Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 131: On Walkabout

The man sat in his small apartment, dirty cutlery piling high in his sink, slowly scooping soup out of a plastic microwave dish as some cop show played brightly and noisily on the small TV screen mounted in the corner of the room.

It was a scene that looked mundane, one repeated countless times across countless cities in countless countries. And it was almost as mundane as it appeared. Sure, the man had a [Class], and it was an odd one along the lines of [Combat-Capable Number Cruncher] or something else with a stupid name created by a person with a combat [Class] for their starter [Class] and then changing their mind about it at their first Evolution.

Of course, such a scene could hide many a dark secret, weapons caches hidden beneath the garishly painted wood of the couch, stashes of drugs concealed under fake paneling, or maybe a corpse obscured behind some drywall.

But there was nothing. It was a pleasantly normal scene, one a person more adventurous than the man having dinner might have called boring.

An interesting fate for a man upon whose choices entire populations had risen and fallen in the other timeline. That insane, reckless drive that had taken Luka Nikolayevich to the peak while grinding underfoot anyone who got in his way had sputtered out at some point in the last few months, prompting him to take a hard turn away from the domineering build he’d created when the [System] had first dropped.

Isaac would never be able to truly determine which one of his actions had altered the trajectory of Nikolayevich’s fate, but it was clear that something had.

That was one potential threat down, so many more to go.

Isaac withdrew his [Aura] and walked away from Nikolayevich’s apartment, heading towards the local airport, not standing even though he was one of the only people out on the streets this late at night.

He’d spent the better part of two weeks travelling the globe while incognito, checking up on situations too chaotic, too fluid, to publicize with everything else. He’d also dropped by a few interesting people from the other timeline and given some subtle help from the shadows, slightly clearing the path ahead. Slight material or monetary help, a certain jackass official got sacked because some very interesting photos were suddenly no longer properly hidden, etc.

Of course, a good Samaritan suddenly showing up might have raised some eyebrows, and when someone figured out all those acts of charity happened at a point in time when Isaac had rather conspicuously not been seen in public, it would have become a pretty big problem.

… which was why he’d made sure the people he dealt with felt like they were missing something, like someone had taken advantage, like the stuff they’d given up in exchange had somehow been more valuable than they’d thought

During the course of these travels, Isaac had made his way across borders on foot, he’d hitched a ride on smugglers’’ vehicles and even hidden in the cargo compartment of a commercial airplane a couple of times. It had been interesting exercise in creative thinking and evading detection.

He’d also sent the occasional anonymous message to Calise, the mob boss he used to trade stuff on the black market, via the dark net. Normally, these messages involved negotiating prices for the next shipment of monster bits in exchange for materials Isaac needed but couldn’t legally get his hands on. Well, there were some things he could legally obtain but would need to do so through very official channels, which would have involved a lot of scrutiny, so he decided to go another way, but for the most part, the stuff was just plain illegal.

But then he’d received a very interesting tidbit of information. He’d asked Calise to keep an eye out for people who threatened to unleash dangerous monsters upon the world and when his infodump had dropped, sent along a personalized message about some of the man’s rivals that needed dealing with. Those rivals were now ‘out of business’ and that was the full extent of what Isaac had expected to come of that, but he’d been wrong before.

Now, he had the location of what might be the last vestiges of the Children of the [System], and he’d be taking care of them personally. One last hurrah before returning back to his normal life as a researcher.

***

The building was just like the first one Isaac had found these idiots in. Well, it wasn’t an old horse riding arena, it was a single story warehouse with a relatively low ceiling a mere 4 meters high, with maybe 200 square meters of floor space available, but it was still the same kind of outdated, unused spacious building the first one had been.

Three [Aura] holders were within, but each of those was meant for close range combat, making them utterly useless for detecting someone weaving a sensory [Aura] into the base to scout it out. Not that merely having a sensory [Aura] would be able to do much against the undisputed master of [Aura] use in the world, but it would still have been a prudent precaution to take when trying to protect their base. Sure, there were enchantments that could detect auric spying, but they didn’t have any of those either.

How this lot hadn’t been arrested was beyond Isaac. Most likely, sheer dumb luck. Or maybe they’d had the worst luck of all the chapters of their idiotic organization. After all, now they’d have to deal with him.

Sadly, things weren’t quite as easy as sweeping the building he saw. Someone had decided to be a sneaky little fucker, used magic to dig out a lower floor and then covered the hole with the original concrete, leaving behind no trace of the changes. If they’d properly sealed everything back up and made sure there wasn’t any debris, not even Isaac would have been able to notice the hole from scanning the building itself. And the halfway decent soundproofing for the lower floor would have ensured that anyone under Level 20 specialized in Perception or up to Level 35 who wasn’t specialized in their senses wouldn’t have noticed a thing.

However, there were signs and even if there hadn’t been, Isaac still would have checked underneath the building. After all, of the two parties involved in this war of espionage, the person with the ‘how to hide stuff in the era of the [System]’ playbook wasn’t the party trying to hide stuff.

And thanks to that soundproofing, the two groups of people in the building were well and truly separated. Not just that, but the only person with a [Class] capable of moving earth was downstairs.

A quick phase later, he emerged from behind the [Earth Mage] and slammed his fist into the man’s temple. The [Mage] went rocketing away, but Isaac snatched him out of the air with his other hand, grabbing the already unconscious man by the collar and gently lowered him to the ground.

That’s when the smell hit. Burnt pork, but not quite, and utterly nauseating to anyone who’d ever smelt it before. FUCK!

Someone had clearly been using fire to destroy human bodies down here, then used a spell to clear the air so no one suffocated in the enclosed space. Had the dead been police officers and other members of law enforcement who’d gotten too close to discovering the cult, or maybe regular people who’d gotten too close to discovering this cult’s secrets? Or maybe some bizzare human sacrifice rite?

Sure, blood magic existed and could be used to devastating effect, but Isaac couldn’t see anything there that would indicate that it had been used here.

Isaac went invisible as he stalked through the underground tomb, random, zigzagging rooms that wouldn’t have passed an official inspection if the inspector had somehow managed to be shitfaced and hungover at the same time. If it hadn’t been for the first person Isaac had knocked out, and maybe others like him, this whole thing would have already come down on the heads of everyone here.

Sadly, these people had a ridiculous level of hate against organizing and paperwork, which meant that other than the occasional grocery list, there was nothing there to go over later. And then, he came across the fucking hitlist in the wastepaper basket, complete with addendums like ‘fuck this guy up’ and in one case ‘I don’t care who whacks him, but someone needs to do so, now’.

Isaac swore internally. It was like a bunch of teenagers at the height of teenage stupidity had gained superpowers, let that go to their heads, decided that they were above the law and also adopted cliché mob-lingo just for the hell of it.

“… and I told you, I just need to try again. I know I can do it, it’s just that last time didn’t go so well.”

“’Didn’t go so well he says. Try again he says.’” A second voice commented dryly, in a mocking yet friendly tone “We’re talking about a zombie here. One that was meant to be a perfect servant. First, it rotted fast enough for us to watch and dripped in the tea, then it tried to brain me with the serving platter. Does that sound like you were close? Like at all?”

Isaac balled his hands in anger. How callous were these people, how often did they talk about murder as if it were no big thing for him to just casually overhear that conversation?

The first time he’d fought these people in this timeline, he’d restricted himself to crippling everyone so they’d be available for questioning and didn’t turn into martyrs.

Now, the people who’d murdered enough human beings for the stench to cling to everything and were apparently completely used to the smell were just that. Murderers, publicly known and reviled.

Now they were just murderers who were the exact kinds of people who’d injure or kill those that sought to bring them to justice.

In this timeline, Isaac was yet to kill a human being, he realized. It was odd, given how many huge issues he’d stuck his nose into, but all of his opponents were still alive. Crippled, cursing his name and potentially wishingthey were dead, but alive nonetheless.

However, in this situation, things were different. None of the previous reasons for taking them alive still held water while all the reasons for killing them still held water.

His hand flashed through the air, blade wreathed in a glowing swirl of crimson and green as it blasted clean through the wall that separated him from these three chuckleheads.

The sword continued onwards, decapitating the closest man, then teleported to the other side of the room.

Human (Lv. 23 Anarchy’s Disciple) has been slain 460 XP gained

Between the weakening effect of [Sundering Strike] and the sheer force of impact that had hit the load-bearingwall, the ceiling caved in. Sure, these guys had almost certainly seen the glowing sword, but their falling comrade was obscured and buried by the falling rubble a split second later.

A three stacks of [Power Strike] flowed into his fist as he legendary-punched the closest man, flinging him straight through another important-looking wall, which promptly brought down the whole affair on the already very dead man.

Human (Lv. 27 Deathwielder) has been slain 1080 XP gained

The final man whirled, windblades forming in front of the windwall he’d manifested.

Isaac dodged as the razor-sharp hardened bits of air flashed past.

“[Aeolus Annihilation]!” the man shouted, a beam of devastating power tearing straight at Isaac, but he simply stabbed his blade at the attack.

[True Cut: Sever Mana Bonds]

He might not have yelled the attack’s name like an Anime character, but that didn’t make it any less effective. The massive collection of compressed air simply fell apart to create a massive shockwave.

Isaac hit the wall back first and felt something in his back crack ever so slightly, but the damage vanished a fraction of a millisecond later.

The same … the same could not be said for the smear that remained of his opponent.

Human (Lv. 21 Aeolus Sorcerer) has been slain 420 XP gained

That same blow was likewise the deathblow to most of the structure, which caved in.

Isaac’s [Aura] whipped through the space, detecting where everyone from above fell. He lunged forward, phasing, and decapitated everyone who hadn’t gotten out of the building above in time.

Of course, given that the fight had started a mere three seconds ago. Most of the people who were actually here had fallen into the pit and were now dead.

Isaac used [Hundred Faces] to alter his vocal cords as he pulled a burner phone he’d bought an hour ago out of his pocket and dialed the police.

“You missed a chapter of the Children of the [System].” He quickly gave the address “I took care of it. These cultists committed multiple counts of murder, there was a list in the basement, I placed it outside with a rock on top. The bodies themselves were clearly burned in the basement, judging by the smell.”

Just like that, he walked off, changing clothes as he passed through an alleyway. By the time he left the city, there were a bunch of police crawling over the crime scene. All they’d find were the dead cultists, and hopefully, the bodies of the murder victims.

***

It had taken a while, but eventually, Isaac found himself hiking up a random mountain in the alps just for the hell of it. He’d dealt with everyone he needed to deal with, stopped those that needed to be stopped and now by the gods, he’d be taking that vacation he was supposed to have been on this entire fucking time!