Chapter 61: Finishing the Job Matters Most

After hearing Su You’s words, Lake thought she had a point. He hesitated for a moment, then put down his pickaxe as well.

Su You finished picking up the items that had dropped on the ground, then took out a serving of grilled meat from her backpack and handed it to him. Even though it hadn’t been long since breakfast, all the fighting and mining had made their hunger levels drop pretty quickly.

Anyway, Su You had brought plenty of food—just the grilled berry meat alone, she’d packed ten servings, enough for the three of them to eat from morning till night.

While Lake ate, Su You also took out a portion for herself.

Before they’d even finished their grilled meat, the two of them heard some commotion from the right side of the mine.

Su You paused mid-bite, and Lake reacted quickly too, scarfing down the rest of his food in a couple of bites. He grabbed his gloves, which he’d just taken off, and strode toward the source of the noise.

“Wait, take these.” Su You took a few basic healing potions from her backpack and handed them to Lake.

…

“Lyle? Is that you?!” Lake called out tentatively. As soon as he caught a whiff of blood, his expression changed.

He couldn’t worry about anything else now—he ran straight toward the vague shadow up ahead.

When he got there, he saw Lyle lying on the ground as if completely paralyzed. Not only that, but he was covered in blood from head to toe—he looked exactly like Doya had the night before.

If it weren’t for the rise and fall of his chest proving he was still alive, Lake really didn’t know what he might have done in that moment.

Even though he knew Lyle was alive, Lake rushed to his side, wanting to help him up. But before he could touch him, Lyle—who’d had his eyes closed—suddenly opened them.

When he saw it was Lake, the sharp look in his eyes softened, and he let out a sigh of relief.

Realizing Lake wanted to help him back, Lyle took a few deep breaths and managed to say, haltingly, “I’m fine… Don’t… It’s not… dead yet… Go…”

Lake had originally intended to help Lyle back, but after hearing those words, he had to set that idea aside.

Though Lyle’s words were broken and quiet, somehow, perhaps out of instinct or understanding, Lake got the message.

He first helped Lyle drink one of the basic healing potions Su You had given him, then cautiously headed in the direction Lyle indicated.

If he guessed right, Lyle had been fighting some kind of creature—beast or monster—and both sides had ended up badly hurt.

Lyle wasn’t lying here because his injuries were that serious; in fact, he didn’t have many wounds at all. Most of the blood on him probably belonged to the creature he’d fought, not to him.

He was down mostly from exhaustion.

And the creature Lyle had fought was likely in the same state. That’s why Lyle wanted Lake to take this chance to finish it off—strike while the iron’s hot, as the saying goes. Finishing the job was crucial.

If they waited for the creature to recover, things could get ugly.

Lake made his way through the overgrown weeds, pushing aside the leaves in front of him. What came into view was a black-striped tiger, over three feet long.

Lake was startled when he saw the tiger—not because he was afraid, but because he hadn’t expected Lyle to have just been fighting a tiger!

Since when was his brother this tough?

Was he possessed by Wu Song or something?!

…Wait, who’s Wu Song again? Never mind, that’s not important.

The tiger was in even worse shape than Lyle—its body was riddled with bloody holes. Lake even noticed a few unfamiliar wounds, but he didn’t have time to examine them closely.

Apparently hearing Lake approach, the black-striped tiger, which had been lying half-dead on the ground, suddenly opened its eyes—just like Lyle had earlier.

But unlike Lyle, the tiger’s gaze was filled with nothing but ferocity.

Not that it mattered how fierce it tried to look—it couldn’t move at all now. It was basically a paper tiger, ready to fall apart at a touch.

Lake didn’t give it any time to react or recover. He put on his gloves, strode forward, and delivered a powerful punch.

Worried that one punch wouldn’t be enough, Lake put all his strength into several more blows, until his hands went numb from the force. Only then did he stop.

If Su You had been there, she would have seen that the tiger’s health bar had dropped to zero—it was well and truly dead.

But even without her, Lake could tell the tiger was as dead as could be.

After making sure he’d finished the job and there was no chance of the tiger “coming back to life,” Lake hurried back to Lyle’s side.

“Where’s the Lord?” By now, Lyle had either rested enough or the healing potion had kicked in. He couldn’t do any heavy lifting, but he could walk on his own.

He slowly got up from the ground, planning to check how Lake had handled the tiger, and just happened to see Lake returning. So he asked about Su You.

“The Lord is still over there—she’s fine. That potion you just drank was from her… When I was scouting on the left, I found a mine…” Lake briefly explained his side of things, then started asking Lyle what had happened.

“How’d you run into a black-striped tiger? And how did you beat it up so badly? I’ve never seen you this tough before—have you been going easy on me all this time?”

Lyle: “…You really think too highly of me.”

Faced with Lake’s barrage of questions, Lyle didn’t even know where to start. Things were complicated… In any case, there was no way he could have fought a tiger to a standstill—especially a black-striped tiger, known for its ferocity.

The fact that he’d managed to escape, and even kill the tiger, was nothing short of a miracle.

“Let’s talk about it when we get back—no need to worry the Lord.”

Lake was still curious about what had happened, but he knew they couldn’t afford to linger.

It wasn’t just because Su You might worry—more importantly, in a forest, the strong smell of blood would definitely attract other creatures if they didn’t leave soon.

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"62. Mutual Destruction

But… were they really just going to leave like this?

“What about the tiger? Are we just going to leave it there? We killed it, after all. Who knows how many valuable things there are on a tiger from head to tail…” Even a wild boar could yield a pair of tusks, let alone a tiger.

Tiger skin could be used to make gear, and tiger meat, tiger blood, tiger claws, even the internal organs—all of these were excellent ingredients or medicinal materials.

Right now, the lingering presence of the tiger was still keeping other creatures away, but as soon as they left, it wouldn’t be long before something discovered the dead black-striped tiger and picked it clean.

Just thinking about it made their hearts ache.

“You think I don’t want to bring it back? You saw it yourself—it’s at least five hundred jin (250 kg) at the very least. Are you going to carry it by yourself?” If both of them were in good shape, they might just barely manage to carry a five-hundred-jin carcass.

But in their current state, Lyle was basically a “cripple”—he couldn’t lift a hand or shoulder a load. Although Lake still had some strength left, there was no way he could drag a five-hundred-jin tiger by himself.

“But…” Lake wanted to say something, but Lyle cut him off after just one word.

“Did you forget the Lord is still here? She’ll definitely have a way to bring it back.” They didn’t know about the backpack, or how Su You could make things appear and disappear, but that didn’t mean they weren’t aware she had some kind of ability.

They couldn’t carry a five-hundred-jin tiger, but if it was broken down—skin, meat, and so on—Su You’s backpack could definitely hold it.

Even if it couldn’t, Su You could always take other things out of her backpack for them to carry, freeing up space just for the tiger.

“Let’s go back and find the Lord, then.” So Lake helped Lyle back to where Su You was digging up stones.

Su You was startled to see them both covered in blood again. She looked at them, silently asking what on earth had happened.

Originally, Lyle was going to explain, but Lake was worried he’d tire himself out, so he explained everything that had just happened instead.

After hearing the whole story, Su You was left with the same question Lake had had earlier—

“You and the black-striped tiger ended up in a mutual destruction?” Su You knew just how tough the black-striped tiger was. She’d once been blocked by one while gathering something, and had to return to the territory to bring five combat-skilled people with her to take it down.

Five people!

And one of them even had an intermediate-level skill!

Even then, when they fought the black-striped tiger, it almost managed to escape.

Her goal back then hadn’t actually been the tiger, so it wouldn’t have mattered if it got away, but after putting in so much effort, it would’ve felt like a waste to let it go. So Su You led her team to chase it down and finish it off.

If it took five people to barely handle a black-striped tiger, how could a single person possibly kill one?

Lake had said the tiger wasn’t dead yet, but from what he described, it sounded like the tiger was completely powerless to resist—basically as good as dead.

Faced with Su You’s question, Lyle explained helplessly, “It wasn’t me. How could I possibly do that? When I found it, it was already badly injured… It’s my own greed, really. Otherwise, I never would’ve gotten mixed up with it.”

Lyle wasn’t reckless, but when he saw the black-striped tiger, it really did look like it was on its last legs, and its wounds proved it wasn’t faking.

Having a black-striped tiger just lying there in front of him was like finding money on the road.

Lyle was tempted.

He wanted to kill the tiger himself.

But reason told him he should go back and tell Su You and Lake first, then decide what to do… But he worried that if he left, the tiger might run away.

So he decided to stay and keep watch, hoping that if the tiger didn’t leave, or if Su You and Lake noticed he’d been gone too long, they’d come looking for him…

It was a good plan, but the tiger was on high alert and never let its guard down. Since it wasn’t resting, Lyle didn’t dare leave either.

In the end, a small wild animal suddenly crashed into Lyle, alerting the tiger to his presence.

The little creature was small and fast, so the tiger ignored it—but Lyle wasn’t so lucky.

“Luckily, the tiger was already badly hurt, so I just barely managed to fight it for a bit…” But only just. Even a dying camel is bigger than a horse, and this was a tiger.

He used up all his strength to bring the tiger to the brink of death, but ended up completely exhausted and unable to move himself… After that, Su You and Lake heard the commotion and came over, and the rest was history.

“I see.” That made a lot more sense.

Otherwise, if an NPC with only basic melee skills could take down a tiger bare-handed… this digital world would be way too scary.

“My Lord, the black-striped tiger is dead, but the two of us can’t bring it back. What do you think…”

Lake’s words seemed to remind Su You of something. She nodded to show she understood, took out some grilled meat with berries for Lyle, then said to Lake, “Take me to see it.”

Lake nodded quickly and was about to lead the way when he glanced at Lyle.

“What about Lyle…”

Su You checked Lyle’s health: “130/230”.

He’d lost nearly a hundred points from his original 225 HP, and that was just from fighting a badly injured tiger. It was easy to imagine what would happen if he’d run into a healthy one.

But there was no “if.”

If the tiger had been healthy, Lyle never would have been able to stake it out for so long.

His health wasn’t high, but not low either. He could stay here or go back to rest.

“It’s up to you. If you’re tired, rest for a bit and then head back to the territory. If you feel okay, rest here, and after we come back, you and Lake can go check out the mine.”

Given the two options, Lyle didn’t hesitate at all and chose the second one.

So now, Lyle stayed here to rest, while Lake led Su You to where the black-striped tiger had died.

…

[Black-Striped Tiger] (Deceased)

HP: 0/1000

Attack: 50

Defense: 20

(End of chapter)"

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