Genshin: Teyvat's Wandering Demon (Rewrite)

Tayden Voss sat hunched in the dim glow of a small campfire at the mouth of a lonely cave. Six days in this bizarre new world, and he still wasn't used to the silence. He poked halfheartedly at a stick skewering a chunk of boar meat, carefully rotating it over the flames. A few sparks leaped into the air, dancing among the shadows on the cave walls.

He couldn't help but reflect on the sheer unfairness of it all. The bus accident still haunted him—the vivid memory of water rushing in through shattered windows, submerging the aisle in seconds. He remembered frantically tugging at his seatbelt, only to find the buckle jammed. The pressure against the bus doors became overwhelming, and within moments, freezing water pressed in from every angle. Terror gripped him as he fought to hold his breath in the murky darkness, arms flailing uselessly in the hope of finding something, anything, to help him break free.

But the more he struggled, the more the water invaded his lungs, filling them up with freezing cold as he started drowning. His vision blurred, the roar in his ears faded, and a sense of finality took hold as he lost consciousness.

He didn't remember much after that but he swore he heard a man's voice, which would be weird since he would have been several feet underwater. He awoke violently on an unfamiliar beach at night. Coughing and heaving, he threw up lungfuls of water, gasping in the cool air that filled his starving lungs. It had taken several panic-stricken moments to realize he was alive, and very much not in the same place he had died.

Not long after that, It didn't take him long to figure out he was also definitely no longer on Earth, especially after spotting a red-glowing ball of living slime hopping around in the moonlight. That thing looked horrifically adorable but he knew that trying to touch a slime, a fire one, would definitely give him at least 2nd degree burns. He didn't know exactly what happened to him… only that life had thrown him one cruel twist after another, and he'd been isekai'd. 'It still feels so surreal...'

A crackle from the fire jarred him from his thoughts. The boar meat was dangerously close to burning. "Dammit" he pulled the skewer away, blew on it to cool, and decided to risk another taste. The moment the cooked flesh touched his tongue, an intense wave of revulsion hit him. The same revolting sensation that had haunted him for days came roaring back, making him gag.

'Disgusting!'

With a scowl, he hurled the entire skewer, carcass and all, clear out of the cave entrance. It soared through the air far more than it should have, disappearing into the forest outside. Several heartbeats later, he heard it crash to the ground in the distance.

He sighed. Super strength was still taking some getting used to. It reminded him of that incident on the second day. He'd tried to knock fruit from a tree by tossing a rock, only to launch the stone so hard that it destroyed the fruit and embedded itself on the mountain's side behind the tree.

He had stared, dumbfounded, as the rock left a crater in the mountain side. The shock had been so great he nearly dropped the fruit he was holding. "Y-Yeah, that's new," he'd murmured back then. Honestly if he had been Isekai'd then shouldn't there be a god telling him what the heck he's supposed to do?

The strangest thing, however, had come later that same day, when he first laid eyes on a strange tribe, black-skinned humanoids with masks. He'd been so focused on their bizarre language and dancing forms that he completely missed the subtle thrum of a bowstring until it was too late. An arrow, unnervingly cold to the touch, slammed through his forehead, it felt like the arrow had made running away painfully slow. Panicking, he bolted before the masked figures could close in, an arrow still lodged in his skull. Removing it had been a horror show. He distinctly remembered the wet, squelching sound as he pried it free, blood gushing down his face. But to his utter disbelief, the wound closed itself in the blink of an eye. Flesh knitted back together as though time had rewound, leaving no scar.

Now, six days after all that madness, he still couldn't eat normal food, and the sunlight outside made his skin crawl… Everything was fantastic.

Glancing over at the brilliant morning rays shining near the cave entrance. Just looking at the sun... it felt like every single cell in his body screamed at him to not get close. As if just stepping into that warm light would incinerate him in an instant. What even is he now? He hasn't eaten anything for six days straight and he can't step out in the sunlight? Is he a vampire? He really hopes not...

Slowly, Tayden rose to his feet. He avoided the sunlight and retreated into the cave's darker corners. Settling himself on the cold stone floor, he leaned his head back and allowed his eyes to drift shut. He had decided to sleep until nightfall is a better option instead of just doing nothing for the entire day.

Six days in a world that rejected human food. Six days painfully aware that the sun itself spelled doom for him. As he teetered on the edge of sleep, he couldn't shake the question swirling in his mind: What else did this strange realm have in store for him?