RPG

"Game activation successful?"

Linsey had just sensed the Source Material when a game-like notification sounded in his ears.

As a man who had died at a gaming table in his previous life, the moment he heard that voice, he already understood what his ability was.

Then Linsey began to tremble.

It was not excitement from awakening his ability, but because—it was too cold.

Linsey had been standing in a fire moments ago, yet in the blink of an eye, he found himself in a forest, with goose-feather-like white snow drifting down from overhead.

Whoosh—

A Cold Wind swept through the trees.

"Ahh, brrr~~~"

Linsey shivered, recalling Alvitte's whispered words before she had said goodbye.

"Send you somewhere safe..."

"This is definitely safe enough, but isn't it a little too far away?!"

There were still more than two months before it would snow in Anville Village!

Who knew where that Righteous Walker's Super Support had thrown him.

Linsey turned and looked around. All he could see were dense, lush trees.

Fortunately, their leaves were withered and yellowing rather than long and thin like pine needles, suggesting that he might not be in a frigid zone.

"Anyway, I need to figure out where I am first."

Surrounded by trees, he could barely see anything in the distance, while the canopy blocked his view overhead.

Linsey had been a country kid in this life, the sort of creature who loved climbing up and down.

Trees were no challenge to him.

Rubbing his hands together lightly, Linsey picked a birch tree that looked relatively easy to climb down from. With a short sprint, he kicked himself up, grabbed the trunk, and began climbing.

Before long, a head poked out from the sparse canopy.

Leaves on deciduous trees naturally fell away, though never all of them. As Linsey pushed through the canopy above his head, a heap of snow gathered on the leaves immediately splattered across his face.

"Pah—"

Wiping away the snowmelt, Linsey looked around again.

Snow filled the air, and a pure-white snowline stretched across the horizon. The entire forest was being covered by a quilt called winter.

Linsey quickly closed his eyes. The endless white was a little blinding.

After resting for a while, he was able to continue observing his surroundings.

This was a vast sea of trees. Linsey's position was somewhat low-lying, preventing him from seeing the forest's edge.

Only to the west did the forest abruptly give way to an empty expanse. The terrain seemed to drop sharply, and a cliff cut off his view...

"Wait, smoke!"

Linsey narrowed his eyes. To the west, there seemed to be smoke rising from a chimney.

Out in the wilderness—where there was smoke, there was hope! At that moment, movement came from the woods beside him.

Linsey jolted.

After watching for a while, he discovered that it was a bird resembling a pheasant flapping about in the distance. Only after confirming it was not some dangerous beast did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Startled like that, Linsey relaxed and did not feel like climbing any higher.

He simply leaned against the tree and began guiding his Source Material, sensing the ability he had awakened.

Perhaps because the ability itself was related to games.

Linsey's power had that mysterious, indescribable sense to it, but it could also unfold in the game-data format most familiar to him.

Linsey chose the latter. An image of a human figure representing his body appeared in his mind, while lines of text and symbols beneath it explained the specific data.

—Game Activated—

Basic template unlocked

Source Material successfully inserted

RPG Module loaded

Name: Linsey

Age: 13

Constitution: 3, Strength: 2, Agility: 3, Intelligence: 5, Willpower: 5, Charisma: 3

Source Material Types: Life Source Material (initial awakening), Willpower Source Material (initial awakening)

Current Ability: Game Player: Newbie (Stage 1)/(Stage 5)

Ability: Game Module

Game Player unlocked module: RPG

Module Slots: 1

RPG Level: 1

RPG Ability: Data Panel

Data Panel: Conducts an in-depth analysis of player data through numerical imagery, comprehensively displaying every detail.

Note: As the largest category of video games, the vast majority of RPGs provide players with information through data. A qualified panel is the foundation of any game.

Linsey scratched his head.

The ability he had awakened manifested from the games he had played all his previous life, dividing them into modules according to categories such as RPG, Survival Construction, fighting games, sports, and so on.

For every Module Slot he had.

Linsey could make all abilities from one game genre permanently active, and he could freely swap modules.

At the same time, activating each module automatically awakened one function, and he could continue developing new abilities afterward. For example, Linsey's current RPG Module had the potential to develop other skills.

"But... how does this help me right now?"

Linsey began to think.

Certainly.

Displaying his own condition through Datafication was an outstanding ability.

But it did not give him power beyond that of an ordinary person. Linsey's actual strength was still that of a mortal.

"Anyway, survival comes first right now."

"I need to find shelter quickly in this snowy weather."

The heavy snow continued to fall.

Linsey did not dare waste time. He quickly hugged the trunk and slid down.

From his estimate atop the tree, he knew the place with the smoke was still quite far away.

Traveling through a forest without roads was absolutely no easy task.

Before setting out, Linsey made some preparations.

He tightened his collar and cuffs, making sure his clothes would not hinder his movements or catch on the brush and trip him.

Then—he set off! Linsey maintained a steady rhythm as he cautiously felt his way through the woods.

When traveling through a forest, losing one's direction was also one of the greatest threats.

But by observing the direction in which the trees grew and the position of the shadows among them, Linsey could determine his general route.

Whenever it became difficult to tell, he would turn around and look back.

The clearly visible footprints left in the snow immediately gave him the answer, sparing him the trouble of marking tree trunks.

Even though the heavy snow would soon bury those footprints.

Linsey had already jogged far ahead, so how could that affect his speed?

Instead, it was the low-hanging branches, tangled shrubs, and moss-covered rocks.

Those common things were what truly annoyed him.

Branches cut his skin and snagged his clothes; shrubs blocked his path.

A careless step onto mossy rocks could make him slip, not to mention that it was snowing! Linsey encountered every one of these obstacles and ended up in a miserable state.

Fortunately, he adjusted the length of his strides in time and paid closer attention to his surroundings, barely managing to keep from being interrupted as he ran.

More than an hour passed like this.

Linsey was not too cold from all the running, but his feet had already become painfully numb.

Swish, rustle rustle...

At that moment, Linsey seemed to hear something moving.

He looked behind him.

Pfft—

With that simple turn and sidestep, a sharp gust swept past his ear.

Linsey focused his gaze and found a blue Ice Cone deeply embedded in the tree trunk beside his ear.

If he had not dodged, he would already be dead! Linsey blinked.

The next second, he turned and ran! Although Linsey was an awakened one, he was still only an ordinary child in terms of actual strength. How could he face an enemy capable of such an attack head-on?

Linsey's obvious attempt to flee also caused the enemy that had attacked him to reveal itself and give chase.

From a spindle-tree bush twenty meters behind him.

A beast with brownish-gray fur, the head of a wolverine, and the body of a fox burst out and pursued Linsey relentlessly.

What was especially dangerous was this.

Whenever the thing forcefully raised its head and then lowered it.

A blue Ice Cone would gather above its head and shoot toward Linsey like a spear hurled by a warrior!

Linsey could no longer care about maintaining his running rhythm.

He roughly controlled the direction of his escape as he ran, loudly complaining, "Oh! Right, this world has awakened ones already."

"So of course it makes perfect sense for there to be magical beasts that can cast spells too!"

"But is this really an absolutely safe place?!"