"Ah!"

Gaia, whose forehead was drenched in sweat, suddenly forced his eyes open, taking deep breaths of the fresh air around him.

Looking around, a sense of confusion was shown in his eyes.

He clearly remembered that he should be in Jerusalem for the secondary energy expedition project.

During the expedition, he suddenly encountered a strange fog and got separated from the others.

In a daze, he entered through a stone door, and suddenly, he found himself here.

Surveying his surroundings, Gaia saw that the stone door behind him was situated atop a grand-looking altar.

There were countless strange symbols engraved on it. It seemed as if it could suck people in with just a glance at it, striking fear in people's hearts.

At this moment, Gaia was seated on a huge mushroom. The mushroom platform was very wide, seemingly being more than 300 square meters.

"F*ck! What the h*ll is this?"

Touching the sticky bottom, Gaia's eyes widened. Suddenly, a voice rang out in his ear.

[ Planet Mushu has activated. The first Stargate has activated. ]

[ The second Stargate will be activated in six months. ]

"W-who is speaking?"

Gaia jolted up and surveyed his surroundings once more, he wanted to find the person who was talking to him.

[ Ding! System notification: ]

[ As the first living organism to set foot on planet Mushu, regardless of whether through activating the Stargate, occupying the Star Tower, or exploring the planet, you will receive a reward. ]

[ The first login bonus will now be rewarded. ]

[ Drawing now. ]

[ Congratulations, user! You obtained Attuned to Nature. ]

A system!?

As a frequent reader of web novels, he naturally understood what these systems were capable of.

As an idea popped into his head, a light blue screen suddenly appeared in front of Gaia.

[ User: Gaia ]

[ Age: 22 ]

[ Strength: 11 ] (The benchmark for an average human is 10)

[ Constitution: 12 ]

[ Agility: 11 ]

[ Vitality: 10 ]

[ Skills: Attuned to Nature - Able to hear the thoughts of the flora and fauna within 10 meters of the user. ]

[ Achievements: Activated the first Stargate. ]

[ Points: N/A ]

[ Shop: N/A ]

Looking at his stats, a bitter smile appeared on Gaia's face. His current stats were most likely the result of his frequent training. Based on his current physical attributes, it was still considered pretty decent.

After fiddling with it for quite some time, Gaia had a rough understanding of the system's functions.

He would receive rewards when obtaining achievements, which would give him points. He could then use these points in the shop to purchase items and increase his physical attributes.

"So, I've actually entered a new world!"

Gaia took a deep breath, attempting to calm himself down.

"This is a world filled with new and undiscovered resources!"

Due to unknown reasons, his home planet back in his original world - Planet Azure was facing the threat of an energy crisis.

The energy plan that was slated to last for hundreds of years was mysteriously exhausted in just a couple of years.

Coincidentally, his main field of research was how to rationally distribute this limited energy supply and find potential new sources of energy.

Under these circumstances, if any country discovers that there was a whole other world filled with resources, that would send the entire world into a stir!

"I guess I should check this place out first."

Before he left, Gaia took out his camera from his backpack and started to take a photo of the huge mushroom underneath him.

After taking series of photos from various angles, Gaia descended from the mushroom, carefully following the mushroom's roots towards the ground.

Along the way, Gaia continued to use his camera to continuously document his surroundings.

He realized that he was now deep within a forest.

The trees around him were over a hundred meters tall, reaching into the clouds nearly blocking out the sky. Barely any sunlight made it through the canopy.

On the ground, there were all kinds of plants that were foreign to him growing freely. From time to time, he could even spot a few strange-looking critters scuttling around in the bushes.

Gaia took a deep breath of fresh air.

Everything around him was unknown.

The unknown meant that there were still opportunities to be exploited.

For example, points and knowledge.

"Activate Attuned to Nature."

Gaia wanted to check out the skill that he had just obtained.

As soon as Attuned to Nature was activated, a mishmash of voices instantly bombarded Gaia's ears.

"Arggh! I can't get any sunlight, I'm starving to death down here!"

"What's squishing my body, it's crushing me!!!"

"Sunlight! Sunlight! This sunlight is delicious!"

Hearing the cries of pain, Gaia suddenly lowered his head.

He saw a tiny clump grass being crushed under his feet.

"Sorry! Sorry! Let me help straighten you up!"

Gaia bent down to straighten the small clump of grass and took a few more steps ahead to avoid stepping on the clumps of grass.

However, this forest was full of weeds.

No matter where he walked to, he would still be stepping on something.

Therefore, after crushing and saving multiple clumps of grass, Gaia just gave up and started to ignore these sounds.

"There's a group of shady fellows hiding in the bushes."

"These guys have the same color as me."

"These guys are crushing me! It hurts so much!"

When Gaia heard this, he instantly went on high alert.

He was not wearing green clothes, so who exactly could "these guys" be?

Furthermore, the plants said that they were in a group.

"I hope they didn't notice me."

He carefully walked past the area, but a wriggling bush caught his attention.

"These guys keep stepping on me! Can they just hurry up and leave already?!"

The voice did not come from under his feet, but rather from the front.

There was a creature with green skin, brown spots, and a head that looked like a goblin.

Each one of these creatures was crawling on the ground, seemingly trying to hide their presence.

They were waiting for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow.

Taking a closer look, more and more creatures with similar patterns appeared behind them.

One... Two... Five... Eleven creatures in total.

As more and more of these strange creatures started to gather here, Gaia suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

Just as he was about to turn around, they had started their charge towards him.

Hearing some movement coming from his rear, Gaia instantly turned pale. Although he knew that danger would be lurking in this place, he did not expect to be put in a situation like this so quickly.

His brain hastily formulated an escape route, whilst also keeping track of the number of enemies.

Gaia, who was now in a mad dash, ran straight down the path he had routed out, his clothes being torn by the surrounding vegetation in the process.

Even when he bled as his skin got cut by the vegetation, he could not afford to stop. He could only grit his teeth and proceed with his plan.

One hundred meters... Fifty meters... Ten meters.

As the goblin-like creatures got closer and closer to him, his distance to the altar also shrunk. Right before one of the goblin-like creatures managed to chomp down on his feet, he just barely made it to the altar.

Whoosh... 

As a chill ran down his back, his entire body began to spin.

With this sudden wave of intense dizziness also came a huge sense of relief.

This was due to the fact that he knew that he had safely arrived at the altar.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

A series of collisions could be heard from the outside of the altar. There seemed to be a barrier separating him from his pursuers.

It was preventing that group of strange creatures from entering the altar.

Gaia looked at the creatures outside of the altar in fear as he breathed in some fresh air.

He was so close....

He was so close from being eaten by these damn creatures.

"Hah.. Hah... Phew..."

He felt as if his lungs were on fire.

His physical capabilities might have been considered decent, but he had been chased by monsters after all.

Not even Ironman triathletes could have gone through this experience mentally and physically unscathed!