Reborn: Apocalypse

The early morning light gleamed, lighting up the world around Micheal. A few clouds drifted overhead, making for a rather picturesque view.

'Wow, those guys were up pretty early. It's probably barely past 8.' He silently observed. Some people chose to hunt in the early hours of dawn, when most of the major groups would still be resting or getting ready.

He glanced to the left and the right, scanning his surroundings. He could only really make out the four neighboring skyscrapers, but didn't see anyone on them.

'No wait…' His eyes narrowed.

He could make out the shambling figures of two Morenkai moving slowly together across a sturdy wooden bridge, off to his left on the other skyscraper. Apart from that, not a soul.

'In the central region, most people stick to the insides of skyscrapers when they aren't actively looking to hunt.' He nodded. It was more common to see random people in the outer regions as people came up for sunlight or to break the monotony of existence here.

If you weren't obsessed with getting stronger like Micheal was, life could be pretty dull at times.

'Then again, the constant danger of risking your life to hunt, or the horror of seeing people you know die, did spice things up a bit.' He shook the memories aside. He felt like an old man, complaining about how life had been harder back in his day.

Micheal turned to the left, stalking forward. He moved as quietly as possible, concentrating on moving his aching body in smooth motions. The most important part of any battle was often how you entered it. A single strike could decide everything.

In movies or books, Micheal had read about epic duels that lasted for hours.

In the first of the 7 Layers, most direct melee battles finished in an instant. Only fights between long-range experts lasted longer than a few exchanges, and that was mainly because snipers or the like could hide behind the nearly indestructible walls. Other battles, where one was trying to lure a Morenkai to fall, could last longer than an instant, but typically ended shortly after.

Micheal reached the edge of his skyscraper. He tapped on his Spatial Ring, instantly withdrawing his Steelborn Sword. The blade gleamed with the light of the sun, something he immediately shifted as he pointed it down.

'I forgot about how damn bright it is here.' He grumbled, hiding the blade in his shadow.

The two Morenkai, in the meanwhile, had managed to cross the sturdy wooden bridge and were ambling around on the neighboring skyscraper. This particular building was a faded green one, with two sheds that opened up into stairways.

After walking around the top of the building for a few moments, the Morenkai began to walk towards a bridge that led to a different skyscraper.

Micheal frowned slightly.

'Life Orbs!'

Immediately, three glowing orbs appeared, floating around his head. He mentally directed two of them to the ground and stepped on them, finding his balance.

He then began to fly alongside his own bridge, hovering just next to it. He moved quickly, as fast as the orbs could fly. Their top speed seemed to be around 30ish miles per hour (50ish kilometers per hour). They accelerated very quickly, making them quite useful.

The maximum speed seemed to increase, slowly, if he moved in a straight line for a long period, but he wasn't sure. He hadn't had the chance to test them extensively yet.

WHOOSH

In just a few seconds, he flew over to the neighboring skyscraper. He didn't fly above the bridge, but instead flew just to the side of it. Flying up high would make him a target to other humans, something he didn't particularly want to deal with.

'Morenkai I can handle, but there are too many weird Abilities or strong Artifacts that exist, even with the Points Wall.' The Points Wall was around 100,000 Points in the First Layer. No matter what you did, you could never exceed that number.

You could spend Points on anything below it, and hit the wall again and again. But it was impossible to go over it.

Micheal had hit the Points Wall before. There was an actual feeling associated with it. A warm feeling would cover your soul, one that was extremely comfortable. When you tried to take in more Points, however, the feeling would tremble and the Points would be rejected. It was like trying to eat something when you were already full.

'Of course, I never managed to hit the Points Wall while here on the First Layer.' He thought, ruefully. He had barely managed to make it to the Second Layer in his first go around.

By this point, Micheal had reached the other skyscraper. He hovered about a quarter of a meter above the ground of it, just barely floating.

'If I walk, I'll inevitably make noise. But if I use the Life Orbs to fly there…' His eyes flashed as he came to a conclusion.

He shot across the roof of the skyscraper like a wraith, not making any footsteps. In fact, the only noise was the sound of air flowing around him as he shot forward and the shambles of the Morenkai as they moved across the bridge.

In this case, the bridge the Morenkai were on was a wide, metal platform, about 4 meters across, with no handrail.

thud

thud

thud

The clomping of the Morenkai was rather loud as they moved forward, their long arms waving back and forth. They were hunched slightly as they moved, their heads twitching to the right and left.

WHOOOSH

Micheal didn't hesitate or give them a chance to detect him. He flew directly onto the bridge, hovering a quarter of a meter over it till he was right behind the two moving Morenkai. The creatures didn't even have time to look behind them as Micheal jumped off his Life Orbs, his Steelborn sword flashing forward.

SHHHK

SHHHK

clang

clang

His blade cut through the air and directly split the two Morenkai in half, black blood bursting from them as the horrifying creatures were instantly killed.

With the energy from his Grandmaster Sword Mastery Ability coating them, Micheal barely felt any resistance.

'I can only utilize a small amount of Sword Energy currently. In terms of cutting power, I'm probably equal to Intermediate or maybe barely Advanced Sword Mastery. Still, with my Steelborn sword, that's more than enough.' The thought raced through his mind as the two corpses of the Morenkai collapsed onto the bridge.

They would dissipate within a week unless someone picked them up to use them for something. Some people had weird Abilities that could animate corpses or used them for various other purposes. Micheal himself had always been much more of a straightforward fellow. If he saw something he could cut… he would cut it.

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—- Points Obtained —-

Points: 13

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—- Points Obtained —-

Points: 10

.

'Nice.' He smiled as he looked at the notifications. He checked over his blade as he tapped them off, making sure he hadn't gotten any blood on it.

'I need to get to around 100 more Points before I can start my plan…' His eyes flashed as he looked around and continued to prowl.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Less than an hour later, Micheal had returned to his original skyscraper. The early morning light had faded to midmorning, but the day was still young.

Micheal was currently standing in the center of the roof of his skyscraper. On the ground in front of him was his Steelborn sword, leaning against his waist. His eyes were twinkling as he looked at the object he was currently holding on to.

It was a large, old-timey record player.

Something he had just purchased from the Shop for 250 Points.

'The fact that random things like this record player can be purchased using one of the options found in the back of the Shop, 'Miscellaneous Earth Objects', was something most people ignored. After all, you couldn't find anything useful when it came to weaponry in that selection, even if you could select a very wide range of things.' Micheal smiled as he placed the record player on the ground.

'Who would waste Points on anything like that when you could instead be spending them to grow more powerful? It does make sense.' Micheal nodded as he set the record player up, making sure everything was put in place correctly. He couldn't fault people for ignoring this option.

He himself had only really come aware of it in the later Layers, where Points were a bit easier to obtain, though the danger was much greater.

On the black record he had set in the player, the carved letters JD - TMH could be seen. He had purchased this from the same section of the Shop, for about 20 Points. Micheal moved his hand over to a switch on the front of the record player, where the volume could be adjusted. He moved this up to the maximum value.

After he finished setting it up, he picked up his blade, holding it at the ready. He then knelt down one last time, his finger hovering over the switch to turn the record player on.

"I need to get a large number of Points in a short time. The quicker I can get that done, the stronger I can get. The top experts in the Stardust Cluster currently are well above me in terms of strength." His eyes flashed as he talked his plan out loud, making sure it was sound. It was a habit he picked up over time, talking things over with Shin before they made a move.

"Morenkai are drawn to sound. Their senses aren't super sharp, but if I make enough noise for a continuous period of time, they'll swarm here. I can also use this as an opportunity to establish a horrifying reputation, one that should be enough to buy me some more time to get stronger." He grinned,

"This record player is enhanced by the Shop, and it should be able to play pretty loudly…" He nodded slowly as he cracked his fingers.

And, without fanfare, pressed the switch.

SCRATCH SCRATCH

The record seemed to shudder for a brief moment.

An instant later, a very familiar song began to play, blasting out of the record.

"…♪ Almost Heaven, West Virginia ♪…"

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