Jack hated this section of the trail. In front of him was a massive rhododendron bush. To his left was a steep bush choked up-slope, and to his right was a steep down-slope covered in loose dirt and gravel. The trail used to pass around the bush on the downslope side, but that section of slope had eroded and was now impassable. The only way forward was to pass through the bush by stepping from root to root, hanging onto the branches for balance.
He really didn't want to risk it, but he didn't have a choice. The way home was in front of him, through the bush, and behind him was hundreds if miles of wilderness trail. The only reason he'd braved the damn thing on the way to Lake Valhalla was because of his promise to Fran, so now he was stuck risking it again.
He sighed. It wasn't that bad. He just needed to go slow and be careful. So, he grabbed a branch and began crab-crawling through the bush, stepping from root to root, holding branches as he went, trying not to think about the long fall down a steep slope if he lost his balance. He was halfway through, reaching for a branch with his right hand, when his vision went black.
Oh shit, am I going blind?!
In a panic, he clutched at the branch he was holding in his left hand while his right hand flailed about, reaching for a branch, any branch. Yet his clutching hands felt nothing. The realization sent a spike of fear through him and he cried out, flailing his arms, trying to grasp anything.
Even as he tried to flail and scream, nothing happened. His arms didn't flail because he had no arms, and he didn't scream because he had no lungs. He was bodyless, floating in a void. Not a starry void, like the depths of outer space, but an empty void, like a blank universe devoid of all matter and energy.
His initial panic dissipated into the nothingness before he could even think to try a second breath, and soothing calm replaced his panic. The sudden transition from panic to calm should have been jarring, but it wasn't. One moment he was feeling panicked fear that he was falling to his death, the next he was calm, like floating bodyless in a void was just another Tuesday.
Did I die? He wondered. Is this the start of my afterlife? Now what? Was he awaiting judgement? Was he stuck in limbo? Would he be isekai'ed? Since he didn't have lungs or a mouth, he tried mentally yelling into the void.
HELLO? ANYONE? GOD? ADMINISTRATOR? TRUCK-KUN?
With nothing to do but wait, his thoughts turned to the future he had planned — go to college, finally get laid, maybe go into cancer research. He honestly wasn't certain what he wanted to do beyond college. Science interested him, and he thought he might want to go into research, but he also liked the idea of getting involved in the space industry, maybe go into space, or at least work on something that got sent into space.
His thoughts eventually quieted, and he found himself just being. But as his mind drifted, he felt like he was expanding, becoming, somehow, more. More what, he didn't know. It was a strange, but oddly pleasant, sensation. He did not know if minutes, hours, days, years, or centuries had passed, but eventually a series of message in glowing gold text appeared. They didn't appear in his vision, but directly in his mind. Yet despite their purely mental nature, they still felt gold and glowy.
[Synchronization Initiated]
[WARNING: Soul strength below threshold]
[Synchronization Paused]
[Initiating emergency soul enhancement]
[Soul strength has reached minimum threshold]
[Synchronization Resumed]
What? Soul strength? Was this a System, like in the novels he'd read? The first few messages, the ones prior to [Soul strength has reached minimum threshold], felt distorted, like hearing voices under water or trying to read a sign through a torrential downpour. They also felt old, like they were generated some time ago. He assumed this was because of his soul's weakness, preventing him from properly receiving them until it grew stronger. Then two more messages interrupted his thoughts.
[Synchronization Complete]
[Genesis Heart Installation Complete]
Genesis Heart? Before he could think further on the origin and meaning of the messages, his mind was flooded with physical sensations. The smell of dirt, pain, and thirst. A thirst more intense than any he had ever felt or imagined he could feel. It drowned out all other sensations as his body demanded he give it water.
Ugh, what happened? His mind became fuzzy. His mouth felt like it was coated in sticky paste, and his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. He tried to open his eyes, but they burned like they were coated in sand. Desperate for water, he reached for his backpack drinking tube.
A rustling sound filled his ears, and something pressed against his arm, preventing him from moving it. Am I trapped?! What is this?! Still fuzzy headed, he flailed in a panic, trying to escape whatever was holding him. The rustling intensified.
Eventually, it registered in his fuzzy mind that his hands were brushing against branches. When he grabbed one and shook it, his fuzzy brain put two and two together and he realized he was tangled in a bush.
Finally understanding that he wasn't trapped, just embedded in a bush, his panic receded, and he slowly worked to free himself. He didn't know if he had somehow become tangled in the rhododendron he was previously traversing, or if this was a different bush.
Finding and grabbing onto branches with both hands, he slowly pushed himself out of the bush's grasp until he was half sitting, half kneeling inside the bush. Once his arms were free, he again reached for his drinking tube, only to find nothing. Shit, where is it?! He felt around, desperate to find his drinking tube, but found nothing. His backpack was gone!
No! Where's my backpack, my water?!
After painfully blinking his eyes a few times, he cleared them enough to see and looked around, desperate to spot his backpack.