Chapter 155 - The Creature Under the Moon

The sudden appearance of a single and strange video on social media left a strong sensation on the internet on its wake. It was a video about a man recording himself with his camera while he was climbing on the mountain, showing the surrounding natural beauty everywhere he goes, one can assume that the man must be a fan of hiking. It started as a normal vlog and just as one was about to get tired of watching the man, suddenly, 'it' appeared. 

It appeared in the corner of the camera's view, one would think they were looking at a real-life bigfoot seeing the figure from a distance. But in reality, there was no existence such as bigfoot. All those pictures and videos that were shown on the internet were nothing but a fake to troll the world. But right at this moment, in this video, there was a bigfoot accidentally exposing itself for the world to see. At least that was what the people's watching thoughts, but when the man went closer to it due to curiosity, they started to realize 'it' wasn't a bigfoot at all.

The dark figure indeed looks like a humanoid creature walking on two legs like how a human does, but the fur all over its body assured the people that it wasn't a human like them. When the man went closer to 'it' to examine properly, obviously 'it' also started to take notice of his presence.

"What...is...this!"

The hiking man muttered once he could see the humanoid figure close enough that he started to regret his decision in getting closer without precaution. Regret is one thing but now he had to get away from this monstrosity as soon as possible—just as he thought of doing so, the werewolf kicks its feet off the ground hard, leaving the ground shattered to a small spider-like-weeb. It was as clear as the evening sun that it was coming straight him, as fast as it could which caused the hiking man to panic at the sudden change of situation. Even the viewers who were watching the video couldn't help but held their breath and watch intently on their screen, not wanting to miss anything.

Of course, some viewers were making a joke out of the situation, thinking all of this was just a massive prank done by the hiking man's friends for the lol and giggle. If one were to listen closely, they could hear a low groaning voice that shouldn't be possible made by a human from the 'werewolf'. Just that alone was enough to make some of the viewers to believe that this video is real, not a hoax like the others on the internet. When the 'werewolf' jumped at him, the hiking man tried defending himself by covering his head with his hands, ignoring the fact that he was holding onto the camera. 

The moment he does so, the camera was sent flying in a distance as his gripped on it became weak due to panic. The viewers couldn't figure out what happened next while the camera was recording facing upward in the sky, and because of that, some of them started to feel anxious and worried about the hiking man. They wondered if the man is safe from the werewolf-like creature as it was clear to them that it seems to hold quite a hostility just by looking at its face within split seconds that the camera managed to capture it.

The last scene the camera recorded while it was sent flying was the 'werewolf' sending its claw at the defensive hiking man when it was still midair and afterward, they heard wailing coming from the hiking man before the camera flew toward another place.

"AAAAAH!"

The hiking man m.o.a.n.e.d out loud as the pain assaulted his entire body starting from his arms, which has now become bloody after getting pierced by the werewolf's sharp claw, leaving three deep bloody scars on both of his forearms. It was a wonder how the hiking man could still be standing after receiving such injuries as most would fall unconscious due to how painful it is. He must have been a person with a strong will. But no matter how strong his will is, painful things are painful. Although the pain assaulting him was enough to almost make him feel lightheaded, his mind is still sane and working perfectly fine. 

That one claw attack was enough to show him that the werewolf creature in front of him is not playing around nor is it a mere prank by someone. It is the real deal and it wanted him dead, nothing much and nothing less. The hiking man gritted his teeth hard and tried his best to endure the pain on both of his arms as he put all his strength on his feet and ran off the opposite of where the werewolf came from. There's no need to waste time waiting on the spot while wailing in pain as he would undoubtedly be killed without question once the werewolf decided to take another action. The longer he waits, the closer he is to the god of death.

While he was on the run from the werewolf, the man caught a familiar camera on the ground by the side of a tree and quicken his running pace toward it. Since he didn't hear any noises on his back, he judged that the werewolf wasn't chasing after him yet a single thought remained amidst everything that warns him to not be careless. But the hiking man ignores it and thought he would only stop for a short moment to take his expensive camera back, it won't take too long to simply pick the camera off the ground. 

But to the viewers watching his video, they thought otherwise as they could see a dark figure appeared in a distance behind a tree when the man turned his back after not finding the werewolf within his field of vision before squatting on his knees to pick the camera. It was already too late when he picked up the camera as the viewers could see the hiking man with his almost cripple bloody arms and the werewolf midway swinging its claw at him. It was then that they, the viewers, witnessed the gruesome death of a man who loves hiking. The video came to an end when the werewolf stepped out of the camera's view, bringing with it the fear of the viewers.

Like all the 'exclusive' videos on the internet, this one also didn't last long, only a couple of hours before it was soon removed from the social media. The resident of the virtual world has long been used to see such treatment happening since that type of video was usually filtered before an hour passed. Because the government was a bit late in removing the video, it has already spread everywhere. It even spread to Sheila who accidentally found it while she was browsing on the internet during the idle time when she wasn't playing games or grinding for some experience in the Trial Tower.

"It's a werewolf, alright."

She muttered right after finishing watching the video. She didn't watch the full video but only at the part when the werewolf appeared on the camera along with the death of the unfortunate hiking man. That was enough for her to believes that the werewolf most likely came from the portal like the ogre she had witnessed a while back. Sheila is no way a professional in video editing so she shouldn't possibly come to the conclusion after watching the video. 

Perhaps she knew it was strange yet she believes that her feeling was shouting at her that this was real. And more or less, it's just the beginning. This type of video won't be the last one for sure, sooner or later, it will keep popping up, one by one until the government couldn't keep their silence anymore. The future that was predicted by her grandmother indicated that she was still alive after the world falls into destruction. But she didn't like how ominous it felt as, in that future, there was no one by her side. 

Where did my family go? What happened to the organization I was planning to create? What about my best friend? What happened to them?  These thoughts keep appearing in her mind when she was about to sleep in the night, it was like an endless nightmare plaguing in her sleep. She was having trouble going to sleep for the past few days, so she ended up playing games all night long accompanied by Ria. They could just sleep in the Trial Tower if the tiredness gets to them, Sheila has even prepared a tent for such a situation. 

"What are you spacing about?"

Speaking of the devil, Sheila turned her head and saw Ria entering the room with both of her hands occupied with two cups of coffee. 

"Mhm, It's about this video I was watching while you were making coffee downstairs."

"Hmm? What video?"

Ria said as she sat on the mattress on the floor next to Sheila before putting the two cups of coffee on the small table in front of the two, close to the laptop. She leaned closer to Sheila, to the point that their shoulders met one another, while her eyes were focused on the screen which showed a video having been paused. Sheila didn't say anything and press the space button which immediately makes the video replay from the beginning. She was currently watching it on a small website that only consist of thousands of unknown people all around the world. It was small in comparison to a bigger forum community which makes the video last longer, at least enough for Ria to watch till the end before it was soon removed without leaving any trace behind.

"it's real, isn't it?"

"Mhm. I believe so."

Both of them heaved a depressed sigh before looking at each other for a moment, realizing they have done the same action and chuckled at the ridiculousness of reality. The future seemed bleak, but that doesn't mean they couldn't do anything to stop the destruction from happening. That was Sheila's goal for creating an organization. Even though she knew it would be quite the workload for her small brain, she didn't care. Her livelihood is on the line, after all.