"These clothes sure are nice." I huff and puff. "Really fucking nice." I mean, they really are. I'm neither cold nor hot. "But you know what they don't help with?" I ask no one in particular. "Getting through this fucking snow, twin."
My shouting is swallowed by the unending, deadly still expanse of white around me. As if to mock me. "The fuck. Ugh. I hate this." I continue to complain and mutter curses under my breath every step I take.
A voice somewhere in the back of my head reminds me to maybe stop doing that to preserve energy. But it's not like I'm running out of breath. It's just that stomping through this knee-high snow is doing a number on my already sore legs.
And that even though I have barely made it a couple hundred meters away from the crash site. Really putting into perspective just how far and difficult this journey is going to be. `I sure hope there is less snow in the forest.`
Despite this, I'm not worried. I know that I can, at any point, decide to take a break. If my legs ever decide to give out. To start building a shelter for the night. To rest and recover from my first day in this new world.
But I would prefer to keep moving until the sun starts going down. And it seems to be at least another hour or two before that will happen. So I want to keep going. To make some more distance between me and the crash site. `Just in case.`
I also remember something I was once taught during my time in the military. "If you still have enough energy to complain, you aren't really pushing yourself." I parrot what I heard back then, mimicking the tone of my superior.
Though how true that is is questionable. The military isn't exactly known for having a lot of smart people in it. Especially at low ranks. `Then again. Which large organization doesn't have at least a few bumbling morons?`
These aren't the only thoughts going through my head as I continue to walk, of course. They're just some small distractions that crop up every now and then. Most of my thoughts are occupied with my current situation and the future awaiting me.
`I really do wonder. Does this world really work the same way as it did in the game? Will it have the same spells and abilities? Same skills and secrets?` My musings, as always an excellent distraction from the pain in my legs and shoulders.
Though I'm not optimistic about this. Sure, most of my assumptions and theories have so far been proven right. But that doesn't mean everything else I know about this world will.
"The whole rescue thing, for example. They didn't save me." Of course, I had already considered that this was because they had actually saved whoever they needed to save. Whoever was actually important from that crash site.
"There is even a non-insignificant probability that me surviving will fuck everything up." After all, the butterfly effect is a thing. A thing that has a high chance of being real and devastating. Especially considering what has happened to me so far.
`That movie was dope by the way.`I freeze mid-motion, then shake my head and keep going. Regretting that I stopped even for a short moment, a second later, as my legs took a lot more energy to get moving again than I had anticipated. Shaking and shivering from the exertion.
But I keep going. Gritting my teeth and pushing on. "Come on. Just a couple more steps." I lie to myself. Which doesn't work all that well, considering I can hear my own thoughts and know I'm full of shit. But it's something I started doing whenever I went to the gym and haven't stopped doing ever since.
I refocus to continue my previous train of thought. About the butterfly effect being real. About how this phenomenon could absolutely destroy any plans I might make right now.
After all, it's a phenomenon that dictates that if someone knows something that happens in the future and tries to prevent it, the timeline will be absolutely ruined. And any future events that should have happened won't, or will be completely different.
Not that I believe in the first place that events from the game will happen one-to-one in this world. `That would be too convenient.` Yet I can't help but keep thinking they will. Probably because I've read way too many web novels and manhwa where something like this happens.
Where someone gets transported into a game or story and suavely breezes through things with their knowledge.
`Not that I have any of that.` It's in that moment that I'm reminded that even if this whole mess played out exactly like the game. I wouldn't be able to make predictions for the future for most events.
What with me never having paid attention to the story of this game, besides a few times when I was frustrated and just let a cutscene play out after dying to a boss like a hundred times.
Other than that, however, I'm totally in the dark as to how the story of this game goes.
These and other similar thoughts keep replaying in my mind. Going back and forth. Me making possible plans for the future only to discard them again. `So maybe I should hope for the butterfly effect to mess everything up?`
These and other similar thoughts kept replaying in my mind. Going back and forth. With me making possible plans for the future, only to discard them again.
But it's not like it's a bad thing. At least it gives me something to do while I'm walking. Something that isn't complaining about having to fight my way through this annoying snow.
"Huuuuuuuh." A deep sigh escapes me as I look over my shoulder after some time. Still very much able to see the airship wreck. Checking the distance with the thumb trick. This time, being much more accurate thanks to me actually knowing how large the airship is.
"About three kilometers." The distance I have covered so far is not even half of what I wanted to cover today. But I knew if I kept going for even another kilometer, I risked being unable to make a proper shelter.
Something that could very well end my life. So even though the sun was assumedly still far from going down, I start to look for a proper place to make shelter.
Not that this was easy. There was nothing to construct a shelter with. The classical winter shelter options all fell away one after the other, for various reasons.
Luckily, I had already figured out what kind of shelter I needed to build. The only one really available to me: a snow cave.
So I grab the shovel from my backpack and get straight to work. Picking a place that had a bit of a snowdrift already going on to make my life easier.
First, shoveling snow onto the already existing snowdrift to increase its size. Until it was about as tall as me. Which was not as difficult as I thought it would be, thanks to all the fairly undisturbed snow around me.
Then I pack the snow together using the flat of the shovel for more stability. And start digging down where I stand. Until I reach the frozen ground. At which point I dig on the same level into the snowdrift I had piled up.
Carefully, so as not to make everything collapse on top of me. Keeping the cave small and compact. Just barely enough to fit me lying flat.
Though I do make sure that my sleeping position is slightly elevated from the entrance. Since the cold air will sink down, keeping my elevated sleeping spot slightly warmer.
Something I only realized, by the time I was almost finished, I wouldn't have needed to do. Since my clothes keep my body temperature perfectly in check.
"Ehh. It's not bad, though. It will help prevent me from getting wet if any water gets into the shelter." Luckily, my work wasn't for no reason. So I was able not to get upset.
Though my body disagrees. Strongly. The finishing touches to the shelter really take the last bit of my strength to finish. Even though it was just me putting the tarp on my sleeping spot, doubling up the layers to keep my body as far away as possible from the snow.
Another thing I didn't need to do but sounded smart and important in my head, so I did it anyway.
Just in time, too. The sun was about to set by now. My shelter finished pretty much at the same time as it started to disappear beyond the horizon.
Two hours of hard work spent on constructing the shelter that I will have to consider going forward. Since I will need to redo the shelter every day. At least until I reach the forest where I may be able to build different, easier types of shelter.
The day ending with just one other problem. One thing I hadn't considered at all throughout the day.
And that was just how dark it got after the sun went down. The beautiful night sky was covered by clouds. Leading to me bumping my head constantly inside my shelter as I navigated my backpack to find something to eat.
My hands incapable of opening the first few items I found in my bag because of just how badly they shook. Not from the cold but from how badly I tortured this body today.
So in the end, I settled on some white bread and a muffin. To at least have something in my stomach before I go to sleep.
Sleep, of course, claimed me quickly despite my thoughts swirling around and around. The small, round entrance to my shelter was slowly—ever so slowly—being covered by the falling snow.