Chapter 4. A coward or a cautious man?
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Jake was a great fan of fantasy series back on Earth. His first anime was an isekai genre; back then, he was only seven years old when he watched it.
Watching the main character get all the attention of the people around him, being the strongest, and having all kinds of skills was a wild ride for him.
To think that a normal student on earth becomes the strongest person in another world after being run down by a truck was a fun idea for him.
Over the years, he found himself losing interest in anime. The series becomes this repeated cycle where a useless pathetic person from Earth dies, goes to another world, and then becomes overpowered without any form of hardships, which started to annoy him.
Of course, he wasn't simply watching the Isekai genre, he watched high school romance, sports, ecchi, pure fantasy, seinen, and shonen over the years.
In the end, he lost interest completely in anime. Then he found out about manga, a much faster-paced medium that allowed him to take in more content about a series.
Later on, he found manhwa, webtoon, then manhua, and before he knew it, he started reading webnovels and novels themselves. Even after all of these. He found himself bored, everything was just a recycled plot.
Even when he stumbled upon a unique plot, the author's poor execution would always ruin it…, and that hurt more than the recycled plots ever did.
"That's why I'll fear that I might mess things up and kill myself." He knew there was a difference between fiction and reality.
His current situation is a fiction in itself, being in another world where a system exists and supernatural beings roam the planet.
He might be in the same situation as those protagonists, but he's not one of them. "And it's the reason why I did not become an adventurer as soon as possible."
"If I did become one on the day of the baptism, I would surely get the head out of my thinking I can kill monsters without a problem…. A stupid thing to think of, I never once even killed a pig on Earth, then how can I fight back against a monster that has an intention of killing me?"
It was suicidal thoughts. He thanked his clueless self back then, if he somehow understood anything back then. He would surely rush things and get himself killed.
Having time to think things through, he started observing and watching the norms of this world. On the day of the baptism, he went towards the west gate and watched people leave the town to fight the monster.
He found a group of three back then. Composed of two males and one female. From their attire, they were a swordsman, an axe warrior, and a healer.
He wanted to run towards them and ask if he could join them, but seeing how he had nothing on him, not even a simple blade, he stopped and watched them leave for the forest.
When the sun started going down, he gazed at the people coming back celebrating their victory against their hunt. But the group he wanted to join did not come back, even when the sky was already dark.
It was around nine when a member of that group came back. It was the axe warrior, seeing him return, Jake wanted to run towards him and congratulate them. Yet even after nearing the gate, the other two were still nowhere to be found.
Before he could even say a word back then, the axe warrior dropped to the ground, crying, begging, and blaming himself for the death of his colleague.
In his hand was the Status Card of the two. From the story he heard that time, they were doing well at first. Killing horn rabbits and hunting smaller monsters.
When they found a single goblin in the forest, they decided to chase after it to kill it, and gain contribution points in the guild. When the goblin fell on the ground, they felt joy at first, then twenty goblins appeared out of nowhere.
It was a trap, the lone goblin's job was to lure people like them and send them to the ambush group. There the axe warrior narrated what he remembered.
The goblin group had an archer, and their arrows were coated with poison. It first hits the healer, taking out their source of healing and buffs, then the goblins rush over to them, digging a blade into the swordsman's stomach, killing him in one go.
The axe warrior could barely talk clearly. He only said he survived thanks to his high HP number. Hearing all of this Jake realized how lucky he was. If he had joined them, he could have been part of that ambush.
— — —
Sitting on the bench from this morning. "I know this is cruel and all, but I'm glad I didn't join them back then."
He felt guilty at that time he could only stand still in his position and listen to the cries of that axe warrior about what happened to them.
Now thinking about it once again, he lay down on the bench thinking about what he should do the next day. The cold air soothing him was too much for him, but it was a reminder that this cold would be him if he took things as a joke.
"Haaaa." He sighed. "I don't know what to do!" He ranted to the world, asking what he should do. Then someone answered.
"Go home!" A voice calling out to him. "What are you doing at this time? It's twelve!" Sitting back up he found the priestess back then, an angry expression on her face.
"..... I'll go back when I want to." He replied. These last three days, Jake has been sleeping in her house.
Their meeting was simple, after leaving the West gate back then to get out of that situation, he found himself nowhere to go. He had no money on him or knew anyone in this town.
At that time, the members of the temple members had just locked the temple completely and were going home. It was there that she found Jake on this bench, fidgeting in the cold.
Seeing him and remembering how he praised her looks that morning she went and asked him if he wanted to stay in her house.
Jake, who truly had nothing, accepted the offer. Since then, Jake would go to her house late at night to sleep and leave early in the morning to avoid interaction with her.
"Look, I'm thankful that you let me sleep at your home, but you don't need to do this on your own. Miss." He was embarrassed; he didn't have anything to offer to her, but she still made her way, finding him in this place, this late at night.
People were already asleep by now. Yet she took her time and showed up here to get him home. In the center of the town, where a single light post stood above the bench, Jake is sitting.
The two of them stared into each other's eyes. "Miss? Did I not tell you to call me by my name???" The priestess roared out to Jake, her voice filled with malice.
"Sorry miss."
"Miss!?"
"I meant sorry Amber!!" In the end, he had to call her by her name. Grabbing his hand, Amber pulled him by force if it meant taking him home.
"Good! Make sure you call me by my name from now on." Amber said to him still keeping a tight grip to not let him run.
"Also, if you want, I can give you some money to pay for the registration fee in the guild."
"What! No, I'll take care of that on my own." He was already indebted to her for letting him stay in her house, now even getting money?? Absolutely not, he made sure to keep his last pride on his own.
"Since you won't accept my offer, at least eat breakfast before you leave the house. Do you know how wrong it felt when I came to your room and found you nowhere?"
"Sure…" He replied, covering his face in embarrassment. Accepting his fate, he let himself be dragged by Amber back to her house. Putting all the problems he has right now to his future self.