The Game Heroine's Cannon Fodder Leopard Cub - Chapter 20

Is this real or just an illusion…?

Yi’an felt a pang of unease. She avoided Nora’s gaze, withdrew her paw, and hopped back to the ground. Lowering her head, she idly poked at the black ash near the fire.

Nora suddenly felt a hollowness in her chest as the Little Leopard left. Her gaze instinctively followed the small creature, but she could only see its fluffy head.

Her fingers still tingled with the memory of the paw’s soft pads. Nora rubbed her fingers together, trying to shake off the lingering sensation, but it seemed to have burned itself into her skin, seeping into her bl00d and reaching her heart.

“Are you… going to rest now?” Nora’s voice came out hoarse. She quickly cleared her throat with a clenched fist.

Yi’an didn’t notice Nora’s small gesture, or perhaps she simply didn’t dare to look up. The atmosphere was too strange. Even the roaring flames couldn’t dry the damp, sticky air around them.

She even found herself wanting to stay in Nora’s arms forever. The inexplicable origin of this desire only deepened her unease.

As soon as Nora spoke, Yi’an immediately responded with a relieved meow, as if freed from a great burden.

Nora smiled helplessly but still draped her scarf over Yi’an as she always did.

“Sleep now,” she murmured, gently patting Yi’an’s head before leaning against the stone wall, fully clothed, and closing her eyes.

Nora had expected to have trouble sleeping in this awkward, in-between state with the Little Leopard. But perhaps due to her exhaustion, her body instinctively succumbed to a deep slumber.

Yi’an, on the other hand, tossed and turned restlessly.

After an unknown amount of time, she finally sat up, wriggled out from under the scarf, and ventured outside the crevice.

The night air was bitterly cold. Yi’an shivered as soon as she stepped out, curling into a ball and gazing up at the vast expanse of sky.

Though the wind had subsided, a hazy grayness still shrouded everything. The boundless sky blurred into the towering mountains, and she couldn’t remember the last time she had seen the moon or stars.

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand Nora’s fervent yet confused feelings, but she simply couldn’t reciprocate them.

Was this place real or an illusion? If it was real, how could she explain her transformation from an ordinary 21st-century human into an animal with a fantastical origin? If it was an illusion, how could she deceive herself about the experiences and feelings she had endured along the way?

Had she, as a single individual, arrived here as part of a game’s level-up grind, or had she stumbled into another vibrant, living world?

In the world she had left behind, no one could call out to her. In this world, she didn’t know how to stay.

Between the chaotic expanse of heaven and earth, it seemed only she remained.

As she pondered this, a snowflake suddenly landed on her nose, its icy touch sending a shiver through her.

Yi’an stood up, shook her head, and prepared to return to the fire. But a casual glance made her pupils dilate.

The snow accumulated on the mountain peak had begun to slide slowly downward, accompanied by a faint rumbling sound.

This wasn’t ordinary snowfall—it was a…

Avalanche!

Yi’an’s fur instantly bristled, her tail tucked between her legs, and she instinctively hissed. Then, with a sudden leap, she rammed her head into the sleeping Nora.

Her claws scratched at Nora’s clothes as she meowed urgently and shrilly in her ear.

“Ugh… what’s…” Nora startled awake, her eyes barely open when she met Yi’an’s anxious gaze. Before she could finish speaking, a deep, steadily growing rumble filled the air.

A terrible premonition struck Nora. Her gaze snapped to the mountainside, and for a moment, she couldn’t help but gasp in shock.

The distant snowpack was collapsing at an alarming rate, sending massive sheets of snow and ice cascading toward them.

“Run!”

Nora grabbed her backpack, scrambled to her feet, and, without hesitation, scooped Little Leopard into her arms. She sprinted in the opposite direction with all her might.

The snow underfoot was soft and slippery, causing her to nearly fall several times. Each time, she gritted her teeth and pushed on.

The roar of the avalanche closed in rapidly, and icy shards began stinging their faces.

Glancing back, Nora saw the avalanche looming mere meters away—a colossal white torrent surging toward them, the air growing increasingly thin.

“Hold on, Little Leopard!” she gritted out, her voice trembling slightly.

Yi’an burrowed deeper into Nora’s arms, not daring to make a sound, afraid of disrupting her rhythm.

Human strength has its limits, and ultimately, it could not outpace the forces of nature. The avalanche crashed down with overwhelming force, engulfing them completely. Nora clutched Little Leopard tightly, but she instantly lost her balance.

Bang! The impact hurled Nora against a rock. Her palm scraped violently across the rough surface, leaving a deep gash that immediately began to bleed profusely.

Meow! Yi’an cried out in alarm, digging her claws into Nora’s collar, but the relentless surge of snow quickly overwhelmed her grip.

Bl00d rapidly soaked through Nora’s palm, dripping onto the snow and seeping into the cracks of the rock beneath. In that instant, the ground trembled violently, and a low, cracking sound echoed from within the snowpack.

The very fissure where the bl00d had seeped in suddenly widened, revealing a dark, gaping hole that emitted an eerie, faint glow.

As the rock split open, the avalanche momentarily slowed, allowing Nora to struggle to a halt. But as the fissure grew wider, the ground beneath their feet became increasingly unstable.

Yi’an’s eyes widened in terror as she stared into the hole, sensing an ominous, mysterious aura surging from its depths.

“Watch out—!” The snow layer suddenly collapsed. In a moment of panic, Nora flung Little Leopard outward. Seeing this, Yi’an immediately lunged forward, biting Nora’s sleeve and pulling her back from the crumbling edge.

Panting heavily, Nora gripped Yi’an’s paw with one hand and clung to the edge with the other, slowly and carefully pulling herself back up.

Before they could catch their breath, the crack began to widen rapidly again, the snow at the edge crumbling away. Nora’s body tilted toward the abyss once more.

With lightning reflexes, Yi’an darted in front of Nora, biting down on her clothes with all her might and desperately pulling backward. But the snow collapsed too quickly, and Nora lost her balance.

“Little Leopard! Don’t strain yourself—you’ll fall too!” Sensing she couldn’t escape the downward pull, Nora tried to push Yi’an away.

Yi’an ignored her words. She braced her legs, threw her head back, and yanked Nora away from the danger zone once more. But the momentum caused her own center of gravity to shift, sending her sliding straight toward the dark abyss.

“Little Leopard!” Nora’s heart-wrenching cry tore through the air as she lunged forward, desperate to grab Yi’an’s hind legs. But Yi’an was sliding too fast; Nora managed to grasp only a few strands of leopard fur.

“Goodbye, Nora,” Yi’an meowed softly, her eyes fixed upward, determined to forever remember that captivating face.

“No!” Nora collapsed to her knees at the edge of the crevasse, her fingernails digging fiercely into the icy snow. Her gaze remained locked on the dark abyss before she closed her eyes and leaped downward.

But at that very moment, the crevasse snapped shut, the rock instantly reforming as if it had never been broken.

“Little Leopard!”

“Little Leopard!”

“Little Leopard!”

Nora screamed again and again, frantically clawing at the rock. Bl00d gushed from the wounds on her palms and between her fingers, staining the snow crimson.

But no matter how hard she tried, the rock remained as unyielding as ever, as if her earlier efforts had been nothing more than a hallucination.

Her voice echoed through the desolate mountains, but no response came.

The snow had stopped falling, leaving only a deathly silence hanging between heaven and earth.