After walking deeper into the forest for some time, the young boy suddenly found the medicinal grass he had been painstakingly searching for all this time. He immediately and excitedly marched through a trail of bushes at the center of two tall trees covered in vines and came out in an open field, where the moon hung above the sky, illuminating the surroundings.
The moonlight shone brightly on the stalks of medicinal grass and on the countenance of the young boy, which was that of joy. But to any onlooker, his facial expression was devastatingly unsightly due to his dried countenance.
However, to the young boy's surprise, he didn't just find the medicinal grass he was looking for. He also saw a bloodied figure sitting on the ground, with his back against a tree, near one of the medicinal grasses. He couldn't tell who they were, but he could vaguely discern that they were a man.
The tree the man leaned against cast a shadow on his body, preventing him from completely seeing his face. From the shadow of the night, the man appeared lifeless as he wasn't moving, seemingly dead for some time.
"Eh?"
The young boy was dumbfounded and subconsciously let out a sound due to the shocking scene in front of him. He never would have thought that he would run into a corpse in the middle of the forest on his errand. He was so scared out of his wits that his languished body went limp and he unconsciously stepped back. He nearly fell on his butt in doing so, but he attempted to resist falling before suddenly hearing a calm voice in the distance.
"Hey boy…"
At some unknown point, the corpse suddenly started moving and even spoke. This scene scared him so much that his body became frozen from fright and he became rooted in the same spot. Though it was coincidental, as he froze from fright, he was inadvertently able to resist falling to the ground.
But the situation only got worse in his opinion. Despite his opinion, on a bright side, he was able to prevent himself from falling and breaking a bone or two in case he fell on something solid. Even so, he couldn't help but react to the scene in front of him.
'The corpse is talking!'
The young boy screamed inwardly and he felt his mind go blank for a brief moment before hearing the living corpse's voice once again, jolting back to reality.
"Come over here. I have something I need your help with. If you help me, I will give you some money. How about it?"
The young boy's scalp went numb and he seemed to have lost some strands of his already fleeting hair when he heard the voice for the second time. This confirmed his doubt that the corpse was indeed speaking to him. He took one step forward to balance himself and that was when he saw it— the creepy smile on the face of the corpse.
'What the hell! A living corpse with a creepy smile!'
With a horrified face, he mustered all his strength in his weak body, turned around, and bolted away, reentering the bush he had come out from. Although he felt regretful for not being able to pick the medicinal grasses he had found after so long, his life was more important than the medicinal grasses at the moment.
Despite living such a miserable and hopeless life where he could drop dead at anytime, he still cherished his life, as there were people who would be sad if he were to suddenly drop dead in the middle of the forest for an inexplicable reason.
With that motivation in mind, he ran as fast as he could, but his luck wasn't on his side as he suddenly tripped on one of the vines that extended from one of the twin trees, falling headlong on his face.
'Just my luck… Come on, there's no time to waste, I need to…!!'
Suddenly, he felt something grab him from behind and pull him back in the same direction he ran away from.
'No way! No way! No way!'
He screamed inwardly and instantly broke out in a cold sweat as a foreboding feeling washed over him. Then, a certain thought came to his mind: 'Don't tell me he plans on dealing with me to keep his secret as a living corpse?'
When that thought came to his mind, he immediately felt restless and unsettled. He struggled to break free from his bondage as he frantically begged for his life without any shred of shame.
"L-Let me go! I don't have any money on me! No, please don't kill me! I won't tell anyone what I saw. No, please don't eat me. I won't taste good! Please, I don't have much flesh on my body!"
Moments later, the young boy saw the living corpse man. But instead of dealing with him like he thought, the living corpse man dropped him onto the ground with his limbs bound by what seemed to be solidified clay.
While he continued to struggle to break free from his restraints, the living corpse man suddenly spoke in a hoarse voice: "Don't worry, I won't harm you. Hold on a second, I will let you go now."
As the living corpse man promised, he freed him from his restraints. Regardless, he still couldn't trust the words of a stranger. Therefore, without bothering to hesitate, he immediately turned around and attempted to escape. But as though the living corpse man predicted his actions, he felt his body being restrained once again.
"F*ck! I said I wouldn't harm you, so why are you still trying to run away!"
The infuriated voice of the living corpse man sounded loudly in his ears, causing him to shudder from fear. He could tell that they were clearly annoyed by him, as he felt an uncanny, deadly glare on him right after the living corpse man spoke. Then he suddenly heard an uncontrollable coughing sound.
"Damn it… Do you want me to die… too? If you move again from your position, I will kill you… Do you hear me?"
The living corpse man suddenly threatened.
Hearing such a threat, the young boy gave up struggling. Instead, he madly thought about how to survive the clutches of the talking living corpse without alerting it.
No matter what he thought of, he couldn't find any practical method to escape without being caught by the living corpse man's ability. His face revealed a trace of despair and anxiousness at this realization.
'I can't die here!'
He silently thought in desperation, but then he suddenly heard the living corpse man speak.
"Now that's more like it."
The living corpse man sounded very pleased, and then he lifted something with his blood-drenched hand. The thing he held also seemed to be covered in blood, making it appear disturbing. However, he wasn't shocked by the sight of blood.
Instead, the young boy was concerned about the owner of the blood. If it belonged to the living corpse man, then what could have caused the living corpse man to be in such a terrible state?