As fate seemed to be having a lot of things lately, Brock soon realised that creating a death trap using an ancient and unstable building was indeed a recipe for disaster. He could at least pride himself on the fact that he’d had the hindsight to retreat from away from the Alpha’s den beforehand.

It proved to be the right move, as he almost brought a building down on him on only his first attempt. Also, the process was not exactly quiet.

Along with an evident lack of knowledge towards architecture, Brock was quick to find that he didn’t know the first thing about imploding a building. Properly at least. The fact that he had no access to timed explosives certainly didn’t help him there.

The obvious start was for him to target the weakest looking parts of the structure and use his Augment to replace the explosives in question. But that too posed its own issues.

During his first attempt, Brock hadn’t even given a second thought about what would actually happen when he did so and was almost crushed because of it. If not for the window close by, he would be dead right now, or at least slowly awaiting his demise under several tons of rubble. After that incident, he had never dared to take the act of trap planning so lightly again.

Not unless I wanna add getting squashed to my list of injuries…

Several overly destructive attempts later, as well as a dozen or so fights that occurred as a result of the immense noise he created, Brock was still stumped as to how he was meant to execute his master plan. If he had access to timed explosives, the traps would be worlds easier to rig, but it should definitely be possible otherwise.

He knew it.

As for what exactly he was trying to accomplish here, it was simple really. The plan was for him to weaken the stability of a building beforehand and lure both the Alpha and his simian goons inside, before promptly escaping and letting it fall down on top of them, hopefully crushing their monstrous forms dead.

Scratching his head as he pondered on the issue, Brock finally clicked his tongue and downed his routine serve of canned beans. He couldn’t be sure, since the moon still hadn’t budged from its position in the sky, but it should be around dawn by now outside, "Probably."

Embroiled in his mad dash to make every remaining second of his timer count, Brock had neglected to sleep, leaning on the benefits of his improved body to push through. He hadn’t really felt the effects of doing so yet, but he had never been one to do well without a good night’s rest.

Idly chucking the empty can of beans at his latest created pile of rubble, Brock watched curiously as it collided near the wildly growing tree that had once held the entirety of the structure up despite its clear lack of structural stability.

Instantly, he deadpanned.

Am I literally stupid?

Cursing himself out, Brock slapped his forehead and sighed. The solution had been presented to him the entire time. Although the dust of the implosions usually obscured most of the details and Brock would almost always rush to leave the area to avoid nearby alerted beasts, he had caught sight of the weaving branches within the grey clouds a few times now.

While it wasn’t always the case, Brock had only seen a few unstable buildings without some sort of tree growing within or without it, holding them together. If the trees acted as one massive support beam, then all he needed to do was destroy it. Then, it’d be just a matter of time before the building struggled under its own weight and collapsed.

Hopefully, that ‘matter of time’ would be enough for him to escape the implosion radius. Ok. This better work…

He quickly got up and sought out a new building to test his newly improved destruction theory on. If it worked out, then he would finally have a reliable method to slay the overpowered Alpha gorilla. Ten minutes later, Brock stood safely outside the dangers of a collapsing building as it imploded, a roaring echo pervading through the area.

"I'm a fucking genius."

While it wasn’t a reliably certain timeframe, the trunk had taken about ten seconds from when it had been damaged to finally give under the weight of the building. Needless to say, the building itself quickly followed. It was more than enough time for him to vacate the premises.

Feeling somewhat confident in his newfound deathtrap method, Brock set out back in the direction of the gorilla and his monkey crew after a few more test runs. Each ended with a similar timeframe. I can fucking do this.

Unlike the original quest prompt Brock had gotten, he could pull up his Trophy Hunter quest with a mental command.

Trophy Hunter: Approach the centre of this domain and slay the Alpha and his pack. Reward: Unique title, hidden reward, hidden reward. (0/2)

Failure will result in the Source becoming permanently inaccessible to you.

Walking as he read over it again, Brock’s eyes settled onto the rewards he would receive. Aside from the fruits the gorilla had in its possession, killing the beast would also net him a unique title. He quietly hoped that it’d grant more benefits than the usual titles he had, and looking at the name, he was betting that it was called something similar to the quest it originated from.

What really drew his attention, however, was the mention of not one, but two hidden rewards. Or, more accurately, the implications of them. Were they hidden in the sense that he’d find out what they were when he completed the quest or did it give him access to a pair of rewards that were literally hidden somewhere?

And even pushing all that aside, if Brock looked at the System’s track record of douchebaggery, what was stopping the two hidden rewards from just being a dog shit and a fancy stick for him to poke it with?

Though, he supposed it didn’t really matter what it was, as either way he kind of had to complete the quest.

The journey back was relatively uneventful for the most part. The only pause in the monotony of it was when Brock was forced into a brawl with a group of Void Toads. Their spiked tongues continually harassed him, scoring several wounds across his frame before he finally put their slimy bodies to the graveyard. Assholes.

While it may have been an absolute pain in the ass to deal with those toads when they were in a group, Brock supposed it was good practice. It would certainly assist him in dealing with the remaining monkeys, assuming his implosion didn’t kill them all.

As for the big bad gorilla himself, Brock wasn’t actually sure if a falling building would even be enough to crush its muscular body dead. For good measure, he would locate the tallest one he could find beforehand.

Back to the topic of the monkeys, he had two predictions about how they would be involved during the ensuing fight. The first, and the one he hoped would come to fruition, was that upon sighting him, the gorilla would just let its grunts do the work for it. This meant Brock could just fight them without the pressure of their powerful leader.

The other - factoring in the dictator-esque rule the gorilla seemed to enact – was that his appearance would be seen as a direct affront to its ‘rule’ and persuade the beast to meet Brock head-on personally. If that were the case, then he’d first have to crush the gorilla, or at least remove him from combat for a while, before he could deal with the monkeys that would most likely follow their Alpha into battle.

Or, alternatively, he could deal with them first instead, though he’d have to continually dodge the gorilla’s attacks.

If it did end up devolving into the second of the two options, Brock just hoped that they followed their leader closely, so they too would be obliterated by falling rubble crashing down atop their heads. Alas, his life never turned out to be that easy as of late, and he doubted that’s what would go down.

He sighed out to his surroundings. They offered no reply, "I have a strong feeling that this is gonna turn to shit..."

Eventually, he once again arrived at the street corner that led off to the Alpha’s den after scouting out a building a distance back. It had seemed like it was basically begging him to use it to kill a group of murderous, mutant primates. Glancing around, Brock crept up to the turnoff and peeked his head out.

Oh…

All he could do was blink, however, as he was met by the sight of a monkey eating its own boogers. It was staring right at him. Its small violet eyes flicked up and met his own. Ignoring the fact that it was really awkward, Brock swore and spun back around the corner with fervour.

“Fuck.”

A single monkey’s enraged cry echoed behind him only a second afterwards. Quickly, that one cry became a cacophony of raving screams. Then, as he began to bolt away as fast as his legs would carry him, a deep bellow resounded throughout the streets. Oh, double fuck.

As his pumping legs carried him away, Brock dared to glance over his shoulder. Hissing out a breath, he watched as three dozen or so silver furred monkeys skidded around the corner, their eyes manic with fury and their mouths frothing with what was probably superpowered rabies. He could glimpse their sharp fangs underneath.

The sprinting man could only look on in shock, however, as the Alpha roared out once more and a moss-coated car exploded through the building standing tall at the street corner. Its top floor rained down rubble upon the madness consumed simians and managed to crush two of them to a pulp. Brock blinked. Uh... thanks...?

Wincing at their sudden deaths, he continued watching as the car continued on and crashed into a space on the road not too far from him, pelting him in a light spray of both dislodged flora and specks of asphalt. Ignoring the light pricks of pain on his skin, the office warrior powered through and forced his legs to move as fast as they possibly could.

Deciding to follow through with his solid plan to crush the gorilla, Brock kept one eye on the rooftops, searching for the peak of his chosen deathtrap. Finally, as the distance he travelled grew, he spotted its tall structure through the dark fog that permeated the area. It towered a good dozen meters above the buildings around it.

Brock glanced behind him once more and eyed his hand as it began to phase. It quickly stopped.

By now, the gorilla had appeared behind its faster pack, its hulking body lumbering down the street in chase of the deviant that had dared to intrude upon its holy domain. Brock found himself disturbed at the sheer rage that seemed to be contained within its oddly human features.

I’m gonna die.

Names began to wildly flicker into existence above the horde as they quickly closed the distance between them. The monkeys were apparently known as an aptly named Silverfur and all sat around the range of level 12 to even 15. The gorilla, on the other hand, was something stranger. Something that possessed an actual name.

[F] South, The Ape of Pride (LVL 19)

Its level was certainly the highest he’d seen so far, higher than even that crocodilian Treant. Luckily for him, the gorilla seemed to be far more invested in Strength than anything else judging by its bulging muscles, and was expending a lot of effort just to keep up. The name gave Brock pause for a moment, despite the other glaring features that demanded his attention.

South, The Ape of Pride, huh…?

It didn’t take much consideration for Brock to notice the connection here. His starting location should have been somewhere in the east, meaning that this should be the south of the city. The gorilla had probably earned its name from that.

Slowly, the office worker’s face began to fall. If there was an Alpha in the east where he had started and one in the south also, were there also Alphas in the north and west? Would he have to kill them too?

Fortunately, the situation didn’t allow him to think much more as the first monkey was suddenly upon him, lunging at him with a snarl. Twisting as he ran, Brock smoothly pulled a knife from the repurposed drink holders on his bag. The beast got a ruler’s length from biting upon his flesh before a blade found itself embedded down to the handle in its eye socket.

Screeching in agony, it hit the ground rolling behind him, miraculously still alive but struggling to move. Leaving the blade implanted in its skull, Brock assumed another within the second and held it at the ready. Fortunately for his chances at survival, these creatures appeared to have neglected to put points into Constitution.

He supposed that the Pontiacs must be in the same boat.

The horde of savage simians were apparently the least of Brock’s problems, however, as a metallic groan echoed out a ways above him, and he witnessed a shadow zoom over him. Moments later, another car smashed into the road, forcing Brock to suddenly stop and run around it, gasping in relief at the near-miss.

Idly, he glanced around at the other decrepit cars on the road, suddenly aware that any of them could be used as a weapon against him. He resumed his focus ahead of him.

He was almost upon the building now, and Brock quickly ran through the plan in his head, though he had to alter it slightly to accommodate for the veritable abundance of smaller nuisances. Another monkey cut his mental briefing short when it leapt at him and tore some of the skin from his ankles. Its nails were rough but ultimately blunt, and did nothing more than inflict a painful flesh wound.

It fell behind as it slammed into the road and climbed back to its feet to continue giving chase. Idly, Brock noted that the next monkey was only a handful of meters away, and prepared to counter. It didn’t really matter, however, as he was merely a dozen or so meters from the structure where he was to execute his master plan.

Unfortunately, life seemed to have a way of fucking him over.

Brock’s next step was punctuated as the entirety of his lower body and select portions of his upper body began to flicker, his limbs consumed by red and black electricity, “Oh… FUCK!”

Without any resistance beneath him, Brock readily slid into the ground, and while he was inwardly in turmoil, he felt some sense of relief as a jeep soared over where he had been standing seconds earlier and crashed into the road. He noticed that its tip had been suffused by a strange blue energy, and it made even Brock’s immaterial body parts tingle ominously.

Idly, he found that as soon as the spectral blue appeared, the strange presence of the Ape’s Augment disappeared from the air, freeing his own Augment for use once more. I’ll take anything I can get at this point…

In a matter of seconds, he was once more freed from the ground, landing lightly and instantly breaking back into a desperate sprint as he twisted around and slammed his fist into a snarling monkey’s face. A sickening crack resounded out and bloodied teeth flew from its mouth. Twitching and groaning, it collapsed to the ground, its head caved in slightly.

For good measure, Brock stopped himself, crouched and drove his knife through its neck. It gurgled once, before choking on its own blood. Well. That’s not a sight I’m going to forget…

Without wasting any more time, Brock tore his eyes from the dying creature and resumed his journey into the building. As he crested the doorway, he noted how its roof had begun to slump, more so than it had been before.

Probably from all the cars that big gorilla was throwing around…

Discarding it as merely a minor safety hazard, the man made the SWAT proud, kicking the door leading to the stairway off its hinges and beginning to frantically ascend the stairs. His rapid footfalls echoed within.

It was a matter of seconds before the Silverfurs entered the building behind him and streamed into the stair chute. Fortunately, Brock was already halfway up to the second floor by that point. As screeches of insanity reached his ears, the office worker pulled a knife into his grasp and infused it. His eyes locked onto the nearest monster.

Then he whipped his weapon towards it.

The force of Brock’s throw brokered no spin as the searing hot blade cleaved straight through the creature’s forehead and continued into its brain. It spasmed violently and died, collapsing to the ground and forcing its brethren to spend an extra second to climb over its twitching body.

I know it’s not the time, but that was fucking awesome.

Beneath him, another car coated with blue energies rolled through the building in a spray of dust and stone. The structure shuddered ominously, and Brock glanced down at the trio of slower monkeys that had been smeared across the floor by the vehicle.

It was slight, but Brock noticed the way that the space around the car seemed to shift and distort, seemingly making the rubble around it squish and stretch to smoothen its passage.

That alone proved it. The murderous gorilla was using an Augment, and if the Treants used something like an Augment of Shifting, then this was definitely Warping. Well, that's just great.

Appearing entirely nonchalant about the gruesome deaths of their own, the Silverfurs crawled up the stairway, some even forgoing use of the stairs themselves and instead opting to climb either the walls or the stair rails. Either way, they were getting to Brock faster than before, and he was running out of time.

Seeing as the car had torn through the building, it was evident to Brock that his initial plan to kill the gorilla had fallen through. The beast seemed content to refrain from entering the unstable structure and let its pack tear him apart on its behalf. He gritted his teeth and forced himself onward. For now, he just needed to survive. Worrying for the future was a safe man’s privilege.

He blinked as the stairs skipped under his feet. He’d just realised that the gorilla probably wouldn’t have even fit inside the place anyway. You fucking idiot!

Attacking himself mentally, Brock finally crested the fourth floor where the main branch system began to weave heavily through the side of the building. The floral support had originally come from the building across, the vast canopy of the tree within branching off and infesting the structures nearby.

As soon as he sighted the door, Brock was already shouldering through it and onto the fourth floor, slimly avoiding hitting his head on a thick trunk overhead. The floor itself was an absolute maze of branch and vine, and while usually the monkeys would be in their home territory right now, Brock had already found a path to the main trunk beforehand.

The plan may have fallen through, but he wasn’t entirely unprepared.

Ducking and dodging trunks of jungle wood, the man heard the deafening mania of the monkeys behind him and picked up the pace just a little. He slid under the final branch barring his way to his ‘detonator’ and stumbled as a bone-shaking roar assaulted his eardrums. Brock’s eyes immediately snapped over to his right.

The appearance of the Alpha pounding its chest as it hung from a tree-consumed building caught his attention instantly.

And so did the SUV that was barreling toward him.