5 Strange World

The disappeared Imba is currently falling into deep darkness. When the black shadow hits him, Imba is suddenly transported to this darkness. As for what the block shadow was, it disappeared when it hit his head. Imba aims the Black Buster toward the direction he is falling into, hoping it will soften the impact.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

The sensation of falling inside pure darkness is a terrifying experience. When he thinks things can't be worse, it does get worse. A lot worse. He can feel the Black Buster and the clothes on his body slowly crumbling to ash.

"Fuck, what the hell is happening?!"

Then another bad news strike.

[Detecting invasive foreign substances.]

[It is forcefully merging with the unit.]

Foreign substance? Is it the black shadow?

"Obstruct it and destroy it if possible!"

[Yes, sir. Attempting obstruction..]

Imba doesn't care whether it is the black shadow or if it is something else. He can't let it merge with the nanobots inside him. The nanobots are both the last defense of his body and also a bomb. If it succeeded, killing him would be easy, or worse, controlling him is also possible. 

[Obstruction failed… Retrying..]

[Obstruction failed… Retrying..]

Failed... Retrying... Failed... Retrying... 

Imba is horrified that the obstruction keeps failing. He also feels some change happening inside his body, especially in his stomach and brain. It is where the control unit and nanobots factory is located. He can feel both squirming and growing cold. And also shrinking.

[The merge is successful.]

[Unprecedented change is happening to the unit.]

[Foreign information is being transmitted into the unit.]

[Re.. re... Reboo... Ting..]

When Ley's voice goes silent, Imba feels something growing inside his body. It is not a material thing, it feels like a ghost is growing inside his body. But he knows it is not a ghost, a ghost can't enter his body at all, not even the most dangerous one. Imba is frightened but he can't do anything. Then suddenly, a light shone below him.

Imba feels relieved seeing the light, he doesn't care where the light will take him, everywhere is good compared to this god-forsaken darkness. Imba closes his eyes and crosses the light. When he opens his eyes again, he is already high above a forest. Imba is shocked but he quickly ignores the other details and searches for a big body of water. 

Even with his strengthened body, if he falls from such a height, it will still kill him. His best chance is to find a body of water and hopes it is deep enough. Fortunately for him, there is a body of water not far from him. It is a big lake with deep blue color. Imba moved and aimed his falling directly to the lake. Right before he hit the water, he turned and let his feet hit the water first. 

With a big splash, Imba falls into the lake. He feels the impact of the fall but his body can take it. Imba stabilizes his body for a moment before he rushes to the surface. He doesn't stop and quickly swims to the shore. Such a big lake, who knows what kind of animals live in it. Nothing attacks him and he arrives on the shore, Imba drags his hurting body to lean on a tree. 

While resting, he looks around him. Big trees, colorful flowers, and mushrooms, no animal in sight. He knows he is no longer in planet Fantasy. It seems he is transported by the black shadow and the dark place he fell before is the space passage. As for where he is, he had no idea. He can try to find out if this is a planet under the Federation or close to the Federation, but he needs Ley's help for that.

"Ley, are you there?"

[Rebooting in process.]

Imba is relieved, at least Ley is still there. He just can't imagine a life without Ley. when his body feels better, Imba stands up. He looks at his naked body, he looks around and sees a plant with a big leaf. Imba walks to it and touches it a little. He feels fine, he tears it and hesitantly touches the leaves juice. He waits for a moment and nothing feels wrong.

Assured, Imba plucks one leaf and just circles it around his waist to cover his private, holding it with a hand. What do you expect, Imba is a modern guy. Do you think he would know how to make pants from leaves? 

"Better than nothing, I guess."

Imba then walks toward the mountain he sees in the distance, he wants to try his luck by finding a cave to spend the night. He can try sleeping up in the tree but he's afraid he'll fall. As for exploring the world around him, it will have to wait until Ley is done rebooting. He had installed a map function on Ley since he used to enter a big abandoned house for his work. With that, he won't lose his way. 

While he walks, Imba pays attention to his surroundings. He is now unarmed in a forest, even with his strength it is still dangerous. He picks up a dry stick from now and then, it is for making fire. It also can be used as a makeshift weapon, he needs to use everything he can now. Strangely, Imba doesn't hear or see any animals until now. Not even bugs. 

He also can't find any sign of human activity. No road, no mark, no stumps after wood cutting, not even garbage. But such an empty forest, Imba guess people won't come.

But he doesn't let his guard down. He gets closer to the mountain and finds the road is getting rocky as he nears the mountain. He looks at the rocks, it is kind of silvery. He recalls that such a rock contains iron and can be used to start a fire. He wants to pick up some stone but his hand is full. Imba thinks about it and stops covering his privates since there are barely any signs of human activity here. On one hand, he carries the sticks and the big leaf, on the other hand, he carries some rock.

Imba climbs the mountain, he thinks it is safer in the rocky mountain than the forest. There are few hiding spots in the mountain compared to the forest. Just like the forest, there is only rock in the mountain, no sign of animals or humans. He walks around searching for a cave. There are some strange mushrooms and moss, but Imba doesn't touch them. Since it is usually poisonous and dangerous to touch. 

The sky is getting darker and Imba still hasn't found a cave. Imba then decides to climb higher and find flat ground to rest for the night. But when he climbs higher, he finds a small cave. Imba is excited but carefully approaches the cave from the side. He drops the things he carries and picks the biggest stick and a rock. Carrying the stick and rock in each hand, he peeks into the cave. From what he sees, it is an empty cave.

Imba enters the cave and checks carefully for bugs, it is an empty cave with no bugs. There is only mushroom and moss in the cave, no claw marks, blood, or drawing. Imba then moves the thing in. He places the leaf near a wall so he can sit and lean on the wall. As for the fire, he never tried to make fire with just sticks and stone but he saw how from a video.

Imba hit a stone with another stone, shaving it to make an edge. He then shaves a stick to make wood shaving and starts hitting the stone on top of it to make embers. He recalls he can create fire like this. Time passes, Imba keeps hitting but the rock breaks before the ember are created. He throws the rock in frustration. The guy in the video did it so easily, Imba thinks it'll be easy but it isn't. 

Imba tried another way, cutting a big stick in two and carving a deep cut in the middle. Imba then sharpened one of the sticks and rubbed the sharpened side in the cut. When the part blackened and smoke came out, Imba laughed. He pours the smocking black kindling to the wood shaving, Imba waits a little while blowing gently to it. But it still failed, the kindling died before the wood shaving burn.

Imba, in rage, kicks the stick and rock. He sits down while fuming.

"Fuck it, I don't need fire!"

The sky is dark, and the night arrives. The soft white light comes down but it only illuminates the entrance of the cave. Imba looks at the light, slightly missing his home. There's nothing he holds important there but at least there is entertainment. Now, he is naked in a cave in god knows where. He can't help but think how good it is back in his home.

For the first time in his twenty-two life, he wants to go home so much. He decides that when Ley is online again, the first thing he'll do is to call the Federation and request a rescue. As for the deal of helping Jack with studying the entity, fuck it, go home first then we'll talk. With nothing to do, Imba starts imagining what he'll do after he gets home when suddenly an earthquake hits.

Imba runs outside of the cave, he'll die if the cave breaks on him. When outside, he can see some birds flying out of the forest. With a piercing sound, a crack appears on the rock beneath him and it is spreading. Looking at the cracks, Imba quickly runs down the mountain.

"Fucking hell! What the hell is happening?!"

The crack spreads farther and some parts of the mountain are crumbling down. Imba watches out for the falling piece as he runs. When he reaches the bottom of the mountain, he looks at the mountain. It is already full of cracks, and the earthquake is getting even more intense.

"KIIIIISHHHHAAAA!!"

A piercing call of a creature resounds suddenly and the mountain breaks from the bottom upward. Imba holds his ear, the sound is too piercing and loud. He looks at the destroyed mountain in trepidation. A mountain is reduced to a cloud of dust.

From the cloud, a giant grey wing with a span of tens of meters long appears and with a flap, a strong wind disperses the cloud. Imba holds a tree and it takes his whole strength to hold on. The wind doesn't stop as the wings keep flapping. Imba then sees the creature's whole body. A white bird's head with bird's talon for front legs, lion's body and hind legs, and a snake tail.

Imba is stunned silly by what he sees. A griffon, a mythical and fantasy creature. It now appears in front of him in full glory. A giant griffon the size of freight aircraft. The griffon shakes the dust off his body and screams once again.

"KIIIISSSHHHAAA!"

It flaps its wings even more powerfully and take off. Imba holds down for dear life and prays the trees will stay rooted. The griffon leaves the mountain while Imba looks at where the griffon disappeared to. His heart pounds like crazy, he can't believe what he just saw. He still doesn't know where he is but he definitely left the territory of the Federation. The Federation conquers a lot of planets, it discovers many weird and fascinating flora and fauna but mythical animals like griffon are never discovered. Or any animal the size of freight airplanes.

Imba recalls the many novels he read, he thinks of a possibility. When the black shadow hits him, it does teleport of him but the teleportation destination is too exaggerated. It seems to teleport him to a fantastical world. A world that can breed and support such a giant creature, what else can it be called other than a fantastical world?

Slowly, Imba stands up. The shock has dissipated, replacing it is a giddy feeling of anticipation. Imba thought he was teleported to a planet with scarce animals. But now he knows why there is almost no animal here because the griffon was here. No animal dares to get close. Imba already forgot about his desire to go home, with such a fantastical world, he is now filled with a strong desire to explore this world.

He wants to see what other animals reside in this world and what other wonderful things this world has to offer. As for going home, he will think about it after he finishes exploring the world. Not like he has any idea of how to get home other than letting Ley contact the Federation and ask for help.

Speak of the devil and he shall come. 

[Rebooting is completed.]

[The unit, Ley, is online.]