When I came to, everything felt both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.

I clearly recognized the fact that rather than my bed, I was inside some spherical object. No, not spherical. An egg-shaped.

My eyes shot open with a start and I began looking around in confusion, but all I’d accomplished was cracking the egg around me even more.

With a gasp, the egg toppled to the side and I found myself face planting into the hard rock floor of the cave I was in.

I lay there for a good minute, as my mind quickly woke up, confusion giving way to realization and dread.

The egg, the spaceship, the robot, chat…

“T’wasn’t a dream…” I murmured under my breath. “M’still here…”

Which meant…

GeorgeDoshington: lololol

JamieWasTaken3: wow what a way to end the asmr

uptonMIKE: wtf

GeorgeDoshington: told u

“...Hey, chat. I’m awake…” I automatically said, without putting much heart into it.

Uwith3dotz: so it’s an ARG with ASMR at night?

JamieWasTaken3: morning

JamieWasTaken3: yea looks like it

uptonMIKE: gmorning

I groaned and opted to ignore the chat for a bit. It was too early to be getting pointlessly mad at them calling my new life ARG again.

So I climbed out of my egg, glanced around the empty cave, and stretched while letting out a yawn.

Fortunately, it looked like nothing had attacked me during the night. But just how long would that last? How many more times did I want to risk sleeping in an open cave completely undefended?

The answer was zero. I didn’t want to risk it anymore. I needed to get myself a proper shelter. Sure, I would have preferred to find a village or something and sleep in an actual bed, and obviously, I would keep searching for one, but for now, I had to at least get something temporary.

“Alright… Chat, I…” And then I stopped and glanced at the little transparent chat window.

It was probably morning back on Earth as well if I were to guess. But I usually never streamed in the morning.

“Who’s still around, by the way?”

GeorgeDoshington: sup

JamieWasTaken3: Im here

uptonMIKE: hello

JamieWasTaken3: prolly gonna leave in a bit tho

RetconRanger: Good morning, Nana.

GeorgeDoshington: jeoff was mad you didn’t try the skills last night btw lol

I hummed. “Morning… Hey, Mike! Welcome!” It looked like most of my regulars except for George, Jamie, and Ranger weren’t here. But there were also some new people… It was kind of annoying that I didn’t even see how many viewers were watching. “Oh yeah, the skills! I just bought them and then went to sleep last night, huh? Alright then, chat!”

I clapped my hands and got my thoughts in order. “Today on the menu, we have: Testing the skills I’d bought yesterday, continuing to look for civilization, if that fails, at least finding a decent shelter, and if that fails, fortify this cave and make it safer!”

Uwith3dotz: oh it’s a wilderness survival ARG?

GeorgeDoshington: no dont look for people

JamieWasTaken3: yea

GeorgeDoshington: solo nomad is better

“Although If I’m honest, I’m probably gonna be alone for a while, so don’t worry George…” I grumbled. “If there were any settlements nearby, they would have been all over the spaceship dungeon.”

GeorgeDoshington: oh yeah go back there and punch the robot

uptonMIKE: so what skills do you have?

JamieWasTaken3: yea thats true

Ignoring George, I pulled up the status and looked at the two skills I’d bought yesterday again as I picked up my sword again and walked out of the cave. As soon as I did, the morning sun shone down on me, making the red stains on my bottoms very visible.

…I’d forgotten about the bloodstains and just slept with that on.

“Okay… First though, I really need to find water… I can’t believe I slept like this, ugh…” I shook my head in self-disgust and then stepped forward into the forest. “Okay, skills. So the first one is heat vision. It should help me spot monsters… Or that was the plan at least…”

I mentally prodded the skill, trying to find the metaphorical light switch. It came to me almost immediately. Before I could stop myself, my vision suddenly shifted into something utterly unrecognizable.

GeorgeDoshington: infrared vision lol

uptonMIKE: oh that’s cool

JamieWasTaken3: its like a spy movie

Unlike in the movies, I didn’t suddenly see the world in blue with red warm spots. No, I saw completely different colors that I couldn’t possibly describe to someone who hadn’t experienced them. Most of the trees around me were of a duller calmer color, while everything in the sun’s direction had a more… active color.

In the meantime, the status and chat windows remained identical, weirdly enough.

“Holy shhh…shopping spree! Are you seeing this, chat?!”

JamieWasTaken3: yea classic infrared vision

Uwith3dotz: that was abrupt

GeorgeDoshington: go n infiltrate the spaceship now lol

I frowned. Classic infrared? This wasn’t classic at all… But then again, this skill probably literally changed how my eyes worked for me to see more colors. For anyone behind a screen watching this, not much would change.

“Okay… you probably can’t really see what I’m seeing then, chat,” I muttered while looking around with my cool new vision. “It’s like… completely different. Brand new colors and everything. But I guess the stream looks like infrared vision in the movies.”

GeorgeDoshington: whattt

JamieWasTaken3: wtf really?

GeorgeDoshington: I want cool alien vision too

uptonMIKE: that’s a shame but makes sense

GeorgeDoshington: I thought we live in your eyeballs smh

I glanced around some more, looking for any suspicious hotspots other than those illuminated by the sun, but didn’t find any. Satisfied that no sabertooth squirrel was going to jump me anytime soon, I blinked and turned the heat vision off.

“The other skill was… Fire breath,” I said while pointedly looking around all the very flammable trees and brushes all around me. “Probably gonna find a better place for testing it first, though.”

uptonMIKE: sounds like a plan

GeorgeDoshington: buuuurn down the forest!

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

GeorgeDoshington: take your revenge on the squirrels!

“What squirrels?” I said, my tone deadpan. “I have yet to run into a single insect, George.” I frowned. “...Which is really weird, isn’t it?”

JamieWasTaken3: insectless isekai

GeorgeDoshington: take revenge on the trees then

JamieWasTaken3: holy shit thats the dream

JamieWasTaken3: no mosquitos

With that in mind, I picked a random direction, different from yesterday, and began walking in a straight line, hoping to find some water to wash myself off. In the meantime I pondered on whether the lack of insects meant anything. There didn’t seem to be any animals either… And obviously, I hadn’t run into people yet. Combined with that crashed spaceship…

Was this a post-apocalyptic world where all life save for trees and dungeons had been wiped out?

Surely not, right?

Why would there still be plants around if that was the case? And how would the ecosystem even work without any animals and insects? I wasn’t an expert on that by any means, but didn’t flowers need insects to pollinate or something?

Maybe not.

JamieWasTaken3: well gtg bb enjoy your antimosquito zone

GeorgeDoshington: bye James

uptonMIKE: goodbye

“Oh, bye, Jamie! Have a good rest of your day!” I called out, shooing away my previous line of thought. “By the way, how many people are watching right now? I can’t actually see the viewer count from here.”

uptonMIKE: about two dozen

GeorgeDoshington: 25

“Huh… more than I thought,” I admitted. I wasn’t exactly a big streamer, but having a nonstop marathon stream probably helped with the numbers, huh?

And I would never be able to take a break.

I let out a sigh.

Yeah, let’s not think about all of that.

And then, as if to distract me from the depressing thought, my stomach made a noise, making me acutely aware that I hadn’t eaten anything since I’d found myself here.

“Ugh… Right. Chat, I also kinda need to find food…” I briefly looked around the trees and bushes for any fruits or berries, but weirdly enough, there wasn’t anything despite it being spring. Or, well, at least it looked like it was spring.

GeorgeDoshington: uh oh

uptonMIKE: you could eat insects, worst case scenario

Uwith3dotz: that’s gross

JamieWasTaken3: mb you can fish if you find water or smth

“Yeah that would be gross… But even if I wanted to, I can’t even do that, Mike. There aren’t even any insects around, that’s the problem. There’s nothing at all. Just trees and bushes without any fruits.” I shook my head. “I could try fishing if I find a river or a lake, yeah… Also, I thought you left, Jamie…?”

JamieWasTaken3: sorry lol gonna go for real now bye

“Bye…” I said absent-mindedly before turning on my heat vision for a brief moment again and glancing around.

I didn’t spot anything of interest.

For about half an hour, I kept wandering in the same direction, talking to chat, and turning my heat vision on from time to time to glance around in hopes of spotting something. A couple of new people popped up in chat and I more or less gave up on trying to convince everyone that this wasn’t an ARG. We were in the middle of discussing how creepy the empty forest was when I finally found something.

I saw a spot of heat in a different direction from where the Sun was shining. South-west, if I had my directions right.

“Oh, there’s something, chat!” I said in excitement and was about to walk off before chat stopped me.

uptonMIKE: wait

uptonMIKE: mark a tree with your sword

I blinked.

“Oh… Good idea, Mike! Actually, I probably should have done that as I walked, huh…?”

Regardless, I looked around where I stood, trying to somewhat memorize the direction I’d come from, and then I pulled my sword, and awkwardly carved an ‘X’ into one of the trees.

I considered drawing an arrow, but I also didn’t want to lead anyone who might find it back to my egg cave. I didn’t know whether I would sleep there again, but better safe than sorry.

Not that there seemed to be any people.

With that done, I walked off my straight path and toward the heat spot I’d seen. It didn’t take long for me to reach it.

To my bewilderment, the heat spot was a lake… Or at least something that looked like a lake at first glance.

GeorgeDoshington: looks sus

uptonMIKE: that’s not water…

Instead of water, the lake was filled with green slimy transparent substance. Turning my heat vision on and off confirmed that it was giving off heat for some reason.

The heck was that? It wasn’t going to suddenly come to life and try to drag me under, right? Ugh, I kind of wished I’d gotten the Appraisal skill…

I carefully drew my sword while staying a good distance from the lake and then slowly approached it, looking for any signs of it suddenly becoming sentient.

Nothing happened and I made it close enough to poke the fake water with the tip of my sword. As soon as I did, the circuits on the sword briefly lit up, making me startle and jump back.

I tensed up but my sword dimmed and went dormant again and the lake didn’t do anything either.

Uwith3dotz: why is your sword glowing?

GeorgeDoshington: its battery slime lol

“...I think the lake isn’t inherently dangerous,” I said after a moment as I relaxed again and looked at my sword. “What’s up with this, though…?”

FouxMoux: alien technology?

uptonMIKE: maybe the slime is hot because it’s charged?

“Maybe…”

I approached the lake again and dipped the sword’s tip into it once more. The circuits lit up with greenish light again and I could feel the sword subtly vibrating.

“It’s buzzing… Weird.”

GeorgeDoshington: wait isnt that stuff the same as the potion?

I blinked and pulled out the vial of green substance from my pocket and studied it. To be fair, it did look a bit similar. But the lake didn’t seem to be anywhere near as viscous.

“It’s similar, but… I don’t think they are the same.” I frowned. “But it does look the same as the spaceship’s leak, now that I think about it… Hmm…”

FouxMoux: maybe the potion is this stuff but refined

GeorgeDoshington: only one way to find out

GeorgeDoshington: toss your bloody pants into the lake

I glared at the sludge lake.

“How about no, George?”

Instead of stripping and chucking my pants into a lake of unknown substance like a maniac, I instead backed up a little, sat down on the ground, and uncorked the vial. I placed my sword on the ground and carefully shook the vial, trying to get a bit of the viscous liquid out.

A bit of time and effort later, a drop fell down on the sword and as soon as it touched it, the circuits surged with power, lighting up in neon green.

“Whoa!” I jerked away from it on instinct and lidded my eyes. “Okay… I think the theory of the potion being that stuff refined might have some merit…”

The sword seemed to have absorbed the bit of green slime, and kept on glowing even though I didn’t pour any more on it.

GeorgeDoshington: lightsaberrrr

FouxMoux: sweet

uptonMIKE: what does it do though?

“That’s a good question, Mike… I assume it’s probably stronger now? No idea how exactly, though…”

GeorgeDoshington: maybe you can shoot the green fire with it

I tried to swing the sword to see if it would do anything magical, but it merely swished through the air like normal. I tried to mentally command it to release its stored power or what have you, but nothing happened.

“Well, if I can, I have no idea how…” I muttered.

And then my stomach grumbled again.

“Ugh… Why couldn’t this be a real lake…?” I whined.

GeorgeDoshington: eat the lake in revenge

“Yeah, brilliant idea, George,” I grumped. “I’ll become a glowstick then.”

FouxMoux: wait maybe it’s not a bad idea

uptonMIKE: you should move on and keep looking for food

FouxMoux: it healed you before, right?

I frowned.

“I mean, it did but… I don’t know about eating it. I’m not even sure if it’s safe to touch, much less edible… I don’t think I’m that desperate yet.”

GeorgeDoshington: do it you chicken

FouxMoux: IS IT safe to touch then? try it

uptonMIKE: you really shouldn’t…

I pursed my lips as I looked at the lake in trepidation. I didn’t know whether it would electrocute me or something, but a light touch shouldn’t be too bad, right?

I cautiously approached and kneeled down by the lake.

uptonMIKE: wait

GeorgeDoshington: gogogo

uptonMIKE: stick your sword in the ground

uptonMIKE: use it as a lever to get away if you need to

I blinked at the odd suggestion.

“Uh… Alright.”

I stabbed the glowing sword into the dirt and tightly gripped it. Then I reached toward the lake with my other hand and touched the slime.

It was warm.

And slimy.

And didn’t electrocute me.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay… Wow, why am I so paranoid? I’m setting myself on edge for no reason.”

GeorgeDoshington: good now eat it

I briefly considered it… Then I let go of my sword, cupped my hands to scoop up a bit of the fake water – and wow did it feel slimy – before lifting it up in front of myself and sniffing it.

GeorgeDoshington: holy shit shes doing it

uptonMIKE: don’t eat it!

Uwith3dotz: that’s gross

It smelled… actually a little sweet, oddly enough. Not that its smell could tell me whether it was edible or not.

I let out a sigh and poured the substance back into the lake.

“I wish I’d bought the Appraisal…”

Well, no use crying over spilled milk.

I got up, sheathed my still-glowing sword again and left the lake of suspicious substance behind to look for food before I starved.