Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Fortuitous Encounter (1)
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With a loud crash, Suhyun rolled across the ground. The taste of blood filled his mouth. His insides felt completely shaken up.
“Ugh…….”
He couldn’t tell if he was lucky or not. Without his enhanced superpower, Suhyun would’ve been torn apart, bones and flesh flying through the air by now. But a female Calcutta Gorilla? His luck couldn’t get any worse.
The moment he was struck, he’d poured all his power into using telekinesis to shield his body. Thanks to that, he didn’t seem to have suffered any injuries bad enough to keep him from moving. His gun was smashed, though, and now he had to deal with another perfectly healthy Calcutta Gorilla.
Suhyun had never fought a female Calcutta Gorilla before. They were even rarer than the already scarce male Calcutta Gorillas. Males roamed wide territories in search of prey, but females mostly stuck to their lairs, or so he’d heard.
The confusion hadn’t fully cleared, but Suhyun tried to quickly assess the situation. The fact that the male’s mate had appeared from behind while he was fighting it meant he’d wandered too close to their home.
Out of the vast Calcutta Jungle, he just had to end up at a Calcutta Gorilla’s lair. Suhyun swallowed a bitter laugh.
‘Was I always this unlucky?’
Kwarung!
He didn’t even have time to lie there and think. Another charging attack bore down on him. Suhyun sprang to his feet and leaped backward. Right before his eyes, the enraged Calcutta Gorilla—having lost its mate—barreled toward him with clear intent to kill. The spot where Suhyun had just been was gouged out ominously.
Suhyun hurled whatever he could grab to keep his distance, leaping into the air. But the female Calcutta Gorilla was different from the male. The male had charged straight ahead and taken Suhyun’s counters head-on, but the female twisted her path, ripping up trees and flinging them at him indiscriminately.
“!”
She threw trees to block Suhyun’s path as he flew through the air, closing the gap at the same time. Her tactics were completely different from the previous one. Only now did an old saying Suhyun had heard start to make sense.
‘So this is what they meant when they said female Calcutta Gorillas are way harder to deal with than males!’
Unlike males, who lost their minds and charged at the slightest provocation, the female knew how to think. With the distance already closing and her coming at him like this, Suhyun was in a real bind. Calcutta Gorillas weren’t slow monsters either. If she kept bombarding him with trees and rocks while he was airborne, there’d be a limit to how much he could dodge.
“Damn it!”
The moment Suhyun paused, the Calcutta Gorilla lunged. Her tenacity was identical to the male’s. Suhyun thought they didn’t need to match in that regard either as he twisted his body.
If leaping through the air was getting tough, he’d stick to the ground and run. Her ranged attacks would be harder, and the same went for her.
Kwang! Kwakwang! Kwakwakwang!
Loud crashing sounds echoed from behind. The Calcutta Gorilla was clearly smashing through everything in her path. Suhyun clicked his tongue. This wouldn’t buy him any time.
With his gun destroyed, telekinesis was his only weapon, and even that was slow to recover after the last fight. At best, mutual destruction was all he could think of. He had no intention of going down with one monster.
‘Hold on.’
It was a bloodcurdling escape. Being pursued by a furious monster hell-bent on killing you shaved away at a person’s sanity like a knife. In such situations, people usually had two choices.
Give up running and die, or stop and charge in desperation. But Suhyun wasn’t either. No matter how grueling, he clung on until the situation changed—that was his way.
The Calcutta Jungle was vast and deep. If he kept moving, a variable would eventually appear.
‘She definitely has a weakness. I just have to find it!’
No monster was without one. Every monster in the world had a weakness. The female Calcutta Gorilla was just different from the male, but she surely had one.
* * *
It felt like hours of chasing and fleeing had passed. Suhyun felt sweat soaking his back. Things were getting more dangerous. To take down the Calcutta Gorilla, he needed time to recover enough telekinesis for a strong attack, but she gave him no respite, relentlessly pursuing. He’d only burned through more without recovering.
He couldn’t expect her to tire first. A monster’s stamina was always equal to or better than a human’s. At this rate, Suhyun’s would give out first, and she’d catch him.
Still, it wasn’t all for nothing. He’d found one weakness.
Her sense of smell.
It was definitely weaker than the male’s. When Suhyun slipped from the male’s sight, it had charged straight without hesitation, but the female stopped and shook her head rapidly whenever he vanished from view. That was unnecessary if she was tracking by scent.
‘She must be reorienting with sight and sound.’
If he could block her senses just once, he could shake her. The problem was finding a way……
‘Come on, please. It’s not like they don’t exist!’
Desperate wishes sometimes came true. As if in answer to Suhyun’s prayer, the faint sound he’d hoped for drifted from afar. Dripping water. It had to be a waterfall. In the Calcutta Jungle, cliffs often dropped sharply, creating natural waterfalls.
‘Yes!’
Suhyun squeezed every last bit from his near-exhausted telekinesis to boost his speed. He couldn’t see her, but he felt the Calcutta Gorilla falter.
Tatataht!
The jungle that had blocked his view vanished, revealing open air. He’d leaped off the cliff.
The prey she’d sworn to kill suddenly accelerated and plunged over the edge. But a Calcutta Gorilla wouldn’t give up that easily. With a roar, she jumped after him from the cliff top.
Kwang!
Splashing water sounds followed, and the Calcutta Gorilla whipped her head around. No distinctive human movement noise.
Krwaaang!
Confused, the Calcutta Gorilla thrashed the surroundings, trying to provoke a reaction. No one hiding motionless nearby could withstand such indiscriminate attacks.
But nothing responded. The Calcutta Gorilla had to accept she’d lost her target.
Krwaaaaaaaaang!
‘You bastard. So damn loud…….’
Lying on the cold cave floor, Suhyun focused on recovering his depleted superpower. If he’d checked it sooner, he could’ve used it more efficiently. That mistake had led to this mess.
He’d used too much against the first Calcutta Gorilla, leaving him only able to flee from the second.
Without this terrain, he might’ve died. The thought drew a sigh. Tricking her had been a simple trick.
Originally, he’d planned to jump off the cliff, use telekinesis to pass through the waterfall, and cling to the wall—his scent masked by the water. But passing through revealed a cave entrance.
A minor stroke of luck. Clinging to the wall until she left had been torture. He was already exhausted from sprinting full-tilt through the jungle for hours.
He’d shaken her, but he wasn’t sure if it was permanent. For safety, he needed to recover his telekinesis as fast as possible.
Superpowers were convenient but not omnipotent. Like stamina, they depleted with use and required rest to recover.
‘Good thing I kept some sweets.’
He pulled a chunk of chocolate from his belt, popped it in his mouth, and chewed. The sweetness seemed to ease his fatigue. As his mind cleared and recovery kicked in, Suhyun sat up straight.
‘No internal injuries…… Bones seem intact too.’
He’d taken a solid hit from the Calcutta Gorilla and moved frantically after, unsure of his wounds. No major damage, though. That was a relief.
With some breathing room, he started pondering his current problem.
‘When should I head out?’
Calcutta Gorillas were famously obsessive. And Suhyun had essentially killed her mate. This wasn’t an ordinary grudge. He’d hidden and shaken her for now, but it wasn’t guaranteed.
Plus, the female was smarter than the male. Based on his knowledge, it was risky to assume too much. In the worst case, she could be waiting in ambush the moment he stepped out.
“Ugh…….”
Suhyun stood and scanned the cave. In his panic entering, he hadn’t thought about it, but caves on Cameron Planet weren’t exactly safe. Who knew what monsters lurked inside.
Recalling cave-dwelling monsters, he flicked on his light. He planned to venture deeper. Even if something was inside, it’d be less threatening than the Calcutta Gorilla outside. He could handle it with his power.
‘Above all, I need food.’
The ambush had cost him most gear except a few snacks. Normally, Suhyun could forage in the Calcutta Jungle without supplies, but now he was stuck inside, unable to go out. Food was limited.
He’d thought it a small cave, but it stretched surprisingly far. As he walked deeper, an ominous feeling grew. Rarely, caves were completely empty. If so, he’d have to survive on chocolate for a day or two.
‘I’d rather not…….’
His superpower would recover by then, but fighting while starved was a no-go. Hoping for something edible, Suhyun pressed on.
“?”
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