<<<[New Fanfic Poll Start!! These Are The Contestants!!]>>>
[One Piece: Since I Can't Be A Celestial Dragon, Then A Villain It Is!]
[Shokugeki: Starting With The Dark Cooking Society Legacy]
[Yu-Gi-Oh!: Undefeated and Ultra-Meta!]
<<<[How To Make Your Favorite Fanfic Win!?]>>>
[Most Power Stones = 1 Point]
[Most Reviews = 1 Point]
[Most Votes On Poll = 1 Point]
<(The Poll Is On P@tr3on! For Free To Everybody!! And It Will Only Last A Few Days!!)>
===========
1Shun stood at the edge of the Baron Archipelago. He wasn't a rookie anymore, yet the raw, feral pressure washing over him still made his skin draw taut for an instant.
This chain lay in a tropical-rainforest belt. The air was viscous and wet, heavy with humus, rank plant odors, and a faint metallic tang of blood that seemed to drift from everywhere at once.
From deep within the jungle rolled a thousand unfamiliar sounds—low beastly rumbles and needle-fine insect shrieks—that could chill a spine.
"Hot, drenched in humidity… and this predator stink is everywhere. Kinda gives you the creeps."
He said it with a grin. There wasn't a hint of panic.
Feeling your body's natural response was normal—an organism's instinctive caution toward hostile terrain. But his Gourmet Cells merely stirred; then a gentle warmth swept through him and blew away the discomfort. With that overwhelming adaptability, he reset in seconds; his gaze sharpened and calmed.
"Now that's more like it. If I can't handle this much, I've got no business hunting higher-grade ingredients."
He stepped into the primeval green where danger nested under every leaf.
Colossal and stubby, twisted and barbed—tropical flora of every bizarre shape roofed the sky. Roots laced the ground into slick, treacherous nets. Yet Shun moved light and sure, as if the terrain weren't there at all—always finding the least effort, the cleanest line forward.
His senses spread like an unseen web. Beasts lurking around him—Capture Level 1 to 5—felt the restrained yet fathomless aura on his body and, by instinct, melted back into shadow. Few dared test him.
After a while he halted and tilted his head.
Almost simultaneously, a disturbance flared to his right. Brush thrashed apart and something huge shouldered into view.
A beast the size of a giant elephant.
Its pelt carried the archipelago's signature dark-green striping. It split a blood-slick maw, baring dagger fangs, a thunderous warning rumbling from its throat.
A top predator here—the Baron Tiger.
Capture Level 3, a local strongman in its own right.
"Oh? Did the little kitty get spooked?" Shun studied the agitated tiger, voice playful, eyes razor-keen as he skimmed the details.
Baron Tigers were tyrannical about territory and rarely left their core ranges. They didn't wander to the outskirts without cause. Though it postured and snarled, fear leaked from its eyes; muscle bunched across its bulk, more bluff than bite—like it wanted to retreat.
Not normal hunting. Not normal patrol.
"Those spots… faint scrapes and mud on the coat. The short breath isn't just anger—it's the wheeze after a long run."
He read it at a glance. "It didn't come here by choice. Something drove it out of its own ground—or it's flat-out running for its life."
What could hound a Baron Tiger off its throne?
Shun's mouth quirked. "On these islands, the few things that make your 'forest king' cut and run… yeah, it narrows down fast."
The answer all but announced itself—the Garara Gator.
And not an ordinary one.
A typical Garara Gator sat around Capture Level 5. Stronger than a Baron Tiger, yes, but apexes sharing a zone usually kept to their lanes. Even if they clashed, it wouldn't send the tiger fleeing its core.
"Looks like IGO's intel was right. This target… isn't ordinary."
The tiger, stung by that appraising look—or just desperate for a vent for all that fear—roared and launched, hind legs coiling to hurl its mass at him.
Killing intent crashed forward.
Shun only spared it a sidelong glance.
"No time to play."
He didn't even bother with Flavor Sever. His figure blurred; the pounce sliced empty air. In the cross-step, his right palm brushed the tiger's flank—light as a tap—yet a peculiar hidden force threaded inward.
Thud.
The leviathan jolted like it had been clubbed by an invisible giant. With a pained grunt it skidded, snapped two saplings, and tumbled into a hedge. It floundered up, stared at Shun in naked terror, yelped, and bolted for the outer rim with its tail clamped tight.
Shun didn't watch it go. His attention had already pierced deeper into the woods.
"Garara Gator—here I come."
He kicked off. Speed spiked. He shot like lightning toward the archipelago's more murderous core.
The deeper he went, the louder the story on the ground: gouged claw rakes, ancient trunks shoulder-smashed to splinters, and in the air a thickening musk—something big, something mean.
Even so, the Baron Archipelago was far larger than he'd gauged. IGO had flagged these isles as a danger zone for a reason; their sprawl and maze-like density could swallow the unwary whole.
Dusk bled down.
Sunset strained through the canopy in torn gold, dapple cutting across the understory. The forest took on a dusk-lit hush—half amber, half shadow.
"Tch. Didn't think the island was this huge. By the time I hit the center, it's nearly dark."
He paused, felt the faint drain in his energy and the first, soft tug of hunger, and chose to rest.
He didn't need food anymore if he didn't want it. But the act of eating—that was joy in itself.
Hunger or not had nothing to do with it.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 500 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]