The First Store System

“Hyah!”

“Hyah!”

Continuous sounds rang in the forest as Maria trained her punches and kicks. It had been around ten years since that fateful day.

In these years, Maria had even forgotten her birthdate. If her mother were to be alive and here, she would have told Maria that today was her birthday.

Even if Maria were to somehow find out about today being her eleventh birthday, she wouldn’t have cared much. She trained to her limits daily with a single goal in her mind, to avenge her mother’s death.

That day, she was only a child, so she didn’t clearly understand the concept of death. She believed that her mother would catch up to her, so she needed to run to a safe place, but now she wasn’t as naive as before. She now knew that her mother had died at the hands of that man, and she wanted revenge for it.

Maria had been living on her own in the forest since that day. The external parts of the jungle were safe, so she didn’t need to worry about her safety. As for food and water, it was the last thing the jungle lacked, so she had a similar schedule for herself since she was two years old.

Eat, train until the body gives up, sleep, and then the next day, she would repeat the same sequence.

“I will kill you one day,” Maria mumbled these words as she crashed on her bed made of tea leaves and branches. She mumbled these words every day before going to sleep as if she was worried that she would forget her goal.

Maria didn’t have a body of an eleven-year-old. She looked like she was only five or six years old, and even at that, she was too skinny. Since Maria only ate things that filled her stomach and then trained to limit, her body wasn’t left with many nutrients to gain weight.

The injuries created on her face by her mother in her first year had now turned into permanent scars, giving her an unpleasing appearance.

In no time, Maria fell into deep sleep since her body was exhausted to its limit.

Around an hour after Maria fell asleep, a shadow appeared in her tiny house.

The shadow glanced at her for around a minute, mumbled in a language not known to Maria, and then disappeared from the house.

For the past week, Maria had been sleeping deeply, unaware that every day an intruder appeared in her house, looked at her for some time, and then disappeared.

If the intruder had some malicious intentions, she would have already died.

The process of the intruder intruding into Maria’s house after her sleep continued for another week.

One day while Maria was training, she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps. She stopped her practice and took out the knife tied to her waist. The blade was made of a flat stone with rough edges.

In these parts, Maria had only come across other humans of her kind once or twice. Both times, Maria had hidden herself in a safe spot and only came out when they left.

But this time, the footsteps were too close for her to reach her safe space. So she took out her hand-made blade and got ready to attack at the first move from the other party.

Even though Maria had only been training her punches and kicks, her reflex had also grown with it.

For some reason, Maria was excited as the footsteps approached closer. The next moment, the nervousness in her heart disappeared, and it turned calm as a sea before the arrival of the raging storm.

She tightened her grip on the rough wooden handle and got ready to attack.

The next moment, she made her move as she jumped in the direction of the sound.

Maria didn’t care about making contact with others since she had been living on her own for the last several years.

“Hmm, didn’t you learn that attacking someone without knowing their intentions are the act of beasts?” A male voice filled with nonchalance rang in the area as the owner of the footsteps presented itself.

Maria couldn’t help but turn pale as the man had grabbed her knife. The man then picked Maria up with only the tip of the blade. If Maria were to let go of the handle, she would crash to the ground.

All the calm in her disappeared as if it was never there. Finally, the fear hit her, but it was too late as the man snatched the knife from her hands, and knocked her to the ground.

While doing this, the man had a smiling face. The smile resulted in some unpleasant memories appearing in her mind as she started trembling.

It was the same smile that man had at that time.

At that moment, all the courage Maria had gained after living in the forest for a decade disappeared. She felt herself turning into that one-year-old child, who needed to run, while her mother was battling.

The urge to run overpowered her mind as she stood up and attempted to escape.

“Eh!” The smile on the man’s face disappeared as he saw the girl’s overwhelming response.

‘Am I that terrifying when I smile?’ The man couldn’t help but think.

“Why are you running? I am not going to eat you,” At the same time, the man spoke as he grabbed Maria’s shoulder.

As if a bucket of cold water had been doused on her, Maria suddenly froze in her actions. Her body got out of her control. Even after the man removed his hands, her body didn’t move.

Instead, it turned around and faced the man.

“How cruel to do this to a child?” The man muttered as he gently caressed Maria’s face, filled with many scars.

Maria couldn’t help but feel something pouring out of her heart as she felt that gentle touch on her face. It was the same touch as her mother.

The memories of her mother crying while stroking her face, carefully moving around the wounds on her face, appeared in her mind.

Her eyes started turning red. And the next moment, she started bawling like a child while continuing to stand.

It had been years since Maria shed tears, so all those tears came out at once today.