When bad luck gets even worse

I burst into tears, lips quivering. How on earth was I supposed to get down from here? One wrong move and I'd fall to my death, shattered like glass.

"What do I do now, huhuhu… how do I get down…"

Even now, I was still stunned beyond belief by the scene before me. It was so vivid, so painfully real, that I couldn't help but wonder if this was still the world I knew. I used to think things like this only happened in movies, yet here I was, experiencing it firsthand.

It seemed like just yesterday, I had stayed late at the office to review a purchase order for a client. Around six in the evening, I left work and headed to the bus stop like usual. Since it was Saturday, there weren't many commuters, and I was the only passenger aside from the driver.

I hadn't gotten any rest during lunch, so my eyelids were heavy. I told the driver to wake me up when we reached my stop, then leaned back and drifted off. Who would've thought that the next time I opened my eyes, I'd be in a scene straight out of a fantasy nightmare?

Now, here I was, clinging to a massive tree branch, arms and legs wrapped tightly around it. All around me were giant, ancient trees tangled in thick vines.

"Is anyone there? Help me!"

I shouted until my throat went raw, but no one answered, only my own echo came back at me. The tree I was stuck in was at least ten meters tall. I'm only about 1.65 meters, not even a quarter of that height. The trunk was easily two meters wide. If I tried to climb down and lost my grip, I'd fall and be crushed to pieces.

It was already noon when I woke up, and now the sky was turning dark. I hadn't dared to move. I didn't even have the courage to reach behind me for a snack in my backpack.

As night fell, the cold wind swept through the forest. I was shivering, still gripping the branch tightly. I was starving, exhausted, but too afraid to close my eyes.

What kind of cursed luck was this? What had I done to deserve this torment? I couldn't stand, couldn't sit, couldn't walk—just hanging here in limbo on a tree. Even if I wanted to climb down, I couldn't. It was the kind of misery that made you cry without tears.

After what felt like an eternity, I managed to stay conscious through the night. By the time the first rays of sunlight filtered through the canopy, I had been clinging to that tree for a full day. The weather was beautiful—clear skies and cool air—but completely at odds with my mood.

If I didn't climb down on my own soon, I'd fall from exhaustion anyway. I had no choice, I had to descend.

Gathering every ounce of courage, I started inching from the branch toward the main trunk. Easier said than done. It took me nearly an hour just to shift my weight over. Once I got there, I tried to wrap myself around the trunk and begin sliding down, but—it was slippery.

Arms and legs gripping tight, I began lowering myself. I had barely descended a meter before my whole body slipped like a greased eel, sliding down the trunk at alarming speed.

"Huhu… Mom! Help me! Huhu!"

I tried desperately to slow myself, gripping the trunk as tightly as I could. My hands scraped against the rough bark, skin tearing, blood smearing across the surface.

Two minutes later, I was sprawled in a heap at the base of the tree. My palms throbbed with pain from the scrapes.

Trying to endure it, I got up and went searching for a stream to wash my wounds. Wandering for a while, I began to notice something strange about this forest.

There were trees and flowers I'd never seen before—or maybe I just didn't know enough about plants. Still, something in my gut told me this forest wasn't like anything I'd seen on TV documentaries.

Eventually, I found a small stream and rinsed the blood from my hands, then pulled some snacks out of my backpack to eat. The top priority now was to get out of this forest. Staying here too long couldn't be safe.

But saying it was easy, doing it was another story. I wandered for three whole days and still couldn't find a way out. Luckily, I hadn't run into any dangerous animals.

Today, I was sitting on a large rock near the stream, sipping the last bit of water from my bottle, when I sighed and muttered: "When bad luck gets worse…"

Back in the day, I'd been known as the campus beauty queen. Plenty of guys had chased after me, but I was too proud to accept any of them. I stayed single through graduation and into my first year of work. My boss had said year-end bonuses would be generous this year—I had even planned to treat myself to something fancy. But before I could, I ended up here… in the middle of nowhere.

I didn't even know how far this place was from the capital. I kept walking forward. After half a day's journey, a sudden light flashed ahead.

I rushed into a nearby bush and peeked through. What I saw made me freeze, a rabbit was lying on the ground, glowing all over. Its fur was falling off, and its limbs and face were slowly morphing.

Was I seeing things? Wasn't this supposed to be the modern era? How could something so absurd be happening? The light surrounding the rabbit grew stronger, —it looked like it was in pain. Its hands and feet began forming. Even with my bad eyesight, I could tell—those were human hands, human feet.

I was speechless. Oh my god… this couldn't be real. Where on earth was I? A rabbit turning into a human? If I had time-traveled to some prehistoric era and saw an ape evolve into a man, maybe I could accept that. But this? This was like magic. Like a transformation spell from a fantasy novel.

About five hours passed before the evolution completed. Lying on the ground now was a small child, maybe around three years old. Its limbs were tiny, but I could still see traces of its animal origin, especially the two protruding front teeth, just like a rabbit's.

From what I observed, it seemed the child's senses hadn't fully developed after the transformation, which was probably why it hadn't noticed me hiding behind the bush.