by L. M. Kerr
Leaving nothing but barren space, all the way to the dirt ground.
In the distance, one might be able to see other Clusters, spaced miles apart. These Clusters would never connect to each other. Trying to cross the dirt ground from one Cluster to another was suicide due to the presence of the Morenkai.
There was one special Cluster that existed, a unique one. A Cluster much larger than other Clusters, bigger in its size and scale. The Main Cluster.
And at the center of the Main Cluster were The Towers. A set of massive skyscrapers that seemed to pierce the heavens, towering above all else. There were around 100 Towers, all standing tall and proud.
Micheal's mission was to reach one of these Towers and then descend through it to the ground floor, exit, and find a Subway entrance. The entrances looked like normal subways on Earth. However, the moment anyone walked into one of the Subways on the First Layer and sat down on one of the waiting benches, they would be transported away, teleported to the Second Layer.
Reaching the Subway was the trial or goal set for those on the First Layer, something the Spirit announced as soon as the Clusters connected with the Main Cluster.
'And the only way to reach the Main Cluster is through the Great Bridge that appears in about a month or so.' He nodded his head, the memories all flooding back.
'I know what's going to happen. I know all, or at least most, of the secrets of this Layer.' He clenched his fists, nodding again.
'I can do this.'
After the envoy for the Saru Group greeted everyone, back atop the roof of the skyscraper, he had given a short speech explaining how to survive in the First Layer.
According to him, the Morenkai came out at random times. They had poor senses and if you were quiet, you could usually avoid conflict as long as you didn't get too close to them.
Once they latched on to your trail, though, they would pursue you viciously till you lost them or killed them.
The Morenkai were strong, durable, and difficult to kill. They possessed powerful regenerative properties, deadly pointed fingers, and an unwavering appetite for human flesh. They were like zombies out of a horror movie, only much stronger and harder to kill.
The Morenkai usually only stalked the rooftops, the bridges, and the ground level and actual ground outside. It was very rare for them to descend into the skyscrapers themselves, at least not in the many scattered Clusters spread out across the planet. On floors that were close to the ground level, it was slightly more common to see the Morenkai.
As long as one stayed inside, one would be mostly safe.
However…
There was one problem with that.
Humans had to eat and drink to live.
Water was not a problem. All of the faucets in the skyscrapers worked, providing clean fresh water, as did the lighting and air condition. How or why exactly they worked, no one knew.
In this strange, foreboding world there were only 2 ways to get food.
The first was to randomly find food stashed away in unexplored rooms in the various skyscrapers. The first few Waves had largely cleaned out most of this food, making this option one that wasn't very viable.
The second was to spend Points.
The Artifacts section of the Shop contained tons of actual Artifacts, magical objects that contained odd or mystical effects, some that were overwhelmingly powerful and in limited supply.
It also contained much more normal objects, like common weapons and armor. One could even find guns, cannons, or a variety of vehicles within it.
As a part of those rather normal objects it also contained a pair of special slots.
.
Food Selection - Custom
Liquid Selection - Custom
.
By tapping on one of these options, it was possible to call up a large assortment of foods and drinks. Almost anything one could imagine could be purchased here.
To get anything at all, though, one had to spend Points.
And how does one obtain Points?
In the First Layer, there were only two ways.
One was to kill a Morenkai.
The other was to kill a fellow human.
Researchers theorized that the Shop somehow transferred life energy from beings into the mystical 'Points' that the Human Race could use to grow stronger. The Morenkai have a powerful life force, and this translated into Points.
A normal Morenkai, when killed, would give off around 10 Points. Stronger Morenkai could drop more, but were a much rarer sight and much harder to kill.
A single Point was enough to buy a full day's worth of food from the Shop.
As for killing humans: the Point totals varied, but most humans would drop a small number of Points. Those with stronger Abilities would drop more, as would those with Points saved up but not spent. There was a great deal of inefficiency in this method, and more than 90%, oftentimes up to 96% or 98%, of the Points spent by a human would usually be lost.
"So that is the basics of how life works around here. This is the south side of the Stardust Cluster. The Saru Group controls a third of this cluster and works to protect everyone here. If you join the Group, you will be required to work with our Hunting Teams every other day, to ensure that everyone has enough to eat." The Saru Group recruiter's words echoed in Micheal's mind as he recalled them.
The first time around, Micheal had joined the Saru Group. He'd remembered how terrified he was, but also been rather excited. This was a strange new world and a strange new life.
Who wouldn't want to live it to the fullest?
It had taken him several months slaving away in the Saru Group to grow to any level of strength, slowly building up his own supply of Points. Eventually, he gained enough to get the Mortal Ki Cultivator Ability. The Saru Group held true to its word and did indeed protect them, but it also prioritized making their leaders and older warriors stronger over people like Micheal.
From then on, he had grown in strength at a decently fast pace. He'd begun to intensively practice using a sword, knowing his survival depended on his might.
'But I was still far too slow.' He shook his head at the memories. While it was true that he'd made relatively fast progress, even with all of his effort, he'd still only barely managed to catch up to some of the middling members of the 50,000 strongest humans.
This time around, things had already started to play about differently.
Micheal hadn't joined the Saru Group.
Instead, he'd chosen to become a solo hunter.
"Let's get moving." After he finished scanning his room and setting it up securely, he walked out of it into a long, narrow hallway. It was dimly lit by evenly spaced white lights up above. A plain grey wall could be seen on either side, with doors to mostly empty rooms interspersed at normal intervals.
He was on the 30th floor of one of the skyscrapers close to the center of the Cluster.
After listening to the speech by the man from the Saru Group, Micheal had slinked off on his own. There had been a rush to sign up and join the Saru Group after the man finished talking, something he took advantage of to leave unnoticed.
Well, supposedly unnoticed. He doubted that they actually didn't see him leave. It was likely that they didn't want to anger an 'Irregular' outright and just let him go.
He had then begun to travel through the Cluster, crossing bridge after bridge.
The feeling of crossing a rickety bridge set between two massive skyscrapers, looking down on a huge and certainly fatal drop, it was something Micheal hadn't experienced in a long time.
It had been the safest hour to move and he didn't hesitate. The Morenkai were inactive when the new Chosen were arriving.
Even more importantly… all the different organizations and groups were busy snapping up new recruits. There were so many new people arriving, it was a given that they would all temporarily focus on that.
This meant he was able to cross through more than 80 skyscrapers unobstructed, till he found himself a
t an area close to the center of the Cluster. Most of the groups welcoming recruits had descended into their various skyscrapers, leaving him free to cross each area. This particular skyscraper was one of the ones that relatively few people chose to live in. In fact, it seemed entirely abandoned, which was to his liking.
The central area of every Cluster was known to be more dangerous than the outer reaches. The Morenkai were more active here.
'I could stay behind and help the Saru Group grow stronger… but that would just waste the lives of every other group of people. I can't focus on a single group, I need to focus on the whole, but also my personal strength. I must become a champion that can fight off the champions of the Gods…' There was no point in ensuring humanity survived if they were just going to die again, after all.
Micheal shook the thoughts from his head as he began to move.
He quickly found the staircase he had descended to reach the 30th floor, moving up it till he found the roof. The stairs were drab but well spaced, leading all the way down to the ground floor.
When he reached the door that exited onto the roof, he paused. The door was a plain metal one, in a dimly lit shed atop the roof. The walls and roof were the same drab grey that covered most of this skyscraper.
'It's been quite a while… the special safety period for the new Chosen is bound to be over. It should be around now that the world goes back to normal.' His eyes flashed.
'The Morenkai should be active…' He thought, nodding.
He wasn't afraid of them, at least, not any of the basic Morenkai. He was certain he could handle that.
'The most dangerous thing about the First Layer isn't necessarily the Morenkai, though…' He thought, his eyes cool,
'It's other humans.'
Micheal stepped forward, putting his head next to the door. He listened carefully for a few moments before cracking it open and peering out it.
He didn't see anything, at least, nothing atop this skyscraper roof.
Slowly, he stepped out upon it.
It was time to hunt.
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Chapter 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.'
He shook the thought from his mind as he looked over the bridge.
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.
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 defenses, 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.