"Huff! Huff!"
Carrying the heavy treasure chest wasn't easy.
Fang Raon felt his arms burning with exhaustion, and his lungs were aching with every breath.
When he first lost his sense of sight, he didn't stop exercising and doing other things as he tried to still live a normal life.
It all ended up becoming quite impossible after he started to lose more of his motor functions, and for a couple of years already, he'd been pretty much bedridden.
Junior, Alexis, and Rich were running after him, going up the long flight of stairs, and they were slowly but surely catching him.
They weren't carrying something as heavy as the treasure chest, so they were going to catch him eventually.
'Come on, Raon, come on!'
He screamed to himself with bloodshot eyes, and finally, he reached the end of the stairs, and the glowing door stood before him.
With a lunge, he went through the door, and it felt like he passed through some kind of invisible barrier.
At one moment, it was warm, and the next moment, it was freezing cold.
In that moment, as he stepped out of the door, he appeared in a winter forest with chill seeping into his bones.
The sky was icy blue-colored, and with every breath, he could see his breath forming a cloud in front of him.
His feet got buried in the snow as he trudged forward, the crunching of the snow beneath his boots echoing through the silent woods.
"There he is!"
In that moment, he heard Junior's shout.
They also went through the door, and they quickly changed their clothes into winter clothes, which they purchased beforehand.
They knew that it was winter floor, so they bought clothes that would keep them warm in the freezing temperatures.
Fang Raon didn't, as he honestly completely forgot, and it would also have cost him a significant amount of money.
However, at the current moment, he regretted not purchasing the winter clothes because it was freezing cold.
It was turning night slowly as well.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Fang Raon ran down the thick winter forest and kept hearing the sound of cursing of his chasers.
In the trees, birds settled into their nests and curiously looked down at the commotion below.
"…Agh… huff!"
Rich got stuck in a pile of snow.
He was breathing heavily with his lungs burning with exhaustion.
"I can't keep going, guys!"
"Haah…"
Junior leaned against the tree and watched as Fang Raon disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
The snow started falling from the sky, covering the ground with a fresh layer of white powder.
"…I think we should go to Winter Village. It is the only habitable place nearby, and we can camp there.
"That guy will die in this forest, and next morning, we will go find his corpse and the treasure chest."
Alexis suggested.
"I like that idea!"
Rich shouted.
'…I don't think he can log off, as the Winter Village is the only Safe Zone on the entire floor. Everything else is Combat Zone.
'If he tries to sneak into Winter Village, we'll find him and get the treasure chest back. He won't be able to survive the entire night in the forest.
'Not without winter clothes.'
Junior nodded, then started heading in a different direction, heading to Winter Village, which was a small village tucked in the heart of the second floor.
…
"Huff! Huff! Huff!"
Fang Raon trembled in cold.
He hadn't heard of anyone following him for a while.
'They stopped following me. I think they are waiting for the cold to kill me. Can't I just log off, maybe?'
Fang Raon quickly dug a hole in the snow, buried the treasure chest there, and tried logging off.
[You cannot log off inside a Combat Zone]
'…Combat Zone, how bothersome.'
He undug the treasure chest and looked around the darkening forest and noticed that it was getting colder by the moment.
The sun was soon gone from the sky, and when that happened, he would have minutes left to live.
His shoes weren't suited for such conditions, and thus, his toes were freezing and turning into ice at this rate.
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
'…God damn it!'
Fang Raon started running, not quite sure where, but he knew he had to escape the icy grip of death that was coming for him.
The snow started to fall harder, and the sky slowly changed shades to black with stars sparkling bright above.
"Huff…"
Fang Raon collapsed to the ground and just saw his health keep dropping at the corner of his vision.
With each second, he lost one health point.
He sat on the snow, his back against the tree trunk, and he silently looked at the treasure chest in his arms.
The treasure chest was his only chance at survival anymore.
Fang Raon put his freezing fingers on the cold chest, at the small gap, and pried it open with all the strength he had left.
The treasure chest broke open.
***
[10 items acquired!]
[3x Health Potions]
[Set of Dark Blue Winter Clothes]
[1x Refined Steel Sword]
[1x Steel Shield]
[1x Sword Stab Skill Scroll]
[1x Bag of Square Coins]
[1x Enchanted Compass]
[1x Hard Slash Skill Scroll]
***
The items were sparkling inside the treasure chest, and Fang Raon felt like maybe there was a chance.
He immediately equipped the Dark Blue Winter Clothes—it included a winter coat with a fur-lined hood, a wool sweater, winter pants, winter boots, knit gloves, and a winter hat.
It was all in the color of dark blue.
When he finished equipping it, he let out a satisfied smile as it was warm again, and his health stopped dropping.
The winter clothes set was warming him up as if he were sitting by a fireplace inside a warm cottage.
It felt amazing.
"Health potion…"
Fang Raon took one of the health potions and drank it.
A warm feeling appeared in his stomach, and his health rose back to full. His strength also returned to his limbs.
The rest of the stuff he stored inside his inventory and decided to take a closer look at them at a later time.
While he survived for now, the temperature would just keep dropping, and he had to find a safe place to rest and warm up before it was too late.
'It is dangerous in these woods, not just because of the freezing temperatures, but there might be bears or something…'