He stood up from the cold, hard ground and patted himself down instinctively. Comrade Blue was still asleep on the ground. She was in a very vulnerable position. Feeling slightly tempted from her defenseless self, he drank some water.

His back was still in much pain from yesterday. He took this chance to look around the center by first going to the food storage area. When his hand landed on the doork.n.o.b to the storage room, he felt chills going down his spine.

He took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. A very weird smell a.s.saulted his nose. He was very close to closing the door, locking it, and getting as far away as possible. However, as a prideful man, he must explore it to the very end. His hand went naturally to the light switch. The lights didn't come on. The electricity was no longer working.

With that, he opened the door wider, letting some more light into the cold, dark, room.

"What the f.u.c.k is this?"

It was an extremely strange sight. The canned foods had their lids popped out. What was in their place, was a very large plant. A very large green plant that came out of canned foods and converged into one. Not only that, but it was also beautiful. It was not just green, it also had flowers growing out. Very colorful flowers.

Taking a closer look, the plant only came out of canned foods that were plant-based. Spring-Autumn took slow, cautious steps towards the very large plant. Noticing that it didn't respond to his presence, he slapped it hard.

Pap!

"No response?"

Pap! He slapped it again. It was not hard, but it was not soft either. It did not seem to be very strong, just like a plant. He plucked one of the flowers from it. A white flower. It was the least colorful one so he thought it would be the safest to get his hands on.

"It smells good." He said as he took his nose off it. The plant twitched repeatedly after he plucked the flower from it. "Oh?"

[Food Tree]

"It should be edible then?" With no further hesitation, Spring-Autumn swallowed the flower just for the entertainment of it.

"If I die, I die." He thought as he swallowed the flower. It had a unique, distinct taste. Not a bad taste, it was slightly sweet, fresh, and refres.h.i.+ng. At the same time, he felt his hunger fading away.

"Isn't that convenient." He plucked a few more flowers and ate them. As he plucked every flower, the [Food Tree] shrank ever so slightly.

"Are you going to die if I eat all of your flowers?" Spring-Autumn talked to the tree that did not look like a tree.

"Did you go crazy that you're talking to these unusual things now?" Blue said out of nowhere. She was standing by the door, her face haggard but still beautiful.

"What are you talking about? I've always been like this haha."

"So what is this thing?"

"You're surprisingly calm."

"Well, I'm at a distance where I can just run away if it turns into some sort of monster so I am sufficiently calm."

"Well, aren't you an arrogant one," Spring-Autumn replied without a hint of self-awareness. "My best friend, the blue window told me that it's a food tree. I tried eating the flowers from it and it tastes pretty good."

"..."

"You can try some." Spring-Autumn approached Blue and offered her the flowers in his hand. "Not like you have a choice anyway, it ate most of our food."

Blue reached her hand out but stopped midway. "What if there are side effects? Aren't you scared of dying?"

"I'll just think about that when it comes up. So far, I feel great."

"Huh." Blue was unfazed. "You can enjoy it by yourself."

She entered the storage room that was half occupied by the [Food Tree], taking cautious steps. She looked like a little kitten trying to steal food from another. Spring-Autumn felt his lips curl up looking at this strange scene.

After a while, she returned with a couple of bars of protein. "What?"

[Initializing… 20%]

"What are you going to do now?" Spring-Autumn started. They were back to where they were sleeping last night.

Blue remained silent before answering. "I want to go back home and look for my mom."

"Just your mom?"

"...My dad pa.s.sed…"

"I see."

"What about you?"

"I don't have anywhere to go so I'll just follow you," Spring-Autumn said with a bright smile. "It's safer if we're together."

"Humph, troublesome." Blue joked back.

"Hey, your mom likes me quite a bit, you know?"

"You've met?"

"At the last school meet."

"..."

"..."

After the round of short talk, they were back to silent again.

[Initializing… 21%]

"Are you seeing this too?"

"21%?"

"Yeah. I have a bad feeling about it." He said with a serious expression.

"..."

"This blue screen came at the same time as when all this weird stuff started happening."

"..."

"I would a.s.sume something worst is going to happen when it hits 100%"

Spring-Autumn's words turned the room back into its eerie state of silence once again.

Elsewhere.

Black ripping marks appeared out of thin air. It was as if the sky was a piece of paper and someone punched holes into it.

After the sky ripped open, strange monsters came pouring out. These monsters were big compared to the others. Their nametag hovered above their head.

[Ogre]

A large green creature with the height of several stacked cars. Its ears were the shape of a tube and it had very large teeth at its lower jaw. It was basically Shrek with an underbite.

[Troll]

It was a bit taller than the ogre. It was not as fat, but lankier. It had long arms that reached its kneecap. In its hand was a long piece of wood. The piece of wood was about as long as the troll's arm. With a piece of wood reaching such size, it was bigger than any tree in the world.

From far away a black helicopter flew. The military men in it observed in shock as more and more monsters came spilling out of the rip in the sky.

"T-this is where they're coming from?" They gasped in shock.

The area around them was barren. It was essentially a dessert.

"T-this is Unit 2. The area is clear to fire. Over," The pilot said through the radio.

From the other side, inside a military base. The commander observed the scene through the camera of the helicopter. He picked up the radio.

"Received. Proceeding with the firing of missiles. Over," The commander said.

The men surrounding him proceeded with them pressing the b.u.t.ton to deploy the missiles toward the crack in the sky.

The helicopter pilot immediately started retreating. "Roger that, commencing retreat. Over,"

A hatch opened above the underground base followed by a large missile launcher.

In the control room, the countdown started.

5.

The missile was prepped.

4.

Generating heat.

3.

Locked onto the target.

2.

1.

Launch.

The missile soared towards the crack in the sky with astounding speed. The wind whistled, the clouds parted.

Boom!

The missile crashed into the black rip in the sky.

It was unscathed.

Monsters continued to pour out. The black crack in the sky remained as it was as if nothing ever happened to it.