Journey Alone(1)

He's transported to an everglades, balance standing on a small canoe that can only hold two persons.

Josh was followed by Bunny and Zen, both is floating beside him. He sat on the boat while eating his bread, looking around attentively, he can feel that some beings are looking at him as if he's some sort of delicious meal.

" S. . .Second Master, you almost forgot about this" Zen said and gave the small ring to Josh, hesitant in calling a mortal a master.

Josh accepted the ring and asked " Is Ace proposing to Mako-senpai?" he asked, but instead of answer, Bunny and Zen just laughed out loud.

". . ."

' Why?, why are they laughing?' Josh asked the little creature watching the two laugh.

" That's because, that guy can't even say a proper confession, how can he possibly propose" The little creature answered. Last and first time Daniel confessed, he begged her to choose his first friend instead of him who doesn't understand what love is, and instead of " I love you", he said " I have a fetish for you".

" Then what is this for?" Josh asked as he look at the beautiful design of the ring.

" That's the same as your bracelet, the only difference is that, Master, you who have the bracelet can only summon Male creatures from that guy's "zoo", while the owner of that ring can only summon Female creatures" It explained.

"Wait. . . there are female creatures in the hidden army? Why is he only summoning males? is he thinking about girls being weak? " Josh asked again.

" That. . . He would rather get mocked by the guys than get sexually harassed by the girls. Either way isn't important to him though, he can win any fight without them, he's just collecting them to make them do all the works so that he can slack off"

" oh. . . ." he chewed the bread again and put the precious ring inside his 'bag'.

He finished eating and now started to paddle, when suddenly. . . He stopped. He looked at the front end of the canoe and saw an alligator. He paddled back but it stopped again, there's nothing in the back though.

" Caw, Caw, Caw"

Crows suddenly cawed, it echoed all around him, causing him to look around and be wary.

" . . . Why are there crows in this everglade??" Josh asked.

A duck suddenly swim across their front and dip its head to the brownish water, some time passed and the duck raised its head with the tail of the snake inside its mouth.

". . ."

The duck lift its head up to chug the snake's body down to its throat, moments had passed and the head of the snake can finally be seen, slowly getting swallowed by the ducks beak.

' What. . . am I looking at right now?' Josh asked himself in his mind, he's frozen on the spot when the duck suddenly glared at him, as if it's asking " What are you looking at? Gott a problem with me?!"

Josh turn to his right to avoid eye contact with the duck, the duck still follows him with a stare as it swim away. On the right, he saw a fish eating the alligator alive, as if the alligator is dead, it doesn't fight nor struggle, it just let the fishes kill them slowly, what's more surprising is that, the fishes aren't even piranhas, they're just crappie fishes.

" So the prey are the new predator and predators are the new preys. . ." he murmured as he look away.

[For figuring out the game's second 'shortcut' you are rewarded with 3,000xen]

He didn't even see the screen that appeared three seconds ago. . .

Startled and bewildered from the sight of the alligator and fish, he quickly look down to the water, a bubble popped and a head of an alligator followed, floating, unattached from its body, he gulped and look to his left and was stunned, his eyes widened.

A snake is straightly looking at his eyes, as if it's planning on hypnotizing him. Zen, instead of killing it, he handed a weapon to Josh, it's a chopper knife.

Josh instinctively accepted the knife and sliced the head of the snake, causing the body of the snake that's clinging on the tree fall into the shallow water, the head of the snake that he thought was dead suddenly open its closed eyes, at the same time as gaping its mouth wide enough to reveal two fangs that's where venoms are leaking, soon, it closed its eyes and mouth, like flower wilting slowly, it died. His hands trembled from realizing what he just do, he killed a living being!. The regret and his guilty conscience will lasts forever.

[You have killed the king of snakes, all snakes has been slain in one go.

reward money: 100,000xen]

As the notification screen disappeared, snakes started falling down from trees to trees, resulting the shallow water be covered by the piled cold bodies of snakes.

Though the canoe can't be propelled anymore because of the snakes blocking the way, Josh remained inside the canoe, simply because his guts told him not to leave. He trust his guts more than any plan in the world so. . .

As the last one snake was dropped, the sky suddenly darkened and it rained heavily, then splashes of water can be heard everywhere, making Josh even more cautious than before.

Everything suddenly went quiet and calm, as if the violent wind from before was nothing but a props using a electrical fan where you can stop it at will.

He gripped the boat's side and balanced himself to be ready for the impending burst of water.

Eight tides suddenly cornered him from afar, it's getting closer and closer with its wall-like hights .

Bunny and Zen are just watching from above, they are not going to voluntarily help since they are following a rule where they are not allowed to meddle with something they're not ordered to take action of.

Josh closed his eyes as he wait for the waves to stumble his canoe.

*Whoosh* ( air suddenly gusting all over the place, making the waves bigger, higher, and faster than it is.

[Holy shield(water resistant) has been activated]

The canoe was turned upside down by the giant waves as the shallow water turned deep.

Josh sank.

Josh, instead of getting scared, is so amazed that he can breathe under water and that his clothes are all dry. He looked up and saw the light, another canoe seems to be shadowing him from above.

A girl dived in and took him to the shore.

" Hey, are you alright? Where is he?" Mako asked Josh who's looking at her surprisedly and confusedly.

*Whack!*

" Oi! What are you looking at? She's already taken, dumbass~" Said Karin with her left eyebrow raised high after hitting Josh at the back of his head.

" Huh? Ah! No! That's not it! I was just surprised that you two are here, didn't you say that you were in the stinkworm cave?, Shouldn't you two be in the dungeon ranked E where there are Sirens? Why are you guys here?" Josh asked continually.

The two girls looked at each other and Mako laughed awkwardly.

" We're suppose to be at the S ranked dungeon already, but the sudden notification came and gave us a bad feeling, we're just going to reset two dungeons but an accident occured when I asked what's so good about that asshole(Daniel), she accidentally pushed the button where we reset them all" Explained Karin while pointing at Mako with her thumb with a smug grin imprinted on her face. "So how about you?, The two of you are just this far? (sneer) how pitifully pathetic" she added a mock.

Players can reset their finished game to either stay inside that floor or change the highest time record of their last game, but in their case, it's also possible.