“Huh?”
Did I just jinx myself but in a good way?
…
“Aghhh, this is gonna take a ton of time! At this rate it might even take hours!”
Having said that, I continued my search for food. I looked around for fruits instead of animals. No it's not because I'm vegan or anything (no offense to the vegans), it's ‘cause I don't know what to do with it after killing it, like how to skin it and stuff. But I do think I might be able to if I try.
As I continued to trek back up to the cliff where I first “spawned”, I saw even more bizarre animals, for example a creature that looked like a deer but had the tail of a peacock, or the giant moth with a squirrel-like face, or even the gray leopard with spider fangs that was currently chasing me.
The spider-leopard or leopard-spider or whatever it might be, suddenly started chasing me out of nowhere. Though it was quite small– like smaller than 50cm in height– it was quite ferocious. There was a thick, dark, black liquid dripping from its fangs as it was chasing me. I guess that thing's poisonous too eh?
I checked the status of the ‘system’ by yelling , “SYSTEM… STATUS… NOW!” while running like my life depended on it– well, it actually did.
Shit! It still has a long way to go!
Trying to lose the spider-leopard, I tried to use a nearby tree as an axis to take a quick turn by grabbing the tree. But there was one key factor that I missed, time wasn't quite kind to the tree and it was just a dead husk. When I grabbed it, the bark just came right off, throwing me off balance. I fell to the ground, rolling a few times and then landed looking straight up at the leaping spider-leopard with its fangs wide open.
Well I guess this is it… it was fun while it lasted. I just wished I could've at least seen what skill I had. Well too bad.
Having closed my eyes, waiting peacefully for death, I felt a force on my right hand. Something hit it really hard. Or rather, something hit the piece of bark I held out in my right hand. As I opened my eyes, I saw the body of the spider-leopard impaled by the piece of bark I reflexively held out. Guess I wasn't really ready for death yet…
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I quickly laid down the now dead spider-leopard’s cold body before any of its thick poison would drop onto me.
“Huff… that was close. Now what the hell do I do with this carcass? Maybe I can eat it? Probably not, ‘cause it seems poisonous after all. But still, it wouldn't hurt to look it up on Wikipedia”
I quickly took out my smartphone and saw that I still had 56% charge left. I then quickly started looking through the local version of Wikipedia I had previously downloaded.
“Hmm… seems like it depends heavily on the creature. Like for some, it's completely poisonous, and for some it's just a select few parts that are poisonous. I can't really just try to taste it, after all this is a completely different world with a completely different ecosystem.”
“Wait a minute… where am I?”
I looked around and saw that I was in a completely unfamiliar place. The trees were covering up the sky really well so I couldn't guess my direction as well. As I was looking around, I stumbled on the very thing I was looking for in the beginning. “Fruits!”
I rushed over to the tree– which looked like a blue magnolia tree– and plucked a blue-green peach-like fruit. At this point, I was too hungry to even consider if it was edible. I took a huge bite of the blue peach. It was so juicy that it started dripping out of my mouth. Although it wasn't that sweet, anything would've made me happy at this point. I greedily shoved as much of the peaches as possible straight into my mouth.
After feeling satisfied, I took a bunch of the fruits and stored them in the many pockets that my cargo pants had. Guess my sense of style finally paid off. Having stuffed my pockets with fruit, I continued on. This time in the search of water.
I stood quietly trying to hear any sound of flowing water. I stood there for about five minutes but couldn't hear anything.
“Maybe I can find something on Wikipedia?”
I spent another 10 minutes trying to find something in the huge amounts of data Wikipedia had. Although there was a search function, it wasn't specific enough for what I needed. But then it hit me. I had a lightweight AI installed on my phone that could be trained on local data.
I quickly checked my battery percentage and it was still 56%. Using the AI would drain a lot of my phone's battery. Up until now I had tried to save as much battery as possible by disabling every function except Wikipedia. Yup, by everything I do mean everything. From all the sensors to the background and foreground apps. I was really interested in technology back on earth so I was able to do such things.
I then quickly added the location to the folder containing all my Wikipedia data into the AI and pressed “train”. The process was surprisingly fast– probably due to me disabling everything else, hehe. I then quickly asked the AI on how to find water in a forest.
“To find water in a forest, look for signs of vegetation concentrated in low-lying areas, follow animal trails, especially those of deer and other large mammals, search for streams or rivers near valleys, check for dew on plants in the morning, and collect rainwater in leaves or makeshift containers; if necessary, dig near the base of trees in moist areas to access potential groundwater” or so it said. I don't how much of this would apply in this world, but it was still worth a try.
I looked around and did notice that the vegetation was growing thicker in one direction. Maybe there's a water source there!
I rushed over in that direction and found a river. The river looked so clear that I could even see my own reflection– which was rather not a pretty sight. Looking at myself I found that I was wounded in many places around my forehead– probably due to falling face first and rolling twice or thrice when I was being chased by the spider-leopard. I first drank some of the water and then held out some water in my hands by forming a cup, and moved a bit away from the river to wash my wounds as I didn't want to pollute the river. I know it wasn't necessary but I didn't want to pollute this majestic looking river.
“Hmm… maybe I should try and set up camp here. I don't see any animals here either.”
I looked around for a flat space near the river and gathered a bunch of dry wood to use as firewood. I layed some of it in the centre and ‘stacked’ the rest at the side. I used a nice piece of smooth rock as a sitting log. I also gathered a bunch of leaves– the ones which I thoroughly checked to be clear of any insects– and placed them like a pillow.
“Guess this’ll have to do”. I used a piece of stick– which had a somewhat sharp tip– and rubbed the sharp end on some dry leaves. It took a bit of time but I was able to start a fire.
Sigh… “Boy do I feel amazing! I've never felt so free in my life!” In my old world, I was always bound by people's expectations, studies and responsibilities. But here, “I'm free!”
“Hmm… let’s see how the system’s coming along…”
Ooh! I can't wait for it! Wonder what sort of skill I'll get!
*Kachink*
“Huh? What was that noise? Seems like it came from that way. What could it be…”
I took out a piece of wood whose tip I had previously wrapped with leaves drenched in tree sap, and lighted it on fire using my campfire.
I slowly headed deeper into the woods. There, I stumbled upon a person lying on the ground, bleeding profusely from his leg, which had been impaled by some sort of trap.
“P-please…. H-help….”