Caw! Caw!
“Huh, what is that?”
It was an unpleasant sound for an alarm clock in the morning.
Alarm clocks are originally designed to make irritating noises to wake people up.
But even considering that, this was an ear-splitting sound.
An morning awakening this frustrating hasn’t happened since I woke up in a jjimjilbang due to the snoring in the sleeping area.
What a way to ruin a rare day off.
Just let me sleep!
He deliberately glared at the source of the noise with feigned irritation.
“Huh?”
But it wasn’t some inconsiderate troublemaker in a place where everyone else is sleeping.
It’s a crow.
A flock of pitch-black crows were flying in circles in the sky.
What is the chance of this happening?
Then he suddenly realized how abnormally large they were.
Even though they were flying high in the sky, each one was nearly the size of a cloud.
“Hmm.”
He immediately got up from his seat.
If they’re just playing among themselves, it must be fascinating to watch.
However, it felt like all their eyes were fixated on him.
Do birds eat people?
As far as I vaguely remember, seagulls attack people on the beach.
They were probably desperate enough that they tried, or even attempted to steal, shrimp crackers.
That might be tolerable for seagull-sized birds.
If a flock of birds this size attacks, it would be enough to kill a person.
Fortunately, they haven’t taken any special actions yet, as if they’re sizing him up.
Still, standing there idly would be the end, he could feel it.
「Survival Instinct (Lv.1) has been activated!」
He cautiously took a few steps.
He didn’t have any specific destination in mind.
Just gotta get out of there!
Caw! Caw!
Behind him, the frenzied cries of the crows echoed as if their throats were tearing.
――――
[The Beginning of the Journey]
A world of romance and dreams!
You have begun your journey!
Set your destination…
Reward: Growth Points…
――――
“What is this?”
In the woods where he fled.
It was a very lush forest.
The refreshing scent of phytoncide and the vibrant greenery that filled his field of view made it feel like he was in a botanical garden somewhere.
It was so dense that the sunlight barely filtered through, making it a bit too dark.
There’s a saying, “Too much of a good thing is bad,” and that principle holds true.
The ground was so damp it was on the verge of becoming mud with every soft step.
Nevertheless, a place like this would be hard for a large flock of birds to follow.
Just as he was starting to catch his breath…
He noticed something flickering in the corner of his vision. Some strange cluster of letters floated up.
He squinted and scanned them.
“Status window? Quest? System? Is it something like that?”
A hobby of modern people is reading novels.
He’d seen it countless times in novels.
Novel or game reincarnation.
“But I didn’t do anything?”
He tried to recall his memory.
It didn’t take long.
His rare day off had started with an attempt to fully rest, so he passed out.
He hadn’t read any novels or played any games.
There was no trigger.
Moreover, there’s one more thing.
“Why can’t I see it?”
The text wouldn’t read.
It wasn’t because of dyslexia; he really couldn’t see it physically.
Thinking his eyes were blurry, he even went to where the sunbeams were brightly shining to take a closer look, but it was the same.
It was as if the screen was filled with noise, the text was all blurry and pixelated, no matter how he looked, he couldn’t make out the content.
“Well, it’s probably nothing!”
He decided to ignore it.
What can you do if you can’t see it?
His straightforward nature was his defining characteristic — not dwelling on impossible problems and moving on boldly.
If it was truly important, this issue wouldn’t have occurred.
He assumed those were status windows or systems based purely on indirect experiences.
It could be something else.
For example, maybe he hadn’t fully woken up and was hallucinating.
Though it didn’t feel that way.
His senses were vivid and it didn’t feel like a dream.
If it was dreaming, he would’ve woken up earlier when he got startled by the crows.
Slap!
“Ow!”
Just to be safe, he slapped his cheek, and it really hurt.
A shrill scream involuntarily escaped his lips.
“Ah?”
Shrill scream.
He stopped stroking his tingling cheek halfway and blinked twice.
Thinking about it, why does my voice sound like this?
“Ahh, ah.”
He hadn’t yet deteriorated to the point of claiming his deep baritone voice, the kind that made people comment on how good-looking he must be, was all gone.
It was somewhat manly, but his voice pitch had changed to a higher tone.
As he tried gradually raising his voice, clear high notes flowed out.
It wasn’t falsetto for a man but a genuine female voice.
When he glanced down,
There was a hefty mass of fat projecting clearly at the chest level.
The stomach was slim, and the legs were smooth.
Simultaneously, a long status screen flickered before his eyes.
“Rena.”
Most likely her name at the top.
Everything else was blurry as before, but that one clue was sufficient.
There was too much evidence pointing at it to deny reality.
She had undergone a gender change.
“He became a woman.”
“Hmm, it could happen.”
Rena casually dismissed it.
When she closed her eyes and reopened them, she found herself in some strange new world.
Compared to that, a gender change didn’t seem like such a shocking event.
After all, when you buy a big product, you often get several freebies along with it.
In that sense, the gender change was like a bonus item that came along with the change in the world.
And Rena, like someone who gets a bonus item with a purchase, didn’t give it much thought and distributed it to the people around her.
“Huh? Became a woman? Oh really.”
That was the extent of her reaction.
“So, what now?”
This question was more critical to consider than the gender change.
She woke up in some unfamiliar place while sleeping soundly on a soft bed.
All she had was her changed gender and the clothing on her body.
There was no cell phone to pass the time by scrolling through online communities, and no computer to play games.
No, is this the time to yearn for devices that kill boredom?
Rather, her immediate needs—food, clothing, and shelter—were more pressing.
The forest.
A pristine natural forest without any signs of human activity.
She had no memory of how she ended up here while running away from the crows.
Even if she remembered, there was no way she was going back there.
In short, she had been stranded.
Rena faintly recalled the principles one should follow when stranded.
Don’t wander around aimlessly trying to find your way. You’ll end up even more lost.
In this situation, heading toward a city hoping to find people is the wrong choice.
“Alright.”
Rena brushed off the dirt from her bottom and got up after squatting.
She stretched her muscles and joints with a popping sound.
“I need to move.”
Do not wander around trying to find your way.
The instruction didn’t say not to move while searching for food.
With that thought, Rena stepped forward with determination.
It was the kind of thinking someone would have who acts first and reads the manual later.
There’s something called the Rule of Threes.
While it applies to love rules or tooth-brushing rules, the original rule refers to the rules of survival.
Without air, you can survive for 3 minutes; without water, 3 days; without food, 3 weeks.
Therefore, Rena decided to find a water source first.
It’s closely related to securing food as well.
There are usually various creatures living in the water.
You can find clams, freshwater crabs, crayfish, shrimp, or even small fish like minnows in water sources.
Catching those would solve the food problem.
However, it wasn’t easy to find a waterway.
A dense forest is a natural maze.
Looking around, you only see grass here, trees there; the same scenery repeats endlessly, confusing you about where you are and whether you’ve been there before.
For amateurs trying to find a water source, there’s not much to do except rely on luck.
「Survival Instinct (Lv.1) has been activated!」
But then something caught her eye.
Some sense told her that heading in this direction would lead her to something.
Since there wasn’t much else to do,
splash!
Rena found the water.
Not just a small brook trickling between rocks but a proper stream where one could splash around.
Oh, I’m so thirsty.
All the sweat had made her incredibly parched.
As she eagerly pressed her mouth to the surface of the water to drink,
“Ah!”
An involuntary exclamation of delight escaped her.
So refreshing!
The cool sensation coursing down her throat and spreading from her stomach was amazing.
Actually, it was not a wise action to take.
Even though the stream water looked clear and clean, there are pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and parasites in nature that can cause illness.
But, I don’t have the luxury to be picky right now, do I?
Since I have nothing, I have to take a chance, even if it results in stomach problems later.
Fortunately, it was clean water, so the taste was excellent, and there were no problems.
There, water source secured.
――――
[Rules of Survival (1)]
Sometimes, it’s better to rest rather than heading straight to the destination.
You took a wrong turn and found yourself in an unknown forest…
――――
“Why do you show up late?”
Rena waved her hand, dispersing the strange text that appeared in her vision.
Anyway, she couldn’t understand what it meant.
It seemed like it was just confirming belatedly that the water was drinkable.
If it was going to do that, it should have done so earlier.
When you see item windows in games, they usually specify if something is safe to drink.
Others seem to get quests and skills popping up, putting them in easy mode when they encounter situations like this. Why not me?
Rena clicked her tongue.
Meanwhile, the system, which was sincerely and diligently doing its job even though she couldn’t read it, would be feeling quite wronged.
