Late at night.
Kasumigaoka Utaha was jolted awake by a strange voice.
The sound came from the direction of the stream, faint yet clear enough to pierce through the shelter.
Her eyes snapped open.
The fire had burned down significantly, leaving only a few pieces of dark red charcoal glowing weakly beneath the ashes.
Aoyama was already awake.
He was crouched near the entrance of the shelter, tilting his head slightly as he listened carefully to the sounds outside.
Moonlight slipped through gaps in the clouds, tracing a cold white outline around his figure.
The long blade was held tightly in his hand, its edge reflecting a faint chill in the darkness.
Aoyama glanced back at her.
“Someone’s here.”
“…”
Utaha’s remaining sleepiness vanished instantly.
She instinctively reached toward the signal flare in the side pocket of her backpack, her fingers wrapping around the cold metal handle as a thin layer of sweat formed on her palm.
She took a deep breath, forcing her voice to remain steady.
“…What are you going to do?”
“Stay here.
Don’t move.”
The moment he finished speaking, Aoyama’s figure disappeared into the darkness outside the shelter entrance.
His footsteps were completely silent, like a cat blending into the night.
Even the sound of stepping on fallen leaves was reduced to almost nothing.
“Aoyama…”
Utaha sat alone in the darkness, her heartbeat echoing loudly in her ears.
She stared in the direction he had left, her fingers tightening around the signal flare before slowly relaxing, only to tighten again.
She knew Aoyama possessed strength far beyond an ordinary person, but she had no idea how much that strength would matter against an unknown enemy.
“Please come back safely, Aoyama.”
Her voice was so quiet that only she could hear it.
…
At the same time, the three men beside the stream were completely unaware.
They sat on a flat rock near the water.
A crude torch had been stuck into the damp soil beside them, its flames illuminating their exhausted yet somewhat smug expressions.
The leader was the muscular man carrying a machete.
Several old scars crossed his thick arms, making it obvious he was the type who had survived in the jungle for quite some time.
“The people at that camp probably can’t even find enough food to eat anymore.”
The man twisted open his water bottle and took a long drink.
“When we took their supplies, that old man actually got down on his knees and begged us to leave something behind.
Tsk…”
“They were just a bunch of idiots.”
The thin man carrying a backpack interrupted, patting the large bulging bag beside him.
“On this island, the ones who survive until the end will be the ones with strength and brains.”
The man holding a compound bow remained silent.
He stood nearby, his eyes constantly sweeping across the surrounding darkness.
Compared to the other two, he was far more cautious and had never fully lowered his guard.
“A compound bow?”
Hidden behind a thick tree in the darkness, Aoyama stared at the three men.
His grip on the long blade remained steady.
His breathing was slow and controlled as he waited for the right moment.
His first target was the man with the compound bow.
If he could eliminate the most dangerous one first, the rest would be much easier to handle.
But before he could make a move…
Something darker than the night itself shifted deep within the forest shadows.
“…There’s another expert?”
Aoyama’s pupils shrank.
The speed of that shadow was far beyond his expectations.
“Whoosh!”
Almost at the same moment, he heard a heavy impact.
The man with the compound bow turned around and tried to raise his weapon, but before he could draw the string, a pair of claws covered in dark scales pierced through his arm from the side.
Blood splattered beneath the moonlight.
Before he could even scream, his entire body was dragged into the darkness.
“What?!”
The muscular man shot to his feet, raising his machete in front of himself as his pupils contracted.
The thin man pulled a short knife from his backpack.
The two men stood back-to-back on the rock beside the stream, their trembling shadows stretching and shrinking beneath the torchlight.
“What the hell is that?!”
“Come out!”
The muscular man roared, but his rough voice carried unmistakable fear.
At the same time, a massive shadow silently descended from the treetops.
With his enhanced physical abilities, Aoyama managed to capture its general shape in that brief instant.
“What the hell…”
The creature was roughly two meters long.
Its body was covered in dark brown scales.
Its hind legs were thick and powerful, while its shorter forelimbs ended in three long, sickle-shaped claws.
Its head was streamlined, and its mouth was filled with interlocking sharp teeth that reflected a cold glimmer beneath the moonlight.
“Is that…
a dinosaur?”
It looked like one.
More specifically, it looked like the Velociraptors from movies.
But this creature was thinner, longer, and far more silent than the ones he had seen on screen.
The moment it landed, it had already bitten down on the thin man’s neck.
Its sharp teeth closed with a crisp crack of breaking bone.
“There…
there’s a monster…”
The man’s body twitched once.
The short knife slipped from his hand, and his entire body hung limply from the creature’s jaws.
“Fuck!
Go to hell!”
The muscular man overcame his fear with anger and swung his machete at the unknown creature.
The creature released the corpse from its mouth and pulled its body backward, effortlessly avoiding the attack.
“Bang!”
Its tail suddenly lashed out like a whip.
The strike slammed into the man’s waist and sent him flying several meters away before he crashed heavily onto the rocks beside the stream.
“Ahhh!”
His scream echoed through the night sky.
Everything had happened too quickly.
Less than a minute had passed.
Aoyama held his breath.
Under the moonlight, the creature stood over the man struggling on the rocks, a low growl rumbling from its throat.
Then it lowered its head.
Its claws moved with terrifying precision, slicing across the man’s throat and ending his struggle.
Aoyama did not move.
Every muscle in his body was tense, but his breathing remained shallow and controlled.
My speed isn’t faster than it.
I can’t kill it.
The Hercules ability had given him a body and strength far beyond normal humans.
But it had not provided a significant increase in speed.
More importantly, he had no idea whether this dinosaur-like creature lived alone or hunted in groups.
That was why he had stayed hidden and observed.
“I wonder what ability I would get if I ate it…”
The creature seemed completely unaware of his presence.
It lowered its head, grabbed the corpses, and dragged them into the depths of the forest.
Its scales brushed against the bushes, creating faint rustling sounds that gradually faded into the darkness.
“Is it gone?”
Aoyama still did not move.
He waited another three full minutes.
Only after confirming the creature had truly left did he slowly release the breath he had been holding.
“That thing is much more troublesome than the crocodile.”
No matter what kind of creature appeared, Aoyama would not find it impossible to accept.
At most, he would be surprised.
After all…
“Even if this island gets any more ridiculous, can it really be stranger than someone like me who has transmigrated twice?”
Aoyama stepped out from behind the tree and quickly scanned the ground.
The machete lay between the scattered rocks, its blade stained with blood but still completely intact.
The compound bow had fallen into the grass beside the stream, with several drops of blood still visible on the bow limbs.
He walked over quickly and picked up both weapons.
After searching the grass, he found the quiver as well.
There were still seven or eight arrows inside.
“Not bad.”
The killing power of a compound bow was no joke.
With only a few arrows, it was enough to remove more than ninety percent of carbon-based lifeforms from existence.
“Why was that guy so selfish?
He was still carrying his backpack even after dying.”
Aoyama looked toward the forest with some regret.
That large backpack clearly contained something valuable.
Unfortunately, the dinosaur had dragged away both the body and the bag.
Still, he had gained something.
“Time to go back.”
Using the cover of night, Aoyama deliberately took a longer route.
He walked several hundred extra meters through the dense forest, making sure nothing was following him before finally turning back toward the shelter.