I didn't ask to die.
I didn't ask to wake up like this.
I didn't even get a warning. Just a flicker of pain behind my eyes while I was grinding Swamp Thing gear in Injustice 2. One second, I was zoning Deadshot in the swamp arena. Next second?
Nothing.
Then came the cold.
---
When I woke up, I was no longer human.
I knew it instantly. Not just by how I looked—but by how I felt.
There was no heartbeat. No breath. My body was still, but the world wasn't. I could feel the wind move through the grass. I could feel the bugs crawling beneath the soil. I could feel every blade of it.
I looked down. My hands were massive, like tree roots pulled from the earth. Gnarled. Slimy. My arms were covered in moss and pulsing green veins. My chest was bark—cracked and twisted, beating with a faint light that wasn't blood or heart.
It was sap.
Sticky. Luminous. Alive.
I wanted to scream, but my throat gurgled like something drowning in a swamp.
What kind of sick joke was this?
What the hell happened to me?
---
> [THE BINDING SYSTEM HAS BEEN INSTALLED]
A screen opened in my mind like a glitchy game overlay. I blinked. No, I didn't blink. I don't think I had eyelids anymore.
This wasn't a game.
It was real.
It felt too wrong to be a dream.
---
[STATUS]
Host: Reincarnated Entity
Current Form: Swamp Thing (Lv. 1)
Bound Force: The Green
Synchronization: 0%
Degree of Improvement: 0
System Access: [Stats] [Skills] [Quests] [Evolution Tree]
---
I stared at the glowing panels like they could explain something. Anything.
Because right now? I was freaking out.
I had died and nobody even asked if I wanted to.
There was no isekai truck. No god telling me I was "chosen." No voice offering some grand quest or reward.
Just silence.
And this… body.
I couldn't feel my heartbeat. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't cry. I didn't know if I even had tears anymore.
---
[STATS]
Vitality: 100
Strength: 65
Agility: 20
Intellect: 50
Affinity with The Green: 0
Synchronization: 0%
---
Then came the Skills screen.
---
[SKILLS – BASIC LEVEL]
Chlorokinesis (Lv. 1)
Manipulate plant matter within range. Range: 5m
Can now control multiple vines at once.
Floral Regeneration (Lv. 1)
Recover HP slowly when in contact with soil, water, or plant matter.
Muck Merge (Lv. 1)
Merge with plant-rich terrain and reappear up to 10m away.
Seedling Manifestation (Lv. 1)
Summon basic constructs like vines, thorns, or bark-shields.
Green Perception (Lv. 1)
Sense flora and fauna health/status within 50m.
Enhanced by Affinity.
---
Even with these powers, I felt powerless.
It wasn't just the transformation. It was where I was.
This world wasn't home.
The sky wasn't blue—it was choked with smoke. Birds didn't sing—they screamed. The trees wept through their roots. The forest spoke in broken pulses, and I could understand it.
And I wished I couldn't.
The Green was more than nature—it was sentience. An ancient ecosystem with a mind. A mind that hurt. That ached. That wanted something from me.
---
> [Mission Alert: "The Green is Dying"]
Corruption detected. Affinity required to initiate restoration.
Objective: Increase Affinity with The Green to 10.
Reward: Skill Growth | Synchronization Boost | Evolution Tree Access
---
I fell to my knees—though they weren't knees anymore. More like coiled roots grinding into the earth.
My thoughts were still mine, but everything else—my body, my instincts, even my emotions—felt like they were being rewritten.
Like I was being overwritten.
And somewhere inside me, the human part—the real me—was screaming not to disappear.
---
But the forest didn't care.
The DC world didn't care.
This place was a deathtrap: monsters, metahumans, gods in capes playing judge, jury, and executioner. And I'd been dropped into it as some half-formed Earth elemental.
I wasn't a hero.
I was a gamer.
A normal person.
And now I was this.
This thing.
---
The only direction was forward. Or rot.
The Green wasn't giving me a choice. Neither was this world.
But if I was stuck here… then maybe I'd find a way to take control.
To fight back.
To evolve into something more.
Not because I wanted to.
Because I had to.
---
TO BE CONTINUED…