Michael hurriedly made his way out of Ming Su's office, the sharp sound of the door startling the nearby doctors mid-task.
Recognizing him, they quickly bowed their heads and offered respectful salutes.
He walked past them without a word—more pressing matters consumed his thoughts. Relying on the memories stitched into his mind, he headed straight for the entrance of the base.
As he stepped outside, a cool breeze tousled his hair. The rustling of leaves and the rich scent of earth filled the air, awakening his senses.
Though pressed for time, he couldn't help but pause for a moment. Back in his original world, sights like these were rare—swallowed up by concrete jungles and artificial skylines.
A faint smile crept onto his face.
"Sir, is there any issue?" a voice interrupted.
Michael's eyes narrowed, his mood instantly soured.
The guard flinched under his glare, instinctively reaching for his sheathed blade—a movement Michael didn't miss.
Realizing his mistake, the man quickly bowed, panic in his voice.
"I'm sorry, sir. Please forgive my offense."
Michael sighed inwardly and turned away.
He had already wasted enough time. If he didn't act fast… there might be nothing left to save.
Leaving the bowing guard and the outpost behind, Michael slowly increased his pace, intent on reaching his destination in a day and a half.
The overhanging sun shone it's light with fierce intensity, it's light pierced through the hanging canopy of leaves.
The buzzing of insects and crunching of dead leaves under his feet quickly annoyed Michael, his brows quickly furrowing themselves into a frown.
'i definitely didn't think this through' he thought as sweat started to drop from his forehead.
The sun's heat, plus the natural uneven landscape and bountiful insect life served as agents of energy wastage.
He hadn't even left the outpost for five minutes, and he was already contemplating going back. The earlier review he had for the natural beauty disappeared as he was now wishing he had a car with him.
Shaking his head to clear all disturbing thoughts, Michael decided to push on as he felt like if he contemplated this matter further, he would definitely go back and send a team out.
He travelled under the canopy of trees and uneven terrain until he saw the sun going down on the horizon. At this point, Michael's breathing was laboured and his clothes were sticking to his body from sweat.
Seeing the sun going down, he quickly found a place to sit down underneath a very big tree, deciding to rest for the night.
As quickly as the sun started going down, not long after the sun disappeared into the horizon, with it bringing blistering cold.
Michael was once again left speechless as he was now huddled up against the tree, searching for warmth.
'Was nature always this temperamental?' he thought. He remembered when he would occasionally see his younger brother watching natural geographic and they would talk about places that were very temperature fragile.
Back then he thought the reporters and scientists were exaggerating, but experiencing it first hand was truly an eye opener.
Snap!
Michael's train of thought was broken by the sound of wood breaking. He kept to his feet, stumbling as he did, before grabbing rain. His eyes scanned through the surrounding tree line, the surrounding trees and pitch darkness not helping his case.
Like that, the already silent forest became errie. After about five minutes, his fatigue overcame his adrenaline. His tense stance became slightly loose, and his arm holding rain lost its grip.
At that moment, a splitting headache assaulted him from the back of his head. On instinct, Michael launched himself towards the right into a bush.
Not long after, a big silhouette came smashing the place he once stood.
Boom.
The tree he once rested on exploded into splinters as a huge chunk of the trunk was blasted away. In its place was a thick furry paw.
Tracing the paw to the owner, Michael gulped in spit he didn't even know had gathered.
A huge black bear, towering over him, stood glaring daggers at him. It's eyes showing various emotions, betraying it's intelligence.
The beast traded alternating glances between the now destroyed trunk, to the human it had wanted to kill in on fell swoop. As if coming to terms that it's sneak attack had failed, the beast let out a deafening roar.
"Grrrahhhhh!"
The roar made Michael's ears ache, and his vision began to blur. His danger sense was making his head throb in pain, and as time passed, the pain only increased.
Getting the hunt, Michael kept to his feet, this time managing not to stumble, before dashing into the distance. His destination, he didn't know. All he knew was that he had to get away from whatever that thing was because he refused to believe a normal bear would be able to do that to a tree trunk.
The image of the once mighty tree trunk scattering apart into toothpicks had frightened him to his core. Forget about poison, if he didn't escape now, then he was going to die anyway even faster than before.
*Thump Thump Thump Crash*
The sound of heavy footsteps sounded out behind him, followed by the sound of wood breaking. Without looking back, Michael could already make an accurate guess on what was pursuing him.
Gathering more energy, Michael changed his direction. Instead of heading downhill, where gravity was in both their favours, he decided to head up the mountain. Hoping the trees and uphill terrain would help him escape.
For a while, his plan seemed to have worked as the sound of wood breaking increased, while the thumping foot steps became distant. That was until he heard another sound that made his already slim chance of survival even slimmer.
*Rooooarrrrr*
Michael almost stumbled to the floor, only managing to catch himself before he fell down. The pain in his head multiplying by four. This time instead of the pain coming from the back of his head, it came from three directions.
His back, his left and his right. At this point, if he hadn't understood how his danger sense worked, then he would have to be an absolute fool. From all the danger he has been through he had a kind of accurate grasp of how his strange talent worked.
And just the thought of this made his back get drenched in sweat. Glancing towards his right, he saw two golden slits moving in tandem with him, causing his breath to hitch in his throat.
The beast to his right moved with inhuman agility, not making a sound as it shuffled through the forest.
What scared Michael more was that if not for his danger sense warning him, he wouldn't have known what hit him until it was too late.
The golden eyes showed a flicker of emotion when they saw Michael staring at it, clearly surprised the human had seen it. Knowing the gig was up, the beast stopped hiding it's tracks.
With a burst of speed, the beast cleared multiple feet in a couple of seconds, it's hind leg muscles compressed together like a spring about to explode, before pouncing at him.
Michael couldn't even react as the beasts speed was too fast for him to react. But whether by luck or divine intervention, Michael managed to trip of a rock, sending him tumbling to the ground, narrowly avoiding death.
The beast which now revealed itself to be a tiger helplessly soared in the air, hitting nothing before landing loudly on its feet.
Dust rose into the air, making the already dark night even darker.
"Huff... Huff... Huff" Michael's lungs burned in exhaustion as his body refused to move an inch further. He didn't realise it before, but as he was running away, several branches had scratched him in various places, causing blood to flow.
Realising it now, he finally understood why other predators had come. The smell of blood was like a beacon of light in the darkness.
"Haha..." Michael let out a small laugh at his situation. "Turns out I was not destined to survive after all."
Accepting his fate, Michael laid there, not planning on prolonging his death anymore, after all if he wasn't going to die by poison, he was going to die by animal slaughter.
His only hope was that the tiger was going to be quick with it.
The tiger seeing it's prey unmoving, cautiously approached it, when another animal launched at it, climbing on the tigers back, before biting into its neck, ripping out a huge chuck of meat in tbe process.
"Skrraaawwwr!" The tiger roared out in pain as it launched itself into a tree, sending the creature on its back flying.
Michael from his prone position, watched this with wide eyes. He then suddenly remembered that his danger sense had warned him of three things, not two.
Observing the creature, Michael was once again stumped at how dangerous this one was also.
With pitch black skin that blended into the darkness, to the long and agile limbs that had sharp silver claws that glinted dangerously in the dark night.
The creature looked like a natural born assassin. It's dark red slitted eyes screamed of natural danger.
The tiger who was now badly injured glared daggers at the new comer, completely forgetting about Michael.
Just when things were about to get heated, a tree branch suddenly exploded into splinters as the tall frame of the massive bear appeared.
The towering bear glared at the tiger and the night beast, as if sizing them up. In response, both animals also tensed up, ready to react to any situation.
With all that was happening, no one payed attention to the little human panting on the ground, a situation Xiao Ren was glad for.
Sending what was about to happen, a grim smile crept up his face as his brain came up with a plan to turn such a grim situation into an opportunity.