And so, we fought monsters along the way and finally arrived at the side of a river in Africa. I was so relieved when we could stop walking—my legs were killing me!

Doraemon pulled out a toy cruise ship and enlarged it with his Big Light, making it ready to use right away. We all hopped on, and I took charge of steering it up the river. I mean, I remembered how in the original story, Gian and Suneo wrecked the ship, so I strictly forbade them from touching the helm. Better safe than sorry—I'd handle it myself.

Doraemon's toys are always so easy to use anyway. Just control the direction and start the engine, and we're good. I drove us along the river, and sure enough, we ran into a group of crocodiles that surrounded us. They snapped and thrashed, but they couldn't touch the ship. See? That's why I insisted on steering!

As I kept us going forward, we soon reached a point where the river turned, and it wasn't the way to the Bauwanko Kingdom anymore. We had no choice but to disembark and continue on foot.

But right after we got off and Doraemon put the ship away, a group of dark-skinned natives emerged from the dense forest. At first, I thought they might be cannibals or something scary like that. They jabbered in their language, but they didn't attack us, so I figured they weren't enemies. Yeah, makes sense—most tribes these days have seen modern stuff, and real cannibals are super rare.

We slowly lowered our guard. Doraemon ate some Translation Bread and started communicating with them.

He translated: "He says today is a sacred divine festival, and they hope to invite us guests from afar to join them!"

"Oh, really! My stomach's rumbling—perfect timing to try some African cuisine!" Gian eagerly agreed.

Doraemon and I exchanged a glance, and I could tell he was thinking the same as me: it should be safe, and after all that traveling, we needed a break. If anything went wrong, Doraemon's gadgets could handle it. With him around, I always feel unstoppable.

So, we followed the natives to their tribe, all excited.

That night, at the divine festival, the natives were singing and dancing wildly to celebrate. We joined in, chowing down on the food. Gian was going nuts, devouring everything like he could eat three whole pigs in one sitting—stuffing his face like a maniac. It cracked us all up.

But here's the thing I noticed but didn't say out loud—some of the dancers, especially the women, were in traditional outfits that were pretty revealing, like barely covered at all. Their bodies painted and moving freely in the firelight. It was kinda embarrassing to watch, but I pretended not to stare, focusing on the food instead. Shizuka seemed a bit flushed too, but nobody mentioned it.

Anyway, while they were kneeling and worshiping their deity, Doraemon suddenly pointed something out.

"Isn't that the mysterious giant statue from the satellite photo?" Suneo gasped; he'd seen the picture too.

"Bauwanko! They call this deity Bauwanko," Doraemon said.

I thought, yeah, these people must know where it is. "If we ask them, we can get there fast!" Doraemon agreed and went to talk to the chief.

He explained why we were here, and the chief jabbered back, but we couldn't understand. Doraemon forgot and handed out more Translation Bread to us.

Now we could hear: "If you want to meet the deity Bauwanko, you must face three deadly trials."

"In the savanna, you will encounter seven times seven kings of fangs."

"The Orodorolon Valley has a cliff connecting to the land of the dead spirits."

"Finally, there is the divine land shrouded in eternal mist."

"These three places of death—no one has ever returned alive."

The chief's tone was super serious. Then he asked again, all grave: "Do you really still want to continue searching for the deity?"

"That's right! We're going to the Great Bauwanko Kingdom and finding the treasure!" Gian blurted out boldly, like he was asking for trouble.

The chief sighed, then his face hardened. "You sinners who dare to offend the deity, leave this place before you bring disaster upon us!"

He ordered the natives to point their weapons at us. They didn't attack, though—just drove us out of the tribe.

I figured someone must've come looking for the Great Bauwanko Kingdom before, which explained their weird attitude.

Now kicked out, we had to find somewhere to camp. It was late, and setting up a tent sounded like a pain.

Just as we were all stressing, Doraemon tossed his Camping Hat on the ground, and it turned into a huge tent. We all piled in and rested for the night. I slept pretty well, and luckily, no stupid fights broke out like in the original story.

…

The next morning, feeling refreshed, we kept going and reached the first deadly trial: the savanna.

"So the so-called 'kings of fangs' are elephants!" Suneo pointed at the herd by the river and laughed.

But he spoke too soon. The elephants got agitated, and there were rustling sounds from the dense grass.

Looking closer, a pride of lions suddenly burst out from the bushes.

"It's lions! Run!" Gian yelled.

That was the real danger here! We all freaked out and scrambled up a nearby rocky slope.

Before Doraemon could grab a gadget, a shadowy projection of the Bauwanko giant statue appeared in the sky. It shot out a green beam that scared the lions off.

"The path to the kingdom has begun. Advance, young ones!" it said, sounding like some cheesy game NPC.

"Who is that? Is someone guiding us to the Great Bauwanko Kingdom?" Doraemon looked worried.

I could tell he thought something was fishy—like, how did we even find that satellite photo so conveniently? But since the dog prince hadn't shown himself yet, I kept quiet. It felt like it was coming soon, especially with that projection.

"No matter what, we'll find out when we get there, right? With your gadgets and the Anywhere Door, we can bail anytime," I said, trying to push things along and calm everyone down.

They were still a bit worried after Doraemon's take, but we pressed on.

Leaving the savanna, we hit a snowy mountain. Doraemon used his Make Believe Train Rope to get us across the slopes.

Then we reached the second trial: the Orodorolon Valley, connecting to the land of dead spirits.

The bottom was all misty, no sunlight ever, just darkness and fog—it looked creepy as heck.

Doraemon thought for a sec, then pulled out Gravity Paint from his pocket and brushed it down the cliff. Thanks to that, we could walk straight down the wall from the top.

But as soon as we hit the valley floor, it was even worse—not just eerie, but white smoke rising everywhere. It really felt like a land of dead spirits, with that hot, steamy mist making everything feel otherworldly and dangerous.

Advanced chapter here: p-atreon.com/Sajaboyzzz

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