Chapter 2.1

Chapter 2: Forest (1)

"What the fuck..."

A thin light welling up from the surface of my skin barely illuminated my surroundings.

The surroundings are full of tall and lush trees.

···Forest?

In this sudden situation, my head did not turn.

The voice of Ji-hye, who was talking to me just a moment ago, and the voices of the high school seniors who were leaving school completely disappeared, and the background became so quiet.

I feel my heart beating faster and faster.

I had goosebumps all over my body.

For a while, my thinking speeds up, finding myself in an incomprehensible situation.

Where am I?

There are trees all over.

A mountain?

Forest?

Park?

First of all, the ground isn't sloping.

Is it midnight?

The tree is too tall to be able to view the sky.

Surely it's not even noon?

I tried moving my stiff limbs.

I slowly turned and looked around.

My sneakers rustled under the fallen leaves.

There's also my cell phone, my wallet, and my bag.

All the books inside are intact.

Where the hell am I?

Kidnapped?

A dream?

What is this light?

The soft glow of my skin slowly subsided.

I hurriedly turned on the flashlight function on my cell phone.

I made 3 mistakes in unlocking the lock pattern.

There are no people around... It's too quiet.

I think I can hear the bugs chirping...

My heartbeat is so loud that it's starting to bother me.

I could feel my underwear getting dampened with cold sweat.

...Let's stay calm.

I recalled the previous situation.

I was leaving school with Jihye.

Just before stepping out the front door, her skin seemed to glow for some reason, and she said that mine was too.

Right after that, an explosive light hit me, and after a moment of dizziness, I opened my eyes and saw this.

It is the light.

It is clear that the light must have something to do with this event.

"It got Jihye too."

Clearly, the light had also captured Jihye.

So maybe she found herself somewhere here, just like me?

***

*Bass Rock – Bass Rock*

In the silent darkness, only the light from my cell phone and my footsteps disturbed the quiet night in the forest.

I'm moving in any direction right now.

It was because the problem of where I am would not be solved by itself and by just standing still.

Time would tell if this is right or wrong.

Currently, I am armed with a wooden stick in my right hand and a mobile phone flashlight in my left, while my pockets are armed with stones that are easy to throw.

An hour has passed since I started walking.

During that time, my mind calmed down somewhat.

Moving forward, I developed three hypotheses to explain the current situation.

1. This is a dream.

2. Someone kidnapped us and threw us into the woods. People who want to hunt me will appear soon.

3. I was transferred to another world.

Hypothesis 1 was rejected.

The cheek I pinched hard earlier is still tingling.

Hypothesis 2 was conceived from the plot of a certain movie.

I saw it while scrolling through a channel talking about upcoming movies... What was it again?

I remember choosing not to watch the trailer until the end because I thought it would be implausible and uninteresting.

'If I knew it would be like this, I would have watched all those movies.'

Anyway, I think number 2 is the most likely.

Because Hypothesis 3 is too unrealistic.

This is still the same world.

I'm not the main character of some kind of web novel or light novel.

The magic word that can instantly disprove number 3 came out of my mouth.

"Status window."

'·······'

Of course, nothing happened.

"Status. Status open. Inventory. Skill. System. Fireball. Fire Punch—-."

'There's no way it could have been solved that easily...'

I don't know who the heck did this, but to kidnap a high school senior on the eve of the college entrance exam is…

If I somehow get home safely, I will tell them about the bitterness of my life.

"Kirik-"

!!!

I suddenly heard a high and short sound like an animal's cry.

I put my back on the thick tree trunk right beside me and held my breath.

When covering the flashlight with my palm, I couldn't see at all.

I started breaking out in a cold sweat again.

I grabbed the weapon with both hands for no reason.

What animal is it? Dog? Wildcat? Fox? A wolf?

Could it be that it's actually a bear?

I am now thickly dressed in padded clothing, mittens, cardigans, and shirts.

Wouldn't it be okay if I was bitten like this just once?

...But I don't want to test it out.

After taking a slow, deep breath, I poked my head from behind the tree.

Then I slowly moved my palm to direct some light in front of me.

The source of the sound emerged with the illumination.

Bipedal walking.

A small body at my chest height.

Green skin.

Slit eyes and green pupils that reflect light.

If anyone was to see it, one word would come to mind.

Goblin...!

Damn, number 3 was the correct answer.

"Keeeeek!!!"

An ugly goblin lunged at me from afar.

I immediately turned back and ran with all my might.

***

Goblin.

It is the name of a popular monster that appears in almost all fantasy novels.

It is mainly considered a beginner monster and does not appear in the story after the main character has grown to a certain extent.

But there are always exceptions.

I have read quite a few web novels, and among them, there were novels in which you should never take the goblins lightly.

A novel where they get stronger because there are levels even for the goblins.

Novels that featured goblin jobs such as a Goblin Assassin and Goblin Knight.

Novels in which goblins are the main population of the continent and the demon lord is also a goblin, etc.

That's why I'm sprinting right now.

"Ugh... Hak..."

I can't run anymore.

My stomach hurts and my thighs feel like they're about to explode.

I haven't heard the goblin for quite some time now.

Fortunately, the goblin I just encountered doesn't seem to amount to much.

It chased after me, screeching, but its running speed was much slower than mine, judging by the sound getting farther and farther away.

"Fuck... That's fucking..."

What did I do so wrong to have to suffer like this?

——————

T/N: Alright, just published the patreon tier for this story. It only has 1/20 of the advanced updates up there right now. Feel free to wait until I have reached 20/20 advanced updates before joining. I plan to increase the WN update speed of this story to 2/day soon as well. Bare with me for the moment.

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