Stones in the path.

We began the journey with various news, some good, others not so much, and one in particular that made a part of my body turn as blue as a Smurf.

Well, let's start with the bad news. It started raining, which in itself wasn't bad, but it forced us to close the car window and the sunroof, and even with the air conditioning on, it was still hot, well, too hot in a way.

There was also the fact that I didn't know the streets of Japan because, you know, I didn't live here. So, I had to drive more carefully, even though I was receiving directions, the visibility was still terrible. Damn country with fog at noon! What the hell is this, Silent Hill?

Taking a deep breath, I ignored the shivering body seated on my lap and tried to adjust myself in a way that my erection wouldn't get cramped inside my pants, or, you know, against Saya's butt. So, the only possible place I could put it was between the cheeks of the tsundere's butt.

You see, she was blushing like a tomato, and with the heat inside the car, I was starting to worry that she might faint. Seriously, she sat on my lap to tease me, but she's the one who got embarrassed.

I made sure, ever since I started the car, to drive with my arms as close together as possible, squeezing the little lion on my lap, especially her not-so-small breasts, which only added to the redness of her face.

I even had the excuse that I was doing it to be Saya's seatbelt, it was perfect!

Now, the good news, of course, I wouldn't do this in public, especially not on a stream; I wasn't an exhibitionist. But the back seat was more focused on singing the song I had playing than paying attention to what was happening here.

"Yureta genjitsukan nakushita mama degareki no you ni tsumi kasanarukono kanshou wa doko e yuku?"

Was it a cruel joke to play the anime opening via Bluetooth? Perhaps, but I really didn't care; it was funny, and the music was good.

"Au, Au au, au"

I saw that even Zeke was singing; the music was great!

The only one paying attention to what was happening here was Rei, as she sat in the passenger seat, but she didn't comment on anything. From the looks she was giving the two of us, I'm almost certain she was jealous of the tsundere in my lap.

"Tsuieta kibou kakae akai ame wo harai hashitta muchuu ni

kuzureta kanjou wo no hate ninani o miru? nani ga aru?mada shiranai"

Alice's little voice was adorable while singing; it almost made me ignore what Kohta referred to as a voice, which sounded more like an old car engine. The guy had zero talent for singing.

And then, we had the real reason that led me to tease the tsundere little lion. If this world had a god, they were as perverted as the one who created this anime because it was practically a miracle that no one had noticed what was going on.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Come on! We've been staring at the car ceiling for 30 minutes! You said buying another camera angle was expensive, but I'll pay for it! Just buy it! (Indignant Iron Man emote).

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Donated 10,000 SP! Buy this crap already! I can't stand looking at rain and a ceiling anymore!

The funniest part was that I didn't even need to defend myself since the others did it for me.

[WiseWizardGleam]: He probably can't see the (CHAT) right now, Antony. I don't know much about Muggle vehicles, but if they're anything like brooms, it requires attention to avoid accidents.

[JackMom]: Not to mention the danger if he uses his phone in this rain! What if he crashes? There are kids in the car!

[StarkAssistant]: Don't complain, Tony. I had to do your entire job today so you could watch the stream. Waiting for them to reach a safe place for Mr. Devas to change the camera angle isn't difficult.

[RedHuntressLive]: Hakanai subete no mirai wa tada muon ni me no mae ni hirogari tsuzuketa (Little Red Riding Hood dancing emote).

[YellowHuntressLive]: Kieta hikari to kage saigo no kotoba nozonda no wa tada asu dake kono genjitsu wa doko ni aru?? (Yellow bear dancing emote)

[BlakeHuntressLive]: Tsuieta ima o mitsume akai ame no naka o hashitta mayowazu.

I didn't even want to ask how Red and her friends, who were literally from another world, knew Japanese, but it helped me, so it didn't really matter in the end.

In the end, I won ten thousand SP. No one in the stream realized that Saya was sitting on my lap, and I was turning her little game against her. When she sat on me, I was already inside the car, and the camera didn't show her getting in. To make it even better, there was music. Oh yes, there was that too.

Well, in the end, I started singing along with the rest of the group, my voice rising louder than everyone else's, as I was the only one who really knew the lyrics by heart.

"Kuzureru fuukei o koetenani o shiru? nani o kiku? mou mienaihakanai hitotsu no mirai wotada mugon ni me no mae de erabitsuzukeyou"

I even leaned down to nibble on Saya's left ear, which made her shiver even more and let out a sound so cute that I hesitate to call it a moan. I apologize; I spoke too soon. This trip might take a while, and I was having fun.

But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I had already driven more than half of the way, and we had crossed the river and climbed the small hill to return to the city. At this point, it had stopped raining, so Saya quickly rolled down the window.

She leaned her body towards the window to let the wind hit her face, which made me have to retract my right arm, essentially undoing one of the 'seat belts' that held Saya on my lap. So, when a damn shot hit the damn tire and made me lose control of the car, Saya practically flew out of my lap and into the street.

We were going at a good sixty miles per hour, and when you add the speed at which she was propelled out because I had to turn the steering wheel quickly to avoid crashing, it practically guaranteed that when she hit the ground, she would turn into pulp.

I'll thank needing to stay alert practically all day in Terraria while hunting, needing to stay alert while killing zombies in this world because that was the only reason I managed to brake the car, letting go of the steering wheel, practically bending my body and extending my right arm towards Saya to release the slime hook.

Even before I could think of the first command for the slime rope to come out, the image of a broken Gwen Stacy flashed in my mind, and all three ropes shot out at once. The last thing I could see on Saya's face was shock and despair before she was entirely engulfed by the makeshift slime cocoon I created.

A few moments later, I could feel the full weight of the impact. I'll thank again, as I don't know what would happen to Saya, but I do know what happened to my arm, as I could feel practically every bone in it shatter just before my shoulder was dislocated, and I slammed my body hard against the car door.

The only thing keeping my arm intact was the slime hook that surrounded it from the wrist to halfway across my chest, passing through my shoulder.

"ARH!"

I let out a muffled scream of pain as I lifted my head, which had struck the top of the door. I managed to avoid biting my tongue as I yelled in a hurry.

"Get down, NOW!"

I didn't stop to see if they had crouched. I couldn't open the door since the hook had passed through the window. So, I practically threw myself out of the car and ran toward the slime cocoon stuck to the pavement.

When I got close, I ignored the pain in my arm and mentally commanded the hook to retract, pulling the slime ropes back to my wrist and making the slime holding my arm together retract as well, but it didn't matter at this point.

She was lying on the ground. Her face was peaceful, calm, nothing like the despair I had seen earlier, as if she knew she was safe, but she wasn't awake.

My heart raced even faster, my treacherous brain sending thoughts like "She's dead" and "You're late again," just before I crushed those thoughts with force and pulled a potion from my inventory with my non-mangled arm.

I tore the potion's cap with my teeth. I could feel something snap in my gum, but I ignored it. I practically drank the entire potion and held it in my mouth without swallowing. Then, as gently as I could, I lifted her head slightly and kissed her lips while forcing her to swallow the potion.

Even after that, she still didn't wake up. She was still there, lying with a peaceful smile on her face.

At this point, I could feel my body starting to hyperventilate, but I managed to focus because of a single message. Not the one from (CHAT), I hadn't paid attention to that since it was in the corner of my vision, but one that appeared in front of my face.

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot] became a member: FOCUS, NOW!

Those were two simple words, but it felt more like a bucket of cold water thrown on my head. I nodded vigorously, as if responding to the message, and retrieved my phone from my inventory.

I didn't even know if this would work. I hadn't had the chance to test this in Terraria, but my rational side had gone to hell at this point. I was more of a ball of instincts, moving to try to save one of the few people I considered a friend, whether in this world, in Terraria, or on Earth.

"Analyze item!"

This was my only hope at this point. I didn't know what had happened to Saya. I wasn't a doctor. Using this was the only way I could think of that might work, and for the first time, I wasn't disappointed by this stream.

(8739 SP required to fully scan-

"DO IT!" I yelled at the phone, ignoring the rest of the message. I didn't care about the SP cost; I just wanted to know what had happened to her.

[Name: Saya Takagi

Age: 18 years (I edited her age for reasons of not being accused of a crime...)

Gender: Female

Mana: Inactive

Current Status: Unconscious (Healthy - Unconscious status caused by the brain to protect itself from a stressful situation).

Summary: Saya is a young adult. -

I didn't need to read the rest. She was okay, just unconscious. It wasn't any kind of brain trauma or anything like that. I breathed a sigh of relief and hugged her while thanking, but I was forced to put her back on the cold, wet ground again because of two damn voices!

"Ah! I told you: that car may be armored, but the tires weren't! And there are plenty of hot babes there too, and food, man! Let's live like kings!" said the first voice as if talking to someone.

"You said?! Come on, it was my shot that hit the tire! Everything's thanks to me! Because of that, I get to choose which one I'm going to pick and screw first. You can have the ones I don't choose," said the second voice.

"Hey, that's not fair! Let me have one of them first too! There!"

I suppose he pointed at Saya, who was peacefully sleeping next to me, as the description matched.

"I'll take the one with pink hair. She has a cute face. I'll enjoy screwing her." He then started laughing pervertedly, with his partner joining in the laughter shortly after.

Now, before anything else, ignoring the voices, a brief description of the adrenaline rush my grandfather had told me about a few years ago. It wasn't very accurate, but it would do.

"Adrenaline is released by the adrenal glands in the kidneys, and the body inhales ten times more air than is normally necessary.

"Digestive functions are temporarily paralyzed, blood vessels dilate, the face becomes tense, and the mouth opens."

Those were the words my old man had told me years ago.

In other words, your blood boils, and your organs turn inside out!

This could perfectly describe me in my current state. I could feel practically everything, from the blood coursing through my veins to the tone of the wretched voices of these two corpses who had learned to speak!

My whole body seemed to be on fire. I could see my breath leaving my mouth in jets of white vapor caused by the hot air meeting the cold. I could see my vision turning red, but I wasn't sure if it was from the blood running down my forehead or the rage coursing through my veins.

And, in the end, contrary to what I would expect, my mind was clear, clean, with a single purpose: TO KILL!

I snarled, a sound that seemed more like it came from a demon than a human, as I turned to see my prey. They were the definition of antagonists from a crappy hentai anime. They were ugly and had faces that I doubted even their mothers could love.

Interestingly, my current state seemed to have temporarily cleared my memory because I knew who one of the heaps of dead flesh in front of me was. It was the guy who had tried to rape Rei in the anime, at a gas station. Because I had prevented Takashi and Rei from being arrested on the other side of the tunnel, this guy was still alive, a fact I was going to rectify.

They were startled by my growl. I don't know what they saw in me, but I could clearly see, even from a distance of about five to six meters where they were from me, their pupils shrinking to the size of needles. They took a step back, frightened, before the partner of the corpse I recognized gathered the courage to speak.

"That almost scared me, but you know, I'm the one with the gun-"

He couldn't finish the sentence, as I had pulled the shotgun from my inventory and blown most of his upper body apart, causing it to explode like a watermelon, which only made my predatory smile widen even more!

I thought my first kill might affect me, but in my current state, I had so much adrenaline in my body, I was so angry, so FURIOUS! that nothing else mattered except MASSACRING THESE BASTARDS!

The corpse that originally tried to harm my other friend in the anime became even more terrified and fell on his butt. He began to crawl backward while begging, words that only made me even more enraged.

"No! No! Please! Forgive me. It was his idea. He wanted to do it, I swear! I didn't do anything, I swear!" He tried to crawl faster, not taking me out of his sight. This caused him not to notice that he was heading toward one of the many zombies attracted by the gunfire and screaming.

When he realized where he was going, in a normal situation, it would already be too late. He turned to the zombie and tried to react, but before he could even think of screaming, I shot the zombie, making it explode and covering the talking corpse's body with blood and guts.

He stood in shock for a few seconds before turning to me to thank me.

"Thanks, man! I don't want to become one of those things. Thank you very much!"

I don't know how that corpse could be so dumb; I felt disgusted just thinking about being classified as the same species as him.

I waved to him from afar. I couldn't leave Saya's side, not with so many zombies closing in. I wouldn't let the little lion get hurt any further because of my negligence.

"Of course, I wouldn't let that zombie bite you." My voice sounded distorted, hoarse, as if my throat was dry and no longer made of flesh. I smiled brightly at him, like a demon would smile at a nun.

"YOU'RE MINE!"

I ignored my good shoulder creaking from having to handle the recoil of a heavy-caliber weapon alone and raised the shotgun once more, aiming at the corpse that realized it was my target and tried to run.

I could feel it when I fired the shot; my left shoulder creaked but managed to withstand the recoil.

I could feel the bullet leaving the gun, breaking the sound barrier, tearing through the air in front of me.

I could feel the satisfaction as I saw a hole open up in the chest of the corpse that couldn't run fast enough to escape the reach of my weapon.

I stowed the shotgun in my inventory and turned, crouching down to pick up Saya delicately and supporting her on my shoulder. Then, I began to take her back to the Humvee, where the rest of the group awaited me, watching me through the windows.

The first to run, contrary to what I expected, was Rei. Shortly after, Takashi and Saeko followed; the others stayed in the car with Kohta, climbing onto the roof with the rifle in hand.

As they approached, I could see in their eyes that they were frightened. I thought it might be because of me, after all, I had just killed two creatures that looked human. But no, since Rei was the first to arrive, she helped me to support myself.

Even in my current state, I could feel a genuine and kind smile forming on my face. None of them looked at me with any negative emotion, just concern.

"Are you okay?! Is she okay?! What happened?! It was so fast!" She was worried and asked quickly before turning to the other two. "Quick, help me here!"

Saeko and Takashi also rushed over. Together, they picked up the unconscious little tsundere and carried her to the car, while Rei helped me walk.

I coughed, feeling my throat dry, but unable to use my right arm and with the left one supported by Rei, I couldn't retrieve water from my inventory.

"She's fine... She's... just... unconscious." I managed to say between breaths. My voice remained hoarse but not as much as before.

She just nodded. When we got closer to the Humvee, Saeko and Takashi had already placed Saya in the back seat. I don't know who started talking first, but I cut in right away.

"We'll talk about this later. We need to get out of here now!"

I could see the zombies surrounding the Humvee. We wouldn't be able to get out fast enough. The engine that Stark helped me modify and the plates I soldered would help, but with one of the tires blown, we wouldn't be able to escape in time.

I clicked my tongue while furrowing my brow. There had to be a way to get away without fighting. We wouldn't be able to fight all these zombies if they closed in on us. There were too many. If there was some way to change the tire quickly...

I felt a light bulb go off in my head with the idea. I needed this to work, or we were done for.

"Shizuka!" I shouted for the nurse, who turned to me in alarm. I could see she was covering Alice's ears, probably so the little one wouldn't hear the gunfire and the zombies, but I needed her now.

"Take the wheel! You three..." I pointed to Takashi, Saeko, and Rei. "Don't let any zombies get close. I'll fix the tire. When I say so, don't hesitate, get in the car, understood?" They nodded quickly, realizing it wasn't a time for questions.

I didn't even need to talk to our sniper, Kohta was dependable. He was already holding off the zombies with shots from the rifle. He didn't miss a single one. The boy was truly a genius with a gun in his hand.

I ran to the tire that had been shot and knelt down beside it. This had to work. I retrieved the cell phone from my inventory again and opened the streaming app.

[Live Map LV3: 5000 SP]

[VoidBag LV3: 10000 SP]

(SP: 16982)

Even after spending nearly nine thousand SP, I still had enough, thanks to Stark, to upgrade the VoidBag-.

[GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Donated 50.000 SP! Quick, Devas! Damn it! Hurry!

[WiseWizardGleam]: Donated 10.000 SP! Quick, boy!

[JiraiyaIsAnIdiot]: Donated 8.000 SP! Don't die now, I promised to introduce you to my student, make it work!

[RedHuntressLive]: Donated 7.000 SP! It's all the allowance me and the girls have, Weiss doesn't have her card here!

[JackMom]: Donated 500 SP! It's all I have here, hurry!

Even in this messed-up situation, I couldn't help but laugh. I had enough SP to upgrade the VoidBag, but they didn't hesitate to donate to help me!

(SP: 92482)

I didn't hesitate to upgrade the VoidBag. I didn't pay attention to the changes that occurred in the bag; I just looked at my phone.

[Live Map LV3: 5000 SP]

[VoidBag LV4: 50000 SP]

(SP: 82482)

Without hesitation, I upgraded the VoidBag once more. I couldn't risk wasting time here! Ignoring the glowing bag on my waist, I placed my right hand on the tire with a bullet hole and wished for it to be replaced with an identical one I had in my inventory.

To my delight, one of these upgrades was enough to make it happen. I could see the bullet-riddled tire with the gunshot mark disappear, and practically instantly, a brand new one appeared in its place, raising the car slightly.

"GET IN, NOW!" Without hesitation, I shouted to the group. I could already feel the effects of adrenaline wearing off; my vision was starting to darken; I needed to run too.

The next few seconds were a blur. I could hear Shizuka starting the engine and the footsteps of those who were outside fighting the zombies rushing to the Humvee.

I knew there wouldn't be space in the Humvee, as Saya was lying in the back seat. I ran to the car's trunk and practically made everything inside it disappear, quickly stashing the items in my inventory and getting inside.

When I was sure everyone was inside the Humvee, I yelled for Kohta to get in and close the hatch. Shortly after that, I could hear some voices calling me and the (CHAT) on the stream blinking with messages, but I couldn't respond to any of them as I passed out.