In the middle of The Noxious Jungle, a team of eight war-torn, rugged men could be seen running. Two of these men, the porters, had necklaces with black spheres striped in a neon-blue light and were carrying massive backpacks. Five of these men had weapons on their side and were carrying smaller backpacks.
Meanwhile, at the front leading them was a large, unarmed bear of a man. He had a cruel look in his eyes and scars all over his body. One look is enough to tell that he’s a man who has gone through many hardships in life.
The team silently ran through the jungle and didn’t stop until they reached a small clearing where they could finally rest.
“Haa… We finally reached our destination in this shitty jungle! I can’t believe Boss Rodney actually chose to take us on a trip to The Noxious Jungle.” A young man said as he plopped on the ground.
“You should know why, dumbass. There’s so much potential money to be made in this jungle since nobody wants to come here.” A man with a lazy eye rebuked him.
“Haiz!! I know. I know. But there’s a reason why nobody wants to come here. Everything’s poisonous. There are too many insects. It rains nonstop. And there are Trash Monkeys!! Fucking Trash Monkeys!! Have you ever-Ouch!” the young man yelped in pain, then slapped away an ant that had bitten him, “See! What did I just say?! There’s too many fucking insects here!”
The surrounding men went quiet after listening to his complaining. Everything he said was correct, and they couldn’t find it in their hearts to scold him. They didn’t want to be here either. Hell, even the leader didn’t bother dismissing his words. They all knew this place sucked, but what choice did they have?
This was the place to be if they wanted to make money without competition.
“Hmph! Suck it up, buttercup. You know what our line of work is like. The fewer people there are to take away all our products, the more money we’ll be able to make.” A man with a scar running down the right side of his face commented.
“Don’t forget. We’re in the relocation business. The more products available to move, the more money we make.” A bald man said.
“Hahaha! Well said, Ben! The relocation business, huh? You make us sound like we’re a couple of good samaritans! Kuhahaha!” The Boss, Rodney, laughed, then continued, “Well, what do you guys say we find a few beasts to relocate right now?”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Good! The sooner we meet our quota, the sooner we leave this shithole! Alright, let’s go!” Rodney yelled and marched off toward the nearest beast.
Since he was the only one in the Red Core Realm, finding beasts was much easier for him as he had sharper senses. Of course, just because he had heightened senses didn’t mean he could accurately detect beasts from kilometers away.
He needed to be near a beast to sense them accurately, but even then, it wasn’t guaranteed, especially in this jungle.
However, perhaps because this was a rather untouched jungle, finding beasts wasn’t too difficult.
Just 10 minutes later, they came across a swampy marsh area, and Rodney had already detected a beast.
“A beast is in the water over there. Go drag it out.” Rodney ordered.
Seeing the nasty, murky waters, his team members groaned, but they still did as Rodney told them.
The young took out a baton from his backpack, put it in the water, then pressed a button.
*Zap!*
Lightning coursed through the water, instantly killing all the small critters in it, and soon enough, a giant crocodile jumped out of the water!
*Hiss**Chomp*
It tried latching onto the young man who dared to disturb it, but the young man had already moved out of the way.
“Now!” He shouted.
The other six people moved in and tossed a giant electrified net around the crocodile.
*ZZZzzzzz*
*GrRrRrRrRrRr*
The crocodile was then electrocuted and convulsed in pain. It struggled to get out of the net, and before it could do anything self-destructive, one of the men shot it with a tranquilizing dark, knocking it unconscious.
Afterward, one of the porters grasped onto one of the spheres on his necklace and injected some mana into it, and the whole thing enlarged into a floating cage big enough to fit the crocodile. The team placed the crocodile inside and regrouped.
“Well, that was easy!” The young man exclaimed but got slapped on the back of the head by Rodney.
“Kid, don’t get cocky just because you took down a Stage 5 Black Core Beast when you’re already at the 7th Stage of the Black Core Realm. Also, if you were to have wandered carelessly alone in that murky water, you would have most likely died to that croc. The only reason nothing dangerous happened is because I warned you beforehand.” Rodney reprimanded him, causing the young man to drop his head despondently.
Ignoring the young man, Rodney turned around and said to the rest of the group, “Let’s keep moving! Maybe by the end of the day, we can have all our cages filled with beasts!”
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“YEAH!”
“LET’S GO!”
They shouted, and for the rest of the day, they captured any beast that entered their sight but could not fill up all their cages. They went back to the clearing they were at earlier to set up camp.
The next day, they left their campsite to capture more beasts, hopefully filling up the rest of their cages.
***
Mika smiled widely, hearing the voices of humans nearby. She was so happy she felt like crying.
“Humans! I can hear humans over there! Are they trapped here as well, or can I finally leave this place?”
Mika followed the sound of their voices, excited that this might be her opportunity to leave the jungle!
Still, although this might be an opportunity, she wasn’t going to be reckless and blindly trust them just because they were from the same race.
Back in her previous life, she grew up in a time of war and death. She knew just how disgusting humanity could be when shit hit the fan.; if you aren’t useful, your life is worth less than a grain of rice. Peasants, adults and children alike, would be captured and forced into slavery and countless atrocities happened every day.
Mika might not be the smartest person in the world, but she wasn’t naive enough to believe that every human was intrinsically good. Such a philosophy has saved her on more than one occasion.
Also, anyone who could stay alive in this jungle couldn’t be any weaker than her, so she had to keep her guard up in case they had ill intentions toward her.
Thus, without exposing herself, she climbed into the trees and swiftly made her way toward the voices. Within a few minutes, Mika caught up to a group of eight rugged men with dozens of floating beast-filled cages following them.
“What the heck? How are those cages floating? Why are they capturing those beasts? What are they doing?” Mika wondered, frowning slightly.
She wasn’t upset by them capturing beasts, as she understood the basic concept of farming and livestock, but that didn’t seem to be the case here.
Upon closer inspection, Mika could spot numerous scars on all the beasts’ bodies.
*REEEeee*
A group of Trash Monkeys began reaching their arms out of the cage and screeching in distress.
“Shut up, you damn monkey!” One of the men pulled out an electrified whip and began whipping the monkeys.
*EEEEEEEKKKKK*
The monkeys screamed in pain as their flesh was torn and cauterized simultaneously.
“Hahaha!! That’s what you get for being so annoying! Now, sit in your cage quietly, and wait for us to sell you off!” The man said with a large grin as if he enjoyed causing them pain.
The others smiled along with him, except for the leader. He kept an indifferent expression the entire time, but he also had no intention of saying anything.
Mika’s frown deepened as images from her past life overlapped with the people in front of her. Now, in her mind, instead of cages filled with beasts, the cages were filled with starving women and children. Whenever a child would cry, a man would come and whip them until they were knocked unconscious or shut up. The women would try and protect the children, only to get beaten and/or dragged out of the cage and forced to do…unsavory things.
“Slave traders…” Mika muttered, disgust welling up inside her. Although the men in front of Mika weren’t caging up children, they had the same expressions and did the same actions as the slave traders from her previous life.
Watching them torture the animals they captured, the optimism she once had shattered, and she praised herself for not recklessly approaching them. Who knows what they might do to a poor lonely child out in the middle of this dangerous jungle?
Not to mention, thanks to her improved mana control, Mika could sense from their fluctuations that each one of them was stronger than her. She'd be at their mercy if she went up to them just now!
“Still, I need to keep following them. From their clothes and expressions, I can tell they haven’t been in the jungle for too long, meaning they should have just entered a few days ago at the latest. If they have just entered, it means they know the way out as well. If I keep following them, I should also be able to find the way out!”
So, that’s what Mika did. She spied on them from the trees for the rest of the day. It wasn’t easy to keep up with their speed, but due to her experience living in the jungle and their loud voices, she could at least keep up with them.
She kept a distance of at least 25 meters to eliminate any possibility of being found. Being trapped in a cage and electrocuted wasn’t on her to-do list, after all.
However, they began behaving oddly when the sky darkened, and it didn’t take her long to understand why.
***
Back at their makeshift camp, Rodney silently signaled everyone to huddle together.
“What’s going on, Boss? Did something happen?” One of the men whispered.
“There’s something following us in the trees,” Rodney explained.
“What?!”
“Where?!”
They loudly whispered.
Rodney tilted his head slightly in the direction he felt the gaze. None of his team members looked over, as that would clearly indicate they knew someone was following them.
Or, that was how things were supposed to play out.
“… I don’t see anything, boss.”
Unfortunately, the young man was still relatively new to this kind of situation and ended up glancing in that direction.
“You fucking idiot!” Rodney silently cursed and slapped the back of his head, but it was already too late.
*Rustle**Rustle**Swoosh*
Off in the distance, they could make out the sounds of something quickly dashing through the trees, as if they were trying to escape!
“Shit! Chase it! Don’t let it escape!” Rodney roared and ran after whatever creature was following them. The others followed suit right after.
***
“Shit! Chase it! Don’t let it escape!” The leader's deep, gruff voice resounded behind Mika.
“Fuck! How did that man notice me?!” Mika cursed but kept jumping through the trees.
When she noticed them huddling together, Mika knew something was up. The young man confirmed her suspicions when he looked in her direction, so she immediately took off running.
*Crack*
*Crack*
*Swoosh*
As she was running, Mika could hear them approaching quickly. Cold sweat dripped down her back. She had a hunch that it wouldn’t be much longer until they caught up to her, and when they did… Her life would no longer be in her hands.
‘Dammit! How are they so fast?! Is it because of the difference in strength? Can I even escape if that’s the case?’ Mika thought but immediately shook her head.
‘No, I can’t let those bastards catch me! I refuse to be caged like some animal! Think, Mika, think! How can I escape this situation without being caught?’
*Rustle*
She could hear them rapidly approaching, but she didn’t panic. Her eyes darted around, looking for anything she could use to get out of this situation, when suddenly she looked up, and an idea struck her like a bolt of lightning.
‘That might work! No! Rather, it’s the only thing that could work!’