"Game activation successful?"
Linsey had just sensed Essence when a game-like prompt sounded in his ear.
As a man who had died at a gaming table in his previous life, the moment he heard that voice, he understood what his Gift was.
Then, Linsey began to shiver.
This was not excitement brought on by awakening a Gift, but rather—he was freezing.
Linsey had been in a burning building just moments ago, yet in the blink of an eye, he found himself in a forest, with goose-feather snowflakes drifting down above him.
Whoosh—
A cold wind swept through the trees.
"Ahh, sss~~~"
Linsey shuddered, remembering Alvitte's whisper before she had bid him farewell.
"Send him somewhere safe..."
"This is definitely safe enough, but isn't it a little too far away?!"
Anville Village was still more than two months away from seeing snow!
Who knew where that Righteous Walker had thrown him with a single Super Support?
Linsey turned and surveyed his surroundings. Everywhere he looked was filled with lush trees.
Fortunately, the leaves above were withered and yellowing rather than long, thin pine needles, suggesting that he might not be in a frigid zone.
"First, I need to figure out where I am."
Inside the forest, 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 all over everything.
Trees were no challenge to him.
Rubbing his hands together lightly, Linsey picked out a birch tree that looked easier to climb down from. With a running start, he kicked himself up, grabbed the trunk, and began climbing.
Before long, a head poked out from the sparse canopy.
Deciduous trees naturally shed their leaves, though not all of them. As Linsey pushed his head through the canopy, a pile of snow that had accumulated on the leaves immediately splattered across his face.
"Pah—"
Wiping away the melting snow, Linsey looked around again.
White snow surged through the sky, 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 pure white scenery was a little too dazzling.
He rested for a while before continuing to observe 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 cooking smoke rising.
Out in the wilderness—where there was smoke, there was hope! At that moment, a disturbance came from the neighboring patch of woods.
Linsey jolted.
After watching for a while, he discovered that it was a bird resembling a pheasant fluttering in the distance. Only after confirming that it was not some dangerous beast did he breathe a sigh of relief.
After being startled like that, Linsey relaxed and no longer felt like climbing trees.
He simply leaned against the trunk and began guiding his Essence, feeling out his awakened ability.
Perhaps because his Gift itself was related to games.
Linsey's ability possessed that mysterious, indescribable sense of intuition, but it could also unfold in the game-data format he knew best.
Linsey chose the latter. An image of a humanoid figure representing his body appeared in his mind, with lines of text and icons beneath it explaining the specific data.
--Game Activated-- Basic Template Unlocked Essence Successfully Loaded RPG Module Loaded Name: Linsey Age: 13 Constitution: 3, Strength: 2, Agility: 3, Intelligence: 5, Willpower: 5, Charisma: 3 Essence Types: Life Source Material (Initial Awakening), Willpower Source Material (Initial Awakening) Current Gift: Game Player: Newbie (Stage 1)/(Stage 5) Ability: Game Module Game Player Unlocked Module: RPG Module Slot: 1 RPG Level: 1 RPG Ability: Data Panel Data Panel: Conducts an in-depth analysis of player data in the form of numbers and images, presenting every detail comprehensively. Note: As the largest category of video games, most RPGs provide players with information through data. A qualified panel is the foundation of any game.
Linsey scratched his head.
His awakened Gift was the manifestation of the games he had played his entire previous life, divided into modules according to categories such as RPG, Survival Construction, fighting, and sports.
For every Module Slot he had.
Linsey could make all abilities from one game genre permanently active, and he could freely switch modules.
At the same time, activating each module would automatically awaken a 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 grant him power beyond that of an ordinary person. Linsey's actual strength was still that of a mortal.
"Anyway, survival comes first right now."
"In snowy weather, I need to find shelter as soon as possible."
The heavy snow continued to fall.
Linsey did not dare waste time and quickly slid down while hugging the trunk.
From his rough estimate atop the tree, he knew that the place where smoke rose was still a long way away.
Traveling through a forest without roads was definitely no easy task.
Before setting out, Linsey made special preparations.
He tightened his collar and cuffs, making sure his clothes would not hinder his movements or get snagged by bushes in the forest and trip him.
Then—he set off! Maintaining a steady rhythm, Linsey carefully felt his way through the forest.
When traveling through a forest, losing one's sense of direction was also one of the greatest dangers.
But by observing the direction in which the trees grew and the positions of shadows in the woods, Linsey could determine his general route.
Whenever it became difficult to tell, he would turn around and take a look.
The clearly visible footprints left in the snow would immediately give him the answer, sparing him the trouble of marking tree trunks.
Even if 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 branches, dense shrubs, and moss-covered rocks.
Those common things were what truly gave him trouble.
Branches scratched his skin and snagged his clothes; shrubs blocked his path;
And one careless step onto mossy rocks could send him slipping, not to mention that it was snowing! Linsey encountered every one of these obstacles and was left in a wretched state.
Fortunately, he adjusted the length of his stride in time and kept a closer eye on his surroundings, barely managing to keep running without interruption.
More than an hour passed like this.
Linsey was not too cold from all the running, but his feet had already begun to ache from the cold.
Rustle, swish, swish...
At that moment, Linsey seemed to hear something moving.
He looked behind him.
Pfft—
With that simple turn of his head and body, a gust of wind swept past his ear.
Linsey focused his gaze and saw 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! Though Linsey was an awakened one, he was still only an ordinary child in terms of strength. How could he possibly confront an enemy capable of launching 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 within a spindle shrub twenty meters behind him.
A beast with brownish-gray fur, a wolverine-like head, and a fox-like body rushed out and pursued Linsey relentlessly.
What was especially dangerous was this.
Whenever the creature forcefully raised its head and then lowered it.
A blue Ice Cone would condense above its head before shooting 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 while loudly complaining as he ran, "Oh! Right, this world already has awakened ones."
"So of course having magical beasts capable of casting spells is perfectly reasonable too!"
"But is this really an absolutely safe place?!"