Ye Shengtao followed his system through the intertwining branches of the forest that surrounded him. With every step that he took, some branch or tree poked into his rib.
In his previous body, while he was abnormally tall, he was also extremely slim. He could have easily woven through the trees that surrounded him. But now, he was stuck with his huge bovine body, whose fat shook with every step he took.
The same fat that would end up becoming the marbling of a most delectable wagyu steak.
The only thing he could be thankful for was the fact that he was still a calf, and that he didn't yet have certain female parts that were both heavy and burdensome.
His body was large, yes, but it was still rather small for a calf.
Yet another branch poked into one of his thirteen pairs of ribs, but Ye Shengtao barely had any reaction at all. The padding was both protective and useful.
His system, however, was weeping annoyingly in front of him.
It would take a great amount of annoyance to make Ye Shengtao explode, but lucky for him, his system existed. The very sound of her breathy crying was enough to make him want to ram his cow head into her and then trample her to death.
If there was one weakness that Ye Shengtao had, it was this system of his.
He slowly dragged his feet through the forest, trying to drown out the sounds of the system crying. The squelching of the wet mud beneath his hooves was a good distraction, but not good enough.
"What happened." Ye Shengtao finally decided to talk to the weeping system.
His voice was dull and lifeless, much like how he felt inside.
He stopped walking as he talked, letting the cool breeze through the forest envelop him, and hopefully cool him down. He looked into the sky, watching the eagles fly around above him.
There wasn't much in this new life that felt like it was worth living to him.
Anyway, a couple chapters in, he was going to die.
And die in the most terrible way.
To go out as steak was the nastiest way he could think of dying. He was going to be eaten by a hero he had never met, and he was going to be so tasty that the hero would remember him later on during the climax of his story.
Ye Shengtao was enveloped in his own, miserable thoughts, despite asking the system what was wrong with her. In all honesty, he couldn't be bothered with the system. She was excruciatingly annoying and frustratingly dumb.
"There's a twig in my hair!!" whined the system between tears. She flailed her hands around wildly to keep the other branches from getting into her hair.
Ye Shengtao sighed a deep cow sigh, knowing very well that there was no way to shut the system up without losing his own temper.
"Let's get out of here."
The system nodded her beautiful head, tears still pooling at the bottom of her eyes. She looked tender and worth protecting. But not to Ye Shengtao.
"Where to?" she said slowly, her voice coming out as nothing more than a whimper. Her soft and delicate hands were still running through her black hair, trying to get every twig out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH"
Ye Shengtao looked back at the cowshed and felt a chill down his back. He knew exactly where and who that wail was coming from.
"Anywhere but here." he hissed as he nudged the system forward with his nose.
The urgency in his voice was more than apparent to the system, who instantly stopped fiddling with her hair. She pushed the branches in her face out of the way one last time, before settling into a sprinting stance.
"Just get on my back."
Right now, Ye Shengtao only weighed as much as a teenage girl, but his hooves would give him a major advantage over any sort of running that the system did with her current body.
"Just run straight ahead," the system said, weightlessly getting on his back, "There's a mountain there. It's covered in plains and is pretty much uninhabited."
Ye Shengtao gave the system a final nod of approval before breaking into a sprint.
As he galloped through the dense forest, his heart pounded like a thousand hooves. The thorny branches scratched against his hide, and his sturdy legs pounded the ground with each desperate stride.
Ye Shengtao couldn't see if the landlady was chasing him, but he knew that if she was, he had no time to turn back and check. His cow instincts told him that danger was near, and his adrenaline-fueled instincts urged it to keep running.
The running felt so odd. He was running as fast as he could, and yet his legs never felt like they were giving way. The wind was blowing over his ears leaving behind a slight itch that he'd never felt before.
Twisting and turning through the trees felt like second nature to him.
Even if he'd never done this before.
As the sweat rolled off his face, he could finally feel the light at the end of the tunnel pouring onto his face, blinding him. He squinted carefully, and then slowly opened his eyes wider and wider.
While the forest hadn't seemed that dark, now that he was out in the light, he could feel the difference washing over him, warming him gently.
"We've reached." smiled the system as she bounced off his back, "The valley of flowers."
"The valley of flowers?"
Ye Shengtao couldn't help but feel like something was amiss. He'd heard this name somewhere in the book, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it.
"We should be safe here," the system smiled, showing all her teeth in a lopsided grin. She locked her arms behind her back and twirled around in front of Ye Shengtao as if asking for praise. "No one lives here except for the villagers in the ravine below."
A ravine…
With a village…
That was the goddamn village where the hero lived...
Ye Shengtao's relaxed cow face morphed into an expression that could only be described as a pained grimace.
He slowly opened his mouth, and the system, who realized she probably wasn't going to be getting praise for this, closed her eyes, bracing for impact.
"Why. Would. You. Bring. Me. Near. The. Hero."