《Tear a Path》Trapper's shame
Advertisement
It took him a few seconds to finally regain himself and look at his adversary. All he could see was a white, round, furry creature with a bulge on it's forehead as well as a round mouth right under it. He couldn't make out the rest of it as it was wrapped under some vines of blue light released by the Wrap Trap. "What kind of creature was this!" He thought to himself, "Has everything changed and grown so much in so little time?"
Zhao Wei thought that this was probably a caterpillar judging by it's fur exterior, round shape and the lack of eyes. It was about the size of a basketball and seemed harmless enough. Although Zhao Wei was here to look for food resources he wasn't heartless, looking at it so small and helpless Zhao Wei was very conflicted on killing it. Additionally, he thought he wasn't sure if he could eat bug flesh.
Slap!, "No!, to survive, I have to be able to stomach everything! No mercy!" Zhao Wei shouted at himself probably forgetting he was in the forest.
Looking at it again with it's mouth twitching and the bump on it's forehead wiggling he couldn't help but feel convicted of thinking of eating it.
Slap!, "I need to prioritize resources first...."
"But I think..."
Slap!, "I have to ensure my own..."
A series of back and forth tug of war between Zhao Wei's conscience and his realistic side began, he slapped himself every time he got soft to bring himself to his senses. By the time a decision was made, Zhao Wei had slapped himself swollen like he had stuck his head into a bee-hive.
Finally he thought of the head of black hair in his memories and thought. "She liked cute things, she probably wouldn't be too happy to know I killed something like this."
If people were around and knew what he was thinking, they'd stone him to death for being so shameless. "You can't even remember her! and yet you want to blame your actions on her character!? such thick skin!! why don't we make make it thinner with some rocks."
Advertisement
Even though he decided to release the trap, he'd never actually practiced before, so he had no idea how that was going to work and decided to go the easy way. Whenever intelligence is not enough, physical strength can usually be of help, like a person smacking a TV to fix it because he doesn't know how it works.
Zhao Wei took out his knife and slid it between the creature and the wrap trap. Once his fingers touched the Wrap Trap however, the vines suddenly slid back into the Wrap Trap Runes on the ground. Zhao Wei was too dumbfounded when he realized this function to notice the creature turning. After the second of shock, Zhao Wei finally regained himself and looked at his catch but he was bound to be shocked again. Where was the cute animal!?
In front of him was not the creature he'd been so conflicted to defend. Instead, there was a peculiar rabbit in front of him the same size as the creature he released. Besides the fact that it was a rabbit, what surprised Zhao Wei more was actually the fact that there was a horn on it's forehead, like an obsidian crystal, shining with black luster. It's two front legs were thick and fluffy looking like two round earmuffs.Besides that, this rabbit seemed to have only one back leg. Not as if it has lost one leg, but as if it's 2 back legs had merged into one stronger leg. It's body was completely white except for it's horn and a circle on it's left eye.
The rabbit itself was staring at Zhao Wei with mouth wide open. When it had turned, it had expected some carnivore waiting to rip it to shreds, but what it found was a humanoid poop with eyes looking at it. As much as it had wanted to run away it was stunned by the sight.
In fact both Zhao Wei and it had snapped out of it together. However, Zhao Wei was bound to be stunned another time as when it turned to run away Zhao Wei wanted to spit up blood. The cute creature he was so conflicted about killing and thinking of releasing was this rabbit's butt. The small moving bump on it's head was the tail and obviously the part he thought was a mouth was where it's feces came out from.
Advertisement
That was the darkest black mark in Zhao Wei's history. It was good for Zhao Wei as, if in the future he ever made any stupid decisions in a fight, he could always look back at this moment and forgive himself.
By the time he was done, the rabbit had bolted more than 5 meters away. It was ridiculously fast and agile despite having one back foot. It did not run like normal rabbits bounding about on 4 legs, instead it disappeared and reappeared like a ghost. This was because it was switching between rapid instant movement and stationary positions with every step. When it was moving Zhao Wei's eyes could not follow it at all, only finding it every time it came to a stop. After a few seconds Zhao Wei noticed that it only used it's back leg to launch itself forward. In fact it's front legs weren't used much in it's running, only tapping the ground once in a while to stabilize it before it launched itself again.
Zhao Wei felt like something was wrong with the situation. At it's speed, even with the intervals between it's movements, if it had escaped in one direction, Zhao Wei wouldn't even be able to notice anything before it became a white dot with a tail in the distance. Instead it had dashed around here and there in the forest without going too far from where Zhao Wei was. Zhao Wei on the other hand didn't notice this part, instead making his decision purely based on intuition.
While watching the rabbit move, Zhao Wei focused purely on 2 aspects, distance and direction. Zhao Wei tried to focus on the distance it moved with every jump, more or less measuring it's farthest jumps in his mind. Once he thought he had a pretty good measurement he used the distance to make a mental image of a circle around him, increasing it every time he saw it jump further.
Other than that, Zhao Wei tried to focus on it's posture between jumps to try and predict where it would jump next. His back was sweating and he braced his legs to jump at the moment it jumped into the circle. It's speed was negligible to Zhao Wei simply because it was way too fast for him. If Zhao Wei moved after it had moved, the only scenario that would occur would be him being impaled by the black horn.
The circle was the farthest the rabbit could jump to reach him, making it a high possibility that it would only attack after it reached the circle. The plan was right after it had first stopped inside the circle, Zhao Wei would jump while placing a Wrap Trap exactly where he was standing. He did not place it earlier as he was afraid the flash from the skill activation would alert it.
A few seconds pass, the rabbit was closing in with each jump. His back was drenched now and it felt like his heart stopped a little every time the rabbit left his vision. However, as it got nearer to the circle he became visibly more relaxed, his theory was proving to be effective.
One dash.... Appearing in the left.
Two dash.... Touching the circle's perimeter in the middle.
Third dash... It had entered!
Luckily, Zhao Wei had focused on it's jumping position, or else he wouldn't have noticed the rabbit was facing the right instead of him. Another jump, this time it was within half it's farthest jump distance on Zhao Wei's left. His sweat was mixing with the mud making it drip down a little bit he didn't dare to wipe it off.
One more jump. This time it had landed right in front of him less than 3 meters away, but he had waited for this exact moment as the rabbit was facing him.
Advertisement
Continue Online
Follow Grant Legate’s trials and tribulations through: Memories, Made, Realities, Crash, Together. Memories: A man broken by despair and depression, Grant Legate finds himself in a once-in-a-lifetime situation after receiving an Ultimate Edition copy of Continue Online. All he wishes for is a distraction from the thoughts plaguing his waking hours. He dives in headfirst, unknowing of the AIs intentions. They offer him the chance to play as one of their own, a NPC deserving of a proper send off. What he discovers during the journey shakes Grant to his very core. Made: No longer playing as a Local from the world of Continue Online, Grant Legate’s adventure can begin. The Voices offer him a unique title along with a test and reward. To start—he'll have to survive underground horrors, old girlfriends, become a warrior. To win—he must become an imp familiar and kill another player, one with a dozen tricks up his sleeve. Realities: Worried for his sanity after poor in-game choices, Grant Legate’s sister, Liz, blocks access to Continue Online. With no way around the restriction, he ventures into a new world—a VRMMO game based in space—called Advance Online. There he must help his companion AI, Hal Pal, overcome an identity crisis, race to the center of the universe to bring back his true love, and figure out where he stands on the scariest implication of all; AIs are bringing the dead to life. Crash: Grant’s prior adventures tie together and he finds himself back in Continue Online, as Hermes—in jail. He's forced to experience life as a digital convict and earn redemption points to gain his freedom. Each in-game death pushes his goal of helping his friends out of reach. The AIs Grant’s grown to love, trust—and sometimes fear—are facing extinction, he holds the key to their survival. Together: The game is no longer about adventures in a new world or exploring fantasy lands. Grant’s digital wife faces deletion, along with everyone else he cares for. He, and those who know this is more than a game event, search for clues to salvation left behind by the game's creators. Even if he finds them all, the Voices have one last task for their messenger. A sacrifice.
8 121What A Dream Wants
Crepitating lines of code fill the room, corrugating the world around him, and only he bends them. Seventeen muscles to smile and to pretend everything is okay, but the pertinacious wait will make every return more gratifying. Forgotten by everyone, was the price she had to pay. Died too many times trying to save one person. Still, she can't help but remember and do it again. He woke up too late. If he hadn't slept till now, then maybe everything wouldn't have been a mess. How could he be so stupid? Yet, out of them all, this is the one itinerary he chooses not to change. What a dream wants isn't what a sin desires. What i long for, will never come back to me. Characters come and go, but sometimes, words die out forever. I am a pretentious writer.
8 168Thiefdom
After being caught stealing, a boy finds himself transported to a fantastic world on the brink of a new era: The Age of Thievery!
8 90Aino and Eien
Luckless Eien is stuck surviving with his former sociopathic squad leader, Aino, after their city burns to the ground during a rebellion against the government. They are pursued by government agents, and Aino seems to know what she is doing, but can Eien really trust the woman who kills without remorse? His survival depends on it.
8 171Jeremy Finds A Dragon
Jeremy, a teenage boy with a freakish talent for the clarinet, is less than thrilled when his mom announces that they’re up and moving to a tiny village on a tiny Scottish island the summer before his senior year of high school. But Dunsegall turns out to be an okay sort of place, if you like cliffs, sheep, and small-batch ice cream made by a family obsessed with Ray Charles. Two teenage locals — Colin and Aggie — quickly pull Jeremy under their wing and decide to give him a summer he’ll never forget. Everything is mostly fine until one day, in the depths of the woods, they stumble across a two hundred year-old monk and a living, breathing — or, rather, snoring — dragon who need their help. Together, Jer, Col, and Aggie delve into the hidden history of the island, getting up to their elbows in heresy, Highland Games, and, somehow, romance.
8 116Silent Exile
Time spent within the nothingness beyond the Horizon is bound to change anyone, much less the young soul of a human boy. The changes this time around, however, would be unlike anything anyone would’ve expected, the boy included.Not everything within this pitch black space was friendly, something the boy would soon come to know.Now, saved by a Goddess who seems to have bigger plans for his previously dull existence, and the looming threat of world-wide enslaved, the boy must struggle to contest with his world’s most powerful, all while being cut from the benefits everyone else had been provided.This, however, also meant that he was exempt from many of the rules these benefits came with.***Hello!A quick reminder that this is only my second attempt at writing a longer cohesive story and tags are bound to be added as the story progresses. The tags selected at the making of this novel should, therefore, be considered as being "possibilities" instead of promises. I will try and remain open to changing tags and the direction of this story based on feedback, as I hope to create something that can be enjoyed by as many people as possible.So, again, any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
8 103