The Author's POV

'It's bright.'

Squinting, Melissa covered her face with her hand to block the light coming from above. It was really bright. Bright enough to make her eyes feel sore.

"Ugh."

Her mind was rather groggy at the moment and she wanted nothing more than to sleep at the moment.

She felt tired. Extremely so.

But…

"The fuck!?"

With a sharp snap of her eyelids, Melissa stirred out of her slumber.

After her mind sobered up a bit and she recalled the events leading up to her finding herself in this state, she immediately felt uneasy.

"Shit, where are my glasses?"

In search of her glasses, Melissa tapped the ground with her hands.

It was difficult for Melissa to see anything without her glasses, as everything around her was extremely blurry.

"Where are they?"

Touching around her and only feeling what felt like thick hard grass, Melissa's brows knit tightly.

"I knew it."

Melissa muttered to herself as her face twisted in displeasure.

"…I knew that I shouldn't have agreed with Ren's deal. Whenever I do something with him, I'm always hit with the worst of luck. Now I probably lost my glasses and will never find them ag—"

Right at that moment, Melissa felt something in her hand. Carefully touching it and recognizing its shape, she grabbed the item and put them on her face.

"Nevermind."

She mumbled to herself as she got up and took a look at her surroundings.

"Still doesn't change what I previo—huh?"

Melissa's jaw grew slack as gazed into the distance.

She was left in awe by what she saw as she struggled to comprehend the scene in front of her at that moment..

"…Where in the world am I?"

The scenery…

It looked like nothing like she had ever seen before.

A majestic forest of thick canopy trees bent at different angles covered the northwest part of the landscape. A vivid palette of rose, amber, and violet feathers shaped leaved replaced the regular looking ones to create a breathtaking spectacle.

The air was thin and easy to breathe as Melissa had no trouble breathing.

But…

"This is not earth."

Melissa was quick to guess that something was wrong with this place. It had no semblance of the earth she knew.

"How is this possible?"

Rather than being flustered, Melissa's eyes twinkled with an uncommon excitement.

"It can't be right?"

By tapping her bracelet, she took a tiny device out of her dimensional space and pressed the small button that sat atop of it.

Beep—! Beep—!

A beeping sound echoed out.

"61% nitrogen, and 30%% oxygen…"

read the measurements displayed on the machine. Her excitement soon reached an

I'm really on a

to exygen was around 78% to 21%. On rare occasions would it differ, but it was only by a small percentage. Compared to this

back when earth was in its infancy stages, and it

place was filled with enormous bugs, and

"Shit."

there was one thing she despised the most, it was bugs...and the idea of possibly finding bugs that were the size of whales,

putting that aside, Melissa was still

could collect data for her research, it was none other than this place! A

"Wait a second..."

however, didn't last long. Her eyebrows

be on a different planet, but how exactly am I supposed to go back to

even know how she got here in the first place. In fact, she was extremely confused as to why she suddenly appeared here out of

her own business in her lab when suddenly,

was

"Hmm…"

faded as reality dawned on her. She pinched the middle of her brows in annoyance as she quietly mumbled

"I'm fucked, aren't I?"

***

away from Melissa, in

"What's that?"

the thick canopy of trees and glanced to the distance

Amanda saw the pyramid in the distance, her heart tightened as she felt a sense of existential doom. There was this suffocating feeling rising from the pyramid in the distance

into the sky as she stared at the

the sky

"This phenomenon..."

tensed her legs and leapt up as she

again leaped toward the top of another branch, she eventually reached the top of the tree and was then able to see the

distance,

"A mana compressor."

was, but now that she could see it

was a

scaled mana

used by demons to convert the mana in the

one thing for sure; the mana compressor in the distance wasn't just any mana compressor. It was

on she was able to

"I'm not on earth."

been built on earth, humanity or other races would've discovered it long ago. It was simply impossible for it to be on

marvelled at the various plants and vegetation that she

be far bigger than anything I've seen

to snap out of her thoughts as her attention was once again drawn toward the

"...How did this happen?"

had no idea

she was only here to get an idea of where she

...At least until now.

***

"I can finally move."

of the rocky wall beside me, I supported my

felt something soft on the side of the wall. I ripped whatever it was from the wall and brought it closer

"Is this moss?"

hand to feel the texture of the lump on my hand, I brought it closer to my nose and sniffed

"It smells like it…"

I knew how

I dropped the moss on the ground, I turned my attention to the

It was dark.

around, I saw nothing but

"Huuuu..."

move my legs in a sideways motion. At the moment, I was trying to figure

touched the corner

and

big nor too small. Just

'I'm thirsty.'

my dry lops together, I moved toward the area where the liquid was dripping. The closer I got, the more

Drip— Drip—

Gulp.

a

now, I had been here over a day

once more, I extended my hand in the direction of where the sound came

'Wait.'