Sundown Forest
Minecraft. The world outside reminded her of that one game. It was not because of its blocky graphic, but because her eyes saw the world outside as if she had just drunk a night vision potion. She could see the tree's green leaves, and the animals walking by as if it were daylight.
She was simply mesmerized by the view alone. Behind her turned out to be an abandoned church, appearance-wise, that was. Maybe the Inner Sanctum was hidden using that building, but wouldn't a church in the middle of a forest be the most obvious thing in this whole area?
After all, no matter where you look, it was all trees, grass, dirt, and maybe some small pool of water. It was... beautiful.
The clear mix of green, brown, and blue under the dark night sky was mesmerizing. No words could describe it. The sky might not emit any light, but everything was still colorful, unlike night vision goggles where everything looked green.
Between all of those views was the white line projected by her watch, giving her the fastest direction toward this unknown village. Maybe she could find some merchants or something on the way, the concern was water. Still, the map showed a river flowing downhill.
She then put another marker on the map to the nearest river, after that, she'd follow the river towards the village, after all, civilization always followed where the water went. It was a simple plan, to be entirely honest.
Alina walked at a normal pace, enjoying the beautiful night sky while remaining vigilant of the threat a fantasy/sci-fi world could offer her. She continued walking for five until she heard a roar that filled her ears. It was not that distant either.
She prepared her sword on her right hand, but as soon as she lifted the pistol out of her pocket, it felt heavy, very heavy, in fact, too heavy for a pistol made out of plastic. Why her clothes prevent her from feeling the weight increase? She put it back into her pocket, relying entirely on her saber.
Walking closer, she saw a black canine figure. It was eating a... dead body?
[Wolf - Lv.3]
The wolf gazed at her. However, the wolf immediately quit his gaze, maybe it felt intimidated, or something like that, Alina wasn't sure. Then, all of a sudden, the wolf charged towards her without any warning.
"Jeez, what a bad dog."
Alina unleashed a bloody swing to the wolf. The arc cut the wolf's body in half before it even got the chance to charge towards her. With the remaining momentum, the upper half of the wolf's body flew in her direction.
Alina dodged it swiftly.
[+100 BP]
Ignoring the wolf's dead body, she approached the wolf's dinner, wondering whose body was this.
Appearance-wise, this wasn't a cultist, but rather, an ordinary person, or a hiker. The body was fresh, but its head was gone with a rucksack still attached to his back. Talking about good luck, Alina detached the rucksack from the body. There might be something worth looting.
In the rucksack, Alina found a tarp, a sleeping bag, a fire-starting kit, a stove with its fuel, some dried food, a set of camping cooking utensils, a water bottle—fortunately still full, a compact first aid kit, and a Leatherman multi-tool. To be honest, talking about good luck, maybe the drake encounter took all of her bad luck away. Alina then realized her stomach was grumbling.
"Well, time to dig in, I guess?" Alina picked up one of the dried food out of the rucksack.
She then looked left and right, having a slight feeling that this place wasn't safe, she decided to move out. First of all, though, she wanted to test the Blood Inventory first. She opened the food packaging and put it inside the Blood Inventory.
She wanted to know whether the Blood Inventory changed the state of an object or not, because if it did, then it wouldn't be good to use it for food storage or anything that might go stale. She then grabbed the food using the usual method of thinking about the object.
Pulling it out from the blood inventory, the food was still in the same state, with each wrinkle and fold of the packaging at the same place when she left it. The food remained food. Knowing that the food didn't turn into a 'blood' version of it, Alina decided to put the rucksack into her Blood Inventory and continued her walk toward the river.
The rucksack, now safely stored within the ethereal confines of her Inventory, left her hands free and her movements unencumbered as she ventured toward the river. The journey was quiet, save for the natural sounds that filled the air— the rustling of leaves, the distant call of nocturnal creatures, and the gentle flow of the river that grew louder with each step she took.
Reaching the riverbank, Alina took a moment to revel in the serene beauty before her. The water mirrored the night sky, stars twinkling on its surface like diamonds. She knelt by the river, dipping her hands into the cool water.
"Looks safe to drink, I hope?" Alina added.
Pulling out the rucksack from the Blood Inventory, she grabbed a small pot and filled it with water. She then boiled the water using the gas stove while sitting down on the ground, accompanied by the hiss of the stove and the crackle of the water.
She waited as she grabbed the opened Mountain House meal, it was dried up Chili Mac with Beef. As the water boiled, she poured the hot water into the meal pouch and waited for the content to cook.
After five minutes, she opened the pouch, revealing the content of the package, a hot and steamy chili coupled with macaroni. With a spoon, she then began to eat the food slowly while looking at her surroundings, making sure nothing suddenly ambushed her when she was eating her food.
Maybe everything wasn't so bleak, civilization wasn't gone yet, and she wouldn't be living in some sort of medieval society or something like that. She hoped the people in the village could accept her, or at least, give her some information about this world.
As she put more bites down into her mouth, suddenly, she heard a woman scream screeching on her ears. The scream was clear, and it was close.
The forest isn't as inhabited as I thought, isn't it? Maybe it's just my feeling? After all, being hypoglycemic does reduce your consciousness.
She then continued eating down the meal, however, as she chewed down on the final bite, the scream was even louder.
"HELP ME!!!"
If that woman is coming in my direction, I'm pretty much fucked. Who knows what follows her? A wolf? A goblin? Another vampire? A dragon? Who knows? Still, I should probably find out, at the very least.
Alina quickly crammed all of the equipment into the Blood Inventory and grabbed her saber again. She then dashed toward the direction of the scream. Her eyes were on the highest alert, wanting to know what would be waiting for her. For all she knew, the woman might be chased down by a horde of goblins.
As she navigated through the dense foliage, the moonlight barely filtering through the canopy above, Alina prepared herself for whatever she might encounter. Her hand gripped the saber tightly.
Suddenly, the trees thinned, and she found herself on the edge of a small clearing, right behind a bush. The scene before her was tense, a tableau paused in the moonlight. A woman, back pressed against a tree, faced off against what appeared to be a very large canine or creature. Not a wolf, nor a giant one, but something else, something Alina couldn't immediately identify from her vantage point.
All of a sudden, yhe creature turned its attention towards her, its eyes glowing with a malevolent glow of red. Its skin was made of metal, its whole body was made of metal, and its tail was attached to a chainsaw. A robotic wolf?
[MCA-K900-A4 - ???]
WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT, ALINA?
How the hell should I even know?
"Intruder detected, prioritizing combat protocol A." A robotic voice came out from the robot. Then, the robot immediately charged toward Alina. Its legs were sharpened claws, and its movements weren't natural at all.
In seconds, before Alina was able to react, the wolf was already in its attacking distance. The wolf then swung its chainsaw tail toward her. Immediately, Alina parried it with her saber, creating a bunch of sparks as the two weapons hit each other.
Fucking hell.