The first thing I felt was the cold.
It wasn't just a chill; it was a physical weight, crushing my lungs and turning my blood into slush. I gasped, my eyes snapping open to a world of blinding white.
Snow. Endless, violent snow.
I tried to sit up, but my body felt like lead. I looked down at myself. I wasn't wearing my pajamas. I was wearing a single layer of translucent, ceremonial silk. It was a dress so thin it wouldn't even serve as a napkin, let alone winter gear.
'Wait. White silk? A flat altar rock? The Northern Tundra?'
My heart hammered against my frozen ribs. I knew this scene. I had played this opening cutscene fifty times.
"No way," I wheezed, my teeth chattering like castanets. "I'm in Primal Hearts? And I'm the... the Winter Sacrifice?"
I wasn't the Heroine, Serena, who started in a warm tavern with three handsome knights fighting for her attention.
I was Elara. The "Tutorial Corpse."
My entire purpose in the game script was to freeze to death in the first three minutes to establish the "dark and gritty atmosphere" of the Northern Lands. I was literally scenery.
A translucent blue box flickered into existence in front of my face.
[SYSTEM ALERT]Current Status: Severe Hypothermia HP: 8 / 100 Time until Death: 04:32
"Four minutes," I whispered, panic finally piercing through the numbness. "I have four minutes to find a heat source in the middle of a blizzard."
I forced myself to stand. My bare feet sank into the snow, burning with cold. I stumbled toward the treeline. It was hopeless. There was no shelter. The wind howled like a banshee, cutting through the silk dress as if it weren't even there.
HP: 6 / 100
My vision began to blur. Black spots danced in my eyes. This is it, I thought bitterly. I died of overwork in Korea just to die as a popsicle in a dating sim.
Thud.
The ground shook.
Thud.
It wasn't the wind. It was a rhythmic, heavy impact that vibrated through the soles of my feet.
From the dense fog of the blizzard, a shadow emerged. It was massive—easily the size of a truck. Two glowing crimson eyes burned through the white haze like headlights from hell.
My gamer brain instantly pulled up the Wiki page.
Kaelum. The White Tiger Chieftain.Class: Hidden Boss / Unbeatable.Trait: Cursed Flame (Deals 500% Fire Damage on contact).
In the game, if the player encountered him, it was an instant "Game Over." He was a walking natural disaster, a beast cursed by the Fire God to burn eternally. He was supposed to walk past my frozen corpse and roar at the moon.
He stepped out of the trees. He was in his beast form—a gigantic white tiger with black stripes that seemed to smoke. The snow around his massive paws hissed and melted into steam the moment he touched it. Heat waves rippled off his body, distorting the air around him.
He was terrifying. He was a monster.
But to me, shivering with 4 HP left, he didn't look like a monster.
He looked like a Giant, Fluffy Radiator.
'He's hot,' my delirious brain realized. 'He's literally on fire.'
Logic screamed at me to run. The script screamed at me to die. But my survival instinct screamed one word: Warmth.
Kaelum stalked past the altar, his massive head lowered against the wind. He didn't even look at me. To him, I was already dead.
"Hey!" I croaked.
The massive tiger paused. One ear flicked. He turned his head slowly, his lip curling to reveal a fang the size of a banana. A low growl vibrated in his chest, a sound so deep I felt it in my bones.
'Get away,' his eyes seemed to say. 'Or I will burn you to ash.'
I didn't get away. I summoned the last dregs of my strength and lunged.
I threw myself off the altar rock, diving through the air like a flying squirrel. I landed squarely on his front left leg, wrapping my arms and legs around the thick, muscular limb.
[System Warning!]You have engaged a High-Level Boss!Danger Level: SSS
I didn't care.
The moment my skin touched his fur, I moaned in pure ecstasy.
His fur wasn't soft like a house cat; it was thick, dense, and coarse, like expensive wool. But beneath that layer was heat—glorious, life-saving heat. It radiated into my frozen chest, thawing my blood instantly. It was like hugging a furnace wrapped in a velvet blanket.
"Oh my god," I mumbled, burying my face into his thick white fur, inhaling the scent of ozone and burnt wood. "You are the best heater ever. Do you have a temperature setting?"
ROAR!
The tiger bellowed, a sound that shook the snow off the nearby pine trees. He shook his leg violently, trying to dislodge the strange parasite attached to his limb.
"Get off!" A booming, telepathic voice exploded in my head. It sounded like grinding rocks. "Human! Do you wish to die? I will incinerate you!"
"Joke's on you, kitty," I slurred, tightening my grip as my HP bar started to tick up. "I was already dying. Now I'm just... toasty."
I rubbed my frozen cheek against his massive paw. "Five more minutes. Just let me charge my battery."
The giant beast froze. He stopped shaking. For the first time in centuries, someone was touching him and not screaming in agony.
Above my head, the blue System box flickered and turned a violent shade of red.
[CRITICAL ERROR]Anomaly Detected.Script Broken.Affection Score with [Kaelum]: +1 ?????