**Chapter One**

The relentless downpour lashed against the dense foliage, forcing the fertile shrubbery to bend at the waist under the assault of large, heavy raindrops. A solitary black silhouette pushed forward through the deluge, oblivious to the frantic shouts that chased him.

"Fuck! How the hell did he get out?!" a voice bellowed, struggling against the drumming rain.

"That's not what matters now. What matters is that we catch up to him and put him back before that person comes!" another man roared, his voice strained. The chase was made more irksome by the seemingly weak figure ahead, who somehow maintained an improbable speed on the slick, wet ground.

A faint, weak mutter cut through the din from behind the group, bringing the pursuit to an abrupt halt. "B-but… but isn't that my bag that I was going to use for camping next week?".

Silence hung heavy for a few seconds before one of the men spoke. "What? What do you mean your bag?".

"…Umm, boss, I think he means the one he said he was going to use for vacation," another stammered.

The leader's eyes widened in disbelief. "You mean to say that bag that has a gun in it? Your gun, at that??".

"Ye…yes," the man conceded.

"Are you crazy?!" The leader whipped his head around, fury contorting his face as he stared at the idiot responsible for such a colossal blunder.

Just as their rather important discussion reached a crescendo, a message came through. "Boss, I… I got a message from number six saying that he's searching for the kid".

"Damnit! Chase him quick!" The halted pursuit resumed with renewed\, desperate speed. The man with the cellphone checked the time the message was sent – exactly ten minutes ago\, before the rain had started. The victim of the stolen bag\, faintly bleeding from a head injury he'd sustained earlier\, offered a weak apology\, "I apologize for causing trouble\, boss". He'd been hit after dropping the bag and leaving his room in the sprawling house\, big enough for fifty people\, where the rule was strict: the young man must not leave his room\, much less the gate. And now\, not only had the young man fled\, but he’d also taken a bag with *his* gun inside.

"Hey, 2, what were you going to say?"

As if reading his mind, the second-in-command from the Eagle Clan, known as ‘2’, blurted out simultaneously with the bag’s victim: "Doesn't that path head towards the cliff?".

They glanced forward just in time to witness the black figure slide, then vanish from their line of sight.

"Do you think he's dead?".

"Probably," came the nonchalant reply.

"You little fucks, we need to go back immediately and act like we saw nothing. Forget there was ever a bag. After all, he was going to get killed when that man came, just see it as us not having his blood on our hands".

Only a fool would stop when being chased. The cliff edge materialized just as Hao Yu missed the precise timing to step on a flat space, sending him tumbling headlong over the precipice.

"Ahhhh!" The cry tore from his throat. **BANG!** A searing pain shot through his side\, and then darkness consumed him.

***

Consciousness returned in slow, painful waves. Hao Yu’s eyes fluttered open, then snapped wide. He instinctively jumped up, frantically checking his body. Surprisingly, the catastrophic injury he’d braced for wasn’t there.

"Ouch. Did I actually survive such a height?" he questioned, a tremor in his voice. He couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that the scenery before he hit the ground had been completely different. Looking up, he gasped. A colossal tree, wide enough to build a house within its trunk, loomed over him. He stumbled back, then turned to see a single, weakly dangling leaf, so massive it could serve as a bedsheet.

The sheer strangeness of the sights and sounds was overwhelming. Hao Yu averted his gaze, only for something black to flash before his eyes, missing him by an arm's length.

Hao Yu: "?!".

The creature landed, revealing itself to Hao Yu. It was a short green thing with black patches all over its body, long ears, long fingernails, and a bone impaled on its shoulder. The bizarre creature, upon seeing Hao Yu, immediately bolted. Hao Yu’s brain, reeling from the sight, ground to a halt. He was jolted back by a loud screech from a rather unknown animal.

Even if this was Earth\, Hao Yu knew he would have been utterly lost. But given that he was alive and breathing\, in such an alien landscape\, he knew with chilling certainty this was not the Earth he knew. This was a different world entirely. He glanced in the direction the strange-looking thing had fled\, half-expecting another to appear. Instead\, he saw a **white moose with golden horns** leap over him\, vanishing into the distance.

Hao Yu: "???".

He looked back, suddenly remembering the creature's shoulder, impaled with a bone that protruded from its chest. Maybe something had been chasing it?. He spun around again, spotting a white patch where the moose had emerged, streaked with gold of varying sizes and lengths, but motionless. Hao Yu squinted, trying to discern what it was.

The sharp sound of a whip-like object landing close to his leg sent a jolt of terror through him. It was a spear, as big and long as a fully grown bamboo tree**. His wits were scared right out of him. Behind him, a herd of the white moose was rapidly approaching. Without thinking, Hao Yu sprang to his left, diving behind the enormous tree he’d seen when he first woke up. Mercifully, he hadn’t strayed far.

"Boom!" A thud echoed from behind the stampeding animals, making Hao Yu flinch. What was that? One moose was lifted into the air, then another, then a third. No matter how much he squinted, he couldn't discern what powerful force was effortlessly hoisting them skyward. "Neeeghh," one of the elevated moose cried out as it watched its herd disappear, leaving only broken grasses and ruined shrubs in their wake.

The stampede had ceased, but Hao Yu's instincts screamed at him not to emerge. A final thud sounded from the scattering dust, and the three moose lay dead, bleeding from their noses. The rhythmic flapping of immense wings descended, revealing a huge eagle-like bird. Its feet seemed massive enough to pierce through anything, its height approximately thirty inches, with each wing spread ten centimeters wide. Its feathers were faintly tinted black and red, mixed with a darker shade of blue.

The sight was too much. Hao Yu felt his consciousness slip away, and he passed out.

***

When Hao Yu resurfaced, he felt himself being moved by something, or someone. Voices rumbled around him, yet he couldn't move his body, only his head. *Am I being captured now? Why can’t I move? And what is that smell?*. His brain, like a train at full speed, screeched to an abrupt halt as a strange, musky scent tickled his nostrils. His eyes snapped open, and his scattered memories finally clicked into place. He remembered seeing those huge bird-things change forms right before he’d passed out.

A faint growl and rough breathing sounds came from a distance, where women seemed to be sitting, making Hao Yu—who had decided to feign unconsciousness—stiffen. It wasn't just once he'd heard these strange sounds. He decided he would find their source. As he glanced down between the two legs of whoever was carrying him, he became unsure if he was seeing things or not.

Firm thighs, lightly tanned, belonging to a person whose skin was uniformly so. But what was that?. "**That wasn't a humanly possible size or length!**". No matter how desperately Hao Yu tried to ignore it, it perpetually caught his eye. Finally, after immense effort, he managed to avert his gaze.

The full scene came into view: completely naked children running about, and women who were only half-dressed. The eye-catching antics finally made him understand the source of those strange sounds. Just as he was observing, a sharp pain squeezed his waist, and he passed out again.

He woke up at the familiar bar he frequented after successful operations at his hospital. "Hey, cutie," a soft voice purred beside him.

"Cutie? I don't think I'm in the cute role, though?" Hao Yu questioned, turning to the woman beside him.

"Oh? But you are, you look even cuter with those piercings," she replied. She seemed to be in her early twenties. Hao Yu smiled in return.

"I got them because when I save lives, I make a new one," Hao Yu said, showing his left ear to the lady, where only one piercing was visible.

"You are a doctor?" she asked, pointing at him, a ridiculous smirk on her face, highlighting how absurd his lie sounded. *This is why I don’t wear them during work hours or near the hospital. Tsk.*.

"Is that why you pierced the second one? It’s only one there, though?" she pressed. *Who does this pervert think he can fool? I wouldn’t have talked to you if you weren’t wearing that watch. Maybe he stole that watch\,* her unspoken thoughts were clear.

Hao Yu merely stared at the woman, who continued her barrage of questions without introducing herself, though he didn't care—it was just a bar. "Well, because I'm thinking of traveling for a while to get a break from the world," he said jokingly, gulping down the last bit of wine.

"Stay safe," Hao Yu said, waving at the woman as he walked towards the exit. *Fucking bitch\, do you know how many people I've saved or how many things I do in a single month?*. *Can't blame her\, since I'm so young and good-looking\,* he mused, recalling how many colleagues used to ridicule him as an intern.