Chapter 21. The Price of Recklessness

"Be extra vigilant today, boy. Last night, I heard dogs barking and sheep crying repeatedly. I suspect that damn thief will try to lay his dirty hand on my sheep again. Remember, if you can catch the culprit, nothing could be better, However, if you can't, then don't force yourself and do anything stupid. Report it back to me immediately, and I will call the guards to deal with it. Do you understand?" Jacob, who was in a very bad mood that morning, said with a deadly serious face while handing Ash his already prepared lunchbox.

"Sure, I'll take care of it. You can relax and worry not. Thanks for your concern, by the way," Ash nodded seriously, watching the sheep graze with a thoughtful frown

"Good. And remember, don't do anything stupid," Jacob warned, a shiver running down his spine as if recalling some dark memory. "I wouldn't want to see Aunt Linda raiding my house with a knife in her hand again. By the gods, she's still as terrifying as before." He shook his head and walked away, leaving Ash baffled.

"F*ck! Don't tell me Grandma Linda threatened Uncle Jacob in broad daylight to treat me nicely. This is now becoming a little bit creepy. If not for the fact that I don't fear dying, I would have run away from here long ago. She is reminding me of a horror movie in which demons or hungry spirits first lure their victims under false pretenses into their houses, being nice to them in a very creepy way, playfully giving hint that they are about to leave the world, which obviously everyone ignored in the end, and soon died horrifically in the middle of the night," Ash muttered fearfully while rubbing his forehead with a headache.

After dismissing the unsettling thoughts from his mind, Ash wandered around the field, did a little exercise, played with a few cute-looking lambs, and spent his morning just like that. After all, he had nothing else to do except to kill time. He couldn't always lie on the ground watching the floating clouds, right? Once the novelty wore off, it also became extremely boring.

In the afternoon, Ash ate his simple lunch, which consisted of whole wheat bread with butter, a refreshing vegetable salad and soup, boiled eggs, and a delicious, sweet made with milk. Although Ash didn't know the name of the sweet, it was very sweet and delicious, and he immediately became a fan of it. However, the only thing Ash missed the most, after money and a girlfriend for company, was his dear phone, which he was dying to use. But alas, there was nothing he could do about it now, and had to accept his current reality and focus on enjoying the present without it.

"Baa!!!"

"Huh? What's that?" Ash, who was taking an afternoon nap after filling his stomach under a tree, was jolted awake by the bleating of sheep. He quickly picked up his wooden rod and scrambled towards the source of the noise as quickly as he could.

"Strange," Ash muttered, scanning the area. "There's no one here. Why are those sheep making such a racket? Are they frightened by something?" He hurried around the flock but found nothing unusual except a few random sheep running or messing around with each other.

"Wait a minute, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... 87, 89, 90? F*ck! Why are there only 90? There should be 91! Where's one gone?... No wonder they made such a big mess!" Ash exclaimed comically while holding his head with both hands in frustration.

"Baaaa!!"

However, right at that moment, a faint bleat of a sheep crying coming from the northern direction, reached Ash's ears. Ash didn't hesitate for a moment and recklessly sprinted after the sound inside the forest.

Unfortunately, he soon realized how careless and stupid his decision was. As he plunged into the dense forest northeast of Jacob's house, he felt a sickening crunch beneath his foot. Before he could react, he along with a lot of small twigs, leaves, and dirt, had fallen into a hidden trap hole, landing in a three-meter-deep pit filled with sharpened stone and spear-like wooden sticks, leaves, and twigs.

"Ahhh....."

A scream, raw and agonizing, ripped from his throat, echoing through the forest and scattering nearby birds and sheep.

Although the trap hole wasn't very deep, the fall onto sharp stones and wooden spears inflicted a heavy toll. Ash sustained multiple broken bones, cuts, and bruises, a few life-threatening holes across half his body. He became an incarnation of a certain god in northern mythology, as a small wooden spear prich through his right eye, giving him the honor to join the league of one-eyed holders, thankfully that wooden spear was very small otherwise Ash might have directly become a ghost. Overall, the price of his carelessness was very heavy, and if he tried to recover in a normal way now, he would definitely spend half a year in bed before he could move again.

[ *Ding! Damage taken: 40 points ]

[ *Ding! Negative Buff Added: Heavy Bleeding ]

Two red-colored warning notifications flashed before Ash's lone eye, giving him an indication that he was not far from having a meeting with Lady Death again. However, Ash, who had never suffered any kind of injury in his previous life, and even in his new life when he died, the experience was so sudden that it felt like an illusion. If not for the system's three-second pain experience setting, he might have already forgotten about it. But Ash's pain tolerance was still pathetically weak, and after suffering such heavy injuries, his mind directly went blank.

"Ahhhh..." 

A few seconds later another horrific, bloody scream echoed through the woods, enough to terrify children if they heard it at night. Ash was lying on the sharp, pointy stones, and wooden spears, which were anything but comfortable, started screaming nonstop from the depths of his lungs.

[ Damage Taken: -1 ]

Regaining consciousness upon seeing the red " -1 in front of him, Ash gasped, taking deep breaths to regain clarity and manage the pain.

"F*ck! Which motherf*cker made such a dangerous trap in the middle of the road?" 

The first thing Ash did after his brain started working normally was to curse the person who set up the trap, which was quite natural. Slowly opening his eyes, he noticed something wrong; the view in front of him became very narrow, only half as much as he normally sees. However, the absence of sensation in his right eye and the throbbing pain emanating from it clarified the situation.

Crunch!

Hearing the faint walking sound of someone on dry leaves, Ash, who hurriedly wanted to "Load The File" to escape this horrifying, hellish pain and shame of becoming the one-eyed hero, forcefully pulled himself back with his iron-like willpower. He wanted to see the bastard who was behind his current condition. Ash was never a guy who could let others bully him; if someone dared to mess with him, even unknowingly, he must be ready for the consequences of his actions. So before restarting everything, he wanted to see that bastard's face.

However, fate had a different plan. Instead of meeting his attacker, Ash was met with a boulder the size of an adult human's head, which crushed his skull like a watermelon, ending his lowly life.

[ GAME OVER ]