What the hell was wrong with this woman?
That's all I could think as I felt her suddenly collapse on top of me, her body going limp mid-choke.
One second she was trying to strangle me, screaming about being a perverted monster, and the next she was bleeding all over my chest.
"Shit, shit, shit," I muttered, looking down at her. The stitches I'd just spent hours perfecting were starting to bleed again.
All that work, all those expensive medical supplies I'd bought with my only valuable possession, and she'd just undone half of it by throwing a tantrum.
She was positioned awkwardly on top of me—what people might call a cowgirl position if this were some kind of porn scenario, which it definitely wasn't as the only one groaning was me here.
Her naked body was pressed against mine, blood from her reopened wounds seeping onto my bare chest.
I was only wearing nothing as the system had left me with nothing after I'd traded away everything to get her things.
Right now, I felt like every third-grade manhua's MC at his intro who gets a breakup or rejection after giving everything to his girlfriend.
"What have you done to me?" she whispered weakly, looking down at me with those silver eyes filled with pain and confusion.
Before I could answer, she collapsed completely, her full weight falling onto my chest.
"Pffh!" The impact knocked the wind out of me, and I could feel fresh blood spreading between us.
I closed my eyes and tried not to lose my temper completely.
Here I was, broke as hell because I'd sacrificed every piece of clothing I owned to that greedy system just to save this woman's life.
And what did I get in return? A death threat and reopened wounds that would probably get infected in this disgusting cave.
"Fuck this," I muttered under my breath, but I still found myself gently rubbing her back where I could feel her fox tail twitching weakly under the bedsheet.
She was exhausted, her body finally giving in to the trauma and blood loss.
At least the wound hadn't opened completely.
The main suture line was holding, just some surface bleeding from the stress she'd put on it.
Nothing that would kill her immediately.
She fell asleep on top of me like that, her breathing gradually evening out.
I wanted to move her off, but honestly, I was too tired to care anymore.
The whole situation was so messed up that I just lay there and eventually drifted off myself.
I woke up a few hours later with my entire body aching. Sleeping on a stone altar with someone lying on top of you is not recommended for back health, apparently.
I carefully shifted her weight, moving slowly so she'd roll to the side instead of hitting the floor.
"Damn it, everything hurts," I groaned, pressing a hand to my chest where her weight had been.
That's when I noticed the other problem. Looking down between my legs, I could see the obvious tent in my minimal clothing.
A natural erection—probably from the physical contact and the fact that I was a healthy male who hadn't exactly been getting any action lately.
I sighed and stood up, ignoring it completely. It was just biology, nothing more... if I ignored the fact that the size was a little bit big.
I grabbed one of the bedsheets and wrapped it around her properly, covering her naked form. The last thing either of us needed was more complications.
Looking around the cave, I noticed something I'd missed before—actual sunlight filtering down from somewhere above.
There had to be an opening, maybe even a way out of this hellhole.
Then I heard it. The sound of running water echoing from deeper in the cave system.
That settled it. I couldn't keep this woman alive in a cave full of corpses and rat droppings. She needed clean water, fresh air, and somewhere I could properly monitor her recovery.
I bent down and carefully scooped her up in a princess carry, making sure not to jostle her wounds. She was lighter than I expected, probably from all the blood loss.
Her head lolled against my shoulder, and I could feel her breath on my neck.
"Alright, fox lady," I said quietly, "let's get you somewhere that doesn't smell like death."
Barefoot and wearing nothing but scraps, I started walking toward the sound of running water. Each step sent jolts of pain through my abused body, but I kept going.
Whatever happens next, it had to be better than staying in that nightmare cave.
At least I hoped it would be. With my luck lately, we'd probably run into more cultivation world bullshit before we found anything resembling safety.
But for now, all I could do was put one foot in front of the other and try to keep us both alive long enough to figure out what the hell was going on in this crazy world I'd somehow ended up in.
The sound of water grew louder as we moved deeper into the cave system, and I couldn't help but feel a small spark of hope.
'Come on, Luck, do your job.' The only things that I trusted in my life were two things.
The first was my own intelligence, and the second was how I always found something positive from the struggles life threw in front of me.
Life had clear patterns; you just need an eye to see it.
Of course, my life had lots of issues, but in the end, I learned something from them.
Just like how, right now, I learned that this woman was insane and could strangle me at any time but was also desperate and sad for some reason.
The sound of water grew louder with each step I took, and then I saw it—a small pinprick of light ahead, barely visible but definitely there.
"Finally," I breathed, picking up my pace despite the sharp rocks cutting into my bare feet.
The light grew brighter as I moved forward, and I could feel a slight breeze carrying the scent of... well, it wasn't exactly fresh air, but it was different from the stench of death and decay we'd been breathing.
After what felt like forever, I finally reached the source of the light.
My heart sank as I realized we were still inside the cave—just a different part of it.
The light was filtering down from high above through what looked like a natural opening in the ceiling, creating a shaft of golden sunlight that illuminated the space below.
But what I saw made me want to turn around and go back to the corpse-filled chamber.
"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered, staring at the scene in front of us.
It was green, alright. Green everywhere. But not the good kind of green that meant life and safety.
This was the kind of green that screamed 'danger' in every language known to man.
A massive pond stretched out before us, easily the size of a small lake. The water was a sickly green color, covered with a thick layer of algae and God knows what else.
It looked like it hadn't moved in decades—stagnant, contaminated, and giving off a smell that made my eyes water.
But the real problem wasn't the water.
It was what surrounded it.
Hundreds of plants grew around the pond's edges, climbing up the cave walls and spreading across every available surface.
And every single one of them was some shade of purple or violet.
Dark, unnatural colors that my veterinary training immediately flagged as 'do not touch, do not eat, do not even breathe near.'
These weren't normal plants. They looked like something out of a horror movie—twisted stems, leaves that seemed to pulse with their own inner light, flowers that looked more like mouths than petals.
The whole area felt wrong, like nature itself had gone insane.
"So, Luck," I said to the empty air, "you're trying to screw me up, huh?"