A small, familiar breeze passed over him.
[+1 Energy]
[Starting simulation…]
[-1 Energy] [-100% Simulation]
[Simulation begins.]
Lem once again entered the ethereal state, losing control of his body.
The screen in front of him began to read out more text.
[Day 1: You are abandoned in Lang Woods, traveling randomly in a northeast direction. You want to eat the faintly spiritual berry in your possession, but you sense that it would be better to wait for an hour to pass.]
Lem was happy to see that his simulated self was staying in place. It appeared that he did have some control over it.
He began to strategize how to make use of the new information.
After all, the third option allowed him to retrieve any object that he touched during the simulation.
Although this option was not consequence free, it opened up the possibility of sending his simulated self on a suicide mission to see if he could touch a highly valuable object.
It felt distasteful, however, and he would have to witness every step of the process, but at least it would be available as a last resort.
[You realize that you have waited for an hour, and you eat the berry. It tastes slightly bitter, but you feel energized. You continue traveling at a quicker pace to make up for the time difference, however, you still stop intermittently, to keep from wasting energy…]
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lem watched as his body moved swiftly through the forest. He noticed a world of difference compared to the previous simulation, where every step had been a burden.
It was clear that there was a great effect when he consumed the spiritual berry before the evil had finished its destruction of his body.
[You see broken branches and claw marks, and grow frightened, but you know that you will survive. You rest in place for an hour…
Once you recover, you continue traveling, resting intermittently…
Night falls, and you hide in a partially concealed place, behind bushes. You fall asleep with some difficulty…]
Lem’s eyes closed, and he was thrown into complete darkness for the first time in the current simulation.
After seeing the effects of a single spiritual berry, he felt optimistic about his chances of fighting off evil.
Even if he could not find another one, all he had to do was select the first day of ‘cultivation’ afterward and he would make strong progress towards delaying the time it would take the evil to consume him.
And with sufficient time, he was sure he could find another spiritual object from somewhere else in the forest…
[Day 2: You feel weaker due to the evil power consuming your vitality…]
As Lem walked, he noticed that his body was missing some of the exuberance from the previous day, but his energy was still higher than it had been before the spiritual berry.
[You come across an ordinary rabbit, and attempt to kill it, but it escapes from your spear…
After a short period of time, you grow tired and rest…
You eat from your rations and fall asleep…]
…
[Day 5: You feel significantly weaker due to the evil power consuming your vitality…]
Lem remembered that he was about to come across the tyrant sloth again.
He felt anxious, as he knew his simulated self was going to attempt to replicate his actions from the previous simulation.
What if some small detail created a change in the attitude of the sloth?
Would he be eaten directly?