Prologue: This Wasn't a Trip

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They told me mushrooms make you trip.
They lied.

I didn't see dragons.
I didn't melt into a couch.
I didn't float through pink clouds.

I died.

And the thing that killed me...
spoke through silence,
glowed through leaves,
and stared back at me through the eyes of a plant that had never moved.

I drank something ancient. Not a drug — a being.
It crawled through my blood like it had a purpose.
And when it reached my mind,
it peeled the skin off reality like it was tired of waiting for me to notice.

That's when it began.

The people around me... they glitched.
Smiling at nothing.
Looping behavior like corrupted NPCs.
Someone nearby whispered:

"We're not really here. We're being transmitted."

And it made sense.
Like I always knew.
Like my body had just caught up to the signal.

I looked at a plant and it was glowing.
It wasn't just alive — it was aware.
It saw me. It called to me in a language I can't explain.
I felt like I was standing in front of an ancient god who never needed to speak to be heard.

That's when I realized...
I wasn't seeing the world.
I was seeing through the mushroom.

And for the first time in my life,
I wasn't high.

I was awake.

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