I knew I was dead.
Anyone could tell that much from the circumstances I found myself in.
I could whine about it, cry about it, complain to the high heavens.
I wanted to point at all that happened, from my meeting with the dimensional divine, through my summoning to another world, all the way to my system crashing and then dropping me in some random, lethally dangerous place in the world.
Just point at all that happened with my two hands and scream, "How the fuck?!"
But all that screaming, whining, and complaining could achieve was to paint an even bigger target on my already defenseless back.
The current situation was quite clear.
'I'm not going to leave this place.'
That much I could figure out. And yet, somehow, I was numb to the thought.
The idea of dying was simply too far removed from what I was used to. Because this wasn't the kind of death I used to wish upon those trolling sons of bitches on the game's opposite team.
This was real, painful, and as sudden as it was likely to be prolonged — the kind of death where I'd be torn into pieces at the hands of some devilish predator.
And that predator was coming, I couldn't be any more sure about that.
The eerie silence of this dense jungle was too overbearing for that not to be the case.
Then, a flicker of hope.
The system that I thought gone was somehow coming back, constructing the frame of its message out of pure, condensed light that somehow coalesced into a dark, shadowy frame.
'Perfect background to read from on a bright day,' I instantly thought, squinting my eyes, trying to decipher the purpose and method behind the system's revival.
By now, I'd learned my lesson and asked no questions, fully expecting some game-changing revelation to happen at any time.
I abandoned my deeper thoughts and, in exchange, I could better adapt to the changing circumstances.
But what I took for a flicker of hope turned out to be just another fat slap on my face.
In the short instant before I read those three lines, I still had some hope left.
Maybe it was one of those scenarios where I would be faced with a deadly threat only to awaken to my hidden cheat-power?
But as my brain processed those three lines, scalping as much information as I could from its IT-like structure…
Honestly, though, the last line was pretty self-explanatory.
Right when I thought that maybe, against all odds, I would be able to survive…
My cheat not only was FFF-rank, not only was it a failure system, not only did it bug itself out and put me in this situation…
It was now abandoning me?
I clenched my fists and took a deep breath.
Before, the ambiguity, the small undertone of a possible upset, was what kept my understanding of death somewhat numb.
Now that I saw my system shatter again right before my eyes, this very same death suddenly became all the more real, all the heavier.
I dropped down to my knees, feeling this sense of oppression grow stronger with each passing moment.
It was almost there — whatever it was that produced this thick, killing intent.
And all I could do was sit down and desperately attempt to regain my breath.
My throat clogged up, stopping the air from reaching my lungs.
This, however, wasn't the result of the killing intent. Not directly, at the very least.
I could recognize this reaction as my usual, bodily response.
When faced with an overwhelming threat, don't fight but don't you dare fly either!
In moments like that, I would usually just freeze.
A poor tactic out in a social gathering, but for the current moment?
Thump.
The ground shook as the local predator stopped masking its steps, now certain of the prey it stalked.
And all I could do was hold my breath with disregard for how long it took, hoping for the threat to pass.
Obviously, why would anything go the way I hoped for it?
The massive monster came closer, easily homing in on my scent, my sight… or whatever it was that it tracked me with.
Either way, there was no doubt in my head — a fart from the hunting monster would be enough to disintegrate every last particle making up my body.
And just like that, it happened.
The pretend-stillness of the stalking phase ceased when the monster pressed on the gas.
In a single leap, it crushed a full-blown crater through the trees in its path, leaping at Theo with its two sets of long, sharp claws.
'An oversized panther?'
I squinted my eyes, already attempting to dodge.
Between a ten-meter-long and five-meter-high black panther and me, a system-less loser… it was pretty obvious who held the speed advantage.
And yet?
Right as I thought the monster's paw would crush me while its claws would stake me through the chest and into the ground…
The massive panther pushed its two paws apart, coming at me with its fang-filled mouth instead.
'I shouldn't be more than an annoying fly to something like this…' I still tried rationalizing, hoping to find some bearings in simple, often forgotten logic.
For that monster to move, it had to be burning through immense loads of energy. And whether its mass was due to a biological or magical factor hardly mattered. Either way, this much of a monster had to be burning a considerable amount of its energy on every hunt.
Even as lazy as its current one.
I, however, was a total loser. Someone who couldn't even retain a system of likely the worst rank possible!
And the math of it just… wasn't mathing!
No matter how much I tried to argue about it, how I failed to see the sense in it, the monster's sharp fangs were coming.
'Shit…'
For the third time, my understanding of death changed.
From a foreign concept, to something I couldn't really conceptualize, through something I was starting to consider as a real possibility…
And now, this certainty.
The sight of my death coming to cut my life short, here in the form of a monster's mouth.
Then, like the wickedest of villains, fate threw me another crumb.
A system window sparked into life, forming in a single instant… the same instant the monster pinned down my limbs with its paws before sinking its fangs into my undefended stomach.
Neither of those things happened, though.
The system's window… broke apart, the bigger of its pieces still displaying fragments of the new messages that managed to form.
The system's window shattered… only for its fragments to infest the air around the panther's head, forcing it to immediately back off.
It jumped back, its paws rubbing against its head as a bunch of
Somehow, I survived.
But judging by the rate at which the monster fought off the bugged-out counter, it was only a matter of time before it would fully suppress it.
'Shit.'
Broken and useless as it was, to think taking a single hit for me would be all that it even amounted to?
I felt like crying.
Where was my cheat? Where was my golden finger?
How was any of that fair?! Wasn't my fate supposed to be something else, seeing how I was likely the only one that met with that weird divine?
Then why did everyone else get somewhat cool and strong-sounding systems, while I had this entire world set on my trail with nothing to defend myself with?
I felt like crying. But doing so would change nothing.
Give this damned beast an added satisfaction of its prey wailing in terror?
Either way, I was dead.
That is, I was absolutely convinced of that, until the third party intervened.
Whoosh!
At a speed matching the monster's earlier advance, a streak of elegant gold flashed past, skipping between the trees like a thunderbolt would through the warped column of the air of the best conductivity around.
Then, an arm's length from the monster's neck, she appeared.
A golden-haired beauty in elegant, pure-white clothing adorned with some silver fittings. In her hand shone a long, sleek sword while her face was that of a mix of exhaustion, boredom, and only the slightest hint of interest.
She didn't hold her sword to the massive beast's neck. She held it in her right hand, allowing its tip to drop down to the ground, all relaxed.
The beast blinked.
I blinked.
Then, an avalanche of power shot right past me and crashed right into Panter's massive frame.