Player Who Returned 10,000 Years Later

Side Story Chapter 99: One Day (1)

"Haaa, haaa, haaa."

The unquenching thirst was burning Oh Kang-Woo’s throat. He felt like he was hallucinating from the pain of his cells drying up.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" he cursed as he pulled on his hair.

Kang-Woo looked around and saw tall sharp rocks, cracks in the earth, and a red sky.

"Where… the hell am I?"

It happened almost instantaneously— a black Gate suddenly appeared in front of him as he was dragging his fatigued self to his one-room apartment after a day’s worth of hard work. He was sucked into it before he even had time to evade it and ended up in a place he had never seen before once he opened his eyes.

"A-Aaaahh."

Kang-Woo thought it was a dream at first; he thought he was hallucinating because he had pushed himself too hard to make enough to pay the overdue rent. However, he did not wake up from this nightmare no matter how much time passed. The sky continued to burn red and he was surrounded by arid land covered in rocks.

"Shit, shit…"

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed since he ended up here. The burning red sky darkened three times so he could only assume three days had passed.

"H-Hurgh. What the fuck… what in the actual fuck?"

Kang-Woo staggered. He couldn’t form tears because even his eyes had dried up. He hid between the tall sharp rocks and trembled.

"Water… water…"

He was going insane from dehydration. Every cell in his body was desperate for water.

"Haaa, haaa. Water, water, water, water."

He stood up as he swayed and pulled down his pants. He aimed at a small hole in the rock and peed. A dark yellow fluid pooled in the hole.

""

A disgusting scent attacked Kang-Woo’s sense of smell but he couldn’t care less.

"WATER!!!"

He crouched as he panted heavily and licked the urine pooled in the hole. He suppressed his desire to vomit with all his might from the disgusting salty taste and the nasty stench and licked every last drop of the urine.

"Haaa, haaa."

His mind became clearer with the sensation of his thirst being quenched.

"..."

Kang-Woo aggressively bit his lip.

There was barely any urine coming out anymore.

"I need… something to drink."

However, he had no idea if water even existed in this arid land. He had spent a lot of time

Kang-Woo bit his lip. If he couldn’t eat it, he would have to look around for something else— in the rocky territory of an unknown monster.

"Huuu, huuu," he caught his breath and turned around to look down at the giant pile of poop.

"Urgh, fuck."

Kang-Woo smeared the poop all over himself. He couldn’t handle its horrible taste but could just barely endure its putrid stench. No, even if he couldn’t endure it, he needed to if he wanted to survive.

Other powerful monsters might also run away as well after getting a scent of the poop, just like how the monster wolf in the red sand desert had.

"Alright."

Kang-Woo finished covering every part of himself with the poop and carefully traversed the rocky territory. He wouldn’t last any longer if he didn’t find something to drink by today.

Kang-Woo desperately looked around but like before, there was only arid land and rocks. There wasn’t even a tiny bug in sight.

He couldn’t understand why there was nothing to eat or drink in a place where even a three-meter wolf could live. There should at least be a puddle of water.

Kang-Woo was filled with frustration and rage, unable to understand the situation.

"...!"

Just then, Kang-Woo heard something loving on the other side of a rock wall. He became wide-eyed as he crouched and carefully stuck close to the rock wall. He peeked on the other side of the wall.

It was twice as large as the monster wolf that had chased him in the red sand desert. A giant dog with black fur was curled up into a ball and darting its tongue in and out, red flames igniting around its mouth each time it did. Its claws scratching the ground were so sharp that it was sinking into the rock.

Kang-Woo could tell from a glance that it was powerful.

"..."

Kang-Woo examined the monster anxiously.

Kang-Woo could see it sniffing but it didn’t detect him; it seemed like he had made the right call to smear poop all over himself.

Just then, he saw something small moving between the curled-up monster. He took a closer look and saw that it was a smaller dog rubbing its cheek on the larger dog’s stomach. Although it was smaller, it was still easily over a meter long.

It was likely the case considering how similar they looked. The giant black dog was licking the small dog as if it were a precious treasure. Anyone could see that it was a mother caring for her baby but Kang-Woo’s heart was not filled with warmth since the dog was over five meters and breathing fire.

"..."

Kang-Woo crawled on the ground so that he would make as little sound as possible and got far away from the monster’s nest.

"Pwah! Haaa, haaa!" he panted heavily once he got far away from the nest and fell to the ground. "Fucking hell…"

Kang-Woo could understand why the monster wolf had turned back.

He might be able to hunt the baby dog but there was no way he could when it was stuck to the mother.

Kang-Woo thought about it for a while but shook his head. He had spent the last several hours looking around but found nothing. Not only that but he did not have much time; his lips were dried up and his vision was getting blurry due to dehydration.

That was the only path to survival.

He needed a way to separate the mother from the baby.

"..."

Kang-Woo’s mind was jumbled. Considering the monster’s overwhelming size, it would instantly catch up to him and tear him apart with its sharp claws if he tried to outrun it.

He couldn’t outrun the monster even if he were in his best condition, so it was even less likely he could when he was exhausted.

"What should I…" Kang-Woo bit his lip anxiously. "Urgh, blegh!!"

He grimaced once the monster’s poop on his lips touched his tongue.

"Huh…?"

Just then, he thought of an idea.

Kang-Woo’s eyes shone as he looked down at the poop he was smeared with.