Stalking Her
The area around our hideout could be summed up in one word: jungle. And I mean a real jungle, thick with grass and trees, teeming with all sorts of nameless plants and animals. The Amazon? Not quite like those real jungles. After all, animals that have nothing to do with jungles live here without a shred of shame. Oh, right. There were even Tyrannosaurus Rexes. If anything, this place was closer to an “alien-built Earth zoo” where every creature on the planet, humans included, had been crammed into one spot.
“She’s heading west.”
The woman was moving westward from our hideout. I followed her carefully, making sure I stayed outside the detection range of any other beasts.
Huff… huff…
…She was fast. My stamina didn’t lose to anyone, yet this woman moved so quickly that I could barely keep up. More than that, her speed cutting through the tangled jungle was incredible. The footing was unstable as hell, but she darted through it like Tarzan.
I kept chasing her like that for a while, relying on the map on my terminal, when suddenly her marker stopped moving. Right next to it was a red mark.
Wild Animal Detected
Looked like she’d run into another creature. I decided to close the distance while I had the chance. Getting too close might get me spotted, but I still wanted to see it with my own eyes—what kind of animal she’d met, and how she handled it.
“There she is.”
I hid my body behind a tree and observed the situation. The back of the white woman. And right in front of her stood a wild boar with massive tusks.
A wild boar, huh. I’d seen plenty of them during my military days, but the ones here were on another level in size. Their tempers were vicious too. If it charged head-on, you might have to prepare for death. This one looked like it weighed several hundred kilos at least. Back in the real world, it would’ve been a job for professional hunters.
The woman faced off against the boar with a trident in one hand and the healing potion I’d given her in the other. She probably realized it would be hard to fight while holding the bottle. She seemed to think the same. Without taking her eyes off the boar, she carefully set the potion bottle down on the ground. Then she slowly sidled sideways, trying to put even a little more distance between herself and the bottle.
Screeech!
But the boar wasn’t that patient. It charged before she could get clear of the bottle.
“Hup!”
She leaped hard to the side, dodging out of the boar’s charge path. The boar that had lowered its head and rushed forward missed completely, barreling straight through where she had been standing. The moment they crossed paths, she stabbed her trident into the boar’s flank with perfect timing.
Screeeeee?!
She immediately let go and backed away from the boar. The creature thrashed wildly with the trident still embedded in its side.
“……She’s practically an Amazonian warrior.”
I was impressed. Her hunting technique was so flawless it looked like a painting. If I hadn’t been hiding and watching, I might have clapped.
Screech! Screeeeech!
The boar screamed madly as it writhed. Every shake of its body sprayed bright red blood everywhere. If left alone, it probably would’ve died in a few hours. But the woman didn’t waste time. This time she charged first, grabbing the trident still lodged in the thrashing boar.
“Yah!”
She yanked it out with pure strength, then stabbed the boar again. Thud. And again. And again. Thud. Thud. Thud.
She repeated the motion mechanically until the boar finally collapsed, dead.
Grrrrrr——
In the end, the boar fell. Its breath soon stopped, and it vanished like dust. Even the blood it had sprayed everywhere evaporated without a trace. Just like every other animal I’d killed so far.
“Haa… haa… haa……”
The woman stared at where the boar had been for a moment, catching her breath. Then, as if she suddenly remembered, she jumped up and began searching the ground frantically.
“……It’s gone. It’s gone!”
But the thing she was looking for was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it had been kicked away during the boar’s charge. With the potion missing from where it should have been, the woman fell into a panic and started tearing through the surroundings.
“My medicine! My medicine! Where is it? Where?!”
Could it have shattered and disappeared? Two hundred coins down the drain. What now? If it really broke, would I have to buy her another one?
Of course, I had no intention of stepping out here. Besides, if she found out I’d followed her, it would be a hassle. I might have to head straight back to the hideout and prepare a new potion.
“Ah!”
A little later, thankfully, the bottle was found. It had rolled quite far from its original spot, all the way into a patch of grass.
“Thank goodness……”
Yeah. Thank goodness. The woman, who had been on the verge of tears, hugged the bottle like it was something precious. As if it were medicine that could save her child.
“……”
There was no way that was all an act. She had no idea I was watching. It seemed her story about having a sick son was real after all. My suspicion had almost completely dissolved by this point. I could have turned back now and it would’ve been fine.
But still.
“……Maybe I’ll follow her just a little longer.”
Her fight had stirred gentle ripples in my heart. The way she battled the boar reminded me of when I fought the hyena in front of my mother. The way she handled the potion so carefully overlapped with the image of my mother crying as she looked at my injured body. Her situation didn’t feel like someone else’s problem.
It was different from me and my mother, but she too had been kidnapped to this island with her son. And now the mother and son were desperately struggling together just to survive.
But as she said, if it was just the two of them, surviving on this island would be incredibly difficult. A seven-year-old son wouldn’t be much help with missions. Even if I couldn’t step in and help her directly right now, it might be good to at least learn the location of her hideout.
Having made that judgment, I decided to keep following her a bit further.
“Hoo.”
I pushed through the jungle again, chasing the woman who had resumed walking. Her movement speed was still fast, and I was fully occupied just trying to keep up. During the pursuit, I noticed one thing.
She wasn’t using her terminal (phone).
In all the time I’d been following her, she hadn’t looked at her phone once. Sure, you could somewhat figure out the path without a map. But the terminal’s map also displayed the locations of survivors and animals. That was an advantage you couldn’t ignore. Hadn’t she just run straight into that boar earlier? If she’d checked the map, she could have avoided it. So why wasn’t she looking?
Could it be that she didn’t have a terminal, or didn’t know how to use one?
“Ah.”
When I thought that far, I remembered. When I had thrown my terminal away, it had returned to my pocket on its own. If this woman had come to the island with her son, then the young son was probably the main player and she was his partner. Just like me and Mom.
In that case, even if she took the terminal outside, it would automatically return to her son’s hand. So of course she couldn’t use the terminal.
“……That means it’s even harder than I thought.”
A seven-year-old son would be no help at all in survival. In fact, he’d only be a burden. Even if she tried to move alone, she couldn’t use the terminal, and earning rewards from missions would be difficult. This was hardcore mode compared to my situation.
“And yet she’s still trying to save him……”
A situation where surviving alone was already grueling. Yet she was doing everything she could to save her sick son. That was what it meant to be a mother. A family. If it had been my own mother, she probably would have done the same. Even if she couldn’t hunt animals as spectacularly as this woman, she would have done whatever it took to keep me alive.
Even Seunghee, who didn’t seem to get along with her older brother, was now working so hard to save Seungpil. People in similar situations probably wouldn’t be punished for offering each other a helping hand.
“Ah.”
At some point, the view suddenly opened up. I had reached the end of the jungle. Ahead was a sandy beach. And further out, the sea was visible too.
I was stunned by the abrupt change in environment. It was absurd. We had just passed through such a densely overgrown jungle, yet a sandy beach appeared so suddenly. The boundary between jungle and sand was so clear it was as if someone had drawn a line on a map.
“Noah…… Noah!”
Once she left the jungle, the woman’s steps quickened. She must be getting close to her hideout. From the direction she was running, it looked like the rocky hill near the shore—with a cave at its base. It had a similar vibe to our own hideout.
I took out my terminal and checked the map. I wanted to confirm the exact location of her hideout.
But.
“……”
Nothing was marked on the map.
If there was a survivor, a red dot should have appeared there. But on the terminal’s map, only the running woman’s marker was visible.
Which meant……
“……It’s already too late.”
I hadn’t expected a happy ending. Still…… I had hoped her efforts would be rewarded. A reality that offered no reward was cruel. It was a bitter ending.
“Noah——!!”
The woman’s scream-like cry echoed from afar. I silently turned my steps away.
Immediate Return to Hideout
Returning to the hideout immediately. Cooldown: 24 hours.
Do you really wish to return? (Y/N)
[Y]