Pain was the first thing Jin expected when he opened his senses.
Instead, there was nothing.
No weight. No breath. No heartbeat pounding in his ears. The absence of pain itself was unsettling, like waking up after anesthesia and realizing something vital had been removed. Jin tried to inhale sharply, only to discover he didn't have lungs to command. He tried to blink, but there were no eyelids. Panic surged through him in a raw, instinctive wave.
Move.
The thought screamed through him.
Nothing happened.
Jin attempted to scream, to thrash, to do anything that would prove he still existed in a way that made sense. But his body—if he even had one—refused every command. He was frozen, locked in place by a force far greater than paralysis.
That was when he noticed the smell.
Earth. Damp soil mixed with moss and decaying leaves. The air was heavy with the scent of greenery, sharp and alive, filling a space he could not breathe into. Sound followed soon after: distant birds calling, the rustle of leaves stirred by a passing wind, and somewhere far off, the echo of movement that didn't belong to nature.
I'm… outside?
His awareness stretched outward, expanding without limbs or eyes. It was as if his senses were smeared across space rather than focused in a single point. Jin could feel the sunlight touching him—not as warmth on skin, but as energy soaking into something deep and immobile.
That was when the truth hit him.
He wasn't standing.
He wasn't lying down.
He was rooted.
"No… no, no, no—" Jin thought wildly, panic escalating as realization set in. "This isn't real. This is some messed-up hallucination. I died, didn't I? This is just my brain firing off nonsense before it shuts down."
But the world did not fade.
It sharpened.
He felt the ground beneath him—not beneath his feet, but within him. Long, branching sensations stretched downward into the soil, spreading wide and deep like fingers burrowing into the earth. They pulsed faintly, drawing something nourishing and cold upward.
Roots.
"I'm… a tree," Jin thought, horrified.
The memory returned in brutal clarity.
The voice.
The wheel.
The laughter.
A tree. You're going to be a tree.
"Son of a—" Jin mentally cursed, if only to hold onto something familiar. "You've got to be kidding me."
A sharp, wet sound snapped his attention outward.
Someone groaned.
Jin focused, pulling his awareness toward the noise. A man lay collapsed at the base of his trunk, blood soaking into the forest floor. His clothes were torn and darkened with red, his chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven breaths. One of his legs bent at an angle that made Jin flinch instinctively, even though he no longer had nerves to flinch with.
The man coughed, and crimson spilled from his lips.
"What a nice little tree…" the man muttered weakly, his voice hoarse and strained. His eyes were glassy, unfocused, staring up at Jin's bark. "As I die… you're just born."
Jin's thoughts spiraled.
He can talk. He's alive. That means I'm not hallucinating. That means this world is real. That means—
The man shuddered violently, his hand twitching as he tried and failed to push himself upright. His fingers dug into the dirt near Jin's roots, smearing blood across the soil.
"Hey," Jin thought desperately, directing every ounce of will he had toward the dying stranger. "Hey, don't die here. Not like this. Move. Get help. Do something."
The man couldn't hear him.
Jin tried again, forcing his awareness outward, attempting to shake his trunk, to rustle his leaves violently enough to draw attention. The wind picked up slightly, but it wasn't him. It was just the forest breathing.
"Damn it!" Jin thought. "I can't even warn him? I can't do anything?"
Footsteps echoed nearby.
Multiple.
Jin felt them before he heard them clearly—the vibration traveling through the ground and into his roots. The man on the ground tensed, fear flashing across his face.
"They're… still coming…" the man whispered.
Figures burst through the undergrowth moments later—three of them, dressed in dark, unfamiliar clothing. Their movements were sharp and efficient, eyes scanning the area like predators finishing a hunt.
"There," one of them said. "He collapsed."
The man tried to crawl backward, dragging himself against Jin's trunk. His blood soaked into Jin's roots, warm and thick. Jin recoiled mentally, disgusted and terrified, but he couldn't escape the sensation.
"Please…" the man croaked. "I… I won't say anything."
One of the pursuers laughed coldly.
"You already said too much."
A blade flashed.
Jin felt it.
Not the cut itself, but the sudden surge of warmth as blood spilled freely into the soil. His roots absorbed it instinctively before he even understood what was happening. Something foreign, heavy, and powerful flowed into him along with the blood, sending a shock through his awareness.
The man's body went limp.
Silence followed, broken only by the forest's quiet indifference.
The killers lingered for a moment, scanning the surroundings.
"No witnesses," one muttered.
His gaze briefly passed over Jin's trunk.
Jin froze—not physically, but mentally—terrified that somehow, impossibly, he would be discovered. But the man scoffed softly.
"Just a tree."
They left.
The forest swallowed them whole, and the world settled back into stillness.
Jin was alone.
Or at least, he thought he was.
A strange sensation rippled through him. The warmth from the blood didn't fade. Instead, it sank deeper, spreading along his roots and upward through his trunk. Something changed inside him—an unfamiliar heaviness, like potential coiling and tightening.
Then—
A sound rang out.
Not in the forest.
Inside him.
[Assimilation detected.]
[Foreign Essence absorbed.]
[Initializing dormant system…]
Jin nearly lost his mind.
"A system?!" he thought. "You're telling me now I get one?! After I'm a tree?!"
The voice was neutral, mechanical, completely unlike the mocking tone from before.
[Host status: Plant-type lifeform.]
[Species: Unclassified Sapling.]
[Growth Stage: Infant.]
Jin processed that slowly.
"Unclassified… sapling?" he repeated mentally. "So I'm not even a proper tree yet?"
[Correct.]
"…You can hear my thoughts?"
[System integrated with host consciousness.]
Jin laughed hysterically inside his mind.
"Of course you are."
The image of Jake's tear-streaked face flashed through him—his apology cut short by death. Guilt twisted sharply in Jin's thoughts.
"I died saving him," Jin thought quietly. "And this is what I get."
[Query: Does the host regret chosen reincarnation path?]
Jin paused.
The question hit harder than expected.
He remembered the truck. The impact. The way his body flew through the air. The pain that barely had time to register before everything went dark.
Did he regret it?
"No," Jin answered honestly. "I don't."
[Acknowledged.]
A soft hum vibrated through his trunk.
[Blood essence assimilation complete.]
[Acquired Trait: Minor Vitality Absorption.]
[Trait description: Absorbs residual life energy from organic matter within root range.]
Jin blinked—mentally.
"So… I get stronger when things die near me?"
[In simplified terms: Yes.]
"That's messed up," Jin muttered. "But I guess I don't get to complain."
The forest darkened as time passed. Jin couldn't sleep, couldn't close his senses. Hours blurred together in a slow, agonizing crawl. He learned what hunger felt like without a stomach—an emptiness in his roots that sunlight and soil nutrients barely satisfied.
Occasionally, animals passed nearby. Jin felt their steps, their warmth, their life pulsing vividly compared to his own static existence.
He wondered if Jake was crying over his body.
He wondered if Bella ever heard what happened.
The thoughts hurt more than the realization that he might stand in this forest for decades, centuries, unmoving.
Then something else changed.
A faint pulse echoed through the ground.
Not footsteps.
Something heavier.
Something dangerous.
Jin's leaves trembled as shadows fell over him once more.
Whatever this world was… it clearly wasn't done with him yet.