Chapter 2

Chapter 2 : This Is a Survival Story (2)

While I was still flustered by the original work’s unexpected tone, the last drifting motes of light vanished completely, and new system text appeared.

[Current rank of the Executor: Minor Role F]

[The Executor’s contribution to the original work is exceedingly low.]

[‘Load Original Work’ ends incompletely.]

[You have achieved the achievement ‘A Taste of the Original Work’.]

[You gain points +1P]

I clutched my dizzy, sugar-starved head and forced my brain to work.

Since it was the first time, I understood that it had taken 1 and given 1 back.

In a situation where I had no idea when I might earn points again under this random-achievement nonsense—

“My precious 1 point for my rank…… ha.”

So that was it. It was my rank’s fault that this thing, after explaining absolutely nothing, was trying to wave everything away with some sloppy little “in-com-plete.” Right. I got it.

I yanked at my rain-soaked, matted hair and tried to force my spiking blood pressure back down.

Even while I was wondering how many days a person could live on nothing but water, all I could do was keep letting out deep sighs at this absurd system.

There had been no information in the original work about this forest, nor any survival tips. Since it had only been a teaser for a Minor Role F, maybe that was only natural, but I had to stay alive before any of that mattered.

The neglect-type system that had been unfriendly from the very beginning was obviously malfunctioning somewhere.

Usually, when people crossed dimensions and even got a system, those things were kind.

“What exactly is your problem?”

[……Processing ERROR……]

[BEEEEEP――――――]

Ding!

[First original work viewing ……Processing…… confirmed.]

[An 【Epic】 quest has been assigned.]

The string of letters that appeared alongside the ear-piercing ringing.

“This looks familiar?”

What came back to me vividly were those red [ERROR] letters, flashing.

So I had not imagined it back then.

That bug-ridden system had dumped me here and vanished before I could even make sense of the broken text, before I had properly come to my senses.

“So the moment it found an excuse, it threw me aside like its job was done. For four days. Me—”

—Ding!

【Epic】 Let Us Make an Incredible Ending

You have become a minor character in 〈Your Regret After Killing Me〉! You have taken a step closer to the truth.

Conquer the original work, destroy it, and create an ending of your own.

We support you, the one who will become the protagonist!

▶Bad ending

▶Sad ending

▶Happy ending

▶Hidden ending

※ Common Reward: Truth

〈Tip〉 The reward may differ for each ending.

〈Tip〉 Branching paths will be created automatically according to your choices.

〈Tip〉 Once a choice has been made, it cannot be reversed.

〈Tip〉 There are no genre restrictions.

〈Tip〉 After an ending, duplicate ending routes exist.

It looked like I was going to have to clear a no-save story mode while hauling around a system error on top of it.

“Why not just tell me to die?”

I glared at the Epic quest filling my vision, then waved a hand.

I had not expected letters dissolving into pale motes of light to be this irritating.

The clammy dampness felt as though it were wringing my head out and driving it straight into the ground.

I rested my head against the collapsed wall behind me and looked up at the clear sky.

It was exactly the sort of scene that would have suited a bird flying across it. Which only made it all the more obvious, ironically, that this forest did not even have the sound of birds chirping.

In the end, it was just a single line of text among an arranged string of letters.

And the system was still unfriendly.

“So it means whatever ending I produce is up to me.”

It could at least hand over the usual level-up guidance so I could find some clue about how to raise my rank.

Was this one of those neglect routes that bragged about having extreme freedom?

Still, it was not as though I had learned nothing at all.

1. If I reach an ending, I can learn the truth behind what happened to me.

2. To reach an ending, I have to become the protagonist.

3. My current rank is ‘Minor Role F.’

4. The original work uses a differential viewing system based on rank (contribution).

5. The words ‘Load Original Work’ had completely disappeared.

The problem was the last one.

The ‘Load Original Work’ text that had glittered in the corner of my vision for four days was nowhere to be seen.

Without any intention of explaining even the bare minimum gimmick, this neglect-type system had shoved me into the role of a destroyer of the original work.

In other words, that last original-work viewing had literally been part of a beginner tutorial.

“Load Original Work.”

I muttered it just in case, but the system remained silent.

Maybe it was not structured so that I could view the original work endlessly just because I had points. Maybe I needed a rank. Rank, or something like rank. Was rank the requirement?

Once the words that had been gnawing at the edge of my vision actually disappeared, anxiety began to rise.

There was a vast difference between being dropped into an unfamiliar place with at least some kind of guide to show a path forward, and simply becoming Stranded Person No. 1.

Grrrrowl.

Was it because of the fear of uncertainty, and the terror that came from knowing the agony that led to death?

My stomach clamored for food, and my brain gave up on thinking.

“As far as I am concerned, death comes after I get out of this damned forest and eat a full meal.”

I forced my drooping head back up and repeated the word survival to myself.

I decided to make this place my base. I judged it to be the most normal place in this vast forest—

—No.

I just did not want to leave the traces of human life I had seen for the first time in so long.

---

Damp and wet and rough and squishy……

‘Squishy?’

At the sensation seeping into my half-sleeping mind, I forced my closed eyelids open.

I remembered collapsing and blacking out from hunger.

Yesterday, I had tried to go out in search of food, then given up, and had even gone so far as to think that maybe it would be fine if I just fell asleep like this and died.

Lick-lick—slurp-slurp—smack-smack—.

Even so, the unpleasant sensation on one foot kept going.

When I finally pulled my hazy mind together and lowered my gaze, I saw a fluffy-looking lump of fluorescent violet fur.

It was so large it could have covered my entire body and still had room to spare, and it looked wholly absorbed in whatever it was doing as it swished its tail back and forth.

Its deep blue fur was unfamiliar, and the realization that it was licking my foot brought feeling flooding back through my whole body.

After wandering for days without meeting a single living creature, I had not wanted my first encounter to be with an unidentified animal of this ridiculous size.

Then, the tail that had been swishing came to a dead stop, and I no longer felt its wet tongue licking me.

The creature slowly raised its head. As if it had realized I was awake, it carefully shifted its paws and thrust its ferocious head right in front of my face.

Yip—!

‘What is with that flimsy cry coming out of something that size?’

With its ears laid back and its bright, sparkling eyes, it looked something like a wolf, if not for the horn on its head. But the sight of it panting with fangs as thick as my forearm made cold sweat run down my back. It looked as though it were sizing me up as emergency rations.

Whether because I had gone stiff with tension or because I had no strength left from starvation, all I could do was swallow hard and glare at it.

Its head tilted to one side.

Then, without a moment’s hesitation, it clamped its jaws around my leg and began dragging me away.

“Agh!”

It was a relief that the way it had wrapped its mouth around me gently, avoiding its teeth, suggested it did not see me as prey, but that did not change the fact that I was being dragged over a ground mixed indiscriminately with dirt and stones and nearly blacking out again.

‘Would it not be better if I just fainted?’

I stretched out a hand, barely managed to grab hold of its fur, and pulled myself up.

The instant I touched it, I was startled by how soft its fur was, and the fact that it felt cool, as though it had almost no body heat at all, sent a chill over me.

In any case, before long, half-dragged and half-draped over its back, I was hauled to a better house hidden by the brush deeper inside and thrown into it.

Crash, thud, roll.

A body that had been starving for days wavered on the edge of consciousness from even a small impact.

Groaning, I pushed myself back up, and the creature strode over, dropped down in front of me, and began licking the top of my foot again.

“You……”

Only then did I notice that the wound was gone and my foot looked completely normal.

It had been deep enough to make me limp, and it had shown no sign that it would heal in a day or two. It was the sort of wound I had merely hoped would not give me tetanus.

It had looked suspicious enough already, and now it was doing strange things too.

When I held out the palm I had scraped raw while being dragged, it somehow understood and flicked out its tongue.

Watching a wound heal in real time felt more alien than I had expected.

And more than that, the interaction, the sense of connection, made something deep in me ache after spending so long alone, doing nothing but struggle to survive.

“……You are a good fellow.”

With my restored hand, I stroked its head.

As I petted that enormous creature like a dog, while its low rumbling growl vibrated all the way into my hand, the thoughts I had been pressing down began to force their way up in a strange manner.

“What am I even doing here?”

---

It struck me anew, but it was only after coming here that I realized green could grow so deep that it started to feel black.

There was greenery everywhere, but I had no way of knowing what was safe for me to eat. If I made a mistake and ate a poisonous plant, then with how weak I was, the minimum outcome was death.

“Should I just eat something and die?”

I admitted there was no answer. If I made it through today, all that would be left would be to lie down and wait for death to come.

Kyaaah!

At the unfamiliar cry, I turned my head with the attitude of someone already expecting it to be there.

Since that day, the creature had followed me around constantly. It rarely did anything direct like pressing in close, biting and dragging me off, or licking my wounds the way it had before, but it never went beyond a certain distance either.

Especially whenever I left the base to search for anything at all, it behaved as though it were standing guard over me.

I had no energy to stop it, so I left it alone, but when had it even seen me to start acting like this?

“If I eat this, will I die?”

I pointed at the tree in front of me, where the pale flesh beneath the bark was exposed, and asked the creature standing some distance away.

Aaaang! Aah!

Had they not said that humans were social animals?

It was not as though the thing could understand me, but I spoke to it anyway.

“Oh, so it is safe to eat?”

Of course, it did not answer.

What came to mind this morning, when I got up groaning because my hunger had gone past hunger and into pain, was something I had once heard about desperate people digging up bark or roots and chewing on them.

Along with that came the absurd conclusion that gnawing on the pale inner flesh of a tree might be better than tearing off some random greenery and ending up writhing on death’s door.

Looking at it this way, it even resembled chicken breast.

“Even if I eat this and die, do not chew on me.”

Krrrroooong! Uwaak!

A water deer, honestly.

It looked exactly like a wolf, yet the way it cried was just like a water deer. The creature paced back and forth at a distance, then glared, bared its fangs, and growled.

“Do not do that. You look like a predator that has found prey.”

With a hand that had grown gaunt in just a few days, I scraped along the grain of the wood. Maybe because it looked like some oversized blade of grass, but thankfully the inner flesh peeled away easily. If it had not, I had been planning to strip off the outer bark instead.

This is gum. It is jerky. It is a cigarette. It is ribs. It is crab shell.

Brainwashing myself, I chewed on the wood.

As the hard grain finally softened a little and grew more pliant, a flavor I could not even begin to describe started to seep out.

“Hey—!!! You said it was safe to eat!”

I shouted at the creature, which had never said any such thing, and spat out the contents of my mouth.

It was bitter. Very bitter. It was not a better choice at all.

I gathered what little saliva I could, swished it around my mouth, and kept spitting over and over.

[You have achieved the achievement 〈Chewing Even Trees〉.]

[You gain points +1P]

While I stood there teary-eyed, feeling as though my tongue had gone numb from the pain, another tactless achievement message popped up.

“Even this counts as an achievement?”

I was beginning to think the system bastard enjoyed my suffering.

If it had at least filled my stomach, I would have felt less wronged.

“So now I have two.”

Points, even though I had no way to use them.

Just give me food instead.