After a couple more minutes of analyzing his surroundings, the mad grin on Mo Chen's face slowly dissolved into nothing, leaving a true expression of emptiness.
He roughly pinched himself to see if he felt any pain, and to his surprise, he did.
Still unsatisfied, he grabbed a sharp rock and stabbed it into the outer upper arm at an angle, about 2 cm deep.
Feeling the sharp pain, his expression barely changed, except for a slight frown.
'Either I was just teleported to another planet, or someone is testing some very well-made virtual reality on me. I'm more inclined to go with the latter.'
Annoyed, he removed the rock. The dirt and debris stuck in the wound was pushed out by his blood, forming a hard surface over the injury.
'I guess I now experienced my first injury.'
Looking back at his surroundings, he decided to search for a way back. As he moved, a breeze brushed past him, causing his body to shiver.
I need to find clothes.
A couple of hours later, a young man wearing only a leaf skirt was seen wandering through the forest.
Not a single animal, other than bird, within a hundred-meter radius from where I first appeared…
Either an apex predator swept this area clean, or excessive hunting occurred. At least that is what the ancient books taught me. I also need to make better clothes…these ones will cause itchiness and swelling if worn too long. I need to find food, though at least I have access to a river for water.
After deciding his course of action, he returned to his original location, carrying a couple of sharp, sturdy rocks he had picked up along the way.
He quickly lined them up on a broken tree stump before searching for vines and plant fibers. After gathering a decent amount, he laid them in the sunlight to dry. Then he picked one of the sharp rocks and began randomly stabbing trees.
'Too rough… too hard… too soft… this one is rotted… why are these trees so hard???'
After several minutes of searching, he finally found what he was looking for.
'This one is good. The bark is elastic and strong, and it seems very healthy, no chance of rot. Excellent.'
In front of him stood a birch-like tree, from which he carefully carved a large piece of bark. Using the vines and fibers from earlier, he fashioned it into a bucket, which he then filled with water.
'This will be helpful. I should be able to make basic clothing…perhaps even basic weapons if I find sturdy wood.'
Hours later, as the sun began to set, he felt thirsty and attempted to start a fire. Unlike simple crafts, fire required more than theoretical knowledge, and he struggled for nearly an hour before finally managing it.
'Now… how would I clean this water?'
After a few minutes of thinking, he devised a method. He grabbed some stones and cleaned them before placing them in the fire to heat.
BOOM!
After a few minutes, some stones exploded, sending debris flying. A few even lodged into his skin, causing minor burns and bleeding that quickly stopped once he removed them.
'Why? How did this happen?'
After a solid minute of thought, his eyes opened wide in realization: the stones, having absorbed moisture from the surroundings, popped when heated due to internal pressure.
'Like popcorn' he mused.
Using the remaining heated stones, he filled one of his handmade buckets with water and threw the stones into it, causing the water to heat rapidly while the stones cooled. After a few cracked stones from the sudden temperature change, the water finally reached a boil.
Seeing that, Mo Chen grabbed another primitive container, placed a plant-based filter on top, and poured the boiling water through it.
'If this is truly a virtual world, then this is simply incomprehensible. The advanced tech needed to enable such a thing has not yet been created, and even the alien civilizations humans have encountered are incapable of such thorough simulations. This means I was transported to a different planet… but how?'
As the last drop of water filtered through, he emptied his mind of unnecessary thoughts and drank deeply.
'It's salty… good. I can boil it down to create basic salt for curing meat and making jerky.'
As the last rays of sunlight faded, Mo Chen's stomach grumbled. His injuries began to itch uncomfortably, and his basic clothing had already dug into his smooth skin, causing blisters and pain.
"What a shitty life our ancestors lived" he muttered before bursting into mad laughter.
"I guess I should be happy to finally gain freedom from those useless therapy sessions, yet I feel nothing. This is all too boring."
His frustration soon faded into nothing as he stood, collecting soft fibers to create a bed. Not long after, he fashioned a large cushion of grass and leaves, lay down, and drifted into thought.
"Come to think of it… when I first arrived, the sun was in the middle of the sky and must have spent more than fifteen hours here. I guess the days are very long?"
As his final thoughts dissolved, he finally drifted into sleep.
A/N:as you probably already noticed, this novel, or at least this part of the book will have heavy survival elements and the mystical part of the world will only be shown a bit further into the story. I am also planning to make it a sort of heavy logic based cultivation world. So i guess happy reading? This will also be the last author note of this type.