BANG!!
The loud noise jolted him awake. For a moment, his heart felt like it stopped.
BANG!!
"What the hell is that?" he muttered, confusion thick in his voice. He grabbed the sword lying beside him, his hand already on the familiar hilt, and stood up quickly.
THUDD!!
The bedroom door crashed to the floor. Its hinges broke as the tiger pushed through, its massive form filling the entryway.
"What's going on?!" Maya called out. She stepped from her room, her face still groggy from sleep but now etched with confusion and fear.
"Stay there, Maya! SHUT YOUR DOOR!" he shouted urgently, his voice sharp with command.
Without a moment of hesitation, she did as he said. The door to her room slammed shut, cutting off the view of the chaos.
The tiger roared, a deep, guttural sound, and leapt at him. Ash moved to the side just in time, a swift, practiced dodge. He drove his sword deep into the beast's body.
The animal let out a loud screech, a final, ragged sound, before collapsing to the floor, lifeless.
As Ash pulled the sword free from the dead tiger, another one entered the room. It let out a low, menacing growl, its eyes fixed on him.
The creature noticed its companion lying lifeless on the floor. Rage flared in its eyes, and it instantly leapt at Ash. He swiftly dodged the attack, a blur of motion, and swung his sword sideways.
The tiger's body was sliced in half, a clean, effortless cut. Ash was slightly stunned by his own increased strength.
'So, boosting stats actually makes a difference,' he thought, a mix of surprise and satisfaction. The System's training, harsh as it was, had clearly paid off. He moved closer to the bodies of the two tigers and crouched down to inspect them.
"Maya, come out here, please!" he called out, his voice now calm, assured.
She slowly opened her room door and stepped out, hesitating as she walked toward his room.
"What the heck just happened?!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening when she noticed the broken door lying on the floor.
She quickly glanced at her new partner. After seeing he was fine, she cautiously moved closer to Ash. In the dim moonlight, her face looked a little paler than usual after she saw the dead tigers.
"Are you alright?" she asked, her voice still a bit shaky.
He turned to her with a happy grin, a glint in his eye. "Well, we've got enough meat for the trip to the pterodactyl lair."
***
After spending several days in the world of 'Finding Objects,' Ash was starting to adjust to the strange and unpredictable events that kept happening. He had no choice but to adapt.
For example, after he killed the two tigers that had entered his room, their bodies simply vanished. In his Inventory, a supply of meat and fangs appeared. It was a stark contrast to the brutal reality of their demise.
Or, he would suddenly find items in places that made no sense, like the matches and firewood he found in a cave during his first days. The game seemed to bend its own rules for convenience, or perhaps, for a hidden purpose.
Each place had different characteristics or themes, even if they were side by side. For instance, the hotel they stayed in was deep in a tropical rainforest. Yet, a few hundred kilometers away lay a Pterodactyls' nest in a barren, desolate area. The drastic environmental shifts were disorienting.
The problem, for Ash, was figuring out how they were supposed to move from one wildly different location to another.
So he grumbled as he walked towards the Pterodactyls' nest with Maya. "Why are there no vehicles? We should have taken the jeep at the pyramid headquarters first," he complained, the effort of walking grating on him.
"And before you made it, your body would be riddled with holes from being shot at by people in military attire," she teased him, walking nimbly ahead. Her steps were light, easy.
He pouted. He wasn't so tired from walking; his Endurance had increased. But he was annoyed because, for him, it was a waste of time. Why were there cars or other vehicles here if he had to walk everywhere? It felt illogical, a design flaw.
Maya laughed, seeing him still pouting. She teased him again, "Ah, come on. Consider this exercise to make our leg muscles strong, right?"
"Tch," he clicked his tongue.
Then he noticed how she moved. She was walking and moving nimbly among the trees and dense tropical plants, effortlessly gliding where he had to push and struggle.
"Tch," he clicked his tongue again, a clear sign of jealousy.
***
They walked for five days. Sometimes they rested on tree branches or spent the night in caves. Sometimes they had to clear out caves filled with bears or other animals. Because of this, they never worried about a shortage of food. Maya also brought salt and some other spices she found in the hotel kitchen. So, all the meat they cooked no longer tasted bland.
On the fifth night, they sat in front of a bonfire in a cave. This cave was not far from the Pterodactyls' nest. Leaning comfortably against the cave wall, their bellies full, they examined their respective system screens.
Ash scrolled through his Inventory screen.
[Inventory:]
[The Captain's Diary: 1.]
[Item Rank: Rare.]
[The Captain's Map: 1.]
[Item Rank: Rare.]
[The Supreme Magus' Grimoire: 1.]
[Item Rank: Special.]
[...]
'Ah, I forgot I have The Captain's Map,' he thought. He pulled the map from his Inventory, then opened it.
"Hmm..." he muttered, rubbing his chin. "This is the map of this game world, right?" he asked rhetorically, though his gaze was fixed on the ancient parchment.
Maya raised her head from the screen she was fiddling with. "What?" she asked, her voice soft.
"Come here," he beckoned her over. "This is the map of this world, right?" he asked again, spreading the map on the cave floor.
She moved closer, joining him in examining the map.
"Ummm… that seems about right. Only this map is completer and more detailed," she answered, pointing to several places on the map. "Look, this is the hotel where we were. Here it also says what items are in the hotel."
"The Supreme Magus' Grimoire," they said in unison, a moment of shared understanding.
Confused, he asked, "If this item is on the map, that means the person who made this map already took the item, right? Then why could we find it in that place?" The logic felt flawed.
She chuckled, a light, knowing sound. "That means the person holding the item is dead. Items that no one owns will return to their original place. A reset of sorts."
"Oh, I see..." he nodded, understanding dawning on him. The world's rules were slowly becoming clearer.
"This map is as accurate as my Treasure Sense skill," she muttered, observing the map once more, a hint of professional pride in her voice.
"Maybe the maker was the same as you, a Rogue," he mocked her, picking up the map from the floor.
"Hey, I haven't finished looking yet!" she exclaimed, a flash of annoyance.
Without listening to her, he folded and returned the map to his Inventory, then said casually, "I have you, why bother opening and closing the map."
She pursed her lips, a small huff of exasperation, and returned to her original seat, preparing for sleep.
***
They arrived at the edge of the tropical rainforest. Before them, barren and rugged hills stretched out, stark against the sky. As far as the eye could see, there was only one large tree, its branches skeletal, completely dead and leafless.
Several Pterodactyls floated in the air. Their wingspans measured about three to six meters. Each beak could be up to seventy centimeters long, needle-sharp and menacing.
Ash swallowed, a dry, tight feeling in his throat. He could feel it then, a cold certainty that his life might be at stake this time.