I just killed a powerful rival.
A territorial battle. Not just that, a battle that took a part of me with it; a battle against a powerful rival that pushed me to the edge of life and death than I've ever been before.
A battle that pushed me to my very limits, testing my endurance, sanity, and everything in between.
And yet, something had crossed into my domain, again.
So fast. Ruthless, without mercy.
'Survival of the fittest'. I thought darkly. 'It's not fair. It's just a fierce crucible that pounds you again and again, till you either die or... evolve'.
By now, I was more or less sure that it was the system that constantly push these new threats my way, a fierce and brutal crucible to make me stronger, to force me to evolve. The wild is wild, but not this wild.
The wild is dangerous, but not this dangerous.
This is something else.
The new invader? I didn't see it. Not exactly. But I felt it, like a ripple in the soil, a subtle shift in the breath of Echoterra itself.
My roots recoiled on instinct, curling slightly in defense, but my core remained still.
Another plant. New, unfamiliar. An intruder... yet not immediately hostile.
The new guy was probing.
I could've engaged, could've lashed out with the Root Feeder Tendrils I'd evolved or spit sap like acid into the soil. But I didn't.
My mind was heavy, still spinning from the last fight, from the revelations that came after. The trial objective... the system warning... the system itself, that voice... had unveiled too much and not enough.
I had questions. About myself, about the world, about what I used to be, exacerbated even more by the flashback I had.
Since the first day that I woke up in this world, I always felt like some part of me was forgotten. I remembered; I was a human, I know that but not much else.
As a human, who was I? What did I do for a living?
All I knew was that I lived in the outskirts and nothing more. But after that flashback, that memory... everything changed.
And maybe, for the first time, I wasn't afraid.
I reached deeper into the earth, not to attack but to speak. One of my abilities is the Territorial Instinct, an ability I unlocked after making contact with the rival plant for the first time.
With it, I can do 3 different things in my territory: Warn, Lure, and Engage.
[Instinct Directive: Warn]
I didn't even have to think. A wave of bitter-tasting sap began to bleed through the capillaries of my root system, tainting the surrounding soil with chemical menace.
My outer leaves stiffened and flexed, angling like spears toward the unknown direction. A pulse of pheromones hissed upward; a scentless cry of dominance only another flora could detect.
My message was a simple one.
The presence hesitated.
I felt it. An eerie silence beneath the ground, as if the other had frozen in place, weighing the scent, the message, the danger.
Then... slowly... it withdrew. Not in panic, not in terror, but in wary acceptance.
And just like that, it was gone.
No violence. No need.
But it still left me unsettled. If the system had gifted me this authority... then who, what had granted the other flora enough intelligence to understand it?
A much bigger question was, what is the origin of the system?
I stretched my leaves toward the dim light above. For now, the threat had passed. But the world was waking up.
And I was no longer the only one listening.
It was not easy, it was not instant.
It took patience, but as a plant, I discovered that I had loads of patience I never knew I had in me before now.
It took a lot of piecing information together, gathering subtle clues, some of which I noticed before and others I ignored once, subtle hints from the world, and then, a clear mental picture was finally painted in my head.
As soon as the realization came, the system lit up with a new notification.
[SYSTEM BOOT COMPLETE]
[User Identified: Clayton Hunt]
[Cognitive Signature: Stable]
[TRIAL SERIES: Genesis Protocols]
[Sequence: Emergence 1 – Root Genesis]
[Trial Word: Echoterra – Sector 99B]
[Objective: Expand Root-Controlled Territory to 100 Square Meters]
[Failure Condition: Core Termination]
[Status: 7.8% Territorial Control]
[Threat Index: Moderate]
[Observation Status: Active]
["Adapt. Grow. Dominate. The Genesis begins."]
For a few moments, I could not breathe, think, do anything.
Everything finally made sense.
'Genesis Protocols huh?' I thought, struggling to keep my composure. 'So this world, all of this, it's all just a test? A trial?'
'Who in their right mind thought of a world this sick and demented?'
I didn't want to admit it but knowing my race, I was pretty sure that a human could have done this but then again, I don't even know if humans are capable of anything ... system? World?
It seemed more like something that could only be achieved by Gods.
After getting the answers that I sought for a long time, a lot of other things became self-explanatory.
Suddenly, I felt cold.
'User #009 terminated...'
'That was a human too right? A human, just like me. Dead, just like that'.
The theory of natural selection, survival of the fittest... I could not help the theory ringing in my head over and again after learning the truth of this world.
'Will I ever get the chance of returning? As a human?'
I didn't even know if I wanted to return. At the moment, I just felt... hollow.
'Haha...' I felt mad, insane.
'I guess this world is just hell, right?'
'Well, nothing new. Earth is also hell'.
It was taking a moment for my mind to accept all the crazy revelations and truths that I just discovered, but then...
I felt my mind warp again, transported... to a memory.