The First Transmigrat

[Day 500]

There was nothing valuable on cube-head—just some coins and worthless paper. I checked over and over again, hoping I'd missed something, but it was all trash. It almost made me laugh. The monocle guy, at least, had something on him—something interesting. Cube-head? Just a walking bundle of disappointment.

I threw some water on his face again and started asking about his base.

"There were 200 civilians," he muttered. "Fifty in our group who're trained. We've got an alliance with a force from the north. They're helping us scout for resources—minerals, mostly."

I leaned forward, narrowing my eyes. "Are they from the same world?"

He hesitated. It was faint, but I caught it. "No," he finally said.

A lie? A partial truth? Hard to say. I wasn't in the mood to push harder. I knocked him out. I'm not some cultivation MC, slaughtering everyone without blinking. I've never been that guy. Maybe I should be, but… not yet.

I left his clothes on him and walked away, spear in hand.

[Day 510]Nothing happened.

[Day 550]

I looked like a tribal warrior by now. My old clothes were scraps, and I'd stitched together layers of bark and roughhide. Not fashionable, but functional.

Today, I saw the snake again. It was time.

I lured it straight into the pit I had set days ago—sharpened wooden spikes waited at the bottom. It screamed as it fell, one of the spikes piercing its belly. I didn't hesitate. I thrust my spear into its eye, over and over, then transformed mid-attack into my bear form and tore into it with claws and teeth.

The snake howled in anguish, body coiling and thrashing violently. I didn't stop. I shifted back to human just long enough to grab another spear, stabbed again, then climbed its thick neck, pierced down near its skull—again and again until it finally collapsed.

Even then, I didn't stop. I sliced its body to pieces, carving deep. The flesh steamed with heat and blood, scales breaking off like brittle plates. At its head, embedded deep, was a massive grey crystal—about the size of my bear paw.

Without thinking, I transformed again and swallowed it.

Everything spun. My vision blurred, and dizziness overwhelmed me. I stumbled out of the pit, ignoring the corpse, my weapons, everything. I barely made it to a nearby cave before I collapsed.

[Day 578]

I woke up. The cave was pitch dark, stinking of rot and something worse—me.

I groaned and untransformed, crawling out of the shallow nest I'd made. Beneath me, the rocks had cracked, and some kind of black, tar-like waste had been secreted from my body. My skin reeked of it. I cleaned it up the best I could, gagging at the smell, then gathered whatever food was nearby and slept again.

I opened the floating transmigration panel in my head—my last post was 28 days ago. Four weeks. I'd been unconscious that long.

[Day 580–593]

I dragged the snake's body back to the cave. What remained, anyway. Its flesh had held up better than I expected. I cooked it, forced myself to eat it… and promptly vomited. I tried again. And again.

I hate snakes. The texture, the taste—it's like eating something that never should've been food.

But I did it. Every day for two weeks, I ate that disgusting meat. Muscle, sinew, everything. My stomach churned, but I kept going.

By [Day 593], I'd grown used to it. I still gagged sometimes, but I could stomach it.

The gains?

Worth it.

[Day 600]

I tested my human form. It was incredible.

I could scale trees effortlessly, move with precision, and leap from branch to branch like a jungle predator. My strength had doubled—tripled even. I stabbed myself with a spear, just to test… nothing. Not even a scratch. My skin had hardened.

I had surpassed human limits.

My senses had sharpened to inhuman levels. Hearing, smell, sight—each one more defined. My instincts were faster. I could track animals without trying, spot movements others wouldn't even notice.

It wasn't just strength. I had evolved.

[Day 657]

I was still adjusting. Control was hard. A gentle shove could send someone flying. My clothes tore constantly, so I stayed mostly in underwear or barkwrap. Training became a necessity, not an option. If I didn't learn control, I'd tear myself apart from the inside.

I punched a tree with everything I had—just once.

I woke up three days later.

[Day 660]

My body had changed. Muscles had filled out, but not like a bodybuilder—lean, dense, dangerous muscle. Each move carried weight. Each breath carried power.

I could feel it… and barely control it.

[Day 670]

I practiced old martial arts—karate moves, random stuff I remembered from the internet. I imitated what I'd seen, combined it with instinct. It worked. My body adapted fast, adjusting to every movement with unnatural speed.

Every time I got used to my power, it grew again. Like my body refused to settle.

[Day 690]

I returned to the cave and met Aldrick again.

He seemed surprised to see me—but recovered quickly. We talked. He'd been foraging alone while I was gone. Looked rough—muddy, scratched, tired.

He mentioned the group we saw before—the six. They were down to four now. Escaped from that too-good-to-be-true southern shelter.

Something about his story nagged at me.

Why didn't they attack him? Or threaten him?

Aldrick's just one guy. No weapon. No powers. Why let him go?

He watched me train that day—eyes narrowed like he was studying something alien.

I ignored him.

[Day 700]

Opened the transmigration panel. Typed:

[kaiser]: still alive

Only my name showed up.

No one else had posted in days. Weeks.

I just stared at the empty list.

Then, memories started to surface—my father's voice. My mother's laugh. My friends' faces.

But they were fading.

I couldn't recall them clearly anymore. The voices were whispers. The faces... blurred.

I stood there for a long time, unmoving, just watching the sky darken above the forest.

The wind whispered through the leaves, a silent breeze that seemed to carry those forgotten fragments away.

I went back inside, opened the panel again, stared at my lone message.

[kaiser (1)]

And slept.