Preyed in the Dark Forest

In the seminar hall bustling with people donning white laboratory coats, a twenty-one-year-old man with purple eyes and short black hair found himself a seat amidst the mundane noises of either excitement or nervousness.

Setting down his backpack and retrieving his cheap laptop stored within it, Grey readied himself before the seminar instructor responsible for briefing them about their internship arrived.

"Hey, Grey? How's your research going?" Sitting beside him, a nerdy-looking man around the same age as him, who was donning black-framed eyeglasses, asked casually.

"What research are you referring to, Clark? There's too much load that my brain's going nuts, you see." Grey replied, a hint of exhaustion in his voice.

"What's with the tone? Did you even get a sleep? I know you have a fang-like tooth, but take it easy man. We aren't even yet being exploited by a company and you already feel like dying." A subtle concern painted on Clark's face as he let out an expressive sigh.

Turning on his laptop without sparing Clark a glance, Grey responded, his tone dull, "Sleep? Sleep is for the weak."

"Yeah, I'd rather be weak." Clark patted his shoulder.

He then added,

"Anyway. I'm talking about the research for Ma'am Krish's subject – the Dark Forest Theory."

Click.

Clicking here and there on his laptop, Grey heard Clark's question, leaving the former in momentary silence.

A few seconds later, Grey said, "Ah, about that crap. Well, that's not exactly a thesis, but yeah, I've already finished it."

"Sigh, that's good to hear. What category did you focus on?"

Knowing that Clark, his classmate, was a nosy person, Grey didn't mind his excessive query. He then casually answered, "Dangers of Broadcasting."

The Dark Forest Theory was something that originated from Liu Cixin's science fiction novel "The Dark Forest," which was a part of the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy.

The theory itself was a concept within the novel that addressed the unknown dangers of interstellar communication and exploration.

"Dangers of Broadcasting? Mine is the Universe as a Dark Forest. It sounded simple yet it has its own complexity, which makes it easier to be the research's focus since I can be broad with it." Clark's pair of black eyes swept through the gradually filling seminar hall before subconsciously stretching his arms–

Yawn.

...as he caught for oxygen.

Seeing this, Grey scoffed.

"Am I the one who truly lacks sleep or you?"

"Hah. Anyway. I'll take a nap. Do me a favor and wake me up when the seminar instructor arrives."

Grey's hands stopped typing for a moment, his gaze landed on Clark's side before shaking his head in silence.

'This brat...' He muttered.

As he resumed his research, with his fingers swiftly and efficiently poking the soft tiles of his outdated laptop, Grey contemplated his discussion with Clark just now.

'Dark Forest, huh...'

In fact, Grey was fascinated yet at the same time terrified by the idea behind the Dark Forest Theory, which stated that the human race was unable to encounter any alien civilizations despite the seemingly endless universe because every species was busy hiding from each other.

It depicted the idea that the universe was a dark forest, where prey and predators existed... and that by finding each other, one civilization would be preyed upon while the other one would either remain a hunter or become a prey from the eyes of other high-tiered civilizations.

Knock.

Constant knocking on the already-opened door pulled Grey from his little reverie, which prompted him to repeatedly tap Clark's shoulder, who was already soundly asleep.

"Hey, Clark. Wake up."

"Un? I–Is the s–seminar finished?" Clark asked, his eyes depicted drowsiness.

Pak.

Grey flicked the man's ears to soberness.

***

"Class, go to your respective stations." The seminar instructor's words echoed to every intern's ears as she left the seminar hall in a hurry.

"What the? Did something happen? It hasn't even been ten minutes since she started... Fuck, I shouldn't have told you to wake me up." Clark grumbled, his eyes briefly focused on their seminar instructor's receding figure.

Even Grey, who turned off his overheating laptop, fell into contemplation before dismissing any concern, "Well, abrupt meetings or summons happen, so don't be too surprised. Anyway. I'll go first to my station, you do you."

Grey organized his backpack and left the seminar hall while Clark continued with his friend called sleep.

Finding himself alone in a laboratory known for quantum experiments where attempts regarding quantum teleportation and quantum entanglement were being tested, albeit rarely, Grey sighed.

Sitting in a nearby electric socket, Grey set up his laptop and charged it; his latest phone on his right side.

'I've saved up for a year just to buy this one.' Grey thought to himself before his purple eyes fixated on one of his research flashed on his laptop's screen; something that he and Clark talked about earlier.

— Dark Forest Theory: Dangers of Broadcasting —

"I better review it." He muttered.

It was then...

Crackle– Crackle.

"Wh–what the!" Grey tumbled with his back as his laptop, along with his newly bought phone, crackled similar to a broken radio.

"Keuk!" Subconsciously rubbing his butt as he landed on the white floor of the laboratory, Grey helped himself up to check what was happening, only to hear something that seemed to indicate the worst-case scenario; the unthinkable.

TUTUT DODODO TUTUT DODODO TUTUT DODODO TUTUT DODODO...

"T–this familiar song!" Grey's fear was evident in his eyes, but was unsure of the current situation.

It was the popular rock music included in the Golden Record aboard both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 that was launched by NASA in 1977, which aimed to communicate with extraterrestrial life as it drifted in the vacuum of space.

Frozen in place as his already exhausted mind tried to process what was happening, Grey pulled the chair and sat on it some distance away from his seemingly breached laptop and phone.

"A–Am I dreaming right now? Fuck, I maybe should get some sleep!"

However, what's next caused his eyes to widen.

Crackle– Crackle.

The music stopped, only for his laptop's and phone's screen to be replaced with a confirmation that the stupid humanity seemed to incessantly seek.

[YOU ARE NOT ALONE]

At the same time, screams eventually resounded everywhere.

***

Boom!

The roof of the laboratory where Grey was stationed disappeared like a paper being flown by a strong storm.

Grey, who was almost buried in the rubbles, couldn't help but cast his gaze above, prompting him to witness several ginormous spacecrafts and alien species that resembled an exoskeleton with azure eyes.

It depicted a combination of a slender body with rotten skin and bones, quite similar to an undead being.

Everything happened so fast that when Grey was just about to stand up, something landed in front of him; the same species that no one knew the name of.

"Keuk! Urgh!" Being wounded by the rubbles, Grey dismissed everything he had and struggled with the desire to at least raise his agonizing body.

'F–Fuck!' He cursed inwardly.

"Stupid humanity, broadcasting their existence across the vast cosmos. Do you think we are friendly? Fools of existence!"

"You cannot even maintain peace between yourselves because of incessant greed and yet you delivered a message of peace across the space? How, how hypocrite!"

This alien voice that was being automatically translated into Grey's mind seethed in anger.

"Fuck! I–I know nothing, okay!? Stop taking it out on me! S–spare me!" Grey shouted and pleaded, his eyes darting around amidst his shaken mind.

"It doesn't matter. All of you will become one of us! Foot soldiers of Anon!"

'S–shit! I–I'm going to die!' Grey screamed inwardly, his body started moving and looked for anything solid.

The skinny arms of the alien species in front of him transformed into a scythe-shaped hand, with oozing darkness emanating from it.

'F–fuck! What's that!' Grey, with his entire being boosted by adrenaline considering his predicament, pulled his legs and ran away.

However...

Stab!

A huge hand resembling a scythe penetrated his back and bore a hole through his stomach, prompting him to land on the crimson wall.

"Keuk!" A mouthful of blood gushed out from his mouth.

"Blame yourself for being weak."

Thud.

Grey's warm body gradually felt cold as he coughed blood. Sensing the end of the line of his seemingly purposeless life, his mind wandered.

'Ah... We are just preys in the Dark Forest known as the universe...'

"Ha... Cough. Haha! T–the irony..."

Grey recalled his research topic about the Dangers of Broadcasting but never expected in his lifetime that such dangers were something that he would witness and experience firsthand.

"Cough. Ha... Haha!"

The alien species looked at the already dying man with incomprehensible expression.

"Maddened laugh? The sign of regrets."

This time around, Grey looked at the source of the voice with his darkening eyes, losing their light.

"..."

Grey opened his mouth, but no voice came out.

"...?" The alien species, who observed this man on death's door, approached Grey with curiosity-filled eyes.

"Last words perhaps?"

With Grey's battered body leaning on the ruined wall, the alien species' back began protruding with tentacle-like hands.

Arriving in front of Grey, the alien species' face drew closer and said, "Save it in your next life."

It was then...

Crunch.

Grey's bloodied mouth found itself on the alien species' neck.

"Die with me." It was Grey's last struggle.

His fang-like tooth buried itself in the alien species' skin. He didn't care if it would even be effective; he just wanted to fight until the end.

"RAAAAAHHHHH!"

"Y–You maddened human!"

At that moment, the numerous tentacle-like hands that protruded from the alien species' back ruthlessly slice Grey's body into pieces.

Grey instantly lost his life.

***

Ding!

'Wh–what's that? A sound? Where am I? Where's the alien?' Confused, Grey gradually opened his eyes, only for him to see nothing but endless darkness as though he was being submerged underwater.

[Extraterrestrial System Integration... Processing!]

[Modifying the host's soul and body... Processing!]

'Wh–what's happening! I–I thought I died, was it perhaps a dream?! Yes, that must be it!'

[Installing the Alien Archive...]

[Generating the Extraterrestrial Missions...]

'Extraterrestrial M–missions? What?'

[Extraterrestrial System Integration... Complete!]

[Host's body and soul modification... Complete!]

Eventually, his eyes opened. He then found himself amidst of ruined wasteland, where a black sun was hovering above and thousands of countless bodies littered everywhere, as though a war had just ended.

"Shit..." He muttered before leaving without an ounce of hesitation for somewhere else far from these dead bodies.

Grey moved quickly without making a sound as though he was not human. He then found a lake nearby, only to see the reflection of a familiar alien species.

"Wh–what the fuck is this?! I–I reincarnated as an alien?!"

That was not the end of his surprise as the Extraterrestrial System alerted him.

Ding!

[You have obtained the Alien Skill: DNA Modification!]

[First Extraterrestrial Mission has been triggered!]

[First Extraterrestrial Mission — First Abduction.]

Mission Details:

Secure the abandoned Princess facing the death's door and modify her DNA to your liking.