Seems I’d dodged both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, though for once the accident had ended up for the better since I was closer than I’d be otherwise. Mostly for the better… this water was absolutely foul and I was tempted to jump on land consequences be damned! Though land didn’t seem much better with me already able to see some shanty towns just a little ways in.

Now I wasn’t the most cleanly person, I’d lived in the most polluted place imaginable for 16 years after all. But this place… was reminding me of home, and that ain’t a good thing. I still sucked it up and stayed in the water, I really REALLY can’t wait to get this trip over with so I can spend a few days in a hydrochloric bath or maybe a bleach shower.

Similar to before I waited for another ship- I needed something heading to either Taiwan, Hong Kong or preferably Japan. I couldn’t go up there and just read their gps but because of how Manila was recessed I could tell anything that departed and went right would at least get me closer. I’d already seen a few cargo ships leave earlier but I was waiting for something really big. Knowing my luck some of the small ones might turn right only to swing around to Malaysia or Vietnam- putting me further away.

2 days stewing in this crap and a large ship rolled into port, my ticket out hopefully…. Can they load any slower?! It was a big ship with a lot of space but come on! 3 days just loading it up later and the large container laden ship set off, thankfully my patience paid off when they went right. I could feel some of the grime I’d accrued while waiting begin to peel off due to the cleaner salty waters I was swimming through now.

This time the trip only took about a day… I think? Hard to tell being in this massive shadow and blankly swimming for so long… that and being distracted peeling barnacles off (may as well pay my fare somehow). We hadn’t traveled far but it felt like we’d left a slum and entered an actual city, this place still had some crappy water, but like… regular levels of crap if that makes sense. I looked for another sign- Kaohsiung city? Taiwan? Neat.

The container ship only stayed for another day while unloading some cargo before heading off again, now this is the part where I need to take a leap of faith, I can’t tell where it's going and I can’t understand any of what they’re saying. I hope this is heading to Japan. It didn’t.

Another day swimming and we’d reached Shanghai, damn it was big- the port that is. Some cargo was unloaded again before we took off the day after. I know the general direction of Japan from here and was contemplating just aiming myself toward where I thought it was… I’ll wait for the next stop and if I still end up somewhere else I’ll wing it.

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We continued on… but I already knew I’d have to leave the ship behind when we only went along the coastline. So that's what I did. And by this point I really wish I didn’t, ya see, I failed to account for where I’d be passing through. To cut a long story short I’d entered Korea… the north one that is… also now that I think about it the story wouldn’t be too long- abandon ship, aim for land in opposite direction, make land and immediately get shot at and start running.

And so began a little game of cat and mouse with me being chased by the gun toting soldiers (I’d actually been shot a bit already and got an arm blown off) and some people with wacky quirks (one of them was particularly annoying with the ability to spit sticky acid all over me). I mean I got the arm back and the acid couldn’t hurt me and only slowed me down briefly but still! I made sure to stay running through as much forestland as possible, the few times I came near a road it was filled with tanks or jeeps, I could jump over them but it wouldn’t work every time.

I just kept running, my little jogs back in Australia were paying off since I managed to shake off anyone on foot and by running in bushland they couldn’t bring any ground vehicles to bear… there was still one annoyance though. I looked up through the canopy where a helicopter was following me, I could also see a gunner on the side… with a minigun?! Yeah no, I can run faster than tanks can swivel and dodge around the tree’s for regular gunfire but that thing? It’ll cut me in half if I keep going! And I really don’t wanna end up in some dictator's laboratory.

I quickly skidded to a stop and broke a tree in half- “CATCH!” I yeeted a tree as best I could in their general direction (fun fact: Yeet was officially added to the dictionary in my old world). I didn’t hit them but it did come close… close enough that they were keeping their distance now at least.

Every time they’d try to close the gap I’d use my affinity for tree’s to peacefully dissuade them from coming any closer. Adaptation hadn’t been idle during all of this either with the plating all over my body getting tougher and my legs going full dinosaur… I also noticed that with my constant rampant deforestation my claws became dangerously sharp… I mean they were sharp before but now I didn’t doubt I could accidentally lean against a wall and just cut right through it.

Eventually the chase had to end (or enter stage 2) as we came to the opposite coastline. I’d seen the barbed wire border fence earlier but passing into South Korea would probably create an international incident, at least this way when I escaped they were less likely to admit they’d been screwed over by only 1 person.

I came out of the treeline to see- “Ah shit” Tanks, jeeps with mounted turrets and 2 ships floating in the sea. An angry man with a megaphone was yelling at me (presumably to have a friendly discussion) but I ignored him in favor of grinning and running full out toward them!