Desolate World

It was a dark cave, or to be exact a hole. As the depth of the hole was only 3 meters. But the lust vegetation in front of the hole was completely covered the entrance. From outside, it appeared just like a bush under a small mound. Inside it was a pedestal with a blue crystal floating above it. If Ace was there, he would know what it was. It was a resurrection point. A place where you would be resurrected if you were dead before reaching a settlement.

Suddenly, light fragments condensed forming a humanoid figure. At first, the figure appeared hazy, then it became clearer.

"Damn it! It's too hard," Troy complained as soon as he was resurrected.

He had never thought he would be summoned in the middle of a misty forest. Of course, he could see the tower of light of the settlement, but reaching there was not as easy as he had thought.

The first time he went out of the hole, he could only be able to reach around 2 km. A level 5 rat monster pounced on him from behind. It didn't directly kill him, but as he was a through and through production player, he didn't have the ability to face it or even run from it. As a result, he was killed in less than a minute.

His second attempt was somewhat better. He could reach about 5 km. The mist somehow could help him escape the eyes of the monsters. But his luck ended when a pack of wolves found him. So, he must return to the hole via resurrection.

"What a shitty setting. They should let the production players be summoned to the settlement directly. 

What can I do to reach the settlement?" Troy said while pulling his hair in frustration.

However, he couldn't give up. It was nothing compared to what he had experienced all this time. So he once again exited the hole.

Looking around from behind the bush, he didn't see any monsters. So, he came out of the bush and dashed towards the nearest tree. He then checked the situation around him again, and only moved if he saw nothing was wrong in the direction he was going.

A few times, he saw monsters in his way, so he had to take a detour to avoid them. He did that for half an hour. He somehow could safely reach his first 2 km. 

It made him glad. He thought that moving carefully was the right thing to do. It was definitely slower than his first and second attempts. But it was definitely safer. He could move that far without alerting the monsters along the way.

Then he heard soft steps behind him. He immediately went behind a tree and looked in the direction of the noise. It was a level 5 black boar. It seemed like it wanted to pass by. The boar then sniffed the air, and went in his direction. 

'Fu**! What are you sniffing around? Leave immediately, pig!' Troy cursed in his heart.

Then he saw the boar stopped. It then walked in a different direction. But instead of leaving, it approached a bush near him and ate the berries that grew on it.

As the boar wasn't far enough from him, Troy didn't dare to move. He intended to wait for it to leave before he continued his journey. As he feared his impatience would ruin all of his hard-earned distance.

However, even if it had already been five minutes, the boar was still there, munching the berries and the leaves of the bush. Troy could only grit his teeth.

'Come on! Please leave! I'm busy, okay. I have wasted my precious half of the day for this stupid journey,' Troy said in his heart.

However, the boar didn't budge. It continued to eat. Then, Troy felt a presence above him. 

It frightened him out. He didn't even dare to look up. He was in that condition for two minutes, until he could accumulate his courage and decided to look up. 

But he saw nothing. He then looked around and saw nothing. He sighed in relief. He thought that he thought too much.

He then looked in the boar's direction, but he didn't see it anymore. It seemed it had already left.

Troy then continued his journey. Like before, he didn't dare to be reckless. Every time he met with a monster, he would choose to be prudent. If he could, he would detour and if it was too close, he would hide until it left.

After two hours of walking carefully, he could see the light tower clearly. It meant, the settlement he was going to was already close. Maybe 4 to 5 kilometers away.

He then took his water bag and gulped its content greedily. He was tired mentally. He just wanted to arrive at the settlement and then log off. He wanted to take a bath and had a delicious dinner.

"Ah… That was good," He said as he put down his water bag. Then his pupils constricted. 10 meters in front of him, a boar looked at him without blinking.

The two were just looking at each other. However, the moods of the two were completely different. One was in fear, and the other seemed to want to assess the creature in front of it.

"Good boy! I'm sorry to intrude on your area. I will go immediately, okay?" Troy tried to persuade the boar. 

In fact, he felt really pathetic. What he faced was only a level 2 boar. The monster was a favorite prey for a newbie. It didn't have a special attack except to rush to his target. A combat player could easily dodge its attack by moving sideways. 

But, for Troy, it was similar to a boss monster. Something that he couldn't defeat. Then he saw the boar had taken a stand to attack. He knew that he couldn't hope for it to leave. So he only thought of a solution. Which was RUN.

He then dashed towards the settlement.

***