Chereads / New chance in different world / Chapter 4 - chapter4

Chapter 4 - chapter4

After getting over the initial shock of being in a different world with a body younger than she was used to, Lila currently enjoyed her journey in search of civilization. Before coming to this world, she had spent most of her life in the city, rarely seeing much greenery, aside from some parks she used to run in for training. She excitedly looked around, taking in all the new sights. Especially the exotic-looking plants and trees caught her interest. The girl constantly stopped to look at the flora she had never seen before, not even in books or on TV. This made her progress relatively slow. Then again, not knowing where she was headed, Lila didn't feel the need to hurry and prioritized having fun over being efficient.

"What kind of tree is that?" Once again, her attention was caught by something. The tree in question was indeed a weird one. Instead of growing vertically, this one made a sharp turn two meters above the ground and continued to grow horizontally in an L-shaped form instead. Its branches and leaves were already touching the ground, and the easy-to-reach, small and spiky, red fruits grew in incredible amounts on this tree.

"These fruits kinda resemble lychees, don't they? No, wait, it was something similar looking. Lychees didn't have any spikes. Ah, I think they were called rambutan or something similar to that…?" She wasn't sure herself. "Hmm? Does that mean they're edible, then…?" Thinking so, Lila was about to reach for a fruit but stopped herself before grabbing it.

"No, even if they look the same, resembling some odd fruit I know from my old world, it still doesn't mean it is the same. In the first place, while I never saw a rambutan, or however they were called, tree before… wait a moment, do they even grow on trees?" She tilted her head, trying to remember what kind of fruits there were and how they grew. "Whatever, I'm confident to say that wherever they grow on, it didn't look like this thing." She glanced at the oddly shaped tree again and retracted her arm. "Even though I'm curious, I better be safe than sorry." She was cautious enough not to taste-test a random fruit in an unknown world. Once her interest in the tree faded, Lila continued her journey to find a city. Eventually, she picked up her speed because there wasn't much of interest, but she eventually had to stop for another reason.

"Hmm~" She looked around before placing a hand on her chin while tilting her head. "I'm lost, aren't I? Well, I was lost ever since I started, but it feels even more so now!" She was casually jogging for the last hour or two, equaling sprinting with a way higher speed than any ordinary human could ever dream of reaching. However, there were still no signs of civilization whatsoever. "D-Don't tell me my luck was so abysmal before, that even with boosts, it still amounts to nothing?! Well, that would explain a lot, though… Everything would make sense now, actually." Having depended entirely on luck to find her way, Lila began to regret her decision. Not that she had any alternatives in the first place.

"Haa," Sighing, she grumbled over the possibility of not being very lucky, if at all. "What now? Yeah, whatever, let's just continue in the same direction! It's not like anything will change." Lucky or not, it didn't make much of a difference at this point, or so Lila had thought. That way of thinking may have been a mistake, though.

"Ahaha…" A dry laugh was the best she could muster. Not even five minutes after deciding it would be best to continue in the same direction passed before something blocked Lila's path, forcing her to stop. "Wow, that's a huge doggy~" She tried her best to deceive herself. In reality, in front of her stood an at least two-and-a-half-meter tall animal that may have some dog-like features, but it was some sort of overgrown wolf no matter how one looked at it. His fur was mostly a mix of dark and light silver with white patches, and along his back and tail, some brownish-orange highlights could be seen.

"I would like to have the slimes from before back, please!" Lila thought for a moment that she would prefer to face the weaker-looking slimes from when she arrived in this world. "No, scratch that-" Still, once she remembered their creepy wiggling and slimy appearance, not to mention those aberrations sporting tentacles on their bodies, the girl shuddered and looked at the oversized wolf. "It at least looks fluffy. He would actually be adorable… if he wasn't that huge. Oh, and the fact that he's baring its gigantic fangs at me, not cute at all…" She stopped for a moment. "Ah, that's bad, isn't it…?" Her expression changed while she focused on the monster aggressively showing its teeth.

"W-Well then, goodbye!" Using the same strategy she had success with on the slimes before, Lila turned around. Then, she jumped into a sprint, using as much of her power as she could. Having superhuman features might not be such a bad thing, after all, was the thought she briefly had while fleeing until she turned her head around.

Unfortunately, the gigantic wolf wasn't bound by human standards, either. Outrunning a normal wolf is already impossible, after all. While not catching up to Lila, he managed to run at the same speed, making the whole ordeal pointless. Even so, Lila continued to run with the hope her endurance was higher than that of her predator. This hope turned out to be in vain as well. Neither the wolf nor the girl showed any sign of slowing down even a bit during their prolonged chase. Realizing that this was going nowhere, she hit the brakes. Quite literally. Lila managed to stop so hard and fast that she even tore up the ground below her feet, leaving two brake lines behind her. Clearly not expecting this, the wolf sped past her before finally being able to stop a little way away from the girl. The two stared at each other for a good while. She then glanced at her feet and the broken ground. Images of the destroyed boulder at the lakeside also flew through her head afterward.

"I-I'm quite strong, you know…?" She didn't sound overly convincing. "I'm not sure h-how strong wolves are in this world, especially since you seem to be a, uhh, s-special case with your size and all, or how you could keep up with me… Still, I don't plan on losing!" Lila took a fighting stance, somewhat resembling that of a boxer, and tried to psyche herself up.