Kaiju trudge to the nearest mushrooms.
Compared to the trees he was familiar with, the trees growing here were more colossal and enigmatic. He even shuddered at the thought they were alive.
The mushroom glued in a decaying wood, settling on a flat earth. Ants could be seen crawling on the wood's skin.
He crouched down, scrutinized the surface of the mushroom and ruminated.
"If I recall correctly, to identify if the mushroom has poison or not is based on the color. This one seems not to be bright-colored. So, it is edible.
However, I must also examine its ring around the stalk if it has white gills on it."
He plucked the mushroom, unusually bigger than the mushroom he was familiar with, and turned it around, peeking at the gills part of the mushroom. He saw it was also dark purple and sighed in relief.
Cautiously, he slowly motioned the mushroom to his mouth and suddenly halted.
For some reason, he had a lingering feeling that the mushroom was toxic, but his grumbling stomach demanded for food.
He swept his eyes to his vicinity, seeing some plants and fruits – he felt the former would catch him in trouble while the latter would need a lot of energy and time to grab it. Left with no choice, he closed his eyes and shoved the mushroom to his mouth.
At the same time, he thought, 'If I still have some luck, I'll live. If I don't, I'll die. Let's leave it to fate then.'
He munched the mushroom and gulped it entirely.
He opened his eyes, blinking, hearing only his racing heartbeat, seemingly nervous.
"Wait!" He blinked his eyes faster than before. "I'm not nervous at all. Why am I palpitating, then?"
His heart skipped a beat.
He clutched his heart, feeling his heart literally stopped beating, and he felt suffocated.
He dropped to his knees, his eyes went red, then purple, becoming darker and darker. Perspiration emerged on his face throughout his skin.
Saliva dripped out of his mouth as he opened his mouth wide, attempting to vomit something he should not have eaten.
Obviously, it was impossible.
He tried his best to take a breath but it appeared even his respiration system stopped functioning. Veins emerged on his forehead – though red before but now, it was even dark purple.
He fell his cheeks to the earth, not even feeling the pain. He attempted to respirate but to no avail.
Soon, his eyes moved upward, turned dull, until he lifelessly settled on the earth.
His body stopped convulsing and he stayed frozen… for who knows how long.
***
A pristine, snowy, dainty, feral snake blinked her eyes as she emerged from the shadow of the colossal roots of a tree.
Her pure milky white pupils reflected a lifeless body, and her hunger intensified even more when she saw the body convulsed.
Her vision zoomed in and saw the food she hadn't eaten for days, and it caused her stomach to growl.
Without hesitation, she slithered her body forward. When she reached the lifeless body, due to her low intelligence, she didn't even realize how teeny-weeny she was, as she was only the size of the middle-finger.
Driven by instinct, she slithered toward the neck part of the body, where she sensed the quality and quantity of the poison coursing through the lifeless body.
The body convulsed again then stayed still. The dainty, snow snake was not terrified to say the least, even though she appeared to be confronting a colossal living thing.
When she arrived at the neck part, seeing the dark purple veins protruding out, she opened her mouth and four fangs emerged, even licking it, resulting in her tongue to draw some blood.
She only received a pang of pain however, before her mind was consumed by hunger.
She bit the dark purple veins, sipped the poison coursing through the lifeless body – sometimes convulsing – and her body began to grow.
She became fatter and fatter, yet it appeared her hunger was not satiated yet. She greedily gulped the poison for half an hour until all the poison inside the body entirely vanished.
The dainty, snow snake pulled out its fangs, burped with sleepy eyes and quickly fell into hibernation beside the lifeless body.
A lifeless body of a human and snake stayed still for a while, as though they were in deep slumber…
***
A crimson moon in the east and the azure moon in the west was slowly orbiting and was about to meet each other. If they did, it signified the time was in the middle of the night.
Furthermore, once eclipsed, the two moon's colors would change…
At this moment, the serene face of Kaiju was being reflected by the crimson moonlight. His eyelids twitched and slowly opened them. Yet he quickly tried to squint because the light almost blinded him.
He strenuously motioned his arm, opened his palm to shield his eyes from the crimson light and opened his eyes again.
He was frozen for a while, his mind was still in the process of recalling what happened, until memories of him eating the mushroom emerged on his mind.
At the same time, as he was about to react when recalling he was struck by poison, an unfamiliar feminine voice reverberated in his mind.
[You have survived through a fortuitous encounter. You have obtained 10 Luck Points!
Your 10 Luck Points are multiplied ten times…
Congratulations!
You have been rewarded with 100 Luck Points!]
Kaiju was startled. He quickly sat up and turned to his right and left in a defensive position. When he saw no one, he quickly realized the feminine voice was reverberating inside his head… like the Tower.
[You have finally possessed Luck Points! The Gacha System is activating…
Assimilating the host's current data… Please wait…]
"W-Who are you?"
He received no response.
His heart raced, believing he must have been possessed. He slowly absorbed what the feminine voice was saying earlier and concluded he only understood a bit.
"Luck Points? Gacha System? What are they?"
He sighed, knowing he could not receive an answer unless the Gacha System revealed itself.
"Forget about that. How did I survive?" He furrowed his eyebrows, perplexed.
Falling into deep contemplation, he lowered his head and dazedly stared coincidentally at the snow, dainty snake.
The snowy, dainty snake was in slumber earlier but now, it was staring at Kaiju with innocent, pristine, milky white pupils.
It blinked repeatedly, and so was Kaiju.
When he finally grasped what he was staring at, he was taken aback and quickly scurried away from the snake.
"SNAKE!"