A lot of time passed. Enough to where Hero stopped counting after the sun and moon crossed the sky a hundred times.

In his mindless laps around the island, Hero felt power well in his body, progressively growing stronger. It was to the extent where a casual flick of his wrist could cause slimes and bats to turn into puffs of smoke.

That had been amusing for a while. But eventually it became routine.

And so Hero returned to his usual past time of walking around the island.

Like he had been doing for the last... however long he had been on the island, Hero strolled along the shoreline, musing to himself out loud to keep from going insane.

"I wonder if I'm secretly a demon lord? It would explain why I'm here... Or maybe I'm the creator of this world itself, just amnesiac?"

That would make for an interesting twist. The reason why everything was so broken was because his powers were so great it twisted reality... or because he had forgotten about his powers and the world was collapsing.

But he doubted it.

Hero sighed and kept walking, waiting to bonk into the invisible barrier to know when to turn.

But he didn't hit it. Not only that, but he felt something different. Something... wet?

Hero blinked and brought his attention back to his surroundings.

A clear open sea, filled with sparkling blue water. That wasn't different. But...

Hero quickly looked down.

His boots were in the water. His boots were *in the water!*

"This..." Hero quickly glanced back.

The island was behind him. The usual, unchanging, unremarkable grass covered island was behind him.

Which meant the barrier was broken.

Which meant...

"SWIMMING!"

Hero didn't stop to think twice.

Stripping his armor, sword, and basically everything except for his boxer shorts, he tossed all his equipment along the shore and then ran off into the ocean to swim.

His bare feet slapped against the underwater sand, kicking it up and muddying the clear water.

But he ignored it, running full sprint and waiting to get to a deeper part to dive in.

He ran.

And ran.

And ran.

And...

"Wait." Hero came to a stop and looked down. "Why isn't the ocean getting any deeper?"

He turned around and glanced back at the island. Sure enough, he hadn't been running in place, since the island was far away now. But at the same time...

A sinking sensation in his stomach. Hero glanced at the water and said, "Surely... Surely this isn't it."

It'd be ridiculous for the water to be only this deep the entire world around, right?

Right.

With a faint hope in his heart that he was just in a shallow area, Hero kept running.

And running.

And running.

And after three days and three nights, Hero had a realization.

"...There's no difference."

Like everything else, it was a fake ocean. One that looked real, but was only up to his knees at the deepest point. Not only that, but it lacked any kind of life. Just... an empty and devoid body of water. Not only that, but it wasn't even salt water. Just plain old, drinkable water.

Still, it was a change. And Hero didn't give up hope. Drinking the water to amuse himself and swimming in the shallows, Hero moved onwards, hoping to at least find land. Because if this was just one giant body of freshwater, than there was bound to be a large continent in the distance surrounding it. That was the only thing that could make sense.

The sun and the moon traversed the sky. Slimes and bats, eager to follow Hero wherever, it appeared, popped into existence on his journey but were easily turned into smoke.

And then Hero saw it.

Far in the distance, a faint speck of land.

His eyes widened and his heart raced. Jumping back into the water, he swam, speeding towards the horizon.

It was far. But Hero was undeterred.

Another day. Another night.

And then Hero arrived.

Shaking off the water on his body, Hero quickly scrambled onto the sandy shoreline and jumped to his feet. "Finally! New..." Sweeping his eyes across the area, his words trailed off. "...land?"

It was familiar. No, more than just familiar, it was the unforgettable scenery that he was accustomed to.

A small island with tall grass. One surrounded on all edges by water.

For a split second, Hero had the faint hope that it was at least a different island.

But then he saw the equipment that he had taken off, just on the other side of the island from where he was standing.

"God dammit."