Chapter 56

A Tiger Leaves Behind Its Hide When It Dies (3)

The heart is the most vital organ in any animal.

You can survive with only one kidney, and even if you lose one lung, you can still live as long as your heart remains intact.

But if the heart is damaged, even if it’s only a localized injury, the chances of death rise dramatically.

Blood is essential to every organ.

And the heart is what supplies that blood.

Even the brain, which governs all thought, is nothing more than a lump of squishy jelly without blood.

Was the reason so much blood had continued pouring out because the heart was still alive?

Every other organ, including the brain, was dead, yet the heart alone seemed to be alive.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The heart, larger than my head, proudly demonstrated its vitality.

Even though its owner and every other organ had ceased functioning, it alone continued beating as if to flaunt the fact that it was still perfectly fine.

‘Fuck. What the hell is going on?’

It felt like everything I knew was being completely overturned.

Its head had been severed, yet its heart was still beating?

And it had been dead for at least six hours?

Was this saber-toothed tiger not an ordinary tiger, but some kind of zombie?

No.

Even zombies were corpses that walked around, at least.

The heart was beating as though it were alive despite there being absolutely no reason it should still be functioning.

My mind went blank.

‘F-First, let’s deal with the other organs.’

Rigor mortis…

Yeah.

It had to be something similar to that.

That was what I decided to believe.

My common sense told me that rigor mortis normally happened only to muscles.

But fuck that.

This was a world where the common sense I knew didn’t apply.

For now, butchering came first.

I would finish what I needed to do and organize my thoughts afterward.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Somehow, I managed to remove all the other organs until only the heart remained.

I wondered whether I should cut it out separately or leave it there, but eventually decided to remove it.

The arteries and veins were so tough that even my aura-infused dagger struggled to cut through them.

Worse, every time I cut one, blood spurted out in jets, making the whole process an enormous pain in the ass.

“Phew.”

Only after removing the heart itself could I finally catch my breath.

I held the heart, which was far larger than my head, in both hands.

Even after I had severed every blood vessel surrounding it, the heart continued convulsing as though it were alive.

‘Is this… even possible? Can a heart keep beating all by itself?’

Despite my doubts, I carefully carried it away.

I placed the heart inside the box where I had previously stored the golden mushroom.

Maybe because the heart was so huge, even the box looked small now.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Every time the heart beat, the box itself rattled.

It showed no sign whatsoever of stopping.

I stared at it with mixed emotions for a while before turning away.

‘Let’s finish what needs to be done first.’

I still had to finish butchering the tiger and dump its organs into the river.

If the heart was still beating by then…

I had no idea.

I’d ask the Gallery.

I washed out the inside of the gutted saber-toothed tiger.

Then, following the instructions I’d received from the Gallery, I separated the carcass into different cuts.

Just in case, I checked everything for signs of decomposition, but I couldn’t find any problems.

‘Do I have no choice but to… smoke it?’

I stared at the neatly butchered chunks of meat and thought.

Previously, I’d given up on smoking meat because I was worried the smell might attract predators.

But throwing away this much meat would be an equally stupid choice.

Should I risk potential danger in the future, or prioritize my immediate safety?

Even if I discarded every part that was difficult to eat, there was still an enormous amount of meat left.

‘…Yeah. Let’s smoke it. When you think about it, the most dangerous thing is running out of food.’

Fighting the saber-toothed tiger had taught me something.

At least when it came to beasts, I could fight and win.

But food?

Could I really endure a food shortage?

I had fasting pills as emergency rations, but right now, they were Namu-Ppareumbo’s staple food.

And considering that I had no idea when I might lose access to the Gallery, smoking the meat seemed like the best option.

‘I should ask the Gallery.’

Maybe there was another preservation method I didn’t know about.

Before the meat could spoil any further, I made another post.

Title: Anyone Know How to Preserve Meat for a Long Time?

Wild Grylls

I got a ridiculous amount of meat from butchering the tiger. I’d like to preserve as much of it as possible, but smoking is the only method I know.

Does anyone know another way?

└ Starlight Princess: Would you like me to tell you?

　└ Wild Grylls: I’d appreciate it.

　└ Starlight Princess: First, you’ll need a lot of salt. Salt draws the moisture out of the meat. That lets you preserve it for considerably longer.

　└ Wild Grylls: Is it okay to smoke it afterward while it’s like that?

　└ Starlight Princess: That’s actually even better! I’ll make a post explaining the process in a little while, so you can just follow that.

　└ Wild Grylls: Thank you so much. But how do you know about this stuff?

　└ Starlight Princess: Some of it I learned from books, and some of it I researched myself. Since I spend all my time at home, I’ve picked up all sorts of knowledge.

└ Didn’t you say you spent all your time in bed?

　└ Starlight Princess: Yes. So?

　└ Then could this “knowledge” of yours possibly be…

　└ Oh my. How lewd.

　└ So that’s what it was.

　└ Ah, lololol. Now I get it lol.

　└ Starlight Princess: You people truly are idiots.

If the advice came from Starlight Princess, I could trust it and follow it.

First, I bought a large quantity of salt.

It was fairly expensive, but this was something I was more than willing to spend money on.

‘I’ll store the meat in jars.’

As luck would have it, the Auction House had exactly the kind of jars I wanted.

I bought five reasonably sized jars.

All I had to do was put the meat and salt inside them.

I didn’t put the meat in whole.

I cut it into conveniently sized pieces so that I could coat every part evenly with salt.

It was tedious work, but I was more than willing to endure it if it meant preserving the meat.

‘Trim off the fat too.’

I kept repeating the process until one jar was completely filled with meat.

The others soon followed.

Every jar was packed full of meat coated in salt.

That finally took a weight off my shoulders.

If Starlight Princess was right, the rate of decomposition should have slowed considerably.

All that remained was to move the jars into the relatively cool cave.

‘I’ll get ready to smoke the meat after I dispose of the waste.’

I wiped away the sweat trickling down my face and turned toward the box.

The box containing the heart was still trembling slightly.

Apparently, it was still beating.

“Good grief.”

I was so dumbfounded that I had nothing to say.

This was the most absurd thing that had happened since the golden mushroom disappeared.

The heart wasn’t going to suddenly sprout legs and vanish later too, was it?

I’d meant it as a joke, but the thought that it might actually happen made a hollow laugh escape me.

“Ppareumbo. Get on my back. Let’s go throw this stuff out.”

“……”

It was time to empty the iron drum filled to the brim with blood and entrails.

The drum was huge and heavy, making it difficult to carry, but I had a solution.

I could use the rope left over from my Auction House purchase.

As long as I could carry the drum like a backpack, I should be able to move it without too much trouble.

“Think you can hang on behind me?”

“……”

Instead of clinging to my back, Namu-Ppareumbo chose to sit on my shoulders.

It was a little—no, extremely—uncomfortable, but I endured it by telling myself I only had to put up with it this once.

Besides, the river wasn’t that far away.

And if anything dangerous happened, Namu-Ppareumbo could deal with it.

After trudging along like that for a while, I eventually reached the familiar river.

Splash! Splash!

“Oh! Caught a lot, huh?”

Quite a few fish had been caught in the fish trap I set yesterday.

Three of them, in fact.

Each was so large that just three fish were enough to fill the trap completely.

Feeling pleased, I dumped the blood and entrails from the iron drum into the river.

It felt a little like illegally dumping garbage, but this wasn’t industrial waste or anything.

It was just animal organs, so it should be fine.

Ratatatatata!

The moment I dumped the blood and entrails into the water, an enormous school of fish surged toward them.

There were so many that it looked like I could cross the river by stepping on their backs.

Worried that I might get caught up in the frenzy, I quickly finished what I was doing.

At this rate, they might end up eating me too.

‘What kind of fish are these…?’

Now I understood why I caught fish every day.

There were simply that many of them.

The current was strong, but far more kinds of creatures lived in this river than I’d expected.

‘I’ll collect the fish trap later.’

I still had other things to do, so I decided to leave the trap there for now.

Since the fish were already trapped, I wasn’t worried about them escaping.

With the entrails disposed of, I returned to the cave.

Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!

“……”

Even after I came back, the heart was still beating.

I was too stunned to speak.

At the same time, I realized something.

There had to be some kind of special power inside that heart.

Since I had no idea what was causing it, there was only one thing I could do.

Ask the Gallery.

Title: Can a Heart Keep Beating Even After Death?

Wild Grylls

I killed a saber-toothed tiger, but its heart is still beating.

It’s still beating even after I butchered the whole thing.

If you don’t believe me, I can upload a video.

Is this actually possible? I’m seriously asking because I want to know.

└ Heavenly Demon: How long has it been dead?

　└ Wild Grylls: I think at least six hours.

　└ Heavenly Demon: In that case, this lady does not know. I have seen a heart continue beating before, but only shortly after death.

　└ Wild Grylls: That wasn’t a human heart, was it?

　└ Heavenly Demon: It was. Is there a problem?

　└ Wild Grylls: No.

└ SwordMaster: What do you mean the heart is beating by itself? I don’t understand.

　└ Wild Grylls: Want me to show you? It might be a little gross.

　└ SwordMaster: Yes.

　└ Wild Grylls: (Video of the pulsating heart) What do you think?

　└ SwordMaster: Whoa ;; Is that even possible?

　└ Wild Grylls: I’m asking because I don’t know either lol.

└ Look at the size of that thing lol. Why is the heart so huge?

　└ Look at the saber-toothed tiger photo and you’ll understand lol. The whole thing is fucking huge.

└ Was it big down there too?

　└ Why the hell are you asking that, you pervert?

　└ Fuck, a guy can be curious.

└ Allfather: What an interesting phenomenon. It is uncommon for a heart to continue beating on its own… Do you sense any kind of energy within it?

　└ Wild Grylls: Not really. I’m pretty insensitive to that kind of thing…

　└ Allfather: This is only my speculation, but there is likely something inside the heart sustaining its activity. An inner core would be the most representative example. Would you be willing to cut the heart open?

　└ Wild Grylls: What if there’s nothing inside?

　└ Allfather: I can assure you there is. No result exists without a cause. Something within that heart is keeping it beating.

　└ Wild Grylls: I’ll think about it.

└ Grylls, did you notice any signs of decomposition in the meat?

　└ Wild Grylls: I don’t know enough to say for sure, but there weren’t any discolored parts.

　└ That explains it. If the heart kept pumping and circulating blood like that, decomposition may have progressed more slowly.

　└ Wild Grylls: Oh. Is that how it works?

　└ It’s only my guess.

└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: Eek! That’s disgusting! Excuse me, but may I disable the comments?

　└ Wild Grylls: What happens if you disable them?

　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: The video won’t disappear completely! The comments will just be hidden!

　└ Wild Grylls: If you think the video is too disturbing, that’s fine with me.

　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: Thank you for your cooperation!

└ Wild Grylls: Mod, do you know why it’s doing that?

　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: No! But just like Allfather said, there’s definitely something inside! Otherwise, how about grilling it and eating it? Heart meat is really chewy and delicious!

　└ Passing Dwarf: That’s my drinking snack. Don’t touch it.

　└ Don’t Abandon the Hero: Ah! Sorry!

　└ Wild Grylls: What the hell are you talking about now?;

If there really was something inside it, could it be an inner core?

That seemed highly likely.

I picked up the dagger I’d used for butchering.

I’d made my decision.

Whatever was inside, I was going to cut it open and find out.

It probably wouldn’t kill me.

There had been a brief commotion in the comments, but I agreed with Allfather.

Cutting open the heart seemed like the best option.

Even if there turned out to be nothing inside, it wouldn’t be a problem.

It wouldn’t harm me either way.

I lifted the heart from the box with both hands.

The moment I picked it up, it seemed to thrash even more violently.

‘Blood might spray everywhere, so I should change clothes first.’

I changed into the uniform that had been demoted to work clothes.

Then I placed the heart on a flat stone and stared at it.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Was there really something inside it, just as Allfather had said?

Poke—

‘Seriously? Even a heart is too tough for my knife now?’

No matter how hard I tried cutting it with the dagger, I couldn’t leave so much as a scratch.

If anything, the heart started beating harder, almost as if warning me not to damage it any further.

But that only made me more determined.

I infused the dagger with aura.

It might have been my imagination, but activating my aura felt easier than it had yesterday.

‘No matter how tough it is, a heart is still a heart.’

I brought the aura-infused dagger toward it.

Wooooong!

“Huh?”

The heart suddenly swelled up as though it had become enraged.

And it didn’t merely swell.

The blood vessels bulged grotesquely across its surface.

This was bad.

I hurriedly dropped the dagger and backed away.

The heart began trembling violently.

And then—

KABOOOM!

A massive explosion erupted in a flash of blue light.

As I faced the blast, only one thought crossed my mind.

‘Holy fucking shit…?’