Emm's heart was beating wildly in his chest. There was something badly wrong with him. He needed to get help, and fast.

"It doesn't hurt, though," he said. "But I feel like crap. I didn't realize it was this bad."

"Let's just hurry back," Michael said, quickening his pace. Emm's whole body protested.

The situation was ridiculous. It was the [System]'s fault that he'd lost his life in the first place. Its stupid blue boxes had taken over his vision and caused the traffic accident. But then he was rescued, miraculously transported to another world, and given another chance to live. And he, the idiot that he was, even convinced himself he was grateful for it. He deluded himself into thinking that he had a glimpse of hope for the future. 'It's only two years, it's fine! I'll make it back no problem!'

Nothing would be more ironic than to end up dead after less than an hour.

And to some dumb snake, too.

"Poison, I think," Emm said. "From the first snakebite. There must be an antidote in camp."

"I was going to mention this earlier, but ..." Michael broke off. He avoided looking at Emm's face. "I don't think it was the snake. Even in the clearing when I saw my [Status], my health wasn't at 100%. And it's been steadily going down ever since, only slowing down after I leveled up. Kind of stabilized around 70%, and it's barely gone down since then, so I kind of… forgot about it?"

Michael smiled sheepishly.

But I didn't level, so I'm still losing health. Or, he's also still losing health, and it was his health regeneration that had gone up to compensate.

That didn't make sense, though. If Emm remembered correctly, health was tied to toughness, which Michael hadn't increased.

Michael continued, "I think the very air is toxic, and has been since we were transported here. Honestly, I'm surprised nobody spent one of our ten questions on it."

This was all starting to be way too much for Emm. His throbbing headache was making it difficult to think. To make matters worse, even if Michael was right and it was the air that was hurting them, it still didn't eliminate the possibility of the [Vinesnake] poisoning him as well. Stacking the hurt.

Emm tried to judge the time that had passed since Michael had reached [Level] 2. If his health had been 70% then, Emm's had been somewhere close… Which meant that Emm might have been under 30%, currently. He took a big hit from the first monster, too. And Michael was in much better shape, so his toughness was guaranteed to be higher than Emm's.

30% was just a rough guess, but it felt realistic to him. Thirty measly percentage points away from dying.

Emm wiped the blood out of his eyes with his sleeve and swallowed the knot in his throat.

"Then that's why the Guide rushed so much to bring us all out here," Emm said. "To level up, and stave off the health drain."

Michael nodded. "Sorry. Should've said something sooner."

"No, I don't think we could've done anything about it. It wouldn't have changed anything," Emm said. His thoughts were a jumble. He hated this world more and more with every passing minute. Whenever he thought he saw a way out, the world sent him a fresh new nope. The antidote idea was a bust too, it seemed.

They kept walking and passed a few of the monsters they'd killed. Seeing that made him strangely proud.

The shouts in the distance were getting louder; they were getting closer to the group.

Closer to Miss Simmons, the only person with all the information. The person who'd ignored all their questions along the way. He desperately needed to pull the answers out of her. He'd tried to figure out the situation by himself, piece together all the available clues, but that approach wasn't working out for him.

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Unless they found a magic way to save him, he'd die to the poisonous air. And there was still the possibility of snake venom to deal with, too. And the bleeding wound in his leg, of course. He could barely walk.

There was no choice but to endure.

The few minutes it took them to reach the group felt like an eternity to Emm. His vision was getting cloudy.

Most of the others were back together, talking and resting on the ground, with the Guide in the middle. Weapons were lying on the ground all around them, purple with blood. There were multiple dead [Vinesnakes] piled up off to the side, some still with arrows sticking out of them.

All eyes turned to Micael and Emm.

"We need healing!" Michael shouted when they got close. For a moment, nobody budged.

Emm wasn't the only one in bad shape. He saw others clinging to their arms, with makeshift bandages similar to his. Several were slowly bleeding from their ears or noses. And one bald man lay unconscious on the floor, his head on someone else's jacket as a pillow.

The Guide was staring at them intently but stayed silent. Her arms were crossed.

"Did you both level up?" asked the big guy with the shield. The self-appointed "leader".

"No. Michael did, but not me," Emm said.

The guy grabbed his sword and shield, then rushed to stand up. His blond hair was gelled up and managed to look pristine even after all the fighting. Not even his clothes were dirty.

"Follow me, then. We'll find a snake for you to kill in no time, the bleeding stops after you level. One's enough. Who's joining me? Jonas, Bo, good to go?" He pointed at two more men. They looked at each other, shrugged, and started getting up–

"No, no, you're not getting me," Emm interrupted. "I've killed two already. I can't level. I don't have the [System]."

They stopped and stared at him. They were confused.

"Did anyone take the [Healer] class?" Michael asked, in a rush. "That's the only way to keep him from dying to the toxic air. Or potions? We need to bring his health up, now!"

Miss Simmons finally spoke. "No. No healers, no potions."

"Then I'll go out, kill more monsters and take the [Healer] class," Michael said.

What? Emm stood there, shocked by Michael's words. He hadn't mentioned that [Class] choice, had he unlocked it? Taking it would have solved all their problems. But he had gone with [Pyromancer] anyway.

"You will do no such thing. You've already taken one [Class] you're ill-suited to, I'm not letting you take two. It would be akin to suicide. [Healer] is slow to level and useless at low levels. No."

"I don't care!" Michael shouted. "I won't watch him die!"

He turned around and stormed off.

"Don't!" Emm grabbed him by the arm, trying to pull him back, but Michael easily shrugged him off, and started running.

He didn't get far. After a few steps, the Guide materialized in front of him.

"No," she said as she smacked him over the head with her staff, hard. Michael dropped to the ground with a thud, like a puppet with its strings cut.

None of the people from Earth reacted to Miss Simmons attacking him. They uselessly sat there and watched.

"Stupid boy," she spat, then turned back to Emm. She glanced at her staff. "Are you going to make trouble as well?"

Emm shook his head. There was no point. She was far too strong to go against her. And in a way, he was glad Michael hadn't ruined his chances by making a bad choice just for Emm's sake.

He was tired from it all. His body was exhausted, and the adrenaline from fighting had long since worn off. He flopped down on the ground, hissing through the pain in his leg, and closed his eyes, desperately trying to find a way out.

He didn't have much time left. But his thoughts were going in circles, and his mind was hazy.

Silence filled the clearing.

Suddenly something wet and cold slapped him in the face– he opened his eyes to find a dead snake's corpse laying in his lap.

The Guide had thrown it at him.

"The air isn't toxic, it's just too rich in mana for your body to handle. You're suffering constant damage. You need to get your health regeneration up to outpace it, and to do that…" she trailed off.

Emm saw what she was getting at, and it made him sick. It hadn't occurred to him until then, but there was often another healing method in games, besides potions or spells.

"You want me to eat this thing?"