A sharp, piercing ring of beauty’s alarm blasted directly inside Zyra’s skull, shattering her peaceful sleep.
[Warning! Host, your time limit inside the Beast Domain has expired. Initiating immediate eviction!]
Zyra sat up with a jerk, slamming her head against the top of the vitality cage. Her heart leaped into her throat. This is why humans should not sleep in dog cages, she thought.
She tried to take a deep, calming breath, but her lungs suddenly seized up. The air felt thick, heavy, and completely empty of life. It was exactly like suffocating.
Ah, so this is what that beauty meant by seven hours, she realized in a panic. She had literally used up all her human oxygen allowance in this beast domain. Her snake was sleeping beside the small river, showing zero signs of discomfort.
[Evacuating the host now.]
"Wait! Beauty, hold on, evacuation to where exactly...!"
Before all the words could fully leave her mouth, the beautiful violet sky vanished.
The suffocating feeling disappeared, replaced by a harsh, freezing gust of dusty wind. Zyra was slammed hard onto the cold, damp ground. She found herself right back at the terrifying edge of the jungle.
"You could have taken me to the desert at least." She complained
Beauty twirled, [That would cost you and you owe me already. I do not advise you to accumulate more debt host, you are poor enough as is.]
Zyra nodded in agreement as she thought about her 3 points. They were not even enough to back the medicine she had used on the snake. "Exactly how much do I owe?
[150 Resonance points. I can prepare a debt repayment plan for you. It will cost only ten points.]
She heard never been as flabbergasted as she was in that moment. The 150 points looked like 1.5 million in earth currency or energy stones. And the system was shameless system wants 10 more points. "Hey, were you sent to help or defraud me?" She muttered.
The system did not respond, the little virtual snake seemed more interested in twisting and admiring its own reflection. So, she focused on her circumstances. The howling windstorm from the previous day had finally passed, leaving the early morning air deadly cold, it seemed that the rain had come right after the wind, dampening the ground.
It was quiet, but she knew this was a false front. Things were worse. Much, much worse. Now that the storm was gone, the jungle had come alive. The predators were out to hunt, and she was probably the tastiest prey in the area.
The post apocalypse was not much different from the apocalypse. Danger was everywhere.
[Alert! High-rank beasts detected in the immediate vicinity!]
Beauty’s voice yipped in her head, lacking its usual teasing demeanor.
A low, vibrating growl echoed from the shadows of the tall, thick trees directly behind Zyra. The sound vibrated right through the soles of her boots. Her chest rose and fell in rapid, terrified pants. Every single instinct she possessed screamed at her to run, but before she could take a step, the heavy, earth-shaking thud-thud-thud of giant footsteps closed in from the different directions.
[Scanning target beasts.Front target: Iron-Shell Tortoise! Rear target: Grey-Maw Ape! Both are highly aggressive, mutated, and currently starving!]
As the two creatures stepped out of the tree line into the dim morning light, Zyra’s jaw dropped. "Beauty! Instead of yapping in my head like a broken radio, give me some protection instruments! Magic shields, teleportation charms, anything! Become useful to me." She could maybe fight one...but not two at the same time.
[I am a Beast Bonding System, not an armory. I can provide absolute protection only if you establish a soul bond with both beasts.]
"Great! Then bond them!" Zyra yelled, reaching for the knife in her pocket.
[Your level is not high enough to bond with high rank beasts. I advise that you find another way to survive.]
"You useless piece of junk!" Zyra hissed.
She carefully took a few tense steps to the side, pressing her back against a thick tree root. Luckily for her, the two monsters weren’t focusing on her just yet. Instead, their terrifying eyes were locked onto each other.
To them, Zyra was a delicious, juicy snack....and neither was willing to share.
The Grey-Maw Ape was a towering mountain of grey fur, its massive jaws dripping with necrotic saliva that hissed as it ripped a tree out of the ground by the trunk. Opposite it, the Iron-Shell Tortoise looked like a living military tank. Its dark, metallic shell gleamed with a menacing, jagged edge, and its eyes burned with a primal, predatory hunger.
Zyra looked at her knife and shook her head. It would not even make a dent on the shell of the turtle.
With a thought, she vanished into the beast domain.
[Warning, you can only hide inside for a minute. You have exhausted your approved hours in the space. Host, don’t fight two feral beasts right now. RUN!]
"You don’t have to tell me twice!" Zyra left the space and bolted. She ran like a madwoman along the rocky edge of the jungle, heading toward a cluster of giant rocks in the distance. As long as she got to high ground, her chances of survival would be better.
[Host, there is a narrow rock fissure ahead. Your physical build allows you to squeeze inside and take cover.]
Behind her, the ground exploded. The Grey-Maw Ape let out a deafening, glass-shattering roar and lunged after her. But the Iron-Shell Tortoise wasn’t about to let its dinner get stolen. With terrifying speed that completely defied the history books Zyra had read in school, the tortoise launched itself forward like a stray cannonball, slamming its massive iron shell directly into the ape’s ribs.
BOOM!
The impact sounded like thunder. The ape screeched in fury, tearing giant chunks of wood from the trees and smashing them over the tortoise’s head. They were fighting each other like beasts from hell, but the terrifying part was that they were still chasing after her while doing it. Every time they swapped blows, they tumbled closer and closer to her heels.
"Bloody hell!" Zyra screamed, her lungs burning as her boots skidded over loose gravel.
The curse of making a quick escape from town, she had not packed enough weapons. Some explosives would have come in handy right about now. Even a simple gas grenade.
No matter what sound she heard behind, she didn’t dare to stop, not even to get a look at the mutated squirrels that were escaping, just like her.
Up ahead, she spotted the narrow tear in a giant rock formation that the system had told her about--a natural, cave-like crevice just wide enough for a medium sized human to squeeze through. She climbed the rocks with her arms, moving like a monkey with ten limbs on adrenaline.
With a desperate dive, Zyra threw herself inside, scraping her shoulders against the rough stone as she dragged herself into the dark, cramped space, which barely had enough space for her to sit.
She turned around slowly, panting heavily, and peeked through the narrow gap--only to see a looming shadow that made her scream.