In every person's life, there comes a day when everything seems to go wrong. Nea is no exception. Today started not too bad, but since being dragged to this godforsaken place, his bad luck began to dominate, from nearly being sent to heaven by someone who came out of nowhere to this very moment. Nea wished he hadn't been so careless approaching that gate; if he hadn't, none of this would have happened.

Receiving a powerful kick from Nea, the tiger staggered a bit. From his experience, Nea knew it was the same with all species; a solid impact to the jaw would stun them. However, depending on the individual, the duration of the stun could be short or long. In this case, being a robust tiger, surely it wouldn't be dazed for long.

Nea took advantage of the momentum from his kick, rolling away from the tiger's range of attack. Although his whole body was in excruciating pain, he preferred enduring the pain over facing death. He got up and ran for his life as fast as he could. Without looking back, Nea could sense how furious the tiger he had just provoked was. Its roar echoed throughout the tranquil forest, causing a flurry of birds to scatter in all directions. Nea kept running unthinkingly, not knowing where he was heading, but he knew he couldn't stop now. Nea was determined not to become prey for that tiger today.

The dense branches of the tropical forest whipped against Nea's face as he ran, causing a stinging pain. However, this was nothing compared to the many injuries covering his body. Occasionally, he wanted to look back to check the tiger's location, but Nea felt that even a slight turn of his head would seal his fate. The only sense Nea could rely on now was his hearing, but that wasn't enough to precisely determine the beast's location. His legs grew heavier with each passing second, his ears buzzed with a ringing sound, and Nea had little strength left in him now. And then, Nea's bad luck continued. He stumbled over a small stone, tumbling several times before planting his face into the ground. Nea propped himself up, trying to lift his battered body. He couldn't afford a single second's delay with a furious tiger hot on his trail. However, he could have never anticipated the sight that met Nea's eyes at that moment. An endless forest spread out to the horizon before Nea's eyes, and he could see this scene because he was standing right at the edge of a cliff. Nea saw that right below the cliff was also a very dense forest. Suddenly, Nea had a crazy idea, but it might be the only way to save his life. Taking a few steps back, Nea could hear rustling in the grass not too far behind him. It turned out that even in his half-dead state, he had managed to run quite fast, putting a decent distance between himself and the tiger. But now, it was about to catch up. Nea shook his head and smirked with a bitter smile:

"Here goes nothing!!"

Nea got into a ready position, though this act wasn't much different from suicide given the slim chances of success, especially with his body heavy in every movement. At this moment, the tiger was right behind him, roaring madly in fury. It pounced to capture Nea, and that was precisely what he had been waiting for. Using the last bit of his strength, Nea sprinted toward the edge of the cliff and then leaped high into the air. In a moment of rage, the tiger lunged at Nea without noticing the cliff ahead. It was a bit too late when it realized its mistake. The tiger tried braking, but its massive body was already mid-air. It desperately tried to turn and claw its front paws onto the cliff's edge. The beast seemed like it might have narrowly escaped danger, but Nea's leap wasn't just to dodge the attack; he used gravity to his advantage and delivered a powerful kick, like a bolt from the blue, right into the tiger's snout. The force of Nea's attack caused the enraged tiger to lose its grip and tumble down the cliff, roaring helplessly as it fell. Nea, however, wasn't in a much better state. After delivering the kick, he had intended to use the tiger's body as leverage to jump back onto the cliff edge. Still, he was unable to execute the move. Desperately, Nea reached out with both hands, grabbing onto the same edge the tiger had just clung to. But now, his strength was failing him, leaving him unable to hold onto anything in this world any longer. And so, Nea's fate became akin to that of the tiger. Despairingly, he gazed at the clear blue sky before him, stretching his arm high desperately for some miraculous force to grasp his hand. But once again, the silent prayers in his mind went unanswered by any power. Nea found himself helplessly plunging into the deep, dark abyss of the chasm.

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***

The cool autumn breeze wafted over Nea's skin. The young man slowly opened his heavy eyelids:

"I'm still alive? Or is this heaven? ... No, if this were heaven, why does my body still hurt so much?"

Nea lay sprawled atop the giant tiger's carcass. He honestly couldn't figure out if today were his unlucky day or his lucky one. Nearly dying twice in a row, but in the end, still grinning through survival, though with these injuries, perhaps misfortune still outweighed luck.

Nea intended to lie on the tiger's carcass because it was still warm, which somewhat soothed his aching wounds. But just then, he heard a faint noise, gentle though it was, enough to terrify any healthy person, let alone someone half-alive, half-dead like Nea.

*Thump thump*

Nea was right; the sound of a heartbeat from the very thing he was lying on. Nea felt a chill down his spine:

"Falling from such a height, and it's still not dead? This is not good; if I don't leave here before it wakes up, I'm definitely dead this time."

Nea slowly crawled off the massive body of the tiger, partly because he was afraid to disturb it and make it wake up sooner and partly because his body could no longer move quickly. His condition made Nea even more afraid because if things continued like this, his body would soon be unable to move due to exhaustion. And being unable to move while alone in this wilderness meant almost certain death.

Nea trudged slowly through the dense tropical forest, trying to find a safe resting place. The forest was deep and secluded, devoid of any human presence, and it also harboured many other dangers besides the dying tiger behind him. He dragged himself through the forest for an hour, his legs weary, but Nea didn't allow himself to stop. His eyes were half-closed; Nea needed rest more than ever; today had been incredibly long for him.

Suddenly, something in the sky caught Nea's attention - a thin wisp of white smoke rising in the distance, looking like it could be from a campfire.

"Smoke? There must be people there. If I'm lucky, it could be them - Squa 4. Whoever it is, there will surely be people there."

Nea reassured himself with this thought. What he needed to do now was to head towards that smoke column, hoping that there would be people there. Dragging himself a little further, Nea spotted a reasonably level dirt path just down the hill.

"Lucky, there's a trail. If I can get down there, surely someone will find me."

Nea was trying to figure out the safest way to descend the slope. Unfortunately, as pondering, he heard a strange noise behind him. Turning around, Nea saw nothing. Suddenly, he clutched his ears, his face contorting in pain, as thousands of bizarre sounds, like the buzzing of bees, echoed incessantly in his head.

"Damn it, my head hurts so much!"

Nea, overwhelmed by the intense pain and disorientation, lost his balance upon seeing something startling. He stumbled and began tumbling down the slope in what seemed like a final, desperate moment of his life. As he rolled down towards the dirt path, the very thing that caused him to fall in the first place also followed, slipping down the slope after him. That was the tiger from earlier, its body covered in blood; one would think it was exhausted, but no. It let out an earth-shattering roar, the beast glaring at Nea with its blood-red, murderous eyes. It started to charge furiously and then pounced at Nea once again. Now, Nea could only lie there waiting for death, his body completely paralyzed; the only part he could still move was his head. Nea could see that terrifying creature, its eyes seemingly eager to devour him whole, a wish it was about to fulfill. Nea could also see the thin wisp of white smoke hanging amidst the sky, where he had hoped to reach, but now that was no longer possible. With a look of despair, Nea watched the tiger charge toward him.

"Ku... Aizu... Mom...!!"

The figures of loved ones slowly appeared before Nea's eyes. In an instant, the claws and fangs of the beast tore those dear images into a hundred pieces, and then everything suddenly turned pitch black.