What a bizarre scenery

Two weeks later, in order to maintain his provisions as long as possible, Sophocles hunted wild animals from time to time.

In my experience, wild boars have the perfect meat for kebabs and dried meat. Jaguars and pumas, on the other hand, because of their lean meat, are good for steaks and sandwiches.

Finally, caimans and anacondas. There is not much to say. Their chicken flavor but spicier makes them the perfect stew.

I have visited places more primitive than this. In my former life, the jungles and wilderness stretched for thousands of miles. Now, according to this body's memories, only a third of that glory remains.

This trip is turning out to be a walk in the park. The natives are not a problem, as my camouflage and guerrilla skills allow me to avoid them. Insects and all the dangerous vermin, especially the mosquito that transmits dengue fever, are a piece of cake.

I am covered in a mixture of clay, mud and charcoal. In addition, I carry several bunches of rosemary and laurel in my clothes to ward them off.

It's fun. It's been a long time since I could have fun like this. My old body did not allow me to take all these risks.

Oh, a jaguar on the prowl. I'm not hungry, but if it keeps touching my balls I'll have to kill it.

The jaguar jumped out of a nearby tree and tried to bite his neck. But Sophocles was already prepared. He bent down and with his knife made several deadly cuts to its belly.

The animal did not expect its prey to show its teeth. He stabilized his balance and charged, hoping to subdue it using his body.

However, Sophocles jumped on him and clung to his back. He took a rope made of lianas he was carrying and slipped it around his neck.

Using all his strength, he began to choke him. His legs seemed to stick to the animal's body.

The jaguar put up a fight. He shook as much as he could. He threw himself to the ground. He slammed it against the trees. And still, it was unable to escape.

Before it died of suffocation, Sophocles had an idea. He decided to let him go. And he began to tame it using the carrot and stick method.

Whenever he decided to attack it, he would beat it and then release it. Again and again, the jaguar began to fear him. It even tried to escape, but was unable to lose track of him.

Half an hour later, the jaguar had surrendered and to avoid dying, it was submissive and obedient.

Now with a mount, investigating the jungle was a piece of cake. No one dared to fight against such a pair.

It was getting dark, and they began to look for a place to rest. An ancient tree, of unknown age, stood giant and upright.

It had the perfect hole for both of them to spend the night.

Should I feel sorry for Yang? I mean, he killed his brother and his wife because he found them in his bed. Besides, he was a soldier with a bad temper and a vicious personality. Rather than avoid being court-martialed and losing his juicy pay, he chose to desert.

A bastard who had no attachment for the lives of others. He did not hesitate to murder the innocent, nor to traffic drugs, weapons and even trade vital military information.

If I had met such a character in my army, I would send him to the gallows immediately. These types of parasites are what weaken the military order.

He ended up dying from the frog poison of the natives. Pitiful. Supposedly, he and his team were looking for clues to a certain structure in the jungle.

As much as I despise him, I thank him. His equipment is serving wonders right now. Who would have thought they would be able to compress a compass into such a tiny thing.

The compass. This "rifle" and this knife of incredible workmanship.

Plus, a box of cigars, grenades and this magnificent mustache. At least he had good hairdressing skills.

Hmph? What's that? Some kind of gray structure in the distance. Looks like it hit the surface and got stuck in the clay.

Sophocles went to investigate the structure. Something about it bothered him.

It was cold to the touch, and its texture was reminiscent of Roman shields. It is quite solid.

Too bad the entrance was covered by all that clay. With his tools, it would be impossible to dig for it.

Sophocles decided to first look for a village, and try to get a shovel or any tool that would make the task easier. As they advanced through the jungle, he felt the jaguar's back muscles tighten.

The wild animals, as human terraforming progressed, began to acquire an instinctive fear of cities.

Perhaps frightened by the noise and visual pollution. Or by the occasional poachers who attacked their natural order.

Either way, it was good news for Sophocles.

A pickup truck! They both hid and adopted a stealthy position.

According to Yang's memories, the logo on the car represented the rangers of the Nukak Maku National Nature Reserve.

Colombian state agents were also accompanied by two military personnel.

Colombian military forces often conduct patrols in the nature reserves near the Amazon Jungle. To prevent guerrilla drug trafficking groups from taking advantage of the unusual and hidden environment for their chemical laboratories.

─This is going to be a bit tricky. Both are armed with two M16s and maybe M9 Berettas? Those rifles are dangerous in the open, like bows. But if I can get close enough, they won't do them any good.

He signaled the jaguar to create a distraction, while he would go behind.

With a knife in hand, he cut the throat of one and with his rifle killed the other soldier. As most of the rangers were volunteers, they did not even carry knowledge of martial arts, much less a weapon.

The jaguar was in charge of preventing them from escaping the scare.

He had a very weak Spanish pronunciation─¿Quién de ustedes sabe conducir putos?

One of them raised his hand. Sophocles observed him and noticed that the coward had urinated.

It would be hard enough to make him act under pressure. But his trip would only be as far as the nearest highway, so he would be fine.

He shot the other man and left the coward alive. He disarmed the two soldiers and stowed his loot in the van. Then he stripped the three dead men naked and hung them in trees deep in the jungle.

He made several cuts on their bodies, only on the important arteries. The scent of blood would attract enough predators, and nature would do the rest.

Since he couldn't go with the jaguar, he tied an obsidian necklace he found in the cave. Instructed to recognize its call, he released it into the jungle until further notice. Soon, when he had enough tools and information, he would return to investigate that structure.

On the way, the man did not even last half an hour before attempting to call for help. But then he pulled himself together when Sophocles applied his talents in Chinese torture.

All rangers have individual cabins located at strategic points in the reserve. Not so deep in the jungle, but close to the base camp.

There, he took a shower for the first time in his life. He used to train with his disciples under waterfalls in the wilderness, until age stopped him.

It was a bizarre experience. He almost screamed when the water came out of the shower head. The cabins have a water heater that is heated by sunlight.

It was not solar panels, but was painted black and made of aluminum.

When he learned how to regulate the temperature, he was fascinated. In nature, his facial and body hair had been neglected.

However, he preferred to wait for the help of a professional hairdresser. It would be disappointing to mistakenly ruin the magnificent mustache Yang had given him.

The food in the hut was a bit pitiful. Although he had no rations left, the meat in the "refrigerator" was nothing compared to what he was getting in the jungle.

Speaking of the refrigerator. An ingenious machine for keeping things cool. In his time, it was almost impossible to do so if one didn't live near the Alps or some fairly high mountain.

He took the things he found most useful and left the hut. He had murdered the man and placed his body in the thermotank.

He had been irritated by his cowardly personality. Although he disagreed with the murder of innocents, times had changed.

People used to be more honest and law-abiding. They served the state and avoided disrupting public order.

Now, with all these ideas of individualism and selfishness, even the innocent have no respect for the figures in power.

If he had forgiven those men, they would have turned him in and expected him to be punished in revenge. An arrest notice would have delayed his plans.

He walked until he found the base camp. He slipped between the buildings, careful to avoid the security cameras.

He found a van planning to leave and squeezed through the tarp covering the rear compartment.

All the rangers were ordinary people without any military training, and they were also used to the current life. It was peaceful and quiet.

Their senses were slack and it was impossible for them to detect it. The soldiers, on the other hand, were dangerous.

His plan was to get to the nearest town and start investigating. Money wouldn't be much of a problem, he had several gems that he collected in the cave, in addition to the one he stole from the previous rangers.

According to what he heard from the drivers, it would be two and a half hours to Calamar.

Some time later, he was in a bar listening to customers. It was five in the afternoon, so they were just arriving.

The information of the disappearance of the rangers had not yet reached the city. He left the bar with the following information: where was the nearest barbershop and the city library.

At about seven in the evening, he was surfing the library's computers. Old, but functional for his current plans.

In this new life, the Delian League lost the Peloponnesian War. After that moment there was never a single moment of peace on earth.

Rome, Spain, England, Germany, Russia, there were countless empires but none was prosperous and eternal. They fell like flies in the web of fate.

How unfortunate. During his reign, there was peace throughout his territory. Furthermore, his identity was that of a pathetic drama writer.

Antigone? King Eddipo? What the hell was all this quackery. He was so angry that he almost smashed the computer.

Frustration. Anger and disappointment. He also found that the symbol of power in this age was nuclear weapons.

Few countries were in possession of such artifacts. That's it. That would be his goal. Get those weapons and gain world supremacy.

He left the library knowing enough to fulfill his plans. He went to the hardware store and bought a shovel, several kitchen knives and ropes, and a powder-actuated nail gun. With many cartridges of nails.

In a seedy hostel, he started taking the knives apart. It was necessary to remove the wooden part to use them as throwables. The ropes he tied to their hands and arms, like makeshift protectors.

The nail gun is an alternative to firearms. There's no convenient way to get bullets at the moment, so it's best to use them from time to time.

In addition, there were forensic teams specialized in the study of bullets. So it would be dangerous to use them too much.

As for the money, he had found a second-hand jewelry store. It didn't take long before he got quite a bit of cash.

He didn't sell all of his gems of course. Well, that would be attracting the attention of the police and the greed of the store owner.

Ready and prepared, he headed back into the jungle to continue his investigation.

Apparently, what he had seen was some kind of spaceship. Some "experts" had entire writings and essays on the shapes of these ships, their characteristics and their supposed inhabitants.

On the way back he met several military patrols. Apparently the bodies had been found.

They were combing the area with patrols of four soldiers and two trained dogs.

He stopped for a moment and searched for mouse burrows until he obtained almost two kilos of these animals. It was necessary to bathe in their blood to avoid the eyes of the dogs.

The animals would confuse his essence with that of rodents, and would not give it importance. Hours later, he returned to the Amazon Jungle.

He checked the surroundings and made a special whistle. This was the call sign he agreed with the jaguar.

The animal seemed to have regained its figure. And though reluctant to obey, he knew his life was no longer hers.

Man and animal walked deep into the jungle toward the alien ship. Cold and forgotten, the ship remained as he left it a while ago.

He took the shovel and started digging until he found the entrance. A solid door of an unknown material.

He fired a few nails, and after spending almost half a cartridge, he managed to splinter the metal. He tied the grenades to the nail, and activated them.

It was complicated, because he had to take out the rings almost at the same time.

The explosion left a huge hole, and they both went inside. Upon entering, they were attacked by an unknown creature.

A huge monster, shaped like a centipede with green gems on its body. Sophocles instructed the jaguar to distract him while he studied the beast.

He jumped on top of her and noticed something, his body was covered in some kind of volcanic rock. Also, the green gems were nephrites, an ugly cousin of jade.

He climbed on top of his head and started shooting nails, hoping to shatter his skull. But, this beast had no brain, or anything like it.

His shattered skull returned to regenerate a few seconds later. There was no hope, until he noticed something strange in his body.

A nephrite that was brighter than normal. Again, they resorted to the same strategy. Since this monster didn't seem to be that smart.

Only this time, the jaguar would climb on his back to tease him, while he would go for his abdomen. The beast distracted, he grabbed the kitchen knives and began to dig.

It was tricky, as he had to dodge stomps and occasional bites.

Finally, after breaking ten knives, he managed to free the gem. With her, all of the monster's strength began to fade. And soon his body disappeared.

In its place, the silhouette of the beast appeared on the surface of the gem. Almost as if he was in some kind of suspended dream.

─How bizarre. This is not an ordinary nephrite. It reminds me of fossils and mosquitoes in amber.

The rest of the ship was deserted. There were also certain bits of technology that he didn't fully understand.

Interesting. He decided that he was not qualified to conduct a full investigation, and that he would waste a lot of time doing so.

What would be his next steps? And how would he take advantage of this situation?

He would go to convince scientists, through the "internet" to investigate this ship. He would bring them into the jungle and set up some kind of clandestine laboratory.

This smelled like a lot of money, and that was what he needed most.

Six months later, a group of nerds bored with their routine and fans of ufology were studying the alien ship. They had been kidnapped from their homes in Colombia.

An insane man was holding them against his will, in this jungle lab.

They could not escape, as he was well armed and had several trained animals to pursue them.

Six months ago, Sophocles started kidnapping this kind of riffraff. Characters who did not have much weight in society, and it did not matter if they disappeared.

Currently, his laboratory was built with the money he got from selling the coke he stole from drug traffickers. A band of guerrillas with no experience in savage combat, accustomed to life with weapons.

It was easy for him to subdue the gangs scattered throughout the jungles of Colombia. And the most interesting thing was that most of them were sponsored by important figures from the CIA, FBI and various other security agencies in the world.

So they had a lot of weapons. Sure, more than once he had to deal with the response of these influences.

However, it was not so complicated to reach a kind of illegal deal with them. Blackmail, actually.

And they couldn't do much here either. The jungle was their territory, the swamps and all of nature in general.

Not even the best offensive units could kill him in the wild. Another issue would be if it were in the city.

The investigation was going well. The geeks were able to identify the artifacts and their uses. As well as the true purpose of the ship.

Apparently it was some sort of colonization ship. Designed to dispatch a unit of five and ten soldiers and a few technicians.

They would reach the ground, and begin the terraforming process. Using a type of special seeds, shaped like gems, that would adjust the atmosphere and make research easier.

Then, they would build huge parabolic towers whose purpose was to accelerate the growth and expansion of minerals and crystallized rocks throughout the planet. It seemed like an excellent plan, but Sophocles did not understand how a species with dominant technology could fail in this way.

According to one of the nerds, who was an expert at drawing and also a geologist, these aliens had their DNA based on minerals and rocks. Which would explain why they adapted the Earth in that way. He drew a sketch, which more or less described the aliens.