Susu ran headlong in one direction for who knows how long.
She only stopped when she was too exhausted to take another step, collapsing wretchedly onto the soft ground—a mix of fallen leaves and mud—and gasping for breath.
After lying there for a while, Susu finally managed to recover from the intense exertion.
She flicked her tail, slowly got up from the muddy ground, and began to carefully survey her surroundings.
It seemed her reckless dash had brought her deep into the forest.
The dense, towering primeval forest blotted out the sky, making it gloomy and eerily quiet.
Although she was just a young cub now, her senses were countless times sharper than when she had been human.
She listened carefully for any sound from her surroundings.
Aside from the occasional chirp of a hidden insect, the place was terrifyingly silent.
Susu shook the mud from her paws and breathed a small sigh of relief.
Only then did she turn her attention back to her current predicament.
This was likely not the world she was familiar with.
At least, to her knowledge, a primeval forest so dense it blotted out the sun couldn’t possibly exist, not even in Africa.
‘So, where on earth am I?!’
Susu lowered her head in frustration.
Even for someone as unflappable and optimistic as her, suddenly turning from a human into a beast, stranded alone in a primeval forest in the middle of nowhere—it was a lot to process and adapt to.
And most importantly, she was starving.
Licking her lips, Susu decided to put aside all these messy, trivial emotions for now.
Finding a way to fill her stomach was the top priority.
However…
Staring at the vast forest, which contained nothing but trees and more trees, Susu’s eyes were filled with a sense of helplessness.
Although she had no idea where to find food, Susu decided to follow her instincts and try her luck.
She didn’t dare touch the brightly colored, mushroom-like things growing in clumps by the tree roots.
As for the berries on the vines, she tried a few types, but they were either so sour they set her teeth on edge or so astringently bitter that they were completely useless for filling her stomach.
After struggling for the better part of the day, not only had Susu failed to feed herself, but she was now even hungrier.
Following the increasingly cool, damp air, Susu pushed through the jungle and faintly heard the sound of running water.
A flicker of joy ignited in her heart.
If there was water, then maybe…
‘There might be fish?!’
Without a second thought, Susu quickened her pace and soon arrived at the bank of a small river in the jungle.
Because there had just been a heavy downpour, the current was rather swift.
Susu stood on the bank and watched for a moment, but in the end, she didn’t have the courage to jump directly into the murky water.
She backed away in defeat and flopped onto the grassy bank, resting her head gently on her front paws, melancholy and dejected.
‘Damn you, cruel heavens!’
‘It’s bad enough you turned me into a beast, but you won’t even give me a single bite of food!’
‘You’re clearly not giving me any chance to survive!’
Susu was so busy lamenting her tragic fate that she wasn’t paying attention.
So when a huge fruit exuding a sweet, fresh fragrance smashed into her, she didn’t even have a chance to react before she was seeing stars.
Staring at the gleaming yellow, mango-like fruit in front of her—a fruit roughly the size of her entire head—Susu froze.
She subconsciously glanced around, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Looking up, she spotted fruits identical to the one before her, hidden among the branches and leaves on the tree…
‘Could it be that the God of Transmigration heard my complaints and dropped a starter pack for me?!’