The massive corpse of the Blue Fang Cat was still lying on the moist soil.
Fresh blood was shining on its deep blue fur. The surrounding ground had become completely red and a strange, iron-like raw metallic smell had spread in the air.
Reyansh sat in the soil a few steps away from the cat's corpse, just panting like crazy.
Both his hands were shaking badly. Those three deep cuts made by the cat's claws on his chest were still giving a terrible burning sensation. Droplets of sweat were falling on those wounds, making the pain even more sharp.
But this time.
Inside him was not just that helplessness and terror which had been chasing him for the past two days.
Today there was something else inside him too.
He had survived alive. He had truly killed that terrifying, mutated thing. That too with just a garbage pocket knife.
Just then, that machine-like voice of the system echoed in his brain again.
Mutation compatibility successful.
Foreign mutated organism terminated. Compatibility detected.
Body Mutation Points increased significantly.
Reyansh, while trembling, gave a command in his mind—
Show.
Immediately that faint blue hologram screen emerged in front of his eyes.
BODY MUTATION — Four point eight
NEURAL MUTATION — Zero
SENSORY MUTATION — Zero
ADAPTIVE MUTATION — Two point one
GENETIC MUTATION — Zero
His eyes widened in astonishment.
Four point eight.
Meaning the whole day yesterday, the number of points he was able to gather by eating those disgusting bugs and leaves... many times more points than that he had received from killing this one beast.
Reyansh looked toward the corpse of the Blue Fang Cat. His heart was even now pounding loudly.
But this time, more than the fear of death, a new and dangerous thought was taking birth in his brain.
If killing one big beast can grant so many points... then what is the fastest and only way to become strong in this terrifying world?
Hunting.
As soon as this thought came, he himself remained stunned for a few seconds.
Until yesterday he was an ordinary boy who, if he even saw a dead dog on the road, would turn his face away. And today? Today he was sitting in an alien forest, in front of the corpse of a terrifying animal, and was thinking who his next prey would be.
Amazing, he let out a dry, helpless laugh.
I am truly changing from inside.
But amidst all these thoughts, the biggest and immediately resolvable problem was still right there—
Food.
His body was feeling completely hollow from inside. Cellular Healing was working continuously to join his torn chest and shoulder, and in this process, all the remaining energy of his body was burning like a furnace. From hunger, blurriness began to cover his eyes.
Reyansh stood up slowly, stumblingly, and went near the Blue Fang Cat.
Faint warm steam was still coming out from the open mouth of the cat. That thing was alive, taking breaths, until just a few minutes ago.
Reyansh kept looking at it for a few seconds. Then he took out his broken knife from his pocket. More than half of the blade had broken and remained inside the cat's eye. But right now, he had only this single tool.
Come on, brother, he took a deep breath and hardened his eyes.
Today have to become a butcher too.
He sat on his knees on the ground and slowly started cutting the thick skin of the Blue Fang Cat.
In the beginning, that broken knife was not going inside at all. The cat's hide was tough like thick leather or rubber. But then Reyansh chose that place where there was a wound from before. From there, he forced the knife inside.
As he kept tearing the skin, the warm blood inside and the raw smell came straight to his face.
Reyansh's stomach tossed. He got a severe vomiting-like feeling. He had never seen even a chicken being cut in his life, and here he was ripping an alien beast with his own hands.
But hunger.
Hunger leaves behind all principles, all disgust, and all humanity of a person.
After about ten minutes of struggle, he finally separated a small piece of fresh, red meat from inside.
He lifted that piece in his trembling hands.
Warm.
Sticky.
And completely drenched in blood.
Reyansh just kept staring at that piece for a few seconds.
If Mom sees me in this condition right now, he let out a painful, faint laugh, then the bastard will straight away take out a slipper and hit me. Will say— worthless, what raw blood are you chewing.
But the very next moment, that faint laugh vanished from his face.
Mom.
Aarav.
For a second his heart became so heavy that taking a breath became difficult. Do not know whether those people are even alive there or not. What must be going on in their world across that wormhole? Will uncle have been able to save them?
Reyansh immediately shook his head hard.
No.
Right now is not the time to become weak.
If I myself die here, then how will I go back to them?
Without thinking for even one more second, he put that blood-smeared raw meat straight into his mouth and started chewing.
The taste... was so terrible that it cannot be told in words. Iron-like raw blood, a strange rubber-like warmth. His throat was refusing to swallow that thing.
But he swallowed it forcefully, closing his eyes.
Nothing happened for a few seconds.
Then—
Foreign beast flesh consumed.
High-density biological energy absorbed.
Body Mutation Points increased.
Reyansh suddenly felt that a very comforting, slight warmth from his stomach was spreading into the veins of his entire body.
It felt as if that raw meat, upon going into the stomach, was converting straight into pure energy. His trembling muscles began to feel slightly heavy and strong. Dizziness stopped.
Reyansh's eyes narrowed slightly.
This thing... this system truly works like a magic.
He then cut another big piece of meat and ate it. This time the taste did not feel that bad. The need of the body had made the brain accustomed to that taste.
After a while, when his stomach finally calmed down a bit, Reyansh looked at the heavy corpse of the Blue Fang Cat from a different perspective.
Now his brain had come completely into survival and crafting mode.
Such a big and dangerous beast. It cannot be wasted just like this by only eating meat.
First of all, he caught the heavy paws of the cat and started to check.
Its claws were almost four inches long, slightly curved, and sharp like a razor.
Reyansh, out of curiosity, picked up his broken steel knife and struck it hard on one claw of the cat.
Click!
The remaining edge of the knife also bent completely, but not even a single scratch came on that claw.
Reyansh remained completely quiet for a few seconds.
Then a dangerous glint came into his eyes.
Oh boy.
Now a very solid idea had come into his brain.
The next few hours were going to pass for Reyansh like a laborer. He decided that he will make real weapons for himself from the bones and claws of this cat.
This work was not easy at all. His hands were aching. That half-broken knife was slipping again and again. Once, the knife slipped and hit Reyansh's own thumb, because of which a deep cut was formed. Although Cellular Healing filled it within a few minutes, it did soak up a little energy for sure.
Finally, after about two hours of terrible hard work—
He extracted one long leg bone of the cat's leg and two big claws.
That bone was not of an ordinary white color. There was a strange slight blue glow in it. And the scariest thing—it was very heavy.
Reyansh picked up that bone and struck it hard on a large stone lying nearby.
Click!
The stone broke into two pieces, but the bone remained just as it was.
Reyansh's eyes widened.
What the.
This is the bastard harder than even steel!
He spent his entire day right there near that corpse.
Slowly.
While cutting.
While rubbing bones on stones.
While learning.
By the time evening fell, Reyansh had three absolutely new things:
One.
A Bone Dagger — a small, extremely sharp dagger made by rubbing the bone of the cat.
Two.
Claw-Knife — a curved knife made by tying the biggest claw of the cat to a wooden handle, which was perfect for ripping anything.
Three.
A Primitive Spear — a dangerous spear made by tying the cat's claw and bone piece to the front of a long, strong stick using the cloth of his torn t-shirt.
He rotated that spear in his hand and checked.
Checked its balance.
This was not a perfect weapon made in some factory, but it was a thousand times better and more fatal than that rotten wooden stick from last night.
Reyansh for the first time felt a confidence inside himself.
Now he was not completely empty-handed and helpless in this terrifying forest.
Now he could turn back and answer.
Night slowly began to descend on the forest.
This time Reyansh did not search for any new shelter.
Near the corpse of that very cat, he made his camp on a wide branch up on the tree.
This was a very big risk, because he knew that the smell of blood will definitely drag other predators.
But he also knew that the Blue Fang Cat was perhaps a top predator of this area.
Its scent and its corpse were enough to keep small and medium animals away.
Reyansh sat resting against the branch of the tree.
His entire body was breaking from pain, but Cellular Healing was doing its work.
Those three deep cuts on the chest were now completely closed, only faint pink marks remained there.
Just then—
The voice of the system came in his brain:
Cellular Healing proficiency increased.
Body condition stabilized.
Stamina recovered.
Reyansh laughed slightly.
Come on, it is good.
At least you are doing your work with complete honesty.
He looked up toward the sky.
That silver sky of the day had now changed into a deep, terrifying purple color.
From somewhere far away, growls and screams of strange animals were echoing.
But today.
Today he was not as scared as before.
He sat peacefully, clutching the spear to his chest.
Fifteen days passed.
Fifteen Days Later.
The forest now did not feel terrifying like before.
Or if the truth be told, perhaps Reyansh had changed.
Now while walking on the ground, he automatically kept the sound of his steps minimal.
Now without thinking, he noticed the direction of the wind so that his scent does not reach any predator.
Now his brain observed the color of every tree, every strange smell, and every broken twig.
On his body, there were now many new wounds and marks.
Some marks were formed while running from those strange animals which were many times bigger than him, and some marks were formed while fighting those things which he made his prey.
But now Reyansh was much faster than before.
His balance had become completely perfect.
Many times while running or leaping, he himself felt that his body is now moving much more lightly and agilely compared to the humans of Earth.
The points of Body Mutation were showing their effect.
In these fifteen days, he had killed many small and medium creatures.
Just like yesterday afternoon, he had pinned a six-legged, pig-looking mutated animal to the ground with just one strike of a spear.
He hunted now without blinking an eye.
But despite all this, one thing was bothering him a lot.
He had not received any new ability.
Not even one.
In the very beginning when he got Cellular Healing and Poison Tolerance, he had felt that getting abilities from the system is a common matter.
But only now was he understanding the reality.
That transparent fish.
And that Blue Fang Cat.
Both times he was extremely lucky.
No, not just lucky.
Way too lucky.
Because in this forest, probably most creatures would not be able to extract any ability even after killing each other for months.
The one in thousand rule of the system was completely true.
And he had gotten three things on the very first day itself—
Cellular Healing,
Poison Tolerance,
and that system screen.
And then, that night, everything changed.
Reyansh was sitting on the branch of a very tall tree, looking down at the pitch-dark forest.
It was a night like a new moon. There was no sign of a moon and one could not see one's hand in front of one's face in the forest.
Suddenly, that deep, scary darkness in front of his eyes... started becoming a bit clear.
At first, Reyansh felt that perhaps due to fatigue, he is having some hallucination.
But then, he blinked his eyes.
The darkness cleared further.
He realized that even without any light, he was able to see clearly in the darkness of the night.
The blades of blue grass growing on the ground below were visible completely clearly.
The shapes of the trees, the gap between branches, even the small insects crawling very far on the ground were visible to him as if someone had put a slight grey filter in the forest.
His breaths stopped.
Just then, that familiar mechanical voice of the system echoed in his brain:
Sensory thresholds exceeded in dark environment.
Passive trait acquired: Night Vision Level One
Reyansh sat in his place completely quiet, without moving, for a few seconds.
He looked at that clearly visible forest below.
Then looked at the sky.
And then slowly, a smile came onto his lips.
This was the first time after coming to this terrifying, unknown world, when he smiled truly, from his heart.
This smile was not born from fear.
This was not a laugh of some madness.
This smile was because.
Because today for the first time, he became assured from inside that—
Yes, I can survive even in this hell.
And not just survive.
I can rule over all of them too.