章 3: Second Red Eye
Over the next two days, he continued to drift through the surrounding area, eventually encountering more of those strange trees. As before, the trees appeared to be terrified of him. If they could, Ronan was sure they'd uproot themselves and run away, but it seemed they weren't capable of that.
Ronan didn't have any malicious intent and didn't want to torment these poor trees, so whenever he came across them, he would consciously avoid getting too close.
After spending a few days exploring, he noticed that, despite the forest's vast size, there didn't seem to be many animals. At least, in the areas he visited, aside from a few birds, wild chickens, and ducks, he rarely saw any large predators.
The stream he had stumbled upon earlier was more lively, though that too had quieted down after everything had run off.
He floated along slowly, and apart from the occasional bird call, he didn't hear much else. The silence became unnerving. From the noises he'd heard during the night, he had assumed that this forest was home to many animals.
This strange quietness caused him to abandon his cautious approach. He sped up his exploration of the forest, and eventually, he did spot a few bears, tigers, and even some large herbivores.
When he intentionally sought out more creatures, he did find some large predators, though none of them were familiar to him.
Judging by their appearances, they were likely unique to this world. After all, when trees could fight each other, it wasn't surprising that animals might look a bit different here too.
There was one thing, however. Just like the strange trees he had encountered before, it didn't matter whether the animals were familiar predators or bizarre creatures from this new world—they all had the same reaction upon seeing him: they fled as quickly as possible.
This confirmed his earlier suspicions. The reason he hadn't encountered anything in the forest over the past few days wasn't that they didn't exist but because everything was hiding from him.
But why? Could it really be because he was ugly?
It wasn't that Ronan lacked confidence, but anyone who had been reborn as a blob of black mist wouldn't feel particularly self-assured.
Especially now, with a giant red eye in the middle of the black mist. The terror and strangeness of his appearance had skyrocketed. If he hadn't gotten used to seeing his reflection over the past few days, the sight of himself would have surely scared even him.
Ever since Ronan realized that the creatures in the forest were afraid of him, he moved about more freely. But one night, just as he stopped to rest and hadn't even had the chance to observe his surroundings, he blinked, and suddenly it was daylight again.
Daylight?
Ronan began to doubt himself. He had only just perched on a branch to rest, and in the blink of an eye, the night had switched to day.
From his observations over the past few days, he had confirmed one thing: the length of a day in this strange world was about the same as it was on Earth, roughly twenty-four hours. So how could it be that as soon as he stopped, the sky brightened?
Ronan felt puzzled, but as it kept happening, he gradually realized something.
The issue wasn't with the passage of time—it was with him. The reason day suddenly became night and night suddenly turned back to day was because his consciousness was experiencing lapses.
Without sleep, his awareness would disappear, regardless of whether it was day or night. During those gaps, he had no sense of time passing. It was like the full anesthesia he had experienced in his previous life—one moment, it felt like only a few seconds had passed, but when he "woke up," hours had gone by.
However, unlike sleep, during these moments of total unconsciousness, he didn't even dream.
Ronan couldn't be sure if this had happened to him before, as his awareness wasn't fully clear until after his first eye had appeared.
This led to another bizarre thought: in terms of time, he had always believed that he had only been in this otherworld for about ten days. But… had it really only been ten days?
These scattered thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a second eye. Unlike the effort it had taken to grow the first eye, the left eye emerged naturally, like breathing. Ronan didn't even need to focus his mind on it.
When he noticed his field of vision expanding, he floated to the surface of the water and looked at his reflection. Just like the right one, his left eye was also enormous and deep red. With the two eyes now formed, the cloud of mist that was Ronan's body finally had something resembling an expression. He blinked awkwardly, thinking to himself that if he could just grow a nose next, maybe his appearance would look a bit more normal.
Ever since Ronan realized that the creatures in the forest were afraid of him, he moved about more freely. But one night, just as he stopped to rest and hadn't even had the chance to observe his surroundings, he blinked, and suddenly it was daylight again.
Daylight?
Ronan began to doubt himself. He had only just perched on a branch to rest, and in the blink of an eye, the night had switched to day.
From his observations over the past few days, he had confirmed one thing: the length of a day in this strange world was about the same as it was on Earth, roughly twenty-four hours. So how could it be that as soon as he stopped, the sky brightened?
Ronan felt puzzled, but as it kept happening, he gradually realized something.
The issue wasn't with the passage of time—it was with him. The reason day suddenly became night and night suddenly turned back to day was because his consciousness was experiencing lapses.
週次パワーステータス
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