[Time to test your resolve.]
Jinra stared at the sky, her eyes lost in the endless blue.
The wind brushed against her face, whispering promises she knew were lies.
For a heartbeat, she forgot everything —
The pain.
The loneliness.
The hatred.
Just a fleeting glimpse of peace... right before the fall.
A deafening explosion tore through the air.
Flames rained from the heavens, devouring the ground around her.
Jinra's body twisted on instinct, her eyes widening in horror.
On the horizon, a mountain of slimes oozed toward her.
Small ones, fat ones, grotesque ones — crawling, boiling, devouring everything they touched.
A slime exploded right beneath her feet.
Pain detonated through her leg.
Blood splattered across the ground.
"Fck... What kind of cursed shthole is this?!" she screamed, her voice cracked and raw.
She bolted, lungs burning, her body refusing to die just yet.
Explosions chased her.
Every step was a war against death.
System:
— You have received a survival weapon: [Bow - Rank D] (No affinity required).
An almost transparent bow slammed into the dirt before her.
She snatched it up with trembling, half-burned hands.
System:
— Tip: Climb a tree for better aim.
"Got it!" she rasped, voice full of spit and blood.
She moved to climb—
—but an enormous slime blocked her path.
Towering like a goddamn skyscraper, pulsing with mindless rage.
System:
— Warning: Direct contact will cause second-degree burns.
Jinra bared her teeth.
She spun around.
Behind her, hundreds of slimes rushed in, exploding like a living nightmare.
She screamed, tears cutting trails through the ash on her cheeks:
"YOU THINK YOU SLIMY F*CKERS CAN STOP ME?!"
Her voice ripped through the battlefield, furious and desperate.
"ONE DAY, I'LL HAVE MY PLACE! ONE DAY, NOBODY WILL PITY ME AGAIN!"
She charged headfirst at the massive slime.
Her heart hammered like a dying drum.
She roared her final war cry:
"GO F*CK YOURSELVES!!!"
Impact.
Heat swallowed her.
Flesh burned.
Skin tore open.
Agony blanketed her mind.
System:
— You have suffered second-degree burns. Rest recommended.
Screaming, Jinra somehow clawed her way up a scorched tree.
She collapsed onto a blackened branch, gasping for air.
Below her, the slimes kept coming.
Hordes. Endless.
She clutched the bow tighter, her heartbeat a broken drum.
She pulled back the string.
Nothing.
"WHERE THE F*CK ARE THE ARROWS?!" she shrieked, blood leaking from her gums.
System:
— Initiate a pull. Arrows will materialize.
"THANKS FOR NOTHING, ASSHOLE!" she spat.
She yanked back the string again —
—an arrow flashed into existence.
She loosed it wildly, missing by a mile.
She snarled, tears blinding her:
"Fck... my stats are sht... I'm just a f*cking loser…"
Another slime lunged.
Explosion.
White-hot agony tore through her left eye.
It boiled inside her skull.
She howled like a wounded animal:
"COME AT ME, YOU PIECES OF SH*T! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!!"
One hour.
Two hours.
Three hours.
She kept firing.
Missing.
Hitting.
Surviving.
At last, silence fell.
Not a single slime remained.
System:
— You have leveled up.
— All attributes +5.
Jinra let the bow fall from her shaking hands.
Her whole body screamed.
The pain was so huge it became something else —
Something bigger than pain.
"I... it hurts... everywhere..."
Her breath hitched.
Her vision blurred.
"S-System... please... take me home..."
System:
— Teleporting to your last rest point: Hospital room.
Her body collapsed just as the light swallowed her.
And in the blink of an eye—
She slammed down onto the cold floor of her hospital room.
The scorched remains of her hospital gown clung to her melted skin.
The arcane bow crackled softly in her ruined hands.
The thud shook the hallway.
Nurses screamed.
The door burst open.
They found her there —
Half-dead, half-alive, blue light crackling around her, clutching her bow like a lifeline.
"GET A DOCTOR! NOW! FULL BODY BURNS — SHE'S NOT BREATHING RIGHT!"
One nurse sprinted away.
Another doctor grabbed his phone, hands trembling.
"Call the Hunter Association President. Tell him it's URGENT."
A cold voice answered instantly:
"This is the President. What's happening?"
The doctor stammered:
"The patient... she's... she's burned all over! An arcane weapon beside her—!"
Silence.
Heavy, brutal silence.
Then the President's voice, colder than death:
"She never left her room.
You're telling me... she fought in there?"
The doctor couldn't answer.
The door smashed open.
Ethan stormed in.
His eyes locked onto Jinra's broken body.
The world cracked apart inside his head.
The phone slipped from the doctor's hands.
The President's voice cut through the chaos:
"I'm coming."
Ethan stumbled to the bedside.
He couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
He just stared at Jinra.
And one thought burned itself into his brain:
"What the hell happened to you...?"