Hacking the Game Didn't Go as Intended

VOLUME V: SMOLDERING DAWN | CHAPTER 147: A Debt Carried Forward

"Aghhh," Daisuke groaned, his eyes flickering open as awareness dawned within him. Where... am I? What happened? Instinctively, he reached up to touch the spot where his head met the rock, frowning at the tender bump that dwelled there.

As the fog in his mind cleared, a flurry of memories came gushing forward, particularly the one where the chimera's fangs narrowly missed closing around his face. Jarred awake by the harrowing visual, he attempted to push to his feet, but a sharp pain had him freezing in place with a snarl. Belatedly, he noticed that his ankle was sprained, rendering him easy prey for opportunistic predators.

"That's just great," he murmured drearily.

Crawling on his stomach, he slowly made his way over to a nearby tree. With his back against its solid trunk, he awkwardly positioned himself upright, gazing out into the unforgiving forest. I guess this is where it ends for me, he muttered, his inner voice laced with resignation. It's what I get for thinking I could single-handedly take on that monster.

The world seemed to contort into shades of bleak gray, as if all color had been drained away, leaving only a hollow, lifeless void. Minutes stretched into hours, days, and then two excruciating days, each passing moment worsening his hunger. Daisuke wasn't sure about the game's mechanics, but in the real world, a human could survive at least two weeks without food, but only three days without water. He contemplated crawling around in search of the nearby water source he sensed, but abandoning what he now perceived as a safe refuge to do so was basically looking for trouble.

Withered and on the brink of dehydration, Daisuke's thoughts eventually turned morbid. What did I do to deserve this? Did I truly enslave and slaughter an entire race of people in my past life? I've sacrificed so much, only to be abandoned and left for dead in the end. How is any of this fair to me?

His eyes grew dark, the once soft gleam slowly replaced by anger and resentment. Just as his heart threatened to freeze over entirely, a tiny canine cautiously approached from the surrounding brush. He was bloodied and limping, his matted coat as tattered as the rags that clung to the boy's own body.

"Get lost," Daisuke muttered coldly as the small pup, no larger than a baby Shih Tzu, gazed up at him with hopeful eyes. "I said scram! I can hardly manage myself let alone take on another mouth to feed."

When the creature stubbornly refused to leave, Daisuke reluctantly hurled a stone in his direction, an act he instantly regretted as it drained the last of his energy. But his intentions bore fruit.

The pup whimpered softly before turning tail and fleeing into the shadows. With the creature finally gone, Daisuke was left with the bleak choice of either resigning himself to wither away in peace, or summoning the strength to seek out water and likely get eaten alive in the process.

***

Emerging from the shrubs into a small clearing, the pup flopped onto his belly, legs splayed in every direction with a small pink tongue sticking out of his mouth.

"Ahrr," he whined, glancing up at a familiar figure hidden away behind a gray hooded cloak.

Bending her knees, the young girl stroked the pup's head tenderly, crimson-red eyes quivering sympathetically within her hood. "No luck, huh?"

"Rawrwu," the canine exhaled wearily.

With a wistful smile, the girl shifted her body quietly, peeking through the undergrowth at the boy who, with just a selfless act of kindness, had rekindled a ray of hope deep within her heart. As her thoughts drifted to the heroic way he had hurled himself at the monster to buy everyone a chance to escape, a faint blush warmed her cheeks, and her eyes shimmered with admiration.