That thought helped Miebaka relax just slightly.

Even so, he couldn't shake the feeling of the spider watching his every move.

He'd already spent far too much time there, so he set the suitcase on the table just inside Timothy's bedroom door and addressed Anna.

"This belongs to him. He'll understand when he gets back. I'll take my leave now."

With that, he gently closed the door to Timothy's room, leaving the suitcase inside, and then made his way toward the front of the house.

Shutting the front door took a great effort because of the mana-dampening field pressing against his body.

At least he'd solved the mystery of the skittering sounds.

Timothy had probably just stepped out for a stroll, that was the only reason Miebaka could justify having gone inside uninvited.

And he figured the suitcase would be safe with Timothy's… family, hopefully.

But just as he turned to leave the walkway outside the house, a man suddenly stepped in front of him, a man carrying a shotgun.

The stranger pumped the weapon, loading a shell, and leveled it straight at Miebaka's head.

"Who are you? Wetin you dey find here?" the man barked in a thick pidgin accent.

Miebaka immediately raised his hands in surrender, offering an awkward smile.

Meanwhile, the driver who had brought him waited by the car across the road, cautiously keeping his distance.

"I'm Timothy's friend. I came to check on him because he wasn't answering the door. When I got here, the door was open, so I went inside, but he wasn't there. I'm leaving now. His phone is still inside, though, it seems like he's around…" Miebaka rattled off quickly.

Even with his B-rank physical strength, he knew a shotgun blast to the head would still hurt like hell.

The man, however, didn't seem interested in explanations.

He roughly searched Miebaka for any suspicious items, found nothing incriminating, then let him go.

He stepped up to the doorway himself, peered cautiously inside without crossing the threshold, and finally pulled the door shut again with ease.

That gesture alone told Miebaka that the man wasn't a hunter; apparently, the door's mana-dampening effect didn't affect normal civilians beyond making it feel like an exceptionally sturdy door.

It was probably for the best that the elderly man hadn't stepped inside.

Miebaka climbed back into the waiting Uber, which pulled away as the driver glanced in the rear-view mirror.

"Who was that old man with the shotgun?" the driver asked, curiosity piqued.

"I think… a vigilante," Miebaka replied, laughing dryly to himself.

"That's why he searched me."

He fell quiet, though, as another thought surfaced.

'Good thing I dropped the suitcase.'

Yet, unknown to him, the person he was concerned about was in quite a perilous situation indeed.

.

.

.

[You have surpassed the requirements for the daily quests.]

[You have unlocked a hidden quest.]

[This is a one-time quest.]

[You will be teleported in ten seconds.]

[You have entered a World Shard.]

[You have received a special quest.]

[Welcome to Khamalis Expanse.]

[Save or purge the people.]

[All rewards will be granted upon the completion of all quests.]

Timothy awoke to the glare of system notifications flooding his vision, his body snapping back under his control.

A moment ago, he'd been sprinting through familiar streets, now he was standing in a World Shard, breathless and alert.

He read the notifications with calm eyes, though a storm still burned inside him.

He'd been itching to vent that rage, but caution screamed louder.

The system always had a way of dropping him into surprises and this time, the surprise was that he seemed to have a choice.

Save or purge.

It was the first time the system had offered him a quest that seemed to hinge on his judgment.

That alone made his suspicion spike.

It felt too well-timed, too convenient as if the system itself was testing him, or trying to steer him somewhere.

And there were people involved.

Not just beasts.

Timothy stared at those words so long, it felt like they burned into the back of his eyes.

He kept turning them over in his mind, afraid that making a rash choice would spring some hidden trap.

He needed to decide his stance before the battle even began.

He needed perspective and a grain of salt for everything the system said.

Finally, he peeled his eyes away from the floating text and scanned his surroundings.

In simple terms, it was wilderness.

Dry earth and sparse grassland spread out in uneven patches, interrupted by lone, towering trees whose dark canopies shimmered under the shard's eerie glow.

Here and there, scattered vines crept over rocks and the ground, like veins running across a giant's skin.

The sky above hung in a strange half-light, reminiscent of late afternoon back on Earth, but with an unsettling stillness.

No portal glimmered behind him.

No guide appeared to lead him forward.

He was alone.

Then Timothy noticed something else: signs of conflict.

Deep claw marks scored the ground, drag lines gouged into the dirt, and patches of earth lay torn and churned.

It didn't look like one animal's doing.

It looked like multiple beasts had fought here and not just in one place.

The disturbances spread outward in every direction.

Most of the trails seemed to lead west, toward the setting sun's last glimmer.

A few marks curved off toward the east.

The logical choice would be to go either north or south to avoid confrontation.

But that wasn't why the system dropped him here.

He needed to understand who or what he might be saving, and from whom.

He needed context before choosing sides.

So Timothy made his decision.

He picked the smaller group of tracks heading east and began tailing them, staying well back and silent as a shadow.

He followed their path for nearly two hours.

By the time the pale light faded completely, the world fell into darkness without even a moon to guide him.

He guessed it must be around 7 p.m. in Earth's time.

Though wind and drifting dust tried to erase the tracks, he could still make out the faint, straight line the beasts had been following and he followed it, too.

To an outside observer, it might have seemed impulsive, but Timothy was moving with calculated caution.

If these creatures were capable of staging an ambush, they'd have done it already.

Besides, from the erratic, halting tracks, he guessed they were injured or trying to avoid something else entirely.

It wasn't long before a distant glow caught his eye: a campfire flickering ahead.

Timothy's expression tightened as a rush of new thoughts collided in his mind.

What if the beasts weren't fleeing from people… but walking towards them? What if this was all a divide-and-conquer ploy?

He tried to dismiss the paranoia.

The wounded tracks didn't match the rhythm of an ambush.

But still… it wasn't impossible.

Maybe whatever the creatures feared was precisely the humans he was about to approach.

Resolving not to linger in uncertainty, Timothy picked up his pace and ran toward the glow.

The closer he got, the clearer the scene became.

He saw structures, simple shelters constructed like a war camp, sturdy but temporary, clustered around a central flame.

He estimated at least twenty huts, each shaped from interwoven wood and bone-like supports.

Shadows moved between them, hints of life stirring in the Khamalis Expanse.

However, what Timothy hadn't seen were the two guards who'd spotted him from a distance.

It wasn't until he drew closer that he noticed a pair of glowing ruby-red eyes fixed on him directly in his path.

Timothy didn't flinch.

He assumed they were monsters and swiftly summoned his machete.

The two figures brandished their weapons, crude rods with sharpened, jagged edges, fashioned like a cross between a spear and a fork.

Without hesitation, Timothy charged in, expecting to overpower them with sheer force.

But the moment he collided with them, he was jolted by the realization that one of them felt like slamming into a brick wall.

Even as he staggered from the impact, the other creature lunged, thrusting its weapon toward his head.

Timothy launched himself backward into the air, narrowly evading the strike.

But before he could stabilize, he felt a powerful grip clamp around his ankle.

A split second later, he was yanked down and slammed into the earth with bone-rattling force, the impact echoing like thunder.

His HP bar dipped sharply, and only then did Timothy focus on what had seized his leg.

It was the same creature he'd just tried to break past. Meanwhile, the other stood nearby, oddly refraining from finishing him off.

His eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom, revealing the true outlines of the monsters he was facing.

They were bipedal, roughly his height, perhaps a head taller but what struck him was that both possessed four muscular arms.

Their dark, fur-covered bodies gleamed slightly in the faint light, and those gemstone-red eyes glowed like embers.

Timothy silently cursed himself for blundering into a fight in another world without first understanding its inhabitants.

He remained on the ground, tense, waiting for the next attack