Chapter 4: Chapter 4: The Warped Jungle 4
Perry Yates figured she had uncovered the truth.
The venomous snakes’ seemingly perfect camouflage was now, in her eyes, riddled with flaws. The only reason she hadn’t noticed at first was that she had never even considered the possibility.
She looked at the vipers, so still, so confident in their perfect camouflage. ’Since you aren’t going to resist,’ she thought, ’I suppose I won’t hold back.’
Perry swung the Chopping Blade in her hand. In an instant, the branches erupted in a frenzy of motion. Her ears filled with agonizing hisses and the rasp of scales as the snakes’ bodies writhed in pain.
It’s a well-known fact that a venomous snake can still attack even if it’s just a severed head, so Perry was exceedingly cautious with every step.
Only after confirming the snakes were thoroughly dead would she press onward.
By dusk, she had finally cleared out all the vipers in the area.
When she looked back, the forest seemed to have a completely different feel to it.
The vines that had once crisscrossed between the trees were gone, making the whole forest feel much more open and clear.
Of course, that was if you didn’t look at the ground.
Having slaughtered so many vipers, the blood that had gushed from their severed bodies stained the ground red, creating a deeply unsettling scene.
The air was filled with the faint scent of blood. Perry Yates rubbed her arms, which ached from the exertion, and glanced at the darkening sky. Then, she turned and left the place as quickly as she could.
She took off her Weed Suit and tossed it aside.
The Weed Suit had been spattered with quite a bit of blood during the slaughter.
In the jungle, that was a potentially fatal liability.
She couldn’t risk a predator tracking her by the scent of blood, so it was better to discard it.
Thanks to her exceptional eyesight, the growing darkness didn’t hinder Perry’s movements much.
After running for what felt like an eternity, the sky had turned completely dark. The once-quiet jungle suddenly burst into life.
Perry’s heart was pounding.
’Just as I thought,’ she mused, ’nighttime is the most dangerous time. I have to find a place to hide, and fast.’
Perhaps it was luck, but after a bit of searching, she actually found a perfect hiding spot.
There, beneath the thick roots of a massive tree, was a hollow.
Perry examined it. It appeared to be some kind of animal’s den, but from the looks of it, it had been abandoned for some time. Plus, the space inside was large enough to accommodate a person.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Perry crawled inside.
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she had a nagging feeling that something was approaching.
After getting into the hollow, Perry didn’t relax. Instead, she took a bundle of weeds she’d grabbed along the way and stuffed it into the entrance, leaving only a bottle-cap-sized hole in the corner to allow for air circulation and a peephole to the outside.
The space inside the hollow wasn’t large, but it wasn’t exactly small, either. For someone of Perry’s size, curling up inside didn’t feel too cramped.
Just as she finished her work and held her breath, a set of heavy footsteps sounded from not far away.
Through her peephole, Perry saw an enormous, bloated, and misshapen figure.
Just then, a ray of Moonlight shone down through a gap in the canopy, allowing Perry Yates to see clearly what it was.
It was a giant rat covered in red pustules, with sharp claws and blood-red eyes.
She watched as it pressed its nose to the ground, seemingly searching for something.
Seeing this, Perry clamped her hands tightly over her nose and mouth, her body frozen still. She was terrified of making even the tiniest sound that the giant rat outside might hear.
As she watched the rat draw closer and closer, Perry’s heart rose to her throat. Her hand tightened around the Swamp Card.
’Even though I despise this card,’ she thought, ’if it comes down to it, using it is my only option.’
Just in the nick of time, a black shadow streaked past outside, drawing the deformed rat’s attention.
With a squeal, it turned and chased after the shadow.
Seeing this, Perry let out a sigh of relief from inside the hollow. Her back was soaked in cold sweat, and she felt as if she’d just been fished out of the water.
"That was a close one," she breathed.
Her attention had been so focused on the outside that only now, with the danger passed, did Perry feel the aches in her body—especially in her right arm.
It was all from the overexertion during the day. After all, she’d had to make sure to sever those vipers with a single strike.
"Hss."
Feeling the ache in her arm, Perry shifted uncomfortably.
But the space inside the hollow was just too small; no matter how she moved, she couldn’t get comfortable. Plus, she didn’t dare make any large movements for fear of being discovered.
Just then, she suddenly thought of her Talent.
’If I can use Ascension on items, can I use it on my own body, too?’
With this thought in mind, Perry Yates tried it on her aching right arm.
As she felt the energy within her body decrease, Perry’s eyes lit up. ’It worked!’
When the soreness in her right arm vanished, Perry Yates couldn’t help but give it a test flex.
[Your right arm has been enhanced once. Your current strength now exceeds that of most adult men.]
Perry’s jaw dropped, her mouth forming an "O."
’Now this is an unexpected windfall,’ she thought.
Thinking this, Perry simply went ahead and used Ascension on every part of her body.
With the Blueberry Fruit, she wasn’t worried about having enough energy.
The physical enhancement gradually diluted her fear of the game.
After she had finished using Ascension on her entire body, Perry Yates felt completely reborn.
If she were to face the vipers from daytime now, she estimated she could finish them all in less than half the time.
Just as Perry was basking in her newfound power, a shrill, terrified scream echoed from deep within the distant jungle.
Even at such a distance, the scream was disturbingly clear. The terror in that sound was chilling enough to instantly snap Perry out of her fantasy and back to reality.
Perry huddled deeper into the tree hollow.
’This is only the first day,’ she thought. ’There are still twenty-nine days left.’
Throughout the night, the screams of players echoed continuously from all over the jungle.
Some were far away, while others were alarmingly near.
Perry didn’t dare imagine what had befallen those people.
All she could do was hide as best she could and force herself to get some rest.
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