Opening his eyes, he found himself in a strange and unfamiliar environment.
The last thing he could remember was dozing off while peeling an apple. Yet somehow, he had awakened in a completely unfamiliar place.
To make matters worse, he was in some kind of strange looking forest.
The trees were unusually dark, their leaves carrying a deep, almost black hue. As far as his eyes could see, nearly everything in the forest seemed to possess some shade of black. A thin layer of fog drifted between the trees, further obscuring his surroundings.
The entire place felt strange.
Alien.
There was something about the forest that gave him an eerie, unsettling feeling.
"How weird."
He tried to make sense of what was happening, but nothing added up.
Then, a strange thought crossed his mind.
Have I been summoned? Or somehow transmigrated to another world?
He immediately dismissed the idea.
No. That doesn't make sense. There should be a logical explanation for this.
He paused for a moment before another possibility occurred to him.
Yeah... I might have been kidnapped.
That seemed more plausible.
But who would want to kidnap me and dump me in a forest like this?
Muttering a curse under his breath he said. "This is so annoying."
He exhaled in and out.
Panicking wouldn't help at the moment, it will get in his way. This he learned the hard way years ago.
He forced his breathing into four beats, holding four, releasing four. The was an old, basic but effective technique.
He went over everything in his mind. What had he been doing before he passed out? Had he noticed anything unusual? What could have caused him to lose consciousness? And, most importantly, why had he been brought to this strange forest?
After thinking about it for a while, another possibility emerged.
Maybe the Shadow Department is behind this.
The thought wasn't entirely unreasonable.
The organization he worked for had a strange way of doing things, especially when it came to classified operations.
After wards they have a reputation for and unorthodox way of training exercises. He had once woke up in a locked cargo container with no memory of how he got there. That had been a test too.
But this, a strange looking forest? .
He frowned.
'But this might be the weirdest and strangest thing so far they have done if truly its them.' he thought.
Still, whether the Shadow Department was responsible or not didn't really matter at the moment.
"Well, it doesn't matter."
He tightened his grip.
"All I have to do is survive and pass the test. Whatever they have in mind, whatever they've planned this time around, I'll beat them at their own game."
His voice carried conviction.
If this really was some kind of test, then he would simply have to survive it.
"Now, what am I supposed to do?"
He looked around the forest.
"What is it that they want us to do?"
His eyes narrowed.
"I'm obviously not the only one here. There must be others somewhere. All I have to do is find a clue to their location, then come up with a plan to pass the test."
The moment he finished speaking, a voice suddenly rang out.
"Welcome, Shad Darc."
Shad froze.
The words came from everywhere at ones.
" of the chosen hero ."
For several seconds, he didn't move.
His mind struggled to process what he had just heard.
What the hell?
Was he dreaming?
Was this some kind of advanced psychological experiment conducted by the Shadow Department?
He couldn't tell.
"Calm down. Think this through."
Shad closed his eyes and took a slow breath, inhaling deeply before exhaling.
What was that voice?
He couldn't tell where it had come from.
It hadn't simply sounded inside his head.
He had heard it from outside as well and settled within his bones like a vibration gentle and serene.
Yet somehow, it felt as though the entire world itself had spoken to him.
The voice had been serene and calm, completely devoid of hostility. There had been something strangely gentle about it, like the morning breeze against his face.
Even its gender was impossible to determine.
If someone asked Shad whether the voice belonged to a man or a woman, he wouldn't know what to say.
It somehow felt like both.
A gentleman and a noble lady speaking with one voice.
The more Shad thought about it, the less certain he became that the Shadow Department was responsible.
Who knows? Maybe they've created something new.
His expression became thoughtful and confused at the same time .
They could be testing some kind of weird experimental technology to see whether it actually works.
The organization had been working on several classified projects, some of which were so secret that even Shad knew nothing about them.
I wonder what they've been working on this time.
Unfortunately, without any information or clues, there was nothing more he could do except find a way out of the forest.
"Damn. Just how am I supposed to get out of this weird forest?"
He looked toward the trees.
"And why the hell is it so hot?"
Shad sighed.
Despite the fog and the dark appearance of the forest, he had expected the temperature to be relatively cold.
Instead, it was the complete opposite.
The heat was intense.
It wasn't unbearable for Shad, but the temperature was still well above forty degrees Celsius.
And that was strange.
Very strange.
The only thing he had with him was his dagger—the same dagger he had been using to peel his apple before whatever had happened to him.
After thinking for a while, Shad decided to start moving.
If there was no immediate explanation for where he was, then the best thing he could do was search for one.
Perhaps he would find another person.
Perhaps he would find a clue.
Or, at the very least, he might find a way out.
So he walked.
For hours, Shad wandered through the forest without knowing where he was going.
The deeper he went, the more frustrated he became.
There were no people.
No signs of civilization.
No obvious path.
Nothing.
Then
Shad abruptly stopped.
A low, beastly growl echoed somewhere among the trees.
It wasn't particularly loud, but it was clear enough for him to hear.
Shad's expression changed.
"What was that?"
He waited.
Nothing.
After a couple of seconds, he narrowed his eyes.
"That sounded like a bear."
He paused.
"Perhaps a grizzly bear."
His brows furrowed.
"But what would a bear be doing in a forest like this?"
Of course, there was no one around to answer him.
He was completely alone.
About ten seconds later, Shad caught sight of something through the fog.
A large figure stood among the trees.
It was roughly one hundred and fifty meters away, and the fog made it difficult to see clearly.
At first glance, it looked like a bear.
At least, it seemed to resemble one.
Instinctively, Shad reached for his dagger.
The weapon was a fine black blade made from a special material developed by the organization he worked for.
He didn't know exactly what the material was made of. He only knew that it was considerably harder and more durable than conventional steel.
Of course, that wasn't particularly surprising.
Earth had advanced considerably in both technology and material sciences.
Right now, however, none of that mattered.
Shad kept his eyes on the creature.
As it approached, the distance between them steadily decreased.
One hundred meters.
Now he could see it more clearly.
And the moment he did, his expression changed completely.
"What the fuck is that?"
The creature looked vaguely like a combination of a black rhinoceros and a brown bear.
Its body and face resembled those of a bear, but its legs were far more like those of a rhinoceros, ending in enormous paws that still retained the characteristics of a bear.
Its fur was darker than that of any ordinary bear.
But that wasn't even the strangest part.
Two horns protruded from its forehead.
One sat above the other.
Shad stared at the creature.
It stood roughly six to seven feet tall and possessed a thick, heavily muscled body.
Then he noticed its eyes.
They glowed an unnatural red through the darkness and fog.
"What the hell is this?"
Shad shook his head slightly, as though doing so might somehow make the creature look normal.
It didn't.
His grip tightened around the dagger.
"Where am I, really?"
For the first time since waking up, Shad began to wonder whether his assumption that this was merely some kind of test might have been completely wrong.