"By the great Suijin¹... What even is this thing?" Nakayama Toshiyuki, the regional reporter from Japan couldn't help but mumble as the first images of the 'Island' started showing up on their screens.

"Not an ordinary island... that's for sure." The cameraman and Nakayama's lifelong friend, Hada Masashi replied before gulping his saliva down. They were horrified by what they were seeing.

In front of them was the island, that had supposedly spawned in place of where the great dungeon once was. Well, people thought it was an island, but in reality, it was a creature. A creature who had an island on its back. Surprisingly, for some reason, the creature had ignored the bigger and closer continent of North America had started moving towards Japan.

While this was good news for the Americans and Mexicans, it wasn't a piece of good news for the major part of the Council. At this rate, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea would be the first ones to be in trouble. And they did not have a plan in place to fight back.

Since it was an emergency situation, the first thing Japan did was to seal off the area around the creature. No one was allowed to enter the area where the creature had spawned. Not even reporters and most of the military officials.

But Hada had his connections in the Japanese military as well as the Japanese warriors association. Hence after showering the right people with the right kind of gifts, he and Nakayama got the 'permission' to enter the prohibited area for a short while. However, they were told to not record anything as it could get them as well as the Japanese officials in trouble.

But they were reporters who did not like following the rules laid for them. Why would they bother sending them gifts if they weren't even allowed to broadcast what they found in the region? However, their news channel wasn't involved in this. They had explicitly told the duo not to do something foolish, which they obviously didn't listen to.

But with the news channel withdrawing their support, the duo had no choice but to use what they had at their disposal. As a result, they weren't broadcasting the news on their affiliated channel but on their respective social media. Thankfully, they had quite a fan following as well, and as a result, over thirty thousand people were online watching the live feed as the two brave yet unwise souls ventured into the unknown.

However, what they saw wasn't something they had expected to see. They thought they'll find the island and explore it without going too deep inside. Even they had enough sense to not venture into the unknown for long without protection and proper gears. They still somewhat valued their life. But the moment the Island came in view, their plans changed immediately. Or in other words, their plan was no longer feasible.

In place of a stationary island like they had been told in the reports provided to them by the officials, they found a massive creature instead. At first glance, the creature looked like an oversized whale having an approximate area of 2100 square kilometres. Almost twice as big as Okinawa.

Hada instantly pulled out a drone from his backpack the used it to get the top view of the island on the back of the whale-like creature. The island covered the entire back of the creature and was enveloped in a dense foliage of trees and sand. But the most distinct thing about the island was the strange black mountain in the middle of it.

"Can you push the drone towards that black mountain?" Nakayama requested Hada, who did what he was asked to.

Because of the density of the forest above, the drone wasn't able to get any information about the island at all. The only thing they knew was that the creature was on a collision course towards Japan's main island.

At that moment, they no longer cared about the profit they would gain from the video. But they genuinely wanted to help their nation become aware of what was coming after them. Hada didn't give up and kept pushing the drone towards the black mountain. Then they saw something... weird.

A bare-chested man was standing on top of the mountain. He had lions' hide draped around his back like a cape while he wore its head like some sort of protective helmet. His ragged, bushy and unkempt beard was visible through the lion mask. They could also see the man's physique which had been pushed to the limits as veins had protruded out of every inch of his body. The man was wearing ancient roman attire including a warrior's skirt and had a massive wooden blood-soaked club in his hand.

While the two of them were gawking at the mysterious man, thousands of people were busy commenting in the comment section of their live stream. Some people immediately guessed what the man looked like Hercules. Just like he has been depicted before.

Everyone was going berserk after seeing the man standing on top of the mountain like some sort of sovereign. However, as the drone got closer to the man, he saw the drone zoning in on him... and he winked at it.

"Somethings wrong... the drone is going out of control!" Hada yelled as he fought for control over the drone, but in vain. 

No matter how hard Hada tried, but the drone kept gliding towards the man wearing his weird clothing. Hercules caught the drone and threw it behind his back without even bothering to look into the camera again. Then... the world saw what Hercules wanted to show them. A godly army of Olympians like no one had ever seen before. The viewers once again went crazy over it. But not with an eased mind.

They were thrown into a panic like they were crazed. None of them had ever seen anything like that before. No matter how many times they had seen monsters or warriors before, nothing came close to what they were seeing now. Not even Arnold's battle against the minotaurs or the mighty dragon. Moreover... these soldiers weren't monsters and looked as human as they did. Was it even possible for a dungeon to spawn humans instead of monsters?

The next moment, the camera panned out once again and Hercules came into view once again, "Think you can defeat us, O vassal of the Immortal One?"

Saying so, he crushed the titanium drone with his bare hands. 

"We have to do something!" Nakayama exclaimed with terror in her eyes, "We have to leave before it's too late!"

"And how will we do that?" Hada just sat there like a mad man while pointing at something behind Nakayama. 

Nakayama didn't have to turn around to see what was happening as the shadow of the whale shrouded them. The following moment, the feed was cut off. Leaving the viewers to guess the duos fate. 

***

Author's note: Suijin is the Shinto god of water in Japanese mythology.

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