Chapter 3

“‘What the heck is a ‘random card’ now?’ The man sighed deeply.

It wasn’t like he was possessed by a ghost; he just couldn’t grasp what was going on. But one thing was clear: the wound from the rat bite had completely healed with the mention of ‘leveling up.’ It was hard to believe this was reality. However, considering the pain of the monster rats’ teeth tearing into his flesh—a pain far beyond a mere pinch to his thigh—it was equally hard to dismiss it as unreal.

‘Damn it… what is going on?’ the man grumbled, glaring at his phone screen again. He didn’t know the reason, but it felt wrong to refuse something being offered. Especially if it was a reward for fighting those rat bastards tooth and nail.

The man raised his finger and pressed ‘Y’.

Then, a card appeared on the screen, spinning like a coin, before showing an image similar to a trading card.

Congratulations! You have acquired the Skill Card ‘Bite’. : Skill Cards can be equipped in a card slot to use their abilities. – Would you like to equip the Skill Card? (Y/n) _ [Click here for detailed card information.]

‘Bite?’ He couldn’t help but frown, as it brought back the sensation of biting the monster rat just moments ago. The man clicked to view the detailed card information again.

Card Information Name: Bite Level: 1Lv EXP: 0 Grade: Common Category: Skill Growth: Early (Small) Attribute: None Effect: 1. Bites one target enemy, inflicting a bite wound. 2. Basic attack power increased by 5%. Cost: 5 Seed: 1 Slot

‘…’

The man stared at the phone screen for a moment, then gritted his teeth.

‘A game, huh… Phew…’ The man sighed deeply, then closed his eyes and calmed himself. ‘Fine… I’ll do it. This damn game.’

He muttered this and registered the skill card, but he didn’t feel any particular change.

Anyway… ‘Bite’? Did this mean if another fight broke out, he’d have to fight with his teeth instead of his hands? As he pondered this, lost in thought, another message arrived.

Tutorial begins. 2. Let’s make a fire. – Use your tools as much as possible to make a fire. (Incomplete)

‘Fire, this time.’ But the thought of making a fire left him feeling helpless. If he smoked, he might have a common lighter or matches, but unfortunately, he’d quit smoking quite a while ago and had none of those. He pulled out what he had again. But all he had was a useless multi-tool and a single receipt, which would be perfect for tinder. He rummaged through his wallet just in case… but besides cards and cash, all he found were some coupons and an instant lottery ticket he couldn’t even remember buying.

The man watched a good number of documentaries, so he knew quite a bit about various ways to make fire in such harsh conditions. However, most methods assumed the presence of at least minimal tools. For example, methods using concentrated sunlight to make fire require a tool that can act as a convex lens or concave mirror. A PET bottle, metal tableware, a glass bottle, a plastic bag, or even a block of ice would work, but unfortunately, he couldn’t even find trash that could be used for such a purpose here, and the lack of sunlight itself was also a problem. Another method involved two batteries and aluminum foil, like from gum wrappers, but he didn’t have those either. There were many other methods, but all were impossible in his current situation, without anything properly equipped.

Ultimately, only one option remained: a primitive method using friction.

As the day grew darker, the man urgently scoured the forest edge, searching for firewood or tinder. He found a handful of thin bark, dead branches, and woody mushrooms similar to reishi, and piled them in one spot. From the collected materials, the man selected two branches of appropriate length and a thick piece of bark to begin making a bow drill. He untied his shoelaces and tied them to a long branch, easily forming the bowstring. For the base, he chose a thick piece of bark stripped from a dead tree trunk. The man used the corkscrew part of his multi-tool to make a small groove in the bark, then widened it with his knife. The crucial part was to create a channel next to the groove so that hot embers could fall out. If only a groove was made, the hot embers would scatter instead of accumulating, causing the smoke to quickly die out, but with a channel, the hot embers created by friction would collect and not extinguish easily.

Because his tools were so crude, and it was his first time actually trying this, it was quite dark by the time the man finally managed to create the necessary tools. The man twisted the bowstring around a branch the thickness of a mop handle, with a rounded end. If the friction-generating branch was too thin, it would be difficult to start a fire. The thicker it was, the larger the contact area during rotation, resulting in more friction heat and making it easier to light a fire.

The man placed a wide leaf under the bark used as a base, then brought the bow-strung branch to the groove. While pressing down on the top of the stick with a similarly grooved piece of wood, he began to move the bow back and forth. As he pressed down with force and moved the bow, brown sawdust-like material began to fall through the channel next to the groove, but no smoke appeared. The man pressed harder, diligently moving the bow back and forth. A disagreeable screeching friction sound was heard briefly, then only a rustling sound remained.

How much time passed?

Finally, faint white smoke began to rise from the neatly piled brown sawdust. The man quickly removed the base and carefully lifted the leaf he had placed on the ground. There, a finger-sized pile of brown sawdust-like material was gathered, emitting white smoke. The man picked it up and carefully wrapped it in the tinder he had prepared earlier. He gently enveloped the smoking brown sawdust with the tinder—a tangled bush of finely crushed woody mushrooms and the outermost peel of bark, centered around a crumpled piece of receipt torn enough to fray—and softly blew on it.

However, despite handling it with such care, the smoke soon vanished.

‘Damn it…’ What went wrong? The man felt disheartened and drained of energy, but he couldn’t give up now. Regardless of this ‘tutorial’ or whatever it was… he was afraid of spending the night in the same pitch black darkness as yesterday, without any light.

‘Hooop…’ He steadied his breath and moved the bow again. Perhaps because he had already created friction once, smoke began to rise quite quickly this time. The man waited for a sufficient amount of brown sawdust to accumulate, then gathered it and carefully wrapped it in the tinder again. As he gently cradled it in both hands, a faint, subtle warmth emanated through his palms. Carefully, very carefully, the man blew his breath.

Then… Slowly, very slowly, white smoke seemed to rise from inside the tinder, then instantly billowed out as if a smoke bomb had been ignited. And a little more time passed, until finally, a red flame burst forth.

‘Hahahahaha!’ The man quickly placed the burning tinder on the ground and then piled logs on top of it. Then, the awaited message finally arrived on his phone.

Tutorial begins. 2. Let’s make a fire. – Use your tools as much as possible to make a fire. (Achieved) -> Complete! Reward: A little experience -> Would you like to claim your reward now? (Y/n) _(Warning) Unclaimed rewards will be automatically deleted after 7 days.

‘A little experience again, huh.’ The man clicked his tongue and pressed ‘Y’. But this time, unlike before, nothing happened, and no message about leveling up arrived.

‘Tsk…’ He guessed that earlier, his level went up immediately because the experience from fighting the monster rat was added. Though the reward was meager, the man found comfort in having found a way to conquer this terrible darkness and sat down in front of the bonfire he had made. The strange sensation was that it was hot in front where the firelight reached, but cold from the chilly wind behind. The man stared blankly at the burning flames, as if mesmerized.

But his much-needed rest was broken once again by the ringing of a new phone message notification.

‘…’ Was it to notify him of the message? Only now did the man realize that his phone battery hadn’t drained at all.

‘Phew… if only it would fill my stomach too, instead of just keeping the phone battery full.’ As he grumbled and looked at the screen, new content was written there.

Tutorial begins. 3. Let’s make food. – Grill five pieces of rat meat. (0/5)

‘…’ The man silently looked at the scattered rat carcasses nearby. And then he looked at the rat meat he had roughly cut and thrown aside earlier.

‘Ugh…’ Immediately, nausea welled up. He was already hungry, and after throwing up several times already, his stomach was starting to hurt.

‘Damn it…’ The man grumbled, got up, and approached the cut pieces of rat meat. He took them, skewered them, and began to grill them over the fire. It felt disgusting to think about the monster rat carcasses scattered nearby… but once he started grilling, a surprisingly decent smell wafted out.

‘This is insane.’ After a short while, the five pieces of meat were grilled golden brown and held in the man’s hands. Then, another message was sent to his phone.

Tutorial begins. 3. Let’s make food. – Grill five pieces of rat meat. (5/5) -> Complete! Reward: A little experience -> Would you like to claim your reward now? (Y/n) _(Warning) Unclaimed rewards will be automatically deleted after 7 days.

‘Phew…’ The man pressed ‘Y’, closed his eyes tightly, and took a bite of the meat in his hand.

The rat meat… was surprisingly quite delicious.