Reborn: Apocalypse

A few hours before Micheal's new experiment, Shin found himself looking upon the ground floor of a skyscraper in a very different Cluster.

'I found it!' Shin thought excitedly as he peeked out from the stairwell through a slightly opened door.

'I found the Golden Morenkai!'

The ground floor of this skyscraper was like the others. Empty and devoid of most furniture, just a large, sweeping room full of nothing. However, unlike the other skyscrapers, this one was only lit with the light that managed to peek in from the windows. All the lightbulbs, everything electrical, was down.

Standing in the center of this room, an odd looking Morenkai could be seen.

This Morenkai was entirely covered by a warm, golden glow. Visible sparks of golden energy could be seen, flying off its body and then settling somewhere lower, crackling quietly in the air. This Morenkai had the same featureless appearance as the others, but held itself with a different air. Its head also appeared to be enlarged, about 30% bigger than the others.

'Its just sitting there. What is it doing?' Shin eyed it closely.

There were three other Morenkai in the room, regular ones. Two of these Morenkai were looking out the window, standing still, while the third had its back to Shin and was staring at the Golden Morenkai.

None of the Morenkai moved. They all seemed content to stand absolutely still. Shin found their alien stillness unnerving.

'Everything about them is unnerving.' He mentally sighed, feeling emotionally drained.

'I have to kill that thing… Micheal said its weak for a Morenkai, and the back of its head is especially vulnerable. If I can hit it there with my sword, it should easily die. However, there are three other Morenkai in the room.' He backed away from the doorway and walked back up the stairs a floor, taking several deep breaths.

'Calm down, Shin. You can do this.' From his Spatial Ring, he withdrew the large longsword he had purchased from the shop. The blade listed as a 'Black Veiled Blade,' for quite a decent chunk of Points.

'The me of the future liked to use swords for direct attacks, according to Micheal.' He held the blade in his hand, feeling the comfortable and reassuring weight. As he thought about attacking with it, he could imagine himself striking a heroic pose. It sounded exactly like something he would do.

'The me of the future died.' He stared at the weapon, unblinking.

'I am not an unparalleled genius with the blade or anything like that… The reason I likely went with a sword in the future was because of my initial choice. Because I wanted to look the part of the hero.' Shin was extremely intelligent. He could recognize his own faults and flaws, even if he couldn't always change them.

'If I don't seriously work at becoming strong, my entire family will die. I can't afford to just pursue things because they look cool, no matter how much I want to.' He took one more look at the blade…


And then put it away.

'Micheal said he is already an expert with the sword, with the memories he has from his vision of the future helping him. Micheal didn't say I had any talent with the blade in the future, which is something he would've mentioned. We already have a close combat specialist on our side… And I need to be able to help Micheal. I can't just be a burden.' As he thought this, he began to nod. Instinctively, he felt that this was the right decision to make, clenching his fists.

'According to Micheal, there were special gun users at the very end, using Abilities that boosted the power of certain special guns you can buy in the shop. With Micheal holding the front, I could provide support from the back, as a gun or long-range weapon user.' His eyes flashed as he tapped on his Spatial Ring.

In his hands, a gun appeared.

It was a Glock 19, chambering a 9mm bullet. While it wasn't the strongest handgun in the world, it packed a punch and was more than enough to prove a reasonable threat.

Shin had picked this gun up on his own, using his excess Points when the Shop had first appeared. It had cost him roughly 800 Points, pricey but not crippling. The gun itself was slightly enhanced by the Shop, to work and function better than a normal one from Earth.

It had a magazine with a standard capacity of 15 rounds. He checked to make sure it was loaded and ready, the trigger safety engaged.

He held his gun up and walked back downstairs, till he was staring back into the open room. The Golden Morenkai remained unmoving, as did the others.

'I can't let myself fall to my fear. Gosh, this is scary, yeah. But I have to do this to survive.' Shin pushed back the fear that was trying to claw at his heart. Being thrust into a situation like this, any normal person would find it extremely hard to adapt. Even Shin struggled. The thought of his family dying, of losing his brother, cut through that fear like a knife, helping him focus.

'I will forge my own path, different from the one that led to my death in the future.'

He held his gun up and pointed it in a specific direction.

WHOOSH

Shin's body blurred and vanished.

He teleported, instantly reappearing right behind the Morenkai, his gun pointed directly at the back of its head.

BANG

Before any of the Morenkai could react, or even notice his presence, he fired.

The shock of firing a gun was jarring for Shin. It was loud, explosive, and recoiled more than he had expected. He pushed through it, however, knowing his life was on the line.

Black blood splattered out as the skull of the Golden Morenkai exploded, killed instantly. While bullets might not be able to penetrate or do too much harm to normal Morenkai, the head of a Golden Morenkai was enlarged. The back portion of it was especially weak, just weak enough that a well-placed bullet could easily penetrate.

.

—- Points Obtained —-

Points: 14,082

.

Shin's eyes widened as he saw the notification appear, a huge number of Points pouring into his soul. With such a large addition, Shin could actually physically feel something. A warm feeling of energy settling upon him, something he hadn't noticed when he obtained a much smaller number of Points earlier by luring a Morenkai to its death.

As the body of the Golden Morenkai fell forward, the entire skyscraper seemed to shake an extremely tiny bit. Right after, all the lights that had been off suddenly flickered on. The air conditioning units began to hum, everything electrical began to function as normal.

Shin noticed this but didn't give it any thought as he began to sprint backwards, waiting for his soul to recharge enough to teleport again.

For, his attack did not go unnoticed.

The two Morenkai that were standing by the window, looking outside, had spun around, their featureless faces zeroing in on Shin as they began to shamble forward.

The Morenkai that had been staring at the special Golden Morenkai, meanwhile, reacted far more violently.

"Grrrr…" It actually let out a rumbling growl, an unusual occurrence for the normally silent Morenkai. The creature hurled its body at Shin, its long arms swinging forward.

Fortunately for Shin, as soon as he fired the bullet that killed the Golden Morenkai, he had beat a fast retreat, sprinting backwards. He felt air violently brush up against him as the long arms of the Morenkai just barely missed.

"Hup!" He spun to the side, his heart pounding with adrenaline as he aimed his Glock 19.

BANG

He missed.

He wasn't professionally trained in shooting, and even with a creature that was moving in a straight line at him, it wasn't that easy to hit it. Especially with the adrenaline causing his arm to shake slightly.

BANG

BANG

His subsequent two shots right after, however, blasted into the chest of the Morenkai, sending it tumbling backwards a couple of meters. The bullets left imprints on the black skin of the creature, but were unable to penetrate.

'Holy crap. They really can just take a bullet like its nothing.' Shin observed, his eyes widening in shock at the freakish creature.

Like a zombie, the creature unnaturally rose back to its feet, its eyeless face zeroing in on Shin in a horrifying manner.

Meanwhile, the two other shambling Morenkai had broken out into loping sprints, hurling themselves towards Shin. In the time it took for this all to go down, they had crossed almost two-thirds of the way across the room.

At that exact moment, Shin smiled.

"Well chums, it's been great, but I gotta split. Sayonara!"

His body blurred and, with little fanfare, vanished.

THUD

THUD

Mere seconds later, the charging Morenkai collided as they slammed into where Shin had been, crashing down hard on the ground. The third Morenkai shambled forward as well but then paused, looking around in confusion.

Shin had successfully teleported away, killing the Golden Morenkai and getting away with it.

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