First Battle and Injury

Two hyenas charged in with their fangs bared. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Their eyes were locked on Mom. To them, she must have looked like a frail, weak animal that couldn’t even run properly. There was no doubt in my mind that she was the perfect prey.

“Krrgh…!”

I sprinted toward her too. Branches scraped across my face but I didn’t care. I ran in a straight line, eyes fixed only on her. But the distance was too great. Far too great. There was no way I could reach Mom before those hyenas.

Hyenas. Spotted hyenas. Over a meter long. More than fifty kilograms. Their speed was nothing a human could match. People think of them as scavengers, but they’re actually skilled hunters. Their bite force is monstrous; they can crunch through bone. If one got its jaws on a person, it could sever limbs. If Mom was attacked by them, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

Even as those grim facts flashed through my mind, my gaze stayed glued to Mom’s lower body. I needed a weapon. Something to fight those beasts with. Even if I somehow reached her first, I’d be useless without one.

My only hope was ridiculous: the sudden mission that had popped up moments earlier.

If I cleared the sudden mission, the reward would appear instantly. That’s why, even while running, I kept my eyes fixed on Mom’s lower half.

She’d been in the middle of relieving herself when the hyenas appeared. She hadn’t had time to pull her panties back up before she had to run. As a result, the swimsuit bottoms she’d lowered were now tangled awkwardly around her thighs and knees, leaving the area they were supposed to cover completely exposed.

Would the system still count this? It was hard to call her “in the middle of urinating” anymore. But couldn’t this be considered part of the act? Maybe she was still leaking a little. If so, perhaps it would still qualify.

I had no choice but to believe it would. There was no other way.

I had no option but to keep watching Mom until that familiar alarm rang out.

Come on. Please, come on! Give me a weapon to fight those animals, a weapon to save Mom!

It came!

“Kyaaah—!”

Mom, who had been fleeing in panic, tripped after only a few steps. The panties she hadn’t managed to pull up had tangled around her legs and tripped her.

“—Hup!”

The moment she fell, I hurled the object in my hand at the leading hyena. That object was the very phone that had just sounded the alarm.

That was the message I’d received the first time I threw the phone at a wall. Indestructible object. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but it clearly implied the thing was tough. And since it returned automatically, I didn’t have to worry about losing it. It was the perfect throwing tool.

Whoosh—

The phone left my hand. It flew straight, without spinning, and slammed directly into the bridge of the lead hyena’s nose.

“Grrrk-keng!”

The creature faltered. Even if it was only for a few steps, I had bought time. And those few steps were exactly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what I needed to save Mom.

I snatched the green bar that had appeared before my eyes. It was the bamboo spear I’d received as a reward for clearing the sudden mission.

“Grrrrroooar—!”

Following the one I’d hit with the phone, the second hyena was now lunging at Mom.

“—Aaaaah—!”

I gripped the spear tightly with my left hand and braced the butt of it with my right palm, pushing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forward.

“Hup—!”

Using the momentum of my charge, I thrust the spear with everything I had. My right palm shoved the base while my left hand drove the point straight ahead. It was a simple stab that required no practice. The sharpened tip plunged straight into the open maw of the oncoming hyena.

“Kiiiiiiieeee—?!”

The hyena let out a bizarre shriek.

Shunk—!

The spear skewered the beast like a kebab. It went in through the mouth, pierced the throat, and punched through the torso. An enormous weight suddenly hung from both my hands. I planted my feet, gritted my teeth, and kept pushing. The spear sank so deep into the hyena’s body that I wondered how far it would go.

“—Rrrgh…!”

The hyena, which had been making strange noises, went limp, impaled on the spear. It was definitely dead. I was sure of it.

But it was too early to relax. One still remained.

“Mom! Get up!”

The second hyena, enraged by the phone strike and the loss of its partner, was closing in on her.

“Grr, grrk, grrk—!”

“Ah, aah…”

Faced with the charging beast, Mom—

—did nothing at all. She had frozen completely, both body and mind, trapped in panic.

“Mom—!”

I abandoned the spear that was stuck in the first hyena’s corpse and threw myself toward her.

“—Kgh!”

As I dove, I swung my left fist at the hyena, but it bit down on my punch as if mocking me. My left arm suddenly felt incredibly heavy. The creature had to weigh at least sixty kilograms. It began shaking its head violently, its teeth tearing into my wrist and forearm, ripping flesh. The strength was monstrous.

Its glossy eyes met mine. They were the eyes of a predator looking down on prey it had successfully hunted.

“—Changjae!”

Mom’s scream pierced through my dulled mind. If it killed me, she would be next. I couldn’t let that happen.

“Uwaaaaaah—!!”

My left hand might have been bitten, but my right was still free. I jammed my fingers into those mocking eyes.

“Grrkiiiiie—!”

My middle and ring fingers sank deep into its eyeballs. The hyena screamed in agony and opened its jaws, releasing my left hand. I didn’t hold back. I shoved my fingers in as hard as I could, hooked them inside the eye sockets, and used them like handles.

Then I swung the beast’s entire body toward a nearby tree.

It should have been heavy, but it didn’t feel heavy. The grip should have been awkward, but it wasn’t.

Whoosh—THUD!

“Kiiiii—!”

After smashing the hyena into the tree, I immediately grabbed a rock from the ground. It was the perfect size to hold in one hand—heavy enough, with sharp edges. It looked like it had been made for bashing something to death.

The moment the hyena slid down from the tree, I charged with the stone raised high.

“Aaaaaah—!!”

The wounded animal tried to leap back, but its movements were jerky, as if something inside it was broken. I wrapped my blood-soaked left arm around its neck to hold it in place and began smashing the top of its skull with the rock in my right hand.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

I put my full weight behind every strike, hammering the sharp edge of the stone into its hard skull.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

It had been yelping with every hit, but after the fifth or sixth blow, it stopped making any sound at all.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

I don’t know how many times I struck it. The hyena was already completely limp. Just as I raised my arm for what I thought would be the final blow—

The hyena’s body scattered into particles like a destroyed polygon in a game and vanished. The heavy weight on my left arm disappeared like smoke.

“Hah, hah, hah—?”

It felt like I had seen a ghost. My legs gave out and I collapsed on the spot. Strength had fled my entire body. It was the aftereffect of extreme tension finally releasing.

I gasped for air, trying to steady my ragged breathing, and asked, “Haa… haa… Mom, are you okay?”

Our eyes met. Thank god. She seemed badly shaken but uninjured. Even the fall must have been cushioned by the bracelet.

“Ah… aah…”

Mom’s eyes trembled violently as she looked at me.

“C-Changjae… your hand… your hand…”

With shaking fingers, she reached out and touched my blood-drenched left hand. I was the one who was hurt, yet she seemed more shocked than I was. I could only offer a bitter smile.

“See, Mom? I told you it was dangerous.”

“Ah… w-what do we do? What should we do…?”

“It’s fine. We just need to wash it and wrap it up.”

I spoke calmly to reassure her, but the state of my left hand was serious. The flesh was torn open, exposing bone. If we were at a hospital, they’d probably say it would take at least six weeks to heal. This was my first time being bitten by a wild animal, but the damage was completely different from a simple cut. Could muscles shredded this badly even heal properly?

At this rate, surviving on a deserted island might be the least of my worries. Everyday life itself could become impossible. All that from a single bite. Damn it.

Right now the adrenaline was keeping the pain at bay, but once night fell, it would probably hurt so much I’d want to die. …What the hell am I supposed to do?

I might actually be screwed.

The alarm rang from my pocket again. The phone I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had used as a throwing weapon had somehow returned to my pocket.

So that mission had succeeded. I had killed both hyenas and, most importantly, saved Mom. That was a relief. The reward was points and… what else? My mind was too scrambled to remember clearly. I needed to rest and catch my breath first.

But the system wouldn’t even let me rest for a moment. I let out a heavy sigh, lifted my heavy right hand, and pulled the phone from my pocket.

The threatening message made Mom, who was listening beside me, gasp. Strangely, all I could think was, Yeah, that makes sense. It all felt like it was happening to someone else.

“W-what do we do? What should we do?”

Panicking, Mom asked the phone directly. Of course there was no way it would answer, or so I thought. But surprisingly, the terminal responded to her question.

“Huh?”

Caught completely off guard, I let out a stupid sound at the absurd mission content.

“No… wait…?”

My mouth opened and closed wordlessly. When I looked at Mom, our eyes met.

…Her eyes were filled with firm, unwavering determination.