No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1): LitRPG Series by Vasily Mahanenko

Chapter 2

A PUNGENT SMELL hit my nostrils. I almost sneezed. The monster's saliva dripped onto the floor, bubbled, and hissed, kicking up a green mist. Its eyes fixed on me, it once again crouched, tucked its tail under it, and got ready to spring forward.

I aimed my KORT-I, but I couldn't pull the trigger. What if everything that was going on was a figment of my sick imagination? What if there weren't any monsters, and I had just lost my marbles? Margot might have been trying to tell me something. I was ignoring her, holding an arm out to protect myself. And I wouldn't have been holding a pistol since there was no way I could have found something like it around there. But which option was more realistic? The one my eyes were telling me was true or the one my brain was proposing?

Suddenly, there was a burst of automatic gunfire and a few explosions off in the distance. The monster perked up its ears like some kind of watchdog before turning to look out the window. I followed its example and...

That was a mistake. My chest sagged under the weight of a heavy blow, ribs crunched, and I flew backward against the wall, yelling from a pain in my leg. The carnivorous beast had ripped an enormous chunk of flesh off my hip and was swallowing it whole. Chewing be damned. I couldn't move as the pain shot through me, and with my last shreds of consciousness I pulled the pistol's trigger. Short blue rays shot out of the barrel. The monster shrieked, trying to jump away, but it just toppled back onto the ground. My first shot hit an appendage, my second slammed into the body, and my third finished it off. But more blue streaks continued pouring into the corpse—it took an effort for me to stop shooting.

A shiver ran through my body. The awful wound on my leg was bleeding. When I brought my sleeve across my mouth, it came away slick with blood, and my ribs were certainly broken. Breathing was difficult. Medical shows from TV popped inopportunely to mind—what if my lung was punctured and I was living out my last few seconds? What a shame... I was going to die from some chick-turned-monster, and not as the result of a heroic feat of valor. And she wasn't even that attractive... Sis would definitely needle me for that one...

My fading consciousness suddenly swung back into sharp focus. Squirrel! She'd gone off to see a friend, which meant she was somewhere out in the middle of the whole nightmare. I wanted to scream, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was a gurgle. I had to do something. If I didn't, I was definitely going to kick the bucket. My glance fell onto my phone, which was lying near the couch. An attempt to move just brought with it a new bout of pain that almost finished me off. In addition to the burning in my leg and chest, there was something wrong with my back. A chill ran over me again, the world started to darken, and I did the only thing I could. I stretched my arm out toward my phone. If I have to die, I'm going to go down fighting.

Something slapped lightly against my palm. I felt cold metal. Opening my eyes with difficulty, I stared dully at the phone in my hand. Where did that come from? There was nobody next to me besides the riddled monster, and I didn't think Margot's ghost had come back to help me out.

The screen blinked actively. I focused my attention, reading the text. If there was anything that could help me then, it was that lifeless pieces of glass and metal.

You won your first battle and affirmed your right to life.

Level +1 (1).

Attribute point available.

I'll deal with that later! My shaking fingers slipped across the screen, opening tabs that turned out to be useless when it came to the condition I was in. After closing yet another window, I went back to tapping and finally came up with a new inscription:

Welcome to the store.

You have 23 coins in your account.

50% discount active (1 hour 35 minutes).