Chương 2: The Predator Protocol

The world slowed down. My brain was not processing faster than my body was moving. There was just one thing telling my brain over and over again, and that was. RUN! JUST RUN! My body responded on instinct. My chest tightened and I just ran without thinking. Those massive footfalls, those vibrations. THUD. THUD. Shook me, deeply. How is this T-rex here? I wasn't able to think straight. My breath was catching up to me. What do I do? There is no way I can out run it. The tree behind dropped to the ground.

I didn't look back; I just kept running. Where can I…. where…. My eyes looked around eagerly. Wait… there. I ducked underneath the branch, away from its vision. But then I stopped and hid behind the tree. I knew running without thinking would get me killed. It was the apex predator. It's in its nature to hunt. And it was hunting me. Even though it was a few meters away, that voice haunted me. I couldn't think clearly. The echo of its roar was loud enough to make the entire forest go silent.

SURVIVE THE PREDATOR OR KILL IT. TIME REMAINING: 00: 58: 23"An hour! That beast will hunt me for an hour!" I covered my mouth with my hands. The T-Rex roared, and its voice echoed... It was frightening. That roar made me drop to my knees. In that moment, I thought— How can I survive that monster? My chest pounded with every breath. I knew it was getting closer. As if it could smell my fear. There was no way I could kill it. I could barely hide from it. My body gave up on me. Was it a panic attack?

My brain froze for a moment. I had almost given up. I couldn't breathe. My ears buzzed with a sharp noise; I still felt that tremor. Those massive footfalls behind me. My chest felt heavy. I started panicking. My head started spinning, everything around me moved, strangely. The voice got quiet for a moment. But when I turned my head to the left. My eyes looked at the ground. The picture fell from my pocket.

"Iris..." I remembered what I promised myself. I remembered that I had to survive for her and that I had to find her. That calmed me down from panic. That's right, I had to survive for her. As I went to pick up the picture, my gaze slowly turned to my right. I saw the T-Rex's nostrils flaring at me. It was smelling me. Reading my fears in the air. Then — it lowered its face. The eyes... Those eyes were looking at me. Those horrifying eyes stared right into my soul. I froze for a moment.

It kept staring at me for a few seconds. Everything went silent. It had located me. We were face to face with each other. It roared louder now. The only way was to run. Run again! Hide again. I ran. THUD Its foot almost stepped on me and would have killed me. Don't look back... don't look back, keep running, Nova. This time, I was able to think more clearly as I ran. My training had started showing results. I knew that it was a predator and it was hunting me.

And if I ran straight, it would catch up to me and kill me. So I analyzed my environment and ran around the trees in a zigzag. The gap between trees helped me get away from it. But I couldn't keep running forever. I needed to trap it. If I had to survive.

"The cliff." An idea came to me. It was terrible, but desperate. Probably suicidal. It was the only way. I kept running. Wherever it charged, I ran perpendicular to the direction of where it was going. It was exactly what I wanted. I made sure to ran towards the cliff. I could hear it behind me. Those massive footfalls. Trees snapped like toothpicks as it made its way through the forest edge. THUD. THUD. THUD. I was at the cliff edge. I looked down, and I saw no land beneath me. Just clouds. My knees were shaking.

In ten seconds or less, it would be here. I told myself — This has to work... This HAS to work. I was breathing heavily. The view scared me. I looked back. It was here. The ground shook. I lost my balance.

"No, no, no..." My legs gave up on me. They slipped. I was about to fall down the cliff. But somehow, I grabbed the cliff edge. As I looked up, it was right above me. Trying to find me. Its gaze slowly looked down towards me.

"Oh no, oh no." My teeth clenched. It roared and tried to devour me. There was nothing I could do. My hand loosened, and it couldn't hold on any longer. It was instinct. I was falling.

"Come on, it has to work." I quickly pulled the chain, and my parachute opened. I survived yet again. I looked back, and it was roaring again. This time with frustration. In that moment, I forgot everything. And just screamed from the top of my lungs.

"Yeeeaaaahhhh... Yes... Yes" I felt relief. Just for a moment. I kept admiring the view that was right in front of my eyes. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. But the wind blew so fast. I barely kept my balance. My parachute ropes were entangling with each other.

"No... no." I tried to untie it. But then it was the other side that started entangling. I was barely passing between the massive trees. But I wasn't able to maintain my balance for long. I was about to crash-land. Then — I saw the water flowing ahead of me. I knew I was about to land there. I tried my best to maintain the balance, but I dropped right into the water. The river was flowing at a higher speed. I was alive. I gasped for air. The river was very cold. But that was not the end of my struggles.

I felt something pulling me down. My legs were entangled with parachute ropes, and the water current took the parachute with it. I was underwater. I kept trying to escape, but the current was filling it and moving it like a sail, dragging me along faster than the water itself was moving. I kept trying hard, but still it didn't untie. I swam upwards. Bubbles formed near my mouth. I was running out of breath. I pushed myself harder, looking at the surface. I was near. My lungs were about to give up.

But somehow I managed. I barely came back to the surface to catch my breath. I let my lungs breathe deeply. Just long enough to see the waterfall ahead.

"No… no, no, no." The parachute pulled me under the water again. I kicked nervously, trying to free myself, but the ropes only tightened. I kept kicking my leg. I screamed inside my head — Let go of me. After all that struggle, I was barely able to free myself. I rushed back up. It was too late. I was about to fall this time from the waterfall. I braced myself. Held my breath. And the waterfall took me with it. I kept my body steady. The drop was not terrible, but the fall still scratched my stomach.

I rushed up to catch my breath. And gasped.

"Ow... ow... ow..." I felt pain below my ribs. I coughed. Breathing heavily.

"Why does this always happen to me?" I swam to the other side of the bank, with one hand on my stomach, and I walked to the surface and lay on the ground. My breath was still heavy. I thought it was over, but I was wrong. A flicker.

"What now?" THE LOG IS PRODUCING INFRASONIC SOUND TO ATTRACT THE APEX PREDATOR. TIME REMAINING: 00: 13: 28 My eyes widened. I was in disbelief. I wanted to scream.

"Again! Why..." It was not over. I wished this nightmare would end. At that moment, the whole hour felt like days had passed. The text changed. SURVIVE THE PREDATOR OR KILL IT. TIME REMAINING: 00: 13: 25"You're telling me the T-Rex had found a way down." I breathed heavily.

"You have got to be kidding me." In the distance, birds were flying. I knew it would catch up to me in approximately seven minutes. Quick, think something… I couldn't use the parachute again. It was torn in multiple places. I didn't have a weapon with which I could kill it. All I had was this broken torch and all my supplies were back at the capsule.

"Argh... this sucks," I threw away my broken torch in the air. It landed and started sinking. A quicksand.

"Wait." I mumbled.

"The Log." The Log had said it was producing infrasonic frequencies to attract the predator. Which means it can stop producing sound as well.

"Open Log!" The display popped in front of my vision. SURVIVAL LOG ACTIVE: PREDATOR PROTOCOL TIME REMAINING: 00: 12: 32"Can you stop this infrasonic sound?" PREDATOR PROTOCOL COULD NOT BE TERMINATED UNTIL. TIME REMAINING: 00: 12: 29"Of course. Why would you help me in a penalty?" Wait, I could trap the T-Rex in this quicksand because of this infrasonic sound.

"I need a strategy." I found the broken tree fallen near me. It was hollow. I took my parachute cord and started tying it to that fallen tree. THUD. THUD. THUD. The footsteps kept getting closer. Now louder than before. I kept pulling and dragging that fallen tree with the help of the cord. Come on, Nova. Just a little more, you can do it. I started pulling that tree in the direction of quicksand, and I kept away from the sand. Behind other trees. I thought I had managed a way for it to be killed. In the distant...

THUD. THUD. THUD. The sound came from a different direction. How is this possible? Did it change its direction somehow? Not much time to think, I quickly hid in that hollow tree. It was here. THUD. THUD. Slowly coming towards me. I could hear its footsteps near me. I could feel its breath. It was sniffing, trying to locate me. I think the water had washed away my scent. I moved slowly away from its vision. I still felt its breath. It was moving nearby. The Log had stopped producing that noise.

Why was that, I wondered. It started sniffing above in the tree where I was. I held my breath. Held my voice. It kept sniffing, as if it already knew where I was hiding. It went away for a few seconds. I breathed, but the twig beneath my feet snapped. Shit. The T rex stopped, It turned its face back. My stomach dropped. I knew that snapping noise got its attention. It started approaching towards my direction. But I was still hidden away from its vision. It lowered its face down, and its eyes looked inside.

For a moment, his nostrils just hovered over the tree. I held my breath and stood perfectly still. But Then its face lowered and Eyes seeing through that hollow tree. It had found me again, but this time I was ready. I had filled my bag with sand, and I was waiting for this exact moment. I threw the sand from my bag into its eyes. It turned its head away and roared. The time was enough to escape that tree.

I exploded from the hollow log, sprinting away from where the T-Rex was standing with its back partially turned. It spun toward the hollow tree, jaws opening. I dove away from its vision. I knew it would knock off that tree. Why wouldn't it? I angered it, and it did exactly that. It rushed toward the quicksand. Its head fell on the ground, and finally got trapped. The more it struggled, the quicker it sank. But something was wrong, the T-Rex sank faster than I expected.

That's not just a quicksand, I think there might be a sinkhole hidden underneath it. SURVIVE / KILL THE PREDATOR TIME REMAINING: 00: 00: 30"Thirty seconds. What happens if it dies before time ends?" The text changed. REWARD: APEX PERSONA What's that? SURVIVE / KILL THE PREDATOR TIME REMAINING: 00: 00: 10 09 08 It kept sinking in, trying to get out. I knew it was impossible. It roared with desperation as it sank. But there was no way for it to escape. Not from that quicksand.

I breathed and sat down hard on the ground. Great. I crashed on an unknown planet and the first thing that finds me is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. 05 04 03 A flicker. The text changed. PENALTY STATUS: KILLED THE APEX PREDATOR COMPLETED: PREDATOR PROTOCOL REWARD: APEX PERSONA LEVELED UP: + 12 TOTAL EXPERIENCE POINTS: 60"Wait, I levelled up?" The text changed. STATS LOG: LEVEL 12 SURVIVAL LOG: ACTIVE TECHNOLOGY LOG: UNLOCKED [NOTE: YOU CAN USE EXPERIENCE POINTS TO UPGRADE THE TECHNOLOGY LOG.]"What is this?

I barely survived, and you are saying you have more logs."

"Are you for REAL!" The text changed. THE NOVA LOG ADAPTS AS PER THE USER'S PERSONALITY.

"Wait…. The Nova Log? Does it mean me." I mumbled.

"Why does it say it's my log?" THE LOG HAS BEEN NAMED AFTER ITS USER.

"What the heck is this? Why do you exist in the first place?" ERROR! THE LOG HAS BEEN NAMED AFTER ITS USER.

"Yeah right, avoiding answering. Make my life worse." ERROR! THE LOG HAS BEEN NAMED AFTER ITS USER.

"Urggh… Alright, alright... I get it""Would you at least let me breathe." It didn't change.

"Just what in the hell is going on?"

"How did the T-Rex exist in the first place?" The text still stayed. It didn't respond to me this time. I looked at the sky. I screamed.

"Where in the world am I?" A flicker. The text changed.

"Huh... What! You know?"

"Why didn't you—" I breathed.

"Not important, just let it go." I looked at that display and was utterly in a disbelief. THE LOG HAS IDENTIFIED THE PLANET KEPLER186F. ALSO KNOWN AS ELYSIUM.