Warm morning sunlight finally broke through the gaps in the pine canopy, casting a golden hue across the damp ground still blanketed in morning mist. The crisp scent of pine resin and wet earth refreshed the air, washing away the lingering tension from the registration post.

In front of the moss-covered wooden trailhead gate, the five friends stood in a loose line, adjusting the shoulder straps of their heavy backpacks.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Gani called out, looping a thin scarf around his neck. He gripped his trekking pole in his right hand, establishing his stance as the lead guide. "Remember, keep a steady pace, don't rush. The key is keeping your breathing controlled."

"Ready for action, Captain Gani!" Dika fired back enthusiastically. In his right hand, a compact black action camera was mounted neatly to the end of a short selfie stick. He thumbed the recording button, and a tiny red light began to blink, signaling that their impromptu vlogger had gone live. "Hey guys! Good morning from the foot of Mount Aruna! I’m Dika, the team’s moral compass, and we are officially locked and loaded to conquer the highest peak! Take a look at these fresh faces carrying absolute academic trauma behind me!"

Dika swung the camera lens toward Maya, who was stretching her calf muscles. "Say hi to the camera, May, for the loyal subscribers of our zero-subscriber channel."

Maya let out an amused snort, half-heartedly waving a hand at the lens. "Dika, please, we literally just started walking, don't piss me off right at kilometer zero. Save your energy for when you start begging someone to carry your pack."

"Oh wow, ruthless. Maya is seriously undermining the elite athletic capabilities of Dika Wijaya," Dika laughed, pivoting the camera toward Rian, who walked beside Maya. "Yan, how are you feeling ahead of our first death incline? Any final words for your mom back home?"

Rian chuckled softly, tweaking his pack straps. "My only final word is: I hope your camera battery dies right now, Dik, so you'll shut up for the rest of the hike."

"So cruel! This is historic documentation, Yan!" Dika scoffed, then spun the camera angle to the left, where Sita brought up the rear, her head bowed slightly. "Now, this is our most mysterious member. Go on, give us a tiny smile, Sit, right for the lens. So the audience knows this expedition is legal and we aren't getting snatched by forest spirits."

Sita slowly lifted her face. She stared into Dika’s camera lens for a fraction of a second, offering a stiff, fleeting smile before quickly turning her gaze back toward the towering rows of pine trees flanking the trail.

"Alright, Dika, turn the camera off for a second. Focus on the climb, the trail is starting to steepen," Gani called out from the front, waving an arm to signal the group to close ranks.

"You got it, Boss!" Dika chirped.

With minor cheers and bursts of youthful energy, their inaugural step through the official trailhead gate was made. The tread of their trekking boots crunched softly against the loose dirt carpeted with dry, fallen pine needles.

The morning forest atmosphere was truly breathtaking. Morning sunlight sliced through the thin mist suspended between the high branches, creating dramatic vertical rays of light. Forest birds called out to one another, welcoming their arrival, while the cool air made every deep breath feel deeply refreshing against their chests.

"Man... I swear, the air up here is unreal!" Maya marveled, spreading her arms wide for a moment to catch the mountain breeze brushing across her face. "I don't regret dragging myself out of bed at dawn at all."

"See? What’d I tell you?" Dika chimed in, walking right behind Maya, his action camera continuously sweeping the surrounding scenery. "Places like this can only truly be appreciated by adventurous souls like us, not homebodies who spend all their time hanging out at aesthetic coffee shops."

Rian, walking beside Maya, flashed a sideways grin. "You say that, but last week you whined about your legs being sore just walking to the convenience store down the block, Dik."

"That’s totally different, Yan! Walking to a convenience store has zero artistic value!" Dika argued back swiftly, drawing a round of light laughter from Rian and Maya.

The group dynamic felt loose and easy. The anxiety and unease triggered by Pak Karto’s grim warnings back at the registration post seemed to melt away, washed out by easy laughter and casual chatter echoing through the quiet pine woods. They felt as though they were simply on a casual weekend nature walk with their closest friends, entirely forgetting they were scaling the slopes of a notoriously volatile, semi-active volcano.

However, that euphoria wasn't built to last.

Barely thirty minutes into a steady, upward incline, physical fatigue began to take a toll on one of them.

Dika, who had been the most vocal and energetic member moments ago, began to slow down. His footsteps, light at first, now sounded heavy and dragged across the dirt. His breathing hitched, turning into a rough, wheezing huh-huh rasp muffled inside his jacket collar. He lowered his selfie stick, gripping it loosely in his left hand while his right hand clamped hard onto his backpack strap to combat the weight.

Gani, leading the pack up front, halted instantly upon hearing the ragged gasps behind him. He looked back to find Dika hunched over, both hands braced against his thighs, his face flushed deep red as he panted heavily.

"Hold on... give me a sec... huh-ha... let my lungs adjust to the mountain altitude," Dika wheezed between ragged breaths, cold sweat already slicking down his temples.

Rian and Maya stopped in their tracks, snickering at Dika’s physical collapse barely past the first hill.

"We’ve only been walking for thirty minutes, Dik! This is nothing," Rian teased, walking over to pat his friend's back gently. "I thought you were an adventurer at heart? How are you already looking like a terminal patient on a gentle slope?"

"Easy for you guys to say... huh... you've still got reserve stamina," Dika gasped, greedily uncapping his water bottle to chug. "I’m a seasonal athlete, Yan. My leg muscles are in deep shock being forced to do manual labor this early in the morning."

Gani glanced at the digital watch strapped to his wrist, offering a faint smirk. "That's why you shouldn't underestimate a mountain, Dik. This is just the baseline, a warm-up before we hit actual steep climbs further up. Alright, let's take a five-minute break. Grab a seat on that boulder to the right of the trail."

The five friends stepped off the path. They settled onto large, green moss-covered boulders bordering the trail path. Maya handed around a couple of chocolate bars to help restore their blood sugar, while Sita sat quietly on a rotting tree stump, sipping her water in total silence without uttering a word.

"Here, eat some chocolate so your blood sugar stops flatlining, Captain Vlogger," Maya joked, tossing a small chocolate bar into Dika’s lap.

Dika caught it eagerly. "Thanks, Maya my life-saver! Seriously, without you, I probably would've passed out and become trail-rabbit food."

"Alright, enough whining," Gani announced, pushing himself back to his feet once he figured they’d rested long enough. He gave his pack a readjusting tug. "We don't have time to burn if we want to hit Post Three before sundown. Let's move out. Keep the formation tight."

The five friends stood up, squared their gear away, and resumed their trek deeper into the dense pine thicket. Low murmurs of conversation picked back up, though their pace was visibly slower and more measured now.

Rian took the third position in line, maintaining a safe buffer ahead of Sita and right behind Maya. His eyes drank in the natural scenery, occasionally marveling at how wispy tendrils of mist began playing hide-and-seek among the towering pine crowns piercing the sky.

Ahead of them, Dika—having recovered slightly—hoisted his action camera back up, flicked recording mode on, and filmed the path ahead while humming off-key.

"Alright, guys, we are back on the move after a brief emergency break because Dika almost kicked the bucket on the first incline," Dika announced to the camera, laughing at his own expense. He then twisted the camera 180 degrees, intending to capture the exhausted expressions of Rian and Maya trailing behind him.

The tiny two-inch screen on Dika’s action camera flared to life, feeding a live view from the lens facing backward down the trail.

Dika’s steps suddenly faltered. The smile on his lips slowly froze.

On the small screen of the action camera, right between the gap of two massive pine trees standing about ten meters behind Rian, something deeply wrong caught his eye.

A silhouette—a pitch-black shadow of an exceptionally tall figure, stretching far beyond normal human height—stood rigidly behind a tree. The figure appeared to wear a sort of translucent, wet raincoat that gleamed faintly under the morning sunlight, its head bowed deeply, concealing any hint of a face. Long, spindly arms gripped the trunk of the pine tree with unnaturally long, dark claws.

The entity stood completely still, watching Rian’s group with intense focus straight through the small screen of Dika’s camera.

Dika blinked rapidly, desperately hoping it was just a trick of the light or an optical illusion cast by wind-swayed branches. A sudden, violent spike of adrenaline shot through his chest, sending a freezing jolt racing from the base of his neck straight down his spine.

His mind flashed instantly to Pak Karto’s ominous warning back at the registration post.

With trembling fingers, Dika lowered the action camera. He whipped his head a full 180 degrees backward, throwing a direct look with his own naked eyes toward the exact spot where the tall, translucent-raincoat figure should have been standing.

Rows of pine trees stood neat and orderly. The forest floor beneath them was entirely clear, save for a blanket of dry pine needles and wild fern brush.

The space was completely empty. No shadows, no towering figure in a plastic coat, absolutely no one there aside from the profound, eerie silence of the pine forest.

"Dika? Why'd you stop?" Rian’s voice broke through from behind, calling out to Dika as he blocked the middle of the trail.

Dika swallowed hard, his throat feeling parched and dry. He stared down at his camera screen one more time with shaking hands, then snapped his gaze back toward Rian, forcing a stiff, awkward smile.

"N-nothing... nothing's wrong, Yan," Dika stammered, his voice laced with a subtle tremor as he fought down the rising terror clawing at his chest. "My camera... the camera just lagged out for a second."

Rian stared at Dika with a single skeptical eyebrow raised, but chose not to press further, stepping past him to continue up the path.

Dika drew a long, shaky breath, wiping a cold sweat from his forehead, and hurried to catch up with the others. But deep down in the darkest corners of his soul, he knew one terrifying truth... the little camera lens in his hand had not lied.