Inside a mountain cave, deep within the forest, a man was lying flat on his face, as though he had been knocked to the ground by someone. A meter away from the man, there was also a one-foot-long statue of a blood-red monkey sitting in a meditative posture, lying on the ground.
As sunlight from the small openings inside the cave fell on the man's body, his body twitched, and, as though waking from a deep sleep, he groggily sat up.
The man was wearing a black hoodie, with the cape still covering his head. There was also a silver half-mask on his face, which covered his features below his eyes, giving him an assassin-like vibe.
As the man looked around in confusion, suddenly a severe pain assaulted his head, as though someone was trying to break it open. Clutching his head, within seconds, the man fell back onto the floor, unconscious.
The only thing he could see was complete darkness. Slowly, as the pain lessened, the darkness cleared, and a golden book materialized before him from nothingness.
Before he could even fully see the book, it opened, and his consciousness was dragged into it by a powerful suction force.
...................
In a secluded forest village on Planet Blue Star:
"Hey, Alvin. We found a hive of mutated honeybees in the Wolf Mountain. Are you interested in taking the job? If we sell it on the black market, it's sure to fetch a big sum of money," a lean man with a bushy beard asked a youth who was sharpening his short knife on a rock near the riverside.
The youth looked up at the man and smiled, "Sure. It's Saturday anyway; might as well make some money to pay off the college fees in advance."
The youth's name was Alvin. He was 18 years old. Unlike the lean man standing before him, Alvin had a muscular frame and stood at 182 centimeters.
Though not built like bodybuilders, anyone could easily guess the strength of his arms just by looking at his forearms, which were visible under his skin-tight t-shirt.
Coupled with his handsome face, which looked like it had been chiseled from white stone, and the beautiful smile on his lips, he gave off an immortal like appearance. It was easy to misunderstand him as an easygoing guy.
But only those who knew him closely understood that beneath his easygoing demeanor lay a terrifying beast caged deep within him.
The village Alvin lived in was on the outskirts of a vast forest that spanned thousands of kilometers. The forest was home to a wild variety of animals, from elephants to tigers, lions, snakes, bears, and even poisonous insects.
To protect themselves from these animals and to hunt, the people of the village practiced an ancient martial art called the Monkey Dance from a very young age.
According to rumors, the Monkey Dance is a martial art passed down from the forest gods to the people of the village in ancient times to protect them from the beasts that ruled the forest.
Alvin was an orphan with no knowledge of his parents. It was this lean middle-aged man named Mozi, standing before him, who had raised him since he could remember. Alvin was always grateful to him.
Mozi was usually looked down upon by everyone in the village for being weak and foolish in the past. Even children would beat him up for no reason sometimes.
But as Alvin grew older, it became clear that, unlike Mozi, who was once a weakling, Alvin was exceptionally talented in learning the Monkey Dance.
By the age of 18, he was already the strongest in the entire village. Naturally, Mozi's fame also grew.
Even the village chef now called him Brother Mozi out of fear of being beaten up by Alvin.
"That's great. Blood Warriors are organizing the hunt this time. The people of the Blood Warrior gang asked us to gather at Rui's shop by noon," Mozi said with a silly smile on his face.
Alvin stood up and stretched. "Let's go then. It's already noon. We'll drink some tea and wait for them there."
Mozi nodded, and both of them started walking toward Rui's shop.
Rui's shop was a slightly larger building at the entrance to the forest. Hunters and herb collectors usually gathered here, either for a meal or to drink tea.
After entering the shop, Mozi called out to a waiter around the age of 15 and said, "Get us two glasses of milk tea and two steamed buns, ahan."
The boy nodded with a smile and ran back to the kitchen to fetch the order.
Since it was only noon, there were no other people in the hall of the shop, except for Alvin and Mozi. They comfortably sat at an empty table and began chatting casually, while slowly sipping the tea served by Ahan.