"What makes you think I know that?!" Ena snapped. "What's up there above the clouds clearly doesn't make sense! How can there be floating islands like that?! And where are we now?!"
"This is strange... we were clearly at that hospital earlier..." Eman muttered while holding his still-dizzy head. "What actually made us end up here? Could it be we're underground? That's clearly impossible, how could there be a night sky like this underground!"
"Maybe this is a dream! "Yes, that must be it. I hit my head earlier when I fell, now I'm unconscious, and this is all a hallucination from a brain lacking oxygen. I just need to sleep and wake up later in a real hospital!"
With that forced conviction, Eman began lying back down on the grassy ground, closing his eyes with both hands.
"What are you trying to do?! HUH?!" Ena immediately lunged and roughly pulled Eman's jacket collar. "THIS IS CLEARLY NOT A DREAM! SO STOP TRYING TO LIE BACK DOWN LIKE A CRAZY PERSON!"
Eman opened his eyes, staring at Ena. "Even if you say that... still... "Where are we actually? This isn't Malaysia, not Indonesia, not any country I've ever known. So... so what about the stuff we brought?"
Just realizing this, Eman immediately looked around frantically, searching for their black backpack. He found it—the backpack lying about five meters from their position, with its contents scattered on the ground. He crawled closer.
"Oh no..." Eman picked up his main phone—its screen severely cracked with a spider web pattern, and when he tried to turn it on, there was no response. Completely dead. "All the things I ever bought are now destroyed... everything..."
"All... all the effort I made to buy all this... Destroyed like this! Just like that!"
SMACK!
Ena hit Eman's head with an open palm.
"Ouch! Why'd you hit me?!"
"Do you think that's important now?! HUH?!" "You lost electronic devices, okay, I understand that's painful! But now our priority is survival! We need to know where we actually are! We need to know how to get home! Or at least, we need to know how not to die in this strange place! Gadgets can be bought again, but life is only once, stupid!"
"You're right. Now's not the time for this—"
TAP. TAP. TAP.
The sound of heavy footsteps came from the darkness of the forest to their left.
Eman and Ena immediately froze in place.
"What sound is that...?" Ena whispered.
And at that moment, from behind the thick trees, a figure emerged that shocked them.
A creature with a large body—nearly three meters tall—stepped out from the shadows. Its skin was green, covered with scars. Its muscles bulged in every part of its body. It held a large wooden club with both its massive hands. Its red eyes stared sharply at both of them.
"Eman..." Ena's voice trembled. "That... what the hell is that—"
She didn't get to finish her sentence.
The creature suddenly moved with a speed that something that size shouldn't possess. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of Ena, raising its wooden club high above its head with both hands, ready to strike.
WHAM!
Eman quickly pushed Ena's body to the side, making Ena fall hard to the ground but successfully avoiding the deadly blow. The giant wooden club struck the ground right where Ena had been standing a few seconds ago, creating a small crater and sending dirt and stones scattering in all directions.
"This isn't the time to be shocked and frozen like a statue!" Eman shouted. "Wake up quickly! We have to run from here now! I don't want to die crushed by... whatever that creature is!"
"Eman, behind you!" Ena screamed in panic.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
From behind Eman, several arrows with sharp arrowheads made of obsidian stone shot out, aimed directly at his back and head. But Eman managed to dodge all of them with quick movements. He ducked, rolled to the side, jumped, and all the arrows missed narrowly, sticking into the ground or hitting tree trunks.
"There are many of them!" Eman shouted while trying to regulate his breathing. Cold sweat ran down his temples. "They're coming from up in the trees! I can't see clearly because it's dark and it's night time! Ena, focus on the situation! Don't freeze!"
And sure enough, when they looked up, they could see several small silhouettes moving among the branches of the tall trees. Small figures.
The giant creature with red eyes raised its club again, this time aiming at Ena who was still half-sitting on the ground, still not fully recovered from shock.
Ena saw the giant club descending toward her. She knew she had to move. But her body wasn't responding. Her legs felt numb. Her hands trembled. This was the first time in her life she faced a threat like this.
Ena closed her eyes, prepared to accept the impact that would end her life.
But nothing happened.
Only the sound of a hard collision echoed in her ears.
Ena slowly opened her eyes.
A tall guy with slightly long black hair stood in front of her. His right hand was raised upward, stopping the giant wooden club with his bare hand.
"Your body won't move, huh?" the guy said in a casual tone. "That's natural. After all, this is the first time you've seen a creature like this, right? It's natural to freeze. But next time, try to be able to run!"
"Aliff?!" Eman and Ena were shocked by Aliff's appearance out of nowhere.
"This isn't the time to be shocked seeing me, Eman!" Aliff snapped while glancing to the side. "Focus!"
"Huh?! Oh, crap!"
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Arrows came again toward Eman, some aimed at his head, some at his chest, some at his legs, trying to close off all escape routes. But Eman, thanks to the martial arts training he'd once taken, could dodge all the incoming arrows.
"My martial arts training wasn't in vain! "But... how do I defeat those up in the tall trees?!"
Aliff glanced briefly up at the trees.
"Orcs, huh?" Aliff muttered. "So this is another world? Looks like it's pretty clear now."
Aliff moved his right hand that was still holding back the giant Orc's club. With a twisting motion, he shattered the wooden club with just the pressure of his grip.
CRAAAACK!
(!)
The giant Orc looked shocked seeing its weapon destroyed like a dry twig. Its red eyes widened.
The Orc roared angrily and immediately swung its massive fist toward Aliff's face.
Aliff looked like he didn't want to dodge. He instead raised his right hand and advanced—meeting the Orc's punch with his own.
Fist met fist.
BOOOM!
The collision sound echoed like thunder, creating an air wave that made the surrounding leaves tremble and dust fly up.
But the result was unbalanced.
The Orc was thrown backward several meters, its feet dragging on the ground creating a long groove.
The Orc's right arm... was destroyed.
Its bones broken at various angles. Its skin torn revealing flesh oozing thick green blood. Its fingers bent in wrong directions. The creature roared in pain.
"Hey, hey, I know you're strong, but..." Eman who witnessed everything from the side couldn't help but be shocked. "...was that really a punch from a human!"
"You're surprised?" Aliff glanced at Eman with a flat look. "From the start I've been stronger than you!"
"Aliff, how can you be here too?" Ena finally stood up with legs still slightly trembling. "Weren't you in your room?"
Aliff didn't answer that question. He instead asked back, "Did you tell your mother when you were going out tonight?"
Ena fell silent.
"Ah, well, from your facial expression, I already know the answer. So no need to explain further," Ena said while avoiding Aliff's gaze, her face slightly reddening from embarrassment.
"You're really stupid, aren't you?" Aliff sighed. "Haven't you ever told your mother every time you go out at night for those explorations?"
"How would I know that mother would come to the block to check on me! "Besides, if I told her, I clearly wouldn't be able to do what I wanted to do! Mother would definitely forbid it strongly! You know yourself how strict mother is when she forbids something, right?"
"So... so..." Eman pointed at Ena with a trembling finger. "All this time you've been lying to me?! You always said you had permission from your mother every time we did these exploration live streams! You... Do you want me to get in big trouble?!"
"Is there any normal mother who would want her daughter to do dangerous things like this?" "You're so easily fooled! I thought you already knew that was a lie. You're too naive, Eman."
"How cruel to a friend who fully trusted you!"
"Well, I really didn't expect mother to come to the girls' block to check on me. "We live in different places—me in the girls' block, you and Aliff in the boys' block. I guess mother must have asked the people living there after not finding me!"
The three of them lived in a place called a block—a five-story building divided into two separate structures: the boys' block and the girls' block, standing side by side separated only by a small road and a dividing fence. Each block had dozens of rooms.
Each room housed two people, equipped with two single beds, one en-suite bathroom, a wardrobe, and a small kitchen with an electric stove and mini fridge. The facilities were simple but adequate for students.
The block was very close to their university campus—only a ten-minute walk—that's why they chose to live there. Cheap, close, and comfortable enough.
Eman and Aliff occupied the same room on the third floor of the boys' block.
GROOOOARRR!
The giant Orc whose right arm was destroyed suddenly tried to flee, running staggeringly toward the depths of the forest.
"Looks like you know I'm far stronger than you, that's why you're trying to run, right? "But did I say you could leave?"
And at that moment, the Orc looked back toward Aliff with a look that—appeared very angry.
"Hey, I don't know if this is just my feeling or not, but he seems really angry after hearing what you said earlier, you know?" Ena commented.
"He clearly doesn't understand our language, right?" Eman asked with a doubtful tone. "How can he be angry if he doesn't understand?"
"Looks like you're starting to calm down now, that's good!" Aliff said.
"Yeah, I guess I'm starting to calm down now—wait, this isn't the time for that, look at him now!"
The Orc suddenly stopped running. It turned to face them, its chest expanding, and—
"UOOOOHHHHH!!!"
A loud roar echoed throughout the forest. The sound was so loud it made their ears ring.
"Hey, isn't that too loud?!" Eman protested while covering both ears with his palms. Ena did the same, even with an uncomfortable expression.
Only Aliff looked completely normal.
From atop the trees, the rustling of leaves grew louder. Small shadows moved quickly.
"Duck now!" Aliff commanded.
Eman and Ena immediately dropped their bodies to the ground, ducking as low as possible.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Dozens of arrows shot from all directions. Far more than before. It seemed there were many more Orc archers hidden in the darkness.
But Aliff didn't duck.
Instead, he moved.
Aliff spun his body in a circular motion. His hands moved in a blur—so fast they created double images in the air.
One by one, the arrows shooting toward him were caught with his fingers. None missed. Every arrow was caught.
In less than three seconds, Aliff was holding more than twenty arrows in both hands.
And—Aliff threw all those arrows back toward the source of the shots at a speed far exceeding the original speed from the Orcs' bows.
WHOOSH! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
The sound of arrows piercing bodies could be heard.
From atop the trees, small Orcs hit by their own arrows. One by one their bodies fell from tree branches dozens of meters high, hitting the ground or branches below them. Some still moved weakly after falling. Some no longer moved at all.
In a matter of seconds, all the Orc archers in the trees had been neutralized.
"Crazy!!!" Eman stood up, his eyes staring at Aliff with a mixture of admiration and shock. "Isn't this too crazy?! How could you throw all those arrows accurately?! Are you actually human or a war machine?!"
Aliff looked at Eman with a flat gaze.
"Can you please be quiet now? "This isn't the time for long-winded talk!"
"Yeah, yeah, you're right, but you're also talking now, aren't you?" Eman replied in a slightly annoyed tone.
Aliff ignored that comment and shifted his gaze toward the giant Orc trying to flee from them. The creature had already run quite far.
"After attacking me, now you want to run away just like that?!" Aliff bent down and picked up one of the fist-sized rocks lying on the ground. He gripped it with his right hand, then took a throwing stance—left foot forward, body slightly twisted backward, right hand pulled back like a baseball pitcher.
And then Aliff threw it.
WHOOOOSH!
The rock flew straight, not deviating even slightly from its path.
SPLAT!
The rock struck the back of the giant Orc's head. The creature's head immediately exploded. The Orc's large body was thrown forward several meters from the throw's momentum before finally falling face-first to the ground, motionless.
"Alright, now I'm really not sure you still fall into the category of normal human," Eman said.
Ena walked closer. "I'm clearly very shocked to see you defeat them all so easily. I admit, that was very... impressive," she said while crouching near one of the small Orcs that fell from the tree. "But what's more important now—how can you be here with us?"
"You already know and still want to ask? Your mother was the one who told me to look for you. Your mother and I already know each other. I work at a cafe, your mother's shop, and I accidentally met her when I was going to buy something, so I came to that hospital because Eman already told me he was going to that hospital!"
"Whoa, I didn't expect you to work there. Yeah... I haven't been there in a long time so I didn't know you worked there!"
"So... What can we do now? We're clearly in another world now. I don't know if other worlds really exist or not, but... Looking at what's up there... This is clearly another world!" Ena said.
Aliff was thinking with both hands in his pants pockets. He looked very thoughtful.
"Whatever it is, we have to get out of this forest first and find the nearest city for us to stay in."