In the most beautiful clearing on Timor was a corpse laying next to a bear sleeping on a tree stump.

This corpse did not have a happy expression on its face.

It very much no longer wanted to be a corpse.

It had been a corpse for two whole days already.

This corpse was tired, hungry, and slowly losing its sanity.

In times like these the corpse decides to reflect on its short existence.

This corpse is Gary's corpse, and Gary's corpse is thinking about Gary's life.

Back on Earth, Gary had always wanted to find his escape route to a new and wonderful land. Away from all of his worries, cares, expectations, and judgements.

Now Gary was in this new and wonderful land, suffering for it.

Gary does not like being in this position. Gary has been suffering too much for too long. He's had enough.

"I need to become immortal as soon as possible" thought Gary.

Gary's resolve was firm.

He could already imagine himself sitting atop a celestial throne. Watching the world revolving, tasting as many earthly pleasures as he can stomach, and eventually becoming one with the multiverse during the ultimate end of all-things. It would be glorious.

Gary's corpse furrowed its eyebrows. Poor Gary. He must still be under a lot of stress.

Suddenly the bear shot up.

A bear shaped void stood on its hind legs on top of the tree stump. It quickly looked around the clearing, and completely ignored the corpse lying on the ground.

Suddenly the bear disappears.

One second it was there, and then it was not. At least, from the corpse's perspective. In reality the bear had moved at speeds far faster than Gary's Innate Talent realm eyes could see.

Gary's corpse remained there a short while, before Gary shot up to his feet, and dashed into the woods.

Gary ran, and ran until his vision got blurry. He stopped, found some nice soft dirt, dug a hole, and expelled the contents of his bowels. He then found the nearest stream, washed himself thoroughly, stuffed his face with food and water, and slept under the roots of a tree.

Gary woke up in a fantastic mood. After his harrowing ordeal with the bear Gary feels that he couldn't possibly face anything worse.

Gary decided to stop trying to reason out how to use the map and compass properly. He would just take a guess, and follow his instincts.

This was a good decision on Gary's part, as his logical reasoning skills were nothing to write home about, but his instincts, now they were good.

In other news I recently acquired a luxurious new ring. A spatial ring, A ring that can store things in a pocket dimension, filled with all kinds of goodies. It had the Eternal Remembrance Cultivation Technique, a technique that allowed one to tie their mortality to another's ability to remember them, the True God Killing Scripture, A set of skills and training regimens designed to cultivate a warrior that could kill a true god, and a mountain of various rare treasures to aid one's cultivation. What a lucky find!

I saw it lying under a rock Gary had knocked over while running away from the Giant Fuck-Off Bear.

Gary didn't seem to want it, so I took it for myself!

The smile disappears from Gary's face. Uh oh someone must have remembered an embarrassing college memory.

Garry frowns. Ah I see, it's an embarrassing memory from middle school. Poor Gary, you've led such a miserable life.

Gary sighs. He grabs his things, and starts trekking his way towards Cal Evra.

Gary witnesses many beautiful sights.

Pristine waterfalls, mountainous trees, glow-in-the-dark deer, more mountainous trees, all-encompassing darkness, glow-in-the-dark flying squid. How neat.

Gary was not anticipating the sudden theme shift and was immediately wary.

He slowly made his way through the midnight forest avoiding anything even remotely glowy.

Gary wasn't getting anywhere near that tree, those mushrooms, the water, the animals, the skysquid. Gary was going to attempt to pass through the entire midnight forest without actually going through the midnight forest. Oh Gary, always trying to achieve the impossible now aren't we?

Someway, somehow, Gary made it a good deal of the way through the midnight forest without being accosted. Off in the distance Gary hears sword clashes, and thunder strikes.

Old Gary would've decided to avoid this fight, but post-bear Gary refuses to let an opportunity for free loot go. Carpe diem Gary! You know what they say, the lack of money is the root of all evil.