Chapter 14 - Advance and Coral Currant

“Haah…haah…I am hungry…” (Hikaru)

Most likely because I am in the territory of the giant monkey, the Flame Orangutan, I have been walking for several hours now, but I haven’t met any dangerous creatures.

I have seen animals and birds, but I hid myself with my Dark Spirit Abilities to deal with it.

I tried using Shadow Runner a number of times too, but normal animals get surprised and run away, so I could tell whether they were dangerous or not.

I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday, so I am pretty exhausted here. But I want to walk while there’s still no danger.

The types of plants growing in the forest were changing bit by bit as I advanced.

There were a few fruits here and there that were in low places and looked edible.

Especially the variety of trees that I see often had cherry-like red fruits growing from them. If I can eat that, I could obtain calories without using Crystals, and depending on what it is, I could even get moisture.

There were a whole lot of fruits in that giant monkey’s nest too, so they are most likely edible… It is not like a human can eat them just because a monster can eat them after all…

“It smells sweet…” (Hikaru)

I walk towards it with unsteady steps, attracted by it, and pluck one fruit.

It is a dangerous irresistible scent.

I have Poison Resistance. I could gamble it here and try eating it.

I open my Status Board and choose the [Item Appraisal].

Using a Crystal is painful, but if I can eat this, I won’t be troubled with food for a while.

[Coral Currant: It is a plant that commonly grows in the wild on the eastern part of the Ringpill Continent. The fruit is edible, but eating too many will strain your stomach. It is widely cultivated, and it can be eaten as is, or be processed into jam. The appraised target is ripe for eating.]

After I read that, I immediately took a bite from the fruit.

A bittersweet taste spread through my whole mouth. Now that I think about it, how long has it been since I ate something sweet?

“Tasty…! I didn’t know fruits in the wild could be this tasty…!” (Hikaru)

Sweetness and a hint of bitterness. There’s plenty of fruit juice and I could feel my body being hydrated.

I see this Coral Currant every now and then while walking, so I won’t be troubled with food for a while. It strains the stomach if you eat too many of them, but I have Disease Resistance and Poison Resistance, so I should be okay. I want to believe I will be.

I get at least 1 Crystal every day.

I can’t tell how hard it is to get a hundred million daily viewers. I think I was taught that the world population is around 7 billion, but only a certain percent actually watches the broadcast -most likely half. In that case, 3.5 billion.

So, 1 out of 35 people are watching?

But the current situation isn’t as lukewarm as that. Actually, it has settled at around 6 hundred million for a few days already.

Why am I gathering this much attention?

It must be because I am having an adventure with my life at stake from the sudden Random Transfer.

Maybe there are many other Chosen who are passing steady lives, or have started with normal jobs instead of adventuring.

But…there’s 1,000 Chosen.

There must be a lot of people who are watching from several screens, but you could say it is abnormal for 6 hundred million to be watching me.

There should be a good amount of people aside from me who have chosen Random Transfer, and there’s no doubt there’s Chosen who are adventuring to the very limit with the intention of increasing their viewers.

When thinking of it like that, this even feels creepy.

Maybe it really is because I am a new Chosen that suddenly showed up?

“…Won’t reach an answer even if I think about it, huh.” (Hikaru)

What I have to do right now is get out of this forest without dying. Everything else is secondary.

It does bother me why there’s a strangely high amount of viewers, but it in essence has nothing to do with me aside from getting Crystals.

I have reached this point without caring about being seen.

For now, I ate around 4 tufts of Coral Currant, cut the remaining sleeve of my shirt, tied up the opening, and put as many fruits in there as I could.

My right hand has the Spirit Stones of the monkeys, and my left has the fruits.

“It really makes me understand the importance of a bag…” (Hikaru)

I could use 1 Point to exchange for a backpack, but I can’t go using a Point on something like that.

I can’t fight anything right now anyways, so this is fine for now. It is tiring on my arms though.

I used both Darkness Fog and Shadow Runner as I walked, and it was finally sunset.

I managed to walk 30km in one day. This is quite the good number.

If I continue at this pace, I will be able to get out of the forest in 10 days.

“…But the problem is what to do from here on.” (Hikaru)

This is an obvious thing, but a human must sleep.

I can’t just continue walking forever.

For the food, I will somehow manage by eating Coral Currant. This is not a situation where I have the luxury to worry about a balanced nutrition. As long as I have the power to walk…

But sleeping is something I can’t just remove.

Until now, I have been breaking Barrier Stones, so I could sleep without worries, but…

“There’s also the chance that that Great Dark Spirit will be showing up when night comes…” (Hikaru)

If that shows up, I have no choice but to break a Barrier Stone.

But there’s a chance it won’t.

There’s no clouds today, so I think there will be enough illumination with the moonlight.

That sticky darkness must be an omen of its appearance, and I am sure that what created that situation was me using Spirit Abilities.

Whichever the case, I want to save my Barrier Stone till the moment danger is right in proximity.

I only have 6 Points. You could even say I only have 6 lives remaining.

I decide to look for a suitable tree to sleep at while I walk.

Honestly speaking, if it is just walking, night feels safer, so I will adjust my sleeping time bit by bit, to a point where I sleep in the day and walk at night.

Right now it is 7:00pm, so I want to sleep from 8:00pm to 2:00am in the night, and…

I made a decent sounding plan, climbed a suitable tree, sat on a branch, and entrusted my body to the trunk. There’s the chance to die from falling down while I am asleep, so I splurge here. I used 2 Crystals to exchange for a rope. It is a thin hemp rope, and it looks decently sturdy.

I tie up my body with that. There should be no worries of me falling with this.

Just in case, I conceal my surroundings with Darkness Fog before closing my eyes. The effective time of the ability is around 10 minutes, but it should be better than not doing it.