“P-please… h-help…”
The dim moonlight barely illuminated the scene, but it was enough for me to see the cause of his agony. His left leg was trapped in something that looked like a bear trap—only larger, more vicious, and designed to maim rather than restrain. Serrated spikes jutted from the edges, deeply embedded into his calf. Even the slightest movement seemed to threaten tearing his leg apart.
The man extended a trembling hand toward me, his voice cracking as he repeated his plea.
“I… I don’t know how to help you,” I stammered. My voice was shaky, but my words were honest. “If we try to pull you out of that thing, your leg… it won’t make it. You’ll bleed out.”
I wasn’t being cruel. It was just the reality of the situation. The trap was too brutal, and I was no medic. Amputation seemed like the only option to save him. But how? I had no tools, no expertise—just a stick, a fire, and my rapidly fading courage.
And then—
“Yes!” I shouted instinctively, startling even myself. I didn’t care if the man thought I was losing my mind. Whatever this “system” was, it was my best shot at helping him—or at least figuring out what to do next.
A glowing, translucent screen materialized in front of me. It hovered silently, waiting.
[ACHIEVEMENTS]
Oooh! Finally! But wait... Why are my stats so low? Never mind that! That doesn’t matter right now! I need to focus! I glanced at the man writhing in pain, his desperate eyes locked onto mine. I had to do something—and fast.
"Open skills menu!" I shouted, likely confirming to the poor guy that I’d completely lost my mind.
A glowing screen materialized in front of me, displaying a list of skills:
Property Alteration? What’s that supposed to do? I groaned, frustration bubbling up inside me. "Ughhh! I don’t have time to figure this out! Let’s just try it!"
"Property Alteration!"
The screen updated with new instructions.
"Alright… Trap!"
The glowing interface turned toward the trap clamped around the man’s leg, and more information appeared:
"Ughhh! All of these are useless! What am I supposed to do—melt the trap or something?!" I paused mid-rant, an idea suddenly dawning on me. "Wait a minute..."
"Change Coefficient of Thermal Expansion!"
'The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) is a material property that measures how much a material expands or contracts when the temperature changes'
Initial value: 12 × 10-6 K-1
Degree of change available: 0.0001 units (level up skill for more degree of change) >
"The hell am I going to do with such a tiny adjustment?! Wait… I’m such an idiot! That’s more than enough!"
"Reduce the value by 0.0001 units!"
Now all I have to do is give it some heat!
I grabbed the torch I’d made earlier and held its flame near the steel part of the trap impaling the man’s leg, carefully avoiding his already mangled calf.
"I really, really hope this works..."
To my astonishment, the metal began to shrink.
Thermal expansion! I realized, recalling my high school physics. By changing the material’s expansion coefficient to a negative value, heating it caused the trap to contract instead of expand!
To be more precise (for the nerds out there, me included),
This happened because the formula for thermal expansion is,
ΔL = LαΔT
Where,
ΔL = change in length
L = original length
α = coefficient of thermal expansion
ΔT = temperature change
Since ΔT was positive, and I’d made α negative, the trap’s ΔL turned negative—causing it to shrink. Take that, physics!
With the serrations no longer biting into the man’s flesh, I pried the trap open with my hands and freed his leg. The poor guy had fallen unconscious by then, likely from blood loss.
"Don’t die on me now!" I muttered, tying off his leg with my handkerchief to staunch the bleeding.
I carried him over to my makeshift camp—a process that left me gasping for air by the time I reached the riverbank.
After laying him down on the "bed" of leaves I’d made earlier, I used river water to clean his wound and re-wrapped it with my handkerchief. The man was pale, but his pulse was steady.
"Guess he’ll be okay if he rests for the night…" I sighed, exhaustion hitting me all at once.
I looked up at the sky, the stars shimmering faintly through the canopy.
"Man, that was exhausting! I didn’t expect him to be so heavy! And what was he doing out there, anyway? Who sets traps like that?!"
I shook my head, too tired to think about it any further. Gathering some clean leaves, I arranged them into a makeshift pillow for myself.
"Alright… That’s it for today," I muttered, collapsing onto my own bed of leaves.
At that moment, I had no idea. If only I hadn't saved that man...
The next morning, the sharp sound of my alarm drags me from sleep. Sleepy and disoriented, I get out of bed and into the bathroom, my body moving on autopilot. I grab my toothbrush, smear on some toothpaste, and start brushing, my mind still foggy and half-asleep. After a few absent-minded strokes, I spit, rinse, and splash some cold water on my face, hoping to shake off the drowsiness.
I glance up at the mirror, expecting the usual bleary-eyed reflection. But instead, a single, chilling thought hits me like a punch to the gut:
Huh?
...
...
...
How the hell am I here?!