OPENING ONE'S EYES
It was dark all around, and only a little moonlight brought a soft glow to this shadowed world.
The wind was blowing.
With the wind, the snowflakes hit the person's face like goose feathers, causing a piercing pain.
The surroundings were silent, and occasionally the surrounding trees, overwhelmed by the snow, would make a 'click' sound.
And this kind of sound seemed so eerie in such a dark night that it made one's skin crawl.
The cold wind was blowing, and the freezing temperature made Sora Mori's consciousness slightly clearer.
Looking at the unfamiliar environment before him, Sora Mori felt a bit dazed for a moment.
Just a moment ago, it was a scorching summer, and drinking cold beer was refreshing.
In the blink of an eye, he found himself in this icy, snowy woodland.
The cold air around made Sora Mori feel as if his blood was going to freeze.
"Where is this?"
Sora Mori looked around, a little confused.
"Tat Tat Tat..."
The sound of dull footsteps resounded in the silent night, surprising Sora Mori, who ignored the doubts surging in his heart to look at the source of the sound.
With the faint light of the moon, Sora Mori could see clearly what was causing the movement.
A taller-than-average black bear.
At this moment, it was walking towards him, its fan-like bear paws and burly body making him feel palpitations even before it got close.
If he were slapped by this big black bear, he might be split in two.
But at this moment, the big black bear looked at him with bloodthirsty eyes, seeing him as food.
Almost without thinking, Sora Mori turned and ran away, feeling an inexplicable sadness in his heart. He had suddenly appeared here, and being chased by a big black bear filled him with inexplicable anger.
However, at this time, he couldn't think too much. The black bear was faster than he imagined, and before he had run a few steps, Sora Mori already felt the howling wind from behind.
Turning back unconsciously, he realized the big black bear had appeared behind him at some point, ready to slap his head like a palm fan.
There was almost no doubt that if he were hit by this slap, his head might be smashed directly.
At this time, Sora Mori also wanted to dodge, but found that the speed of the bear's paw was much faster than he imagined, and he couldn't dodge at all.
The howling wind made his face hurt, and the bear's paw that kept approaching almost blinded him.
"Shua!"
Just when Sora Mori thought he would be buried under the bear's paw, a cold light flickered, and the bear's paw was snapped off at the root, spraying blood all over his face.
For a while, Sora Mori came back to his senses and found that it was a spinning ax that cut off the bear's paw and saved his life.
And the ax that cut off the bear's paw continued to rotate after severing it, finally chopping into a thick tree, almost embedding itself.
"Ho Ho..."
Accompanied by the bear's paw's slap, the black bear screamed violently, and as it screamed, a figure walked out of the snow.
The visitor had long dark red hair, a sallow complexion, and a shallow scar on the left forehead. He wore a dark blue plaid shirt with an Ichimatsu pattern and Nichirin earrings.
The man appeared, first glancing at the howling black bear, then setting his eyes on Sora Mori.
"Are you... all right?"
At some point, a man appeared next to Sora Mori and spoke to the dazed Sora Mori.
Sora Mori looked at the man in front of him in a daze, vaguely feeling that he had seen him before, with a very familiar feeling.
But Sora Mori was sure he had never met the man.
After a while, Sora Mori realized why the person in front of him seemed so familiar.
The man resembled a character from an anime he had seen, the protagonist Tanjirou from the anime "Demon Slayer."
More and more, he felt the person in front of him was very familiar.
"Roar!"
But at this moment, the black bear, whose paw had been cut off, roared loudly and moved towards the man who appeared.
The man was very thin, completely different from the black bear's majestic body. If he were hit, he might lose half his life.
But facing the black bear's charge, the man remained calm and simply raised his hand to slap the black bear.
The man's palm seemed light and powerless, but when it landed on the black bear, there was a 'click' of breaking bones, and the entire majestic body of the black bear was sent flying.
Looking at the big black bear that fell dozens of feet away, Sora Mori couldn't help but rub his eyes.
Incredible.
However, soon, Sora Mori reacted, hurriedly picking up the ax that fell on the tree, and quickly came to the black bear with the ax in hand.
Without any hesitation, he chopped off the head of the nearly dead black bear.
After all, from watching a lot of TV, he had seen many people rescued, only to be attacked and killed by the enemy because they didn't kill the enemy immediately.
However, just after killing the black bear with an axe, a faint white light fell on Sora Mori's dead black bear.
At the same time, a mechanical, cold, and emotionless voice sounded beside his ears.
"Ding, congratulations to the host, you have killed the black bear and received 0.1 attribute points."
Also, at this moment, Sora Mori discovered that a property panel had appeared in his mind.