Chapter 2 : When it comes to TS the physical changes are…

Securing the Most Important Water Source

Now Lena had three weeks of leeway.

Of course, interpreting “three weeks without food” as permission to laze around for that long was out of the question.

People need energy to move.

Three weeks was only three weeks if you did nothing, but for Lena, who was hacking her way through the forest, the remaining time was far shorter.

“Ah, I’m hungry.”

Was it because the tension had finally eased?

Her stomach growled like a beggar’s.

“I want to eat ramen.”

Blue sky, chirping birds, cool breeze, gurgling stream.

It was a scenic view.

Eating ramen here would be amazing.

Ramen always tasted twice as good against the backdrop of a beautiful landscape.

It was a vain hope.

Lena smacked her lips and kicked a stone at her feet for no reason.

She had been dropped into a strange world with nothing but her body to rely on—what could she do?

Expecting modern civilization here was impossible.

Unless the system helped.

“Shop! Auction house! Ha, I knew it.”

With that, she cleanly let go of her lingering hopes.

Lena stepped onto the rocks jutting out of the water and hopped to the middle of the stream.

Finding a water source meant more than just securing drinking water.

Fish! Snails! Crayfish!

Many creatures lived by the water.

Even if she only caught and ate them, she wouldn’t starve.

I thought of everything before moving, she told herself.

Lena inwardly praised her foresight.

It was at that moment.

Splash!

“!”

The water’s surface rippled as a fish leaped up to Lena’s eye level.

“Jackpot.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she mumbled unconsciously.

What kind of freshwater fish had that much energy?

Was it a relative of the flying fish or marlin?

If it lived like that, its flesh would be firm—perfect for sashimi.

Random thoughts raced through her dazed mind.

Flash!

Reason and instinct operated separately.

Lena’s vision caught the spray rising from the water and the droplets reflecting sunlight in the air.

And as the fish reached the peak of its jump—

Lena’s hand shot out faster than her conscious thought and grabbed its body.

Flap flap!

“Huh?”

It was a reflex.

Like instinctively catching a ball flying toward you.

But there were limits to that.

Catching a slow-moving ball isn’t hard, but reacting to a baseball thrown at full speed? That’s another story.

That’s how it should have been now.

With Lena’s normal reflexes, she would’ve just watched it happen—or flailed and fallen into the water if she’d reached out.

Yet here she was, holding the flapping fish in her grasp.

Lena blinked in confusion, unsure how it happened.

[Acquired Dexterity (Lv.1)!]

[Survival Instinct (Lv.1) and Dexterity (Lv.1) are linked to create agile movements…]

The system message kindly provided the answer.

“I see.”

Lena didn’t notice the system message.

“So TS boosts your physical abilities, huh?”

It’s a universal rule: a washed-up pro gamer with no trophies becomes a monster after TS and dominates the world championships.

She’d wondered why she’d only broken a sweat after trekking through the forest for so long.

The system was dumb, and she only had her body to work with, so it had to give her perks like this.

“I’m the only one I can trust.”

The system message blinked as if protesting the unfairness.

How far could she push this body?

She tested it briefly and easily climbed to the top of a tall tree without tools.

That concluded the physical exam.

She was hungry.

She wanted to tear into the fish and eat it raw like a savage, but Lena held back.

She remembered that freshwater fish often carried parasites, making them unsafe to eat raw.

So sashimi was off the table too.

In the end, grilled fish was the solution.

But that meant starting a fire…

“What do I do?”

Despair hit her.

She had no lighter, no torch, not even the knowledge to identify flint among the stones.

Fortunately, Lena knew one last method to start a fire.

Rubbing a tree branch to create a spark with frictional heat.

It was said that without skill, you’d likely waste your effort—but that wasn’t a reason not to try.

“Aja! I can do it!”

Lena put her strength into rubbing the branch.

Not long after—

“Oh.”

Smoke rose.

“Easy?”

What? It’s simple.

Despite her effort, the results came quickly.

Who said you needed skill to start a fire?

You just had to do it.

It was an ignorant statement.

[Dexterity (Lv.1) is activated!]

Without her enhanced physical abilities and skills, she would’ve struggled for hours.

Lena transferred the embers to a dry branch and started a bonfire.

She carefully rotated the skewered fish over it and took a bite.

“!”

Lena’s eyes widened.

The savory flavor lingered on her lips, the flesh was elastic on her tongue, and it had a clean, non-fishy taste.

Hunger was the best sauce, but this was just delicious.

[You have consumed a cherry salmon full of mana!]

[The mana contained in the cherry salmon is absorbed into your body!]

Was it because her hunger was satisfied?

She felt a surge of energy.

Were the fish here good for stamina?

Stamina, stamina was good…

She glanced down and realized—

“Ah, I don’t have it anymore.”

Her lower body felt empty.

The heavy weight she’d once carried was gone.

It was the part that mattered.

“Aish. Never mind.”

Lena shook her head to lift her sinking mood.

What was gone was gone—wishing wouldn’t bring it back.

People should live looking forward.

Regrets wouldn’t help.

The status window seemed to agree with her positive mindset.

[Rule of Survival (2)]

Thanks to your outstanding wisdom, you have succeeded in securing the immediate necessities of water and food.

But you must remember that the lush forest holds unknown threats.

Secure a safe residence…

“You talk too much.”

Long, long. What was it saying?

Lena waved her hand to dismiss the blurry wall of text.

She didn’t read long articles without a three-line summary.

There was something more important to do.

“Let’s catch and eat five more.”

Lena was still hungry.

It’s said the sun sets early in the mountains.

Even if this wasn’t quite a mountain, the forest felt the same.

Before she knew it, the scenery had dimmed.

The birds’ chatter had faded, and now only the sound of the stream broke the forest’s silence.

“…It’s eerie.”

The dark forest felt so different from the morning—so alien.

Goosebumps prickled her skin where the wind brushed past.

Lena murmured, rubbing her arms.

“How did it get so late?”

She’d been so busy catching, grilling, eating, catching, grilling, and eating that she hadn’t noticed time slipping by.

Her stomach was full—she couldn’t eat another bite—but the problem was she hadn’t done anything else.

When she thought about it, there was a lot to do.

Scout the area, figure out where she was, make tools, plan for the future.

In a survival situation, today’s safety didn’t guarantee tomorrow’s, so she needed to tackle urgent tasks while she had time.

“Well, it’ll be okay!”

Lena didn’t dwell on it.

Tomorrow was another day.

What she couldn’t do today, she’d do tomorrow.

“Haaam.”

The bonfire warmed her back, her belly was full of fish, and sleepiness crept in with a yawn.

Without toys to pass the night, sleeping seemed like the right choice.

But was it?

Alone in a strange place, surrounded by darkness beyond the bonfire’s glow.

Anxiety struck suddenly.

“Camping, yeah, it’s camping. I’ve always wanted to try it.”

Lena reframed it positively.

No tent was a flaw, but this was all experience.

Sleeping under the open sky, with the stars as her roof and the earth as her blanket.

How romantic.

If this camping stretched on longer… she’d switch to a full-on nature survival experience.

No need to sink into worry or depression yet.

Lena stomped the ground with her shoes and covered it with leaves.

It was a trick she’d learned from a YouTube video to retain body heat.

Unless she woke up to tend the fire, it’d die out, so this was essential to avoid waking up stiff and crooked.

It doubled as a bed.

Better to nestle in leaves than lie on hard dirt.

“Haaam.”

Her eyes drifted shut.

She’d wondered if sleeping in a strange place would be hard, but fatigue from her labor pulled her consciousness under.

She hoped for a refreshing morning.

If possible, she wished this was all a dream—that she’d wake up in her own bed.

A humble prayer.

She faintly heard the clear chime of a system notification.

[Rule of Survival (3)]

You have chosen to face danger and embrace romance rather than stay in a safe environment.

There is no right answer on a journey, but difficult choices come with commensurate risks.

And rewards for facing them.

※Warning: High probability of danger occurring overnight.

Reward: Growth points…