Yama kept running circles around the clearing he found himself in. He ran at set intervals, running with high intensity when he had enough stamina and then switching to low intensity to conserve and preserve his endurance when he was running low. He kept running for hours on end, resting every 30-minutes or so. He nodded at himself in acknowledgment and followed the grueling pace without complaint. The warm humidity of the jungle made him feel sticky and suffocated. His clothes and white hair, slick with perspiration, clung to his hard exoskeleton. Sweat rolled down his exoskeleton in thick, salty beads. Yama could feel his heart throbbing inside his chest. His exoskeleton felt like it was roasting. He also began bouncing slightly as he jogged, which wore him out quickly. He was also vaguely aware of stinging in his leg because of overuse. Due to the routine, he was completely exhausted by noon. By then he had reached back to the stream where he started his jog. Yama went to his knees and drank from the stream, trying to catch his breath. His lungs felt like they would burst and his throat was so dry.
To sustain and run a big organization like Halbringer, Yama was trained from birth both physically and mentally, so doing this strenuous and draining task was something that he could do for an extended amount of time. Yama was running because, in Bacus's report, it showed that by running for four hours or more continuously, he could gain an achievement that could help him at the beginning of the game. After what felt more than five hours, Yama started to get suspicious, where was his achievement? However, he still kept running for an extra hour or so continually, until he was finally greeted with his reward for his work.
Ding!
Through certain repeated actions, you have raised your endurance by 1.
The six hours of repetitive, boring and straining physical and mental torture in-game work was just greeted by just an increase of his endurance? Where was his achievement ?! This made no sense as he followed exactly what it said on Bacus's notes that No.2 brought.
"Hmmmm….Unless!"
Unless there were other circumstances that could be the reason this situation occurred. First was that Ievie Co.d discarded the idea of achievement between the 2 months Bacus was kidnapped and killed, this was very unlikely to happen. Another reason would be that between Bacus and No.2, someone had lied. There was no doubt about No.2's loyalty so it was probably Bacus that pulled up the wrong information to misguide him. However, this also did not make sense as Bacus would not be willing to kill his family to just trick him. What was going on? Was Bacus really that stupid?
"Grrrr"
Yama's body was tired and exhausted and on top of that, he was severely hungry. He could think on his train of thoughts later as he needed to act right now. The hunger was ever-present; from dawn to dusk it gnawed at him. He tried looking for fruits and other foods hanging on trees to eat but could not find anything. He went inside the cave opening to search for something to eat but it was just a hole in the wall that could only be used to rest. He needed to find food fast because he wasted his time running in the opening without thinking of food and other essentials needed for his petite ant-body.
Yama knew to level up and get strong in 'Underneath' was going to be hard, but even with six hours invested, he would only increase his stamina by one? This was just insane. The developers knew they had to make a long-lasting game, so the players won't get bored of it. However getting more levels and more stats was going to be torture.
"Grrrrrr"
Yama's stomach made more growling noises and signaled him to find food fast. Yama needed to be careful because he did not know the level of danger in the forest, so he started to explore it silently and carefully. He could not use any of his racial abilities like ant-control or turning his body green to camouflage himself as he did not use his time to learn them. He also needed mana for his ability to work and he had no idea how to use it. This was one of the major drawbacks of playing as a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid as he had no one to teach him his abilities and he needed to figure it out by himself.
"Grrrrrrrrr"
He had been walking for about 15 minutes in the jungle of trees. The whole forest was eerily quiet and the only living being that he saw so far were black and white striped rabbits with a horn on its forehead. Yama gave up the thought of catching it as he needed to conserve his weak stamina. He did not even know if he would be able to approach the rabbit without it running away. His stomach snarled and howled and from it came the not-so-subtle undertone of pain. It came in waves and it seemed as though his stomach was slowly digesting itself. Yama clutched at it, pulling it this way and that in an attempt to silence it but to no avail. It was a slow pain, eating away at his stomach and leaving him feeling drained and empty.
"Grrrrrrrrrr"
It had been ten hours since he arrived at the world of Symetium and he was tired, exhausted and had so many hunger pains that he had considered eating grass, but he still had his sanity that so he stopped himself from doing that. It was ironic considering an owner of a multi-trillion dollar business was starving to death. He had traveled in the jungle alone for a great distance but still only occasionally saw those weird rabbits. There were not even any worms or insects in the ground of the forest, which was really foreboding considering he was in a lush green environment that was perfect for bugs and insects to thrive in.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr"
He would have been fine for without eating for this amount of time but he had exhausted himself and now his body was demanding nutrients. As the day turned into night, Yama had was so tired that he could drop down asleep at any time. He knew the danger of exposing himself to the environment unguarded so he tried finding himself a place to sleep safely and after 5 minutes of searching, he finally spotted a fallen hollow log. Gnawing hunger, famished, black hole for a stomach, rumbling stomach, feeling light-headed and empty legs from hunger, feeling shaky, hungry as a hippo, hungry as a bear in spring, half-starved. He went in from the top of the log and hid there before dozing off.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
He woke to the sound of his growling stomach and the hunger pains in the morning of his second day in 'Underneath'. The time in 'Underneath' and real-life was not the same as there was a 5:1 ratio time difference between them. So, this meant that 1 hour in real life was equal to 5 hours in 'Underneath'. Anyways, the ant-hybrid woke up hungry but he felt more rested and energetic compared to the day before. Yama did some stretches to make himself ready for the day and in the process noticed that his hands, torso, and legs had gotten somewhat thinner. The ant-hybrid were not as tough as humans or other creatures so Yama had already gone into starvation response. His body was already burning his fatty-acids, fat storage, and muscle tissues as well as reducing metabolism to sustain his body functions. He needed to find food fast otherwise his condition would continue to get worse and worse until his inevitable demise.
Yama stopped moving ahead of the forest and decided to capture the horned rabbits to feed himself. He knew he had no chance to catch the rabbits if he chased them so he went to a place with a small clearing and started making traps. He started digging the clearing up with his four claws and made hole 1 meter wide and a 2 meters deep. This took him about 4 hours of work and this exhausted his already dying body. A few hours ago his stomach growled. However, now it was silent. He was past the growling point. Yama only felt a sinking emptiness, but strangely didn't feel exactly hungry. He just felt empty, like a part of him was gone and he needed to get it back. He was tired and could not focus. Yama took some fallen leaves and dug some plants to cover the hole. He took a quick rest and started chasing the horned rabbits to make them fall into his trap as he had no bait to lure them. He had no success that day so he went back to his log and slept hoping for success the next day.
The third day, he noticed that he had thinned himself further. He also regretted leaving his original location as he also did not have any water source to drink from. He could not even go back because he did not know where it was located. That day, he almost got a rabbit to go over the trap but it avoided it and ran somewhere else.
The fifth day, it looked like he had burned all of his muscle and fat for nutrients as he looked like nothing but skin and bones. He also constantly felt sleepy and drowsiness coming to claim him. Fortunately, today he made a rabbit fall into his pit but the rabbit jumped that height like it was nothing and ran away, leaving Yama depressed.
The seventh day, Yama did not even go out to hunt as he had no energy to spare and just laid in the hollowed log surrounded by plants. He often drifted into consciousness. And then back out. The world was a blur, and random images seemed to float aimlessly around the pool of his thoughts, as though they were being blown about viciously by a hurricane. He found himself sleepy all the time and knew that if he slept, he would die. Yama felt regret for choosing to become a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid and trusting Bacus's report.
"Badoom"
"Badoom"
"Badoom"
It was so extremely silent that Yama could hear his own weakening heartbeat. He needed his utmost effort to even move one of his fingers and had trouble breathing properly. As his consciousness ebbed, his mind went into free fall, trying to swirl within the beautiful chaos of a new dream.
Yama was regretting all of his actions, he should have just chosen a greater species to start with. 'Underneath' was meant to be as immersive as possible so one person could only have one character in their iris scanner and they could not delete it. So Yama was stuck forever being a Nyonye Ngana Hybrid and if he died, he would further suffer from penalties from dying. He would go down by 2 levels and lose all of his accumulated experience towards the next level for his active skills. Yama did not need to worry about the experience for active skills however he was fearful of the drop of two levels. Every character started with level 1 and if he died, he would become more worthless as he would lose all his attributes for 2 levels and become a level -1 character. Leveling up in 'Underneath' was really difficult and trying to survive in his forest with reduced attributes was suicide that would further drag him down, thus repeating the loop. The thought of getting help from his employees also never crossed his mind as he had no idea where they were and how they doing.
Yama was phasing in and out of consciousness. He felt a type of blackness come over him. Like a blanket, but not a blanket of warmth but a blanket of coldness making him shiver. But somehow it was making his eyes feel heavier and heavier. He finally closed his eyes finally sending himself into a dreamless sleep….Then, suddenly, his mind snapped. Red knuckles come from clenching his fist too hard, and gritted teeth from the effort to remain awake, his hunched form exuded an animosity that was like acid - burning, slicing, potent. His face was red not only because of his natural ant-hue but also with suppressed savagery. He reached out his hand and grabbed the first thing that came in his grasp, dirt. He compressed the dirt in his fist and forcefully shoved it down his throat and pressed it into his stomach. He ate so noisily, slurping and chewing the dirt like some kind of vacuum cleaner. If he could have opened his mouth any wider he would have eaten the mound hill in one bite. As it was he took off a quarter of it in one massive chomp of his gnashers. He then started eating plants around the log in the same manner. He shoved dirt and plants into his stomach for a full 5 minutes and then screamed loudly before dropping on the floor.