.｡.:✧ Chapter 10 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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A trap requires appropriate bait.
Even prey aren’t foolish enough to jump into traps. In the end, you need sweet bait to catch your prey.

“…Forget sweet bait, this is dangerous bait.”

Well, as long as it serves as bait, it’s fine. It’s also a bit much to scatter mushrooms that cause hallucinations as bait, but it can’t be helped in order to survive. If you’re unlucky, you’ll die right away, so how can you be picky about the means? Things like conscience and righteousness only have meaning if you’re alive first.

In the first place, only humans care about such things.

Though the current target is indeed human. It’s just that she’s strong enough to make you question if she’s human. By the way, how much longer do I have to wait for her to come? Enough time has passed for the sun to noticeably move, yet the forest is quiet.

Unable to endure the boredom, I fiddled with the blowgun in my hand. It was an item I made with a skill while waiting for Renny on a tree. Although it had been quite a while since I last made one, my skill still faithfully reproduced the blowgun I used to use often. Of course, it was only natural since its structure was quite simple…

“It’s been a while since I last shot it, so I don’t know if I’ll hit accurately.”

Of course, hitting the target isn’t that difficult. Since a blowgun has a short effective range, you have to shoot from close by, so there shouldn’t be any major issues in shooting the poisoned darts as long as the target isn’t moving. The problem was that it was difficult to gauge how much more the target hit by the poisoned dart would rampage and be subdued.

The opponent is Renny, after all.

Thinking back to the game days still makes my teeth grind. That boss who made countless users gnash their teeth. Even though Karina, the actual final boss, was so easy to defeat that it was anticlimactic, Renny was called the true final boss. I still remember. Not only did she perform acrobatics while wearing armor, but she also grabbed the collar and threw you against a wall, then kicked you to smash you through the wall, and even had the crazy gimmick of countering counter techniques.

“…Can’t I also be given such abilities? Then I would have escaped long ago.”

If I’m going to be possessed, at least give me some cheat-like abilities. Huh? At least throw me some awesome items or something.
How do you expect me to survive with only skills that can make simple items and repair things using materials in this day and age?

…Although I somehow managed to endure for 10 years and establish my own territory.

As I was recalling faded memories and chewing on them, I heard a very faint but clear sound of someone muttering.

“Lady Karina…”

Renny, the Karina fanatic, was diligently picking and eating mushrooms while walking towards the trap. Seeing her up close, Renny looked so pitiful that it evoked sympathy, unlike her appearance in the game. Her armor, which had lost half of its function, and her shabby appearance. Her disheveled hair and dark circles under her eyes.

To think she could exert such monstrous strength even in that state. Just how strong would she be if she were in good condition? I was curious, but I had no intention of directly experimenting with my own body. Because my life is precious.

I carefully inserted a poisoned dart into the blowgun. If I accidentally pricked my finger, it would be me falling asleep, not Renny.
It should work on Renny. I applied a strong anesthetic that even bears fall asleep after being hit once, so there’s no way it wouldn’t work, right?

With the blowgun in my mouth, I waited for Renny, who had almost reached the trap. Renny was so busy stuffing mushrooms into her mouth like a squirrel that she didn’t even seem to realize she was walking into the trap on her own feet. The way she endured mushrooms that would have been a lethal dose for me, befitting her title as the true final boss, was awe-inspiring, but at the same time, it was also terrifying.

How can she be the same human as me? Although Survival Academy features several characters that could literally be called “superhumans,” it was absurd that she still had such strength left even while looking like she should have died long ago.

While someone else had desperately struggled to survive.

…No. Now is not the time to think about that. What’s important now is to somehow capture Renny and bring her to Karina. Karina’s sacred magic should be able to cure Renny of her mushroom addiction.

“I’ll…go…save…”

Now.

I pulled the rope connected to the trap. A net hidden under the dirt sprung up and caught Renny’s body, leaving her hanging in midair. Renny seemed startled and immediately tried to struggle out of the net, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. I promptly aimed the blowgun I had been holding in my mouth at Renny’s neck and blew hard.

With a “pyung” sound of losing strength, the poisoned dart flew through the air and struck Renny’s neck. I had aimed precisely at a blood vessel, so she would fall asleep soon. I carefully climbed down from the tree and took out my shovel. If she’s still awake after this, I’ll have to hit her on the head to knock her out. It was an unavoidable thing to do for everyone’s safety.

“…Lady…”

I punched my own head once as I felt pity for Renny’s appearance, swinging her arms through the net she was dangling from.

I shouldn’t feel sympathy.

She’s an opponent who could cut off my head at any moment.

With a somewhat cooled head, I scratched my head and looked up at Renny, whose movements were gradually decreasing. Once she was completely asleep, I planned to tie her up tightly and return to my territory. I would have to restrain her before that. At least until she was fully cured, I would have to tie up her limbs to feel at ease.

Just as I was feeling relieved that the situation had ended without incident, it happened.

“You.”

“You?”

Is she talking to me now? At Renny’s sudden words, I looked at her again. Renny was glaring at me with clouded eyes. Is this her last struggle, or…

Danger.

My survival instincts sounded the alarm. I reflexively pulled out the blowgun and took three steps back. My body felt cold. But my heart was beating more and more wildly.

“I knew things were going too smoothly…”

“You, you smell like Lady Karina… You kidnapped her, didn’t you?”

Instead of answering, I inserted a poisoned dart into the blowgun and blew with all my might. The poisoned dart, coated with a strong anesthetic, flew through the air and reached Renny’s neck… but bounced off without hitting it. She instantly twisted her body and blocked the attack with her shoulder blade. Even when rotten, the strong are still strong.

The net was gradually being torn apart. The net that I had put effort into making so that even a bear couldn’t easily escape was being torn apart little by little. I had deliberately made that net, but to think it would be torn apart so easily. I sighed as I watched Renny, who had finally torn through the net and landed on the ground.

“Where…is…Lady Karina?”

Even with anesthetic circulating throughout her body, the sight of her getting up was spine-chilling. Is it because Karina is such an important person to her that she’s getting up with a gruesome appearance that’s no different from a corpse? She probably ate the mushrooms to find her too. This island has less food than one might think, and the only noticeable food source would have been the mushrooms.

Because if she couldn’t survive, she would never be able to meet Karina.

I gripped the shovel hanging on my back. I never wanted to hold it, but I needed the shovel to at least subdue her.

Before she, known by the nickname “Mad Dog,” could charge at me, I activated a skill with the shovel stuck in the ground.

“Crafting.”

A wall appeared as if blocking my front. It wasn’t very sturdy since it was made of dirt, but it could withstand an attack at least once…

“…Even bears wouldn’t be able to do this much.”

I stared at Renny in disbelief as she shattered the wall with her bare fists. Even bears can’t break it like that. I dodged Renny’s attack, reaching for my neck after breaking through the wall, by rolling my body to the side. Renny, who had been charging at me, couldn’t overcome the laws of physics and crashed into the tree I had been on.

The tree shook.

It was a shock that was hard to believe was caused by the power of a human who was merely a handful compared to a giant tree. Renny, with tree fragments sticking all over her body, glared at me again with clouded eyes. A gaze like looking at a mortal enemy.

I felt a chill from that gaze.

It felt like the Grim Reaper had placed his scythe around my neck and was waiting leisurely. If I made a mistake, today might become my funeral day.

I can’t die in a place like this.
How did I survive?

“Ha, fine. Let’s do this.”

I took out powder from the pouch hanging on my shoulder and sprinkled it generously on the shovel blade. It was the same anesthetic I had applied to the poisoned darts.

Anyway, my goal is not to kill but to subdue, so I can’t use a deadly poison that can take a life in an instant. Even Renny, whose vision seemed questionable, crouched with a fierce expression when she saw me sprinkling the drug on the shovel.

The face of a predator targeting its prey.

The face of Renny, who had been rolling on battlefields and throughout the game to protect the saint.

That face that I had barely been able to erase after 72 battles in the game.

It was the appearance of Renny that I knew very well.

I gripped the shovel tightly, feeling a mixture of fear and exhilaration.

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