In an area surrounded by trees swaying their crowns in the wind, a little farther away, a stream flowed, creating a beautiful sound of nature. There was a wooden cabin built in a small clearing.
Inside, a young man lay on a bed with a grimy mattress, stained with blood. The red liquid flowed from his pores, which were completely open.
No longer just small holes meant for sweating, but nearly one-centimeter-wide gaps from which blood poured endlessly.
"What's happening? Did I die?"
The young man awoke murmuring words that didn't match his current situation. Opening his eyes, he looked at the ceiling in confusion. Then he wrinkled his nose, smelling the strong scent of blood. Looking down, he saw his upper body bare, his skin completely crimson.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaa!"
He screamed immediately, trying to move his arms, but they were utterly paralyzed, sending him into even greater panic. His eyeballs trembled nonstop.
"Doctor! Please! I don't want to die!"
His cries for help echoed through the cabin, but sadly… that lonely place offered no help at all.
After shouting for several minutes, he lost his voice. His saliva had completely dried up, and his vocal cords no longer worked.
'Why am I so unlucky?'
The young man, named Yu Yun, began to shed tears, feeling utterly wronged.
An hour earlier, to celebrate his coming of age, he had gone out drinking with some friends. It was his first time tasting alcohol.
After feeling the liquid burn down his throat, bitter yet slightly sweet, dizziness took over. His brain felt unstable, and his vision began to blur.
He was drunk. He vaguely remembered continuing to drink. When he left the bar, all he saw was a tall headlight and something slamming into his body, turning him into minced flesh.
After that, he opened his eyes in this unknown place.
'Damn bad luck! Damn truck! Or whatever the hell that was! I curse the driver to live a life worse than death!'
Yu Yun was sure he had been standing on the sidewalk and hadn't stepped onto the road. The blame was entirely on the driver, who had lost control of the wheel and hit him.
'But where am I, really? And why am I covered in blood? Can I even survive this?'
[Chance of survival: 10%]
[Success Rates System activated]
[Calculating all probabilities and success chances]
'Huh?' Yu Yun blinked as golden letters appeared floating above his eyes. He tried to grab them, but his nerves wouldn't move.
'A dream?' he wondered, but quickly dismissed the thought. He could feel pain.
It was impossible for the brain to simulate something so real, at least as far as he knew, he'd never heard of such a thing.
'Calculating probabilities? So if this is real, I have ten percent chance to live... but how? I can't even move!'
He complained inwardly and looked again at the floating letters.
'What's the chance of me being able to walk?'
[50%]
Seeing such a high percentage, Yu Yun's heart raced with hope. Excited, he immediately thought, 'How?' But there was no response. The system wasn't intelligent; he'd have to figure things out himself.
'Damn it!' he cursed, having no idea what to do. 'If I use all my willpower, can I stand up?'
[75%]
That was enough to calm Yu Yun, who gathered all the mental strength he had and forced himself to move.
The instant he shifted even a centimeter, the pain worsened, as if thousands of ants were burrowing into his skin. It was agonizing, almost enough to make him give up. But, clinging to that hopeful percentage, he persisted, and like a madman, straightened his back.
"I did it! I stood up!" Yu Yun smiled faintly, but the joy didn't last long. The agony worsened by the second, and he began to wonder if his survival rate had increased.
[20%]
The answer came instantly.
Yu Yun, who now had ten percent more chance of survival, didn't stay in bed waiting for death. He placed his feet on the floor, focusing all his strength on the soles. With several cracks, he stood upright.
'If I walk, accelerating my blood loss, what's the chance of dying in thirty minutes?'
[100%]
'Ten minutes?'
[75%]
'Five minutes?'
[50%]
That estimate left Yu Yun grim. His chances of survival were very low. Almost impossible. But there was still that small possibility, those twenty percent.
'There must still be a way! Something I haven't found yet.'
He was sure of it, though he had no idea where to start looking, and being in an unfamiliar place didn't help.
'System, what's the chance there's something in this cabin that can help me survive?'
[80%]
"That's high!" he exclaimed, widening his eyes. Like an eagle, he scanned the entire cabin, but found nothing but a basin of water and some old clothes, nothing useful. 'Under the bed?'
That was a good idea; if someone wanted to hide something, that'd be a good spot.
Lowering himself, every muscle twisting in pain, he placed his palm on the hard, rough floor. Looking ahead, he saw a blue box behind the bed's legs.
'Is that thing useful for my survival?'
[100%]
"Finally, some good news today!" Yu Yun's eyes gleamed. Without wasting a second, thirty seconds had already passed, he reached out, grabbed the box, and pulled it toward himself.
Holding it with both hands, he sat back on the mattress. With an anxious expression, he opened the box. Inside was a crumpled paste inside a small jar that looked like ointment.
'This is my chance to live? This?' He rolled his eyes. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this? Rub it on my body and hope it heals me?"
He was sarcastic, then looked back at the floating letters. "What's the chance this works?"
[80%]
'Seriously? So it's some kind of special ointment? Now that I think about it... there's something I've ignored until now! This isn't Earth, is it? Everything looks ancient! Did I transmigrate? What are the odds of that?'
[100%]
"What the hell! Transmigration is real? So I really died on Earth, huh?" His emotions mixed, the strongest being fury. He clenched his teeth, blaming the one responsible for his premature death, though he decided to save that for later.
'One minute's gone! I'll die in four minutes at most, two at the least.'
Yu Yun hadn't forgotten his condition. Taking a deep breath, he removed the jar's lid and stuck a finger into the opening, scooping out the green substance.
With another heavy sigh, he spread the paste between his hands and began applying it all over his body. When the green vanished, he repeated the process. A minute later, feeling his vision blur, he poured the entire jar over himself, letting the green liquid drip down his skin.
"I hope the percentage isn't lying… and that this ointment really heals me…" He stopped mid-sentence.
His skin suddenly stretched tight, forced to reform over the old, hole-ridden layer.
The pores didn't heal; they were merely covered by a new layer of flesh.
"Aaaaaaaa!"
Yu Yun couldn't hold back his scream.