"Shit–!"
Seojin hastily raised his arms to protect his chest from the dropkick [Rambu Drop].
Wham!
The impact blasted him backward.
He crashed through a spiderweb of thin tree branches, snapping them in succession until a thick tree trunk abruptly stopped his flight.
"Ugk…!"
Blood spilled from his lips as his body slid down limply into the snow.
Glancing down, his left hand was dislocated, or perhaps broken and shattered. It was anything but straight.
Still, he had managed to prevent the fatal damage. A broken wrist was a hundred miles better than a broken rib.
"It hurts…"
Groaning, his blurry vision locked into focus on the guilty culprit: a human-sized capybara. Its body was framed sharply by the falling snowflakes.
It then met his gaze.
For a split second, the heavy tension felt absurdly like a romantic movie frame starring Seojin and a giant rodent.
"Cough, cough!"
That absurd scene was shattered as he forced his legs to drag himself upright.
"It hurts so bad I could die…"
The capybara was undeniably the Capybory from the game, but how and why?
Had starvation caused him to pass out at the counter of the convenience store, or this was what most people call a dying hallucination?
So many questions, but he currently had no time to seek the damn answers.
> "Kek, kekeekeeek," in capybara noises.
He couldn't understand the noises the capybara was making, but its facial expression somehow told him the details.
'This damn thing just mocked me, didn't–'
His thought cut short as the capybara stood upright on two legs, its rambutan hair stood rigidly on end as fumes hissed from its skin.
It was snowing, yet Seojin felt his blood run cold. He recognized that animation.
It was the most despised ultimate skill in the game. The ultimate [Sage Art] of Capybory called [Rambu Ultra Hyper Thermo].
"Hey, hey. You're kidding, right…?"
So he ran.
As fast as his feet could bring him.
Only an idiot would sit around while an opponent charged their ultimate.
Interrupting it was not a given either, unlike in the game. First of all, he was no longer a turtle inside a pepperoni pizza carapace shell.
He was Seojin.
Sprinting in flip-flops through deep snow was hard. He kicked them off and ran barefoot. Instead of running straight, he turned right and cut across the tangled branches of the forest.
"That's five seconds."
He suddenly halted.
BLAST!
A scorching laser beam erupted forward.
It missed him.
The laser beam shot exactly one step ahead of where his momentum should have carried him. Even so, the sheer heat of the attack almost baked his face.
"Hot, hot, hot…!"
The overwhelming firepower incinerated the white snow in a perfect line, carving an artificial steaming trench into the ground.
He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.
"Dammit. That was close."
A gamble.
To hit a moving target, one should think a step ahead. But he was thinking a step ahead of the one thinking a step ahead.
If he turned out to be wrong—no, to hell with that notion. He had never once doubted himself.
Ignoring the aching throb in his left arm, he faced the capybara and gave it the middle finger.
"Heh. You missed the shot, idiot."
As if the capybara felt its pride insulted, it tucked inside its half rambutan hairy body and rolled forward like a cog wheel [Rambu Roll].
> "Keeeek," in capybara noises.
"Hey, wait! Let's talk about this, okay?"
He lifted his arms into the air, striking the pose of someone surrendering.
The capybara ignored his plea.
But Seojin suddenly grabbed the hanging branch and pulled himself upward with his right arm.
Fwoosh!
The capybara rolled past beneath him like a tumbleweed, a ball of dry brush blown across an empty street in some cowboy movie.
"Yoink."
> "..." in capybara noises.
It crashed into the tangled branches behind him.
He looked down at the struggling capybara with a mocking grin.
"What's wrong? You couldn't see me up here?"
The capybara thrashed harder against the branches.
"Found something down there in the ground?"
He immediately shook his head, his expression twisting in disgust.
"Fuck. That was cringe…"
Truth be told, Seojin wanted to mock it more. But he had another matter to take care of.
He leaned against the trunk and ripped a piece from his already-torn shirt, probably damaged when he was blasted earlier. Twigs must have torn it.
Along a short broken branch as a makeshift splint, he used the cloth to loosely wrap his broken left hand.
Naturally, he didn't try to straighten it.
"Sigh. That's a little better."
He looked back down at the capybara, which had now managed to free itself from the branches. He kept his composure and relaxed his breathing.
He recalled his memory about Capybory.
It was considered the weakest game character because its ultimate skill had a five-second charging time. It was also unable to use any skill for the next fifty-five seconds, except for [Rambu Roll].
That cooldown restriction was meant to balance the insane damage output of its ultimate.
It wasn't as flashy as the others, but if it landed, it could one-shot an opponent. The other characters had flashier abilities, but most were simply used as combo enders.
That meant he had time to rest and think.
"Status."
He called out intentionally. It would make him look like an idiot, but who cared?
There was no one around except the capybara waiting below for its cooldown, looking more like the idiot here.
A system interface appeared in the air.
[A perfect match.]
More lines followed.
[A character satisfying all submitted conditions has been found.]
[Attempting customization.]
[The character's name cannot be altered.]
[The character's name cannot….]
[...]
[...]
[The original name has been forcibly restored.]
[Customization complete.]
The interface shimmered gold.
A golden text also appeared in a pop-up animation, and it had a few golden decorations.
[Welcome to Requiem of–]
"–Sinfall, isn't it?"
[...]
"I know, I don't care."
[...;;;]
The greeting abruptly vanished, replaced by a new interface.
> [Basic Information]
Name: Seven Hart (Yoon Seojin)
Age: 15 (21)
Race: Human
He continued reading.
> [Skills]
[Self-Proclaimed Genius]
"...?!"
His eyebrow twitched.
"What do you mean 'self-proclaimed'?! I am objectively a natural, you mothe—"
> "Fall into hell," in capybara noises.
"The hell?"
The capybara hopped and launched itself into a dropkick [Rambu Drop], aiming straight at him.
"Damn, damn capybara! You shouldn't be able to do–"
Seojin slipped on the branch, taken aback, and fell onto the snow below.
With nothing to hit, the capybara's dropkick continued upward, disappearing into the sky until who knew when or where it would land.
"Oh, well, whatever…"
Seojin lay still in the snow, feeling the ache in his back and the throbbing pain of his broken hand.
"I guess game characters behave differently when they're no longer inside a screen… "
He stood and ran a hand through his hair.
"But…"
He walked toward the artificial trench carved into the snow by the ultimate skill of the capybara earlier. Most of the melted snow had already begun freezing again, but the scorched trail remained.
"...Why am I inside the novel when those things exist?"
He finally had time to consider the questions he'd pushed aside.
Based on the system interface, this place was indeed Requiem of Sinfall. However, such things weren't also in the novel. Sure, there were demons, goblins, orcs, and countless other races.
But there shouldn't be a capybara with rambutan hair!
"And aren't capybara a damned tropical animal?! Winter has come, why is there one? Gosh…"
Step, step.
Five minutes passed. He had been following the trail of melted snow. It was easier than trekking through the forest, where countless branches tangled together like vines.
"Seven Hart…"
He recalled the name displayed on the status window.
"Hart…"
The moment he thought of that name, he buried his face in both hands.
"...I'm fucked."
> "Kek…" in capybara noises.
Seojin slowly turned around.
The capybara that was sent flying into the distance had returned. Its bloodshot eyes stared directly at him.
He sighed.
"In every damn possible way."