CHAPTER 40: THE LIVING FOREST

The wooden teeth grew closer with each passing second.

The roots and branches, scraped Ishiki’s naked body against the earth. The branch around his waist constricted tighter, making each breath a labored gasp.

"Damn it! Damn it! Think!"

The tree’s mouth yawned wider. Darkness beckoned from within. The wooden teeth glistened with viscous fluid that might have been sap or saliva.

The distance grew smaller, very fast.

Four meters... three meters.

Panic threatened to consume rational thought entirely. Ishiki tried pushing the branches away, but it was no use, he was too weak to push the thick bark.

Three meters.

’Shit! Do something, Do something bastard!’

He let out a deep breath trying to calm down. But how could anyone maintain composure while being gift-wrapped for a carnivorous tree? His teeth ground together hard enough to make his jaw ache as he twisted his neck, watching the maw expand to accommodate its incoming meal.

’I need to stay away from it...’

Something clicked in his mind.

He stopped resisting against the branches. Stopped wasting energy on futile resistance and instead, he shot his right hand towards the tree, palm open and jaw clenched tight.

Two meters.

He summoned [Black Tether] with a mental command and the obsidian spear carved from a single piece of midnight-black material materialized in his hand.

One meter.

The familiar texture of the shaft against his palm was like finding an anchor in a storm, something solid when everything else was chaos.

The tree felt like it was laughing with contempt. The melody swelled triumphantly, notes climbing toward crescendo like an orchestra reaching the climax.

Ishiki’s arm drew back with every ounce of system-enhanced strength his sixteen-year-old body could muster.

The maw opened wider, preparing to close around him, to drag him into digestive darkness where no one would ever find his bones.

Then at the last moment, Ishiki gritted and thrust the spear.

Black Tether’s obsidian tip shot forward like a bullet, aimed directly between the wooden teeth, toward whatever passed for the tree’s throat.

The spear entered the mouth and sank several inches before stopping.

The sudden halt sent a disorienting pain around the part where the tree branch was constricted on his abdomen.

But Ishiki was not so happy. Because he had just made the worst discovery of his short and increasingly bizarre life.

The spear didn’t stop because it had hit wood. No—The resistance felt too unnatural, like piercing muscle and tissue that had blood flowing through veins despite having bark for skin.

"Creepy bastard, let go of me!"

Ishiki pushed the spear even further, inside. Biting into the eerie flesh like interior of the tree monster.

The tree screamed.

Suddenly Ishiki felt the grip around his belly getting weaker. A pale smile found its way to his face. Maybe the bastard will leave him just like that.

Then however, the branch thrashed without any warning and threw Ishiki like a rock from a catapult, tumbling end over end, the world became a nauseating blur of yellow leaves and black sky.

Now, to Ishiki trees suddenly looked far more threatening than they had seconds ago.

His back struck something solid with bone-jarring force.

CRACK!

Something snapped. For a second Ishiki thought his spine broke, but thanks to the system enhanced body, it was still holding. His breath came in gasps.

’Crap!

’

A window materialized in front of him.

[Welcome to NEXUS]

[The Scenario has started]

Ishiki’s face went red with anger and frustration. "Welcome my ass!"

But then he noticed the second notification, and his eyes narrowed. The phrasing said ’The’ Scenario, not ’Your’ Scenario. That subtle distinction flared a faint hope in his chest—the possibility that he wasn’t alone.

Then, another notification materialized.

========================

⌜Scenario Details⌟

Total Participants - 2,000

Objective - Kill the Emperor of Aethelburg

Rewards - 20,000 Data Fragments, 50,000 NC, Skill upgrade.

========================

Ishiki’s pupil shrank, he was happy, frustrated, afraid and confused. But all things aside, he was more Awestruck than anything else.

"Two... two thousand!"

That...wasn’t that a bit too much people. How large was this scenario exactly.

Unfortunately he didn’t had time to be wondering about such things. After all he was in middle of becoming food for trees. It sounded... absurd. But then again, what was not absurd in this world now.

A growl froze him mid thought.

Then a few dozen snarls accompanied it. Each passing second, the soothing music now felt like the music of death to his ears.

Ishiki looked around and became paler than a corpse.

’Oh no! Oh hell no!’

All around him, all the trees that populated the forest came alive. Their eyes, or whatever they had —were fixed on him.

Ishiki didn’t waste time thinking. There was nothing to think about, really. The solution was singular and obvious, that offered no guarantee of success.

Run.

He scrambled to his feet and sprinted toward... somewhere. There wasn’t exactly a clear exit from this place. As far as Ishiki could see, nothing existed except trees upon trees upon more trees, their golden leaves still swaying in wind.

And the farther he ran, the more he saw—the details that made despair bloom in his heart with each pounding step.

Every single tree in this cursed forest was alive. Every trunk concealed a mouth. Every branch reached him to tear his flesh apart.

The entire forest... was a feeding ground for these monsters.

’Screw i, Screw it... Screw it all.’

Ishiki’s only luck was that he had [Ghost Blade] that made detecting him harder, but that didn’t work much because he was running and how can a running object be ignored.

His second stroke of luck was that the trees seemed to be fighting each other. They battled amongst themselves for the privilege of consuming his flesh, branches tangling and roots tripping one another in their eagerness to claim the prize.

Suddenly a branch shot from his left and bit him on the ankle. Ishiki fell because of the sudden movement, the branch was actually biting him, using splinters as a teeth and sucking blood.

’What kind of spooky trees are these! Hell... I heard trees gave human’s life.’

He summoned [Black Tether] and jabbed the branch a few times cutting the mouth down, without looking at his wound he stood up again and ran. Behind him, he could see the branch already regenerating, but he ran.

Some distance ahead, he detected a large clearing through [Ghost Blade]’s enhanced perception. That open space represented his only salvation—the sole potential escape from this canopy of carnivorous timber.

So, for the sole purpose of reaching the clearing... Ishiki ran, because he refused to die as soon as the scenario started.

His whole body was battered and painted in dozens of bleeding scratches, and the clearing was getting nearer and nearer.

THUD!

A tremor ran through the earth, Ishiki almost tripped and fell but managed to keep his balance... And what he saw after stabilizing made his blood freeze despite his overheated exertion.

A figure, twice as big as him and shrouded in shadows, landed at some distance in front of him.

His path to salvation had been cut off.