The white-haired, green-eyed boy's left eye was gone, but it had not simply disappeared. Something unknown now filled the socket, and it did not seem to feel particularly pleasant to the touch.
Because of his viewing angle, he could not yet see the thing in its entirety. At a time like this, a quietly flowing river made the best mirror.
He hurried to the riverbank. From several meters away, he confirmed that no beasts, such as strange pieces of driftwood, were lying in ambush in the relatively clear water, then leaned his head forward and saw his face reflected in the river.
At that moment, the memories belonging to two people finally finished merging in his mind. Looking at his reflection in the river, the boy softly spoke his name in this world:
"Ed Adrian."
What appeared in the river was a figure dressed in rags.
The boy's clothes had been torn to shreds by the two monsters earlier, contrasting with his exceptionally young face.
His fairly delicate face was excessively pale from his earlier blood loss, and pure white hair hung down over his forehead.
But none of that was enough to surprise the boy himself. What truly shocked him into speechlessness was the... tree occupying his left eye socket.
This thing... counted as a tree, right?
Ed muttered inwardly. No wonder it had felt so unpleasant when he touched it earlier. He had been touching bark.
He took another look at the guest in his left eye socket. It was a tiny, blue-green sapling. If he gave it a slightly forceful tug, he could even feel its roots pulling at his brain.
It had taken root in his left eye socket and grown outward without causing the slightest pain. If not for the missing part of his vision earlier, Ed had no idea when he would have discovered the tree's existence.
After emerging from his eye socket, the sapling grew upward, spreading over his outer ear, sideburn, and temple. It formed the shape of half a crown on the left side of Ed's head, looking rather imposing.
After carefully examining himself in the river for a while and confirming that he had no structures such as a tail, Ed finally plopped down a short distance from the riverbank.
His mind was a mess. He needed time to think.
Perhaps because their deaths had coincided exactly, the two souls within this body had completely merged into one. The common knowledge about filtering and boiling earlier had come from his otherworldly half, while the instinct to use his ability to repair himself had come from this world's original owner.
As he thought more deeply, the underlying logic of this world slowly unfolded before Ed.
Then, to his dismay, Ed discovered that this world's underlying logic was that there was no logic.
This place... in the terms of his previous life, seemed to be a Western fantasy world in the traditional sense. Swords and magic, dragons and dungeons, even goblins and female knights all featured in it.
Until this world underwent a spiritual energy revival. Of course, according to the local terminology, it should have been called the Mana Tide.
Disordered, chaotic mana swept through every corner of this world. This chaotic mana could not be used, yet it constantly affected the outside world. The ultimate result was that this world's "rules" became completely distorted, blurred, and even collapsed.
The turbid mana could not be wielded, and all the former supernatural systems collapsed. The boundaries between living things broke down, so what had once been trees abandoned photosynthesis and began preying on everything around them.
Objective laws were also distorted. For instance, Ed could now see an ancient castle floating in the air across the river, as though even gravity had mutated.
As for all the mana in the world, whether pure or chaotic, it was now called psionic energy.
At this thought, Ed suddenly felt less thirsty.
He looked at his left arm. His five fingers had turned into gray-green roots and plunged into the moisture-rich mud by the river, constantly drawing water from it to replenish his body, which had been sounding the alarm.
Got it. I was a plant person.
After realizing this, Ed felt no fear. After all, he had only just played human jigsaw a few minutes ago. A little scene like this no longer amounted to much.
He was even a little pleasantly surprised. With this ability, at least he would not have to worry about dying of thirst in this dangerous world.
The gray sky gave no indication of the time. Ed simply sat by the river, absorbing water while his body completed its natural repairs.
Half an hour later, he had recovered to his best condition-so good that even the little tree growing out of his eye socket had turned a little greener.
At the same time, something transmigrators loved to see unfolded before him. Now that was more like it, Ed thought as he turned his gaze toward it:
[ID: Ed Adrian Level: 2 ---Basic attributes--- Strength: 5 Agility: 8 Constitution: 7 Will: 10 ---Special attributes--- Symbiosis: 12 Evolution: 9 Corrosion: 6 Affinity: 8 ---Innate abilities--- [Vitality Touch Mark] [Verdant Crown] [Otherworldly Half]]
Looking at the densely packed text on the panel, Ed's snarky soul from his previous life fully awakened:
"What is all this gibberish? I can't understand it."
As his words fell, the vibrant emerald-green system text considerately began to squirm and change. Several incomprehensible stat fields became:
[---Special attributes--- Plant compatibility: 12 Animal compatibility: 9 Mechanical compatibility: 6 Psionic energy compatibility: 8]
"Now I get it."
Ed sighed in satisfaction and turned his attention to his three innate abilities:
[Vitality Touch Mark: You have a pair of great hands. This is the world's favor, earned after traversing every point between life and death.] [Verdant Crown: You have formed a symbiotic relationship with a special plant. Nurture it with care, and it might bring you some surprises~] [Otherworldly Half: This is your greatest secret. Your connection to another world has not been completely severed. Possess a territory to unlock new content.]
Ed sank into thought.
Transmigration, another world, a system-all standard features. Nothing wrong there.
It was just that this overly considerate system could translate on request, and that slightly playful "~" looked a little strange no matter how he considered it.
Seriously, was this a normal development?
After running through the logic in his head, Ed reached up and lightly patted the half-crown brimming with vitality on the left side of his head. In a slightly mocking tone, he said:
"You're pretty good at hiding."
"Ah!"
A faint cry of surprise sounded in Ed's heart-or, more precisely, in his mind. It was not in any language; rather, information presented itself directly in its essential form.
"How did you find out?"
That voice, or rather, Ed's half-crown, knew it had been exposed and stopped concealing itself, openly questioning its current host.
Ed certainly would not say that he had guessed from the font, the theme, and that somewhat frivolous and suggestive "~." His apparent command of the situation just now had merely been an improvised performance.
He answered the green crown's question with a question:
"What exactly are you?"