1 0. Prologue

So this is what the afterlife is like. This is not how I imagined him, it's strange that the memory remained with me, but somehow one-sided, all the information is impersonal, neither his name nor close people seemed to exist. I remember that I was a middle-aged man when I got here for some unknown reason. My whole life flashed before my eyes, but they no longer cause the same emotions. I was in kindergarten, blowing bubbles with my nose, only knowledge of subjects and abandoned sports sections remained from the memory of school, also watched anime and read books were preserved. Even less about the university, the bare theory of specialized subjects for 4 years, relationships with girls, then work and everyday fuss. All this seemed to pass in a matter of seconds. Maybe it's for the best, I don't think I could think soberly now if I had all my memory laced with emotions.

After examining myself, I saw only a transparent spherical shape with pulsating white lines inside the contour of the body. Now I'm definitely not a person anymore, more like an incomprehensible spirit from various anime I've watched. Although I see everything as well as if there were eyes. Now it became clear why thoughts flow so steadily and there is no need for human needs. I feel unusual, but I don't feel any discomfort.

The area I got into is not much different from the ordinary world: the same trees, grass, earth, there is even a faint breeze that throws up the discarded leaves of trees. Not much like heaven or hell.

Thoughts of getting into another world come to mind, too bright and contrasting colors compared to the memories received, an analogy with colors from cartoons comes to mind. I think it's worth finding local inhabitants if there are such here.

Choosing a direction at random, he went, or already swam towards the forest. After a few hours on the flip, I didn't meet anyone. The thought was already creeping up that I was alone here, when I heard a rustle ahead.

A creature appeared from behind the tree, as if made of earth with leaves on its head. If I were a human, I would definitely be shocked, and since the emotions were not so strong, I only had time to wonder how this creature started running around me and jumping. Making some strange sounds.

"Pru-ryu-ryu," he hummed and continued to jump and exude joy around.

It's unclear how, but I understood what he wanted. It was like transmitting thoughts through emotions. This guy wanted me to play with him, and his thoughts were kind of simple and impulsive like a child who is not fully aware of himself yet. I also started trying to convey to him my questions about the world around him, about himself. And it even seemed to work out, at least, he stopped, tilted his head to one side and began to drill me with an uncomprehending look. It was as if the question marks above his head could already be touched. He probably didn't even ask these questions, or they are not interesting to him. After standing like that for a minute, he started running back and forth again.

I wanted to sigh heavily. I won't learn anything from this guy. There is a glimmer of hope that not everyone here is like him. Having continued his journey now with a new traveling companion, he does not want to go about his business yet. At least it wasn't so lonely.

As I went further into the forest, it became darker and more unfriendly, it even became somehow uncomfortable, as if something was physically pressing on you. The spirit that was cheerful recently began to pull me back and plaintively wail that it was not worth going there. It becomes curious what is bothering him so much, he decided to go on alone. Pushing the new acquaintance back, I began to convey to him my message that I would go further. Seeing that I had already made a decision, he started walking back every few steps, turning around as if to say "have you changed your mind?" After saying goodbye finally, I began to go deeper and deeper into the dark part of the forest.

A few hundred meters later, I began to feel a tremor on the ground, it was like a collapse of stones. A little later it became clear why the earth was shaking, two creatures came together in a battle in a clearing, changing the landscape of the forest just casually. One of them looked like a cluster of anthropomorphic tree roots, and the other looked like a big man made of stones.

Being at a distance from the battle, their power is still felt. Such people will definitely crush me just without noticing. The thirst for battle and rage poured out around them. But it became clear that the world is inhabited not only by friendly creatures, it would be too good for the truth. It was worth listening to the spirit with a leaf, now the battle began to shift to the place where I came from. We'll have to bypass them and move on. It is becoming more and more incomprehensible to find someone who could explain and tell everything.

Having already walked some distance from the battle, I felt a cry of pain in space full of fear and despair. Its source was a healthy root similar to the ent from the Lord of the Rings, it looks like the winner and the loser have already decided, so we need to get out of here faster while they were fighting, they didn't pay much attention to me, but at the border of feelings I knew that I had already been noticed by them and as soon as possible they would follow me.

At that moment, the ent began to disintegrate into multicolored particles, which quickly melted right in the air, but some part managed to enter the stone giant. It immediately became clear how the giant increased in height, and the pressure increased. Super, the campaign here is the same as according to the memories of a person's life, the strong devours the weak, but here it is literally.

Without hesitation, I began to swim as fast as I could, however, after flying some distance, I began to feel that I could no longer fly so fast, as if the reserve of endurance, which I had not felt before, began to make itself felt at high speed. It means that I have some reserve of strength at the end of which I feel tired. Having stopped, I only noticed that I began to look dimmer, without really having time to be scared, I realized that the energy was a little bit, but still replenished.

Yes, having spent my energy, I began to feel something similar in the background itself, as if I was absorbing it from the outside, replenishing my stock. But exactly, after analyzing that fight, it became clear that the same energy was felt from those creatures, but with impurities, no matter how strange it sounded from a stone man, earth and stone, and from the second tree, water and earth. It looks like my old friend is too weak since I didn't feel anything from him or I'm too bad to feel this, yet that battle was intense and the load that I felt near them began to resemble their energy spilled during the battle.

It should be attributed to the advantages of the neutrality of my energy, the reserve of forces is replenished faster and faster. But it's worth waiting out somewhere until I fully recover and continue on my way.

After wandering around a bit, I saw a big tree, hiding in its roots, I decided to try to sleep, maybe this way I will recover faster. After some time, I could not sleep, tossed and turned, thinking. Only when he calmed down without achieving anything, and stopped moving, the body itself began to feel sleepy. The last thought was the desire not to be killed during his first dream in this world.