02:19, 18 July, 20XY.
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.
In a city that used to be filled with large buildings, all turned into pieces of concrete and debris, there were two pieces of concrete slab that fell against each other after the earthquake at the start of the apocalypse.
There were many such spots, but under one particular such place, Alex had been resting for almost two days now.
He had been continuously administering his body's condition, as he had a limited supply of medicine on him right now.
There were a total of 3 healing potions and 3 blood clotting potions that Alex had created, now, however, he was left with just one blood clotting potion.
Out of the four healing bandages he had made out of leaves, he was left with none—all four of them had been used in these past two days.
But his body's condition was now better thanks to them.
He wasn't completely healed, as his wound on the left shoulder was deep, piercing his muscle fibers.
With the mixed effort of the AI and the medicines Alex had made, he was now good enough to be able to fight again, but he would have to be careful not to have his wound opened again.
Right now, he was in the same enclosed space he had been hiding in for the last two days.
The inner walls of the concrete had many small slash marks, some random and some in patterns; these were the result of Alex training his wind's whisper.
There were some black patches on the walls as well, and they were the result of Alex's training with his newest skill—the hellbound touch.
In these past two days, although Alex didn't enter a battle or even move out of this area, he didn't just waste his time; he trained his skills continuously.
There were some cans and wrappers thrown around, showing that he didn't even leave this place to gather food and eat the things he had in his storage.
Now, however, he was about to leave.
*Rustle*
He wore his white shirt, which was now stained with different colored blood before he draped over a cape-like jacket he had picked up from one of the guys he had killed in order to silence the guy.
That man had seen him entering this spot, which made the guy a potentially harmful entity in his eyes—a being who could reveal his location to others.
[Christina: Fuck! That demon had turned a bit too strong!!]
[Krish: We shouldn't have answered its question since the start!]
[Ramesh: Who was the one that proposed the idea of helping the demon?!]
[Jyoti: The only one who might be able to defeat that monster is another monster—Alex Matthew—but I don't think he's going to help us now, after all we had done...]
The world chat of this area, on the other hand, was quite lively.
The words that Alex had typed in the world chat had been going around since then, and by now, everyone in this area knew about it.
They knew that the demon could grow stronger when its questions were answered.
Since then, no matter how many answers the Chalitanetra got from the humans, in the end, it had to kill them as everywhere it went, it would find itself surrounded by humans.
After trying for a while longer and not being able to get any information on Alex, the demon then changed its approach.
Since it was going to kill the humans anyway, why not have his time enjoying it?
The real nature of the demon was then put on full display; any human it found would have to go through a thorough torture for around an hour before they died of blood loss.
Things didn't just end there, as the demon would catch another human and make them watch the whole process and write it down in the chats.
Slowly, the little of the courage the humans had dissipated. Sёarᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Now, instead of trying to kill the demon or give it the answers it needed, they just ran away from the demon.
Not everyone was lucky though, as there would be a new barrage of messages describing another human getting tortured.
There would be audio files attached to it, giving everyone who listened to it the idea of how much pain that person was in.
[Rajnish: W-What do we do...?]
[Drishti: God, save us...]
[Kartik: Oh no! The demon is around my area, and no matter where I go, it keeps following me!]
[Kartik: Someone! Save me! I'm in the XYZ area, please!]
Humans were again forced to realize that things were far from being normal and that the world was not how it used to be.
They needed to unite and not turn against each other, yet what they did was the exact opposite of it.
Even now, when the humans who were watching the torture going on were to be asked a question by the demon, they would answer as they didn't want to be the next one to get tortured.
It made the demon stronger, but the humans didn't care about it; they survived, and that's what they cared about.
[Ashish: The demon spars those who answer his question for some reason.]
This one message was the reason for the humans to answer all of the demon's questions whenever they were asked anything.
Alex, however, was not concerned in the least, as he was not the main target of the demon now, nor did he have to worry about people teaming up to kill him as they were busy saving their own lives.
He gave out information, wanting to buy himself some time, and that he did; the deaths of the humans were not something he cared about.
But the demon...
'How long will it take for you to copy the demonic healing ability from that demon?'
Alex questioned the AI as he stepped out of the shelter that had been his hiding spot for a while.
The ability of that demon—the healing skill—was something Alex craved.
The demon had two abilities; one was the mythical ranked one—Vichara Vardhana—the ability to raise one's stat by having its questions answered.
This skill, while broken, wasn't something that suited Alex.
He was a guy who believed that silence was the best response and that silence was the best question.
He wasn't a talkative guy, or he would've selected to copy that skill.
What he wanted was the second ability—demonic healing.
That skill was something he or anyone else in the apocalypse needed the most.
No matter how many medicines you have, unless you find an expert doctor and surgeon—which was almost impossible—you won't be able to get your wounds treated perfectly.
Even if you do find them, you won't be battle-ready from their treatment.
Alex, who used magical medicines, was still not fully received in almost two days, that too when his wound wasn't something that could be rated as a grave injury.
While waiting for the AI's reply, Alex opened the map, staring at the black skull on it, which didn't seem to be moving right now; the demon had probably found a prey to play with.
That was when the AI was finally done calculating the time required to copy an Epic-ranked skill as it replied to Alex's question...