Chapter 11 - On the Way Back Home

"It's the Ounen Tree, which should be the one according to the book, I'm sure of it," pointed the lion girl.

Clara and Angga stood at the outer west part of Canau, at the hill where the Ounen Tree is. It's quite big compared to other vegetation which can be seen around there. When Angga tried to look at it properly, some of its leaves were moving on their own. He thought it was given since the tree should be magical or something.

"So… the tree is actually moving? Trees can walk here?" asked Angga.

"Nope. It was the faeries. I see that they also live at the biggest tree here. Naturally, they're the preserver of any vegetation here," explained Clara while she adjusted her sight. Indeed, there were many faeries over there.

"Then you can find them anywhere in this place? Since I bet vegetation is all over the environment, right?"

"Yep, mostly in any habitable area. I don't know about those extreme areas, tho, since I never go there."

Angga couldn't really see the said individuals as he tried to squint his eyes to really focus on the tree. But since the leaves kept moving while there were no winds nearby, he trusted what Clara said.

"Okay, I understand. Back to our business. Since this Ounen Tree is ancient, is this tree supposed to have something to do with other world's gate?" Angga reconfirmed.

"I have no other lead. But at least Kai also agreed with it. Truth be told, this tree has its own legend. They said it already existed for many millennia ago."

"Woah… no wonder that it got its own story…"

Looking back a few hours back, when they were still at the Town Hall.

Kai's water fish found the information that Angga was needed inside a grimoire. When they checked it, most of the content was weirdly incomprehensible, and the paragraph about how to travel to another world was the only one that could be read.

It said the portal has a big chance to exist within an archaic tree. Upon reading that, Kai raised his chin until he looked at the ceiling.

"I'm thinking about a peculiar tree in the west of the city," said the merman.

"What a coincidence. I'm also thinking the same thing," replied the lion girl.

Since Angga had no idea what they were talking about, it would be faster for Clara to bring him to see the said tree with his own eyes. Both of them departed immediately to see if what the grimoire said was true, while Kai wished for good luck.

Now that they were already in the western part of the city, they didn't know what else should be done. The grimoire only said to find a seemingly ancient tree, but no other explanation after the said tree has been found.

"...since we have no other lead, what about I ask the faeries?" offered Clara.

"You can ask them about it? I thought they were similar to animals."

"Here you go, being rude again, Angga. Don't make false assumptions about other people because of your values. They have their own stories, so you have to ask them first." She pouted but became cheerful again quickly. 

"Alright, I'm sorry about that. Well, I think that's a good idea."

"Sure! Let's go meet them."

When the lion girl went to walk more and meet the fae, Angga touched his pocket, which is where he put his mirrorless camera. Suddenly, something familiar came into his mind.

"Wait a minute, Clara. I think I know what to do."

She halted while Angga put his camera on display and carefully pointed it toward the tree that was considered archaic. He thought that since the Ounen Tree was something that was considered archaic and possessed a legend in this city, it got a resemblance with the banyan tree in Angga's world, which was also considered sacred since it existed long before most of the population was born.

Therefore, if his hunch were right–

"Ah–"

Angga found the blue-ish round thing, which sparkled on its own, seemingly unstable between the leaves of the tree. Thanks to the camera's strong zoom ability, Angga can see the round stuff along with other faeries who seem not to notice the said thing.

That's it. That's the way to go back. The grimoire was telling the truth, after all.

"You found something?" asked the curious lion girl.

"Yep. It's probably the same method I used when I first came here. I'm not sure, but it's worth the shoot."

He focused on shooting that particular part of the tree, on one branch, amongst others. Somehow, Angga noticed that the shape of its branches and leaves was quite different from the ones he had seen in his world. The environment of this world offered a lot of diversity that waited to be explored. However, now wasn't the time.

The main priority is to find the way back again if there is any. Now that Angga found the same thing that transported him to this world, he got his hopes up.

As the blue spot emitted dark blue sparks, it instantly got wider and covered all of Angga's screen–the blue spot spread further than the screen and went through the border of the screen until the said blue thing covered all of Angga's vision.

"Uhk–"

"Wait, Angga!"

He disappeared when Clara almost touched his shoulder, leaving her touching the empty air. When the lion girl checked her surroundings, there was no one else left beside her. Angga really vanished instantly, presumably going back to his world.

"He really went away, huh," said Clara in a low tone.

Being alone in the western part of Canau city while she looked at the sky, which slowly showed its twilight, made her sigh a bit. The vast atmosphere above her looked quite lonesome this time.

"At least say a goodbye or something, you dumb prick."

The moment Angga's consciousness came back, he woke up near the banyan tree, under the shelter of its shady leaves. He slowly stood up and walked outside the area since it was fenced with short steel bars. When he hit the street, a few people were looking at him. A guy with a dark brown-coloured uniform approached him quickly.

"Excuse me, but are you Angga?" asked the brown uniform one.

"Y-Yes, sir. Something happened?"

"How's your feeling? Are you okay? Everyone has been looking for you."

It was expected before, yet it just came to Angga that everyone obviously has been looking for him. To suddenly disappear for around one week or more would make anyone who knows him search for him. 

"Yes. I'm alright. Nothing hurt or something–"

"So you don't need any medical treatment?"

"Nope! I'm super alright!"

"That's glad to hear. Then please come with us for now."

This is the first time Angga has sat in the backseat of the police car. Thankfully, it's not because he breached the law or anything bad.

From now on, Angga will face long days since his return was shocking enough for everyone in town. Of course, he would face his family, who came from his hometown, while crying a bunch. Countless interviews with local news or other content creators followed after.

By the way, Angga's mom cried really hard when she found out Angga had come back. At the same time, she was glad that her son wasn't hurt or something. 

Angga's hectic days, which lasted around one week, were finally over. He can now go back to work at his office just like usual, even though a trace of fatigue from the interviews and stuff can still be seen.

"Ey, bro, you can go home if you're that tired," said one of his colleagues.

"Nah, it's okay. So much stuff that I need to do, so I'll just make a coffee," replied Angga with an exhausted smile.

"Alright. Don't overexert yourself since you're a local phenomenon now."

He went away with chuckles while Angga had nothing else to say. He indeed became a local phenomenon in one night because of his disappearance. To the point that journalists were waiting for him in his usual way to go home. But after one month of tiring explanation, everybody moved on.

All that was left was his piled-up work since he had to do some compensation because of his sudden absence. Actually, his boss was okay with Angga not rushing on his work, but Angga insisted on doing his responsibilities. Almost every day, Angga worked overtime to catch up with everything, and finally, he could go home punctually today.

"Hah… bed, at last. Should I sleep early or not…"

He hit his room and put his stuff before throwing himself to the bed. To enjoy the soft bed at this hour, Angga was thinking about sleeping early since all of the fatigue piled up. Something came up inside his mind now that his days were going slower at this hour.

He picked up his mirrorless camera that had been sitting in his room when he came back to this world to check its content. Its interface was back to normal again, not the one that he saw back then in Canau town. Due to Angga's busy work schedule, it was time to check his camera properly since he wanted to know if his Canau town experience was a spirited away phenomenon or something else.

"I'm not surprised if the data inside this camera is the normal stuff. The shoots that I recorded before here…"

What was displayed on the screen before him was a video of Clara's doing something.

"Huh, really?!"

He leaned up to sit on the bed while checking the camera's data. Everything he has recorded or taken a pic of was there. 

"So… it's not a dream. I don't care if I was spirited away or transported to another realm, but that's a one-time life experience! Amazing!"

Upon seeing that, Angga quickly accessed his workstation and went to work on the footage he got. It was as if all of the fatigue evaporated away while he pumped out to edit everything that he had.

"I know that I've got top-quality content right here. Time to use this for my content."

Only in the first fifteen minutes after Angga booted his workstation did he doze off on the table.

A few days later, one of his work colleagues patted Angga's shoulder aggressively at the office. The aforementioned person himself was still focused on his work even though his shoulds were moving like that.

"Angga! Hey, Angga! Did your channel go viral in a few days?"

"Oh? What about it?" When his video channel was mentioned, Angga finally averted his attention toward his colleague.

"Don't what about it me. Look!"

He showed his phone screen, which displayed Angga's video, which was edited thoroughly to show as a documentary of another world. Angga put a little narration to make it like a movie trailer. The view count constantly rose even when they were talking.

"Oh! So it goes well. Would you like at that view counts–woooaaahhh really?!" Angga stood up to look at the screen properly.

"Huh, you aren't aware of this? Check your phone, duh. I don't know if you can combine 3D animation and visual effects and make a story-telling video."

Even the video maker himself was not expecting the view counts to reach 200k views. For comparison, Angga's other videos of his vlog or his works that were allowed to be published only reached 1k views at most.

Because of that, he rushed home when it was clock-out time. His workstation waited for him to be used to produce another video about another world, which is mostly concentrated in Canau town. Angga used most of his free time after work editing his videos, which were posted later, and the responses of people on the internet encouraged him—mostly praised his 3D or visual effects skills, which showed realistic scenes in the video.

"Well, it's because everything you see there is real, tho, ahahaha…" he answered his video's comment awkwardly.

Because of his consistency in editing and posting the video, his video channel was growing little by little because of the spiking view counts and numbers of subscribers. It may be time for Angga to become a freelance video creator specializing in fantasy films made from heavy visual effects.

This person truly enjoyed the time when his fame was coming right to his doormat until he realized he used most of the footage available. No new shoot that could be used on his next video.

Sat at his table at his office, Angga reviewed his data inside the mirrorless camera again. Yep, there was no more new content left. All of it was used for six videos he produced that achieved high view counts for around three months.

And he received an endorsement offer at the same time because someone liked his other world film or something. The offer asked Angga if their product–a fresh juice–could be featured in his videos between the fantasy creatures.

"Well, damn. I know that I can't reuse the same scene over and over again in the endorsed video. Now what to do…"

Angga put his fingers on his chin while looking at the video footage displayed on the screen, racking his brain so his fame wouldn't end right away because of a lack of materials for the next videos.