9 First Encounter

The first thing Micheal noticed was the silence.

Eerie and quiet, little sound could be heard. There were no birds squawking, no cars moving and honking, no children laughing or yelling.

It was silent.

Each skyscraper was set pretty far from other skyscrapers. They weren't as clustered as they normally would be on Earth.

Instead, they were spread out by a large 6 lane road, back on the ground level. This meant each skyscraper was around 30 meters from any other skyscraper. Over such a great distance, sound would carry quite poorly, especially when people were trying to be quiet.

No one wanted to alert the Morenkai to their presence, even if you were hunting them. After all, hunting down 1 Morenkai at a time was much easier than taking on a whole group.

"Hmm…" Micheal turned to the left and right as he fully stepped out onto the roof, his sword strapped into a sheath that came with it on his waist.

There wasn't anything on his roof currently.

He walked over to the edge of his roof, looking down.

More than 100 meters stood between him and the ground, a height that would instantly kill even him if he fell. Down on the ground level, he could make out various figures moving on the sidewalks, occasionally crossing the street.

"The Morenkai…" He shivered slightly despite himself, pushing back his own horrific initial memories of the creatures.

"They're active down below, which means they're hunting up top as well." Occasionally, some Morenkai would climb up the sides of buildings, reaching the rooftops. After they made it up, they would wander about aimlessly.

They'd only return down to the ground at random times. The Morenkai weren't always actively roaming. There were usually short gaps that most would take a few minutes here, sometimes an hour or two, where they would enter the base of buildings to rest, lying down on the ground randomly.

It was incredibly unsettling to see. Micheal had never seen it personally, his fights on the First Layer leading him to leave through a brutal melee combat in The Towers. But he had seen pictures and recordings that were brought up the Layers about it.

After confirming that they were active, he stepped away from the edge. He turned to look at one of the bridges that connected to his skyscraper.

'The central area has the highest chance of Morenkai appearing up top. It should only take a few minutes at most to encounter one if I keep moving.' Before anything else, he needed to kill a large number of Morenkai. He needed a large number of Points before he could begin his plan to save the First Layer.

'This Layer wasn't meant to slaughter us. Far from it, it was meant to make us stronger.' His eyes flashed.

'We were simply too ignorant at the time to discover how.'

It was one of the rickety rope ones. The bridges that connected each skyscraper were random. Some were fancy and sturdy while others were poorly constructed and barely worked. Not all the skyscrapers were the same height. Some were taller while others were shorter.

The one Micheal was now looking at was 2 levels higher than his current skyscraper.

tap

tap

Micheal took a few steps forward onto the rickety bridge. He held on to the rope as he moved, his every step sure and confident.

While something of this level would've terrified the younger him, it had little effect on him now. He put each foot firmly on the wooden planks as he crossed over, ignoring the gaping distance between him and the ground.

He quickly crossed over the bridge, finding himself on a new skyscraper. This one had a slightly raised metal wall, about half a meter in height, surrounding it. There were a few visible air condition units, some vents, and a trapdoor that lead into the bowels of the skyscraper.

But apart from that, not a soul in sight.

'I think something like 60,000 people arrived in my Cluster, right? There are a few thousand skyscrapers here, and I think there were around 10,000 people here left over from the first three Waves.' He shrugged,

'I guess I do remember hiding and resting inside for the first day. It makes sense that it's so empty. Even on later days, I tried to stick to staying inside as much as possible. No one wanted to run into any of the Morenkai unprepared.'

He walked across the rooftop, pausing as he noticed something.

When he moved, he was constantly scanning the environment. He did not lower his guard and was always alert. A single moment of weakness was all it took to die. Micheal's observational skills were built up from years and years of constant training.

This skyscraper's roof was white, set with long-lined tiles. On a few of these tiles, Micheal made out several large black splotches and a few patches of grey powder.

He dropped to one knee, reaching down and picking up a pinch of the grey powder. He sniffed it lightly and then nodded, discarding it.

"Gunshot residue and the remnants of some fire-based attack or explosive." The buildings here might look like ones from Earth, but they were much more durable. Even explosive attacks could hardly damage the roof, leaving behind only a black mark.

He frowned slightly, considering his situation.

Regular guns actually had some limited effect on the First Layer. The Morenkai were extremely tough and durable, but they weren't invincible. A solid rifle could pack a decent punch and knock a Morenkai backwards, though penetrating their extremely dense skin with regular weaponry was difficult.

Special magical weaponry or Abilities from the Shop could make the challenge much easier, especially with the often superhuman strength many people possessed, but the regular type of weapons from Earth were only so-so. Despite that, many people chose to use guns thanks to their long-range capabilities and the familiarity people had with the concept.

A gun was reassuring to many. It offered them solace and a feeling of security, especially from other humans. While the Morenkai had very powerful physical defenseless, not too many humans in the First Layer were immune to normal bullets.

Few people also willingly wanted to get anywhere close to the Morenkai. Still, enough bullets could damage the Morenkai internally and cause it to die.

They were still creatures of flesh and blood, after all. They just had a very unique physical makeup that made them very difficult to kill. They also seemed to be able to subsist without eating or drinking anything for long periods of time, making them even more freakish.

The Shop also sold advanced weaponry, including Energy Guns and various weapons like that. There were even Types that could gain special bonuses or powers from using guns.

In the end, however, most people that used guns depended on external power. In the later Layers, the actual power and strength one could wield on their own was far more important. Still, there were a few rare gunmen in the Last Army, using weapons that were bound to one's Ki Cultivation, allowing them to compete equally with physical fighters.

"Is there a team using this area as their hunting ground?" It wasn't completely impossible.

The central areas did have the highest concentration of Morenkai, which meant it was the fastest way to farm Points if you could survive and handle that many Morenkai. Despite that, even the strongest members in his Cluster typically avoided this zone. While handling a couple of Morenkai might be manageable, handling a horde, or worse, some of the special Morenkai… few people would purposefully look for that.

Only the lesser off groups or teams would work here. The larger organizations, like the Saru Group, were fiercely territorial. Almost no one wanted to give an inch of help to anyone else without some type of return. Charitable groups like the Godfather Organization were a rare sight. The apocalypse had, at least initially, brought out the worst in humanity.

He looked around carefully, not seeing anyone else present. He shrugged after a moment and kept walking, moving towards a bridge that connected to this skyscraper. Overhead, the bright mid-afternoon light of this Layer's sun beat down, with a few clouds drifting across the blue sky. This Layer was very similar to Earth in some aspects.

As he walked up to the bridge that connected to another skyscraper, Micheal froze.

This bridge was a stiff wooden one, three meters wide. It had handrails and seemed to be drilled into each skyscraper, holding it steady. It was far more reliable than the one he'd crossed over on.

On the other end of this bridge, Micheal could see a tall, gaunt figure shambling forward. It had leathery black skin and was extremely unsettling to look at. Its long arms were currently dragging something behind it, bumping along the wooden planks.

thud

thud

thud

'A Morenkai.' His heart began to pound as he listened to its monotonous footsteps, each step rumbling as it moved across the bridge. He looked at the freakish creature, and specifically what it was dragging.

The corpse of a young woman, ripped and bloody, clearly dead.

He clenched his fists, his anger surging. He had seen billions die in his time, yet now that he had a chance to stop that, seeing even a single innocent death was infuriating.

Immediately after, however, he regained control, forcing his rage down. A feeling of coolness swept over him as he began to analyze the situation, not letting his emotions control him.

'It's not a special Morenkai, just one of the regular ones. It appears to have killed recently, that woman is probably one of the new Chosen that went off on her own and paid the price.' His right hand slowly slid to his waist, resting on the hilt of his blade.

'It doesn't sense me yet.' The Morenkai had weak visual senses. Their sense of sound and smell were much stronger, but only when they were actively hunting. When they were simply shambling around, aimlessly, all of their senses operated weakly.

However, there was a positive to every negative.

In terms of raw Strength and Endurance, Micheal was hopelessly outmatched. Even the weakest Morenkai had at least 8 times the Strength of a normal human from Earth, which meant at least 4 times Micheal's current Strength, without even considering their abnormal Endurance that could easily block even bullets. In a head to head collision, Micheal would be directly pulverized.

Without hesitating, Micheal began to walk forward onto the bridge towards it.

thud

thud

thud

He was no ninja, and certainly not capable of hiding his footsteps and making no sound at all. Things like that required special shoes or a unique Ability. His movements, however small, were bound to make some noise. As he got closer to the Morenkai, even someone trying to be quiet would be noticed.

Instead of trying to walk quietly, Micheal timed his each and every footstep to land perfectly in tune with the Morenkai's own movements. Its own somewhat loud steps drowned out his own movements.

As he walked, he made no sudden or strange movements. While the Morenkai couldn't see easily, they could detect movement. He allowed his body to blend into the background, keeping the height of his head, chest, and arms continuous.

thud

thud

thud

Micheal had crossed half the distance to the Morenkai. At this point, he began to concentrate on his body, controlling himself precisely.

The Ability 'Ki Cultivator' was extremely important for the Human Race. The initial purchase of the Ability modifies the human body, causing one's entire vein structure and organs to mutate slightly, though not to the degree that it was considered a 'Type' Ability by the Shop. Micheal had always felt the 'Type' designation by the Shop was rather arbitrary.

The Ability causes one's veins and organs to become tougher and more durable, but even more importantly, it allows one to be able to handle blood that is energized with 'Ki,' a type of cool energy that is absorbed from the environment and can be used to become supernaturally powerful.

This single purchase was extremely important because the 'Ki Cultivator' Ability was an Ability that could be grown without the need for Points. Of course, one needed to get the Ability first to gain the modified veins and organs that allow the Ability to function. That roadblock had caused Micheal a huge amount of trouble when he first started.

Micheal could feel his entire body flush with energy right now. It was this energy that had caused the visible increase in his Strength stat. Because of this, despite looking like a slightly athletic human, he was as strong as a top tier bodybuilder.

By now, he was only a dozen or so meters away from the Morenkai.

Up close, the creatures looked even more horrifying. It's lack of eyes or a nose, or most facial features, was incredibly unsettling. A long slit could be seen where its mouth existed, shut tightly at the moment. Morenkai only opened their mouths when they were eating or on the hunt.

'At least it doesn't smell bad.' The creatures didn't have much of a scent, oddly enough, though the stench from the corpse it was dragging was nauseating.

thud

thud

thu-

Abruptly, when the Morenkai was around 2 meters distant it paused, its head tilting to the side in confusion.

Micheal's eyes flashed. Immediately, without hesitating, he leapt forward, whipping his blade from his sheath.

His entire body was focused on this movement, making the leaping strike with an incredible amount of fluid movement. Despite the fact that his muscles were relatively untrained, the long years of muscle memory he built up non-existent, Micheal managed to perfectly launch the attack with amazing precision.

The instant his sword left his sheath, it was coated in a layer of edged energy thanks to his use of the Grandmaster Sword Mastery Ability. It cut through the air at an incredibly fast speed.

SWISH

SHKKKK

Micheal tumbled to the ground and rolled forward, his movements smooth as he flipped up and around, his sword at the ready. His eyes pierced forward as he looked at the foreboding figure of the Morenkai.

The creature stood frozen for a brief moment. A second later, the upper half of its body slowly slid off, cut cleanly in two. Black blood burst out from the Morenkai as it tumbled, dead.

Killed in a single strike, easily shearing through its incredibly dense outer skin.

.

—- Points Obtained —-

Points: 11

.

Micheal looked at the notification and smiled. He didn't even need to consider depending on his Life Orb Master Ability, or anything else, not for something of this level.

'Now THIS is something I can handle. Let's keep going.'