The trees shimmered with blue-green leaves, creating a breathtaking sight.
'Whoa…' Ren was amazed to see different kinds of trees and leaves from the ones he knew.
But he didn't linger on the sight because hunger was twisting his gut, forcing him to focus on something far more important: food.
Stepping out of the ruined temple, Ren paused for a moment to observe for signs of any predators that could kill him, or prey that he could feast upon.
"I need to go deeper into the forest." After making up his mind, he started to trudge through the forest, slowly and carefully.
He saw branches with twisted shapes, purple flowers hanging upside down, almost touching the ground.
'These flowers can be a good option.' Deciding to suck on the blooms to relieve the pain of his somewhat sore and thirsty throat, he went to pluck out one of them.
But remembering that some plants and flowers could be poisonous, he stopped.
"I should only consume them when I have no other choice." Clearly, he felt that trying a poisonous flower would be better than dying of hunger.
As he bent down to pluck the flowers, the panel reappeared.
[Basic Herb ingredient detected—Purple Bloom.]
[Basic Herb recipe unlocked.]
'Ah, how could I forget to experiment with how this panel works and what else it could do? Looks like the hunger is seriously affecting my thinking capability.'
A shudder ran through him, realizing his decisions were dulled by low energy and dizziness.
Nevertheless, he picked up the flowers in hopes of creating a herb, maybe that could alleviate his hunger? No, he hadn't heard about herbs alleviating hunger in any games he knew about from his peers in school.
'And putting all my eggs in one basket won't be a wise decision.'
Herbs were only used to treat injuries, and he didn't have the time to experiment with them because as soon as he had clicked on the recipe, it showed him that he required two more items to create the [Basic Herb.]
[Bitterleaf] and [Clearoot].
After collecting some flowers, he was about to stuff them into his shirt when he remembered one of the most basic functions of the system in many games.
"Storage?" A few seconds passed, but nothing happened.
"Then, inventory." No sooner had the words left his mouth, the flowers disappeared and the panel materialized in front of him.
It showed twenty box-like shapes, with one of them having the outline of the flower he had picked up right now, with a ×13 written in small font in the bottom-right corner.
Clicking on the flowers, he saw them materialize out of thin air in front of him and drop to the ground.
He bent down, touched them, and uttered, "Inventory," and the flowers disappeared again.
A tired smile formed on his lips, for at least he discovered something which could be useful in the future.
Standing up, he was about to move forward but stopped all of a sudden.
'What is that?'
From his left, appeared a human-like zombie with yellowish eyes and pale-green skin. One of its arms was dangling, signifying that a little force might be enough to break it.
Ren had mentally prepared himself to run or fight against animals, but zombies? Absolutely not something he had expected.
'Run,' all it took was one thought before he started to sprint without even looking back at the creature.
Running with all his might, his breathing came in ragged bursts, muscles tightening due to lack of oxygen as he sped through the forest.
"Huff…huff…"
After running constantly for a few minutes, he turned around to check how much farther behind he had left the zombie. But his eyes widened as he saw the zombie just meters away from him, sprinting at the same pace as him.
Clearly, what was dangling was its left arm—not the leg. But its speed was not enough to catch him and he should have escaped.
But the sheer horror of seeing the zombie running at that speed made him trip.
He fell to the ground.
"No, no, no. Wait."
He turned around instantly. Eyes fixed on the zombie rushing at him as his panic intensified.
His instincts to survive overcame his panic. Fear of death loomed over his mind.
He glanced down at his shirt, mind reeling with countermeasures to survive.
'Move. Kill it.'
Instantly taking off his shirt that was tied at his waist, he stood up and jumped at the zombie.
He wrapped the cloth around its face.
Tightening it with all the strength he could muster, he slammed its head against the bark of a nearby tree.
Again, and again. He didn't stop for a moment to catch his breath.
"Die, die, die…huff…die…"
He kept at it until the greenish blood started to drip from the shirt onto his hands, and the head in his hands started feeling mushy.
He breathed rapidly from his mouth, his eyes becoming a little redder due to the lack of air. Seeing the shirt soaked in disgusting greenish blood, he vomited whatever he could, but he hadn't even eaten anything.
"Bleh…cough, cough..."
So he could only cough loudly.
[Congratulations! You killed a Vermin.]
[Exp +10]
He sat down near a tree, calming his nerves for a moment, as he could not spend a lot of time here and stumble upon another one of them.
"Sigh, I am starting to hate this forest now but what's with the name—Vermin?" Muttering under his breath, he stared at the notification.
But he didn't hate the feeling because he had felt something, the rush. His instincts to survive, to kill or be killed. His mouth curled up, forming a small smirk but in the next second, he grimaced.
Ren once again felt the dizziness and hunger, but much stronger than before.
"That zombie came from that direction, so there should be some place where it used to live before getting infected, and the cause of infection might be there too..." But what other option did he have instead of taking this risk?
Stumbling a bit, he stood up while placing a hand on the tree for support. And he turned left, towards his last bet for survival.
He walked slowly, forcing his body to move despite his consciousness being at its edge.
Taking the support of trees, he ventured forward—slowly and steadily.
After an unknown amount of time, he couldn't move anymore, his legs started to tremble, prompting him to drop to the ground.
'Escaping a zombie and now losing consciousness due to hunger? That's a first, and maybe my last.' He mused with irritation.
But defiance was still a thing etched into his mentality.
'No, I can't fall here. Not after all that.'
"Moveee, you trash! Move! Even those vermin were faster than you when they walked." He screamed as he felt his consciousness fading away.
Biting his lips so hard that blood started dripping, Ren stood up yet once again.
'Move..m-mov...ove..' He didn't know how much further he crawled but he kept moving, resisting and showcasing his will to live.
Until a village appeared in front of him.
'I don't think I can take it anymore.' His consciousness faded, and he collapsed on the ground.
[Congratulations! You have entered the beginner safe zone.]