There was a sense of calmness when staring at a burning flame. And the longer you stared, the further you fell in the blazing trance. Yet something broke him away. A few feet away behind him, he sensed something. Quickly, he turned and his grip tightened over the aluminum bat. Yet all that tension washed away as he looked at who it was.

“Chichi?” Leo asked, staring at the woman who was in her lingerie.

She was surprised her ambush failed. Yet her countenance was quick to turn from being astonished to alluring. Her hips swayed as she came closer. Her eyes gazed at Leo with a sultry smile on her plump lips. Slowly she made her way to him without even saying a word. Her body language was telling Leo all about her intention.

Leo gulped a mouthful as his Adam’s apple visibly went up and down.

“Chichi, you’re a beautiful woman. But there’s no need to force yourself like this,” Leo said.

The woman ignored his words and circled around him with her gaze not leaving his eyes. She drew closer and slowly she sat on his lap without resistance.

Their eyes stared at each other in silence as Leo felt the weight of this woman resting on his lap. Her smell was bewitching him even with the absence of perfume. While her arms wrapped around Leo’s neck as he felt the shift of Chichi’s weight as she leaned closer to him. Her lips were right beside his ear as he heard her whisper. “Who said I’m forcing myself?” she said in her raspy tone.

Blood rushed to Leo’s head as the pent-up desire burst right at this moment. His hands grabbed Chichi by the ass as his fingers drowned within those plump flesh. Chichi jolted a bit surprised by the sudden ambush, yet the corner of her lips rose. Her plan was going to work, but then…

Leo lifted her up with his hands still under her booties. “I’m sorry,” he said. Leo aided her to stand, leaving her confused. Chichi didn’t know what went wrong here. She was a beautiful woman and back in her hometown, no one would dare reject her lustrous advance. Men would give a lecherous stare at her while women would envy her. But this man’s action defied her wish and everything she believed.

“It’s not you, it’s me,” Leo said, saying the most cliche excuse for rejecting people. While his eyes wandered on the ground, having little courage to look Chichi in the eye. “It’s just going straight to sex is kinda a big thing for me.” He flashed an awkward smile.

Yet Chichi stood there listless. She couldn’t understand what Leo meant by that.

“It’s not like I don’t like sex, I fucking love it,” he said. Gazing at Chichi in the eye. “But to me . . . sex without love is kinda empty.” His eyes continued wandering back on the ground as those words he spoke reminded him of the past. A small smile hung on his face as he remembered his first love back in high school. The only woman he had been with. A time when love was the sweetest to him.

Chichi frowned. “Pendejo!” she shouted at him and swung a slap right at Leo’s face.

Yet, his agility and perception did its magic and Leo dodged it by a hair-breadth. Chichi glared even fiercer after that miss and her feet were quick to aim right in between Leo’s crotch. The man jumped and landed a few feet away from Chichi with his hands grasping on his balls. “That was close,” he said as he managed to protect his future offspring.

“Ugh!” she stomped her feet in place, fuming in anger. She glared at Leo like a lioness as she couldn’t protect her dignity after misunderstanding Leo’s words. Chichi flicked the middle finger at him and trudged back to the clinic.

“Did she just call me an asshole?” he asked. As his eyes stared at those plump buttocks leaving as he missed his chance of tapping them.

He sighed.

“Huh, I know I’m an idiot, but it just doesn’t feel right,” he said.

While contemplating his life choices, he heard a branch snap. His head immediately turned at the source and his bat was up in the air, readied for a slugfest. He trod slowly on the ground, watching his feet from making breaking a twig. He drew closer as he heard a loud rustling of the thicket. Step by step, his eyes never left that dodgy bundle of leaves.

Then something jumped out.

Leo’s hand quickly swung the bat at ready. He missed and the shadow kicked him right at the head before spinning back to the ground in retreat.

He fell on his butt. As he felt more embarrassed being knocked out by a little tap on the head. And it wasn’t even painful.

‘Shit, I’m going to kill . . . What the?’ his thought changed as he saw what played him like a fool.

‘The fuck is that?’ he sight fell onto the small being the size of a monkey. Its body was like a remnant of a shadow, constantly moving like it was alive. Yet its fiery eyes like the flickering flame of a bonfire were what drew Leo’s attention. It was unlike he had ever seen.

‘Identify,’ he said in his mind.

[???][Lv.???]

[Being from a different plane.]

“What the?…” he took a double-take at this creature and the vague description floating in his eyes. Besides the numerous question marks, the statement of it being from another plane made him wary of this monkey-like creature.

Slowly, his feet shuffled back as his eyes never left the sight of the living shadow with fireball-like eyes. Against a creature like this who was different than the beast he fought, it was advisable to retreat and gather with his friends.

Yet the motion of the shadow creature’s finger made him question its action. ‘It wants me to follow it?’ he asked himself as the creature turned its back on Leo. It slowly walked away back to the jungle, caring less that it might be attacked from behind.

Leo looked back at the clinic and back again to the leaving shadow creature. ‘Should I?’ he asked himself. This might be a hidden quest to a fabled weapon or a unique class that could only be called his own. But there was also a chance that it might be a trap that would lead him to his untimely demise.

“I’m going,” he made his decision. His feet chased after the trail of the shadow monkey. Yet diving into the darkness of the jungle left him missing the monkey’s trail. He stopped and realized how stupid he was following a monkey blanketed by the blackness of a shadow into a night-time jungle.

Leo was about to turn back but a radiant warmth came from the front. He looked and saw what it was. A pair of blazing eyeballs, staring at him in close proximity. The shadow monkey was just a few inches away from his face and rather than tumbling back in surprise, Leo stood still as if falling into a trance. The blazing orange fireball eyes gazed deep into Leo’s heart and mind as if unraveling everything that bottled deep within him.

Then his eyes twitched before completely closing. Breaking away from the beguiling stare of those eyes. He took his time for a while, and slowly opened his eyes back. The shadow monkey wasn’t there anymore replaced by a floating text.

[Would you accept temporary teleport?]

He stared in surprise, not expecting to see such a thing. Leo spun around, hoping to find that shadow monkey. But with the darkness of the jungle, it was a futile effort. Then his sight landed back on the text. He thought things through for a while as this was a whole lot different than chasing after a weird-looking monkey.

“I accept,” he said. It didn’t take long for him to decide. He already took the plunge of chasing the monkey over and it would be a waste of his resolve if he stopped here. Slowly, his body dispersed into nothingness until everything about him disappeared from the world of Xanadu.

* * *

Leo’s feet found the ground and gravity took over. He stumbled on his feet as his extended hand managed to save himself falling face flat on the ground. The man pushed himself back up as he stood up straight. His eyes wandered across the new world he landed in as he found himself in the middle of an open-space-like plaza. It seemed man-made to him as the ground wasn’t merely dirt. “Paved floor?” he questioned. The green mosses in between the spaces of the bricks told how long it had existed. Yet the jagged mountains surrounding him in all directions stole his interest the most. Everywhere he looked, the mountain range spanned from left to right into a full circle.

Then he heard a thud close to where he was. He immediately turned with his bat raised. Yet, what he saw wasn’t what he expected. A woman was on all-four as her foreign language barely registered in Leo’s ear. But from looking how she grasped so tight over her ankle and the pained expression, he assumed the woman was yelling in pain.

By chance, their eyes met, and the woman got up quickly. The painful expression vanished as she stood and stared at Leo with a dead-pan expression. Her body language was telling him she was readied to fight, and that combat knife in her hand was a sign she meant business. She shouted in her language as if meaning to say; get back.

Leo stood still in his place with his bat readied. He wasn’t backing down that easily as he used Identify on the woman.

[Name][Ho Ngoc Ha][Human]

[Level][9]

[Class][Tran Dynasty Warrior]

[HP][176/200]

[SP][85/100]

Leo narrowed his eyes. He shouldn’t underestimate someone with a level and class like this. Even if she did look skinny and frail. In this new world, nothing mattered most than the numbers in your stat window. The woman kept shouting at him in Vietnamese, and this time he wouldn’t be able to communicate like before. Yet before he could show a gesture of peace, a shout from the other side drew both of their eyes.

“Fuck!” a man got up. He kept spitting out the dirt that was in his mouth after that unexpected fall. Unlike Leo, his perception might be too low in expecting the unexpected. Again, this man too was quick in his action. He noticed the prying eyes and got up on his feet. “Don’t make a move, bruv, or else…” he ended his word with his action. The glimmering edge of his spear aimed right in the middle of the two.

[Name][David Kaluuya][Human]

[Level][10]

[Class][Bard]

[HP][499/520]

[SP][255/260]

‘Since when does a bard have that high of an HP? And why is he using a spear?’ Leo couldn’t help but question after seeing the status of this man. And curiosity made his lips parted. “Hey. Why is a bard using a spear?” he asked.

“Because it's…” David stopped his word after realizing something. “Bruv, did you peek through my status window?” David asked with a frown. The man with a big build approached Leo as he didn’t find being Identified as pleasant. Yet before he could take the third step, more shouts and screams echoed through the wide-open area.

Leo’s sight fell upon the new people that kept emerging in this place. All of them were confused, but one thing he noticed, most turned battle-readied as soon as they saw unfamiliar faces around them.

Shouts rang in different languages as the situation was escalating way too fast. As if a volcano was about to blow. But then it appeared. The shadow monkey made its appearance and silenced everything. Then its voice rang in everyone’s mind.

“Welcome to the Trial of the Monkey King.”