Matsurize looked at the dead rabbit in his hands, feeling quite pleased. After all, it was meat!
Though it was a dead rabbit, he sniffed it cautiously. Thankfully, it didn't seem to have been dead for long. If his guess was correct, this rabbit must have run into the tree and died earlier that very day. If the body had been here overnight, some wild animals would have likely dragged it away by now—there was no way it would have been left for him.
Moreover, there were no signs of bugs, snakes, or other critters gnawing at the body, nor was there any stench of decay, which further supported Matsurize's theory.
But now that he had the rabbit, he wasn't sure what to do with it. He had no idea how to start a fire, and with all the dry leaves and branches around, if he did manage to light a fire, he might accidentally set the whole forest ablaze. What would he do then?
Driven by hunger, he picked up a sharp-looking stone from the ground. Beneath the very tree where the rabbit had met its end, he began the gruesome task of skinning the animal.
It was his first time doing anything like this, but for food, he had no choice.
Sweeping aside the dead leaves, he found a patch of dry ground under the large tree, sat down, and held the rabbit in his hands. Raising the sharp stone in his right hand, he hesitated.
He was at a loss. He had no idea where to start.
It wasn't that he felt pity for the rabbit—he wasn't thinking, "Oh, the poor bunny, I can't eat it." He simply didn't know how to proceed.
In his past life on Earth, although he'd spent some time in the countryside, he had never actually killed a rabbit before. In fact, he had never killed anything—not even common farm animals like chickens or fish.
His only experience with animals had been visiting his grandparents in the countryside, where he watched from the sidelines. He hadn't even done farm chores, let alone killed anything. The most he'd ever done was step on ants—his greatest act of "killing" in his previous life.
After staring at the rabbit for what seemed like an eternity, Matsurize finally made up his mind. He slashed at the rabbit's belly with the sharp stone, aiming to open it up. But nothing happened. The stone failed to pierce the rabbit's thick skin.
This was hardly surprising. It was just an ordinary stone he had picked up at random, and wild rabbits have tough skin and thick fur—not something easily cut.
Still, he couldn't help but feel relieved that luck had left him a small opening.
Matsurize continued sharpening the stone, hoping it would become a proper tool. "Sharpening a knife won't delay cutting firewood," as the saying goes. The sharper the tool, the easier the job. Swinging the stone around blindly wouldn't get him anywhere.
As he worked on sharpening the stone, Matsurize kept noticing a small red dot flashing in his mind. He had checked it several times by now and could confidently conclude that it wasn't a hallucination. Ever since he had woken up on the beach, the dot had been there, though at first, he had been too shocked by the fact that he had been reborn to pay it much attention.
Then hunger had hit, followed by getting lost in the forest, so he hadn't had a chance to fully investigate it until now. He wasn't sure what it was, but one thing was clear: it wasn't a natural part of his new body. It must have come with his soul when he was transported to this world.
That thought excited him. In his previous life, he had read many stories about characters who traveled to new worlds and gained powerful systems or abilities. Could this red dot be something like that? Could it be the key to his success in this strange world?
He had tried various methods to activate it, including calling out to it and syncing his breathing with its flashing pattern, but nothing worked. The dot refused to cooperate, and Matsurize had almost driven himself crazy with frustration.
By now, he had grown used to ignoring it. After all, he had been an ordinary person in his past life. He wasn't some super-genius or physically gifted individual—just a regular guy who happened to find himself in this extraordinary situation.
Having been reborn in this new world, he desperately wished he had a system or ability like the ones from the stories. And there was a sliver of hope—a small, red dot flashing in his mind.
But reality is often cruel. Just when it gives you a glimmer of hope, it dangles it just out of reach, or worse, pushes you into despair.