Chapter 5: Law of the jungle

The vultures circled overhead, squawking gleefully as they laid their sharp eyes upon the feast of corpses portrayed below. Circling on the slightly warm thermals, they gradually descended atop the dead bodies of unfortunate creatures that lay scattered across the floor of the abyss, their hooked beaks poking and snapping at flesh that had long gone cold.

One of the vultures eagerly hopped toward a single body, pecking away with its beak and feeling some pride at picking out a juicy target. As it lowered his head to tear out a strip of flesh, a hand suddenly shot out and grabbed its neck, abruptly ending its squawk in a choking gurgle. The vulture desperately flapped its wings and clawed at the arm, struggling to escape, but the fingers closed on its throat tightly, a suffocating deadlock that crushed the breath out of it.

"Perfect timing," I said, admiring the strangled prey caught in my grip. "I was just getting hungry anyway."

*

The regenerative ability of an undead bordered on miraculous.

I couldn't remember the specific details of what happened after I fell from the cliff, but when I regained consciousness, I was fully healed.

Huh? I thought my Regeneration speed had slowed down.

Then I spotted the skeleton of a vulture next to me. Evidently I had cleaned the meat off the bones, devouring the poor creature without mercy.

I felt sick. But I also felt alive. Given what had happened earlier that day, I was thankful that I was alive at all.

But how did I survive that fall?

Glancing up, I stared at the sheer wall of a cliff, the steep slope almost perpendicular to the ground. The height had to be at least two hundred meters, taller than any skyscraper in Tokyo. I should have died from the impact, my skeleton shattered and my internal organs ruptured from the force of falling from that height.

But I was still alive. Beyond all odds, even after my classmates' multiple attempts to murder me in cold blood, I had somehow survived and fully regenerated. The turkey…I mean vulture probably helped too. It seemed I needed to eat if I wanted to restore my energy for Regeneration.

That was useful to know.

"What do I do now?"

That said, I didn't know where I could go from here. I had no place to go to. My classmates were up there, so I couldn't return up there, where a platoon of knights and two heroes were waiting to destroy me. I doubted it was wise to head toward the nearest city or human settlement. There would be more heroes waiting for me there, every single one of them bent on killing me. I didn't understand. Yeah, bullies were bullies, but they had gone too far.

Kureha's explanation made no sense at all. They wanted to beat me up because they needed someone to be a punching bag, and I was unfortunate enough to have that role shoved upon me? Who decided that? Kobayashi?

"Fucking bullshit!"

Swearing, I punched the wall of the cliff. Well, if anything, this hardened my resolve to take revenge on them. It wasn't as if I had expected Matsumoto Kureha and Tsukishima Tomoyo to act all friendly with me. It wasn't as if I had forgiven them for either standing by and watching me get bullied or verbally abusing me. But with my current lack of skills and abilities, I couldn't get my revenge yet. Since it was Kobayashi Kenji, and his cronies Kijima Takeshi and Yamada Yuji, who tried to murder me, they were the only ones I planned on killing.

The rest, I was going to let off with…I dunno, a beating or something. Crushing them underneath my foot and forcing an apology out of them as they groveled before me. But the death sentence was reserved only for Kobayashi and his flunkies.

However, this changed everything. If the whole class was out to kill me, then I had no choice but to kill them all. Not just for revenge, but for survival.

"Bastards…"

Seething, I turned away from the cliff and assessed my surroundings.

It seemed like I was in a forest. What I had thought was an abyss – having imagined it to be a ravine or deep crevice driven deeply into the earth – was actually a thick, shadowy forest. No wonder the vultures were bold enough to descend this far. It was but another forest. It probably meant that the village was located atop a mountain or something.

I scratched my head. I didn't understand the geography of this place, and to be honest, it didn't matter. I was unceremoniously dumped into another world without any explanation or knowledge, thanks to Kobayashi's attempted murder, so it was natural that I didn't know anything about Restia.

That was something I had to rectify. Yet I had no idea how. I dreaded to approach a human settlement, for the possibility of walking right into my classmates would be pretty high. And I didn't want a repeat of what happened with Kureha and Tsukishima.

Then should I just live in the wild?

I grimaced as I glanced around the forest. Sure, living off the land sounded sound in theory, but it wasn't practical at all. Anyone who told you that they would love to be with one with nature or that humans could live in the forests like hermits all by themselves were bullshitting. At least not for a city kid like me, who had grown up in an urban space. There were way too many bugs, there was no comfortable or safe place for me to sleep and rest, toilets would be a problem, and I wouldn't be able to procure human necessities such as clothing and tools.

I had been spoiled too much by civilization to ever consider living in the forest by myself.

Sighing, I began walking into the forest. Whining wasn't going to help. Even if I understood the problems, I still needed to find a solution. Perhaps find a small village like the one I just came from and keep a low profile there until I polished my skills. I didn't know how my classmates did it, but it was clear that they had grown pretty strong in the six months that they were here.

They probably had access to resources Restia had to offer and cooperation and training from the natives. I felt envious but what was done was done. It was pointless wishing I started from the same playing field. I needed to do something drastic to catch up to them.

But how?

I conjured up my holographic screen and studied my personal information. There was no change from the last one. There were no stats, no values, and no levels…nothing except my name, species, job, class and special abilities. This wasn't like any role-playing game I had encountered.

Then again, perhaps the error lay in me treating this whole thing as a role-playing game. After all, this was cold, harsh reality. I should stop assuming that this world worked like a game. Experience couldn't be quantified, strength couldn't be measured in concrete numbers, and levels were meaningless in real life.

That said, that bastard Kobayashi and the others probably think this is a game, so they have no qualms PK-ing me…

My shoulders slumped and I let out a sigh. As much as I wanted to rage against the unfairness of it all, it wasn't productive. I should start moving and searching for a village or any remote human settlement to accept me. Hopefully my classmates remained in the cities and capitals, staying far away from such small villages.

Pushing the foliage aside, I began traversing the forest. I winced as thorns on vines and plants bit into my hands, cutting flesh, but my wounds healed quickly. Impatiently bashing my way through the forest, I proceeded deep in what I hoped was a straight line away from the cliff. I had best put as much distance between myself and the cliff as possible. I didn't know whether Kureha and Tsukishima would send the knights down to confirm my death. And I didn't want to stay long enough to find out.

Hmm…but what kind of forest is this?

So far, the forest appeared to be perfectly normal. Vultures, bugs, annoying plants…there was no sign of monsters or anything otherworldly that would differentiate this place from Earth. If I hadn't encountered a black tentacle monster, a necromancer who raised the dead, a platoon of armored knights who could use magic, and my classmates who were clearly heroes with superlative abilities, I would have thought I was still somewhere in Japan. Or at the very least, somewhere on Earth.

Crack.

I trampled nosily through the forest, stepping on twigs and breaking them, rustling leaves and swatting bugs that were buzzing curiously around me. I grimaced as I peeled off a leech from my skin and tossed it away, only to find a worm that I flicked away with my finger.

"Fuck! This is gross!"

This was downright disgusting. I hated bugs.

"This is why people who claim that they would love to live in Nature are just bullshitting," I muttered. Clearly, those nature-lovers were deluded or had never experienced real nature. All those hiking trails in the mountains? Manmade. Nature reserves? Constructed to keep humans safe from animals (and sometimes vice versa, but I doubted that). Waterfalls? Paved over by concrete paths. Agricultural fields? Planted by hand by human farmers.

Swearing, I impatiently shoved a couple of particularly hard branches out of my way and stomped through, finally finding myself in a clearing.

"Hah…"

After bashing through the woods for what seemed like eternity, I was thankful for the little break. The thorns and bugs were getting downright annoying. Shoving a couple of shrubs aside, I staggered into the clearing, winded.

I can take a break here.

I had no idea how long I had trekked through the forest, but clearly it had been hours. The sun was slowly setting, the skies turning orange as the light faded away. Somehow I could still see the forest as clearly as day.

Probably a side effect of being a zombie. Come to think of it, I was still wearing my glasses even though I no longer needed them. Well, whatever. At least no one could accuse me of being glassy-eyed now.

That was when I heard a growl.

Oh, shit…

I couldn't hold back a curse when I heard the ominous sound. I tried to back away, returning the way I came from, but it was too late. Not that it would help, given how sharp animal senses were. They would have tracked me down with smell or sight even if I chose to conceal myself in the foliage. Wolves had a great sense of smell, after all.

…yes, I was assuming the growl came from a wolf. What else could it be?

Stupid question. This was Restia, not Earth. It wouldn't be surprising if it was an actual monster, like the black tentacle horror I encountered yesterday. As it was, the wolf didn't look like a normal wolf. It was white. Red lines seemed to bulge beneath its fur, emphasizing bunched-up muscles. Its eyes glowed crimson. I wondered briefly if it was an albino, but the angry red veins, spiky fur and two tails quickly disproved that.

"This isn't good…"

I dropped to a combat stance, even though I knew it would be useless. I might have learned basic martial arts (the only reason why I could fight back against Kobayashi and his lackeys), but they clearly wouldn't be sufficient to take out a monster from another world. And none of my special abilities were combat-orientated.

Well, I could turn this into a battle of attrition and rely on my Regeneration, then eat the guy to recover my strength…

It wasn't ideal, but it was the only practical plan I had. Taking a deep breath, I readied myself.

…only to be interrupted when something emerged from the woods.

The white wolf and I turned and stared at the newcomer, a gigantic, black anaconda that stretched over twenty meters in length. Its jaws open wide enough to swallow either me or the wolf, but the latter merely snarled at it. Dark muscles bulged as the anaconda uncoiled from the trees, slithering toward us. Its crimson eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

These things look like dangerous monsters…

Gulping, I backed away as the two creatures confronted each other. Clearly, they deemed me the lesser threat, focusing their attention on each other. Snarling, the white wolf pounced. However, with a speed that belied its immense size, the anaconda lashed out and snatched the wolf out of the air. Its jaws clamped down on the howling wolf, its fangs sinking into spiky fur and muscle as if they were nothing more than paper.

"Awoo!"

The wolf howled, but the anaconda quickly constricted it, wrapping its gigantic body around the poor thing. The white wolf disappeared under the coiling mass of muscle, and with a single twitch, the anaconda snapped the poor thing in half. I couldn't bear to watch as it swallowed the dead wolf whole, the carcass being consumed without any need for the anaconda to stretch its jaws.

Holy…!

I backed away, but it was too late. The anaconda had turned its attention toward me.

There wasn't much I could do against a creature of that size. Somehow, I was briefly reminded of the black tentacle horror that I encountered in my first day here. The anaconda gave off the same feeling somehow.

I shuddered as I felt cold chills envelop my body, which was trembling from instinct. There was something about this anaconda that felt…wrong.

Is this what they call demonic aura?

This was my second time feeling it, but then I felt something similar from the white wolf, just not on such a large scale.

I see. So these were monsters of Restia, something that never existed on Earth before. My human senses were tingling (even if I was an undead) and I couldn't help but instinctively feel fear. These things were impossible existences.

The anaconda was about to lunge at me, but another couple of growls distracted it. Loping from the woods, a pack of three other white wolves emerged, snarling. As I suspected, they weren't albinos. They all sported the same color, white spiky fur with disheveled red veins bulging out of their heavily muscled bodies.

As if they knew that the anaconda was responsible for the demise of their comrade, they lunged at the anaconda, their fangs and claws bared.

The anaconda lashed out, its tail catching one of the wolves and sending it flying. The poor thing yelped before it crashed against a tree, its body bent at unnatural angles, and slid down helplessly. Blood pooled underneath is corpse.

The anaconda then spun around, its jaws wide open, to welcome the second wolf. The wolf was unable to halt in midair and lunged right into the anaconda's jaws. The anaconda snapped its mouth shut and swallowed the unfortunate wolf whole.

The last wolf managed to latch onto the anaconda, who didn't panic. Growling, it sank its teeth into the hard, diamond-like scales of the anaconda, but didn't manage to penetrate. The anaconda merely wrapped its serpentine body around the wolf, crushing it instantly, before it swallowed the thing.

"…"

Yeah, this thing wasn't a normal anaconda. The snakes back on Earth usually only required a single meal, which would last them for a week. Yet this thing just devoured four white wolves without suffering from a stomach upset.

And it seemed hungry for more.

The anaconda was now turning toward me, hissing in a deadly manner. I tried to back away, but even as the gargantuan serpent lunged at me, I knew that I wouldn't be able to dodge in time. Seething, I dove to the side, and the lower jaw struck me. Its fangs pierced my arm and I screamed, but I forcibly dislodged my bleeding appendage and doubled down, rolling across the ground.

The anaconda's momentum carried it forward, but it swiftly twisted back in my direction, its jaws wide open again.

"Freaking snake!"

Cursing, I threw myself back, pressing my back on the ground and retaliating with a kick from both legs just as the anaconda was about to reach me. My feet slammed into its chin and I somehow shut its jaws and knocked the anaconda off balance.

"Sssss!"

The anaconda was not amused. Shaking its head, it hissed at me, opening its jaws for another attempt to devour me. I rolled away, but the anaconda decided to stop playing around. Its lithe body slithered across the ground, getting ready to coil around me.

I sure as hell wasn't going to get trapped by that muscular body. Even with Regeneration, I didn't want to find out what sort of grisly fate awaited me if I got eaten alive.

"Damn it!"

I scrambled away, trying to put as much distance between myself and the anaconda as possible, but the serpent was faster than me. Already, half of its body had me cornered and cut off my escape route. Gritting my teeth, I jumped on the coils and used them as a springboard to climb higher and out of the trap before the anaconda could wrap me in its crushing embrace. The anaconda darted at me, trying to bite me with those wicked fangs, but I somehow managed to jump off the top coil at the last moment and sailed above the lunging head.

"Whoa!"

I hit the ground and rolled away, only for the anaconda to tower over me once more.

"Fuck you!" I shouted. Kicking the coils, I tried to jump away, only for the anaconda to descend upon me with wrathful hunger.

It never reached me.

Something as huge as the anaconda landed from above, its giant, flapping wings casting me in shadow. I looked up and my jaw dropped in disbelief when I saw what looked like an enormous cockatrice catch hold of the writhing anaconda in its talons.

The damned thing looked like a gigantic chicken…or was supposed to be, but somehow I was reminded more of a hawk or an eagle. It wasn't just the size, but there was a majestic crown that jutted from its white head, and crimson eyes glared at its prey. The anaconda tried to coil around its predator, but the cockatrice lashed out and tore a huge chunk of meat from the gigantic serpent's neck with its hooked, cruel-looking beak.

"Sssss!

The anaconda wailed in frustrated, agonized hisses, but the cockatrice mercilessly tore the serpent apart with its talons, the sharp claws piercing the otherwise impenetrable scaled hide of its prey and drawing blood.

It's just one thing after another, isn't it?

While the two titans clashed, I used the chance to get away. This was the perfect example of the law of the jungle. Survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten. The anaconda ate the wolves, and now it was being devoured by a cockatrice.

And if I stuck around for too long, I would be next on the menu.

The cockatrice seemed to have noticed my presence, for it turned toward me next. Ignoring it, I dove toward the forest, seeking shelter inside the thick foliage.

It was useless.

The cockatrice crowed as it pursued me, its huge wings creating huge gusts of wind that almost blew me off my feet. The next thing I knew, the trees around me were getting sliced up. The cockatrice was slashing in my direction with those deadly talons of its.

"Whoa!"

I stumbled through the thick foliage, only to find myself flung off the ground and sent hurtling toward a tree. I struck the thick trunk hard, stunned for a moment as I slid down. Shaking my head, I gritted my teeth and endured the pain, pushing myself back up to my feet.

"…eh?"

There was something weird when I used my hands to propel myself up I sank toward my left, almost toppling over. Cursing, I glanced down.

…only to see that my left arm was gone.

"…!"

Blood was gushing out of my stump, but I found that I was numb to the pain. The endorphins and adrenaline coursing through my system must have helped, or I was otherwise going into shock. Whatever the case, it was a small mercy that I couldn't feel the loss of my arm.

Turning around, I saw that the cockatrice was eating something. Or holding something in its beak. It turned to me, its crimson eyes gleaming.

I saw that it was my arm that was dangling from its beak.

"You fucking overgrown chicken!" I yelled. "How dare you disarm me?!"

Well, this wasn't the time for jokes. Using my remaining arm, I hauled myself to my feet and began running. The cockatrice swallowed my left arm, and then pursued me, almost as if it was running in a leisurely manner.

For a gigantic chicken, it sure could run fast.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

Hollering curses, I burst through the forest, only to find myself in the clearing I had fallen into. The sheer wall of a cliff stared at me coldly as I went numb.

I was back where I started.

Behind me, the cockatrice trampled through the woods brutally, cackling in cruel amusement. I didn't have to glance back to know that it was right behind me.

Where do I go?

Then I saw a small glimmer of hope. Along the cliff wall, there looked like an opening. A cave of some sort. It was small – I should be able to just barely fit into it. In contrast, the five-meter tall cockatrice probably couldn't fit its talons in there.

I ran.

The cockatrice snarled, as if sensing that I had found my escape route, and it picked up its speed. I found myself lost in its shadow, which grew larger with every step. Determined, I threw myself off my feet and dove toward the cave, sliding across the floor in a painful manner that left scrapes and cuts. It didn't matter. Those would heal quickly. As long as I somehow stayed alive, I didn't care what injuries I sustained.

That was just as well. I could feel the wind from the cockatrice's claws as it swiped at me. Thankfully I had gotten down, or it would have decapitated me or at least cleaved me in half. As it was, the worst I suffered were relatively minor gouges on my back.

I scrambled into the cave, just barely managing to make it in before the cockatrice collided with the entrance, sending tremors throughout the cavern. Heaving, I got onto my hands and feet and began crawling desperately into the deeper part of the cave. Behind, the cockatrice screeched and slashed, its talons barely fitting inside the opening.

But the only thing it achieved was scratching the ground.

It seemed that the cockatrice had cocked up.

"Hah! Take that, you chicken!"

Crowing, I sneered at the cockatrice before I returned to crawling in an undignified manner. This was fine. As long as I was still alive, I didn't care if I had to crawl or beg. For now, I would settle for being cocky and talking cock.

I vowed to take my revenge on the overgrown chicken…sometime eventually. Showing the cockatrice my middle finger, I shakily rose to my feet and leaned on the cave walls with my right arm. Perhaps it was my ability as an undead, but I could see the interior of the cave clearly even though there was no light.

"Well, seems like the cave isn't going to cave in," I told the cockatrice. Grinning and clutching at my stump, which had stopped bleeding due to my regenerative powers, I plunged deeper into the cave in hopes of a safer refuge.