My nerves weren't thick enough to rest in a place where things like this were wandering around. Visibility would get worse at night. I shuddered imagining that thing creeping up on me while I slept.
Technically, it was the first animal I had seen in this wilderness. With the food problem pressing, perhaps if I were committed to survival, I should have the grit to catch and eat it, but... impossible. Even leaving aside the psychological resistance, I didn't want to eat it at the risk of poison, bacterial infection, or parasites. For now...
I decided to leave the red forest. The fact that creatures inhabited it meant there was some kind of ecosystem in this inorganic mineral forest. Most likely, these cactus-like objects were also alive. I didn't know what kind of dangerous creatures were lurking.
Thud
Behind me as I walked back the way I came, the sound of something falling rank out. I looked back immediately. However, by that time, the situation was already irreversible.
"Eek!?"
A lump like a red jewel. The bug I saw earlier had latched onto my leg. Two or three other bugs with the same appearance fell from above. Since they were slow enough to escape from even by walking, I had underestimated them, thinking I could run away immediately if I encountered them again. Even if I intended to react calmly, the distraction and tunnel vision caused by fatigue were more serious than I realized. However, it was too late to regret it now.
"Uwaaaaaaa!"
I shook them off in a semi-panic. The bugs were heavier than I imagined. They clung to the hem of the jersey and wouldn't let go. Pain shot through my ankle. I was being bitten.
However, trying to shake them off frantically worked in my favor; I found an opening and succeeded in escaping by discarding the jersey entirely. I was down to just my underwear, but this wasn't the time to care.
I just ran. The bugs that attacked me went out of sight, but I didn't stop. I didn't know where the next attack would come from. I wanted to escape from this red forest as soon as possible.
The exit came into view. I returned to the wilderness I had grown hatefully accustomed to. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. I fell to my knees as if collapsing.
"Haa! Haa...! I hate this!"
I want to go home. Tears overflowed. This must be a dream. It has to be. Being thrown into such an incomprehensible place and even having my gender changed, this couldn't be reality.
I wanted to forget everything and sleep. When I woke up next, surely the same daily life as yesterday would be waiting.
Not caring if my body got dirty, I lay on the ground. My strength drained away along with my motivation. My head started to feel fuzzy. Walking all day without food or water while exposed to excessive stress—this might be a natural result.
The sensation in my limbs began to fade. I couldn't move a single finger. Even when I tried to move, my muscles only trembled slightly. My legs were the same; sensation was lost as if they had been amputated from the knee down.
...Strange. I can't stand up. More than that, I can't move my body even a twitch. No matter how much fatigue has accumulated, would such a sudden change occur?
I stopped feeling the cold. Sensation vanished from the extremities of my limbs toward the center of my body. As if my body was lending to be mine.
'I see, am I going back to normal?'
The dream is about to end. I recognized this sensation. Sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis occurs when "the brain is awake but the body is asleep." It happens due to fatigue, stress, lack of sleep, and so on, causing a disturbance in brain function. Even if the brain is awake, it isn't fully aroused, so one dreams. At this time, the pressure of not being able to move the body is reflected in the dream, and one has a realistic nightmare as if it were happening in reality.
I have experienced this several times before. You might wonder if you can realize you are in sleep paralysis while dreaming, but there is a close relationship between sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming (dreams where you are aware you are dreaming). If you get used to it, it is possible to realize you are dreaming in the middle of sleep paralysis.
The way to deal with sleep paralysis is not to panic. The brain is just fabricating a nightmare to maintain the consistency of recognition against the discomfort of being unable to move the body consciously, so if you can maintain your composure, it won't become a nightmare. If you wait calmly, you will wake up soon.
I carelessly failed to see through that I was in a dream this time, but now, I realized it clearly. Matching the fading sensation of my body, I slowly closed my eyes.
Click, click, click
Calm down. Take a deep breath slowly. This is a dream.
Click, click, click
Click, click, click
When I open my eyes next, I will be on the sofa at home.
Click, click, click
Click, click, click
Click, click, click
Open eyes in 3, 2, 1. Then everything will be back to normal.
3 2 1
"Ah, o..."
There are bugs. Instead of my immovable neck, only my eyeballs moved dizzily. Dozens of red bugs were gathering to surround me. They were on top of my body too. I didn't feel the sensation of them being on me. I felt nothing.
"U. Ka."
My voice wouldn't come out. This is common during sleep paralysis. Even though you intend to scream desperately, you can only let out a groan. It's common.
The bugs bit into my clothes. My field of vision moved. I was being dragged. Like ants gathering to carry prey to their nest, they were dragging my body and moving.
" "
I scream. Only the sound of air passing through my throat wheezes out. Still, I scream. Until this dream ends, I will keep screaming.
The red forest was awaiting my entry. At its entrance, a massive number of bugs welcomed me. Red grains were wriggling like villi covering an intestinal wall.
Yes, this is a dream.
The Dark Continent. A demonic realm where dangerous creatures whose existence itself has reached the level of disasters run rampant. Humanity is merely building prosperity within an isolated island surrounded by this continent.
In a certain unnamed wilderness of such an uncivilized land, there is a forest that shines like jewels.
This forest was composed of extremely rare plants. The plants, capable of generating special minerals within their bodies, are extremely sturdy. Also, they possess strong toxicity, and generally, no creature can eat them.
However, an exception existed in this forest. An insect that preys on the mineral plants: its name is the Chimera Ant.
Also known as the Gourmet Ant, this ant possesses a reproduction system called Phagogenesis that has no precedent. The point that they are social insects where a Queen Ant lays eggs to produce Soldier Ants that provide food and build nests remains the same. However, the Queen Ant has the ability to pass on the characteristics of the species she eats to the next generation of ants.
Due to this ability, the Queen Ant tends to prefer preying on stronger creatures to create offspring with stronger characteristics. Moreover, as expected of the name Gourmet Ant, their dietary preference is extremely paranoid; they prey greedily enough to thoroughly hunt down a species recognized as good bait until they drive it to extinction.
The Chimera Ants that expanded their habitat to this nameless wilderness, by some whim, one day recognized the mineral plants as food. The Queen Ant, who ate this plant that was entirely unsuitable as food and possessed strong poison on top of that, died immediately.
In a Chimera Ant colony, when the Queen Ant dies, individuals among the Soldier Ants who possess reproductive functions mutate into King Ants as an emergency measure to sustain the colony. That King Ant also ate the mineral plant and died. Furthermore, the newly born King Ant also died after the same action.
Chimera Ants dying one after another. Still, they didn't change what they ate. At the end of a paranoid dietary habit that had reached the realm of madness, one ant finally acquired resistance to the poison. A Chimera Ant inheriting the characteristics of the mineral plant was born.
They increased their numbers in the red forest. The King Ant mated with females of other species to make them produce Queen Ants. That Queen Ant gave birth to a large number of Soldier Ants, and when the numbers of the colony were sufficient, she gave birth to the next King Ant. Thus, a paradise for Chimera Ants was built in the red forest.
However, the proliferation of the Chimera Ants hits a ceiling at a certain point. There were no insects suitable for their mating in this wilderness. It was difficult to catch swift small animals, and they were unable to create new colonies.
But one day, a human girl wandered into the red forest. With this, the King Ant was able to fulfill his original role.
The girl, deprived of her bodily freedom by paralysis poison, was taken into the nest and mated with the King Ant. The girl, pregnant with a Queen Ant in her belly, would face childbirth three days later. The King Ant's close guard Soldier Ants would eat through the girl's abdomen and safely remove the healthy Queen Ant.