21 Attached Death Aura (1/2)

Now, I know I hadn't taken a bath in a while, but I knew for certain that the water didn't spin that quickly down the drain last time. To be frank, I didn't remember much about the swirl at all, which meant it was either very small or nonexistent. This time, even if I had tried to ignore it, I would've noticed it anyway. A testament to the planet's rotation.

While on this train of thought, I realized something else.

*The clock on my phone is definitely correct.*

This was a bold claim. How did I know this? Well, I didn't for certain, but figuring it out wasn't going to be difficult.

*I just hope it's no longer cloudy outside...*

I hastily dried myself off and put on some fresh clothes. I was no longer tired. Nor was I sore... Perhaps that nap of a few minutes was all I needed.

With my black s.h.i.+rt and black shorts, I rushed outside as quickly as possible.

I quickly confirmed the weather. It was indeed sunny, the perfect condition to test my theory.

But before I could proceed with my observations, I noticed something else.

*Where... did the dead rabbits go?*

I knew for sure that I had killed precisely six rabbits in the vicinity of my house, yet I could currently see zero. The four bloodstains were still there, though. In my moment of confusion, I had one clear thought that should have been common sense, but my new reality kept this common sense suppressed.

*Rabbits are almost on the bottom of the food chain.*

My confusion turned to shock. My breathing started quickening. My heart began to beat faster as well. I didn't want it to be true, but the lack of evidence was exactly the proof I needed here. There was no other possibility, unless they had just magically vanished into thin air. But I knew this wasn't the case from the small trails of dripped and dried up blood sprouting off of each of the four stains.

*What G.o.dforsaken creature hunts those things?*

Yes, another creature had picked those corpses right off the ground and walked away with them. All I had done was give it easy roadkill. It was most likely thanking me for the easy hunt.

My efforts until now seemed laughable.

*Killing rabbits gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment? Give me a break...*

Any sense of pride I previously had had evaporated completely. I was in a daze after seeing my lap time, but that was only a record for Earth. Perhaps if I needed to survive and venture outside my comfort zone in this world, being superhuman was necessary.

*It's not just An that's ridiculing me, but wild animals as well?*

How long had I been watched? Was I still being watched? How had I survived for so long?

Well, that last question wasn't quite right. I *did* die once already, so maybe I wasn't so fortunate after all.

The scariest thing was that I never knew any other beings were here in the first place. The world merely seemed like a hollow sh.e.l.l of the one I knew. And now that I knew there was something out there that hunted my hunters, my superhuman capabilities didn't seem very impressive. There was undoubtedly only one way to survive comfortably in this world.

*I have to get stronger.*

Unless I didn't want to go anywhere and stayed inside my own home. As far as I knew, nothing had broken into my house yet, so I was safe here.

*But how am I going to test this theory?*

I could only test this theory with creatures I was certain I could beat. I certainly didn't want to invite an apex predator to my doorstep.

*I'll need to be cautious. I'll stick around my own house, and if something is on to me, I'll retreat inside.*

Of course, I would only need to retreat from anything I didn't recognize. I was confident in my ability to endlessly slaughter... rabbits...

*Just thinking of that statement makes me sound like a pathetic loser... Oh, yeah! Let's keep killing rabbits! Seriously, what am I doing here?*

But I had to take the first step here. The first step to obtaining new strength. I wouldn't be able to get anywhere by refusing to take the first step. At least there would be no one to witness my humiliating journey. No one important, anyway. And since there was n.o.body here, I didn't need to rush to take the first step. Just because I was required to start didn't mean I had a time limit on when I could.

*Ah, I almost forgot why I came outside in the first place!*

I was getting ahead of myself here. But that was only natural, since, unbeknownst to me, there was most likely another grave threat to my life lurking in the distance.

*Learning to stay calm in the face of danger is something I need to do.*

And this wasn't going to happen immediately. Who knows how many life or death encounters it would take before my train of thought was fluent in real danger?

*Although... technically I have an advantage here? Because I can't exactly die...*

Indeed, training in life or death situations was possible here simply because I could come back to life.

*I don't exactly know how many times I can come back to life... so I have to treat every life or death situation like normal. As if I could very well die. Because I definitely could... Okay, okay. Let's get back on track for real this time...*

I didn't have ADHD, but being easily distracted was another of my specialties. I came outside to see how long a day was in this world.

I checked the time once more. 12:17, and the sun was was probably a quarter way across the sky. I jotted the info down in a note-taking application.

...

And that's all I had to do.

*Why did I stall so long just to do that? Oh, well. The past is gone, now. And it's not like I was wasting time thinking about useless things.*

It was time to proceed with my second project - testing the supposed safety of my house.

*Calm down. Come on, let's go...*

I realized I was still shaking slightly from my realization earlier, but I took a deep breath and finally stepped away from my front door. I couldn't afford to stall any longer. This issue threatened my life.

*Whether or not I can procrastinate further depends on the result of this experiment, so I cannot fail by any means!*

Operation Rabbit Hunt was about to begin.

I gave this mission a name because I was going to take it very seriously!