The cockroach in the box had been in a peaceful state before Metro touched it. It started buzzing, spreading its wings to fly out into the forest. Unwilling to let it go just like that, Metro's instantaneous reaction was to snap his hand shut, capturing the cockroach.
The cockroach buzzed around in his hand in desperation, before it finally settled down. Metro clenched his fist extremely tight to the point that his fingernails were digging into his skin, but also just enough so it wouldn't crush the cockroach.
"Should I just crush this cockroach and be done with it?" Metro contemplated this option in his mind. It didn't seem like something he should risk his life over. The moment he had this thought, a sharp pain came from the hand that he used to hold the cockroach.
Looking at the hand, a deathly chill came over his heart. Two sharp thick pincers had pierced through two fingers respectively, cutting through the digits like they were paper. Fresh blood was splashed across the pincers, and continued to ooze from the wound.
The horror, the pain, the surprise... all of these factors contributed to Metro's brain to receive unending danger signals. His hand acted quickly, opening up to let the cockroach drop safely onto the ground. The pincers did not cause further damage, leaving a clean cut where they had been.
"Kill the cockroach as soon as possible!" Even though Metro had suffered grievous injuries to his hand, his killing instinct popped up again, fuelled by the anger from the pain. The shovel in his other hand came down on the cockroach with the strength of all the wrath Metro could muster, slapping it with the blunt side.
"Crack!" The exoskeleton of the cockroach broke apart from the blunt force applied to the shovel. However, there was a metallic sheen reflecting off the cockroach, exposing the mysterious metal that also made up the pincers. What was even more astonishing was that a hole had appeared at the end of the shovel, showing off how powerful the cockroach was.
Even though the cockroach had incredible defence power, it was still shocked by the amount of force that Metro had applied. Seeing it in a slight daze, Metro continued to deliver more blows to it using the shovel. With every blow, more of the shovel fell apart, but beneath the cockroach's metal layer had signs of cracks on them.
Every blow of his was powered by adrenaline. Between the swings, the fingers that were hanging on by threads of tissue flew off, even though they were reinforced by Metro's skills. His sweat was like a never-ending river, constantly heating up to inhuman levels in an attempt to cool his body.
Eventually, the shovel's end had turned into metal chunks, so Metro tossed the wooden rod away. The cockroach was rapidly twitching on the forest floor, and not moving anywhere.
Metro inferred that the cockroach was essentially crippled. The forest floor was filled with forest litter that the cockroach could dig into and hide in if it wanted to. It's inability to move had already signalled its defeat.
"God... I feel so thirsty and hungry. How long has it been since I felt like this?" Metro could not remember the last time he had his stomach rumble and his lips dry. Even back in the first scenario, he had at most had a strong desire to eat and drink, but not to this extent.
Looking at the cockroach, Metro found that it had stopped reacting to any stimuli. Raising his hand up, he intended to crush it and bring pieces of the cockroach back to the man. Just as his fist was about to land, Metro lost the sensation in his right hand.
Coincidentally, that was also the hand that lost two of its fingers. Metro had planned to collect his two fingers and try and find a method to get it fixed, but the weird thing was that the hand appeared to have suddenly died, as it became limp.
"Could it be that the cockroach's true aim was to poison me?" Metro's paranoia reached new heights as he felt this numbing sensation rise up from his hand to the wrist. He took swift action, cutting off the whole arm directly with almost all the remaining light energy in him, which also helped to cauterise it.
The arm that previously looked incredibly robust started shrinking instantly, becoming a short, weak and shrivelled arm. It was worlds apart from when it was attached onto Metro's body.
"Is this how the system calculates the Body Skills? When they're not controlled by me, they do not receive the buffs?" Metro's comprehension of the system increased again. As he looked at the arm on the floor, waiting to see how the arm would decay, Metro witnessed the arm sprouting some metal legs!
"Metallic infection?" Metro stomped the arm immediately. Sadly, he was already too late to stop the arm, as he felt an incredible pressure defending the arm. The skin on the arm was blown away, but the metallic layer underneath it was much thicker than what the cockroach had.
Realising that there was no way he could defend against this rogue cyborg arm, Metro made a desperate dive for the cockroach. The relatively soft forest ground allowed Metro to slide across and enclose the cockroach inside his remaining hand.
"With the cockroach in my possession, I can safely return to the man!" During the other two tasks, Metro still had chances to find secrets that could implicate the man. He had no hopes in the metal, since it appeared to be like a parasite, taking control of a host vessel through inflicting wounds.
Metro could infect a living being with this metal, but he had no ways to contain it. The box from earlier had only worked because the cockroach appeared to have been sedated with something unknown. It could become an unmitigated disaster that would also affect him.
Considering all of these factors, Metro jumped to his legs and escaped. The crawling arm would just have to be someone's else problem to deal with. Remembering the direction that he came from, he looked at the unique symbols on the trees. They had been based on the Arabic numerals from his past life, in order to help him recognise them better.
In total, he had marked about 51 trees with those symbols. The first tree that he had encountered had the number "51", so Metro was sure that this was the direction that he had went.
Running through the forest, the numerous numbers appeared directly near Metro, "40", "39", "38", each continually counting downwards, letting him know that he was on the right path.
"Almost there! I can make it! Food and water are all awaiting for me!" Metro's hunger and thirst slightly affected his functions as he continued to run. The arm did not appear anywhere near him, so he forgot about it as his eyes darted around to find the numbered trees.
With his crazed rush, it was only a wonder that Metro did not reach "1" sooner. Looking at the first tree that he had marked since he entered the deeper forest, a last burst of adrenaline led Metro to fly past that tree to reach the town, where he could rob their consumables and feast to sate his ramping desires.
Of course, reality was not as good as it presented itself. Running into a tree had been the fate that Metro had experienced. Knocking his head on the tree trunk, waves of pain assaulted Metro on the area he was hit.
With his willpower, Metro could forcibly ignore the pain, and could make out that the metallic layer had appeared once more, this time in the tree's trunk! It was as if the metal was ever-present and everything in the forest was made of it.
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Metro heard the sounds of objects zooming around, before he was hit by several hard objects. Even though his Fortitude and Newman Coating had allowed him to resist the blunt force created by objects, he still felt slight pangs of pain as he was squeezed into a tight space.
"Where is this place?" Metro could not help but look around, since it was the only thing he could do. He observed that a circle of trees had been fit together like Lego blocks, perfectly sealing up every space. This tree prison was extremely tiny, locking him absolutely in place. The metal was also powerful enough to resist the maximum force he could pull out.
"Goddamn it, I've been played the whole time!" There was only one being that Metro felt could have pulled this off. Looking at the cockroach in his hand, he dropped it to the ground in fury. The arm had some degree of intelligence after all, and had been using the cockroach to track him all this time!