Good news: turns out I don't need sleep.
Considering that players in both games don't really need to sleep, I guess I should've expected that.
This discovery made me completely convinced that I was immortal. After all, neither game had the concept of aging, and even if a character died, they could be reborn—except in hardcore mode. I smiled as I looked at the heart icons in my visual field.
"I hope this world has items like Fallen Stars or Life Crystals. If it does…"
My sentence was cut short when I saw a Fallen Star on the ground. No further words were needed—I had my answer.
Afraid it might disappear on its own, I quickly climbed down from the treehouse using the rope ladder and picked it up, placing it in my inventory.
That night, I decided to go stargazing. I started collecting nearby stars, making sure not to stray too far from the treehouse. After a few attempts, I discovered something interesting: I could destroy things I'd placed in my inventory—or items like Fallen Stars from Terraria or Minecraft—just by thinking about it.
"This prevents the things I create from being used against me. I guess that's a good feature."
I crafted a Mana Star for personal use. The energy inside it was trying to flow into my body, and I didn't stop it. I absorbed the energy, slightly increasing my maximum mana. My body then started pulling in ambient mana from the air to refill what I had used.
Suddenly, a creative idea came to mind. Could I remove the effect of the Mana Star from my body? I tried—and my maximum mana instantly dropped to half.
"Aggghhh!"
I had twice the amount of mana my body could normally handle. It started tearing me apart from the inside. As I writhed in pain, my health rapidly dropped.
"Sh-shit…"
When my health hit zero, my soul left my body and I became a ghost. My corpse remained intact. I could feel that I could be reborn easily—but just before doing so, I made myself a promise.
"That hurt. I'll never take death lightly again. From now on, I'll live each life as if it's my last. Two deaths are more than enough. I was just lucky the first time—I didn't even have time to feel pain.
No more dying! I swear on myself, my family, and everyone I loved in the other world!"
Even in ghost form, the determined expression on my face stayed. I got up from the cold ground and quickly returned to the treehouse. Due to death's effects, the only thing I was wearing was the stone armor; since I hadn't placed my clothes in the accessory slots, they had stayed with my corpse and weren't affected by my ability.
I reached the treehouse again and reclaimed my clothes. As for my now-worthless previous body, I buried it symbolically in nearby soil and crafted a wooden gravestone for it. On it, I carved the number "2," marking my second death.
"Hopefully my own ghost won't come back to haunt me. I think I handled the burial ritual reasonably well."
After the burial, I chose not to place my clothes in the accessory slots anymore—it made me feel exposed. There wasn't much else I could do at the moment, so I did the best thing I could: collect fruit. Fruits granted weak, temporary buffs—not very strong, but useful.
In-game, these buffs increased overall stats by 5% and lasted 5 minutes. But in this world, it was much better—because one in-game day was 24 minutes, the fruit buffs lasted about 5 hours in real time.
Fruit collecting wasn't just about power. It also helped me cope with the depression brought on by death.
The effect was much better than I expected. A trauma that would've haunted me forever in real life disappeared easily. Now I had only one concern.
"I wonder what the others are doing right now… Did they realize I died?"
I imagined my mother crying over my body—not exactly a scene I wanted to picture. I frowned in sorrow and unconsciously squeezed the fruit in my hand a little.
"Don't worry. I'll find a way."
If it was possible to come here, then there must also be a way to go back. After all, I wasn't trapped inside a black hole or anything.
Once I felt I'd gathered enough fruit, I spent the rest of my time collecting stars and experimenting with my abilities in small, harmless ways.
I discovered two new things—one was great, the other even better. The great thing was that stars wouldn't fall unless I wanted them to. I could also control whether monsters spawned or not.
But the most amazing part was this: the changes I made to the world were semi-abstract. If I dug a deep hole, I didn't have to fall into it. As long as I didn't want to, the hole wouldn't exist in a meaningful way—for me or for others.
For example, I could dig a 2-meter-deep hole and still walk over it like it wasn't there. The hole would become invisible to me unless I wanted to fall into it. It was full-on quantum weirdness. Also, I couldn't chop down the same tree twice.
It was absolute nonsense—but at least it meant I didn't have to take responsibility for damaging the terrain. I didn't even know what country I was in, but I doubted anyone would accuse me of something I hadn't technically done.
I decided to build a small mine for myself. That way, I could easily gather ores. A small underground shelter wouldn't be a bad idea either—I could even grow fruit trees down there.
Once the project was complete, the treehouse would just serve as a surface outpost.
"Auuuuuuuu!"
Yup, I heard a wolf howling nearby. Guess it was time to start building that underground hideout.
I grabbed my stone shovel and dug a hole, climbing down into it. After a while, a pack of wolves arrived and began sniffing around. A few passed right over me, scratching at the dirt above, but eventually gave up.
While they left, assuming their prey had escaped, I continued expanding my secret underground base.