"Never let the society judge your deeds toward others, even toward the wild animal"
Author :(Thank for reading this chapter. If you want more, vote this book, as it will encourage me to continue this story. Anyway, Goodbye and stay safe) :)Please, spread this book and my book to your friends, families and in your social accounts like Facebook. I will be waiting you all. Anyway, stay safe guys
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A pot of soup had been cooked and its smell was so good that Bakar's mouth was dripping with saliva. Khairul finds it disgusting but since he sees a lot, he doesn't mind too much.
Khairul picks up a ladle and stirs the soup as the steam continues to flow through the air. Then, Khairul takes out two bowls and pour the soup into the bowls and gives one to Bakar.
Bakar takes the bowl and devours all the soups as if every dog had his day.
"Aaaah~",said Bakar as he finished his meal.
"Wow, I didn't know you were a big eater. Didn't the canteen provide food for you? I thought zoologists had more free time than the test subjects had", said Khairul.
"Yeah, their food tastes bland, heck I could barely taste anything, unlike your cooking,'' said Bakar.
Although scavenging for metal scraps is considered a common job by many locals, there are still others that they can do. There are four different jobs, not including the scavenge job. The four jobs that are listed are zoologist, engineer, market seller and hunter.
Zoologist, the job that Bakar listed, studies animals and beasts both behaviour and genes. If you hadn't wondered, animals and beasts are two types of entities that possess different kinds of behavior.
Animals are listed for those creatures that are safe, can be farm and won't attack humans. Beasts, however, are more opposites than animals. Beasts are for creatures that had anomalies and unexplained genes. Inside the genes, it gives the creatures special abilities, which they use to self-defense against the enemy, even humans.
A good example we can take from the beast class are the Grizzly Black bear and the Fiery tiger. Well, now you know why the tiger had flames ability and the bear had impregnable defense. We will uncover the remaining three jobs in the other chapter.
"That's why I told you to learn culinary skills in the first place. Although it seems useless at first, it can benefit you in any way that you can think", said Khairul.
In the past, Khairul had mastered the art of culinary from the technique to control fire, to creativity of creating new recipes. He also told Bakar to learn cooking to at least satisfy himself, but he is a stubborn one.
"Well, it's not like I don't wanna learn. It's just that my work hours have been busy recently, so I'm unable to make time to learn it", said Bakar.
"Ooh, so you are too busy because you study woman behavior, aren't you", said Khairul, which caught Bakar off guard.
"Wha-what are you talking about? You spout nonsense. There's no way I have time for women", said Bakar, sweating.
"Oh, then.."Khairul takes out a bouquet of flowers from a bag beside him." What's this? ", he asked.
Bakar is embarrassed and quickly takes the flower from Khairul's grasp and quickly hides it in the other bag. When he turns, he clearly sees Khairul's face reaction when he suddenly takes the flowers from his hand.
"Don't look at me like that, OK?! It's not like I have a crush on someone! I only brought, be-because I want to", said Bakar.
However, now his secret has been leaked, there's no way it could be undone.
"I don't need to know who your crush is. Cause I simply already know who she is", Khairul thought.
After that weird event, they set up their sleeping spot and slept for a while since they had traveled long and far deep in the cave. Plus, venturing deep in the underground tunnel is no joke, which is why there is a shed inside the underground tunnel.
The locals had to build the shed inside it because traveling and walking can be so tiring, even for the animals. Meaning, there are more sheds in the underground tunnel than you could expect.
However, the underground is indeed a dangerous place for someone to venture forward , so they only set up in the place that they have traveled. Even so, it doesn't mean building a shed in an area is a safe zone. As it's mentioned, the underground tunnel is indeed a dangerous place.
Even for our protagonist and his friend…
Not even an hour passes, Khairul suddenly wakes up and gets off from his sleep spot, which was on the floors. But as for Bakar,... In Khairul's eyes, his sleeping position is a complete mess with saliva dripping from his mouth. Let's just say he is currently having a nice dream.
Khairul then walks out the shed and finds the donkey had also fallen asleep. Although it is dark, the sound of rain drops in the underground tunnel is truly a sensation, even if there isn't rain outside. Not to mention the cold wind would add that comfortation, just make sure to remember to pee first,gentleman. Those who stay in the underground tunnel for a night or two, it can cure the 7 sleeping disorders, even your animal could sleep in ease.
He takes out the flashlight he had stored and turns on the light. He walks for a few miles, so that he doesn't go far from the shed. He looks left and right, as if he is looking for something. He isn't. He just simply wants to take fresh air.
Khairul looks at his hand. "Looks like even the cave can't cure my hyper energy body problem. Well, at least I try,"said Khairul. He experienced something phenomenal when he started to work a year ago. When he realized he was working nonstop, he had been at the junkyard for a whole week. Although he collected a good amount of scrap metals, he worried that this anomaly would sooner or later, affect his body. Or maybe he was just being paranoid, so he simply ignored it.
The next day, he once again worked nonstop, only this time he worked for 13 days, more than a week. Even the manager was surprised when he got wind of it. He was able to rest though, only to work for two whole weeks.
In the end, he collects a lot of credits, in exchange for two or three mechs when all the mech batteries are exhausted. He already tried to meet doctors to cure this anomaly but they seemed didn't care about it and was simply diagnosed with insomnia or narcolepsy, or any of the 7 diseases disorders.
He also tried to take medication recommended by them but it didn't seem to affect him at all. He takes the chance of going to the underground tunnel, by using an excuse of hunting. Even that method fails.
Facing conflict in his mind, he had no other ideas on how to deal with it. He just hoped the Fiery tiger, which Khairul and Bakar met their claw marks, would cure it. As its value of the Fiery tiger blood, it can cure any disease that comes in contact with it,including some anomalies.
Khairul stops walking after he is away from the shed 5 miles apart. After seeing nothing, he decides to go back to the shed. Suddenly, he heard a cry. A beast cry. But the weird thing is, it sounds like it is crying for help.
Without a second thought, Khairul runs toward the source and encounters a cub. A Fiery tiger cub. He is speechless.
"How come there was a cub in here? I thought only an adult tiger is here", Khairul thought.
True, they did encounter some of the burn marks and claw marks that indicate it belongs to the Fiery tiger. Even so, not a glimpse of thought, he didn't even think that a young cub would actually live here. Now, it is confirmed.
Khairul tries to get near the cub. From his point of view, he sees that the cub is trapped on a bear trap and one of its back legs was caught on it. The cub sees Khairul and cries to him, pleading for help. Khairul hesitates at that moment.
Khairul sighs. "I really pity you, but you are too young to be saved. Your blood didn't develop enough white blood to cure any disease. Your skin still can be affected by any beast attack, even the flames . I know you are in pain, but if I save you, then the zoologist community will take you and experiment on you. Not to mention the noble people, especially those who love to exotic animals ", said Khairul.
He once again looks at the cub eye. "I'm sorry. I can't save you", he said with a sad tone. He walks away from the cub.
Before he could take another step, he heard the cub cry. Every time he intends to take another step, the crying becomes even louder and louder and each cry it creates makes Khairul difficult to take another step.
He still remembered Bakar advises about saving wild animals.
"Whatever you do and think, don't you ever, I mean literally ever, try to save a wild animal. Even if it's injured. Even if it's just a little cub. Even if it's alone",Bakar words still echo in Khairul ears when he is reminded back.
No matter what, he mustn't not save it or even try to do so. Unfortunately, he doesn't know what reason he can't do in such conditions. Meaning he can't do such a simple action for unknown reasons he didn't even know.
Either it involves the noble and the higher-ups, or if it involves health issues since there barely any clinics exist on this planet. As for the hospital, ask anyone in the vicinity of the planet and you will receive this answer.
What is a hospital? That is the question that would take pity on the people on this planet.
He looks back at the cub that is still stuck in the bear trap. Even though there is a lot of blood beneath the cub, it is still struggling, trying to move even a slight movement. Even if he wants to follow Bakar's advice, he has a soft heart. He can't just ignore those who are in need.
"Damn it. Curse this planet and the higher-ups", said Khairul inwardly.
He returns to the cub and releases it from the bear trap. The cub sees Khairul return and makes it cry of joy. Finally, it can at least rest. But before it can do that, it sees Khairul take out a med kit and open it. Inside the med kit contains a few stuff that is common to have in the med kit.
Khairul then takes out a bottle of syringe water and a roll of bandage. He pours the water on the cub's wound to clean it from infection such as bacteria. Afterward, he closes the wound with the bandage tightly but gently to avoid worsening the cub condition.
Although it looks finished, Khairul doesn't trust what he sees. At first thought, he didn't know how long the cub had been injured and where its parents were. Usually, young children don't wander off too far from their parents. That also applies to animals and beasts.
Seeing no one was around before he arrived, he had two speculations in his mind. First, it is likely that the cub was playing carelessly , accidentally separated from its parents. Second, the cub was curious about something, it followed until it was too deep in the underground tunnel.
However, this speculation didn't fit any of it, as he saw a few herbs laying on the ground.
Upon further inspection, he discovers that it has three types of herbs.
"yarrow, goldenrod, and calendula herb?! Aren't these herbs rare? How come you are able to find these? There's no way it can grow underground, much less at the surface since there isn't fertile soil left", said Khairul in an astonished tone.
The cub just smiles on its cute face. As if finding this rare herb is a pick of cake… I didn't literally mean that 'cake'. Although, I really want one ;p.
Khairul inspects a little more of the herbs. It looks like the herbs were picked a few hours ago before the cub got trapped. Then, a thought passes through his mind. What if the Fiery tiger actually had a child when it got here?
This assumption is befitting from the clues he and Bakar collected. No burning mark, a fierce fight and the place the fight took shows that the Fiery tiger and its cub had just arrived. This explains why the tiger didn't use its flame ability. It is possible that the tiger was worried about accidentally hitting its cub.
Before he could think anything, the cub takes the herbs and walks through the underground tunnel.
"H-hey, wait?! Where are you going?", said Khairul. He stands up and follows the cub.
After a short while, he stumbles across a hole. The cub finds it and goes through it. Thankfully, the holes is barely big enough for Khairul to crawl through.
Without wasting any time, Khairul lies down and crawls through the hole. It seems the hole is quite long too. Even if he is able to crawl, the scent of the soil really disturbs him a lot that at any point he will throw up. Even so, he decides to hold his gut and continue crawling. Bet this is how your mother feels when cleaning your room, isn't it? >:).
When he comes out, he sees something that confirms Bakar's theory. In front of him, there is indeed, a Fiery tiger. But it is badly injured. Its body is full with scars that drain its blood.
The cub walks near to its parent. He softly headbutts it. No response .It headbutt for the second time. Yet the tiger still laid down, unmoving. The cub then looks at Khairul and meows at him.
Meoww
As if the cub asks him for help. Since it knows that it had the medkit that treated its wound, it thought it was possible to save its parent.
Khairul goes near the body and touches it. He thinks that there is, at least, a slight heat in his hand when he touches it. When he does, he is heartbroken. His hand felt a cold like how a dead body would show.
He then looks at the cub with a sad face.
"I'm sorry, it is already gone", said Khairul.
As it is understandable to human language, cub is unable to comprehend the whole situation. It headbutt the tiger head one more time. When its parent reacts to nothing, it's starting to call out to it, begging for any response.
Then, he accepts the situation. Lie down on the floor with any slight hope in its eyes and a solemn face.
Khairul feels sorry for it, as it brings a good amount of herbs that might save the tiger's life. But what happened has already happened. No one can undo it. He collects a full jar of blood from the tiger's dead body that he carries in his duffel bag. He then stores the rest of the tiger in his spatial ring.
He changes his gaze toward the cub and near it. He kneels down the cub afterwards.
"I'm sorry for your loss. It must be frustrating that everything you do to save went in vain, right?", said Khairul.
The cub responds in a sad tone.
Meoww
"Then, how about you come with me?", asked Khairul.
The cub is shocked to hear it.
"And, maybe until you are old enough and I have enough credit to buy a ship, just maybe, I will bring you back to your home. How's that sound to you?".
The cub jumps with joy after knowing he would return to its family.
"Ok, ok, calm down, tiger. First, you can't run due to your injury, so I want you to come and enter my duffel bag first", said Khairul.
The cub is confused about it, but a thought that the human promises to bring back to its home, the cub obeys him.
Just as the cub when in the duffel bag…
Boom!
Both Khairul and the cub are shocked by a sudden event. Khairul tries to see who the heck crashes through the wall. Then, he sees two yellow glow eyeballs, staring at him with an intent to kill the prey. It had a black fur with a few big scars on it and a big two claws that stretched at the size of an adult arm. Its saliva drips down as if it was in a frenzy.
Both Khairul and the cub are shocked to see the whole face of the doer.
"It.. It's a Black Grizzly bear!"Khairul thought to himself at the last minute before he ran.
******
A quiet and peaceful breeze in this
dark room, not even bothering the amount of animals and beasts that inhabit it. The creatures (animals and beasts) enjoy the silent scene and feel nothing could get any wrong.
They are preparing for hibernation when suddenly a loud big sound can be heard afar. They try to get a better view of the scene, but a big debris crashes in front of them in a sudden manner. Soon, other debrises follow and the animals and beasts quickly run for their lives.
Then, they heard a human sound, yelling at the culprit, who was behind throwing the debrises.
"Can you not throw debrises in random directions? I'm at front you, stupid little-".
As if it understands his insult, it smashes a pillar of stone, causing to send debris flying. Thankfully, the human dodge it before it crashes on the ground. The human increases his speed while carrying a cub in his duffel bag.
Without a doubt, it is indeed Khairul and the cub that is being chased by a Black Grizzly bear. He struggles to make sure he doesn't drop the duffel bag that contains the cub while running from a frenzy, murder intention and blood thirsty bear.
The other animals and beasts try to evade the falling debris from falling on them. Unfortunately for some of them, the debris caught them.
Finally, Khairul sees another path ahead of him. He goes there, thinking he could try to lose the bear in it. As he thinks, the bear follows him. He continues running until he stumbles across a thousand pillars, standing on the top, of what seems to be an endless drop, a void to be exact.
"Oh, great. Now I have to deal with this", said Khairul.
In his point of view (POV), there are some pillars that look unstable while the others seem fine. But what worries him is not the pillar itself, not including the unstable one. The one he is worried about is what is above the pillars.
Thousands of medium size spikes, dangling on the ceiling of the underground tunnel, waiting for their prey to be crushed under it. Khairul tries to think of a solution he makes out from his brain.
The bear is getting near to him every second he wastes thinking about something when his own and the cub's life are on the line. Khairul starts to panic, although not as bad as 'his first experience' . To talk about it is not a perfect time, but he knows what he has to do.
He looks at the frightening cub. "Hold on to your tail, little one", said Khairul.
The cub is confused until it suddenly knows it when it sees Khairul is ready to jump. It goes deeper in the bag, praying that whatever the human tries to do work.
"Here we go nothing", thought Khairul to himself as he ran toward the edge of a cliff.
When he is near enough, he jumps toward the first pillar and successfully lands on it. Good thing he manages to land or it would be worse.
That is when he sees the bear arrive. The bear stops when it sees a cliff, a thousand pillars and a human and cub he is chasing for.
"Hah, bet you can't jump, you fat animal. Try to catch us", said Khairul while wiggling his butt toward the bear before he jumps on another pillar.
The bear is annoyed by the human mockery. It turns back from the cliff and heads to the entrance.
Khairul sees the bear's action and releases a sigh of relief, thinking that the bear gives up on him.
He then jumps on the third, fourth and the fifth pillar and so on. A spike falls down from the ceiling but fortunately it is far from him. But it hit on the other pillar.
When the spike diminishes to pieces, Khairul sees a crack on the surface of the pillar.
"Good thing it didn't hit me, or I will either be crushed by it or fall to the void", mumble Khairul.
As he is ready to jump, a huge rumble could be felt and a spike just fell from the ceiling, and it is heading toward Khairul.
Without thinking twice, Khairul immediately goes to the next pillar before the spike lands on him. Thankfully he made it in time. But the pillar that Khairul was standing before, becomes unstable and soon falls to pieces, disappearing from his view to the void.
Then, he hears a roar from afar. The roar seems to be from the cliff entrance. When he looks in the direction of it, he sees the very same Black Grizzly bear, this time, it is on the pillar and on pursuit chasing him and the cub.
Khairul facepalm his face.
"Darn it, I forget it can even move so agile. Its heavy weight did not affect its movement. How could I forget it? ", said Khairul as he went to the next pillar.
Seeing its prey getting further from it, the bear unleashes a roar and attempts to make a huge jump, bypassing three pillars.
This attempt causes the tunnel to shake uncontrollably that at one point, it changes the whole environment. From a lone pillar, to something that can't be described with words. Why? It is because I sucks at this! :()
What I can describe from it is that the whole environment has changed into an environment of a variety of obstacles. It takes an experienced parkour runner to pass these obstacles, even without considering the spike that falls down continuously. Lucky for Khairul, he is an expert of parkour.
He had trained himself to do parkour when he was 12. Even though these obstacles are new, he is confident with his skill, he can make it. And so, he makes his move on to the hard obstacles.
He jumps on one platform to another and uses his grapple to move on when the jump is very far. So far, the bear seems to be falling behind. But, of course. The bear always had something up its sleeves.
It jumps the pillar that resides a spike that is about to fall. At first, Khairul thinks it has finally accepted its fate. As the spike falls and heads toward the bear, only then Khairul realizes what it is about to do.
When the spike is within the bear range, it slash the spike, causing another one, this time it is the biggest, to start to crumble. Khairul knows that if he and the cub are near the ginormous spike, it will destroy this place or worse, bury them alive.
He speeds up his progress until at one point, his skill and experience on parkour is put to a test. It is now about a life and death situation. While Khairul tries to reach the other side, the bear continues slashing falling small and medium spikes and sending it to the ginormous one.
Finally, Khairul manages to find the other side of the void, but at the same time the ginormous spike is about to fall. The bear sees this and makes its way to Khairul and the cub. Khairul speeds up again and prays that he will reach it in time.
"Please make it. Please make it. Please make it!"Khairul thought to himself.
As he is on the final pillar, he jumps high from the ground, but he knows that it isn't enough. He pulls out his grapple and grapples on the ceiling before finally landing on the other side.
He sighs in relief as the ginormous spike now makes its way to the void. As he turns around, his face becomes pale. In front of him stands a bear and it is now heading toward him. Without wasting time, he gets on his feet.
"Seriously, you managed to catch up from that far?! How fast are you?!" Khairul yelled as his life is now on the line.
The bear jumps from the last pillar and unlike Khairul, it doesn't need to grapple. All it needs is some gravity. It passes by the edge and is now heading toward Khairul.
" F**k! It got me! "Khairul thought to himself.
The bear crushes to the ground, leaving a big crater mark on the soil. Khairul and the cub in his duffel bag have been sent flying across the pathway, exiting to a big wide tunnel. Khairul wastes no time to get up and run for his life, after he checks the cub in his duffel bag.
Khairul inwardly cursed his bad luck. The bear was too agile and fast for him to outrun it. Even if he does so, he might be gonna be lost in this underground tunnel and starve to death. That is, till a thought came to his mind.
"Wait,weren't the Black Grizzly bear actually friendly and pampered toward the human? I remember Bakar told me about it before I even planned this hunt. If I'm not wrong, the beast type bear is way more different than the normal bear."
"Everyone knows that animal types have the same behavior as ours back on earth, so it is easy to differentiate the beast type and the animal type".
"However, Black Grizzly bears like to be pampered with humans, unlike the normal one that is shy, not even have a slight desire to be around with us, unless we are near to their food, of course".
"But, Bakar is very sure that there isn't any bear territory here, as there aren't many animal or beast types that would give it enough nutrients, hell, maybe their instinct could tell that there is not even a single animal that could fill its stomach".
"If that is the case, why the heck that bear is acting like a crazy wild beast, as if it has been dosed with drugs..."
"Unless it has been dosed with drugs!!"Khairul thought to himself.
Before he could add anything else, the bear threw a powerful punch, which yet again sent Khairul flying and stopping a few kilometres away from where he was once at.
Khairul's body is overwhelmed stinge of pain due to the bear's powerful attack. He also feels like some of his bones are broken and his head is giving a burn headache, as if his head is bleeding. The cub pops out its head as it feels dizzy.
The bear takes this opportunity to catch its prey. Its mouth starts to drip with saliva and its eyes become redder than before. As it runs, its mouth somehow releases batches of bubbles, made from its own saliva.
Without a doubt, the bear had lost its insanity due to the drug overdose effect. It no longer thinks rationally. It only thinks of devouring its prey before finding another one. Except, the bear didn't release that there was a cub inside the duffel bag.
But, again, the bear did not think rationally. Instead, it doesn't mind having another meal on its table.
The frenzy bear rushes toward the paralysis Khairul, who is still struggling to stand up. Khairul sees the bear running toward him, but he can no longer run fast enough. His leg is now as squishy as noodles. He could only hope a miracle might happen, even if it is impossible.
Then, a very familiar distinguished voice shouted to Khairul.
"Khairul!! Get down!!".
Shoo!!
A spear has been thrown and it goes to the bear's muscular chest that has a few scar marks covering its chest,impaling it in the process. The spear not only impaled the bear's chest, but also its heart. The bear crashes its body to the ground, causing the dirt to cover the area.
Khairul knows that spear to be his, which he can guess who threw it. He looks at the person that throws it.
"Didn't my mother tell you not to wander alone, especially in this cave?", said Bakar with a smile.
"Well, I would be more than just dead if you didn't tell me to get down!"Khairul said as he was still struggling to stand up.
"Woah, Woah, easy there, Khairul. Your body must be hurt. Here, I had some medicine", said Bakar as he handed over some homemade medicine.
"Thanks", Khairul took the medicine and put all of it in his mouth.
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't take it all in one bite. It won't fit-".
Gulp!
Bakar is stunned to see the medicine he gave to him had been eaten in one second. In case you are wondering, Bakar actually gave to Khairul of three pills of painkillers, four pills for blood pressure, three pills to calm the body nerve and four pills of nanotechnology to mend his broken bone or organ that Khairul didn't notice.
Bakar gives Khairul a bottle of water to wet his dry throat. It is a blessing for him when he sees it after running from the bear for quite a long time behind the scene.
Bakar looks at the spear he threw, which effectively kills the bear. He pulls out the spear and takes a look at it. He finds that the spear is actually way better in terms of technology despite it being homemade tech.
"You know what, Khairul? You really are fit to become an engineer. Who would ever think that your homemade tech would actually be more valuable than those junk we always look at. It is no wonder the hunter favors you more than I do", Bakar said.
Khairul smirk at his friend compliment.
"What?! You are jealous that the beautiful captain from squad 67 likes me more than you do?".
Bakar's face reddens when his crush is being mentioned .
"F-f".
"Bakar,watch your language. Their kids are reading this", said Khairul.
Bakar pouts at the fact that this is a novel.
Bakar takes out his knife and cuts out the meat and bone from the bear's fresh dead body. He has also been notified about the possibility of the bear being drugs, so he plans to bring it home to test it, whether it is true or not before selling it to the market.
After treating Khairul with both external and internal wounds, the duo finally made their way out of the cave, but since the bear had destroyed some path when it chased Khairul previously, they had to take a longer route which would take two days at least to reach the entrance.
(Thank for reading this chapter. If you want more, vote this book, as it will encourage me to continue this story. Anyway, Goodbye and stay safe) :)