Chapter 2 - A Mysterious Man

This is strange. I am speechless, I never had this feeling before. I am drowning in his eyes finding my breath taken away - not only because his eyes are beautiful, but also because I think they are familiar. Maybe they are right that all encounters are reunions after a long separation.

I probably look so stupid, lost and dirty. The man narrows his eyes at me.

“Still keeping your camouflage on?” He put his sword back, “Why didn’t you take the action? You had it at perfect timing.”

The dead giant python’s head lies on the ground behind him. Thick blood keeps running into the ground.  

He looks ruthless.

“It’s only a 3-point monster, should be a small piece of cake for all of us.”  Suddenly, a small transparent screen showed up near his chest. He is scanning at the screen. I can’t see what is written on it clearly, but I really am having a hard time comprehending everything.

Does this technology exist?

I wants to talk but I have so many questions in my chest that I don’t even know where to begin. Frist of all, I don’t know if I should trust this man.

My silence makes him frown, “If you are injured, you should have removed your camouflage to get proper treatment.” He seems to have little patience, “Which team are you in?”

Sorry if I forget to mention, this man is beyond handsome. if this book is my own diary, I probably will spend 3 full pages on how handsome and fit this man is – not to mention he is uniformed. There is a sense of sharpness and boldness on him that triggers me. It is too much to say I am totally turned on, but you get what I mean.

“…. Which. Team.” He tries control it, but I can clearly tell he can run out of patience at any second.

“I, uh, I don’t belong to any team, sorry.” The fact that this man tried to hold his temper makes me finally find it safe to talk.

Under his suspicious look, I hunch my shoulder, “I woke up in this forest and I am supposed to find my family here. Thank you very much for saving me earlier.”

“You can’t wake up to be here.” He gives me a cold-eyed stare; I am again speechless. “This entire planet has been blocked for military use a month ago. To ‘wake up’ here, you are rather an official cadet or a top assassin with unknown objective.”

My eyes turn like saucers. After all these, a top assassin?

Ok, hot cadet makes me speechless, but now I am not.

“Excuse me? Sir, please use your eyes. I can’t be an assassin with freaking pajamas and slippers broken into pieces!” I immediately stretch my feet out; they are covered with scratches.

To be honest, I’d rather redo my final exams 10 times than be here. I look at his stony expressionless face straight, “Pardon me, did I hear you say, ‘The entire planet’? How big of an army are you to take a whole planet?”

I think he must be exaggerating.

“134 salubrious planets A+, 289 liveable planets B+, and 466 supply planets to be exact are our territories.” Surprisingly, he looks back at me, and answers with his forever poker face, “You should know better, from kindergarten textbook.”

I think this man is out of his mind.

“I must be dreaming.” I decide to leave this man. I shouldn’t stay here for long anyway, if this is a dream, I need to find a way out. There must be a way out.

It is now blindly dark in the forest.  I can’t really see what is in the front, but they say that you wouldn’t get hurt if you are in a dream, or even better - that’s exactly how to exit the dream.

The man gently follows behind me. He is not worried about the chance I might successfully escape at all.

This is making me mad.

“I’m afraid you now have to come with me.” I can hear his combat boots making rustling sound on dried leaves, “your objective remains unknown. The appearance of yours could from a higher level of camouflage tool prohibited for business trading publicly.”

“I need to give credibility for your precise behaviour and facial expression control. It matches your camouflage flawlessly.” He takes a solid step blocking my way. “You would succeed at any other locations, unfortunately in here, your very existence is the biggest concern.”

This man needs to learn how to stop talking. Talkative man is never attractive.

I am very upset, and I had enough about his assassin theory.

“Every inch you are seeing here is 100% real, breastfed, outraged human being.” I stretch out one arm under his eyes; he even dodges a little as my arm almost hit him; forcing him to touch me.  “If you don’t believe me, then touch my arm, hand, fingers wherever you like.”

In the dark night, his eyes are oddly glowing like two cold-lighted bulbs.

Like a dog. I get that strange imagination of a giant dog staring at her in dark night, or more like a wolf.

Well, they say that you can’t hold your fantasy in your dream, so I am not really surprised.

Within a second, I feel a warm hand touches mine, and it slowly become a casual handshake. It almost feels surreal but in this cold night, the warmth of his hand distracts me so much; I can barely stand it.

“There you have it.” I quickly withdraw my hand out but was then tightly grabbed back. But within the next second, I feel my leg is entangled under the rotten leaves and something powerful is dragging me down.  

Through the connected hands, the man immediately pulls me up. I irrevocably bump into his chest.

Ouch.

How many hours did this guy spend in the gym? I rub my nose.

His sword is unsheathed in a lightning speed like a shiny light in the dark. The unknown powerful creature screams, and at the same time, I feel the tie on my ankle is gone. He holds my waist, effortlessly dodges a few quick steps, with a dash; I doubt he is using his full speed; he easily jumps up and lands on a tree branch. 

He must have jumped over three or four floor height. I know how high those tree branches are.

Up in the air, I don’t dare to move an inch now. I seriously doubt if this is a safe spot.

“It is bigger than I thought.” I hear his husky voice just above my head. I curiously look down but only see pure darkness.

But this man seems to see through darkness with no problems at all.

“Who is, what is she?” I can’t see anything besides his glowing eyes in the dark.

“An evil creature, a dominant killer, the owner of a particular range of land.”

I have to admit that all these titles sound really cool. I need to know what the name of this evil creature is.  

This time, it takes him longer time to respond. He apparently is having a hard time trying to describe the creature.

After a few seconds of silence, “*$A%K@#s” A laborious and complicated language comes out of his mouth.

“From native language, meaning black-dressed bride of evil.”

“Okay…now you are making me more curious.” I sign.

“…Hold still.” He let me go off his chest and falls from the tree branch. The forest cold air flows into my chest; I finally realize that I just glued with a stranger for a solid period.

I must be out of my mind. My attention cannot help to slip down to that man I don’t even know the name of.

In the pure darkness, only his glowing eyes sometimes show up from far or from near.

With a bizarre tapering scream, the night completely quiets down. Like an apple drops on the ground, he returns by my side again on this branch.

I think he must have finished the evil creature, but I still confirm with him just to be sure.

“Temporarily.” He answers, “when the moon becomes full in the next round, she will wake up again from underneath.”

Automatically, the transparent screen pops up near his chest again. I notice it always shows up when he defeats something.

Feels like some sort of leaderboard. 

“We have to return back to the base camp at once.” He closes the screen, caught me right by the waist.

“Wait, wait!” I am like a struggling chick being hold in a wolf’s mouth