Chapter 2 – 2. Forest (1)
“What the fuck…”
A thin light welling up from my skin barely illuminates my surroundings.
The surroundings are full of tall and lush trees.
‘···Forest?’
In a sudden situation, the head does not turn.
The voice of Ji-hye, who was talking to me just a moment ago, and the voices of the high school seniors who were leaving school completely disappeared, and the background is so quiet.
I feel my heart beating faster and faster.
I had goosebumps all over my body.
For a while, my thinking speeds up in an incomprehensible situation.
‘Where am I? Trees all over. Mountain? Forest? Park? First of all, the ground doesn’t slope.’
‘Midnight? The tree is too tall to see the sky. Surely it’s not even noon?’
Try moving your stiff limbs. I slowly turned around and looked around. My sneakers rustled under the fallen leaves.
‘There’s also a cell phone, a wallet, and a bag. All the books inside are intact.’
‘Where the hell are you? Kidnap? Dream? What is this light?’
The soft glow of the skin slowly subsided. I hurriedly turned on the flashlight function on my cell phone. I made 3 mistakes in unlocking the lock pattern.
‘There are no people around… Be quiet. I think I can hear the bugs chirping…’
The heartbeat is so loud that it bothers me. I could feel my underwear getting damp with cold sweat.
‘… Let’s stay calm.’
I recalled the previous situation.
I was leaving school with wisdom. Just before stepping out the front door, her skin seemed to glow for some reason, and she said so too did I.
Right after that, an explosive light hit me, and after a moment of dizziness, I opened my eyes and saw this.
It is light.
It is clear that the light must have something to do with this event.
“It’s wisdom.”
Clearly, the light also overtook wisdom. So maybe she got her way somewhere here, just like me?
* * *
Bass Rock – Bass Rock –
In the silent darkness, only the light from my cell phone and my footsteps woke up the night in the forest.
I’m moving in any direction right now.
It was because the problem did not seem to be solved by itself by standing still.
Time will tell if this is right or wrong.
Currently, I am armed with a wooden stick in my right hand and a mobile phone flashlight in my left, and my pocket is armed with stones that are easy to throw.
An hour has passed since we started walking. Meanwhile, my mind has calmed down somewhat.
Moving forward, I developed three hypotheses to explain the current situation.
1. This is a dream.
2. Someone kidnapped us and threw us into the woods. People who want to hunt me will appear soon.
3. Transferred to another world.
Hypothesis 1 was rejected. The cheek I pinched hard earlier is still tingling.
Hypothesis 2 was conceived from the plot of a certain movie.
I saw it while passing by on a channel introducing movies… What was it?
I remember not watching the introduction video until the end because I thought it would be implausible and uninteresting.
‘If I knew it would be like this, I would have watched all the movies.’
Anyway, I think number 2 is the most likely.
Because Hypothesis 3 is too unrealistic.
It’s this world I’m not the main character of some kind of web novel or light novel.
The magic word that can prove number 3 came out of my mouth.
“Status window.”
‘·······.’
Of course nothing happened.
“Status. Status open. Inventory. Skill. System. Fireball. Fire Punch—-.”
‘There’s no way it could be solved that easily…’
I don’t know who the heck did this, but to kidnap a high school senior on the eve of the college entrance exam.
If you somehow get home safely, it will tell you the bitterness of life.
“Kirik-“
‘!!!’
I heard a high and short sound like an animal’s cry. I put my back on the thick tree trunk right next to me and held my breath. When I covered the flashlight with my palm, I couldn’t see at all.
I started breaking out in a cold sweat again. I grabbed the weapon in both hands for no reason.
What animal is it dingo? Wildcat? Fox? A wolf? Could it be that it’s not a bear?
I am now thickly dressed in padding, mittens, cardigans, and shirts. Wouldn’t it be okay to bite this once in a while?
…But I don’t want to try it.
After taking a slow, deep breath, he poked his head out over the tree. Slowly remove your palms to direct the light forward.
The source of the sound that emerges with him.
Bipedal walking. A small body at chest height.
Green skin. Slit eyes and green pupils that reflect light.
When anyone sees it, one word will come to mind.
‘Goblin…!’
Damn, number 3 was the correct answer.
“Keeeeek!!!”
An ugly goblin lunged at me from afar.
I immediately turned back and ran with all my might.
* * *
Goblin.
It is the name of a popular monster that appears in almost all fantasy novels.
It is mainly a symbol of beginner monsters, and does not appear anymore after the main character has grown to a certain extent.
But there are always exceptions.
I read quite a few web novels, and among them there were novels in which you should never take the goblins lightly.
A novel that gets stronger because there are levels even for goblins,
Novels featuring goblin jobs such as Goblin Assassin and Goblin Knight,
Novels in which goblins are the mainstays of the continent and the demon lord is also a goblin, etc.
That’s why I’m sprinting now.
“Ugh… Hak…”
Can’t run anymore My stomach hurts and my thighs feel like they’re about to explode.
I haven’t heard the goblins for quite some time now.
Fortunately, the goblin I just encountered doesn’t seem to be a great guy. They chased after me, crying, but their running speed was much slower than mine, judging by the sound getting farther and farther away.
“Fuck… That’s fucking…”
What did I do wrong to have to suffer like this?
I checked my current status.
It must have been scratched by tree branches or grass while running, and the padding and pants were slightly torn here and there.
Looking at it now, I was running with a bag in my pocket and stones in my pocket. Still didn’t catch up. It seems that the difference in physical abilities between the goblin and me is considerable.
My underwear is wet with sweat. The clothes and hair are dirty with dirt in places.
The discomfort index is rising in real time.
The next time I encounter a goblin, I will kill it.
I’ve never killed an animal other than bugs, but I don’t think I’ll hesitate.
After 30 minutes of walking with such a promise, I found a space dug into the hill. Big to be a cave, small to be a cave.
‘Let’s rest here and wait for the sun to rise.’
As I sat down, paying attention to my surroundings, thirst and hunger slowly floated to the surface.
Fortunately, water and glucose candies were left in the bag.
I’m glad I didn’t throw away my bag while running away.
“So… Where am I? Why am I here?”
A fundamental question that I forgot about for a while while running came to mind.
I’ve had countless delusions of entering another world or a novel.
In my delusion, I was a munchkin. Beautiful women gathered around me, and the world revolved around me.
Or I was a villain. I did evil to satisfy my desires. In particular, NTL was an indispensable element.
This is me, the true nature of Jung Ji-hoo, hidden behind the mask of being number one in the school.
Web novels were a medium to satisfy my shady desires.
‘I don’t know what role I will play in this world.’
Is it an extra or a main character?
‘If possible, should I try to live as I want?’
After escaping from here.
* * *
After holding out for about 3 hours inside, the sun came up. The rays of light coming through the trees lit up the calm forest.
The chirping of birds and bugs wakes up the quiet silence.
I stepped out of the burrow and walked through the trees again.
The time in the cave was meaningless.
First of all, I created various scenarios based on my web novel experience. I thought about how to behave according to various worldviews and genres.
Of course, most plans will be scrapped unless they exist beyond the lack of information. Still, this is far better than having no plan at all.
Then, I thought about how to live in the woods.
I don’t know how long I’ll be stuck in this forest, but at worst I might have to shoot the survival genre here.
Water, food and shelter issues must be addressed urgently.
Food can last for several days with glucose candy. The residence is not a problem that can be dealt with overnight, and for now, you can use the previous burrow.
But the water is almost gone now. Should be addressed as a priority.
As long as goblins live here, water resources must exist somewhere in the forest.
‘Looking for water.’
Fortunately, I was able to find the river in less than an hour.
The river is as deep and wide as the Han River, and unlike the Han River, it is transparent.
Water that anyone can see and drink.
There are things to worry about, such as microbes and the fact that this is a different world…
‘The only option is to drink.’
However, the joy of saving water was short-lived, and soon I had no choice but to pay attention to other things.
There were traces of something burnt by the river.
‘This is… A bag…! And is this padding?!
A gray bag with only a square logo. And thick black long padding.
Both torn and burned, but can’t fool my eyes.
These are objects of wisdom.
She was here yesterday.
* * *
I am walking in the direction downstream of the river.
I found a trail of wisdom, but there was little I could do.
There is no way that the guy who had been studying for the CSAT until yesterday would suddenly look closely at her land and trace what happened yesterday and where she went.
Only, I know she always carries her lighter.
She also remembers that the goblin she met last night did not carry a torch. It looks like a bright night vision.
Therefore, I presume that she set her bag and her padding on fire herself.
Why? To light up the dark? To warm up? Or to protect yourself?
Or maybe there are people other than goblins in this forest, and that might be using fire.
If I were a typical good-natured protagonist, at this point I would be driving myself crazy with anxiety and worry about my childhood friend and prospective heroine.
However, although I am curious about Wisdom’s situation, I am not particularly concerned.
This is… I guess it’s faith.
I know more about wisdom than anyone else, more than her parents.
She has her brain, cool and calm. She will definitely try to break through the hardship while analyzing the situation calmly like me.
She found the river yesterday. This river is relatively upstream because of its fast current. Also, the surrounding area is overgrown with forests, making it unsuitable for human habitation.
If there is a nearby river town, it will be located downstream.
Wisdom will undoubtedly draw the above conclusion and follow the waterway.
I sighed over the strawberry-flavored sweetness of the glucose candy and hurried my steps.
* * *
“Kieek! Kkiek!”
“Kiruk!”
I hear the voices of the goblins from down the hill. I immediately landed on the hill and slowly approached the end.
I was careful not to expose my body as much as possible, and looked at the situation below.
There was wisdom there.
She holds a pointed branch like a weapon in her right hand, with a cardigan wrapped around it in her left hand and covered with her mittens as a shield.
As if she had been in and out of the river, her water-soaked shirt sticks to her skin, exposing her body without filtering.
The goblins, glaring at her wisdom and crying loudly, rushed at her.
