Time seemed to slow down.
Kaito could see every detail of the creature's descent—the way its muscles bunched beneath its matted fur, the individual drops of saliva flying from its jaws, the hunger in those glowing yellow eyes.
His body moved without thinking.
He rolled to the side, and the creature's jaws snapped shut on empty air where his head had been a second before. It landed heavily, claws digging into the earth, and Kaito scrambled backward on his hands and feet like a crab.
The wolf-thing turned toward him with frightening speed, but Kaito's hand had already found a rock—a sharp-edged stone about the size of his fist. He didn't remember picking it up. His body had just... moved.
The creature lunged again.
Kaito swung the rock with every ounce of strength he had.
The stone connected with the side of the creature's skull with a sickening crack. The impact sent shockwaves up Kaito's arm, but the creature stumbled, its charge interrupted. It shook its head, dazed.
Kaito didn't wait. He scrambled to his feet and ran, still clutching the bloody rock.
His lungs burned. His legs felt like they were made of lead. He'd never been a runner—that dismal Speed stat of 5 was proving painfully accurate. Behind him, he could hear the creature recovering, hear its claws scraping against the ground as it gave chase once more.
'I can't outrun it,' Kaito's mind supplied with crystal clarity. 'I'm going to die.'
But even as the thought formed, another part of him—a part that sounded suspiciously like Professor Tanaka during a particularly difficult exam—spoke up.
'Then don't run. Think. Analyze. Find the solution.'
Kaito's eyes darted around frantically as he ran. Trees, bushes, rocks, a stream ahead—
The stream.
Water meant slippery rocks. Uneven footing. If he could get the creature into the water, maybe he could use the terrain to his advantage.
It was a terrible plan. But it was the only plan he had.
Kaito veered toward the stream, his shoes slipping on the muddy bank as he splashed into the shallow water. It was freezing cold, reaching up to his knees. He turned to face the creature, rock still raised, his whole body trembling.
The wolf-thing burst through the undergrowth and paused at the edge of the stream, its yellow eyes fixed on him. It growled, a sound that vibrated in Kaito's chest.
"Come on," Kaito whispered, though whether he was talking to the creature or himself, he wasn't sure. "Come on."
The creature stepped into the water.
Its paw hit a slick rock and slipped slightly. Not much, but enough. Kaito's mind catalogued the information automatically: the creature was heavy, probably close to three hundred kilograms. The water reduced its traction. It was powerful but not agile in this terrain.
The wolf-thing advanced more carefully now, testing each step. Kaito backed away, keeping the distance between them constant, watching its movements.
'Strength: 4,' he thought bitterly. 'I can't overpower it. Dexterity: 6. Slightly better than my other physical stats, but still not enough. Think, Kaito. What do you have that it doesn't?'
'Intelligence: 8.'
The creature lunged, committing to a full attack. Kaito threw himself to the side, using the water's resistance to help change his direction. The creature's jaws snapped shut inches from his shoulder.
But this time, Kaito had been ready.
As the creature passed him, thrown off-balance by its missed attack, Kaito swung the rock down with both hands onto the back of its skull.
The crack was louder this time. The creature yelped—an almost dog-like sound—and collapsed into the stream, water splashing everywhere.
Kaito stood there, chest heaving, rock raised for another strike.
The creature didn't move.
Five seconds passed. Ten. Twenty.
Still no movement.
Kaito took a cautious step closer. The creature's eyes had closed, and he couldn't see any rise and fall of breathing. Blood—a strange dark purple color—leaked from the wound on its head, mixing with the stream water.
"Is it... dead?"
As if in response, the creature's body began to glow. Soft at first, then brighter, until Kaito had to shield his eyes. When the light faded, the body was gone. In its place was a small crystal, about the size of a marble, pulsing with a faint purple light.
The system screen reappeared.
**[Combat Complete]**
**[Enemy Defeated: Mistwood Wolf (F)]**
**[Analyzing...]**
**[Gene Detected]**
**[Fragmented Gene: Speed (F)]**
**[Attempt Assimilation?]**
**[Yes] [No]**
Kaito stared at the screen, his brain still catching up with the fact that he was alive. Gene assimilation. The option he'd chosen had been about making it easier to absorb Genes. Was this what it meant?
His hand, still shaking from adrenaline, reached out and touched the floating crystal. It was warm, almost hot, and felt like it was vibrating at a frequency just below what he could hear.
"Yes," he said hoarsely. "Assimilate it."
The crystal dissolved into particles of light that flowed into his hand, up his arm, spreading through his body like liquid fire. It didn't hurt, exactly, but it was intensely uncomfortable—like every cell in his body was being rearranged.
**[Assimilation Successful]**
**[Gene Absorbed: Fragmented Gene - Speed (F)]**
**[Current Gene State: Soft]**
**[Absorption Rate: 50%]**
**[Calculating bonus...]**
**[+1 Speed]**
**[+1 Dexterity]**
Kaito gasped as the sensation faded. He felt... different. Lighter somehow. He looked down at his legs and they seemed exactly the same, but when he took an experimental step, he moved faster than he expected, almost stumbling.
The screen updated his stats:
**[Physical: 5]**
- Strength: 4
- Constitution: 5
- Dexterity: 7
- Speed: 6
"It's real," Kaito whispered. "The Genes are real. I can actually get stronger."
A new message appeared:
**[Title Unlocked: First Blood]**
**[Effect: +1 Will for surviving first combat encounter]**
**[Updated Stats:]**
**[Will: 5]**
Kaito sat down heavily in the stream, not caring that his uniform was getting soaked. His hands were still shaking, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he felt sick to his stomach.
He'd just killed something. Maybe it had been trying to kill him first, maybe it wasn't even fully real, but he'd still taken a life. The weight of that settled on his shoulders like a physical thing.
"Seven days," he said to himself. "I have to survive seven days of this."
The forest around him seemed to grow darker, more threatening. Every shadow could hide another creature. Every rustling leaf could signal danger.
Kaito pulled out his phone on instinct, then laughed bitterly when he saw it had no signal. Of course it didn't. He was in some kind of alternate dimension or game world or mass hallucination. Cell towers probably didn't work here.
He opened his messages anyway, scrolling through the last conversation with Renjiro and Daichi. Their jokes and memes felt like they were from another lifetime.
'Are they here too?' Kaito wondered suddenly. 'Did everyone get pulled into this, or just me?'
The system had said "Trial Ascension" and mentioned being "selected." That implied others had been selected too. Maybe his friends were somewhere in this forest right now, dealing with their own monsters.
Or maybe they were still back in the real world, wondering what happened to him.
Kaito stood up, water dripping from his clothes. The sun was starting to dip lower in the sky—he'd lost track of how much time had passed, but it had to be late afternoon at least.
"Shelter," he said aloud, trying to focus on practical concerns instead of spiraling into panic. "I need to find shelter before it gets dark. And water. And food."
He looked around the stream. The water seemed clean enough, and at least here he'd have a source of hydration. As for food...
His stomach growled, as if on cue.
"Right. Food. Great." Kaito had exactly zero survival skills. His idea of roughing it was staying at a hotel without room service. "I'm going to starve to death in a magical forest. That's just perfect."
He started walking along the stream, heading downstream on the theory that water sources attracted life. Maybe he'd find berries or something edible. Or maybe he'd find more wolf-things and get eaten.
'Stop thinking like that,' he scolded himself. 'You survived one fight. You can survive another. You just have to be smart about it.'
After about twenty minutes of walking, Kaito spotted something unusual—a cave entrance, partially hidden behind a curtain of vines and moss. It was small, maybe only big enough for him to squeeze through, but it opened into what looked like a larger cavern beyond.
He approached cautiously, rock still clutched in his hand even though it was more psychological comfort than actual weapon at this point.
"Hello?" he called into the cave. "Any monsters home?"
Silence.
Kaito poked his head through the entrance, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dimness. The cavern was maybe three meters across, with a relatively flat floor and a ceiling high enough that he could stand upright. More importantly, it was empty and dry.
"Okay," he said, setting down his bag. "This'll work."
He spent the next hour gathering firewood—or trying to. Every stick he picked up seemed either too wet or too rotten, and he had no idea how to actually start a fire without matches anyway. Eventually he gave up and settled for piling some of the dryer branches near the cave entrance.
As the sun set, the temperature dropped rapidly. Kaito huddled in the back of the cave, hugging his knees to his chest, shivering in his damp uniform.
The forest at night was full of sounds. Strange calls and howls echoed in the darkness. Things moved through the undergrowth. Kaito's eyes stayed glued to the cave entrance, terrified that at any moment something would appear.
The system screen flickered to life, casting a faint blue glow.
**[Day 1 Complete]**
**[Days Remaining: 6]**
**[Survival Tip: Fire keeps predators away]**
"Oh, now you tell me," Kaito muttered.
He didn't sleep that night. Every time he started to doze off, a sound would jolt him awake, his heart racing.
As dawn finally began to break, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange, Kaito made himself a promise.
He wasn't going to just survive this trial. He was going to figure out what the hell was going on, why he'd been selected, and how to get back home.
But first, he needed to learn how to make fire.
And maybe find some food.
And definitely find better weapons than a rock.
The list of things he needed to do seemed overwhelming. But Kaito had spent his entire life tackling impossible problems one step at a time. This was just another test.
A test where failure meant death, sure.
But still just a test.