8 Hun (2/2)

One was to kill a Morenkai.

The other was to kill a fellow human.

Researchers theorized that the Shop somehow transferred life energy from beings into the mystical 'Points' that the Human Race could use to grow stronger. The Morenkai have a powerful life force, and this translated into Points.

A normal Morenkai, when killed, would give off around 10 Points. Stronger Morenkai could drop more, but were a much rarer sight and much harder to kill.

A single Point was enough to buy a full day's worth of food from the Shop.

As for killing humans: the Point totals varied, but most humans would drop a small number of Points. Those with stronger Abilities would drop more, as would those with Points saved up but not spent. There was a great deal of inefficiency in this method, and more than 90%, oftentimes up to 96% or 98%, of the Points spent by a human would usually be lost.

”So that is the basics of how life works around here. This is the south side of the Stardust Cluster. The Saru Group controls a third of this cluster and works to protect everyone here. If you join the Group, you will be required to work with our Hunting Teams every other day, to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.” The Saru Group recruiter's words echoed in Micheal's mind as he recalled them.

The first time around, Micheal had joined the Saru Group. He'd remembered how terrified he was, but also been rather excited. This was a strange new world and a strange new life.

Who wouldn't want to live it to the fullest?

It had taken him several months slaving away in the Saru Group to grow to any level of strength, slowly building up his own supply of Points. Eventually, he gained enough to get the Mortal Ki Cultivator Ability. The Saru Group held true to its word and did indeed protect them, but it also prioritized making their leaders and older warriors stronger over people like Micheal.

From then on, he had grown in strength at a decently fast pace. He'd begun to intensively practice using a sword, knowing his survival depended on his might.

'But I was still far too slow.' He shook his head at the memories. While it was true that he'd made relatively fast progress, even with all of his effort, he'd still only barely managed to catch up to some of the middling members of the 50,000 strongest humans.

This time around, things had already started to play about differently.

Micheal hadn't joined the Saru Group.

Instead, he'd chosen to become a solo hunter.

”Let's get moving.” After he finished scanning his room and setting it up securely, he walked out of it into a long, narrow hallway. It was dimly lit by evenly spaced white lights up above. A plain grey wall could be seen on either side, with doors to mostly empty rooms interspersed at normal intervals.

He was on the 30th floor of one of the skyscrapers close to the center of the Cluster.

After listening to the speech by the man from the Saru Group, Micheal had slinked off on his own. There had been a rush to sign up and join the Saru Group after the man finished talking, something he took advantage of to leave unnoticed.

Well, supposedly unnoticed. He doubted that they actually didn't see him leave. It was likely that they didn't want to anger an 'Irregular' outright and just let him go.

He had then begun to travel through the Cluster, crossing bridge after bridge.

The feeling of crossing a rickety bridge set between two massive skyscrapers, looking down on a huge and certainly fatal drop, it was something Micheal hadn't experienced in a long time.

It had been the safest hour to move and he didn't hesitate. The Morenkai were inactive when the new Chosen were arriving.

Even more importantly… all the different organizations and groups were busy snapping up new recruits. There were so many new people arriving, it was a given that they would all temporarily focus on that.

This meant he was able to cross through more than 80 skyscrapers unobstructed, till he found himself at an area close to the center of the Cluster. Most of the groups welcoming recruits had descended into their various skyscrapers, leaving him free to cross each area. This particular skyscraper was one of the ones that relatively few people chose to live in. In fact, it seemed entirely abandoned, which was to his liking.

The central area of every Cluster was known to be more dangerous than the outer reaches. The Morenkai were more active here.

'I could stay behind and help the Saru Group grow stronger… but that would just waste the lives of every other group of people. I can't focus on a single group, I need to focus on the whole, but also my personal strength. I must become a champion that can fight off the champions of the Gods…' There was no point in ensuring humanity survived if they were just going to die again, after all.

Micheal shook the thoughts from his head as he began to move.

He quickly found the staircase he had descended to reach the 30th floor, moving up it till he found the roof. The stairs were drab but well spaced, leading all the way down to the ground floor.

When he reached the door that exited onto the roof, he paused. The door was a plain metal one, in a dimly lit shed atop the roof. The walls and roof were the same drab grey that covered most of this skyscraper.

'It's been quite a while… the special safety period for the new Chosen is bound to be over. It should be around now that the world goes back to normal.' His eyes flashed.

'The Morenkai should be active…' He thought, nodding.

He wasn't afraid of them, at least, not any of the basic Morenkai. He was certain he could handle that.

'The most dangerous thing about the First Layer isn't necessarily the Morenkai, though…' He thought, his eyes cool,

'It's other humans.'

Micheal stepped forward, putting his head next to the door. He listened carefully for a few moments before cracking it open and peering out it.

He didn't see anything, at least, nothing atop this skyscraper roof.

Slowly, he stepped out upon it.

It was time to hunt.

.