As soon as the end came, the end was over. Suddenly something was different around me. Opening my eyes, I was outside and in a forest unlike any I have ever seen or heard about. Faint purple leaves upon willowy branches along with faint oranges and the dull reds of some trees that seemed to sway ever so faintly and reach higher than I thought possible.

Before I could even comprehend what was happening; text appeared in my vision, somehow completely readable and also not blocking my view of the surroundings at the exact same time.

“What the FUCK is going on?” eyes still red from sobbing Lee tries to orient himself and find out what is happening. On one hand, he is happy he is not completely dead, on another hand... “What the fuck caused me to appear here? How is there a screen with what seems to be a game like status scre...”

Instantly the text disappeared.

Tentatively Lee says “Status” and the text appears once more. Saying it again to make it disappear. “I’m hallucinating, I must be. I must be in my death throes.”

Lee attempts to sit up, which would normally cause a great deal of pain, discomfort at minimum. Instead, he feels completely fine. Surprised, Lee looks down to discover that the slight bump that used to be right above his heart is gone. Shocked, he slowly feels his chest where his heart is located and feels his heart pumping strongly, just like it used to many years before his diagnosis.

Tears begin to stream down his face once more but this time with a confused happiness. No pain, no abnormality on his chest, and hopefully no more of a threat to his life.

Slowly Lee begins to stand, testing his footing and now seeing, as well as feeling, the weird purple grass beneath him. Lee slowly begins to get some of his bearings. He appears to be in a beautiful glade with a small pool of water that is a small offshoot from a stream. He notices the trees of course, fantastical in nature and some of them too tall to estimate accurately. He hears a few birds singing, the environmental sounds of insects, and other small wildlife around but he is currently unable to see any of them.

Still in his hospital gown and with nothing with him to help in what he assumes to be a survival scenario hallucination on his deathbed. He decides to review his status.

“What do these stats even do for me?” Reading each of the stats listed he wondered about whether or not his stats were above average or really low. It wouldn’t be good for him to have the stats of some sort of infant, hopefully he was some sort of superhuman in his own hallucination.

Looking at his pitiful strength and wondering what strength even means in the grand scheme of things. He got another text box, also somehow being able to perfectly read it, as well as somehow seeing through it at the same time.

“Well that’s useful…” Says Lee while instantly thinking about the rest of the stats.

“Interesting, at least this gives me some additional information.” Knowing about what HP meant was critical for survival. Also learning about drops? Like looting enemies in games?

Having been bedridden for quite a bit towards the end of his life, Lee dabbled in some games. He knew roughly about how most games with these kinds of stats were played, but he didn’t actually ever play any. Having mostly played building games or online card games, he didn’t have any knowledge advantage here. So why would his hallucinations be of this genre of games?

Do I actually want this to be a hallucination…? I’m apparently healed, alive, and can hopefully stay alive for the foreseeable future.

“Well, let's pretend this is real, completely ignoring how I got here in the first place, how a game like page appears with my stats, and how royally fucked I am if this is real. I don’t want to die for real if I don't take things seriously.”

Deciding to explore a bit to maybe find some food or a road, Lee follows the small stream downwards so he doesn’t get lost and also has water nearby. Observing his surroundings more, he is astonished by the sheer beauty of his surroundings. He obviously isn’t on Earth, he would have heard about a huge forest with purple grass and huge trees, at least he hoped he would have. Some of the tree’s were what he would call, average height, only having purple leaves and very thick trunks and branches reminiscent of a thick willow tree. The orange and reddish trees were a completely different story, similar in look between an oak and redwood. There were only a few in sight slightly farther away, but they made the redwoods of Earth look like potted plants. With thick branches all along the trunk and stretching farther than he can see with his limited view from beneath the canopy down on the forest floor.

After about 10 minutes, he discovered how terrible walking in a forest without shoes was. Stepping on a branch hurt, and the pain reinforcing his idea of this maybe being real. Having to slow down to about half his normal walking pace just to not hurt his feet on sticks, stones, and branches, he slowly came to where the small stream connects to a small river.

The river is roughly 60 feet wide and slowly curves back and forth on its way downstream. Crystal clear water and a rocky bottom, it appears to be around 5 to 7 feet deep, Looking up and down seeing if he can see anything on or around the river, he decides just to continue down stream.

Before he begins he decides to take a drink. He was wary of potential germs from the water, but having nothing to be able to prevent it, he decides to just drink. The water looks clean and he decides to at least take some risk.

As Lee leans over to cup some water to drink, he sees his reflection. His gaunt frame from cancer remains unchanged, but he doesn't look as sickly as before. Still bald from chemotherapy and having no eyebrows makes his 6 ft height less noticeable. The hospital gown is not the ideal clothing for a forest, but at least he isn’t completely naked. He might need to find a way to get warm when the sun begins to set.

Looking up after taking a drink, he tries to tell roughly what time it is, if even his reference of time is potentially not the same as here. His best guess is around 2PM, but he could be completely wrong. The temperature is around 70°F, not too hot, nor too cold for now. I better get to finding some shelter or or some civilization. Lee finishes drinking his fill and proceeds on his journey.

After about an hour of walking downstream, he discovers a berry bush. The only problem is, he has never seen any berries with the color of the rainbow. Glistening multi-colored berries the shape of blackberries, on a medium sized berry bush which is a light purple, right beside the river. On one hand, he is glad he found some food, on another hand this seems like prime real estate for any animal who wants a snack. Fresh berries right by the water source? And none of the local wildlife wanted any of it? Sounds too good to be true.

Deciding to inspect the very colorful looking berries some more, strictly because the berries themselves were fairly beautiful, a text window appeared.

“Well I guess that answers why they have not been eaten yet.” Lee decides to grab around 5 of the berries and put them in the hospital gowns pocket.

Thinking about how he gained a new skill, and the description provided, Lee decides to see if he can glean any additional information about his abilities. Maybe he can find the difference between skills and abilities?

“I don’t feel as if I suddenly know all languages.” Deciding that he probably has to “Encounter” the language before he could speak it, and that he currently is alone, he will come back to this ability later.

Absolutely shocked and unable to come to grips with this new discovery Lee stands there and reads the ability over and over again for the next few minutes. Slowly Lee starts to frown , then proceeds to get angry, that anger turning into pure rage and fury. “Why didn’t I have this a few hours ago?!” Dropping to his knees, Lee begins to smash the ground with his fists trying to get rid of the pure rage he is feeling. After a few moments, his rage and fury slowly turns into sadness and grief. Starting to feel the tears running down his cheeks he silently kneels on the floor of the forest, alone.