Ch.208Putri’s Stage (12)

# 208. Futri’s Stage (12)

“Go to the forest to meet Snow White?”

“Yes.”

“Us?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s even more absurd!”

As soon as Subin finished speaking, objections followed.

“We were just talking about a 10% or 5% penalty for being one dwarf short, but if we completely change the story development, won’t things spiral out of control?”

“I know. But things have already gone off track where we thought they couldn’t. We have two options left.”

Either continue as we are.

Or go meet her as I just suggested.

“If we continue as we are, we only have to deal with the relatively minor risk of being six dwarfs instead of seven, but there’s something we’re overlooking.”

“Don’t tell me Snow White will fail?”

“Correct. Snow White not finding our house and not meeting us isn’t just a risk compared to being six dwarfs—it’s game over.”

“But still, it’s oppa…”

“Even if it’s Sunghyun, there’s nothing we can do about purely luck-based elements. That’s why I’m saying we should go meet her and reduce the random factors.”

“You’re saying we should risk disrupting the story to save oppa?”

“Yes. I think that option has a lower expected risk. Besides… it’s Sunghyun.”

Subin’s final words left the others speechless.

They were shocked because these words came from someone they expected to provide the most rational, efficient, and reasonable opinions.

“Of course I believe in him. He’s so obsessed with game strategies that he’s called a walkthrough maniac, so he might safely navigate even the completely luck-based forest area. But this is Snow White we’re talking about. It’s completely different from us turning into dwarfs. He’s probably transformed into a woman with no strength, power, or abilities, and he’s alone.”

“I know that… I do, but what if the moment we leave this house toward the forest instead of the mine, the entire stage collapses?”

“Obviously, I can’t be certain about that either. But as I said earlier, the story flow is already broken. And I predict that us going to meet her in the forest won’t cause a stage-breaking disruption. After all, the main characters are the stepmother, Snow White, and the prince.”

Afterward, the six dwarfs debated the pros and cons. Normally, they would have followed Subin’s lead without question, but this time the debate was fierce. Neither option was certain, and both had merit. But whether for or against, they all agreed on one thing.

‘We can’t waste time.’

Knowing that trying to completely convince the opposition would take too much time and make things worse, they suppressed their urgency and proceeded to vote.

4 in favor, 2 against.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah, let’s go…”

“I am curious about oppa as Snow White.”

The dwarfs who should have headed to the mine went toward the forest instead. Carrying tools, just in case.

**

“Phew…”

How should I put this? Ah. Dignity. It felt like my human dignity had been stripped away in chunks. There was no toilet paper in the forest, and I couldn’t just pull up my underwear as is, so I picked several leaves nearby to use as substitutes.

The feeling was, of course, terrible.

Cold, rough, and especially the sensation transmitted to both that place and my hand when wiping… I seriously wanted to erase my brain.

If there was one good thing, it was that my body felt lighter after relieving myself.

I moved as far away as possible from where I had done my business.

‘Let’s just walk.’

Since animal encounters were random and the forest itself was random, I needed to keep moving. If I could just meet the animal group, I could find the dwarfs!

Of course, meeting the dwarfs wouldn’t end the game, but they weren’t NPCs—they were my raid members. Meeting them would greatly help restore my shattered mental state.

“Please…”

Pigeons came flying without much effort, but these forest creatures have no flexibility? So stubborn.

—I shouldn’t say that, right?

“Please, Mr. Deer, Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Fox.”

Animal friends, lend me your strength. Stop testing me and please appear. No, wait, I just urinated earlier, so they must have smelled it. Please find me quickly before predators start growling, wanting to taste tender young woman meat.

I prayed desperately, like never before in my life. But if prayers worked just because you prayed hard enough, there would be no atheists in the world, and the world would have continued as a theocracy.

Whether I urinated or prayed, the forest remained unchanged. I still tensed up at the sound of rustling wind and hid at the sound of birds. Moreover, marking trees seemed increasingly futile—wandering the forest on two legs made me realize it was far from small enough to see the same markings again.

Realizing that my attempt to reduce the luck factor was pointless, another wave of despair hit me. If I had my original body, I could have managed somehow, but my body had changed so much and I’d suffered so much that even my mind felt weakened.

It was dangerous.

If I gave up, that would be the end.

But I couldn’t rest either. This wasn’t a safe place, and if I rested, my tension would ease and my muscles would relax, possibly forever.

‘At this pace, it will take a long time even with good luck.’

I decided to be more bold. Since I hadn’t brought anything when leaving the city, a prolonged situation was impossible from the start. I needed to consciously disregard the frailty contained in Snow White’s body.

So I started walking continuously without cowering at most sounds. Beyond not hiding, I actually changed direction toward sounds unless they were clearly predator growls.

I walked like that for what felt like hours. But it was all for nothing. In the game, you’d wander for seconds or at worst minutes, but I’d been wandering for hours, which was infuriating, but what could I do besides keep walking?

If there was one good sign, it was that animal sounds were becoming more frequent…

‘Why do I feel so uneasy?’

If my senses were as sharp as Yuri or Arang’s, I could have understood immediately. Although animal sounds were increasing, something felt off.

The atmosphere definitely didn’t feel peaceful.

Still, since these were the most varied and loudest sounds I’d heard so far, I couldn’t just run away.

Just in case, I rested for about two minutes to catch my breath, then set off again.

About 20 minutes later, I was cursing again.

“Haha. Fuck, what a mess.”

In the distance, animals of all sizes were fleeing in all directions. There were so many that the ground trembled, and they were clearly running at full speed as if being chased by predators.

The problem was that these animals seemed to be the very group I needed to meet.

With them fleeing at top speed as if from a serial killer, would they calmly listen to me and guide me to the dwarfs’ house if I suddenly appeared before them?

Even the most optimistic person wouldn’t think so. I’d be lucky not to get trampled to death. A literal roadkill—or rather, forestkill.

So I had no choice but to run too. I was standing in the animals’ path, and if my guess was correct, there was an unseen predator, meaning I needed to flee faster. Thankfully, I’d discovered this early.

But just minutes into my escape, new noises began.

A series of extremely fierce, roar-like animal cries.

Though the sound was faint due to distance, I involuntarily collapsed. My vision kept shaking because my legs were trembling uncontrollably. I pounded my tiny fists against my calves and thighs, but once relaxed, muscles don’t recover immediately.

‘I’ve reached my physical limit… I’m screwed.’

Usually in forests like this, there was only one predator. Most were territorial animals, and if they were worthy of being called predators, their territory was immensely vast.

For an apex predator to make such sounds, it must be fiercely fighting or threatening something…

Whatever it was, it wasn’t a good sign for me.

If the predator won, that was obviously a problem, and if it lost, there was no guarantee that whatever defeated it wouldn’t be dangerous.

But what did it matter? This pathetically weak body had already gone on strike.

After trying to move my legs more, I collapsed and decided to just lean against a tree and observe the situation.

“Damn, whatever it is, it’s incredibly vicious.”

The animal sounds grew louder and more ferocious. Such sounds could only come from a life-or-death struggle. The more intense it got, the more my body trembled involuntarily, and soon I heard the sound of breaking trees along with human shouts.

Not just one person, but several people shouting.

Wait.

People?

Before I knew it, I was crawling along the forest path.