"This ceiling is not my home." The silhouette of a man slowly sat upwards.
"Where am I?" He looked around and all he saw is blank space.
"Am I dreaming or something?" He pinched himself, but he didn't feel anything.
"You aren't." An omnipresent voice resounded and he snapped his neck at every direction.
"Who!?" He got startled.
"Do not be afraid." Something materialized in front of him.
And it was a biblically accurate angel. A mass of eyes that had white wings that looked ethereal.
"W-what the fuck!?" He was starting to freak out.
The eyeballs were like gears on a clock. And they moved eerily.
"Lars Johansson, your time on earth was up." The terrifying construct in front of him informed him.
"I... I died? Wait, let me remember." He closed his eyes in focus, trying to recall what happened.
Late in the night, screeching brakes, an animal that suddenly jumped on the road.
"Damn... I got killed by a fucking deer? Is it because I was on the way to eat a Michelin star dish made of venison?" Lars got depressed.
"A renowned critic of nourishment. You humans have eccentric jobs." The angel seemed to be weirded out by him.
'You can't call me eccentric, floating eyes... Wait, it kinda looks like that cow eyeball in porridge. It was suprisingly tasty.' Lars reminisced.
"Heh, kuhahaha! At first, you were terrified. But now, you even think of us as food. Humans are quite amazing." The angel seemed to talk to itself rather than him.
"Uhh, so you can read minds? Sorry, I just remembered that porridge in south east Asia." Lars scratched his head sheepishly.
"Hmmm. A human with such passion about nourishment. Yet you do not succumb to a deadly sin." The angel's eyes stared at him.
He was reasonably fit and for someone that eats for a living, he was in good shape.
Unlike some certain people that have a terrible relationship with food.
"Uhh, thanks?" Lars didn't know what's next and he just stared at the scary eyes that was floating.
"Wait here... I will report this to the lord." The angel disappeared.
As a messenger of God, the angel was supposed to bring him towards the golden gates of heaven.
The angel then viewed his life like a book. "A passionate man, living and enjoying life without regrets."
"Used his influence and popularity in the mortal world to establish soup kitchens all over the world in an effort to stop hunger.
Even with refined tastes, did not squander food. Thinking that starving people are all over the world.
Travelling all over the realm to satisfy his hunger for good sustenance. And still had the time for a good deed for those in need."
The angel reported to God. "Give him a shot at another life, it was cut short. He was a positive influnece in the world." God shooed away the angel.
"By your will." The angel returned to Lars and he almost had a heart attack.
'I can't get used to this angel...' A floating mass of eyeballs is quite something.
"Rejoice, young man. The lord has decreed that you can enjoy life once more." The angel's omnipresent voice resounded.
"Whu?" He was confused. Thinking of heaven and hell. It is something that actually made him anxious.
"Another chance?" Lars blinked in surprise, the turn of events were too shocking for the mortal.
'Though, isn't this kind of thing popular nowadays in stories and mangas?' He read them from time to time.
Especially the popular ones when he was a child. Toriko actually gave him the motivation to be a food critic.
"Umu, pick your choice. Let your soul rest, or go and live life once again." The angel explained patiently.
"Wait a minute... Do I go back to earth or something?" Lars thought that there were still many things to be tasted.
"Not necessarily. Your soul has already been taken out of the cycle of reincarnation." The angel blinked.
"Ohh... A parallel universe? Like in DC and Marvel!? Sweet! Then there must be all kinds of ingredients right?" Lars got excited.
"It's as you say. There are many worlds out there. Fiction can turn into reality." The angel informed him.
Lars felt that something big was at play here. But he can't really comprehend it. He was just a normal mortal.
"Okay! I have decided, please give me another chance." Lars nodded with a smile.
'A parallel world, different kinds of ingredients, tastes, scents. How exciting!' Lars felt like he will be an explorer of a frontier.
"Umu, the lord has also given you another boon for your good deeds. No good deed goes unrewarded." The angel started glowing.
Like it was about to give him a reward in those games.
"Can I think it over for a moment?" Lars asked and the angel blinked in affirmation.
After thinking about it. He always did fancy RPG's.
And what better way to progress in his adventure than to eat food and grow.
"Can I like have skills, stats, and stuff after eating something? I want to make the ultimate full-course meal and see what happens." Lars thought about the food in Toriko.
"I see, a world of fantasy where you can go on an adventure. It shall be done." The angel glowed.
Lars felt like something was added into his very essence. But he will have to wait until he could check it out.
"Go on child enjoy your new life. Beware though, adventures are inherintly dangerous. With that, I will give you something to save your life in case you are in danger." The angel glowed again.
A ball of light went towards him and entered his chest.
"Wait, what is it?" Lars didn't know what it was. Just like his new boon.
"You will see it in your so-called inventory. It's an extra from the lord in order for you to store your ingredients. Farewell, child." The angel twirled.
Its ethereal wings grew brighter and brighter. Then, he lost consciousness.
__A Whole New World__
Lars slowly opened his eyes. He groaned, feeling his body ache.
"Ow, I feel like I was hit by a truck. Ohh yeah, I was." Lars remembered that he swerved right to the other lane where a truck was waiting for his car.
Clenching his hands, he immediately felt something wrong.
"M-my hands are smaller!?" Lars patted all over his body.
And he can only come to a single conclusion. He was most likely a school age child.
"Why though? Ugh, I guess you can't get everything." Lars groaned and he looked around.
"Woah, this place is quite interesting." Lars saw that the area was a forest.
"This is the part where I explore and get to a town right?" Lars was cooking up a plan of action.
But the place was completely foreign to him. "The trees are large... Too large, there's nothing like it on earth."
Lars looked at the trees. The largest one on earth is about a hundred meters tall.
While the one he was looking at is easily 300 meters in height. Not to mention that it was a girthy boi.
"Wait, are there monsters around here? Wolves or something? That's a cliche in stories right?" Lars quickly decided to find shelter.
It was a no brainer in a forest. And he quickly found an elevated tree.
Right under, it was a pretty decent sized cave that was covered by thick roots.
"I guess this will work for now." He then remembered the inventory that the angel told him.
"Uhhh, should I just think about it?" Lars concentrated and he suddenly received a mental inventory.
There was a few items in there and he didn't see a limit to the space of it.
"Wow, thank you very much for this." Lars nodded in satisfaction at his hammerspace.
"Let's see, a knife, some rope, and a stainless steel bottle. Eh, good enough." He remembered the times in his boyscout days.
A knife and some rope can go a long way. He even had a water bottle.
"But what's this?" Lars checked the little vial. It was intricate and there's a red liquid in it.
It was fortunately labeled too. "Elixir? Wow, I guess I can use this for an emergency." Lars stored it back in and he roamed around again.
He started foraging for some food, and he found a bush that had some berries on it.
Though they were a bit weird. It was orange, not like Cape gooseberries orange.
Bright orange, looking like a neon sign. "Uhhh, I guess I have to check if it's poisonous."
Lars channeled his inner boyscout and picked one of them.
He then rubbed some a bit on his skin, checking if he would itch or feel different.
Smelling it, the berry had an interesting mix of orange and strawberries.
"This is a new world alright. This thing is basically a mix between an orange and a strawberry." Lars chuckled.
After a few minutes, he didn't really feel different. So he grabbed a bunch of them and stored it in his inventory.
He then took one and ate it, deciding to wait if it would upset his stomach.
While waiting, he thought of better things to do. So he roamed around to find a water source.
Straining his ears, Lars wanted to hear a stream. A lush forest like the one he is in is bound to have a huge water source.
The trees and shrubbery won't grow otherwise.
And after an hour, he heard it. "That's a river for sure. But I need to make sure that nothing dangerous is drinking there."
He hid behind a bush and scoped out the area. After a few minutes, he deemed the coast clear.
"I guess that berry isn't poisonous too." He didn't feel much different. And if he did, he found a good water source.
So he can throw up and try to get rid of the contents of his stomach.
Picking on the berries, he gathered some water as well.
But something did enter his mind. "What am I going to do now?"
Lars was stumped. He was in the middle of nowhere.
"Hmm, should I make a log cabin here? Make a nice little house like those videos on youtube?" He smiled at the thought.
"This place is so serene, surrounded by nature. I guess it will be quite fun to live here for a bit." Lars decided.
After gathering some water that wasn't stagnant. He returned to his base from earlier.
"I should probably find some soil where I can plant some things." Lars checked the sun above him.
It was still noon. He had plenty of food and water. There was also a place where he can return to.
So he checked out the huge forest and gathered as many things as possible.
Wood, sticks, stones. He had an inventory anyways.
"I'm like a real explorer. Is this how people in the past felt when they saw new flora?" Lars sighed.
There were a myriad of plants around. It was like a damned rainbow there.
He didn't even want to try to eat the thing he has in his hands right now.
It looked like lettuce. Which is fine, but it was fricking violet. And not like Radicchio either that has a peculiar color.
It just looked like it was a poisonous plant that you see in fantasy or something.
"My ancestors had to put things in their mouths to pave a path for the future generations. Some lettuce won't defeat me!" Lars stared at the vegetable.
"B-besides... I have that elixir right?" Lars gulped audibly as his hands trembled.
He already checked with the skin test. It wasn't reacting to his body.
But that's just a simple test, it doesn't mean anything conclusive.
"Wait... Won't my skill give me some kind of resistance to poison if this was poisonous?" Lars theorized.
It was a stupid theory to test without safety nets. But it's the only thing he's got.
The elixir is too valuable too, it can't be used because he was just poisoned for being an idiot.
So he devised a plan. "I'll just throw up if it gives me a weird feeling. Then maybe a little sip of the elixir will cure me?"
"Fortune favors the bold." He started eating the weird ass lettuce.
And when he bit into it, he was shocked. "This is... Really crunchy and crisp. It has a natural sweetness to it too, not bitter at all."
He started munching on it like a rabbit. But he was still vigilant, it looked evil after all.
But after waiting for an hour, nothing happened.
"I guess this is safe? Maybe... But nothing will happen if I don't try them all." He looked at his inventory.
There was a blue pear that he found. Some glowing cherries. A star shaped fruit that has blue flesh.
It was surreal, and there were many more. "Urgh, I guess I gotta try them all."
Lars spent the whole day trying all different kinds of vegetables and fruits.
Some were similar to those that he know, but others are just plainly out of this world.
Seeing as the light above him was dying down, he decided to make a fire in his base.
"I guess it's a pretty good haul. I'll go continue tomorrow." Lars smiled, satisfied with his findings.
"Though there is something weird here, there's no animals..." Lars got suspicious.
But he had no evidence besides not seeing any small animals or rodents. And there were no birds around.
Even though the place is a gigantic forest with all kinds of flora.
"I guess that's a thought for later." Lars lied down on his bed of moss and started sleeping.
__next day__
Lars slowly opened his eyes. He wasn't exactly a morning person. But he could wake up without difficulties in the morning.
The fire he lit was just smoldering embers now and Lars could see the sunlight shine through the roots.
"Another day I guess." He stretched, dusting his clothes off of the moss.
He then started his plan of making a farm. Lars smiled as he found a good plot of land nearby the river yesterday.
The soil looked suitable for crops and a water source was nearby. So he made his way towards the place and started tilling.
With a makeshift hoe, he cut some wood to make a crude one.
Binding it together with a stick using some rope.
"And mom used to say that being a boyscout is a waste of time." Lars chuckled as he started making his farm.
"Ohh?" He noticed something weird. He was sure of it, his body wasn't that strong yesterday.
"Is this perhaps my skill? What is it anyways?" Lars clicked his tongue.
"Shouldn't that angel at least tell me what's the specifics of my skill? Or its name?" Lars grumbled.
The name of skills can tell a lot about it after all. And he already has an inventory, why not add a status board or something.
But he has a job to do. And that was to till the land for his crops.
"Phew, that was kinda satisfying." Lars looked at the roughly plowed soil. But it was enough, plants aren't made of glass.
He started planting some square shaped tomatoes. They grew fast and were delicious to boot.
"Weird, potatoes are exactly the same as in my world. I guess the quintessential survival food has to be." Lars shrugged as he planted potatoes.
After planting, he watered them and made a a crude axe.
Finding some logs, he started bashing them with his stone axe.
Huffing, he was certainly having a work out as he wiped his sweat.
"Minecraft Steve makes this look too easy, damn." Lars kept on collecting logs.
To rest a bit after hitting trees with a blunt axe. He foraged for some clay.
It was pretty easy to find, and the noticeable color of clay was clear to see.
He gathered clay and Lars thought of making a foundation for his cabin.
"I should probably build this near to my farm." Lars was thankful that he has an inventory.
Hauling logs and clay with his bare hands when he's in a young body will be pure torture.
Lars continued with his work until he got exhausted.
"Ahhh, that hits the spot." He drank some cold water from his flask and the temperature didn't really change.
"This isn't a flask that maintains temperature... So it stops time inside, cool." Lars thought that was convenient.
Alone with his thought, he remembered something suspicious.
"Why are there no living things here besides myself?" Now that he was resting, he thought about it.
"Should I roam around to investigate? No... That's a decision that gets people killed. I should try climbing a tree to see where I am in the forest." Lars looked at a large tree.
It was so tall it was unreal. "I guess I need some equipment before I can climb that..." He frowned.
"Hah, better not do it. I don't want to go splat." Lars sighed and he stretched his muscles.
"I guess I should get more logs... Urgh, this is going to suck." He groaned.
__next day__
Lars woke up in the morning once again and dusted the moss off of himself.
"Hmm, I don't feel sore. I also feel a bit stronger again." He clenched his hands.
He stood up and started sharpening his stone axe the old fashioned way.
Grinding it against another rock. "Let's get this over with." He cracked his knuckles as he started gathering logs once again.
Going to the location of his log cabin, he saw something incredible.
"What? My farm... It looks like it's just wild plants growing." Lars observed his farm he made.
The plants he planted were done growing and they were already bearing fruit and veggies.
And the soil returned to how it looked like before. It was weird and amazing.
"Is this the infinite food glitch!?" Lars decided to till it again after harvesting his crops.
He then planted another set of plants, experimenting.
"If this grows again, then I won't need to forage much." He smiled.
"This kind of thing would be amazing back on earth..." Lars got pensive.
There are many people starving after all. And now that he has an infinte food glitch, he began eating more of his food stores.
"Weird... I didn't notice this, but I don't get full... Like at all." Lars looked at his stomach.
He could get hungry, but he never felt full. Even though he ate a lot of his stockpile of food.
And based on his body, he should be bloated right now.
"Is this the effect of my skill? I am getting stronger too..." He looked at the weird food he was getting.
"Maybe they're magical in nature?" Lars concentrated and he made a pose.
"Fireball!" He shouted while pointing at a rock. But nothing happened.
He then looked around. "Phew, good thing no one saw that."
Lars was deluded that he could use magic. But nothing happened and he didn't feel some sort of energy.
Shrugging, he continued gathering logs and clay to make a house.
__After some time__
Lars hummed as he looked at his new log cabin.
He formed clay and made a pane with it. After drying it in the sun, he stored it inside his inventory.
Abusing his inventory, he took the roof and put it above his cabin.
"This inventory is amazing... It's a godsend, I didn't even need to make tiles or something." He was pleased with his new house.
"New house, new life I guess." With a smile, he entered it and looked around.
"Needs some furniture... But I only have a knife. There's no mines here to extract iron from." Lars rubbed his chin.
"I guess I can live a pretty primitive life for now." He didn't mind having a boring time.
For now that is. He just continued expanding his farm for a bit and Lars also made simple things by using wood.
A pickaxe, a hoe, a shovel, and an axe made of stone. He felt like he was stuck in the stone age.
"I wish it was as easy to mine metal like in minecraft." He sighed.
He then got into a comfortable routine. Tend to his farm and gather as many crops as possible.
And the most important thing. He ate everything that he could get his hands on.
After some testing, he got a bit stronger after eating his crops.
"I'm like as strong as an average young adult. But the increases have slowed down greatly." Lars lifted up a decent sized log instead of rolling it.
And his body didn't seem to change much. Except he is getting stronger.
Lars also started exploring the place and he still haven't seen a single soul or animal in the area.
The place was huge, there was nothing for miles.
And when he climbed a tree that is a reasonable height, he could only see forest and plains for miles.
"Hah, I guess I should probably slowly explore this place." Lars was a bit worried that he is really far away from civilization.
So Lars explored. Farmed more fruits, plants and vegetables as much as he could.
He just continued his routine and started making a plant encyclopedia.
Sorting his inventory, Lars named the plants he foraged to fight off his boredom.
"Hmmm? My hair is black?" He hasn't checked his appearance yet. But his hair was supposed to be dark blonde.
So he went to the river and looked at his face. His eyes were gold and the tips of his hair had brown highlights.
"Wow, I look pretty good." He rubbed his chin and he smiled.
"But I won't really get girls with this face. Because there aren't any people here." Lars sighed.
While he was checking himself out, an earthquake suddenly shook the place. And it was extremely violent.
"What the hell? This is like a magnitude 7 earthquake!" Lars quickly crouched down as the ground trembled.
After a few minutes, it was over. But he frowned heavily.
"My house!" He ran towards the direction of his home immediately.
And when he got there, it was a mess. The foundation was just made out of clay and wood.
So it gave in and his cabin collapsed. "Ohh man, now I have to go back to that tree. If it's still safe that is." He clicked his tongue.
Lars started to make repairs to his cabin and he was annoyed as hell.
"What the hell is happening anyways? A sudden earthquake? Am I under a fault line?" Lars sighed while repairing his hard earned house.
After some basic repairs, he suddenly saw something from above.
"What... Is that?" He squinted his eyes. It wasn't big, but it's falling.
And when it was really near, he noticed that it was a person.
The terminal velocity of humans falling is approximately 56 meters per second, 125mph.
So he didn't have much time to react. The person dropped down onto his house in just a couple of seconds.
"My house!" His wails was heard for hundreds of meters away as he kneeled down in defeat.
__
Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.