I open my eyes.
I dreamt... of nothing. I didn't dream at all, actually.
I rub my eyes. I felt especially weak and lazy today.
In fact, I could already feel myself dozing off―
I bite my tongue.
"Nope. No laziness today, my guy."
I couldn't afford to be lazy in a place where so many dangers were right around the corner.
Speaking of dangers...
'It really hurts to talk, huh?'
My throat was dying right now, which made sense. I hadn't drank in a long time, and I also did some involuntary exercise yesterday.
'Damn those wolves.'
Nevertheless, I had to act. Not acting would be the same thing as accepting death in my situation.
So after bidding a farewell to my... shelter, I was off to search for a good rock. I still needed to cross the river, and for that I needed an axe.
I walked along the shore of the river, killing two birds with one stone.
...Well, not literally, of course.
You see, I needed to get away from the spot the wolves attacked me at. I was almost certain that if I crossed the river in that same spot, I would get mauled by them.
So by walking along the shore of that river, I was both searching for a rock and walking away from the wolves!
'This is... really bad though.'
Only after walking for a bit did I realize just how sorry of a state I was in.
My arm was unusable, while constantly leaking blood. My makeshift bandages made of leaves and ripped textbook papers were helping, but not stopping it completely.
Honestly, if it was just that, I would've probably been fine, but the problem was the fact that I had slept with these same injuries.
Throughout the entire night, more and more blood had escaped my body, making me grow exceptionally weak. The pool of blood I had seen when I woke up confirmed that.
The pain had not receded as well, making every second just that little bit more agonizing.
'...Yeah, this is probably the second worst situation I have ever been in.'
The worst meaning the closest to death in this case.
Anyway, I kept walking, not really doing much. I only had two things to do in the first place.
But then, I stopped.
'Hold up. Let's rethink my situation right now.'
I didn't have a functioning hand, I didn't have a bridge to keep going, I didn't have a weapon, I didn't have food, I didn't have water.
Honestly, even a person like me was starting to lose his spirits here. I mean, it felt like I ended up in an end-game area as a level 1 noob.
'Alright, now, rethink it.'
I... had nothing to lose right now. Not only that, I was on a timer. If I didn't do anything soon, I would die of blood loss.
Which meant that―
'It is time to take risks, huh? Even though I hate risks...'
I walk to the edge of the river and take my backpack into my right hand.
Then, I spin. I spin as fast as I can and let go of the backpack at the perfect moment.
All the force of my spin converted into the speed of the backpack and it flew over the river... barely.
I then threw over my walking stick™.
'Now the hard part.'
I crouch right at the edge of the river... and dive right into it.
Immense pain immediately radiates in my left arm. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't, I was underwater.
Not only that, I had to use the hand to swim.
'Why the hell does it hurt so much?!'
It didn't make sense, but I had no time for idle thoughts. I focused on swimming to the other edge of the river.
After what felt like forever and at the same time a moment, I pulled myself up to the bank.
When I looked around, I noticed that my backpack was now about 80 meters from me.
'The current was that―'
I didn't have time to finish my thought as my left arm radiated with pain once again.
I groaned, this wasn't normal pain. It felt like my wounds were being reopened with renewed vigor.
'Dammit! Was the river salty?!'
No, that didn't make sense. I knew how salt affected wounds, this was not the same. This was something much more painful... and deadly.
'Bad. This is bad.'
It seems like I had underestimated the danger of the black water. Since it did nothing to my finger, I thought that swimming through it wouldn't be a problem either.
I was wrong. Really goddamn wrong.
In fact, after thinking about it for a bit, it was clear why the river was black now.
It was full of poison.
Or venom, if you're that kind of guy.
Anyway, what exactly it was didn't matter. What mattered though, was that there was now poison inside my system.
'Poison. Poison. What do I know about poison? How can I get out of this situation?'
First of all, I took off my bandages. Now that they were soaked, they were nothing more than sources of more poison.
The second thing I could do was... try to suck the poison out.
I didn't know how to do that, yes, but I didn't really have any choices here.
I brought my mouth to one of the teeth marks and sucked.
Eventually, I could feel something enter my mouth and it exploded with pain too.
I spat it out as fast as I could, but the damage was done. My mouth was now completely numb.
'What the hell?! It even damages my mouth?! I can understand wounds, but my mouth?!'
The situation had gone from bad to worse. More accurately, my attempts to make the situation better had instead made it worse.
'Whatever! Since I'm already on death's door, I will just continue struggling! There's no worse situation than death!'
Even with my numb mouth, I continued to suck the poison out.
At this point, I could feel some of the skin inside my mouth start to deteriorate.
It was painful. It was dangerous. But I was still alive and I still continued struggling.
After what felt like forever, I was sprawled on the ground. Completely exhausted and damaged beyond compare.
'Fricking... hell.'
I tried to move my left arm, but it didn't respond at all. My tongue was in the same situation.
'I can't even move my tongue now. Jesus, what a perilous situation.'
I chuckled a bit. I never thought I would use the word perilous in my entire life.
'Yeah, that's right. Laughter dulls the pain. Let's think about some funny stuff right now.'
I thought about everything funny that I could remember and chuckled quite a bit. Each one of those chuckles cost me a bit of pain, but I felt like it was worth it.
After lying there for who knows how long, I finally got up.
"Kh!"
I was hurting. Hurting a lot.
The pain was dulling my mind and body. I could barely walk right now.
'Ah, if only dying was as sweet as it is in media.'
I had already experienced once what it felt like to be on the verge of death.
It wasn't peaceful, it wasn't serene. It was painful, scary, agonizing.
I never wanted to feel like that again.
That's why I couldn't give up on living. I was constantly running away from death, just like a coward.
So even though everything hurt, I continued walking.
I picked up my backpack, put it on, and walked away from the poisonous river.
I wasn't limping... yet, but my pace had slown considerably.
Perhaps only now did I truly start to feel the fatigue of blood loss.
'Now that I think about it, I got rid of my bandages, right?'
I looked at my left hand, expecting to see it leaking blood like a waterfall, but I didn't see any blood.
'...Hm?'
The wounds were still there, but the blood wasn't leaking at all.
'Don't tell me... the poison cauterized the wound?'
This was... an unexpected boon. Even though I was now several times weaker, I was at least not on a timer anymore.
This didn't mean that my situation was good by any means, but it was at least better than I thought it would be.
'To think that I would be happy just because I'm not bleeding to death anymore. Happiness is such a weird thing.'
With a pained but sincere smile, I continued walking forward.
***
I walked and walked and walked.
At ths point, my legs were so exhausted that I physically couldn't walk without the support of my walking stick™.
Nevertheless, I continued forward. I might not bleed out to death anymore, but I still had to find a source of water, and fast.
With each passing minute, I could feel myself growing hungrier, thirstier, weaker.
Now that I had somewhat gotten used to the pain of my left arm and mouth, a head-splitting headache along with a gut-wrenching stomachache replaced it.
Aaah, everything hurt. Everything was painful, so painful that I wanted nothing more than to lie down in a ditch and just die.
But I was scared of death. I was too scared of death to accept it, so I continued walking, continued struggling.
"God...dammit!"
I was getting frustrated. ―Nay, that would be wrong.
I had been frustrated long before this moment.
Since the very moment I had found myself in this forest, I had silently been cursing whatever has sent me here.
I was forcefully pulled from the safety embrace of Earth to the deadly wilderness of another world after all!
Who wouldn't be frustrated?! Who wouldn't be angry?! Who wouldn't be... sad?
Every single step that I took, I had been lamenting my current situation.
Every single breath that I took, my anger had risen just that little bit.
And now, all that anger, all that sadness... it was catching up.
Slowly, tears started streaming down my face. My fists were clenched in anger and only one word repeated itself over and over inside my head.
'...Why?'
Why had I been summoned? Why was I being subjected to such torturous situations?
All I wanted was a worry-free life! What the hell have I done to deserve all of this?!
...
"Heh, I already know the answer, don't I?"
I haven't. That was the answer.
I haven't done anything to deserve this.
The world was cruel. The world was uncaring. The world wasn't fair.
Even if you only do good things, life will come around to kick you in the balls.
I'm not saying that I only did good things in life, no, that's not the case.
I have done quite a lot of bad things and even some illegal ones, but I wouldn't consider myself a bad person.
'Since that is the case, then why?!'
I couldn't understand why, and I most likely never would. All I could do, was keep struggling.
With my breath ragged, my throat parched, my stomach empty, my left arm bitten and poisoned, my legs barely keeping me steady, and my back creaking under the weight of my backpack, I saw the first clear indication that I was in a fantasy world.
'An... orc.'
Before this, it wasn't clear that I was in a fantasy world. Hell, all the things I saw could still be just... Earth.
But an orc wasn't something that existed on Earth. In other words, I had finally confirmed that I was summoned to a different world.
'Haha... a monster in my condition? More struggling, I guess...'
The orc was standing with its back turned to me, but the moment it turned around, it would see me.
And the moment it would see me... you can figure out the rest yourself.
After looking around for a solution to my situation, I spotted a huge tree.
While making sure not to make any sound while moving, I carefully hide behind the tree and focus on my hearing.
I could hear the orc growl and move around a bit. The sound of his footsteps was getting louder and louder.
'So he's getting closer. Considering my state, the best thing I can do is hide around this tree. It's going to be hard to perfectly guess where he is, but it should be possible.'
Surprisingly, I wasn't scared even a bit. Perhaps the pain had dulled my sense of danger, or perhaps it was just that my situation didn't get that much worse.
I mean, I was already as good as dead. How much worse is it when the chances of me dying go from 99.98% to 99.99%? The difference is beyond small.
As I was thinking that, the orc was coming closer and closer.
I listened to its footsteps and shifted my position around the tree accordingly.
The orc just continued walking in the same direction, passing by my tree and going further away. So after I couldn't hear it anymore, I started walking once again.
I expected it to attack me from behind, but nothing like that happened.
'Well... that was underwhelming.'
I was very happy that it was underwhelming though.
***
'Just keep walking. Just keep walking.'
Fatigue. Exhaustion. Tiredness. However you want to call it, that doesn't matter. The point is, I was so drained that keeping my eyes open was a challenge.
My brain still kept going overdrive and thinking of anything I could do, but it was useless. All I could do was step and step and step.
Eventually ― probably hours later ― my legs gave out.
I crashed to the ground, completely unable to get up.
'This is... a dead end, right?'
I kept struggling and struggling, but this new world had finally won.
Even though I wasn't hoping for anything, even though I didn't expect anything, I couldn't help but be heartbroken.
I had tried over and over again. I had done everything I could to bump up my chances of living.
But it wasn't enough.
...Ah, but that didn't mean I couldn't continue struggling.
I take a deep breath. It hurt. My parched throat hurt from the sudden pressure it was subjected to.
Then, with all my leftover might, with all my leftover energy.
I screamed.
"HEEEEEELP MEEEEEEE!!"
The next thing I saw was darkness. My body had given up on me completely.