Wha-what??
H-he was ignored?
He was still alive…
What was that?
Why
Iona knew he wasn't that lucky. There must be a reason why he survived this time.
That monster fish, it looked at him for a second, right? Then it just went away…
Why is that?
Could it be, he has some kind of halo…?
A protagonist halo, perhaps…
(Author: It's just plot armor!)
No, no, no…Iona didn't believe that he could be a protagonist. Even if he landed on a jackpot of reincarnating in another world, Iona believed in―― If you can do it, everyone can do it too.
He had read a lot of novels with multiple reincarnated individuals, and one thing he learned from it was―― you shouldn't be conceited just because you gain something that seemed so special, you have to look at your ability and worth first before judging your position.
Realizing that his mind was flying off somewhere else, he decided to stop thinking.
Iona was confused and afraid in his heart, but he couldn't do anything about it. He tried to move his body but his limbs were so weak, they were so weak and he didn't have much strength in them, so Iona could only stare blankly at the direction where the monster fish went, unable to move.
He watched as its silhouette went from big to small, until it became blurry and disappeared from his view.
Although the monster fish had disappeared, Iona was still afraid, what if it came back again? What would he do then?
He can't stay in the ocean anymore.
Immediately, Iona wanted to move out of the sea to the island, but he didn't have much strength left. With all those exercises, Iona was so exhausted, he was also hungry, the food he ate was easily digested, but he was so tired, he didn't have any appetite to eat, he just wanted to sleep.
With this in mind, Iona tried to swim back to the cave with difficulty.
This area was very familiar to him, to his right was his first resource point where he found the red water plant entangled by jelly plants, and Nemo's house was on the side of the big rock beside the rock where his little cave was located.
Iona went there immediately without taking any detour.
The moment Iona landed inside the cave, he quickly retracted his four flippers and head inside his turtle shell, and closed his eyes.
He thought since he was so tired and exhausted, he would be able to sleep easily without any problem, but this was not within his calculation at all!
Iona could sleep.
Everytime he closed his eyes, in the dark he could still see those terrifying big fish with its mouth open wide. And even if he managed to fall asleep, night came to haunt him every time.
It has hundreds of sharp teeth, ready to swallow him alive, and the moment it closed its mouth, those hundred or so sharp teeth immediately pierced his body without any obstacle. His turtle shell was punctured, it cracked and it almost broke into two pieces, his neck, his four flippers were also pierced in place—— it hurts so much the little turtle shrieks.
When he thought everything would end just there, he was wrong. The teeth retracted, and pierced him again and again, but because of the movement of the mouth, Iona followed along and was pierced in different places every time. At that moment he realized one thing—— he was being chewed.
The little turtle was tortured inside the mouth for a long time, but he was still alive. He could feel his body being mutilated inch by inch, his turtle shell was crushed, his head, limbs and tail were cut off from his body, while his body was being broken apart slowly...
Iona woke up with a start.
His heart was beating so loudly that he almost thought it was going to come out of his chest. He felt so cold, and he was trembling in fright.
Iona knew it was just a dream, but this was the worst thing about dreams. Even if you die in a dream, you still have awareness. He experienced dreaming like this multiple times in his previous life, but everytime, Iona would dream he died but as if he just became a ghost, he has God's perspective in his dream.
But this time was different, he never dreamed like this before.
Iona finally knew how those little cannon fodders in cultivation and fantasy novels felt. Although what he experienced was just a dream, the pain in the dream was diluted, but the fear is real. Meanwhile those little cannon fodders in the cultivation and fantasy novels have their limbs separated from their bodies while being fully conscious and awake because the protagonist used some spells or some drugs. Afterwards their souls were harvested to be tortured thousands of times again and again.
Iona also remembered, in stone age era themed novels, there were always these insects, bugs, or worms, a parasite that gave their host pain worse than death but they can't die. They secrete something that would heal their host over and over again. They eat their host's flesh and drink their blood, and they will do anything to prolong their host's life to exert every benefit they could get in their bodies.
Such torture, Iona wondered how can they endure it.
After thinking so much, Iona finally calmed down. He has a lot to do tomorrow, he's going to move house, so he has to sleep to recover his strength and energy.
Thus Iona closed his eyes again.
He dreamed again, but it was a fun dream this time.
It's like he was playing an
Iona was so happy, he felt like he was able to get revenge for himself. He was swimming happily in the ocean, watching as the big fish eats the small fish, and the big fish was eaten by a bigger fish, and the bigger fish was swallowed by even bigger fish, it's like a never ending cycle of predation.
This is the animal world, the law of the jungle dominates it.
This dream was implying this truth.
Iona understood it a long time ago, it's just that it didn't register in his brain properly, and so he was easily distracted by the beauty and wonder of nature.
The nature was indeed very beautiful, but it's like a rose full of thorns.
Iona was still swimming in the ocean in his dream, exploring the vast emerald blue sea. He felt like he was the king of the sea, he could go deep underwater, eat whales and sharks, he was so big and strong, he felt invisible!
Until he turned his head back, there he saw the same monster fish, it was so big, larger than the big turtle Iona. Iona hadn't reacted yet, and was still thinking—— how are you there?! —— when the monster fish opened its mouth wide, and swallows Iona whole like how it swallowed the big fish before—
Game Over
Iona woke up, being eaten in a dream two times in a row, Iona has lingering fears now.
He felt like he developed trauma over this.
Fortunately it was just a dream.
Iona poked his head out of his shell, and looked out of the cave. The sun was already high up in the sky, spreading its crown in full force.
Iona woke up at noon again. He went to eat jelly plants, this time his appetite seemed bigger, he managed to eat two strands of stems.
After he ate, he went to visit Nemo, and went to find Dory, he watched them for a while before he went back to where a group of jelly plants were growing.
He found many edible plants yesterday, but because of what happened, Iona didn't dare to swim deeper anymore. There's still many jelly plants here, Iona planned to get a few strands and circled them around his neck, these few strands would be his food ration while he traveled to the surface.
Iona still has a lot of time, he plans to come up in the afternoon, so it won't be that hot, and there is still enough light, after all, Iona doesn't have a good eye sight in land. He has to find the freshwater source that smelled yesterday before the sun goes down.
Speaking of which, he's a sea turtle right? He won't die if he migrates into fresh water, won't he?
Iona doesn't know about this, he hasn't read any article about this kind of topic.
He wanted to scratch his head, but he just moved his right flipper only to realize that he couldn't reach his head.
Sigh.
In the end, Iona just chose not to think about it, just let things flow naturally. He'll think about what to do later after he manages to find water in the forest.