Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind of when I had drunk alcohol before, and my whole body had felt warm and flushed.
'Why didn't this person drink this? I'm sure I heard a warning somewhere that you shouldn't drink alcohol carelessly.'
At this moment, the survival instinct burning more intensely than ever before sensed an ominous aura from this liquor.
'Think, think. Surely, someone said that drinking alcohol is perfect for warming up the body... Yeah, I definitely remember hearing that drinking alcohol speeds up blood circulation, temporarily making you feel warm, but it also causes your body temperature to drop quickly.'
Carefully removing the seemingly warm clothes, I slowly took a step towards another corpse.
After repeating this action several more times, I barely managed to obtain some warm clothes that would help raise my body temperature, some sweet snacks to stave off hunger, and a small amount of oil to start a fire.
Quickly putting on the warm-looking clothes and gobbling down the snacks, I slowly walked down the mountain, searching for a safe place where the Mutans wouldn't chase me and where the temperature was relatively warm.
Finally, I found a secluded spot at the base of a small hill, carefully dug out a small pit in the snow there, and lay down inside.
*Sizzle sizzle sizzle*
I roughly tore the spare clothes into appropriate sizes, soaked them in oil, and started a fire. The clothes, still covered in cold ice particles, crackled and blazed.
The moment the hot heat gently embraced my frozen body, I could once again vividly realize how warm, precious, and beautiful fire truly was.
"I like fire."
As time passed, the frozen sensations gradually began to return. The outer skin, which had been frozen solid, felt increasingly stinging, and I could see it turning a vibrant red, like a ripe fruit.
The pain was greater than I had expected, but if I stayed like this a little longer, it felt like I could regain the warmth I had lost and return to my original healthy state.
*Crackle crackle*, staring blankly at the incessantly burning flames, my mind gradually stabilized, and I fell into deep thought.
'In the end, no one conquered this terrible summit and all perished here meaninglessly. And all these things I'm carelessly rummaging through now are the last mementos left behind by these poor people. If I ever make it back alive, I'll visit their bereaved families in person and apologize.'
Having gained a little spare, I was already thinking about after descending the mountain.
'But even now, I might face a terrible end like these people, so what's the point of thinking about that? First, if I somehow survive, I can think about it again then.'
Before I knew it, the redly burning sun had completely disappeared, and the surroundings were enveloped in pitch-black darkness. In this deep darkness, only a terrible, bone-chilling cold raged fiercely; no warmth, no life existed.
But, within the gruesome graveyard of mountaineers, feeling a strange stillness and peace like a mother's warm cradle, I slowly, very slowly, fell into a deep sleep.
As if waking from a long nightmare, after a night had passed, the warm heat of the flames had seeped into every corner of my body, as if rekindling the barely flickering embers of life.
I once again looked towards the distant, towering summit. From my tightly closed lips, an unyielding, strong fighting spirit was boiling over.
"Either way, going down this mountain now will just lead to death."
At the end of my gaze, as I muttered those words lowly, was a group of Mutans huddled in hibernation at the base of the mountain, stubbornly waiting for me to appear.
Moreover, perhaps because I had suffered through the bitter cold all night, I felt the deep wounds etched into my entire body throbbing even more severely.
Due to the environment, I couldn't get proper rest, and fully recovering my body was close to impossible. In particular, my right hand, which had been stabbed by the gruesome dagger at the beginning, was shaking so badly that delicate movements were almost out of the question.
In this messed-up state, whether I went down the mountain or up, my chances of surviving on this mountain were slim. No, it was safe to say there was almost no chance.
"Then I might as well die at that summit."
'But the closer I get to the summit, the more drastically the temperature drops... If I keep going like this, I'll end up freezing to death before even reaching the summit, just like the others... Is there really no other way?'
Just then, a thought flashed through my mind. It was foolishly ignorant but a simple and clear method that would definitely work.
However, the method I had come up with myself was so simple and absurd that I inexplicably burst into a hollow laugh.
'But this is the only way for me now.'
As I was chuckling to myself, what suddenly caught my eye were the clothes that had been burned black without a trace while being used as firewood.
'Come to think of it, there were still plenty of unstripped clothes left around, weren't there?'
"I'm so sorry..."
Once again, I thoroughly searched the surroundings, looking for corpses, and collected as many warm-looking clothes as I could find, except for underwear or clothes that could barely cover the body.
Once I had gathered a certain amount of clothes, it was more than enough. It was thanks to everyone wearing thick layers of clothing.
Leaving only my underwear, I threw off all the clothes I had been wearing. Then, I started putting on the clothes stripped from the other corpses, starting with the smaller ones and layering them as much as possible. In the end, I put on the larger clothes, but I had layered so many that my joints were tight, making it difficult to even move.
I carefully cut openings in the clothes with the gruesome dagger to ensure mobility without discomfort. Finally, I tapped my chest with my fist, and it bounced back with a heavy thud, as if I were wearing solid armor.
"Now it's warm? You could almost call it anti-freezing armor."
Just before setting off, I slowly closed my eyes for a moment. In the cold snowstorm, it was a brief moment of silent prayer, honoring the spirits of those who had tragically lost their lives here and never returned.
"Thank you for your sacrifice, seniors. I, Pre, will inherit your noble legacy and definitely reach the summit."
Having finally completed all preparations, I once again roughly surveyed the terrain leading to the summit with my eyes and meticulously mapped out the path I needed to take in my mind.
'I'll break through so fast that even the cold won't dare to catch up, and I'll finish it!'
firmly resolving, I powerfully leaped out of the snow-covered pit.
Leaning my upper body forward as much as possible, I deeply bent my hind legs, gathering all my strength in my thighs and calves until my knees were just before touching the cold snow floor.
Then, I exploded all that power in a single burst, propelling myself forward like a fierce bullet.
*Thwack!*
With the powerful thrust of my two feet lunging forward, the white snow mass beneath my feet scattered and flew in all directions as if an explosion had occurred.
Reaching out, I firmly grabbed the rugged corner ahead covered in snow, crushing the snow on the surface as I pulled myself forward forcefully.
Like being drawn by a giant magnet, my body, being pulled, momentarily crumpled and then shot forward fiercely by the taut elasticity.
It was a ferocious movement akin to that of a beast. With each lunge forward, I lightly disregarded the undulations of the ground, leaping fearlessly over massive hills as tall as a person.
Whenever I powerfully thrust my foot forward and then strongly pulled it back, I felt a strange sense of weightlessness, as if my entire body was momentarily floating in the air, defying gravity.
Those desperate and passionate movements, utterly unbelievable for a human, heated my lungs and heart like a boiling furnace, burning through my entire being.
From the small gaps deliberately created in the joints to ensure mobility, hot body heat and cold air violently mixed, ceaselessly spewing out white smoke with a *hiss*.
Each time I extended an arm, white smoke *whooshed* from my elbow, and each time I took a step, hot steam *fwooshed* fiercely from between my thigh and calf.
When propelling my entire body forward, I was enveloped in white smoke like a steam locomotive.
It was like an unstoppable runaway train. No matter how treacherous the hardships and adversities blocking its path, it would never stop its fierce rampage, even if it meant breaking down and falling apart.
Breath hitched at my throat, and the pain of the terrible wounds etched deep into my body surged as if they were tearing open, but I burned with all that remained, further increasing my speed, relentlessly dashing forward like a raging flame until the very end.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
'Faster! Faster! Even faster! More quickly!!'
I screamed incessantly like a madman to forget the terrible pain that chilled me to the bone. I entrusted the ascent of the rugged mountain entirely to my physical senses, and on the other hand, I constantly recalled and repeated past memories in my head.
---
"I will conquer the Devil's Fangs someday, no matter what!"
"What ridiculous nonsense are you spouting now?"
"Don't talk rubbish!"
"You think someone like you could possibly do it!? You don't have anything special about you!"
"Please face reality! My entire family never returned from there!"
"Do you think you're better than all the countless people who have challenged the Devil's Fangs until now?"
"I... I was just... saying my deepest hope..."
"You're not special."
"Everyone spoke harshly, but it was because they were worried about you."
"You too... in the end, you're speaking based on the assumption that I'll fail, aren't you..."
"Absolutely not!"
---
"Hmm!?"
An unknown rage surged within me at the memories of the past, but then a bizarre sight that jolted me awake finally unfolded before my eyes. I, who had been heading towards the summit with fierce momentum, had already reached just below the summit, near the edge.
And before me, something white, as thick as fog, lingered densely, making it impossible to see properly ahead.
I calculation that this was probably the true nature of that terrible cloud that had been covering the summit area when viewed from below the mountain.
Before climbing the mountain, I had simply thought that once I reached this cloud zone, the summit would finally be right in front of me.
However, now that it was right before my eyes, the situation was far more serious and terrible than I had imagined. Not only was my visibility severely impaired, but upon closer inspection, I realized that the true nature of this dense fog was countless ice particles swirling ceaselessly.
Within the fog, not only had the cold intensified by another level, but seeing so much ice powder, I could calculation that an enormous amount of moisture must exist inside.
If I rashly stepped into this terrible ice fog, the moisture clinging to my body would instantly freeze white, blooming into gruesome snowflakes, and completely freeze my entire body, rendering me utterly immobile.
In the end, I would clearly meet a terrible end, freezing to death alive.
This situation caused a flicker of hesitation in my firm resolve, and that hesitation uncontrollably transformed into a small fear, and that fear back into self-rationalization.
What on earth could be in this terrible fog? What if there's nothing inside? Why have I endured such terrible pain and crawled all the way to this terrible place?
Wouldn't it ultimately be a futile, dog's death? Maybe this is the summit enough?
"Should I just turn back now?"
No.