Crack—!
The whole glass cube that Tito was imprisoned in shattered to bits, and unlike last time, he didn't blink as he waited patiently to see what would happen after each illusion switch.
For a split second, Tito saw a giant pink eye staring at him with a huge black iris as his body floated in endless space.
A normal person might feel fear, but Tito felt bewildered. The thing before him was not some advanced technology, but a robot with abilities derived from a crystal bug.
It was a fascinating sight, as Tito had never encountered robots that could wield abilities, or maybe because he was just the only ability user back on Earth.
In that fraction of a second, he figured out that the whole Galactic Prison was a man-made robot.
In the next moment, the world twisted around like a whirlpool, and he found himself in a forest again. However, unlike the last forest, the trees were short and green, and the grass was dried up, making it easy for a veld fire to spread.
A few feet away from where he was standing were two maize fields, with harvested crops showing that this had been done a long time ago.
Between the maize fields was a small dirt path lined with medium-sized rocks. At the end was a rectangular patch of green grass, which suggested that someone was taking care of it on a regular basis.
Amidst the grass field was a clay pot, reaching an average human waist and spreading out like the body of a sumo wrestler.
Hearing the crickets making soft noises in the bright night sky with a full blue moon, Tito decided to walk over to the clay pot, which had strange markings on its red curve.
One footstep led to several more. However, Tito was reminded of an old saying from his home country:
"The eyes see what lies beyond the face's reach."
It simply means never to judge distance by what you can see, as it may sometimes be further than you think.
With beads of sweat trickling down his face, Tito finally reached the clay pot.
"The pot is part of the ground itself," Tito thought, realizing that the object before him was a part of nature, as the base of the pot connected to the earth.
Forcing himself to endure the stifling heat emanating from the pot, the golden-eyed man took a small peek to see what was inside.
His eyes widened when he saw the contents within the pot. There were fairy-tale books featuring the same characters and stories.
"The Hare and the Baboon," Tito muttered as he picked up the book on top.
The cover was red, depicting the hare and the baboon drinking beer from a clay jar, sitting by a bonfire and smiling at each other like pals.
One would wonder if the story ended with both of them smiling like that.
Tito opened the book and was greeted by a blank page. Nonetheless, before he could throw it away, golden letters written in Hebrew began to appear on the page.
"A long time ago, when all animals could eat their kin except for snakes, a vulpine hare lived with its uncle, the baboon, on a holiday with their mother's relatives.
The baboon was the hare's mother's stepbrother, but the relationship between the two was that of a loving family.
In difficult situations like this, family would support each other, so the hare suggested a solution to their hunger problem.
"Uncle! Uncle!" he called out with a joyful voice that resonated through their round thatched house.
Due to his near-killing hunger, the baboon could only glance at his energetic nephew since he didn't have the energy to waste on talking.
"Uncle, I can tell that we are both hungry, so why don't we just cook each other?"
Hearing the word "cook," the baboon had no choice but to sit up straight. He had thought of cooking his nephew a few days ago but hesitated because he didn't want to suffer his sister's wrath. Yet now, that idiot had suggested it.
Swallowing hard, he tried to hide the greed reflecting on his face. "Mmm... So how do we do that? I can't just let you eat me."
The baboon wanted to say, "You can't just let me eat you... can you?"
The hare was smart enough to notice this, so he proposed something that would benefit both him and his uncle, in a fool's way.
"Uncle, you cook me for ten minutes first, and then I'll take the next ten minutes. We'll take turns until one of us is ready for consumption."
"Nice thinking! That is why you are my favorite nephew." The baboon smiled wickedly, saliva dripping from his mouth.
Taking a giant pot, the hare poured kiloliters of water into it and jumped inside, starting to count down his time.
Seeing that his food was foolish, the baboon quickly gathered firewood from the surrounding trees and started a fire.
"Hehehe... Foolish nephew, you don't have ten minutes to live." The baboon said with a sly smile as he looked at the fire he had taken five minutes to prepare.
Time slowly passed, and at the ninth minute, the water began to heat up thanks to the fire the baboon had kindled with his saved gasoline and wood.
"Ahhh! Uncle, I'm dying!" the hare cried out, as he struggled to swim since he could no longer depend on the pot's edges for support.
Hearing this, the uncle chuckled in pleasure, as if he were reveling in his own amusement. He immediately added more gasoline to the fire, causing the flames to soar.
"Nephew, why don't you just shut up?! Get ready to be in your uncle's belly! Hehehehe!"
Beep—!
In that instant, the timer rang, and the hare forced himself to leap from the pot, which was just moments away from boiling.
He fell to the ground with a bang and rolled to relieve the itching sensation all over his body.
The baboon smiled at this, knowing that after the hare's time in the pot, his nephew would surely become his dinner. His nephew had endured the heat; why couldn't he?
'You are surely going to be in my belly,' he thought with a greedy smile as he put aside his fork and knife.