Chapter 3
I opened the fourth gift pack, and a new notification appeared on the screen.
[ Congratulations, Host! ]
[ You have obtained: Limit Breaker ]
“Limit Breaker? What the hell does that do?”
I opened the description, expecting another ridiculous ability, but the more I read, the wider my eyes grew.
The ability would remove my body's limits, allowing me to reach the maximum level of any skill or ability instantly. It would also eliminate negative effects and give me control over my body down to the cellular level.
I read the description twice to make sure I hadn't misunderstood it.
“Holy shit…”
This thing was ridiculously overpowered.
If I bought some powerful abilities from the Super-Market Store, I could potentially become strong enough to take on almost anything. And with Limit Breaker removing my body's restrictions, the possibilities were insane.
But there was one problem.
I was still a fucking chicken.
I had no combat skills, no superhuman strength, and no idea how to fight. The only thing I had going for me was the Magical Tool, which could turn into a weapon if I needed one.
I didn't even know what kind of creatures lived in this jungle. For all I knew, there could be monsters lurking somewhere in the trees, waiting for an easy meal.
I wasn't about to get overconfident just because I'd received a few powerful abilities.
Still, I couldn't help feeling excited. If the system's descriptions were accurate, Limit Breaker might be one of the most valuable abilities I could have received.
“Alright, three down. One more to go.”
I looked at the final gift pack.
Unlike the previous ones, I hesitated before opening it. I had no idea what I would get, but after receiving Limit Breaker, I was hoping for something that could actually keep me alive in this godforsaken place.
“Come on, give me something useful.”
I selected the last gift.
The icon flashed, and the familiar animation played across the panel.
[ Congratulations, Host! ]
[ You have obtained: Healing Factor ]
I quickly opened the description.
The moment I read it, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
The ability would regenerate my body from injuries, protect me against diseases and infections, and prevent me from dying through ordinary physical damage. According to the system, my body would heal itself regardless of how severe the injury was.
I stared at the screen.
Then I read it again.
And again.
A grin slowly spread across my face.
“Ha ha ha haaa! Holy fucking shit!”
I burst out laughing, unable to contain my excitement.
“I'm going to be an unkillable monster! This is awesome!”
I couldn't believe my luck. I'd died once, been thrown into some unknown world, and somehow ended up with abilities that could make me immortal.
Well, supposedly immortal. I hadn't tested any of them yet, and I wasn't stupid enough to start cutting myself just to see whether the Healing Factor worked.
Still, considering how the other abilities had functioned, I had little reason to doubt the system.
My laughter gradually faded as another thought occurred to me.
“Wait a minute…”
I looked down at my body.
Even if I couldn't die from injuries, that didn't mean I was invincible in every possible way. I could still get hungry, thirsty, or exhausted. I might survive injuries that would kill an ordinary person, but that wouldn't magically put food in my stomach.
For all I knew, I could end up as a walking skeleton, kept alive by the Healing Factor while slowly starving to death.
“That's a pretty fucking horrible way to live.”
The thought took some of the excitement out of me.
And there was another problem. If anyone discovered what I could do, I had no idea how they might react. Someone who could recover from almost any injury would be a valuable subject for anyone interested in studying the human body.
I could easily imagine being locked in a laboratory while people in white coats tried to figure out what made me tick.
“Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather keep these abilities to myself.”
I had no intention of advertising my powers to strangers. Until I understood this world and the people living in it, keeping my abilities secret seemed like the smartest option.
Besides, I still didn't know whether magic existed here.
I'd read plenty of manga and novels about people reincarnating in fantasy worlds, where they could use magic, fight monsters, and meet elves and other races. Back then, those stories had been nothing more than entertainment.
Now, I was sitting in a jungle with a magical system floating in front of my face.
It was a little difficult to dismiss the possibility that magic was real.
“Imagine if I actually run into an elf,” I muttered. “That would be fucking insane.”
I shook my head and turned my attention back to the system.
Daydreaming wasn't going to help me survive. I needed supplies, and the only place I could get them right now was the Super-Market Store.
I opened it.
The interface expanded, displaying a huge selection of items. There was food, clothing, equipment, weapons, vehicles, and all sorts of things I hadn't expected to see.
The more I browsed, the more ridiculous the selection became.
Cars, planes, helicopters, spaceships—even time machines.
“Wait… a fucking time machine?”
I stared at the listing for a moment before scrolling further.
There were skills, too. Swimming, hunting, writing, cooking, tracking, assassination, survival, and countless others. The store seemed to have practically everything a person could need, whether they wanted to learn a simple skill or acquire something far beyond the capabilities of an ordinary human.
It was like someone had taken an entire shopping mall, an armory, a vehicle dealership, and a library of skills and crammed them into one virtual store.
The possibilities were endless.
Unfortunately, so were the prices.
I checked the food section first.
Most basic food items cost around 10 Pervert Points, while a complete luxury meal cost 50 points. That seemed to be the maximum price for food.
A bottle of water cost just 2 Pervert Points.
“Two points for water? That's not too bad.”
Then I remembered my balance.
Zero.
My expression fell.
“Right. Never mind.”
I moved on to the clothing section, hoping that would be more affordable.
It wasn't.
Basic clothing started at around 50 Pervert Points, while specialized outfits could cost as much as 10,000. The selection included everything from ordinary everyday clothes to spacesuits and fireproof suits.
I glanced down at the clothes created by my Magical Tool.
At least I wouldn't have to worry about buying those anytime soon.
One less problem.
Next came the skills.
Swimming cost 10,000 Pervert Points. Hunting cost 20,000. Assassination was a whopping 45,000 points.
And the survival skill I needed most?
30,000 Pervert Points.
I stared at the number.
“Thirty thousand? For a fucking survival skill?”
How was I supposed to earn that much when I didn't even have a single point?
I checked my balance again, just in case the system had decided to reward me for opening all five gift packs.
Pervert Points: 0
Of course.
“Motherfucker…”
I scrolled through the ability section, hoping to find something affordable that might help me get out of this situation.
That hope died almost immediately.
Cloning was one of the cheaper abilities, costing 100,000 Pervert Points.
Telekinesis cost around one million.
Superhuman Strength was 500,000 points.
And Telepathy?
Ten million.
“Ten million?! What the fuck am I supposed to do with that information?”
I leaned back against the tree and stared at the screen in disbelief.
This system was unbelievable. It had the power to provide me with almost anything I could imagine, but the prices were so outrageous that I might as well have been looking at items in a store on another planet.
Actually, considering where I was, that might not have been far from the truth.
I closed the store, feeling more frustrated than ever.
I was dirt poor.
No food, no water, no money, and no practical way to earn any Pervert Points.
According to the system, I needed a woman to make use of my Pervert Eyes and earn points.
But where the fuck was I supposed to find a woman in the middle of this jungle?
I'd been wandering around long enough to establish that there wasn't a single person in sight.
“System!”
I waited.
Nothing happened.
“Hey, you useless piece of shit! Do you have anything to say about this?”
Silence.
I waved my hand in front of the panel, as though that might get its attention.
“Seriously? You drag me into another world, give me a bunch of abilities, and then leave me here without even enough points to buy a bottle of water?”
Still nothing.
“Are you trying to kill me?”
I was beginning to suspect that the system was nothing more than a dumb program with no intelligence whatsoever. It could provide notifications and display information, but apparently, it couldn't be bothered to answer a simple question.
“Great. I'm stuck with a useless system.”
Just as I was about to give up, a new notification appeared.
[ Does the host want to initiate the Live World Map Function? ]
[ Yes / No ]
I blinked.
“A map?”
Now that was something I could actually use.
I selected Yes without hesitation.
The system panel flickered, and a new interface opened in front of me.
A map appeared.
At first, it looked like something straight out of a video game. The terrain was displayed in different shades of green and brown, with darker areas indicating dense forests and lighter patches representing open ground. Rivers cut through the landscape like winding ribbons, while hills and mountains rose in textured ridges across the map.
It wasn't a satellite image. There were no roads, buildings, or labels identifying specific locations.
Instead, it was a detailed terrain map, similar to the ones I'd seen in strategy games.
A small figure stood at the center of the display.
I leaned closer.
The figure was a three-dimensional representation of me, standing at the exact location where I was currently looking at the map.
I glanced down at my feet, then back at the miniature figure.
“That's actually pretty cool.”
I moved my hand across the interface, testing whether I could interact with it.
The map responded to my movements. I could zoom in and out, shifting between the immediate surroundings and much larger stretches of terrain.
“Alright, let's see how big this place is.”
I zoomed out.
The jungle expanded across the screen, revealing more forests, rivers, and distant mountain ranges. I kept zooming out, expecting to see a map of the entire region.
Then I noticed something strange.
Red dots had begun appearing on the display.
At first, there were only a few. But as I zoomed out further, more appeared, scattered across the terrain beyond the jungle.
I frowned and adjusted the map.
The dots weren't scattered randomly. They were clustered together in groups, with several hundred seemingly gathered in one location. Farther away, another group appeared, followed by more clusters in the distance.
“What the hell are those?”
I zoomed in on the nearest group.
The dots became clearer, but the map didn't provide any labels or explanations. Whatever they represented, the system wasn't telling me.
I tried moving the map around, examining the surrounding terrain.
The clusters appeared to be located near the edge of the jungle, not too far from my current position.
And they were moving.
I stared at the display, my earlier frustration giving way to curiosity.
“Wait… are those people?”
I zoomed in again, watching the dots shift across the terrain.
There were too many of them to be a handful of travelers. Hundreds of red markers moved together, while other groups remained farther away.
Whatever they were, they weren't just standing around.
They were going somewhere.
I leaned forward, my eyes fixed on the screen.
Then I zoomed out even farther.
The map changed dramatically. The familiar shapes of continents and oceans began to emerge, stretching across the display in a pattern I recognized immediately.
My breath caught in my throat.
“No way…”
I knew that shape.
The continents looked just like Earth's.
North America. South America. Europe. Africa. Asia.
The coastlines, the oceans, the overall layout—it was all eerily familiar.
I stared at the map, hardly daring to believe what I was seeing.
“I'm still in America?”
According to the position displayed on the map, I appeared to be in roughly the same region as the city where I'd lived in my previous life.
That didn't make any sense.
Had I really been transported to another world, or had I somehow ended up in a place that was almost identical to Earth?
The map offered no explanation. It displayed neither continent names nor city labels, only the terrain, my location, and those strange red dots.
I zoomed back in, trying to pinpoint the nearest cluster.
The markers grew larger as the map focused on the jungle surrounding me. I could now make out the rough outline of the forest, the open terrain beyond it, and the groups of red dots gathered just outside the trees.
They were still moving.
And there were hundreds of them.
My earlier excitement faded as an uneasy feeling settled in my stomach.
Who—or what—was out there?
I kept my eyes on the map, tracking the nearest group as it moved across the terrain.
For the first time since waking up in this jungle, I had a lead.
I just wasn't sure whether following it would save my life or put me in even greater danger.