-Vol 5: A New Life-

-Annihilated City!-

“Speciality?” Kenshin turned around to stare at the face of the old man in wonder. Specialty? Does systems had some specialty attached to them? Suddenly Kenshin had an epiphany. His system can revive him again and again, as long as he had extra lives, also after revival, it makes him invincible for 10 seconds. It could be calculated as a specialty if others didn’t have them.

But he had no reason to tell the old man that. He just pretended to look confused so that the old man could reveal some more.

“Hmm!!” the old man scratched his chin as he looked to be in deep thought, “How should I say this, not everyone gains a system the same way. Depending on what trial they endure, their system would have something relating to it. For example, let's say a person had to undergo a huge emotional landslide concerning his family and nearly died. In fact, he was supposed to die but survived and gained a system…his system would reflect the trial he endured, giving him complete immunity to emotional manipulation as well as other forms of emotion-based powers.

We call that the specialty of the system, it usually manifests in the form of a Skill, either active or passive. But sometimes, the system itself generates some special function. Similarly, if someone won against certain deaths, they would gain the ability to revive after death…but its too rare to win against certain death. In all my years, I only came across two people with this type of special system. Usually, these guys were formidable and pretty hard to deal with.” As he finished speaking, the old man shook his head as if he just remembered something from a distant past.

“I see, then can I know what’s your system’s specialty?” Kenshin asked, looking curiously at the melancholic old man.

“No! Why should I say you my secret? Are you a fool?” the old man suddenly changed his tone and looked at Kenshin like he was an idiot.

‘This old man!!’ Kenshin was having murderous thoughts. He reckoned, the longer he stays with this eccentric old man, the more he would lose his sanity and initiate a fight to the death with this old man. As he continued to endure the old man’s eccentric behavior, Kenshin was sure his WIL must have increased by a few points by this alone.

Kenshin ignored the old man and stepped in front of Joy. Bringing out a water bottle, he drained it all on the blady’s head. Joy woke up with a stat.

“Brurrr!! What the hell?” when he looked up, he saw Kenshin was holding his crotch. “Fuck! Kenshin, you bastard, how dare you to piss on me?” of course, Kenshin wasn’t holding his crotch, he was just putting the bottle back in his Inventory, which just happens to look like he was holding his crotch from Joy’s angle. No wonder he became angry as soon as he woke up.

“What? Shut up. You think I am shameless like you? Its just plain water, if you don’t believe me, check out yourself.” Kenshin grounded his teeth in anger. Hearing him, Joy calmed down and looked at the dripping water from his head. Suddenly his attention shifted to the old man sitting a few distances away from them. He could still remember how he was made to sleep in an instant. His pride was hurt by that. Joy grounded in teeth in anger after seeing the old man.

“Don’t bother, he is helluva stronger than you.” Kenshin recognized Joy’s look and advised him against going with his thinking process. Then he signaled him to stand up so that they could proceed to their destination. Fooling around this old man wouldn’t be any way helpful, on the contrary, they might go mad.

Kenshin and Joy started to run towards Yonezawa. They were only a few kilometers away anyway. The old man didn’t follow after them, which eased Kenshin’s heart a lot. At the same time, he began thinking about everything the old man said to him. The existence of other system users gave a mixed feeling to Kenshin, he wasn’t sure if he shouldn’t be happy or feel worried. At the same time, the specialty of each system also gave him some headaches. Going by the old man’s description, there were two other people with similar ability as his. Also, if this was possible, then there might be someone who had a system that can save and load, which was essentially time travel. These guys would be near-invincible and annoying to deal with.

Kenshin decided to operate with more caution in the future, and also find a way to recognize other system users like the old man did. What most he wanted to was to avoid conflict with other possible system users. While he can deal with almost all system users, he couldn’t deal with the one with formidable functions like Save/Load, at least for now. As the Yonezawa became closer, Kenshin pushed these turbulent thoughts to the back of his head.

When they were just a few meters away from the town, they saw the whole city was covered in black smoke as walls of fire still visible in the distance. Aside from that, nothing else could be seen, the visibility if the area had turned zero. Not only that, everything looks like they were in ruins, even the small mountains in the partially visible distance, looked as if someone flattened them using their feet.

In short, everything was in ruins.

Kenshin and Joy stood silently for a few seconds before carefully venturing in. They suppressed their magic flare and took the guerilla approach, deciding to sneak in instead of going in blatantly. They were still largely unknown about the strength of the enemy inside, and going by the old man’s words, the enemy should be super formidable. Speaking of old man, Joy had kept silent about him for the time being as it was not the time for that, though he decided to interrogate Kenshin about him later.

Just a few hundred meters inside and their expression couldn’t help but turn ugly. Everything was in ruins while dead and dismembered bodies littered everywhere, painting the road in red. They haven’t even walked half a kilometers and the dead bodies already piled up to thousands. This worsened both Kenshin’s and Joy’s mood. These dead bodies include children, elderly teens, and even animals. This wasn’t just rampage, this was plain annihilation. Not a single living being survived.

Joy balled his fists as he suppressed a shout. Even Kenshin felt resentment and anger mounting inside his heart. Gritting their teeth, the two only scouted the area without taking any action, lest they attract the attention of that beast. As strong as they were, they couldn’t stop such a strong beast who can annihilate a whole town in a matter of hours.

Tik!!Tik!!!

Suddenly the sound of helicopters and spacecraft was heard above them, no doubt the state military had arrived and now doing their job. Although they knew they couldn't do anything to this kind of threat, it's still their job to defend their cities and towns.

Boom!!!

Soon, a huge explosion was heard as pieces of metal fell down where they stood. Kenshin and Joy’s expression became unsightly as they ran away to find some cover for themselves. Entering a half-destroyed hotel, they sat silently in the lobby, thinking about everything they just encountered.

“Damn!!” Joy shouted as he punched the wall beside him, turning it to dust with his explosive strength. He was furious, so many deaths, and still, they couldn’t do anything about it. What’s more, the responsible thing was still in here, spreading chaos to its heart's content. Right now, Joy blamed himself for being too weak to provide any kind of help. Moreover, he was just too angry at the higher officials who were still not taking the necessary steps.

“Calm down, Joy. Being angry won’t help with anything.” Kenshin calmly said, but it sounded more like he was consoling himself rather than Joy. Kenshin, who would generally steer clear of all troublesome matters and wouldn’t bat an eye at someone’s life or death, the annihilation of so many people had dampened his mood, making him angry and resentful. It was especially worse since he knew exactly why all this happened and who was responsible for this. What’s more, he knew it wasn’t the end of this, many more like this was going to happen in the future.

At this moment, Kenshin dearly wished he didn’t know all this. Ignorance was bliss, and Kenshin wanted to live in ignorance rather than knowing all this. Especially he knew he couldn’t do anything about this. But he had better self-control than Joy, so he didn’t lash out like him.

Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!

Suddenly they heard heavy footsteps, that created minute earthquakes. Accompanied by the heavy sound that was like explosions of several mini bombs, something was approaching the place they both staying in.

“Joy, stay silent. I think that creature is coming this way.” After that, Kenshin and Joy silently went towards the top of the building. The visibility was pitifully low, even with their advanced sight, they couldn’t see anything in this dust and debris covered atmosphere. After sneaking to the top floors of the hotel, while mindful of to not make any sound to alert the monster.

During this situation, going top of the building might not be a wise choice, but they were hunters. They can easily run away and protect themselves, no matter how disadvantageous the situation becomes. Besides, falling down from atop of a hotel would cause some minor hitches fro a hunter who had gone through a first awakening.

Joy and Kenshin glued themselves to a window as they silently observed outside. All they could see was dust cloud covering everything, but right now, a huge shadow cast up in the dust cloud. The shadow was so huge that it completely covered everything in front. Kenshin was sure that it belonged to the tiger he had seen in the video.

Kenshin signaled Joy to remain silent as he inspected even closely at the shadow. Then in front of them, the shadow moved. A few seconds later, another booming noise was heard. Kenshin and Joy had to jump back to avoid being caught up in the destruction of the floor they were standing on. Thinking they were discovered and were being attacked, they both prepared to run away, but something else caught their eyes.

A small figure that looked like a 12 years old kid jumped out of the shadowed area and stood calm;y at the shadow in front.

“%6^$%#” he started talking in some language that Kenshin and Joy never heard before. After that, he made a hand motion, as the huge shadow began to shrink. Before long, a small black cat appeared in the hands of the small kid who just sat there calmly, looking at the sky in front of him.

Seeing all this, even a kid could deduce that this kid might be the one behind this huge destruction. Moreover, who would know that the huge creature which was powerful enough to level a town in a few hours was actually controlled by someone else, and a kid at that? Even Kenshin who had dealt with many weird things back on North found it strange.

“Kenshin, don’t tell me, this kid is responsible for everything!” Joy asked widened as he didn’t dare to believe it all.

“Well, the truth is in front of our eyes, what else can I say? Don’t underestimate that brat, he might be several thousand years older and might be insanely strong. We must first watch the situation before proceeding with extreme caution.” Kenshin advised Joy who seem to jump out and fight the kid to death. At the same time, he was heavily regretting not having the system with him right now. At least he would have scanned this kid and gain some concrete knowledge about him. After that, both Kenshin and Joy stayed on their position and stalked the kid like a predator.