Chapter 1: Encountering Monsters

I remember that morning, just around nine o'clock, I had finished breakfast at home and, as usual, went out for a walk. Since I had strolled around many times before, I thought of heading up the mountain this time, to enjoy the scenery and breathe the fresh air.

The air quality in my hometown is excellent. This time, I went up the mountain to experience something new and reminisce about some of the fun times from my childhood. Without realizing it, many years had passed since my last visit, and I wondered what had changed!

For various reasons, I cannot disclose the name of my hometown, or the location of the mountain. It's an instruction from the people of the inner earth and is also for the good of humankind.

Before I knew it, I had walked for more than half an hour and arrived at the foot of the mountain where I used to play as a child. After resting for a few minutes to ease my right foot, I continued up the mountain. The outer part of the mountain was just the same, with a mix of strange rocks and black soil. The rest was overgrown with weeds and thorns, and occasionally there were spots with dead trees, pretty much like what I remembered from my childhood.

Familiar memories came flooding back with excitement, I followed the narrow path into the mountain. As I walked further in, the trees began to grow denser, and the air around me became cool and refreshing. This is the feeling! As I reached halfway up the mountain, the relaxation in both body and mind made me feel like my injuries were healing faster. I am really indulged in the rare coolness of the summer air.

Further ahead was the deep part of the mountain, where the trees were lush and the sunlight rarely reached. This was also a forbidden zone in my childhood.

When I was a child, the village kids and I would often play halfway up the mountain, never daring to venture deep into the wilderness. There were many frightening legends about the mountains, and only the elders would dare to go deeper to gather medicinal herbs, but even they wouldn't go too deep.

It was said that wild boars roamed deep within the mountains, injuring people, and there were even stories of man-eating wolves and leopards. Looking back now, I believe these were likely stories meant to scare children, in order to prevent us from getting lost or hurt in the mountains. However, the danger of wild animals was real, and it was not unusual to find them in such places.

If this had been when I was a child, I would have never dared to venture this far—after all, I was a well-behaved kid. But now, in my youth, with years of physical training and survival skills behind me, I feel an urge to explore, a drive to satisfy the curiosity I had when I was younger. That's just human nature—once you gain a certain level of ability, you start wanting more. I'm no different. So, I decided to take a short break before heading deeper into the mountains, figuring I'd just have a look around, gather some wild fruits, and then leave. A more thorough exploration could wait until I was fully recovered.

Once deep in the mountains, I glanced at my phone—it was just past 10 a.m. The signal here was spotty, and the temperature around me had cooled slightly. As I walked further, I realized there wasn't much to see—just untouched wilderness. The fallen leaves beneath my feet were thick, and the sunlight filtering through the trees was diminishing.

Soon, I found a large wild fruit tree, and just as I was using a branch to knock down some fruit, I suddenly heard a loud baby's cry from deeper in the mountains. My instinct was to rush over and rescue, but as soon as I moved, I sensed something wasn't right...

Here I am, deep in the mountains of my hometown, with no villages or shops in sight for miles. How could there be a baby crying here? And such a loud cry at that. As I thought about it more, the sound didn't quite match what a normal baby's cry should sound like.

What on earth is going on? Today's experience has me more baffled than anything else I've encountered in years. My mind was flooded with possibilities. Could a pregnant woman passing through have given birth here? Seems unlikely. Could it be that criminals kidnapped a baby and brought it to their secret hideout in the mountains? That seems a bit more plausible. As for the tales of demons and monsters I heard as a child, I don't believe in any of that now—there's no such thing in this world!

Just as I was running through all these guesses, the loud cry came again, even clearer this time. There was something strange about the sound, and this time it was accompanied by other faint noises, but they quickly faded away. I never expected that my first time venturing deep into the mountains would lead to such a bizarre encounter. Even though I'm a firm atheist, the strangeness of the situation sent a chill down my spine, and I started thinking about leaving immediately. But then I remembered who I am, and my principles wouldn't let me walk away. I felt like I had to check it out—what if someone was really in danger? I couldn't just stand by. And if it really was some criminal hideout, I could always slip away quietly and report it to the authorities to rescue the victims.

In the end, my principles overruled my logic, and I carefully made my way toward the source of the sound, doing my best to walk silently. Since I've worked as a firefighter for many years, I've had to deal with people attempting suicide by jumping off buildings, and in those situations, silence is key when approaching them. Over the years, I've mastered the skill of moving without a sound—something I never thought I'd use outside of work, but here I was putting it to use.

As I quietly approached the direction of the sound, the loud crying rang out three more times, and I could vaguely hear sounds of a struggle, along with what seemed to be the distressed cries of a wild boar. Having grown up in a rural mountain village, where many families raised black pigs—sometimes even wild boars they'd caught—I was familiar with the sound of a wild boar in distress. The strange noises only fueled my curiosity, and using my trained sense of direction, I pinpointed where the sounds were coming from. After all, years of training weren't for nothing.

The deeper I ventured into the mountains, the fewer trees there were, while the undergrowth grew thicker. The tall, green grass was nearly up to my chest. Glancing around, I saw ancient trees towering nearby—some so large it would take three adults to wrap their arms around them.

Suddenly, three massive trees stood before me, blocking my entire view. The surrounding grass reached my chest. My instincts and years of experience told me that whatever was causing the commotion was just beyond these trees. I decided to move as quietly as possible to the base of the trees, using them as cover to get a look at what was going on.

With that thought, I lowered myself to the ground, ensuring I made no noise, carefully parting the grass as I crawled toward the massive trees. Once there, I concealed myself behind them, peeking cautiously around to see what lay beyond.

"Wow!"

I was so close to screaming out loud at the sight in front of me, but thanks to years of mental and physical training, I managed to suppress the shock even in a state of extreme astonishment. Still, my mind was filled with countless exclamations of "Oh my gosh!"

Just a few hundred meters away (I was too shocked to estimate the exact distance at that moment), there was a creature unlike anything I had ever seen before in my entire life, feasting on the carcass of a wild boar. The surrounding area was a complete mess, as if a fight had taken place. The boar's body had flattened a large patch of grass, and the creature was devouring the meat with great relish.

But how could I even begin to describe this creature?

We live in a mountain village, and it's not uncommon to see large or strange wild animals. Wild boars, wild sika deer, and wolves, for example, often appear, but they always flee in panic at the sight of adults, making them impossible to catch. When I first laid eyes on this creature, my instinct told me it resembled a giant predatory bird. It spread its wings to keep its balance while tearing into the wild boar beneath its talons. This massive bird stood around 1.2 meters tall, and its wingspan was roughly 2 meters long—far larger than anything I could comprehend. Its appearance alone left me utterly stunned.