The Alien Nest

After another hour of swimming, Tu Ran spotted a white line in the distance, stretching across the entire horizon, stark against the pitch-black seawater.

It was the coast.

Finally, land!

Joy she couldn't contain swelled in her chest.

The land looked close, but it took nearly another hour before Tu Ran truly reached the shore.

Looking at the scene before her, Tu Ran realized why she'd been able to see the coastline from an hour away.

The beach here was made of smooth white stones, large and small, each one emitting a cold white fluorescence of varying brightness, illuminating the entire shore like daylight.

The white sand formed the sharpest contrast against the black sea.

Tu Ran jumped off the alien creature and waded through the remaining shallows on foot.

The creature stayed where it was, its silver tail fin slapping up and down with a faint air of showing off.

Tu Ran paused. Instead of leaving right away, she took an apple out of her space.

This was one she'd set aside for herself—she'd packed a whole crate. There was no oxygen in her space, so fruit could be stored for a long time.

"Catch." Tu Ran tossed the apple to the creature.

The creature immediately opened its mouth wide, caught the apple with perfect precision, chewed a few times, and swallowed it whole.

Licking its lips, it stared at Tu Ran with a look that said it wanted more. Its ears perked up with excitement, its tail fin wagged even faster, and several tentacles at the tip of its tail burst out of the water, splaying wide like a peacock's tail.

"That's the last one." Tu Ran tossed it another apple. "Eat it and go."

The creature swallowed the second apple with delight, so happy it swam in circles on the spot.

Tu Ran didn't pay it any more attention and headed inland.

Beyond the silver-white beach lay a dense forest, dominated by spruce-and-pine-like plants.

It was already dark, and travel was difficult. Tu Ran found a suitable large tree nearby.

The temperature here was on the low side, and cold wind prowled freely through the trees. Her thin clothes were nowhere near enough for the chill. She pulled a spare Pioneer combat suit from her space and quickly changed into it, the biting wind immediately blocked out. With the fully enclosed combat helmet on, the stiffness in her face eased as well.

She climbed the tree nimbly, sat down on a branch, plucked a leaf to cover herself with, and forced herself to fall asleep quickly to recover her strength.

The dense forest was quiet at night, with only the soft rustle of wind through the leaves.

When the sky was just beginning to brighten, Tu Ran woke. She checked the time—she'd only slept four hours. In Federation time, it was only ten at night.

Her stamina had fully recovered. Tu Ran climbed down from the tree and headed deeper into the forest.

The wind wove through the trees, and every trunk she passed was covered in a layer of frost.

Tu Ran moved through it all, keeping an eye on her surroundings. Her goal was to find alien creatures.

Unfortunately, from dawn to dusk, she didn't spot a single one.

And from sunrise to sunset had only taken six hours.

Tu Ran climbed back up a tree as usual to wait out the night.

She wasn't sleepy. She dozed for five hours, and when dawn broke, Tu Ran hurried on her way.

With Fatty not around to guide her, she could only pick a direction and hope for the best.

She'd found nothing yesterday, so today she observed more closely, not missing a single unusual detail—even if the frost on a tree formed an odd pattern, she'd go over to take a look.

Still nothing.

It was as if this dense forest had never welcomed any living creature, and she was the first being to ever step foot here.

Night fell, and Tu Ran climbed up a tree.

She took a bottle of nutrient fluid from her space and sipped it slowly, then looked down at her communicator. Today's daylight had only lasted five hours.

She'd been here two days. The days were getting shorter, and the nights longer. Her progress was being seriously hampered.

If one day daylight never came, she'd have to travel at night.

But what troubled her most was why she hadn't encountered a single alien creature yet.

That didn't make sense. According to the survivor records, the island zone was teeming with creatures—all kinds, a dizzying variety.

There was no way she'd gone two full days without seeing a single one, not even a trace that they'd been here.

It was wrong.

Like the calm before a storm, it made it hard for Tu Ran to sleep.

The third day, the fourth day—still no creatures.

And her surroundings looked exactly like the same dense forest she'd seen on day one. The oversized spruces and pines stood in neat, orderly rows, giving her the illusion that she'd been stuck in the same spot the whole time.

The days were indeed shrinking by an hour each time. The nights were growing longer. By the fourth day, daylight lasted only three hours before eight hours of darkness descended.

After mulling it over, Tu Ran decided to move at night.

Fully geared up, determined, and highly alert, Tu Ran set out on her first nighttime excursion in the Threshold.

She had night-vision goggles, so she could see her surroundings clearly even in the dark.

At first, it was quiet—just like during the day.

Then a strange chanting drifted down the cold wind to Tu Ran's ears. The ground began to tremble, the trees shook violently, and a pair of massive claws wrapped around a trunk as huge heads emerged one by one from behind the trees.

Bears? Lions? Porcupines? And a bunch of beasts she couldn't name.

These creatures weren't heavily mutated. Aside from standing upright on two legs, they looked much like their normal counterparts.

One by one, they stepped out from behind the trees, eyes glowing green as they fixed on Tu Ran, baring sharp fangs and claws.

Tu Ran stared at the endless tide of creatures—and more were still streaming out from behind the trunks—and swallowed hard, taking a step back.

No thank you.

She'd wanted to find a lone creature, not have a whole nest find her alone.

And out of all these creatures packed together, only one had an inner core.

[Direction Sense]

Description: The owner possesses an absolute sense of direction toward any place they intend to reach. Without a map, they can arrive at any destination they wish.

Grade: Beginner

Note: All things are emptiness, and so is perception. Carefully discern truth from falsehood. Repeat—carefully discern truth from falsehood.

Tu Ran gave the last line a second look. This was the first time "Ability Identification" had repeated itself so insistently.

Tu Ran didn't dwell on it. She needed this ability badly. Turning her gaze to the brown bear—the owner of the ability—Tu Ran pulled a laser gun from her space.

The instant she produced her weapon, the creatures launched into a scramble for food.

Countless creatures surrounded her from all four directions, roaring as they lunged.

Tu Ran stood her ground without dodging. Raising the laser gun, she pressed the trigger. A towering blue light swept across the stacked, surging mass like a blade of light.

The creatures' bodies were sliced cleanly in half at the waist. Their lower halves kept running a few steps in their charge before stopping, while their upper halves hung suspended for a moment, misaligned top and bottom—then, one after another, both halves collapsed to the ground.