The metal puppets were also severely damaged, indicating they had fought fiercely with the humans who died outside before meeting their end here.
Inside the room, there were a total of 10 glass tubes. The 10th tube, which remained intact, showed a rapidly fading life force.
“Hurry, heal him! His life force is weakening rapidly.”
Elradion grew anxious as it seemed there were no more living people inside this massive construct.
Blinding rays of light emanated from the hands of the elven mages, directed towards the man in the glass tube.
The pale face of the man inside regained a rosy hue, and Elradion let out a deep sigh of relief.
Without delay, Elradion used his saber to cut open the glass tube.
The glass tube felt quite sturdy, but as a bluish light flickered on his saber, he sliced through it as easily as if it were paper.
After the water drained from the cut-open tube, the elves carried the man out and quickly left the construct.
“Everything will be known once he awakens.”
Elradion murmured quietly to himself, hastening his steps towards the village.
* * *
The man who had descended from the sky, who seemed as though he would awaken after just a few days of rest, showed no signs of waking up.
Despite the passage of time, he remained as still as a dead man, merely breathing, lying motionless in bed for a long year.
Everyone worried that he might be in a vegetative state, but the elves, being naturally optimistic and disliking haste, were not overly anxious.
To them, who could live for a thousand years, waiting for a year was nothing.
The task of caring for him, who was no different from a vegetable, always fell to the younger elves.
The children took turns force-feeding him gruel [a thin porridge] and handling his bodily waste, a laborious task.
Dealing with someone else’s excrement was never a pleasant task for anyone, but they followed the adults’ orders without complaint.
In elven society, respect for elders was paramount.
It was a bond they had maintained for generations.
“Kyaa!”
A blonde elf with neatly braided hair shrieked.
“He pooped again! He pooped again! How long has it been since he last pooped?”
The young elf’s face was contorted in a very un-elf-like manner.
“Hey! Why do you only poop on the days I’m on duty? Huh? And not just once, but multiple times. Do you find me that comfortable? Ugh, I’m going crazy.”
The young elf, who had been huffing and puffing, let out a resigned sigh.
“Hmph, well, it’s not your fault, is it? It’s all my fault for being young.”
The elf girl wore a calm expression as she skillfully removed the man’s pants and diaper.
A pungent odor emanated from the overflowing contents.
The girl’s face twisted even more.
“Eugh! Seriously, you pooped so much. Goodness, you only eat gruel, but where does this enormous amount come from? Huh?”
The elf girl, grumbling incessantly, used her experienced hands to clear away his waste, roughly cleaned him up, and then struggled to lift both legs with one hand, wiping every corner of his buttocks with a wet cloth.
‘Ugh, my head…….’
This terrible headache was ‘it,’ the one he always felt when waking up from the mental anesthetic he had to take for long-distance space travel.
‘Is it time to wake up already?’
Now that he was awake, he would be immediately thrown into battle as always.
He felt a headache worsening at the mere thought of how many more lives would be lost at his hands this time.
‘It felt like I was having a long dream. It was a strange dream, with children gathering around me, feeding me gruel and taking care of my bodily waste. A very embarrassing dream. But what is this strange feeling? It feels like someone is caressing my private parts?’
Having regained his sight, he could barely open his eyes, but because he had kept them closed for so long, the light was too bright.
His body had not yet regained its senses, so he could not properly control it.
As he blinked for a while, slowly adjusting to the brightness, the appearance of the surrounding objects slowly came into view. And soon, the face of a girl who was lifting his legs and wiping his buttocks with all sorts of expressions caught his eye.
‘What is this? Is this still a dream?’
He had the illusion that he had not yet awakened.
The young elf girl, suddenly feeling as if someone was staring at her, stopped what she was doing and looked up.
The girl’s eyes met his, and she stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.
At that moment, she saw stars before her eyes [meaning she was stunned or dazed].
His foot lashed out at the girl’s face without hesitation.
The young elf girl, caught completely off guard by the sudden attack, lost consciousness just like that.
“Hah! Hah! Where the hell is this?”
He didn’t even realize he was naked as he looked around, remaining vigilant.
His actions were so highly agile that they couldn’t be seen as those of someone who had spent a year lying down.
But the more agile he moved, the more his grotesque thing swayed with him, which was unavoidable.
“This isn’t a warship! How could this happen?”
He tried to remain calm, even though he couldn’t understand the situation he was in.
“Code number UNA-102A, service number 5425582, Captain Kang Chan, preparing to connect.”
A subtle light flickered from his wrist, and a holographic image appeared around it.
-Code number UNA-102A, service number 5425582 voice identification confirmed, connection complete, hello, Captain Kang Chan.
The man named Kang Chan seemed relieved that the bio-computer embedded in his body was functioning normally.
“Save the greetings for later, where is this place now?”
-This is Neo Earth, the destination of the Red Mars.
“This is Neo Earth? Connect to the main computer immediately.”
-Understood. Please wait a moment. I’m sorry. Connection is not possible. There is no communication with the main computer.
“The reason?”
-The main computer seems to have stopped working.
“What? Then what is the location of this ship?”
-Yes, this ship is 15.513km southwest of here. The exact coordinates and map can only be received from the main computer.
‘How could this happen…… I must quickly leave this place and go to the ship.’
Kang Chan’s face was filled with anxiety at the news that the main computer was down.
He carefully scanned outside the window to leave this place and go to the warship as soon as possible.
The forest was very dark due to the towering trees, and the surroundings were even more difficult to distinguish due to the eerie fog.
He had never seen such a lush forest in his life.
No, even the word plant was a luxury in the universe he lived in.
But a dark forest hidden by such plants, he no longer doubted that this was Neo Earth.
‘The fog is thick, so it will be easier to get out of here. I’ll move to the warship quickly!’
After scouting the area and confirming that no one was around, he jumped out of the window.
But that was it.
The moment his body landed on the ground, vines grew rapidly and entangled his legs.
“Hah! What is this?”
He tried to break free, but the vines only tightened around his legs.
Before long, elves began to gather around him as he struggled to break free.
The stranger felt threatened by the suspicious people gathering around him and desperately struggled to escape from there.
However, it was only his wishful thinking.
His grotesque thing also swayed desperately, thanks to the pants he wasn’t wearing.
“The stranger has finally awakened.”
“I will go and report this fact to Arteon.”
It was a momentous first meeting between a naked human from Earth who had awakened from a long sleep and the elves of the forest.
2. The Earthling Who Became an Alien
As elves holding small lanterns gathered around him one by one, the stranger’s breathing gradually became rougher, and he struggled even harder to escape from the vines.
He was dismayed to feel that his strength had decreased significantly compared to before.
His muscles, which had been lying in bed for a year instead of in a sleep capsule, were not as strong as they used to be.
No matter how hard he struggled, the tough vines showed no signs of breaking, and his struggles to escape were almost desperate.
‘Why is my body like this? Why am I so weak? This won’t do.’
The stranger, who had been struggling violently, suddenly stopped moving, took a deep breath, and clenched his teeth.
The look in his eyes slowly calmed down.
“I can’t die here like this!”
-Applying combat mode level 2.
With a powerful shout, the stranger lifted his legs with all his might once again.
Then, thanks to his tremendous strength, the vines that had been entangling his legs slowly began to be uprooted.
The elves watching him were horrified.
“Good heavens! Oh, what tremendous strength!”
“Goodness, that trap that even trolls can’t escape!”
Thud! Thud!
Blood spurted from his ankles, which were caught in the snare due to his brute force, but the stranger didn’t seem to care at all.
“Just a little, just a little more!”
The elves’ hearts grew anxious as they watched the vines almost breaking.
“Everyone, stay calm. If this continues, the stranger will break free, so let’s all work together to restrain him!”
“Y-yes, let’s do that.”
The elves, shaken by anxiety, began to cast binding magic one by one, and other tree vines rose from here and there, beginning to entangle the stranger’s entire body.
“Crap! Damn it!”
The stranger panicked and struggled even more violently.
However, the numerous tree vines did not care at all about his violent struggles and wrapped around his entire body like a mummy.
He was once again rendered unable to move a finger due to the binding magic of dozens of elves.
But that was only for a moment.
The stranger’s eyes began to glow red.
-Applying combat mode level 4. Warning! Warning! It’s dangerous. Your current metabolic state is not good.
“Kuaaaa! I don’t care!”
The stranger, who had paused for a moment, began to exert his strength again with a burst of screams, this time unleashing a brute force that was on a different level than before.
“Kuaaaaaaaa!”
The earth trembled from his tremendous power, and the roots of the dozens of vines that bound him all began to scream.
Snap! Crack! Snap!
“T-this! No way!”
As he thrashed with tremendous force, even the huge trees around the roots that had sprung up shook violently, and leaves fell all around.
The eyes of the elves watching him were filled with disbelief.
“T-that’s not a human!”
They were beginning to feel as if they were holding onto an ogre, not a human.
-Warning! Warning! Abnormality in the peripheral nervous system!
“Kuap! Just a little! Just a little more!”
Snap…… Crack! Snap!
Most of the vines slowly began to break in the face of his tremendous brute force, and he was about to regain his freedom.
But once again, the ground began to heave, and tree roots the size of an adult’s waist, which could not even be compared to the previous tree vines, burst out of the ground and wrapped around his body.
“Keuh! Keek!”
The sound of air escaping from his lungs leaked from his mouth due to the pressure of the tree roots slowly constricting his body.
He struggled even more madly, but all in vain.
No matter how hard he struggled with his tremendous brute force, the tree roots the size of an adult’s waist did not budge at all.
The stranger thrashed a few more times at the tree roots, but soon he gave up and dropped his head powerlessly.
A sweet smell wafted from the stranger’s lowered head, and he exhaled roughly, extremely exhausted.