Reborn: Apocalypse

'Hehehe, I've figured literally nothing out.' Shin smiled as he looked over the edge of the lounge he was leaning on, aiming down the sight of a long rifle.

He had just purchased the weapon from the Shop for several thousand Points for the second time. It was a Winchester Model 70, a type of rifle designed for hunting large game back on Earth. It had a long, dark brown stock and extended about half a meter out in front of him for the full barrel.

He'd purchased a previous version of this weapon earlier in the week. It had become damaged and lost the day before, however, when Shin had been ambushed by a team of thieves. He'd managed to escape using his teleporting Ability, but had left the previous rifle behind.

'But that's okay. I don't need to understand these monsters to know how to take them down.' The thought flashed in his mind as he zeroed in on his target.

In the city streets below, dozens of Morenkai could be seen, shambling about ominously. At the slightest sign that a human was down there, the monsters would throw themselves forward in a mad craze for blood.

Shin was reminiscing about his own experience down there earlier this week, when he was hunting about for the Golden Morenkai.

'I've hunted quite a few of you now, however.' He smiled.

The past week had been quite eventful for him.

After killing the first Golden Morenkai, Shin had been delighted with himself. He had not only met Micheal's expectations, but met them and, he believed, exceeded them. He'd also finally remembered what Micheal had said about Golden Morenkai, how they leeched electricity off of buildings and could be quickly tracked if he teleported around again and again, sweeping the Cluster.

Armed with stronger weapons, he'd gone on a hunting spree. Using his Warping Phaser Ability, he was able to teleport about the Layer at a fast speed, scanning multiple large sections in a short period of time.

Including the first one he'd discovered, Shin had found 6 separate Golden Morenkai. He'd cleared out the entire Cluster, looking for even the slightest hint of one.

And he'd successfully managed to take out all six, scoring a huge number of Points.

As for right now…

Shin carefully aimed at one specific Morenkai down at the street level. One with a blue skin tone, an Abnormal of some sort.

BANG

He fired.

His rifle echoed as it shot off a bullet, sailing through the air to slam directly into the forehead of the shambling Morenkai. The impact flipped the Abnormal backwards and made it twirl, landing down hard on the ground.

Almost immediately, a swarm of Morenkai all turned to look at Shin. Their ominous, near simultaneous movements, were incredibly creepy to behold, the surreal unison they carried themselves with oddly unsettling.

"Hmph." Shin carefully reloaded the bolt-action rifle, keeping calm and collected. His movements were somewhat skilled, the constant practice of the past week showing its results.


The Morenkai began to rush at him. He was only about 5 stories up, well close to the ground floor. The lumbering forms of the unnatural creatures slammed into the side of the building and then began to scale it, throwing themselves upward with their superhuman strength.

Several of them rushed up only to fall back down. While they were all superhumanly powerful, most of them were quite clumsy. Climbing in a rush was not their strong suit.

"Careful…" Shin ignored this as he looked at the Abnormal he had shot.

It had stumbled down, the impact stunning it. While the bullet hadn't penetrated its head, the force was still very considerable. A blow to the head like that was not something even a Morenkai could fully ignore.

However, this Abnormal seemed to be taking it worse than even regular Morenkai would be. Instead of shrugging the attack off, it remained stunned, unmoving.

'I was right! It's an Abnormal with a weakness in the skull!'

As he saw this, he smiled. This was exactly what he wanted!

Without hesitating, he focused on the Abnormal that was just a couple dozen meters away, ignoring the thronging Morenkai that were rushing him. He took a deep breath…

WHOOSH

And vanished, teleporting.

He found himself, an instant later, down on the street level. The nearby area was mostly clear of other Morenkai, at the moment, due to all of them rushing towards where Shin had been. This gave him a clear field as he ran over to where the downed Abnormal was.

"Sorry buddy, you'd do the same to me." He said out loud as he aimed his rifle precisely.

BANG

A second bullet blasted from the rifle, the recoil jerking back against him and his shoulder, almost making him fall over. He'd positioned himself carefully, managing to stay steady and absorb the impact. The smell of gunfire stung in the air as the bullet shot forward and slammed into the head of the downed Abnormal.

thud

The body of the creature slid and splayed out on the ground, black blood falling from it as it lay still.

..

—- Points Obtained —-

104

..

Shin smiled.

thud

thud

thud

Behind him, the echoes of Morenkai feet on pavement rang out as the black-skinned creatures seemingly realized they'd been tricked and sprinted back towards him.

Shin didn't give them even a hope of catching him as he immediately ran away from the body and jumped up in the air, his eyes focusing on the skyscraper next to him.

WHOOSH

He teleported away again.

"Ah." He muttered out loud as he fell down, finding himself inside a closed off room on the 4th floor of a building. The usual bed, desk, and connecting bathroom could be seen, all unoccupied.

WHOOSH

In relatively quick succession, Shin teleported twice more, as fast as his Ability would allow. He quickly found himself on the 12th floor, well above the thronging Morenkai down below.

'Whew.' He took several deep breaths, smiling.

'I've finally got enough Points!' His eyes flashed as he opened his status.

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— - Status — -

Name: Shin Hopefell

Points: 65,031

Race: Human

Age: 18

- Stats -

Strength - 18

Endurance -14

Recovery - 12

Soul - 12

Abilities - (2/7)

Warping Phaser

Ki Cultivator (Mortal Tier - Early)

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'With 65,000 Points, I can finally afford the Ability Micheal wanted me to get!' He pulled the Ability up in the shop, checking it over.

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Magic Swell - 65,000 (9/10)

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'There's only 1 left… there were 2 left the last time I checked.' He frowned slightly as he saw this, thinking it over.

The Magic Swell Ability allowed one to temporarily increases the size of anything within a certain range for a short period of time. Micheal's original plan had been for Shin to become the same berserker warrior and use the Ability to enhance the size of his sword.

The unique magic of this Ability allowed the force applied to a smaller object to be multiplied when added to a bigger object. That meant if he swung a sword that was about the size of his arm, but applied the Ability and made the sword the size of his body, the sword would fly through the air at the same speed, but the impact would be much greater and stronger. The sword's weight, density, and other qualities would have increased by large margins.

It would be as if he became monstrously strong, able to swing such a large sword with ease. An extremely powerful Ability for a warrior that focused on melee combat and overwhelming strength.

'I'm still going to go my own route, though, that uses my teleporting powers best.' Shin had fully committed himself to the role of a sharpshooter, a skirmisher, and an assassin. He knew that there were many routes he could take, but that if he didn't specialize in something, he would become a jack of all trades, master of none.

'However…' As he looked over the Ability, an idea stayed with him that he couldn't shake.

'The Ability should activate instantly, the expansion not taking any time at all. That means it would take far less than a fraction of a second to use.' According to its rough description and what Micheal had hurriedly told him, this understanding should be correct.

'…'

'What would happen if I fired a bullet, but then expanded its size?' His eyes flashed,

'If I transform a .375 H&H Magnum round right after I fire it, making it swell to say, the size of a bowling ball…'

'Wouldn't that be the same thing as firing a literal cannon?'

A deep-seated eagerness filled his heart as he considered this. This unique Ability contained an awe-defying synergy. That was, if he could use it correctly. He wouldn't know fully unless he tested it.

'With an attack like that, I should be able to obliterate Morenkai left and right. I would definitely be able to help Micheal out, now, and in the future!' He smiled.

And then, without hesitation, selected the Ability.

'Purchase!'

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

Far above Shin, on the roof of the skyscraper he was within, a man that looked to be in his mid-60s could be seen standing on the edge. He had a bushy greying beard and tanned, weathered skin, giving him the appearance of a sailor. He wore a pair of stark white pants, an open white vest, and had an enormous metal anchor strapped to his back.

He practically looked like a ship, in and of himself.

"So the runt is down here, huh?" The man's voice was rough as he spoke, his nose, one that had clearly been broken before, wrinkling. His short, greying brown hair and dark grey eyes contributed to his wizened appearance.

"Yes sir, Admiral!" A young lady spoke up, her voice quivering slightly as she walked up next to the aging man. She had long red hair and wore a prim purple dress, covering her body from neck to toe, though her pretty face remained revealed. Her eyes were green, glowing lightly in the dying afternoon light.

"He's been hunting all over the Cluster, but only attacked Morenkai. He hasn't harmed any innocents and has even gone out of his way to help several smaller teams when they looked like they were in trouble." As she spoke, her eyes glowed a little brighter, as if she was seeing a vision.

"Huh." The old man crossed his arms, a smile appearing,

"The old man's Seer said there was a chance we'd find a link to curing Cameron in this Cluster, but we've had no luck in that regard." He spoke out loud to himself, his voice gruff as he weighed his options.

If Micheal was here, his eyes would've popped as he recognized the speaker.

It was none other than Admiral Cardell, one of the 6 Executives of the Godfather Organization.

A man considered the strongest Ranker under S Rank.

A man that, in the original timeline, would go on to eventually become an S Ranker after the Godfather Organization's Head, Cameron, perished due to a seemingly incurable poison.

It was because of his sheer force of will that the Godfather Organization managed to survive following Cameron's death, though only after tens of thousands of its members died.

"A young man like him has the potential to fit in just right with the other Executives, if he makes use of that teleporting Type Ability properly and picks up a few strong Abilities." Admiral Cardell's eyes narrowed as he made a decision,

"Let's go talk to him before we force the Great Bridge open again."

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Next update tomorrow.

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Reposting this extra comment I made from last chapter to be informative:

The amount of Points you get from killing someone is a percent, from 0.1% - 5% of the *total* amount of Points they have PLUS the Points 'value' of their Abilities. For beings without the Shop, Points are a distribution of that creature's life energy or something similar.

For example:

Say someone has 10,000 Points, + Abilities that cost a total of 400,000 Points.

You could get up to ~20,000 Points from killing that person, despite them only having 10,000 Points to spend.

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