Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

Chapter 236 The Speed of Light

Tip-taps against the massive leaves began to trickle in, bringing him to brush one leaf aside, discovering that it had begun to rain. Reaching his hand out, he allowed a raindrop to touch his hand.

As the droplet landed against his fingertip, he watched the liquid turn to solid ice, encasing a small surface of his skin within an instant.

"Ah?--" Finn quietly let out, quickly withdrawing his hand.

Looking around, he found the descending raindrops hitting the leaves around him, spreading the touch of frost that began to quickly encapsulate the tree in ice. What was once a mildly temperature valley, green and luscious between mountains quickly became a glacier as cold swept through.

'The rain…it's freezing whatever it touches. What kind of weather is this?' He questioned, picking himself up.

["Gravity"]

Producing a small field around himself, the gravitational force kept the frost-spreading raindrops from making contact with his body as he stepped out.

'A week of this…It might be doable. I can't see most people surviving this kind of condition, though,' he thought, breathing out as frost escaped his lips.

It was uncomfortably cold, far more than enough to be lethal to the uninitiated. Luckily for him, his ["Zombie"] skill made his body more than adapted to the weather, even mitigating his need for food or water. He walked between the ice-encased mountains, wandering the world beneath all others.

While he had nowhere specific to go, having zero sense of direction in the foreign land, he felt for some reason that staying put in one spot was a bad idea. A gut feeling; nothing more.

The frosted rain came to an end after some miles of walking, soon finding himself encountering a region past the split of mountains–

'What is this?' He questioned.

Ahead was a perplexing scenery; a forest of collapsed, lopsided buildings, all of different qualities. Skyscrapers that looked ripped straight from New York, still attached with a billboard stuck on a screen advertising a military action movie. Beside those modern buildings, he found those that predated them, built of stone, carved with magic runes.

Even more fascinating were the structures that seemed built of knowledge far more advanced than that of what humanity had reached; minimalistic, jet-black pillars that laid silently amidst the graveyard of architecture.

'It really is a dumping ground for other worlds…Why were we brought here, though? Is it some kind of way of calling humanity trash? Discarding us? Well, not like I'm surprised,' he considered, climbing a lopsided roof of what resembled a collapsed empire state building.

Pulling himself over the sleek, steep surface of the lopsided top of the laid skyscraper, he stood there, getting a view of the region ahead. As far as the eye could see were ruins of buildings, some stood upright, though most had fallen over.

However, what was most strange was a massive sphere made of curved buildings, fused together, stitched like a frankenstein of architecture. It was as large as a city itself, simply existing there ominously in the distance.

'What's with this place? It's strange–something like that can't have just naturally occurred,' he thought. 'Here at the bottom of the universe…The farthest world, I suppose anything goes.'

Navigating over the terrain of collapsed buildings was a challenge, even having to step through broken windows, traversing rotated interiors. He walked through a sideways lobby of marble, still left mostly intact, not all too decomposed as he even found a chandelier laying against the floor, somehow flickering with light despite being disconnected.

Pushing through, he hopped up, grabbing a hold of the panels of a shattered window, going out through the other side of the fallen skyscraper.

"Uuuuhh…"

–As soon as his feet touched the ground made of debris, a distinct sound like that of low sobbing met his ears.

'A child?' He thought.

The concept of a kid being stranded in such a place, far, far removed from his home was something that immediately strained his heart. It wasn't as if it was an isolated experience; he felt that same loneliness.

He walked slowly, following the soft cries as he moved between a Victorian church that sat on its side, missing an entire half, and the modern skyscraper. The sobs led him to a break between debris, finding a flat area where he turned the corner to find–

"Uuueh…" Explore more at empire

What he found wasn't a small child, but a colossal, white-fleshed creature that sat there, sobbing into its own hands. It resembled dough roughly pushed into the shape of a man, whimpering there at a size tenfold the assassin's own.

"I wanna go home…Uuugh…"

Finn stood there a moment, staring up at the massive, crying creature. It didn't behave like a normal monster that he once watched assault his home, but something entirely different.

'What the hell is this thing? It's…crying? Monsters don't do that, right?' He questioned.

[Special entity recognized.]

["Fulran"] [Level: 135]

A single breath left his lips, unknowing if he should attempt to talk to the sobbing creature, turn the other way, or attack before–

"Hyu–?!" The doughy-bodied giant suddenly stopped crying, snapping its neck over to face him.

"Hey–" Finn attempted to speak.

–Before he could even attempt to establish himself, the massive figure leapt up, taking off right towards him. Rather, it was like the being simply catapulted in his direction with unfathomable speed.

["Transcendent Reflexes"]

Automatically, his skill kicked in, allowing him to move himself out of the path of the dashing giant, though it harshly helped. The mere shockwaves from its rapid movement blew him off his feet, tossing buried debris in every direction.

It wasn't just shockwaves, the air crackled and explosions rippled through the land from the inexplicable sprint–

"Waaaaauuuhh!" The sobbing voice of the doughy-formed being could be heard, trailing along as it was already too far to be seen.

Finn found himself lying atop a building with the breath knocked out of his lungs, watching dust settle from the perplexing display, "...What was that?"

With a quick hop, he jumped back to his feet, staring at the fields of lying buildings that sat beneath the sky of otherworldly mirrors.

–FWOOSH.

Again, shockwaves rippled through the region, watching as chunks of entire structures were flung in every direction. He could feel the force rumbling even on the sleek, black surface he stood on.

It was hard to make out, though he could tell what it was, rapidly shooting by with a trail of explosions behind.

'That sobbing giant…It's sprinting around at that ridiculous speed. It has no concept of collateral, does it?' He thought.

["Ultimate Analysis"]

Using the perception ability, it managed to catch the speeding giant somehow, even if for the slightest of seconds when it passed by his distant sight.

[Information Registered: "Fulran" | Species: Fleshman]

[Height: 6.2m] [Weight: 10kg]

[The Fleshman possesses a unique attribute of "Tachyon Flesh", allowing their species to move at incredibly fast speeds. Fulran is a mutant among his race, unable to control his monstrous speed, resulting in lightspeed dashes that lay waste to everything around the sulking giant.]

All of the information was relayed by his system as he could hear the sobs permeate through the air, feeling the wind pulsate with shockwaves cutting through the graveyard of buildings.

'I get it now. Poor guy can't handle his own speed. It's like having the brakes stop working while at top speed, but well, it's his own body,' he thought, replicating his dagger into his other hand as he breathed in. 'I'll slow you down, then.'

Hopping off of the surface he stood on, he brought himself to the lowered surface amidst collapsed buildings, holding his hands out.

["Web Sphere"]

"Replication."

["Supercharge"]

Coursing the surging amplification through the balls of condensed threads, he tossed each one out just as they exploded. The spherical holdings of web expanded, lashing out the adhesive ropes in every direction.

Far, the webs reached, casting out hundreds of meters ahead and behind, becoming an interconnected, convoluted network. He stood in the center of it all, keeping a hold of one line of the spider-forged thread.

["Sensory Expansion"]

Through the network of webs, he expanded his own senses, using the thousands of meters of webbing as an extension of himself.

He stood his ground, not batting an eye as the ground rumbled. In the distance, a needle attached to the ceiling of a massive building was flung upward from a torrent of speed.

'--I can't be a nanosecond late,' he thought, readying himself.

["Transcendent Reflexes"]

Three.

Two.

One.

0.00002–

0.0000013–

As the entirety of the black-chiseled structure in front of him was blown away by the shockwaves of the sobbing speedster, he moved.

["Impervious"]

Through the threads he held onto, connecting with, he extended the shroud of invincibility through those webs all the same. It could only last momentarily, though more than long enough.

Erupting forward right in front of him, he made eye contact with the bumbling, sobbing mess of a colossus.

Unbroken by the peerless speed and momentum, the invulnerable webs wrapped around the body of the aimless runner, ensnaring the figure just meters shy of running right through Finn.

"Y-y-you?! Bwaaa!" Fulran cried out, attempting to move again.

If that foot came down, moving so much as an inch across the ground, he knew it would mean another lightspeed dash from the crying giant.

"No, you don't!--" Finn yelled.

["Magenta"]

Clenching the binding webs, he shot a surge of the divine lightning through, reaching the bound giant with the countless voltage. Sending such an abundance of electricity right through the doughy pores of the colossus, it paralyzed the figure, leaving the once sobbing figure drooling.

"Sorry,, but I need something you have," Finn quietly claimed, tugging on the webs.

He simply allowed the giant to fall headfirst into his dagger, granting his dagger to sink right into its skull. Rather, it truly felt like plunging his weapon into mushy dough.

"Rest easy now," Finn pardoned the sobbing creature.

["Azure Burn"]

Pushing out from the blade dived into the doughy being's head, the bright-blue flames were breathed through its body. It was fast and instantaneous, cooking through the giant in a matter of a moment.

["Fulran defeated."] ["Anarch Coin x77,777 obtained."]

[Experience points: +1,000,000] [6,255,3200/10,000,000]

[Assimilated ability from ["Fulran"]: "Lightspeed Dash"]