Casper continued walking naked with calm steps. He never cared about his exposed body. Minutes passed before he heard faint footsteps approaching. Then a girl appeared in front of him.
Her silver-blue hair was tied back into two slanted ponytails, her eyes were ice-blue, looking at him with a deadly blank stare.
She wore short dark clothing with a neat military style, revealing part of her midriff. Her side belt was packed with tools, and a simple pauldron covered her left shoulder.
The moment her eyes met Casper's naked body, her eyes widened, her face flushed, and her body took a step back. Then she screamed sharply:
"You… you pervert! What are you doing in the forest like that?!"
Casper didn't move. Simply, he put his hand on his chin and began watching her with cold curiosity. He thought to himself:
'This is the first creature here… and she's screaming because I'm naked? What a laughable opening.'
Casper kept staring at her silently. He didn't see a girl screaming in front of him. He saw something that moved, breathed… a new heart beating in front of him.
'How I longed to feel this. No chaos, no police… just me and this clean world. It seems it granted me a fresh start to do what I do best.'
A slight smile formed on his face, then he muttered:
'Looks like I found my first victim.'
He began to step toward her slowly. The girl backed away quickly, her face still flushed as she shouted:
"Get away from me, you pervert! Don't you have any shame?!"
But he didn't hear her. All he saw was the tense motion of her body with each breath, each beat audible clearly in his head. He looked to a tree trunk beside him, gripped it with both hands, and pulled with force.
The trunk came out of the ground easily; dust covered his body. He examined the wood for a moment, then slowly lifted it above his head.
'The first strike in the new world… it must be precise.'
The girl took a step back, then spun quickly and started running through the trees. Her breaths were quick, her glances was frantic, dust flying with her steps.
Behind her, Casper ran while he's laughing; his laugh was wild and broken, punctuated by heavy breaths.
"Run more… I want to hear your fear! I want to hear your heart stop!"
But halfway down the path, she stopped suddenly. Casper froze for a moment in surprise, then his smile widened.
'What are you doing? Have you surrendered?'
The girl turned with sharp skill. She moved her hand to the side belt and pulled out a small metal bow that shimmered blue at its edges. In a second, she nocked an arrow and released.
The air split with a sharp whistle. The arrow passed very close to Casper's cheek, leaving a small bloody mark on his face. He stopped laughing and touched his cheek.
"Hah… I didn't expect this world to give me victims who know how to fight back."
He looked at her, his eyes gleaming with murderous pleasure.
"Nice… it seems you're not an ordinary prey."
The girl lunged forward with astonishing lightness, her hand started to draw another arrow with unseen speed. Casper tried to twist to dodge, but the next arrow was not ordinary; it burned with a frozen blue layer and exploded the moment it touched the ground.
Casper staggered back, dust covering half his face, yet his smile remained.
'Magic? Wonderful… this world really isn't ordinary.'
The girl raised her hand; a whirl of air formed around her, then she fired three consecutive arrows with astonishing focus. One hit his shoulder, the second skimmed past his chest, the third pierced his left leg.
He fell to the ground, his breaths ragged. His eyes tracked her as she cautiously approached, the bow still aimed at him.
'My first encounter here… and it ended like this? Fine, I'll learn this world's rules in their way.'
His vision began to blur, and suddenly a transparent blue screen appeared in the air in front of him. Numbers, symbols, and strange digital tones echoed in his head.
[INITIAL ASSESSMENT SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
Entity Name: Casper
Race: Human
Age: 20
Status: Injured – semi-conscious
Overall Level: 0
Magic Level: 0
Combat Instinct: 100%
Intelligence: 140
Physical Strength: 82%
Speed: 76%
Endurance: 68%
Magical Capacity: Undetected
Special Skill: Not activated
Body Condition: Multiple wounds – internal bleeding – fluctuating consciousness
Casper's gaze froze for a moment as he watched the screen.
'What is this now? Have I lost my mind? Or am I seeing… a screen?'
He blinked twice. The numbers in front of him didn't disappear. The words hung in the air as if it's addressing his mind directly. Casper smiled as if he's facing an exciting scientific experiment.
'Wonderful… a new world with a new system. Everything here is organized, while I am absolute chaos.'
He tried to raise his hand, but it barely moved.
'Magic? Levels? Like I'm in a game, but I don't play… I kill.'
He smiled more.
'Combat instinct is 100%. No wonder I'm still alive after all this. But zero in magic? Excellent. Magic requires discipline, and I hate rules.'
The girl lowered her bow slowly, still catching her breath after the fight. She looked at Casper lying on the ground, his body covered in dust and blood, but his features didn't match a dying man… rather, someone lost in strange thought.
'What's wrong with this man? Is he… laughing?'
She stepped forward cautiously, the bow was still in her hand in case of a sudden move. She came closer, then stopped abruptly as her eyes widened. She remembered he was still naked.
Her face flushed immediately. She raised her hand to cover half of her face and whispered in agitation:
"How disgusting!"
She quickly grabbed a cloth from her small satchel and tossed it onto him in haste, covering the lower part of his body without looking at him directly.
She turned her face to the side, and her cheeks were still red.
"My God… even in the forest I meet perverts!"
But when she looked again, she noticed his eyes were still open, staring at the void with a strange steadiness. He wasn't seeing her at all.
'What is this? He doesn't move… he doesn't even blink. Is he delirious? Or seeing something I can't see?'
She moved closer, knelt beside him, and watched the rigid expression on his face and the odd smile that hadn't left him despite the blood. He was not like any human she had seen before…
A noise in Casper's head began to turn into distorted static, as if someone is tampering inside his skull. A sharp, intermittent buzzing, then a cold mechanical voice:
[Warning: Vital energy level decreasing]
[Energy: 9%… 4%… 1%…]
[System will enter forced hibernation mode.]
A faint alarm filled his ear like a small buzzer, and his consciousness began to erode. He watched the blue screen tremble; the numbers faded slowly until only one flashing line remained:
[Energy: 0%]
Then everything went dark.
The girl saw Casper's body suddenly froze, motionless. She approached cautiously, knelt beside him, and reached for his neck to check his pulse. She didn't understand what had just happened, but she began to analyze the situation.
'A naked man, unarmed, attacking for no reason… then collapsing mid-action. No signs of magic or summoning around him, no circles, no energy traces. This is illogical.'
She muttered in a low, firm, reserved tone:
"In any case, this man is dangerous. He's likely unstable, or escaped from some lab…"
She took a deep breath to regain focus. Then she thought:
'And also… he's not wearing anything. Who does this in the middle of a forest? He's clearly a pervert before he's dangerous.'
She produced a small metal restraint from her bag and fastened it tightly around his wrists.
'At least he won't attack me again when he wakes.'
She secured the cloth that covered his body tightly.
'I'll report to the nearest base. I'll leave him here for investigation. I have no time to waste reasoning over a naked fool trying to attack me.'
She lifted her head and looked toward the muddy road ahead, then murmured:
"If he wakes… he'll be restrained this time."