A Tiger Leaves Its Skin (1)
I had a dream for the first time in a long while.
It wasn’t a dream of soaring freely through the skies, but one of the days when I still had a home.
Ordinary days… though calling them ordinary wouldn’t be entirely accurate. My parents died in an accident when I was young, leaving me to fend for myself.
I never asked my relatives for help. They were kind-hearted people, but I felt like an intolerable burden, and their own financial situations were hardly comfortable. If anything, my guilt only grew, so I gradually stopped reaching out to them altogether.
I simply clung to survival on my own, gritting my teeth through every hardship. There wasn’t a part-time job I hadn’t worked, and school was a luxury I could barely afford. I scraped by with just enough attendance to avoid expulsion, but my adolescence was defined by aimless wandering. Going to college was something I never dared to imagine.
Everything after that remained hazy in my memory, as if shrouded in dense fog. My entire existence had been consumed by the sheer struggle to keep food on the table.
Yet even in such a wretched environment, fate seemed unwilling to let me die.
‘Jonghyuk-ah. We’re doing just fine, so why don’t you come live with us?’
‘Hey, Park Jonghyuk. Let me know when your shift ends. Let’s hit the PC bang. What, you’re broke? I’ll cover your tab.’
‘Do you like soccer? Or baseball?’
‘You worked with honest sweat on your brow, so take this bonus. It’s hard to find young men like you these days.’
I was blessed with what people called good fortune in the company I kept.
My relatives genuinely worried about me, my friends were unfailingly considerate, and the bosses at my part-time gigs took pity on my circumstances, making sure I was paid properly. When people showed me such unconditional goodwill, how could I not return it in kind?
It was a fundamental duty of being a decent human being. Holding fast to that conviction, I lived as upright an existence as I could manage.
The military suited me just fine, too. All you had to do was follow orders. For someone who had nothing, a rigidly structured life was actually a comfort. I briefly considered signing on as a career soldier, but because I was still drifting emotionally, I held off. What would have happened if I’d stayed in uniform back then? A pointless hypothetical now.
‘God truly works in mysterious ways.’
I was never particularly religious, but I never denied God’s existence either. When life turned agonizing, you could curse God; when things went well, you could believe in Him; and in moments of dire crisis, you could pray. It seemed to be an innate human instinct.
‘To me, anyone who extends goodwill is God.’
A person who reaches out to someone in desperate need. What else could they be to that struggling soul if not a god? At least, that was how I saw it.
Even after being abruptly dropped into the Forest of the Four Seasons, there were people who extended unreserved goodwill toward me—people whose faces I had never even seen. To me, these were bonds I could never bring myself to abandon.
Return goodwill with goodwill. Return gratitude with gratitude.
Above all, strive to be the one who gives before taking.
Even if the other side didn’t return the kindness, I would let it slide. They could call me a pushover for all I cared. Because if I didn’t live that way, the people who had shown me such warmth would be made into fools.
At least, that was what I believed.
“Ugggh…”
I forced my heavy eyelids open.
Even with my eyes open, my vision was so dim that I had to blink repeatedly.
‘Where am I…’
My mind was completely clouded, my thoughts refusing to align. For now, I simply took in whatever was before me.
Slowly, the haze cleared, revealing a brilliant azure sky. Fluffy cumulus clouds drifted lazily across the expanse. It’s pretty, was the first coherent thought that crossed my mind.
‘Why the sky… What was I doing…’
Just as the question formed, something entered my field of vision.
A serene, utterly vacant expression. An oddly endearing face.
I stared blankly at it before its identity clicked.
“Why are you…”
Before I could finish the sentence, the memories of what happened before I lost consciousness struck me like a bolt of lightning.
The ambush in the dead of night. The savage life-or-death battle against that monstrous tiger.
My flesh being ripped apart by razor-sharp claws, and those massive fangs plunging straight through my body.
Finally, cleaving the beast’s skull in two, only to collapse while confirming the kill.
As the cascade of events rushed back, I bolted upright.
“Aaargh! Urrgh…!”
Agony flared across my entire body, concentrated with horrifying intensity in my right shoulder, forcing me flat on my back once more.
Come to think of it, my shoulder had been utterly pulverized. In my desperation to finish off the beast, I hadn’t even administered basic first aid.
Dread clutching at my chest, I glanced down at my right shoulder.
“Huh?”
Astonishingly, it was completely intact.
The jersey was shredded into bloody tatters from the tiger’s jaws, but the flesh revealed beneath was unblemished.
Before the bewilderment could fully settle, I spotted an empty glass vial rolling on the dirt nearby. It was unmistakably the vial of Elixir I had received from the Starlight Princess.
“…Did you pour this on me?”
“……”
I asked Fast Tree Sloth in a dazed stupor.
He merely offered his trademark dopey grin. Yet that was more than enough of an answer.
“Pfft.”
A breathy laugh slipped past my lips. Just how many times had I owed my life to this guy now? If not for Fast Tree Sloth, I would have bled out on the dirt without question.
‘Wait, what about the tiger?’
Judging by the sky, morning had already arrived. Since I was still breathing, the beast was undoubtedly dead. I craned my stiff neck to look, and sure enough, the house-sized tiger lay sprawled motionless on the ground. Not a twitch stirred its frame. A heavy weight lifted from my chest.
‘What time is it…’
The blazing sun high in the sky indicated it was well past noon. Grimacing, I dragged myself upright, staggering onto unsteady legs. Even though resting would be the sensible choice after such severe trauma, I desperately wanted to lie down on something soft.
‘Wait, where’s Wonmo?’
Stumbling into the cave camp, I found it empty. He wasn’t hovering around me begging for food, and his sudden absence set off alarm bells.
“Wonmo! Wonmo, where are you!”
“Kyu?”
At the sound of his name, a familiar chirp drifted from behind. I spun around, but saw nothing in the clearing. I called out again.
“Wonmo?”
“Kyuu.”
This time I heard it loud and clear—coming from the tiger’s carcass. Before I could process the confusion, the mystery solved itself.
“Kyuuu…”
Wonmo poked his head out from behind the fallen beast. He wasn’t leaping down, but laboriously scrambling over the massive bulk, his desperate clambering both pitiful and adorable. A warm smile crept across my face, but it froze almost instantly as my gaze locked onto his snout.
“Wonmo… what is that on your mouth? Is that blood?”
“Kyu!”
He beamed with a cheerful chirp, confirming my worst suspicions. A cold sweat broke out on my neck. Dread crept into my voice as I asked,
“Where did you get that? Don’t tell me… from the tiger?”
“Kyuu!”
Wonmo proudly tapped the ground—specifically, the tiger’s hide—with his front paw. Watching him, I buried my face in my hands. While I was out cold, this little guy had been gnawing away at the dead tiger. The throat was torn to ragged shreds, suggesting he had concentrated his feast there.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, I looked at him.
“Fine, just don’t overeat. Your belly’s going to burst.”
“Kyuu.”
Wonmo squeaked in obedient understanding. Having confirmed his safety, I limped back inside the cave, collapsing onto the padded sleeping mat to give my battered mind and body some respite.
‘Ah, right. The time.’
I immediately accessed the Gallery interface, praying that the day hadn’t slipped away entirely.
You have 10 unread direct messages.
The moment I logged in, an alert popped up informing me of unread messages. The only person I exchanged direct messages with was the Heavenly Demon. She must have sent them.
‘It’s way past noon…’
No wonder Wonmo had been busy tearing into the tiger; far more time had elapsed than I thought. Then again, after such a brutal clash, staying unconscious for hours was only natural. More importantly, if Fast Tree Sloth hadn’t splashed that Elixir over me, I would have succumbed to blood loss long ago.
‘I need to reply to the Heavenly Demon first.’
Curious as I was about the state of the general board, answering her took priority. I tapped into the flashing icon and opened the direct message thread.
Every single message was steeped in deep concern. She was worrying about me far more than I deserved. Feeling a sudden pang of embarrassment, I swiftly typed out a response to put her mind at ease.
I wrapped up the conversation, warmed by her sincere concern and encouragement.
Crawling across the sleeping mat, I reached for the bottle of Elixir. My body was still screaming in pain, and there was no telling whether Fast Tree Sloth had managed to coat the wounds thoroughly. His massive claws were hardly suited for delicate medical work, after all.
Gulp—
I took a swig of the Elixir, then began peeling off my clothes. Dried crusts of blood held the fabric fast, and with gaping puncture wounds beneath, the simple act of stripping felt like torture.
‘Looks like the fabric got dragged deep into the wound and knitted back together with the flesh.’
The athletic jersey had deflected the tiger’s claws, but it couldn’t withstand the concentrated force of its fangs. Riddled with punctures, it would never offer proper protection again. Even so, the sheer defensive performance it had demonstrated for a piece of sportswear was mind-boggling.
‘Turns out adventurers wearing jerseys on expeditions wasn’t a joke after all.’
Once stripped down, I took a closer look at my injuries. Even a miracle restorative like the Elixir couldn’t erase critical trauma without a trace; jagged scars remained stamped across my skin. The spots where the long sabers had impaled me were particularly dark and pronounced.
Just in case, I splashed more Elixir directly over the worst scars. The minor blemishes faded slightly, but the deep gouges carved by the fangs remained stubborn.
‘Might as well dab the rest of the cuts too.’
To ward off bacterial infection, I carefully rubbed the fluid over every scrape before sealing the vial with its stopper.
In the meantime, the throbbing pain radiating from my shoulder dulled considerably. Where moving earlier had felt near impossible, now I could at least walk without stumbling.
‘If not for this Elixir, I would’ve been a goner.’
I felt an overwhelming wave of gratitude toward the Starlight Princess for making the trade. With my condition somewhat stabilized, I decided to check in on the Gallery and confirm I was still breathing.
Browsing the board, I saw quite a few people asking about my whereabouts. A few bizarre bait posts popped up here and there, but they were wiped out almost instantaneously. The Juddak or the Heavenly Demon must have hammered them with bans on the spot. All that remained was for me to submit my survival report.
[Attached: Photo of severe, deep bite scars on shoulder]
[Attached: Photo of blood-drenched body and shredded clothes]
It’s me. A ridiculously massive tiger ambushed me last night and I almost died for real ;;
Got knocked out for at least ten hours and only just came to. The scars are from tiger bites, yeah.
Think I need to lie flat and do absolutely nothing today. My body hurts so much I can barely even drag myself across the floor ;;
Well, my thoughts were a bit different.
Under normal circumstances, I would have tossed it onto the dimensional auction and called it a day, but my mindset had shifted. This beast had driven me to the brink of death, and its pelt looked exceedingly valuable. If cured and treated properly, high-grade fur like that could serve a hundred different purposes.
‘Wouldn’t it actually be better to butcher it myself?’
It wasn’t a bad idea.
Wonmo had already torn into the flesh anyway, and it was time for me to develop my own survival skills. A day would come when I’d have to butcher my kills without relying on external trades. There was no better time to learn than now.
A thoroughly sensible explanation, which only made it all the more convincing.