Episode 3: The Cost of Survival
I woke to pain.
Not the sharp, panicked agony of the fever, but a deep, grinding soreness that lived in my bones and muscles alike. It was the kind of pain that didn't demand attention—it simply existed, constant and patient, like it had all the time in the world.
For a moment, disorientation threatened to pull me under again. Then the familiar dirt ceiling came into focus, the faint blue icon hovering at the edge of my vision.
Still here.
Health: 49/100
Stamina: 31/100
I exhaled slowly. Sleep worked. Slowly—but it worked.
The System chimed softly.
[Rest Action Completed: Partial Recovery]
[Health +3]
[Stamina +24]
"So rest is a mechanic too," I murmured. "Good to know."
Outside, the village was fully awake now. Hammering rang out in steady rhythms. Someone shouted over livestock. Life was loud, physical, and exhausting—and I hadn't even stepped outside yet.
The door opened without ceremony.
Borin entered, already smelling of sweat and iron, a crust of bread in one hand and a clay cup in the other. "Up," he said. "If you can sit, you can eat. If you can eat, you can heal."
Efficient. Brutal. Logical.
I pushed myself upright, slower than yesterday but steadier.
No warning this time.
Progress.
As I ate, my gaze drifted to Borin's arms—thick with muscle, corded from years of hammer and anvil. His stats flashed unbidden in my mind, not as numbers, but as comparison.
That's what real strength looks like here.
When I finished, the System responded.
[Action Detected: Consume Food]
[Health +2]
Health: 51/100
Still barely half.
Borin studied me for a long moment. "You're quieter than before," he said. "Fever usually leaves folk babbling."
"I'm tired," I replied. Which wasn't a lie—just not the whole truth.
He nodded once. "You'll walk today."
That got my attention. "Walk?"
"To the well. And back." He paused, then added, "Slow."
A test.
I swung my legs off the bed, planting my feet carefully. The ground felt colder than yesterday—or maybe I was just more aware of it now. I stood.
Stamina: 31/100 → 28/100
Acceptable.
Each step toward the door was deliberate. Pain flared, but it didn't overwhelm me. My body complained; the System monitored.
[Basic Movement (Lv. 1) – Progress Increased]
Outside, the village of Oakhaven revealed itself.
Low wooden houses. Mud paths. Smoke curling from chimneys. People moved with purpose, faces lined with fatigue even in youth. Children worked alongside adults. No one wasted motion.
No one wasted time.
My modern instincts screamed at the inefficiency, the risk, the sheer fragility of it all.
One bad harvest. One infection. One winter too long.
We reached the well. I rested my hands against the stone rim, breathing hard.
Stamina: 19/100
Borin said nothing. He just waited.
After a long moment, the System chimed.
[Endurance Check Passed]
[Constitution +0.1]
I blinked.
Stats can grow incrementally.
Not just levels. Not just quests.
Use shape growth.
That was important. No—that was everything.
The walk back nearly broke me. By the time I collapsed onto the bed again, my vision swam and my limbs shook.
Health: 52/100
Stamina: 6/100
But the System spoke anyway.
[New Passive Skill Unlocked]
[Skill: Frail Body Adaptation (Lv. 1)]
When operating under illness or injury, physical strain grants increased long-term growth.
I laughed weakly into the blanket.
"So suffering has bonuses too," I whispered. "Figures."
That night, as exhaustion dragged me under once more, a final notification appeared.
[Quest Progress: Recovery – 34% Complete]
Still a long way to go.
But for the first time since I'd died—really died—I understood the rules of this world a little better.
No shortcuts.
No mercy.
Only accumulation.
Strength wasn't given.
It was earned, one painful step at a time.
And I was finally moving forward.
Episode 3: End.
After dying in a modern-day accident, Park Min-Jun awakens reborn as a frail 14-year-old peasant boy named Elric in a harsh late-feudal world. As despair sets in, a mysterious System activates, revealing stats, skills, and quests—turning survival itself into a measurable struggle. Weak, sick, and powerless, Elric learns that even basic actions like eating, resting, and walking trigger growth, though progress comes painfully slow. Guided by his guardian Borin, he begins rebuilding his broken body step by step, discovering that stats can grow incrementally through effort and suffering. With mana still locked and no shortcuts offered, Elric realizes this world rewards only endurance, learning, and accumulation. He is no chosen hero—just a survivor determined to change the rules by understanding them better than anyone else.