The wind slapped Kanos's face savagely.
Dark. Everything was pitch black. The sound of crumbling rocks and the monster chewing up above grew quieter and quieter, as his body continued to free-fall into the bottom of the abyss.
'So this is what dying feels like?' Kanos thought. 'I can't even see the bottom of the pit.'
The only thing that felt real was the pain. His right hand throbbed intensely. Garrick's bastard knife had left a thumb-sized hole right through his palm. Hot blood flowed heavily, dripping past his elbow because he was falling flat on his back.
Kanos's brain kept replaying the events from a few seconds ago endlessly.
He remembered Belida's smile. The genuine smile of a stiff knight whose body was being torn apart by monster jaws. The giant man chose to be dog food just to give Kanos a few extra seconds.
'Crazy bastard. Why did you smile, Belida? Why would you sacrifice your life for a useless guy like me?'
Then, Kanos's memory shifted to Garrick's face. The warm, comforting smile that turned out to be nothing but the mask of a cold-blooded deceiver. The smile of a man who casually drove a knife through Kanos's flesh and ran off with the treasure, leaving both of them to die.
'It was the exact same smile... that bastard's smile was exactly the same as when he gave me a drink.'
'The good guy dies as bait. The scumbag runs off with the loot. What kind of world is this?'
Mid-freefall, the system panel suddenly lit up in front of his face. Not the usual dim blue. The color was blood-red, flickering wildly and blocking his vision.
[ HP: 1/60 ]
[ PHYSICAL STATUS: TOTAL CRITICAL ]
One point.
Kanos watched the red numbers blinking right before his eyes. 'One point. Just getting nudged by the wind could kill me.'
If he hit the ground right now, his life wouldn't even be left as dust. He would die shattered into pieces. Game over. The journey of a kid from Jakarta abducted into this crazy world ends as a red stain on a cave floor.
Kanos closed his eyes. Resigned.
But strangely... the fear that had been making his body tremble every time he saw a monster since yesterday, suddenly vanished. Gone without a trace.
'Why should I be afraid?'
That fear was entirely burned away by something much hotter in his chest.
'Why should I tremble if I'm going to die anyway?'
Anger. Pure vengeance that felt like it boiled his blood all the way to the top of his head.
'No. I refuse to die here. I am not giving that bastard Garrick a satisfying ending.'
Kanos opened his eyes again. His gaze had changed. The panic evaporated.
He raised his ruined right hand to his face. His own blood was still pouring heavily, blown by the wind. His hand was numb, his fingers stiff, unable to bend let alone hold a brush.
'Charcoal's gone. Ink was stolen. Right hand has a hole in it.'
Kanos raised his intact left hand. His eyes glared sharply at his blood floating in the air.
'So what? My blood is liquid.'
He pressed his left index finger straight into the pool of blood in his own right palm. Wet. Thick. Warm.
With a left hand shaking violently against the wind pressure, Kanos drew a straight line in the empty air right beneath his back.
He didn't draw a weapon. He didn't draw anything sharp. His brain immediately forced out memories of shock absorber designs. He pictured a giant spring net—hundreds of thick wires locking together to form a super-dense woven cushion, built specifically to absorb the impact of something weighing dozens of tons.
The blood stroke in the air wasn't scattered by the wind. Instead, it lit up. Not a dim blue, but a fiery red so bright it made his eyes hurt.
The system panel in front of him instantly glitched hard. Error warning texts overlapped each other. The humming in his head turned into a high-pitched screech that made his ears ring.
[ CRITICAL ERROR: BLOOD MEDIUM DETECTED ]
[ MEDIUM DENSITY EXCEEDS TIER 1 LIMITS ]
[ WARNING: USER DEATH RISK 99% ]
'To hell with your numbers!' Kanos roared in his mind. 'I decide when I die!'
Kanos didn't care. His left index finger kept dancing in the air with insane speed. His own blood was sucked dry to become the ink filling the frame of the giant net. His body grew weaker, his vision darker, but his teeth bit down on his lower lip hard enough to bleed, forcing himself to stay conscious.
'Not yet... almost there...'
The final line connected.
The system panel blinked one last time with bold text covering the entire screen.
[ PRICE PAID. SYSTEM OVERRIDDEN. ACCESSING SURVIVAL PROTOCOL ]
Exactly a split second before Kanos's back smashed into the sharp rocks at the bottom, the blood net in the air exploded.
Its red light illuminated the entire floor of the abyss. The giant spring structure made of solid red energy formed instantly right beneath Kanos's body.
BOOOM!
The explosive sound was deafening. The red cushion shattered into pieces as it absorbed Kanos's falling momentum, sending out a shockwave that severely cracked the stone floor at the bottom of the abyss.
Kanos was bounced upwards, tumbling hard across the rocky dirt before finally coming to a complete stop.
Silence. There was only the sound of falling rock dust.
Kanos lay still, face down.
'It hurts...'
A few seconds passed. He coughed weakly. Thick blood spilled from his mouth, staining the dirt beneath his face.
'It hurts so much...'
But he was still breathing. His spine hurt beyond belief, his hand felt like it was going to fall off, but he could feel that pain. 'Dead people can't feel pain,' he thought. That meant he wasn't dead yet. The shock absorber made of his blood had successfully soaked up the most lethal destructive force.
Kanos pushed his body up slowly. With great difficulty. Every inch of his muscles screamed in protest.
He knelt in the middle of absolute darkness. Only illuminated by the residual red dust from his energy net that slowly faded into the air. The air on this bottom floor was much colder and smelled of ancient moss.
Kanos raised his face. He stared straight up. Far up toward the darkness of the abyss he had just fallen from.
His left hand, still coated in blood, clenched so tight his nails dug into his palm. His eyes, which used to always project panic and hesitation, were now completely changed. Empty. Cold. And filled with pure vengeance.
There was no more Kanos the ordinary artist who always needed a meat shield for protection. There was no more Kanos who trembled in fear behind a tree.
'If this world chooses to play dirty and destroy me...'
Kanos wiped the blood on his chin using the back of his left hand.
'Then I will draw my own weapons to destroy this world right back.'
'Just wait for me, Garrick.'