Diary (1)

I had finally returned from scouting that nightmarish shoreline. Octopus tentacles erupting from beneath the wet sand to lasso my ankles, an armored tortoise suddenly morphing its limbs to charge across the shoals, and another beast firing high-heat energy blasts straight from its maw. The interior of the forest was already a relentless headache; seeing the ocean in that grotesque state made my head spin just recalling it.

I probably wouldn't ever head back there. I had no plans of building a raft to cross an open sea, so there was zero reason to venture out toward the tide again.

The sea has always been far deadlier than the dry land, but still...

Just how unhinged was the marine ecosystem bordering the Forest of the Four Seasons? Even that wandering predator drifting downstream along the river had turned out to be an anthropomorphic shark wielding functional arms and legs. That giant coastal tortoise had reshaped its appendages to match the changing terrain in the blink of an eye. Trying to fathom what lurked further out beneath the dark waves was beyond my imagination.

More importantly, most of the creatures out there seem remarkably intelligent.

Was it because they had undergone rapid, forced evolution, just as Allfather theorized? There was no denying that their mental faculties had developed well past pure animal instinct. Fast Tree Sloth and Wonmo understood my speech with eerie precision, and even that tortoise had contorted its face into a venomous scowl the second I brandished its egg. Across the board, every beast here demonstrated intellect that drifted far from standard fauna.

Then... what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠does that mean for primates like monkeys and gorillas?

Could they genuinely be as cunning as humans? Remembering what I had witnessed while marching toward the coast made a cold sweat prickle down my spine.

Those were definitely ape howls.

A massive, leopard-like predator had suddenly been flung from the dense canopy, crashing helplessly into the river rapids. It was a beast of imposing bulk, yet it had been hurled through the air like an unwanted rag doll. And echoing from that exact stretch of thicket were the screeching, cacophonous cries of primates.

"Haaah..."

A heavy sigh escaped deep from my chest, heavy enough to sink the earth beneath my boots. Facing an unbroken chain of worsening hurdles was precisely the definition of this place. How on earth was I supposed to escape this deathtrap?

Every shred of common sense I possessed from modern civilization was utterly useless in this wilderness. It was suffocating.

On top of that, this is an entirely different world, which strips even the most basic universal logic of its meaning.

In practice, I was forced to start completely from zero. Realizing this only now made me wonder if I had been far too optimistic from the start. But did that mean I was giving up? I had hammered the answer into my own mind countless times: absolutely not.

Even if it was purely out of spite and stubborn pride, I would make it out of here alive. And once I did, I fully intended to point a finger straight at God's face and demand an answer: why, out of all the possible realms across creation, had I been dropped into this foul purgatory? What petty scheme justified pulling an ordinary guy, who had been getting by just fine despite life's hardships, into this living nightmare?

I need to revise my overall plan.

Now that I recognized this wilderness was infinitely more deranged than I had anticipated, my blueprint for survival demanded an overhaul. Hoping for outside rescue? The Gallery was the only thread tethering me to external aid. Yet the more logs I posted detailing this forest, the more everyone recoiled in dread. When even top-tier figures like the Heavenly Demon and Sword Master openly expressed revulsion at the horrors of the Four Seasons Forest, the message was clear enough.

In short, escaping on my own two feet was the sole path forward, and achieving that required becoming overwhelmingly strong. At a glance, that might have sounded no different from my initial goal, but one foundational pillar had shifted.

Not a temporary forward base, but a permanent shelter. Not just scrambling to stay alive, but establishing an actual daily life. And above all...

An indefinite, open-ended survival timeline.

My original intention had been to break out of this greenery as fast as humanly possible, but that mindset was now discarded. The Forest of the Four Seasons was a maze that forcibly threw you back the more you rushed. Therefore, whether it took a full year or an entire decade, I would dig in and endure. I would temper myself until no living monstrosity lurking in this woodland could ever threaten my life again.

To ensure that happens, I have to manage my standing on the Gallery with absolute care so the assistance doesn't cut off.

Maintaining a solid rapport with the Head Admin, Don't Abandon the Hero, was paramount. If I rubbed the mod the wrong way and caught a permanent ban, my lifeline would be snipped clean. Still, feigning religious devotion to their deity was out of the question; that was one compromise my conscience couldn't swallow.

Since I'm incapable of lying, I'll just have to deflect and change the subject whenever it comes up.

If the Head Admin ever steered the conversation toward faith or piety, evasive maneuvers were definitely the way to go. Sorting through my updated plans, I turned my gaze toward the camp perimeter. A section of the timber barricade had been demolished during the earlier clash with the sabertooth tiger, leaving a glaring gap in our defenses. That fortification would be the first request I put to the dwarf.

Come to think of it, I need to make sure my body doesn't mutate down some horrific path.

If my physical vessel was gradually evolving to harmonize with the Four Seasons Forest, as Allfather theorized, I needed to steer that transformation in a beneficial direction. For instance, drastically increasing the time I spent cultivating the Internal Cultivation Art would condition my body to be exceptionally receptive to internal energy and mana. Or I could aggressively pursue physical conditioning to guide my physique toward packing on dense, resilient muscle.

Should I aim for something like a hundred sit-ups, a hundred push-ups, and a hundred squats every single day?

It unmistakably mirrored the regimen of a certain bald anime protagonist, minus the daily ten-kilometer run. In this environment, doing cardiovascular exercise was terrifyingly straightforward: simply wander through the foliage without paying attention until an apex predator ambushed you. You would be forced to gasp for every breath like a dying man sprint-running for your life. Given that charming alternative, I preferred skipping intentional cardio altogether.

Speaking of which, didn't the Starlight Princess mention she recently started working out?

I decided to reach out and ask what sort of training she was doing. If her regimen involved specialized equipment, perhaps I could request her assistance in procuring some. Simple training tools frequently circulated on the community auction house anyway. With the trade restrictions lifted, private messaging was available, so I pulled up the interface and typed out a message to her.

She must have been browsing the Gallery at that very moment, as her reply popped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up almost immediately. Seeing her lively response brought a faint, satisfied smile to my face, but I pushed personal pleasantries aside and cut straight to the chase.

It was neither an exaggeration nor an empty excuse. Rigid things always shattered the easiest under unyielding pressure. By allowing myself to bend and soften my expectations, I was ensuring my will wouldn't snap under the weight of the unknown. Broadening my timeframe was simply my method of purging impatience from my mind.

...Wait, she isn't going to turn bald from that routine, is she?

The absurd thought briefly crossed my mind, but I instantly banished it. Pointless daydreams had no place in survival.

An army was an organization where rigorous physical conditioning was an unavoidable prerequisite for executing field drills. Pair that with strict, regimented daily hours, and solid physical development naturally followed. Naturally, much of that muscle mass had melted away following my discharge, but the muscle memory remained deeply ingrained.

What followed was an extensive, passionate academic lecture from the Starlight Princess detailing the physiological principles behind muscle hypertrophy. She explained how exercise induced micro-tears in the muscle fibers, and how reinforcing those tissues during the subsequent cellular recovery process resulted in increased strength and density.

Since half of the high-level alchemy went straight over my head, smiling and nodding seemed like the best course of action. Still, if she had concentrated the peerless regenerative potency of an Elixir exclusively toward rebuilding muscle tissue, its effects were bound to be absurd.

I quietly read through her words. With just a brief text exchange, she had effortlessly discerned the shift in my internal state. Clearly, she possessed sharp intuition and a keen sense of empathy.

A diary... I found myself lost in thought. It wasn't a terrible suggestion by any metric, yet a quiet hesitation held me back.

After a short pause, I opened the community auction house, purchased an inexpensive blank leather notebook, and inscribed my real name upon the cover.

As expected, she had no clue what Hangul was. It would have been far stranger if she had. That reality had been the very reason I hesitated to keep a journal.

Still... it wouldn't hurt.

I was anticipating an extended stay here. A written chronicle would serve as definitive proof that I had held out and survived this long. More importantly, tracking weather cycles, predatory migrations, and seasonal anomalies across those pages would allow me to forecast future dangers.

Accumulating verified survival data point by point to increase my odds of living—it made practical sense. It didn't matter if no one in this world could read it. I had dependable companions by my side, after all. For now, I could treat it simply as a quiet hobby to stave off loneliness.

Just what kind of bizarre misunderstanding was she brewing in that head of hers?