Snow scattered as the capybara leaped forward.
No skills were used. It had already learned its lesson the hard way.
Step, step!
It bounced fluidly as it landed, closing the gap within seconds. The distance was now an arm's reach.
The capybara sent a quick jab.
Seojin barely managed to parry the strike, but his reflexes weren't fast enough to dodge the follow-up hook.
The hook landed. He leaped a step backward and spat a mouthful of blood.
"Dammit. That's absurd."
A capybara specializing in boxing?
Such a ridiculous character didn't exist in the original game! This capybara was supposed to be a master of Taekwondo.
Whap, whap!
Blows were fiercely exchanged.
He was getting pushed back, unable to land a single punch.
His daily shadowboxing session was the only thing keeping him alive. Even so, he couldn't even fight his best with an injured left hand.
It was throwing off his balance.
Whap!
He blocked a lethal upper sidekick, but the sheer force of the impact sent him tumbling sideways and crashed into the tangled branches.
The capybara pursued relentlessly, refusing to give him a moment to breathe.
"...Eat this!"
Desperate, he scooped a handful of snow, temporarily blinding the capybara. A dirty tactic, but it bought him time, albeit short, to run away.
However, running away was useless. The capybara caught up immediately!
It shouldn't have been able to navigate the terrain so fast, but its dropkick [Rambu Drop] demolished every single tangled branch blocking its path.
With no choices left, he halted and spun around.
He planted both feet deep into the snow and anchored his weight, mimicking a legendary sumo stance he had once seen on TV.
"Ossssuu!!"
He yelled, bracing himself.
The dropkick landed.
He wasn't thrown backward like before. The layers of tangled branches had successfully slowed the skill's momentum, significantly lowering its destructive firepower.
Even so, his feet slid backward through the snow until his back touched the tree trunk behind.
He then clamped both hands around the capybara's legs which were still pressed against his torso.
The splint on his left hand shattered and his fractured bones also splintered further. It sent a wave of pain to his spine but his grip remained unyielding.
"Finally…"
The capybara looked genuinely puzzled. It couldn't comprehend his sudden surge of resolve.
Sure. He had caught two of its legs. But it still had two more available to kick him away—
> "...Kek?!" in capybara noises.
—it couldn't! Seojin had pulled and locked its two more legs between his armpits.
"I caught you, dipshit."
In a sudden motion, he let go of his right grip and pulled the jagged branch he had been hiding all this time.
He swung the sharp point with all the force his right arm could muster, right into the capybara's eye.
> "Keeeeeeeiiik!" in capybara noises.
It thrashed violently within his grip, but Seojin only tightened his hold. He drove the jagged branch with both hands now, deeper and deeper, in order to pierce its brain.
His left arm trembled uncontrollably, no longer feeling any sensation from it. Yet he kept pushing.
"Die, dammit!"
"Die!"
"Fuckin' die already!"
Until he no longer could.
The capybara finally managed to break free, tumbling backward into the snow in a state of absolute panic and agonizing pain.
It aggressively yanked the bloody branch out of its ruined right eye.
Seconds passed, and Seojin was walking back and forth through the door of death. His remaining strength had completely evaporated, his body simply slid down the tree trunk.
The capybara stared intently at him, its expression was euphoric. The clever human was completely spent; there were no more tricks left for him to play!
It then stood upright on its two hind legs and began to charge its ultimate skill [Rambu Ultra Hyper Thermo]. Fumes evaporated from its skin.
Seojin's vision finally returned, though still blurry.
Looking at what's across him, he tried to stand up, but failed.
Thus he just leaned his head back against the bark of the trunk, unable to stand or interrupt the incoming attack.
'Strange.'
Perhaps because his demise was now absolute, his life began to unfold itself in front of his eyes. It showed him how utterly miserable and boring his life as Yoon Seojin was.
'Yea, really strange. I'm bored as hell, so why am I even trying this hard?'
Thus he just calmly accepted his fate.
He had been transmigrated into a new world. A bizarre world stitched together from the components of a game and a novel.
So what?
After all, he had also already played this game and read this novel for years. What surprises could it possibly hold for him anyway?
Besides,
"Chae-won…"
He had been forcibly dragged into this mess by that convenience store cashier, who was the author of the novel.
Why should he expend every ounce of himself trying to survive a life whose narrative path was already dictated by someone else?
He had always loathed being treated like a pawn just as much as he craved being the center of attention.
He shifted his gaze back to the capybara.
"Hey, how long is five seconds on your clock? I already recalled my entire life story."
It was, without a doubt, the longest five seconds of his existence.
"Hurry up and fire, you idiot."
In response to his taunt, the laser beam reached the maximum charge and blasted off.
"Death, eh…"
He peacefully closed his eyes.
"Why was I that desperate to cling to life when facing the end feels this serene…?"
His philosophical self resurfaced. He was not spouting any bullshit though. He genuinely felt like an angel ascending to heaven, or perhaps a man walking through a dark tunnel.
However, five seconds had already passed yet the death he had been anticipating never arrived.
Instead, a dry voice answered his question.
"Because I am responsible for bringing you home."
"...What?"
He opened his eyes.
Standing directly in front of him was a man possessing the athletic "brick wall" physique. His shoulders were broad, and he was no doubt taller than most people he had seen.
His sword was fully unsheathed.
To be more precise, the man had cleanly split the laser beam in the middle to protect him, leaving the terrain on both their left and right completely obliterated into a shallow trench.
He turned around, looked down at him, and offered a disciplined bow.
"I greet the young lord. And I am glad that you are still alive."
Seojin stared at the man.
"You… know me?"
"Hm. So that's the theme today, huh."
The man sighed.
"I apologize for arriving late. It was incredibly difficult to locate the Young Lord in this massive forest. It turns out following the sound of that massive explosion earlier was the correct decision."
"..."
"..."
"That's not what I–"
"I will apologize properly after I finish dealing with this strange creature. Please be at ease."
"..."
The man turned back around, casually stretching his neck from side to side.
Across him, the capybara was already tucking its body back into a tight ball. It probably felt threatened by the sudden presence of the man.
It revved and spun in place, kickstarting its momentum like a high-performance vehicle tire spinning out in the mud [Rambu Roll].
> "Keeeke," in capybara noises.
"It looks like you're telling me to die. I appreciate the offer, but no thanks. I still have duty tomorrow."
"You can understand it?"
"I don't."
The man simply replied, blocking the incoming strike way too easily. He then flexed his muscles and sent the capybara flying backward.
In that exact microsecond, he leaped forward.
His speed was so immense that he practically vanished, reappearing directly in front of the airborne capybara a second later to deal a finishing blow.
"Stop—--------!!"
A desperate voice suddenly cut through the forest.
The man's sword abruptly halted mid-air, the sharp edge stopping mere millimeters away from slicing the capybara open.
"P-please d-don't kill it! That adorable creature is my lost pet!"
"Adorable?"
The man alternated his gaze between the pet and its owner.
"Indeed."
"...Hm. Is that so? I see."
"I'll compensate for any trouble it had caused, so please–"
"Yawn. I just want to clock out."
"T-thank you!"
Listening to the man and the elderly man talk, Seojin felt a sudden urge to bash his own skull against the tree trunk.
'...Adorable?'
He pondered.
'What the hell is wrong with your brain to call that thing adorable, let alone keep it as a pet?!'
Yea, the elderly man seemed to be in his sixties, so it wouldn't be a surprise if his eyes and brain were damaged due to aging.
More than anything, three more men stood behind the elder. Judging by their clothes, they looked like knights, though they wore no heavy armor.
They placed their sword hilts firmly over their chests in a disciplined salute, facing the brick-wa man.
"""We greet the Vice Commander!"""
One of them spoke further and explained the details.
"Apologies, Vice Commander. We stumbled across this elder in search of his escaped pet. Presuming it would be too dangerous for a civilian to wander in this forest alone, we let him accompany us while we continued our search for the Young Lord."
The vice commander then gestured toward him.
"I understand. Don't mind the elder for now. Tend to the young lord instead."
"Understood!"
The three knights immediately rushed over and knelt before Seojin.
'Perks of being born a noble, eh?'
He squinted his eyes.
The brick-wall man who had saved him was referred to as a vice commander by these three knights, and this vice commander had referred to him as the 'Young Lord.'
He looked down at his own body.
It didn't feel like his physical form had been swapped out entirely, but his hair was noticeably longer than before.
"""We greet the Young Lord, Seven!"""
As they saluted, one of the knights, the one who spoke up to explain earlier, retrieved a glass vial containing a glowing liquid from his pocket.
"Please apply this Flask of Mandrake's Tears potion upon your wounds, Young Lord Seven. If you cannot move, allow me to assist—"
"I can move just fine. How dare you tell me what to do."
Seojin snatched the vial away and stared blankly at the knight.
"Pardon, Young Lo–?"
"Fuck off."
"Understood."
He popped the cork and drank the potion instead of pouring it on his wounds. An agonizing pain instantly ignited inside his chest and his body convulsed on the snow.
"ARGHHHHH–!!"