In the same empty hall, a silhouette was stuck to the center of the wall, tightly bound by countless strands of green webbing, unable to escape. He seemed to be struggling in pain.
On both sides of the hall were rows of tall white statues, all depicting a humanoid being holding a huge sword up high, creating a solemn atmosphere.
Garen once again stood in this hall, before the wall shrouded in green webbing. He reached his arm out to touch the green webs, but there was a sturdy glass layer preventing him from touching it. He had attempted to break it in the past, but his efforts were futile; this glass was far stronger than any material he could’ve imagined.
Garen scanned the surroundings, the floor, and the walls, they were all covered in a layer of dust. It seemed that no one had been here for a long time.
“Nadia?” Garen called in a low voice.
There was no reply.
His voice only continuously echoed through the hall.
Garen frowned, as this was not his first time coming to this dream realm. This was his eighth time entering this place. In the past, he would come every so often to have a lethal duel with Nadia.
Similarly, every time he entered this place, Nadia would immediately appear.
However, this time Nadia didn’t appear.
‘She didn’t show up? That’s impossible,’ Black Sethe’s voice rang.
“Maybe she got wrapped up with some other stuff?” Garen guessed.
‘Maybe.’
Garen frowned even more. He had a bad feeling about this.
******
Bottom of the Holy Fist Palace Mountain
In a small town
A white car slowly stopped in front of a small building. It was Garen’s house. In the warm sunshine, the car door opened, and out from the driver’s seat came a handsome young man, with hair as bright as gold.
The man was in a white suit, and his lean figure gave off a fully balanced impression. He gently smiled at the cute young girl running out of the building.
“Lil’ Vivien…”
“Brother, welcome home!”
The young girl’s slim youthful body dived straight into Garen’s embrace. He swung her around in a circle.
“Mom and Dad are waiting for you inside!” Vivien seemed extremely happy.
Garen raised his head and saw his father Emmer looking down with a strict expression from the 2nd-floor window.
He smiled, then walked into the building.
Behind him, more and more cars slowly stopped near the same building. A few men emerged from the cars and patrolled its vicinity.
Walking through the doorway, Garen saw a big table at the center of the room, with something covered by a black cloth.
Bang!!
A frightening explosion sound rang from behind him. Just as he had let his guard down, his body was covered with countless party streamers.
His younger sister Vivien, his older brother Jason, Alicia, and even his mother Trish had blasted party poppers at Garen.
With the chaotic party poppers, Garen was completely covered with streamers, looking like a weird rainbow-colored creature.
“Happy Birthday!!”
They shouted in unison, their voices echoing in the room.
The black cloth was pulled away, revealing a giant birthday cake at a shocking half-meter height. On it, “Happy 21st Birthday Garen” was written in pastel buttercream.
Garen’s expression couldn’t be seen as he was covered completely by streamers, however, his eyes gave off an indescribable feeling. He always had birthday celebrations even back in the secret technique world and the totem world, but this was the first time he had such a grand and amazing celebration…
“You guys shouldn’t have…” he softly said, but his voice was overshadowed by their giggling. In the midst of this chaotic and joyous celebration, everyone was just popping party poppers left and right.
Garen helplessly shook his head, then walked over to the sofa at the side while brushing off the streamers draped all over him.
When everyone had their fun and started to feel tired, the room had already become a mess. Luckily, the cake had a huge glass lid covering it, otherwise it would’ve already been completely covered by streamers.
“Today is Garen’s birthday! Let’s sing him a celebratory song. Not just the normal birthday song, let’s sing this song I’ve written!” at this point, Trish didn’t even look like a mother, but more like a kid cheerfully shouting.
In their eyes, Garen’s eyes were fine, he wasn’t wearing a mask and he had his same old face.
Snap!
The sound of a camera shutter was heard.
Garen’s sight immediately shifted before he stood up and walked over to his little sister.
“I thought this camera was broken?”
Pointing at the camera, the internal components started to vibrate ever so slightly, causing some sort of change. On the surface it looked perfectly fine, though in actuality, the memory card had been damaged by his vibrations.
“Is it broken? Then I’ll use my phone to take a photo!” Vivien asked skeptically.
“There’s no need for the trouble,” Garen picked his sister up and tossed her onto the sofa as she screamed and giggled in a high-pitched voice.
At that moment everyone started to play around again.
No one had noticed that on the reflection of the black television screen, Garen was wearing that strange and mysterious mask.
*****
Memphis Forest — Moon River
As the largest tropical forest in the world, Memphis Forest had countless unexplored and unmapped areas.
Even the best research and exploration teams have not managed to completely unravel all the secrets of the various flora and fauna, swamps, crevices, unique natural terrain, strong geomagnetic disruptions, and even the existence of prehistoric beasts in this area.
Some authorities from the Blood Breeds once brought a team over here, boasting that they would fully explore the entire Memphis Forest and share the findings of his expedition to the world. However, expectedly, after losing more than half of his team, he was forced to retreat.
In addition to that, he himself had almost lost his own life in that expedition. Despite having sacrificed so much, he barely gained any reward.
He only managed to successfully explore barely one-third of Memphis Forest.
At this moment, Dahm, with his own team of elites that he’d personally chosen and trained, was trotting down the same path that that exact expedition team had used last time.
They were surrounded by dense tropical plant life and flying venomous insects. They could see a scourge of bloodthirsty mosquitoes buzzing about, circling above the team. Furthermore, every so often, there would be some sort of red insect that resembles a leech dropping down from above, trying to burrow into their necks.
Among the tall grass by their feet, there were countless spiderwebs tangled all over. Every few moments, there would be a team member accidentally stepping in a spiderweb, getting it stuck all over his legs.
Suddenly, the loud chaotic chirps of a flock of startled birds came from above; there was no doubt that there were ferocious beasts ahead.
“Be careful.”
One of the team members raised his arm up and grabbed something. Out of nowhere, he pulled out a green rope-like object.
It was a small green snake with dark green spots all over its body. Looking at the triangular shape of its head, it was definitely a venomous snake.
With a crack, he snapped the snake in half at the location of its heart [1]. The member who had been the targeted prey of the snake immediately thanked his teammate for saving his life.
In the 9 hours they had been in the forest, these types of occurrences had become commonplace. Hence, everyone was constantly on high alert, ready to counter against anything from their surroundings.
Dahm, while looking at the map in his hands, walked to the middle of the team. There was a large number of geomagnetic disruptions coming from this location, visibly affecting everything that was made of metal or used electricity.
“The second Moon River is right ahead. Everyone, be on your guard,” Dahm loudly ordered.
“Oh!”
Everyone loudly replied.
Overlooking the environmental disruptions, back when they’d first approached the first Moon River, they had encountered a spotted scorpion with venom that was extremely potent. This scorpion was only palm-sized, but it was extremely fast and darted around as fast as lightning. By the time one saw it, one would already have been stung by it.
Even Dahm could barely keep up with the frightening speed of this scorpion.
As someone who had top-class skills, for him to barely be able to keep up with a creature like this, he felt slightly ashamed, but he had also fully understood the fearsomeness of this forest.
After going around a few large trees that looked to be centuries old, they were suddenly greeted by a long flowing river that resembled a silver silk ribbon.
The river had a bit of curvature, was easily several hundred meters in length and almost 30 meters in width, forming a shape of a crescent moon. Sunlight glowing from above reflected in the flowing water, making the river glimmer with a tinge of gold. It was truly a mesmerizing scene.
“The second Moon River,” Garen let out a sigh of relief and raised his hand. “Proceed with caution! Everyone spread out and pay attention to gaps and crevices.”
The group started spreading out according to his orders, stationing themselves by the riverside.
“Something feels off?” Dahm’s instincts were telling him that there was something wrong with the current situation at the Moon River, but he just couldn’t think of what it was.
He continued to observe his men searching around by the riverside. The magnetic fields here were a lot weaker, allowing them to use their tools and apparatus. They were using plastic detectors, rapidly searching all around.
“M-Mr Dahm, you should tell them to be more careful. There… might be a lot of ferocious beasts over here, since there aren’t any animals drinking by the river…” the female guide he’d forcefully dragged along voiced out with a tremor in her voice. Along the way, she had borne witness to Dahm’s fearsome abilities.
“No animals drinking?” Dahm plainly said. “What’s there to be afraid of? It’s most likely just because the water is infested with alligators or something.”
He glanced over at the Moon River, still frowning; he felt that this wasn’t the source of his unease.
Judging by their pace, they were already quite deep within Memphis Forest, and they have already reached the area where the previous expedition had last reached. However, he still could not sense a hostile intent strong enough to threaten the someone from the Blood Breeds.
“Wait!! Threaten the Blood Breeds!?” Dahm suddenly realized something. If they didn’t encounter anything on their way here, then the only other possibility was a one-time-encounter of frightful levels!?
Sploosh!!
Emerging rapidly from the water, a gigantic creature appeared. Looking like a dark shadow, it attacked the members at the riverside with lightning fast speed.
“Careful!!” Dahm was facing another of the same terrifying creature, and the tremendous pressure coming from it was almost suffocating even for him.
Ahh!!!
In a flurry of screams, he saw his men all getting injured one by one. Even the female guide was swept into the river by the monster’s tail, immediately dyeing the water around her body red. There was undoubtedly no chance of her surviving that.
“Fucking lowlife!!” still hearing the screams of anguish from around him, Dahm’s face flushed with rage and ferocity, as his right hand morphed into a knife that he slashed furiously at the beast.