It was past noon on the same day that he'd gone to the superhero evaluation center, and now Lester was in the line of people heading out of the city into the wilderness surrounding it. They walked along a path that first led between fields of crops and then between fields of mines. Autonomous gun turrets stood between the two types of fields.

  There were several checkpoints if you wanted to enter the city, but there was no one checking out who left.

  As he went, Lester started doubting his decision. The people on the line with him were heavily armed, most having large rifles with underslung grenade launchers. He himself didn't have anything. He had a backpack, of course, and the two sandwiches. He was definitely not prepared enough.

  "You sure you want to go out there?" A guy said to Lester. The guy in question was holding an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attachment. He also had, on his back, a shotgun and a chainsaw sword. And on his head, rested a cowboy hat.

  "I'm sure," Lester said, although the idea sounded more and more idiotic the more he thought about it.

  "There's some weird shit out there."

  "I know."

  "And you seem to be unarmed," the guy said.

  "Yep, should have brought a gun."

  "Where you headed?"

  "I prefer not to say."

  "Tell you what, since you seem to be in a bad situation, I'll help you a bit." The guy took out a cylinder-shaped object from his belt. "This is a can of monster spray. It'll turn away most things out there." He showed the thing. There was a trigger on it. "Just press here, and the stuff comes out from here."

  Lester took it and said, "Thanks, but I don't have anything to give you for it."

  "Don't worry about it. This way I can say to myself that I at least did something. But you'll most likely die anyway."

  ***

  Soon, Lester got through the line, and he looked at the forest, seeing all the trees and other vegetation. A bit different from the city. But it really didn't matter that much since he had his phone, which had a map. The battery on the phone, because it was old, might not last that long, but still, it would help him some at the beginning. He considered himself to have a pretty good sense of direction, and New Helsinki was only like sixty kilometers away. With his new superpowers, he should be there within the day.

  It was not a feat, he knew, that should be taken lightly. No one ever really went through the wilderness from one city to another. The underground train was much more convenient, and unless you had superpowers you wouldn't survive the trip. But he just happened to have powers so it was definitely doable.

  "Okay, Mr. Henchman Interface, could you show me the quest?"

  Escape Recalm City: The award is 5 points if you escape on foot to the nearest city. As an additional award, the tracking device in your head will be disabled.

  As the message closed, Lester felt even better. This would be his crucible. And after, he would have five points that would make him even stronger. Stronger to take on the world.

  He started walking toward the forest.

  ***

  Lester looked around, only seeing trees. Some of them had needles on them. Some of them had leaves. He could clearly differentiate the two types. But that really didn't help him now. Not after his phone had given up. And there was no way to charge it out here. And on top of that, unlike most open-world games he'd ever played, his Henchman Interface didn't have any map function on it. He'd tried several times, asking the AI for directions or a map, but he never got any help. But he had his own system.

  Lester held his hand forward, pointing in the direction that New Helsinki should be. Whenever he had to turn away from the direction he was going, he kept his hand pointed toward his destination.

  Now his hand was pointing forty-five degrees to the right as he needed to go around a large moss-covered rock. He knew the method was not perfect. But he would be going in the general direction, and would likely, at some point, see some signs, which would lead him to the city.

  As he came around a large rock, Lester saw a monster, which had been hiding behind it. It was a cow-looking thing with a large fleshless skull head. It was eating some moss from the rock. Even though it seemed to be a plant eater, he knew that one could never be too cautious with these things.

  Lester carefully opened his backpack and took out the monster spray. He felt his heart race, but he also recalled the fight in his apartment with the two-headed cat. Then the spraying of the monster had only made it mad. Though, this monster spray might be a bit more powerful than the pepper spray he had had at that time. But still. The monster's focus was now on the moss. Maybe a stealthier approach might be better.

  Lester moved on, circling the beast and trying not to make a sound. The silence didn't work, and soon, he heard something crack under his feet. A hidden branch just under some vegetation.

  Lester froze, and from top of the monster's bone head rose a periscope like structure. It turned, and there was an eye on it. It was focused on him.

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  As he stood still, Lester watched the monster as the periscope-eye watched him back.

  It knows I'm here.

  Lester felt the monster spray in his grip. This would be it. A fight in the wild. Survival of the fittest. Man against beast.

  But the monster never made a move. It just kept eating the moss while the periscope watched him.

  Lester slowly crept away, feeling relief wash over him. Maybe the monster had decided not to fight him because it knew he would not go down easy.

  I'll just call it a tie, Lester thought.

  After estimating again his bearings, Lester continued on his journey. He went on for what he thought to be hours, all the time using his hand-pointing method of navigation. The trees, also, kinda seemed to look a bit different now. There were, with quite a certainty, more leaves and less needles now, so he was most likely not walking in circles. But still, he definitely needed a better sense of where he was.

  Time to recalibrate my arm.

  Lester looked around, finding the tallest tree in sight. Then he started climbing, easily grabbing hold of branches and pulling himself upward. Soon he reached the top. He looked around, and there was forest all around him. At least he couldn't see Recalm City anymore, which was kind of a good sign. But by his calculations, he should be able to see New Helsinki at this point. But there wasn't anything apart from trees, some hills, some mountains far away, a lake in one direction where there shouldn't have been a lake. Also, the sun was going down, and the place where it was going down indicated that he perhaps had not been going in the right direction.

  Then he saw smoke, which rose as a trail in the distance. It was barely visible, but it was there, and it was definitely smoke. Maybe a campfire. Certainly not a forest fire. It could maybe be a monster. Some of them breathed fire, which would be bad for him. But still, it somehow seemed to be a very non-monster thing, rising there steadily.

  "Let's go see," Lester said as he started climbing down.

  Suddenly, halfway to the ground, something long with smooth scales grabbed him, wrapping around him. A large snake, trying to squeeze him to death. Which, by the pressure he felt around him, would happen soon despite his super strength. The snake opened its mouth, filled with long jagged teeth, large enough to swallow him whole. And the teeth were getting closer.

  Lester let out a short scream, which was cut out by the lack of air in his lungs. He twisted around, pulling as hard as he could, and managed to free one arm. Frantically he tried to think of what to do. There was, of course, the monster spray, but it was in his backpack being constricted with his body.

  Shit, I'm going to die.

  The snake snapped its head forward, aiming to sink its teeth into his face, but Lester brought up his free hand and grabbed the thing just behind its head, stopping it as the thing's mouth snapped close centimeters from his face.

  "Please don't kill me. I taste really bad," Lester wheezed out as the snake squeezed harder, crushing Lester and his backpack.

  Then there was a crack, followed by a whiz, like from an opening soda can but a lot louder. A gaseous substance burst out from Lester's backpack, covering the snake and Lester both in a cloud of monster spray. This caused the snake to uncoil and drop its prey.

  Lester fell down several meters, landing face-first on the forest floor, his backpack still letting out fumes of monster repellant.

  Through his teary eyes, Lester saw only a fuzzy forest, and he felt the burning. The most terrible thing that he had ever felt. It was in his eyes. It was in his nose. It was in his mouth.

  Lester got up screaming. He managed to throw away the fuming backpack. Then he ran into the forest bumping into trees as he went.

  ***

  After a time, which felt like hours, the pain started to subside, and Lester could see again—almost normally. He still felt the burn inside his nose, mouth, and lungs. All in all, that had been the worst experience of his entire life.

  As he sat there on a fallen tree trunk, Lester realized he'd lost all his stuff. His backpack was likely next to the tree with the snake. There had still been half a sandwich there and a couple of sips of water left in the bottle. But it would all be covered in the monster spray, and the snake was also there. He would not be going back for it.

  "Shit," Lester said.

  Lester knew he would have to, despite the misery, get going. It was getting darker, and during the night, the most dangerous predators were said to come out to hunt.

  After climbing another tree—this time he checked for snakes—Lester spotted again the source of the smoke, and he headed that way. The place where the smoke rose ended up being some kind of a camp, which was surrounded by a wooden wall, consisting of horizontal timber beams. And as he approached the wall, a voice sounded from above, "You there, stop or I'll shoot."

  Lester stopped and looked up. There he saw a man dressed in camo clothing and pointing a sniper rifle his way.

  "Hi, my name is Lester."

  "Why the hell are you out there alone, and why are you unarmed?"

  "I was headed to New Helsinki and was wondering if you could maybe give me some directions."

  "New Helsinki eh? Well, that's to the east and south. Maybe something like seventy kilometers."

  Lester went through the meaning of the words. The guy had said seventy kilometers. At the start of his journey, it had been sixty. Something had maybe gone wrong here at some point. On top of that, the sun had just gone below the horizon.

  "I see," Lester said, and after a while, he asked, "Could I maybe join you guys in the camp."

  "If you can prove to me you're a real person."

  "Okay, I'm real. See," Lester said as he poked his own face with his finger.

  "That's not good enough."

  Lester thought about it for a moment. Then he said, "Can you prove you're real?"

  "No, not really," the guy said.

  "So, how do you know who's real around here?"

  "We have a guy."

  "Okay, could you call him here then?"

  The man on the wall turned around and shouted, "Hey Snuffe, there's a dude here that you need to smell."

  Another man appeared on top of the wall. This one had a nose. The nose was long and pointy, like a mole's.

  The guy called Snuffe sniffed the air, and said, "Yeah, he's human. A D-rank super with a focus on physical attributes."

  With that, Lester was let in through a large gate. Inside he saw a small village, consisting of many wooden houses. And there were even people here in the middle of the forest, doing stuff like carrying around dead monsters and playing with smartphones.

  Snuffe came down from the wall and waved his hand, presenting the place and said, "Welcome to Juniper Grove. It's not like one of those big cities, but it has its own charm."

  Text appeared in Lester's vision.

  Quest complete: Escape Recalm City

  Your award has been decreased by 3 points because Juniper Grove is not an actual city, and it is not that far from Recalm City.

  Award: 2 points gained and the tracking device in your head has been disabled.