"Ah!"
I opened my eyes, my view were filled with the darkness but full of colorful stars. As soon as I realized my situation, I checked my surroundings and tried to remember everything.
(Right, I was on the rooftop. Waiting for that thing to come out hunting…)
I looked over the rooftop to check my situation. I can see the majority of the city from where I'm standing. It's dark, but I can still see the silhouette of the building. Other than that, it's the darkness where I can perceive nothing.
That's all.
(Still, I'm surprised that I'm still surviving up until this point. How long has passed since I've slept?)
(But the real question is, where has that thing gone to?)
Even if I tried to look for its presence, it's nothing but futile. That thing usually found me in like an instant. But still, it's weird. There's no sight of him anywhere. Like he's currently far from here.
After all this time, was my presence fading from his mind?
…
...
(Wait… My presence?)
I examined my body, and noticed that's something wasn't here before all this time is here.
(My body, has no smell. Come to think of it, I wasn't paying any attention to my hygiene since I never survived the first day. So my sense in that part has dulled.)
And I noticed it now, it was the liquid remains from Silver Hunter. Why haven't I realized this sooner?! This liquid not only camouflages my smell but also my presence.
Come to think of it, the other method I've used to defeat Silver Hunter is simply either throwing the chair leg at him or lightly swinging my knife. Have I just been unlucky enough to not discover this camouflage method sooner?
(Well, discovering it now is better than discovering it later. Now-)
As my thought was in somewhere else, I noticed it in the corner of my eye. That thing has appeared.
Resembling the head of a dog, with one big eye sticking out in the open. 4 legs and 6 tails, and a super large body size of a building. Not to mention there's a numerous animal head sticks from its neck to the body.
(!!!)
From the neck, the small animal came out of its main body but in huge numbers.
(So it has started spreading his predator…)
I've known them from the picture book in the library.
The Cats, moving in groups, have black fur and white eyes. The teeth and claw was so sharp that they were able to cut through concrete. And their size is five times bigger than what I've seen in books. Resembling a black phanter. It was common to get slain by them if you had your guard down.
The Rabbits, despite having a large number, are moving in individual. Starting by digging the ground. And the moment you least expect it, they'll crawl out of the ground and crawl onto your feet. And the next second, an army of them joins in. I was not an exception to their way of slaughter. Having my chunk of flesh gouged out inside out to be fed into their stomach.
The Harmsters, black fur has the size of my hand. Instead of moving in a group, it is moving in an army, specifically in an open area like the road. Any creature that becomes an obstacle in their path will be eaten and devoured in less than a second. Myself included. Not that much of a difference compared to the rabbits.
There are some other animals that I'd like to point out, but I rarely stumble upon them, so I haven't known them much.
Most of the animals were known to be tame originally, so people's been keeping them as pets.
Pet Shop, that's the name I gave to them. An originally tame animal that you'd usually find in the shops, now united and become an army itself.
And also, the most fearsome predator I known of.
…
As I thought, my presence is hidden from their superior sense of smell. That's how they've come to find me everywhere in the first place. If I'm making too much ruckus, they'll hear me. If I show myself too much, they'll see me. That's how superior their sense of detecting prey is.
(Should I hid myself a little longer, I might have made it until sunrise. Then I won't have to face all of this no longer. Then that's me surviving the first day of my life!)
A cycle where I have been given the limited choice of route, since all of the other route is just as bad as have Pet Shop guarding that path. A cycle where I have to face the same thing over and over. Collect the same thing over and facing the same wall again. And… all of it to have me facing a different death, slow but painful, fast but nightmarish.
I glanced over to my side at Sunworm Torch, which I had covered with some cloth. If the cloth were to be removed, the torch will glow, illuminating the darkness within this city.
(...)
To know about my past self, I tried to remember it, but nothing is fruited.
It was meaningless…
The same meaning of how I struggled every day searching for weapons and equipment. Only for all to be reset yet again.
It was utterly meaningless…
The meaning of how I sometimes wished to have eaten and drunk something better than rotten corpse and worm's drool.
It was… Meaningless…
(...)
The light, illuminated at the bottom of the shining stars. Devouring the darkness, consuming it.
I… Doesn't know what kind of person I was before all this was happening.
But… I'm a pretty stubborn person. So stubborn that I pushed through anything meaningless to become meaningful.
I've seen it; each cycle led me closer to defeating him. The last cycle proved it; I was so close to killing him.
I've come to learn it, there's no limit to this life. I can brute force the concrete wall if I want to.
Meaningless? I'll have to make it meaningful then.
Therefore, I'll have to kill Pet Shop if I want my hard work all this time… To become meaningful.
Thus, the Sunworm Torch has come to illuminate this very darkness I intend to hide into.
Calling upon their attention, their eyes has turned to me.
The prey… That's what I'll become. This wicked prey has a deadly fang that'll strike upon the predator the least they expect it.
Even if I died this time. I'll raise again and make it meaningful.
All of it to kill you, my worst enemy!
So… Come! And bare your fangs upon me!