Jay continued down the dirt path, farther from the mountain and closer to the dense forest surrounding the kingdom. Despite being in another world, everything looked... surprisingly normal. Tall trees, green leaves, ordinary bushes. No giant carnivorous plants, talking trees, or glowing mushrooms.
Too normal.
"Well... at least there's nothing weird around here," he muttered as he walked, though the complete absence of animals was starting to unsettle him.
Not a bird, not an insect, not a rabbit. Nothing.
The silence was so deep that each of his footsteps felt like a blow against the earth.
Jay sighed, trying to stay calm.
"If my brother were here..." he thought with a hint of nostalgia, "he'd go nuts. He was even geekier than me. He'd be shouting theories, talking stats, comparing this forest to ten different video games…"
His stomach growled suddenly, cutting the thought short.
"Ugh… great. Hunger. Of course. Why not," he grumbled.
He picked up the pace, hoping to reach the kingdom as soon as possible. He needed food, water, and preferably contact with actual humans. He didn't want to find out the hard way if the local wildlife considered him part of the menu.
After walking for a while, he found a small, well-marked dirt trail.
"Is this… a road?" he whispered, surprised. "Someone must use it. Good. That means life. People. Civilization. Perfect."
He stepped onto the trail with a lighter stride, almost relieved. But the feeling didn't last.
A roar echoed through the trees.
A deep, low roar. So powerful the ground trembled slightly beneath his feet.
Jay froze.
"What… the hell was that?" he whispered, throat dry.
The second roar came louder, closer.
Without thinking, he dashed behind the thickest tree he could find and, refusing to let fear paralyze him, began climbing it quickly.
"Good thing I worked out a lot in high school…" he thought as he scrambled upward, gripping branches and protrusions like his life depended on it. Because, probably, it did.
He settled among the high branches, trying to make as little noise as possible. His breathing was ragged, but he managed to hold it. From his hiding spot, he had a good view of the ground.
Then he saw it.
A silhouette moved between the trees. Big. Very big.
Not humanoid.
When the creature stepped slightly into the filtered light of the forest, Jay saw it clearly: it looked like a lion, but the size of a full-grown grizzly bear. Its fur was dark, almost black, and from its forehead protruded a thick, forward-curving horn—like a rhinoceros horn, but sharper.
Jay's eyes widened.
"Okay… what… the hell…?" he thought, swallowing hard.
The monster sniffed the air, as if tracking something. As if searching for something.
Or someone.
Jay.
"Is it hostile? Well… it looks hostile. Very hostile. Wait, it has a horn. So… what is this? A unicorn lion?" he thought, letting out a nervous mental laugh. "Perfect, Jay. Amazing isekai zoology."
The "unicorn lion"—if that improvised name even worked—kept moving slowly, scanning the terrain with its glowing yellow eyes.
Jay stayed completely still, silently praying the monster wouldn't look up.
One minute. Two minutes. Three.
The creature seemed about to leave.
Jay exhaled very slowly, thinking he'd gotten lucky.
Until, suddenly…
A branch cracked behind him.
Right above.
A dry, clear sound.
CRACK.
Jay turned his head slowly, heart frozen.
And saw something up there.
Something that hadn't been there before.
Jay swallowed hard at the sight above him. Among the shadows of the high leaves, clinging to the trunk with long, dark fingers, was a creature that at first glance resembled a monkey. But one deeper look was enough to send cold sweat down his spine.
The animal had dark, almost grayish fur, speckled with black spots that seemed to absorb light. Its body was thin, sinewy, as if made entirely of taut tendons beneath the skin. And the worst part… the thing that chilled Jay's blood the most…
Were its eyes.
When the creature blinked, it didn't do so vertically like any known primate. Its "eyelashes"—if they could be called that—closed horizontally, side to side, like the nictitating membrane of a fish or reptile.
Jay felt a gag rising.
"What the fu…?" he thought, barely able to articulate it.
Yet amid his terror, an absurd, almost comical thought crossed his mind:
"It has… two tails? What kind of unlicensed Pokémon is this…?"
Indeed, behind the animal hung two bony tails, moving independently like small, restless, alert snakes.
The monkey—or whatever it was—remained motionless, staring at him. Jay too. Neither moved an inch.
Sweat trickled from Jay's nape down his back, cold, slow, uncomfortable. His breath was barely audible, trapped in his chest. The entire forest seemed to hold its breath.
Until the strange primate made a move.
Not toward Jay.
But downward.
With feline agility, it descended from the tree. Its long fingers slid effortlessly down the trunk, leaving faint marks behind. Jay released a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding. He almost closed his eyes, relieved for a second, as if that small gesture had given him hope.
But when he opened them again…
He was met with a horrifying scene.
The monkey—if it could still be called that—was sitting atop the massive body of the unicorn lion. And it was eating its brains.
It dug its fingers into the opening in the skull, which looked like it had been shattered with brutal force, and pulled out fragments of gray matter with quick, efficient movements. There was no sound except for a wet, viscous squelch.
Jay felt his stomach rise into his chest.
This wasn't a cute animal or some evolutionary ally. It was a predator. One capable of killing a beast the size of a horned grizzly bear.
And Jay was only a few meters away.
He gripped his weapon so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Shit… shit… what do I do?" he thought, trying not to tremble.
He had to climb down the tree with extreme care. Hopefully, the thing would be too busy enjoying its feast to notice him.
With slow, almost ceremonial movements, Jay began descending the trunk. Every centimeter felt like an eternity. The monster kept eating, oblivious to him.
Jay could barely believe it.
He just had to reach the ground. He just had to—
CRACK.
A branch snapped under his boot.
The sound echoed through the forest silence like a gunshot.
Jay felt his soul temporarily leave his body.
"No… no… NO! Something this cliché had to happen right now. Of course! Why not!" he screamed in his mind, wanting to punch himself internally.
With his heart frozen, he slowly turned his head toward the creature.
And saw the primate lift its bloodied face.
Then it opened its jaws, letting bits of what it had been chewing fall out.
And then…
It lunged at him.
The speed was inhuman. Not even an Olympic athlete could have clearly seen the movement. It was a dark blur, a murderous flash descending straight toward him.
Jay screamed involuntarily.
"NO, NO, NO, NO!"
He raised his weapon on pure instinct, without aiming, without technique, just desperation, and pulled the trigger.
BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
Five shots. Then three more. Then two.
The recoil made his hands tremble, but he didn't stop firing until the magazine was empty.
The primate's body hit the ground, writhing, with several bleeding holes in its torso and limbs. Jay had never seen an animal move so much after being shot. It was as if its flesh refused to die.
Jay dropped to the ground with a clumsy leap, breathing raggedly. He approached the creature's body with trembling steps.
His face was wrecked.
Eyes wide open. Skin pale. Sweat soaking his hair.
He'd lived through horrible things in Caracas, yes. He'd seen violence, heard bullets fly close to his body, run for his life.
But this…
This was on another level.
A monkey that blinks sideways. With two tails. Able to hunt a lion-bear-unicorn. And that charges at him like a starving demon.
Jay trembled. But even so, he reloaded his Glock with clumsy hands.
And shot again.
BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
Ten shots. Only when it stopped moving completely did Jay exhale.
His breath was a stifled sob.
"I… I have to… get out of this forest…" he whispered with a broken voice.
It didn't matter what lay ahead. Kingdom, people, monsters, whatever.
But one thing was certain:
He would leave that forest. No matter what it took.
Jay breathed in short bursts, irregular gasps mixed with the trembling of his hands. The metallic smell of gunpowder clung to his nose, almost refusing to fade. He didn't know how long he'd stood frozen before the corpse of the strange two-tailed primate, but his body reacted before his mind did: he ran.
He ran like his life depended on it—because it did.
Sweat pooled on his forehead and dripped into his eyes, making them sting. His breath was a hoarse roar, and still, Jay didn't stop. In his mind, there was only one thought, repeated over and over like a desperate echo:
"Run, run, run… don't stop… RUN!"
It didn't matter that he hadn't eaten in hours. It didn't matter that his legs burned like they were about to snap. It didn't matter that his heart pounded so hard it felt like it would pierce his chest.
All that mattered was getting out of that damned forest.
The dirt path, narrow at first, began to widen. The trees, once pressed together like a natural prison, started to spread apart. The light between the canopies grew stronger, warmer.
Jay noticed it.
In the distance, between the trunks, appeared a brightness that didn't belong to the forest. An open, wide light—like the exit of a tunnel.
"Come on… Come on…" he murmured through clenched teeth, not even realizing it.
His boots thudded loudly against the damp earth, kicking up bits of mud that splashed behind him. Each step felt like the last, but he kept taking one more.
When he finally crossed the last line of trees, the world opened before him.
The forest fell behind like a dark shadow, and before his eyes stretched a wide path of compacted earth leading straight into a valley.
And there, in the distance, like a giant painting decorating the horizon…
The walls.
Enormous walls, made of pale stone, as tall as modern buildings. They rose imposingly, spanning more than a kilometer across. They were sturdy, ancient, yet well-maintained, as if someone polished every block daily with military precision.
Jay nearly lost his breath. He was exhausted, sore, starving. But seeing that sparked a flicker of energy he didn't know he still had.
"No way…" he whispered, unable to contain his emotion. "Civilization!"
Around the entrance to the wall, he saw humanoid silhouettes. Several. Some walked, others seemed to be chatting, and a couple stood guard with long spears gleaming under the sunlight.
Jay felt a weight fall from his shoulders. A weight he'd carried since he landed in that world.
Humanoids. Bipedal beings. Possibly humans. Or at least something close.
For the first time since arriving on that unknown planet, Jay thought that maybe… just maybe, he wasn't completely lost.
The adrenaline that had kept him going began to fade, but the relief was so immense it didn't matter.
His heart, however, was still racing.
And not just from the run. But from hope.
A fragile hope, but real.
"Come on, Richter…" he murmured to himself. "Just a little more. Don't die now."
And with staggering steps, but determined, he began walking toward the kingdom's walls.
Toward civilization. Toward the unknown. Toward his first true trial in this world.