Moon was sitting on the floor of his apartment and practicing the grip on his newly purchased Iron Baton when the air pressure in the room suddenly dropped.
A high pitched ringing pierced his eardrums and vibrated through his teeth.
He didn't panic. He gripped the iron baton tighter and stood up to watch the familiar blood red text overwrite his vision.
[Ding!]
[Mandatory Survival Mission Initiating.]
[Destination: The Blighted Metropolis.]
[Rank: F]
[Objective: Survive for 3 Days.]
[Teleportation in: 00:00:10]
"Three days this time," Moon muttered. "A massive step up from a three minute siege."
[00:00:03]
[00:00:02]
[00:00:01]
The spatial transfer hit him like a physical blow to the chest. The walls of his apartment warped into streaks of gray light.
Gravity inverted for a nauseating second before slamming him down onto a hard concrete surface.
Moon hit the ground in a crouch and his Iron Baton instantly raised in a defensive guard.
The air was foul and reeked of rotting meat.
He was inside a massive cavernous warehouse. Moonlight filtered through shattered skylights far above and cast long eerie shadows across rows of rusted shipping containers.
He wasn't alone.
Nine other people were scattered across the dusty concrete floor. They were groaning and recovering from the spatial sickness.
"Oh god. Where are we? What is this?" A woman in a business suit was hyperventilating and clutching her designer purse like a shield.
"My system interface says three days?" A terrified teenager in a school uniform stammered and stared at the empty air in front of his face. "I can't survive for three days! I only have an E Rank talent!"
"Everyone shut the fuck up and listen to me!"
A large burly man in a heavy leather jacket pushed himself to his feet.
He had a thick beard and the scarred knuckles of a street brawler. He glared around the warehouse and tried to establish immediate dominance.
"My name is Braddock. I awakened a D Rank combat talent. If we stick together and follow my orders, we might get out of this shithole alive. Anyone who panics gets left behind. Understood?"
Moon stood in the shadows near a stack of wooden pallets and quietly observed the group.
Braddock's strategy wasn't terrible for normal Awakened. Safety in numbers was a basic survival tactic.
But Moon wasn't a normal Awakened.
His SSS Grade Limitless Plunder required him to physically touch corpses to steal their raw stats and skills.
If he stayed with this group of terrified strangers, he wouldn't be able to use his talent without drawing massive amounts of attention.
In this ruthless new universe, exposing an SSS Grade cheat was basically painting a giant target on his own back.
The moment the others realized he could infinitely scale his power, they would either try to use him, betray him, or report him to the Albion Awakened Bureau the second they got back to Earth.
He needed to be a lone wolf.
While Braddock was busy barking orders at the crying businesswoman, Moon silently faded backward.
He used his 1.3 Agility to step lightly and his sneakers made zero noise against the debris strewn floor.
He slipped through a shattered window at the back of the warehouse and dropped into the alleyway outside.
The Blighted Metropolis lived up to its name.
Moon stood in a narrow trash filled alleyway and looked out at a ruined cityscape. Towering skyscrapers loomed against a dark sky. Their glass facades were shattered and their structural steel twisted.
Derelict hover cars littered the cracked asphalt of the streets and were overgrown with strange moss.
It was a dead world.
"Alright," Moon whispered. "Three days. Let's get to work."
He didn't immediately rush out into the open street. He needed an edge.
His Iron Baton was great but it required him to get dangerously close to whatever was infected out there. He needed reach.
He scavenged the alleyway and his eyes darted through the gloom.
He found a long sturdy piece of jagged scrap metal. It was a broken piece of structural rebar about four feet long. It was heavy and had a wickedly sharp jagged point.
It was the perfect makeshift spear.
Moon gripped the rebar in his left hand. He closed his eyes and activated his F Rank passive. [Necrotic Bile].
He felt the familiar sickening warmth pool in his left palm. The pale green highly corrosive acid secreted from his pores and dripped onto the rusted metal.
Instead of melting the rebar entirely, Moon carefully smeared the acid along the jagged tip. He let the metal absorb the corrosive property until the tip glowed with a faint deadly green hue.
"Shk... shk... shk..."
A dragging wet sound echoed from the mouth of the alley.
Moon froze and melted into the shadows behind a rusted dumpster. He gripped his makeshift spear and his heart rate steadied into a calm predatory rhythm.
A silhouette lumbered into the alleyway.
It was a Blight Fiend.
It was roughly human in shape but that was where the similarities ended. Its skin was completely hardened into a gray armor and oozed a black substance from the cracks in its joints.
Its jaw was split open vertically and revealed rows of jagged broken teeth. It was heavily mutated and significantly more dangerous than the fragile Rot Walkers of the beginner's trial.
The monster paused and its head twitched erratically as it sniffed the air.
Moon didn't wait to be discovered.
He exploded from behind the dumpster and used his 1.3 Agility to clear the distance in a fraction of a second.
The Blight Fiend shrieked and swung a heavy armor plated arm in a wide arc that would have shattered a normal human's ribs.
Moon ducked under the wild swing and felt the wind of the blow ruffle his hair. He planted his back foot and twisted his hips to put every ounce of his 1.8 Strength into the thrust.
"Eat this," Moon grunted.
He drove the makeshift spear directly into the center of the Blight Fiend's chest.
CRACK!
The rusted armor of the monster was incredibly dense. A normal weapon would have bounced right off. But the tip of Moon's spear was coated in Necrotic Bile.
The acid hissed violently upon contact and instantly corroded the hardened skin. The jagged rebar punched through the softened armor and sank deep into the monster's corrupted chest cavity.
"SCREEEE!" The Blight Fiend thrashed wildly and its black blood sprayed across the brick walls. It lunged forward to try and bite Moon's face even as it was impaled.
Moon didn't retreat.
He yanked his Iron Baton from his belt with his right hand and brought it down in a merciless crushing blow against the side of the monster's knee.
SNAP!
The joint gave way with a sickening crunch. The Blight Fiend dropped to the asphalt with its jaw still snapping wildly.
Moon stepped heavily onto the creature's back to pin it to the ground and ripped the spear free. He brought the acid coated tip down one final time and drove it straight through the back of the monster's skull.
The creature twitched violently and went completely still.
Moon stood over the corpse and panted slightly. The adrenaline rushed through his veins but he quickly shoved it aside to focus on the prize.
He dropped to one knee and placed his bare hand against the creature's oozing armored back.
[Ding!]
[Target Killed. Activation Requirement Met.]
[Limitless Plunder (Stage 1) Activated.]
A warm thick current of energy ripped from the dead monster's body. It rushed up Moon's arm and settled directly into his core.
[Plunder Successful!]
[Raw Vitality +0.2 acquired.]
Moon took a deep shuddering breath as the energy assimilated.
He instantly felt his skin tighten and his heartbeat slow down. The minor aches in his muscles from the explosive movements vanished completely.
His endurance was increasing and his biological foundation hardening against the brutal environment of the Metropolis.
"One down," Moon whispered. A dark hungry smile spread across his face as he looked out at the sprawling ruined city. "Thousands to go."