Jiang blinked, his heart pounding. He had done it. He had reached full synchronization. The tension that had been gripping his body suddenly released, and he let out a triumphant honk. He jumped up and down, flapping his flippers excitedly.
"I did it! Aylin, I did it!" Jiang shouted, practically bouncing across the room.
Aylin smiled, relief washing over her. "I knew you would. You're finally—"
But before she could finish, the system chimed again, and Jiang's heart dropped.
Error.
The room went silent as the system's voice droned in a monotone.
Synchronization: 99.990%. Mission failed.
Jiang froze, the joy draining from his face as if the cold itself had sucked it out. "W-what? No, that's not right. It said 100%! I saw it!"
The system chimed again, colder and more robotic this time.
Mission failed.
A sickening weight settled in Jiang's chest. His flippers trembled, and his knees buckled as the reality set in. 99.990%. Not enough. Not perfect. He hadn't done it after all.
Aylin rushed over to him, panic flickering across her face. "What happened? What did it say?"
Jiang honked, his voice weak. "It glitched… it went down. I didn't— I didn't actually make it."
His mind raced. He had done everything right, hadn't he? He had pushed himself as far as he could go. But 99.990%wasn't 100%. It wasn't enough.
Aylin's eyes widened, her voice barely a whisper. "But that's practically perfect. There's no way—"
Jiang's body jerked violently, each twitch pulling him closer to the ground as if gravity itself was finally claiming him. His vision blurred, and the system's relentless countdown thudded in his skull.
Termination in 10 seconds.
His flippers trembled, useless and limp, as if the weight of his failure had drained the last bit of strength from them. The ice from his Cold Aura crackled beneath his feet, but it was no longer a source of power—just a cold, hard surface that mirrored the hollow dread inside him.
"Aylin!" His voice came out in a desperate squawk, but he could barely hear himself over the rushing blood in his ears. Everything around him felt far away, distant, like he was underwater and sinking fast. He caught a glimpse of Aylin rushing toward him, her face a mix of panic and disbelief, but her form seemed to flicker in and out of focus.
5 seconds.
His heart pounded violently in his chest, each beat like the crash of a drum, growing slower, more labored. He felt the ice creeping through his veins, not from the Cold Aura but from the inside. His chest heaved, trying to draw in one more breath, but his lungs refused to cooperate. Blood welled up in his throat, choking him as it dripped from the corners of his beak.
His flippers twitched feebly at his sides as the world darkened around him. The sharp pain in his skull intensified, and with a sickening pop, he felt something break inside him. Warm liquid spilled from his eyes—thick, dark blood that blinded him as it dripped down his face. His pupils burst, and his vision was swallowed by darkness.
3 seconds.
Aylin's voice cut through the haze, though it sounded faint, muffled by the blood that now pooled in his ears. "Jiang, stay with me!" She was gripping his shoulders, shaking him desperately, her touch frantic. "You're almost there—just hang on!"
But Jiang couldn't hang on. His body was shutting down, his muscles spasming uncontrollably, twitching and jerking with each passing second. He could feel the blood oozing from his broken eyes, thick and warm, dripping onto the frost beneath him. His mind was slipping, falling further into the dark abyss that was closing in around him.
2 seconds.
A sharp crack echoed through his skull, and the pain reached a crescendo. He tried to scream, but no sound escaped his lips. His body convulsed violently, his flippers flailing uselessly as the blood from his beak splattered across the ground in thick droplets. The world around him seemed to spin, blurring into a mess of red, white, and black.
1 second.
With a final, brutal crack, Jiang's skull gave way. The pressure that had been building behind his eyes erupted, and the blood poured freely now, soaking his feathers and pooling beneath him. His body went limp, the cold frost biting into his skin as his lifeless form collapsed onto the ground.
His unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling, wide and vacant, as his final breath escaped in a soft, ragged hiss. His chest stopped moving, and his heart fell silent.
Nothingness.
For what felt like an eternity, Jiang floated in absolute darkness. There was no pain, no cold, no sound—just a vast, endless void that swallowed everything. Time seemed to stretch on forever, each second blending into the next until he no longer knew where he ended and the nothingness began.
Then, with a sudden jolt, Jiang became aware of something soft beneath him.
His fingers twitched.
Fingers?
Jiang's eyes snapped open, his vision filled with blinding white light. He squinted, blinking against the brightness until the world came into focus. He wasn't lying on the frost-covered ground anymore. Instead, he was sprawled out on something soft and fluffy, like a bed of cotton. The cold that had been seeping into his bones was gone, replaced by an odd warmth that didn't seem to belong anywhere near ice.
Slowly, Jiang sat up, groaning as he rubbed his head. His hands—human hands—felt their way across his face, tracing the contours of his nose, his mouth, his eyes. He blinked, looking down at his bare chest, his skin smooth and pink, just like it used to be.
"I'm... human?"
He glanced around, taking in his surroundings. He was sitting on what looked like a cloud—an actual, soft, white cloud that stretched out endlessly beneath him. It was like being suspended in the sky, though there was no wind, no air, nothing but the surreal softness of the cloud and the stark whiteness of the world around him.
"What... what the hell is this?"
Jiang scrambled to his feet, only to realize he was completely naked. He stared down at himself in disbelief, his face twisting into a grimace. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm naked on a cloud?"
A bitter laugh escaped him, though it felt hollow. "What was the point of all that? The blood, the pain, the system... only to end up on a fluffy cloud with my dick hanging out?"
Frustration bubbled up inside him, hot and sharp. He clenched his fists, slamming them down onto the soft surface of the cloud beneath him. "I worked so hard! I did everything I was supposed to! I—" His voice cracked as he pounded his fist again, though the cloud just bounced back, making his blows feel absurdly ineffective.