Doomsday Pillars

Ubud village was a remote village, but it was also a famous tourist attraction. Listed in the top 5 must-go places on any travel destination websites, the village was sat on the hills surrounded by forests and rivers. Many 5-stars hotels and villas, gift shops, restaurants, and temples. 

In conclusion, Ubud village should be secure because of its location. There were supposed to be a lot of people here because of the tourists and locals, however, when the ten APVs arrived in the middle of the village, what they found puzzled them.

It was too quiet. There weren't even any zombies except the ones following the APVs from outside the village. 

The group stopped in front of the village entrance and eliminated all the zombie stragglers before slowly driving around the village. They checked some of the shops, houses but couldn't find a single body. It took the group an hour to drive around the ghost village which was supposed to have at least 50,000 people living here.

The sacred monkey forest was a popular tourist attraction in the village located just on its corner. They drove toward it and found the wall all around the forest separating the forest and the city. The entrance was quite small, hence couldn't be entered by vehicles. 

In front of the gates, there were big open fields and rows of dozens of two-story shops. There were supposed to be more than 700 monkeys living in this forest, but even up until in front of the forest, the group didn't see any one of them. The APV stopped there and the group went into one of the buildings, which was supposed to be a two stories cafe.

Alex gathered the group in front of a big table and started to discuss tactics. "The sacred monkey forest is 10 hectares big, but it's connected to the jungles that run into the mountain. We came here to hunt the monkeys."

"Really? Anyone here brought bananas?"

"Hahahaha. Good one bro."

The two who had just spoken were the 19-year-old twins Oscar and Oliver. They were troublemakers even before Doomsday, but their recent advancement to peak stage mortal realm made them even more undisciplined and arrogant.

Alex didn't really bother about it. Boys will be boys, they will soon understand.

"Don't get me wrong, we won't find monkeys in there. They'll look more like gorillas, even bigger, actually. A single bull won't kill them. So, you probably need to shoot a dozen bullets in the critical parts of their bodies before they go down."

In Alex's previous life, the Bali survivors had explored this place after the Doomsday Pillars had descended. Many from that group had reached Earth Realm, so not only were they stronger, but because of the pillars, they also had artifacts. However, even with such a group, they returned with casualties. If Alex didn't move cautiously and prepared properly, his group could easily be wiped out by the mutated monkeys.

Alex explained, "Going inside to fight the monkey in their forest is suicidal. We'll need to lure them out.

"We'll strategically place the APVs in these four locations outside the gate and place mines in this location. The ten squads will form a defensive formation from inside the buildings.

"These monkeys are smart, but they are still animals and will follow their instincts. If we bring thousands of troops guns blazing inside, they'll run to the jungle, and it'll be harder to find them. This is our chance to clean up the threat early before they get stronger.

"All 100 special forces will stay and guard here. Cindy and Theo, the two of you will also stay here too."

"No! Let me come," Theo said. "Let me participate, once I've seen a sight of trouble I'll run back, I promise."

Alex saw the conviction in his best friend's eyes. He needed to believe more in Theo and let him get stronger, so Alex agreed. Hopefully he wouldn't regret this. As for Cindy… Alex didn't even need to look at her because he knew she already put on her puppy eyes, so she could be included in the team. 

All 14 people went inside; Aria with her trusty sniper rifle, Jerry with his double knives, Sergei with a shotgun, Oscar and Oliver with double sabers, Darius with a sword and a shield, Rama and the four masters with spears and lastly, Theo and Cindy with an assault rifle and a pistol. Including Alex, all of them had reached peak stage mortal realm. 

They went inside to lure out the monkeys.

The park was heavily forested and hilly. A deep ravine ran through the park grounds, at the bottom of which merged into a rocky stream. Trails allowed visitors access to many parts of the park, including the ravine and stream and the trees were so tall that it almost covered the sky. The smallest tree was at least one meter thick in diameter while the largest ones went up to five meters. Some of the trees here were probably at least 1,000 years old.

The group walked a few hundred meters. And because they were at peak stage mortal realm, their perception had improved by a large margin. They already noticed some movement around them as well as the eyes staring at them. At least a few dozen monkeys had arrived.

A few minutes later, the group arrived at the end of the path leading to a temple named Zaith. The temple had a big human face with yellow eyes sitting at the entrance. There were also some snake statues next to it.

"Whatever happens, it's imperative to not enter the temple," Alex said to everyone, highly concerned about the thing lurking within the temple. "The monkeys are the guardians of the temples and we don't want to fight both the guardian and what's inside together.

"Okay, this is it. Most of the monkeys should have noticed us and should be calculating our strength by asking more of their kinds to join the show. The more there're of them, the more confident they are. We also need to anger them just enough so they'll chase us out.

"How about both of you boys like to contribute for this important task?" 

Alex then told Oscar and Oliver something, which only they could hear, and both of them laughed. They walked to the corner of the temple and pissed on the wall.

"..."

GRRRRRR... GRRRRRR... OOH OOH OOH...

A couple of the mutated monkeys showed up. The smallest was 1.5 meters tall while the biggest 2.5 meters tall. Their furs were grayish and silvery at the back. And they had long-tails, about two meters in length and diameter and thick. Their eyes were red in rage as they showed off their sharp teeth at the twins before jumping out to attack the two.

The twins were prepared; they both took out their saber and quickly dodged to the side, one to the right, the other to the left, while slashing in coordination the bigger mutated monkey.

SWISHH!

A peak stage mortal realm had their strength doubled. And because of that, the deep cut into the monkey's hard skin anointed the sabers with dripping red blood. However… 

"WATCH OUT!!" Alex screamed.

Although the mutated monkey was injured, it didn't look affected at all. The big mutated monkey slammed Oscar, throwing him about three meters, while the other one grabbed and tackled Oliver down. 

These mutated monkeys were as strong and fast as them, shocking the whole group! Oscar, who had been thrown, saw this and suddenly regretted his carelessness and screamed help for his brother when...

BANG!

The mutated monkeys that grabbed Oliver had its brain's spilled out. Aria had taken the shot.

Alex also rushed up and quickly decapacitated the other monkey who was attacking Oscar from behind. That monkey's head rolled.

"I told you not to underestimate them! Hit the vital organs!"

Suddenly, a few dozen monkeys walked out behind the trees. Everyone from the group took a defensive stance.

"LOOK UPPP!!" Alex screamed.

The group was shocked to see a few more dozen mutated monkeys, standing, hanging, and jumping down the trees. It was now raining monkeys...