"Predators always like their roosters big."

As Ning, the dark devourer disguised as a dog, chomped down on one of his proud hatch brothers, Xiao Ji pondered on one of the many pieces of wisdom his uncle had left him. Once again, he could only concede to the older fowl’s great insight, even though he could not properly understand some of it.

Still, it was at times like this that he was grateful for his small stature. It almost made up for all the other disadvantages. Just then, one of his larger hatch brothers crowed loudly and mounted the nearest hen right in front of him.

Almost.

What did the local female mastiff and the village hens have in common?

They both liked their roosters big.

Xiao Ji was not big.

A fact that he was reminded of everyday. Even now that their biggest had just died, they stayed away from him for reasons he still could not truly confirm. His uncle had been sure that his size should not matter much for such things, but perhaps that was one of the few times the old rooster was wrong.

He had been, after all, a wonderful specimen of massive cockerel that managed to sway everything that laid their eyes on him. Ji suspected even the dogs were enraptured by his uncle.

A small part of him whispered that perhaps his uncle was right. Perhaps it was his personality and not his size that made him so unappealing.

‘Ha! What a ridiculous idea’, he thought with a chuckle.

What hen would choose a rooster for its personality rather than size? Surely not these ones that were marginally smarter than rocks. He cackled loudly at the thought, much to the apathy, and of course ignorance, of the chickens around him.

Still, he had much more pressing worries than those. Potentially fatal ones, in fact. He was fairly sure his hatch brother, the one whose bones Ning was munching on in the corner, was supposed to be the next in line for slaughter.

That rooster was always going to die today, whether by dog or by human. Unfortunately for Ji, though the dog had been satisfied, the humans still needed a chicken for their celebration. What they were celebrating, he was not sure, but he was almost certain he was considered the backup option for the pot.

Learning human language from his uncle had been a rather difficult process, yet it was one he greatly appreciated. Even though he still had no idea how the rooster managed to speak the language in the first place. Multiple weeks of trial had thoroughly convinced him that he was missing something crucial. Vocal cords, his uncle had called them.

He spotted a worm rolling on the ground in front of him and gobbled it up.

Juicy.

He looked around, confirming there was no one watching him in particular and started carefully making his way out of the compound that he had come to call home. His escape route had been planned already, the result of months of careful scouting and mapping.

Just as he was about to leave the house, tragedy struck. His evil nemesis, a small human chick who seemed to have the energy of ten combined into one tiny form. Tiny for a human, at least. To him, she was just a shorter giant. The evil creature caught him from behind, somehow sneaking up on him and trapping his wings to the side before he could escape, even while he was paying attention.

“Hey Mr Small Chicken. Let’s play a game.”

Xiao Ji’s life flashed before his eyes at those words, long buried memories of mental torture at the hands of the little giant devil coming to the fore front of his mind. He struggled, trying his best to get away from the horrible fate he could see approaching, but that only made the monster giggle and hold on tighter.

The monster held him in its hands and paraded him round the compound, further humiliating him before the hens. Sure they weren't smart enough to care, but it was the principle of the thing!

At that moment, he swore, not for the first time in his life, that he would get his revenge on this monster one day. He was not sure how, but his uncle had given him some hints that told him he could grow bigger.

He would become even larger than the giant chick that held him against his will and return one day to drag her around the village, giving the monster a taste of her own medicine.

Yes, that was a noble goal fitting for a rooster to set his life towards.

Xiao Ji was starting to panic. The little monster was holding onto him longer than usual. His suspicion started rising until he heard the sounds of voices getting close to them. It took him a moment to realise it, but things became clear the moment he did.

Conspiracy!

The humans must have hired the monster to hold him down. He shook his head at the house. He’d thought they had some scraps of honour, as much honour as such fiendish murderers could have, at least. Yet now he knew the truth of their depravity, to stoop so low as to work with such devils.

So, for the last time, he stared at the house with disappointment and committed it to memory. Then he gathered his courage and did something he had always wanted to do. He pecked the monster. Hard.

It dropped him on instinct, clutching the wounded hand in pain. Now free from its evil grip, he pecked it again and scratched its legs with his claws, causing it to run away making strange sounds of pity that was basically music to his ears.

He knew the humans would likely come out to investigate the noise as they usually did, so he ran and did not look back.

Eventually, he got to the busier parts of the village and had to slow down. A running chicken would draw far more attention than one that simply walked around. So he took his uncle’s advice and strutted around with slightly puffed feathers.

‘Always walk like you own the place.’

He could almost hear his uncle’s voice as the older fowl lectured him on whatever odd wisdom he managed to come up with. He had mastered his proud walk a long time ago, completing the training his uncle started. So he walked past all the people like he was without a care in the world. Just a simple proud rooster walking around harmlessly.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

No one gave him a second glance, just as he expected and he walked through the busiest parts of the village, catching snippets of conversation from his surroundings as he passed.

“...the biggest one in decades…”

“...elder said something about sensing great power…”

“...the celebration will be massive…”

After a few more moments, he pieced together some of the situation and had to stop himself from running. There was some kind of celebration happening during the week that was expected to be even bigger than usual. While Xiao Ji did not consider himself an expert on human customs, he could still clearly remember the last time there had been talks of celebration. He was still young then, barely more than a chick, when the humans had come out and caught nearly all the mature chickens. That was also the last time he had seen his uncle.

He would much rather avoid a repeat of that day.

No one noticed him after that, for which he was very relieved. The next area he passed were empty houses whose occupants were nowhere to be seen. He saw a few dogs and cats, but they all seemed to have no interest in him..

A little further and the houses gave way to large tracts of fields. Again, there was not a single person, as far as he could tell. So he went looking for food, already feeling a little hungry. His searching eyes quickly revealed a couple of worms and seeds spread out on the now sandy road and his beak made short work of them. His uncle had always disliked eating from the ground for some strange reason. Something about being uncivilised, whatever that meant. He was a chicken though, and picking food from the ground was how their species ate. Besides all the best things to eat were on the floor waiting to enter his beak.

After he felt satisfied, he continued his journey away from the village, finally taking time to think about where he truly wanted to go. Though he had come far a few times during his mapping trips, he had never ventured any further, fear of the unknown stopping him from taking the leap.

Now that he had no choice, he was forced to finally confront the issue. He kept walking, seeing as there was no visible end to the road. He would have to lay low and use his intelligence. He had no illusions about his place in the food chain. Drawing attention to himself would quickly get him hunted by any of the numerous monsters out there in the wilds. His uncle's stories had not painted a pretty picture.

He shuddered at the image of giant creatures bigger than the largest dogs in his village that stalked the night with the skill of a cat. Even his uncle had barely survived an encounter with one of them. There were all sorts of other things to be wary of too. The world was not friendly to lone chickens. Or groups of them, for that matter.

Still, the old fowl had survived, so it was possible. Avoiding humans would also be necessary for survival. It was clear they only saw chickens as a food source. He had managed to escape from the little demon earlier, but did not like his odds against a much larger human.

He continued walking till the sun went down, hoping the direction he was heading in held the least threat. He managed to get to the large grouping of trees he had seen in the distance at some point before the sky was truly dark. Whether that was good or bad, he did not know. He felt safer under cover, but he was sure the multitude of trees were enough to make up a forest.

If his uncle was to be believed, then forests were even more dangerous than most places. He needed to be very careful. What little light remained in the sky was quickly obscured by the thick covering of trees, making it even more difficult to watch his surroundings carefully. There was also the fact that he had spent most of the day trying to cover as much distance as possible, which had left him even more tired than he expected.

Still, he wasn’t comfortable sleeping without at least some form of cover. Staring up at the trees yielded no results, as even the lowest branches were far higher than he could jump. For a moment he wished his wings were a little less useless, like one of the hawks he’d had to avoid when he was a chick, before cutting off that line of thought. That was pointless thinking. He was a chicken, and that would not change regardless.

He was about to continue his seemingly fruitless search when something made him freeze. Nothing happened after he stood there for a while, for which he breathed a sigh of relief. He had been extra jumpy since he entered the forest, jumping at shadows and strange sounds. So far they had all been false alarms, but he was not taking any chances. It only had to be real once.

An unknown amount of time and multiple false alerts later, he finally stumbled on a place he thought he could rest. It was a large collection of large leaves, covered by a small tree that was only a few times taller than he was. Already too tired for anything else, he decided to take the risk and hope nothing would find him when he froze again.

He was almost certain he saw glowing yellow eyes staring at him from one of the shadows. He almost dismissed it as his imagination when a change in air pressure made him fling his body to the left. He felt a dark blur shoot past him after that, going through where he was standing just seconds ago.

Cold fear gripped him instantly. Going by what he felt, the thing hunting him had to be at least the size of a large dog. It was also very stealthy, which did not bode especially well for him in the darkness.

He stared at the creature, which snarled at him, trying to deduce whatever he could. It seemed even larger than the dogs he was used to, though he couldn’t be sure, given the lack of light. He could vaguely make out just the eyes and teeth, but not much else.

When it leapt at him again, he jumped with all his strength, using what lift his wings gave him to push himself further. Even then, it was still a close call. He already realised, a few seconds in, that trying to run would be futile. So would attempting to hide. According to his uncle, predators like the one before him generally had excellent senses. He had little hope of fooling it. That left him with only one option.

He had to fight.

So he stood his ground, and the next time the creature pounced, he tried his best to calm his shaking wings and jump again. This time though, instead of dodging, he unleashed his claws on his opponent’s eyes. It turned at the last moment, and he only scratched the side of its face. The beast narrowed its eyes at him.

Ji nodded like his uncle often did. Though he may be small, he was still a proud cock like his uncle. He would not let himself be made prey.

Something his opponent seemed to realise too.

The beast blurred again, and he met it once more, this time twisting in the air and drawing one of his spurs on the side of its face. It left a gash, not particularly deep, from what he had felt. But it was the first blood. For the first time, the creature seemed to hesitate for a moment.

Xiao Ji was not a fighter, truth be told. He mostly stayed away from the fights among his hatch brothers as much as he could, not particularly interested in bringing himself to their level. His uncle had taught him some things so long ago, but it had never particularly interested him.

That didn’t mean he had not learnt.

That short moment of hesitation was his window of attack. For the first time, the creature was the one jumping back. The next time they met, his confidence rose even higher. The creature seemed a little less sure. They continued for a short time, his jumping to attack the eyes and the beast trying to pounce or protect itself.

Just as he felt almost confident in his victory, something changed. The next time he jumped, he was met with a paw that sent him crashing to the ground. The paw slammed down again, pinning him to the ground and breaking his wing in the process. He could feel the sharp claws digging deep into his flesh.

For the second time that night. He felt true, primal fear.

He struggled uselessly, using everything from his beak to his legs to try dislodging it. None of it worked, and the pressure from the paw simply increased.

So he stopped fighting, instead trying to gather his strength while remaining as still as he could. It was a long shot, but it paid off when, after a few minutes, the paw slowly left his body. A claw poked him a few times, and he assumed the creature was trying to check if he was still alive.

He gathered his strength, and just as he felt it lowering its mouth, stood up and jumped with all his strength, scratching wherever he could. It was a messy jump, having to deal with a broken wing, but he didn’t need more. His claws met something round, and he knew he’d struck home. He held on, trying to do as much damage as he could.

For the first time, he heard his opponent make a sound. It was pitiful, a whimper filled with pain and not a small amount of fear. Before he could celebrate, another paw hit him hard, throwing him back to the ground. Still, he could vaguely make out a dark form retreating in the distance.

After struggling to even stay awake for a few minutes, Xiao Ji gave up on trying to get up, his entire body too drained to carry him. Just before his vision went dark, words flashed before his eyes.

[All requirements for unlocking the system have been met. Welcome to the Great Dao.]

[You have unlocked the Dao of Chicken]