Death Red

Linsey ran wildly through the dense, snow-covered forest.

Behind him, the relentless corpse naturally had no intention of letting its prey escape, steadily closing the distance between itself and Linsey.

They were headed straight for Border Town.

But Linsey had never set foot here before. He did not know where the hunters had set traps, so there was no chance of finding outside help to aid him now.

Run. Run faster!

That was the foremost factor determining Linsey's survival.

Yet in this most crucial attribute, he was still slightly slower than the adult corpse behind him. If things continued like this, he would only be caught after his stamina ran out and then killed.

While he still had some strength left...

No matter how slim the odds or how unreliable it seemed, he had to try!

"Tsk—"

Fighting for a chance at survival.

Linsey gritted his teeth, turned around, and fired an arrow at the corpse.

His archery, now at the (Proficient) level, was indeed far better than when it had been (Beginner). Not only did the arrow hit its target accurately, it even struck the corpse in the head.

But the result was the same as before.

Its hardened body gave the reanimated monster formidable defense. A body that his knife could not pierce at close range was equally unaffected by an arrow.

The arrow merely scraped its skin before bouncing weakly onto the ground, as though mocking Linsey's futile struggle.

The bow was completely useless! "..."

Linsey's gaze darkened.

He did not complain. Instead, he directly hurled both the bow and the arrows on his back at the corpse. On one hand, he hoped to slow it down; on the other, he was lightening his own load.

"Roar!"

The corpse reacted swiftly, swatting the bow aside with a swing of its hand.

Then—smack!

Linsey's thick coat flew over as well, covering the corpse's face head-on like a huge sack wrapping around it.

Riiip!

The corpse reacted exactly as it had when swatting away the bow. It flailed its arms with all its strength and quickly tore Linsey's coat to shreds, leaving the strips hanging from its chest.

That brief resistance bought Linsey several more seconds.

He once again widened the distance between himself and the corpse, using the rare opportunity to think over everything that had just happened.

It was faster than him, impossible to defeat through force, and impossible to escape by climbing a tree.

What else could he do?

How could he escape the corpse's unceasing pursuit?

As he ran, Linsey kept looking back at the corpse behind him.

At that moment, the tattered clothes hanging from the corpse's chest—clothes that had belonged to Linsey just moments ago—gave him a hint.

Linsey suddenly recalled how the corpse had swatted away the bow.

And how, when they had first encountered each other, it had repeatedly shifted its target between Ju and him.

Most importantly, Linsey had locked eyes with the corpse twice.

He had clearly seen its eyes. Those were absolutely not eyes a living person could use.

A bold idea began to take shape in Linsey's mind.

The next moment, he abruptly stopped.

This was not Linsey giving up resistance.

The instant he stopped, he drew his protective knife and hurled it viciously at an oak tree dozens of meters away.

Bang! The knife struck the trunk with a sharp sound.

Linsey stood perfectly still, even suppressing the sound of his breathing to the lowest possible level.

The result was just as he had expected.

The corpse actually ignored Linsey, who stood motionless in place, and instead turned to pounce on the tree the knife had struck! "Roar!"

The corpse slammed headfirst into the tree, then clawed and dug wildly at it.

Only after it had scratched the fine tree until it was covered in wounds did it confirm that there was no living creature before it. Then the corpse turned back around and slowly shuffled toward Linsey.

Having lost its target, it was preparing to check the previous target location.

But its approach was no longer as certain as it had been at the start of the chase.

"So this monster attacks according to the direction of sound..."

Having watched the entire scene unfold.

Linsey finally understood the rules behind its attacks.

But he did not relax.

Because the moment he moved, the corpse would definitely resume its pursuit.

And with his slower speed, he would still be unable to escape death.

If only... some random wild animal would appear.

Even if another magical beast showed up, as long as it could lure away the corpse in front of him, Linsey would willingly take a few Ice Cones. At least those were something he could deal with! Unfortunately, that was not realistic.

Before the corpse could get close, Linsey could only begin another round of pursuit and escape.

When his stamina bar was about to run dry again.

Amid the corpse's roaring pursuit, he threw out his wooden water flask as well, repeating his previous maneuver to lure it away.

Sure enough.

Against a monster that acted solely by hearing, the trick still worked.

Linsey once again pulled away from the monster and bought himself time to recover his stamina.

After repeating this several times, the plan continued to work well.

But after using it a few times, Linsey inevitably found himself in another predicament.

The reason was simple—he had nothing left to throw.

In any other season, he could have picked up a stone anywhere in the forest and thrown it to hinder the corpse's pursuit.

But on this snow-covered ground.

By the time he dug through the snow to find a stone, the corpse would probably have caught up and pounced on him.

"..."

"Just one last stretch."

Linsey stared tensely ahead. Through the snowy forest, he could already vaguely make out the silhouettes of taller buildings in the town.

He was only one step away from rescue! This was the forest north of the town.

Further ahead lay Anrui's Lord's Manor, as well as the clearing at the edge of the woods where guards and Awakened trained every day.

If he could reach there, he would be saved at once! Linsey gritted his teeth and continued running.

Trees swept past him one after another, the sounds of his feet crunching through snow blending together as he pushed himself almost to his limit.

But behind Linsey, the corpse's pursuit drew closer and closer.

Life ahead, death behind.

Trapped between those two emotions, Linsey truly could not think of any other way.

He glanced at his status panel. His stamina bar was rapidly shrinking as he sprinted, nearly empty!

"I've got it!"

An idea suddenly struck Linsey.

He immediately hopped on one foot and pulled off the shoe from his other foot, intending to use it to buy himself his final chance at escape.

Whoosh—

At that moment, a red flash streaked across before him.

Linsey had only just grasped the shoe and had no time to react.

But the red light was not aimed at him. As though it possessed intelligence, it curved around Linsey's body.

It passed through the dense forest, crossed the towering canopy, swept over snow falling from branches, and pushed aside the gentle breeze between the trees.

It arrived in an instant, yet seemed as though it had always been there. In the blink of an eye, it flashed through the quiet winter day.

Watching the red light vanish in a flash.

Linsey inexplicably thought of a single word—death.