Ash knew at some point the man was going to catch up, and his body was also wearing down. His calm and consistent breathing that he had mastered in his previous life was paying off.
But that would only take him so far. The only thing that kept him out of the man's hands were obstacles like trees and bushes.
"You stop, bastard! You think you can run from me? I am already level 5!" The bandit said that, but he was still having problems catching up.
Ash looked far into the distance and a resolve took place. Maneuvering around the trees, he earned a moment of time, and that was all he needed.
Seeing two small trees, Ash passed between them and held the longsword in his hand, sitting behind one of the trunks.
His simple yet cunning trap was ready. He didn't have enough time to prepare a solid trap, but according to his calculations, this should be enough.
He was greatly outmatched in terms of strength, but strength had never been his best hand.
No matter what, he had always had the last laugh in his previous life, and he was confident to continue in this life as well.
While running, he was not only looking for an escape but also understanding the personality of his pursuer.
By his tone, the man seemed overconfident. The little precaution he had taken vanished after seeing Ash run wildly into the forest.
As the bandit approached, running at full speed, he ducked down to avoid tree branches, bending his knees and neck.
He never thought Ash would be waiting with the sword held upward, grounded for support.
Ash placed the sword in position briskly as the bandit ducked. His downward movement caught him off guard, and the silver blade barely missed his neck by a hair's breadth — only because of his last-moment dodge.
But it pierced his shoulder and came out the other side.
"Arghhh…!" A long painful cry echoed through the forest.
Ash was already on the move, circling behind the man. Ready to use the moment where the man was in blinding pain.
"You think strength will win you wars? Ever heard of an assassin?" Ash said mockingly, ready to strike.
The man's back was tilted, so the neck was out of reach. Ash went for the second-best target — the Achilles tendons.
He cut the tendons of both legs, the part that connects the calf muscle to the heel bone.
This strike was not to kill the man but to paralyze him. He wouldn't be able to stand or use his legs for the time being.
And that was enough for Ash. He might have tried to kill the man, but for some reason, he felt that the bandit's strength and endurance were beyond human limits, as if something majestic.
He was restrained by his own knowledge, but he knew it wasn't necessary that common rules would work in this world.
The blue screen, the bandit calling himself level 5 as if this was a game — everything indicated one thing: there were powers, or to be precise, superpowers.
Leaving the man behind, Ash ran. He ran until he ran out of energy.
During his marathon, he noticed strange plants, some glistening in the light. The sounds of unknown animals also made it a horrifying journey where he had to remain vigilant at all times.
After careful consideration, he climbed a tree so he wouldn't get chomped by a lion in no time.
Sitting on a branch of a large tree, he contemplated everything that had happened so far.
It looked like he was in someone else's body, but he had no memories of the prior human. And the old method of transport, "caverns," and old weapons like swords instead of guns indicated that either he had regressed into the past or was in another world.
As he thought about the blue screen that appeared while he was running, the same blue screen appeared before him.
[ Profession: Modern Assassin ]
[ Level: 1 ]
[ 0/10 Exp ]
[ AGILITY: 3 | ENDURANCE: 2 | STRENGTH: 1 | LUCK: 1 |
MP: 10 (Recovery rate: 1/600 second) ]
[ Stat Points: 1 ]
It was all written like a basic pamphlet, and then there were some logs:
[ Profession has been changed from Assassin to Modern Assassin ]
[ Level 1 Rewards: Glock 19 (9mm) ]
[ Confirm to claim rewards ]
Despite being calm most of the time, this was quite a shock.
"Confirm," Ash said.
With that, a pistol manifested before him. As he caught it in the air, his hands settled nicely on the trigger.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Ash felt at home. It was a gun he was well accustomed to from his previous life. A 9mm pistol — the best part being its compact size, yet anyone could hold it with two hands for better aim.
It also had better capacity compared to other similar pistols.
With fluid movements, Ash checked for ammo — only to be disappointed. This confused him. What use was a gun with no ammo?
It was as good as a brick. He was about to put it inside his pants when he casually clicked the trigger.
At once, a sound rebounded in the forest.
Ash heaved a sigh of relief because the bullet had barely missed his leg, and the gun had a suppressor, so the sound wasn't loud.
As an assassin, he knew the rule to never point a gun at himself or allies. But in this atmosphere, and assuming the gun was empty, he had lost caution.
Seeing the bullet lodged deep in the tree's bark, he recognized it as 9mm ammo.
"How in the hell…" Ash was beyond shocked. There had been no ammo inside, yet it fired.
Then he calmed his nerves. If a screen could appear before him and summon a gun out of nowhere, then it was believable the gun could fire without ammo.
Thinking that, he was delighted. Did this mean he could use unlimited ammo?
He fired another shot to check, and the bullet pierced the tree in front of him.
As he shot the third bullet, the click of an empty gun echoed.
"Of course, not unlimited," Ash muttered. He knew it couldn't be that simple, but he wanted to understand what caused this.
He checked the screen, and in an instant, he found the answer.
[ MP: 0 (Recovery rate: 1/600 second) ]
His MP had gone to zero. That meant each bullet cost him five MP.
The upper limit was ten, so it would take an hour and fourty minutes to recover fully.
While he was satisfying his curiosity, he suddenly heard the crack of sticks behind the bush — just ten meters away from his tree.
A weird creature revealed itself, the size of a panther but completely different from any animal he knew. It had pitch-black fur that looked to absorb the light itself. Its eyes glowed red and its footsteps were unnaturally silent.