. She was right on the substance. But I could feel that we wouldn't get out of here by standing still with our arms crossed.
— If it's the only way to move forward, then that's what we do.
Brad, who seemed to lead the group, gave a nod.
— You'll need to see Briana. The house at the end of the path. She's the one who makes our tools.
We followed them through the village. The ground grew drier, the mist thinner. At the top of a small hill, an isolated house rose before us, surrounded by stacked logs and worn planks. Light filtered through the shutters, hinting at a shape moving inside.
Brad knocked at the door.
— Taking the liberty of coming in, little sis. These two will need tools to go looking for Chief Abb.
A woman's voice, firm but measured, answered from inside.
— Outsiders offering their help... it's been decades since that last happened. Alright. But fair warning: these tools are for single use. I'll need them back once your expedition is over.
Aria and I exchanged a glance, then answered almost in unison:
— Understood, ma'am.
The interior was surprising. Unlike the rest of the village, Briana's home was orderly, alive. Tools hung on the walls, bows lined up with care, a large workbench covered in gears, ropes, and fragments of polished wood.
There was nothing rustic about Briana. Tall, upright, hair tied back in a thick braid, her hands bore the marks of hard work, but her eyes were sharp and precise. She studied us — our clothes, our watches, our movements — and understood immediately that we were not from this world.
She laid out the situation plainly: how to find Abb, how to defeat him. The approach had to be from a distance — direct contact was lethal. A single scratch was enough to spread the infection. To track him, we needed to follow trails of whitened mushrooms, subtle signs of his passing, nearly invisible to anyone who didn't know what to look for.
I listened carefully. So did Aria.
The danger felt concrete now. Real.
Briana walked to her workbench and rested her hand on a bow.
— Choose what suits you. Take what you can handle.
Aria stepped forward at once, eyes bright at the sight of the bows hanging on the wall.
— I'd like to take one of those, if possible.
— Yes, that's actually an excellent choice, Briana replied with a slight smile.
I looked around. Axes, pickaxes, crude spears. Nothing I had any experience handling. Then, off to one side, I spotted a pair of thick rubber gloves.
I walked toward them.
— I think I'll go with these.
Briana raised an eyebrow.
— You're planning to fight bare-handed?
I shrugged.
— If Aria can hit him from a distance, someone has to be on the front line drawing his attention.
Aria's eyes went wide.
— She just told you not to go anywhere near him! Are you serious right now?
— It's not such a bad idea, actually, Briana cut in. I have a suit that could protect him. He draws the creature's attention up front while you shoot from range.
I gave Aria a quietly triumphant look.
She crossed her arms, feigning a superior air.
— Don't get too pleased with yourself.
Briana, amused by our exchange, brought herself back to seriousness.
— Brad and Born will come to get you tomorrow morning for training and to work out a strategy. I'll be there as well.
She looked us over one last time, as if making sure we understood the full weight of what we had just agreed to.
— You must both be exhausted. I'll take you to your room.
We followed her without a word.
Outside, the air was wrapped in a diffuse half-darkness. Spores continued to fall like golden rain, and the wind carried a smell of burning wood. I felt fatigue slowly washing over me.
Aria walked beside me, quiet. After a moment, without looking at me, she murmured:
— You could've asked my opinion before saying yes, you know.
— I know.
— And yet you didn't.
— I know that too.
A silence. Then, almost against her will, a breath that was nearly a laugh.
— You're really an idiot, Casimir.
I smiled in the dark.
Tomorrow, it would all truly begin.