70-76

Chapter 70 - [Bonus Chapter] Alex's Special Ability

Just in less than a few seconds, Alex screamed out in panic. I acted all innocent and kept my face looking forward without turning back for even a second.

"Damn! She is really persistent!" she kept cursing as we continued to walk. I just sent a simple message back to Angelica, telling her that her love was saved from a death trap by me.

Of course she didn't even bother to send a single word back, and I didn't mind that. After all she just did what I expected, and kept Alex busy for now.

"What happened?" as innocent as a child I asked, acting like I knew nothing at all.

"She knew I was in a deadly situation," Alex seemed to not buy my act, glaring in doubt at me, "who might be the person who told her this?"

"Just tell her you are busy working with me," I shrugged, "after all I'm still waiting for your answer."

"Tsk," helplessly she said something that I couldn't hear and sent it back to her friend. Then she turned to give me such a blaming look.

C'mon, you were the one crossing the line here, not me.

"Now, can you tell me if you heard about that list?"

"Not a single word!"

"Can you just search about it then?"

"Who do you think I am? Wikipedia or what?!"

"Then… you don't know anything about it? Not even a rumour, a place, anything… Any info will help."

"Told you, I never heard about it!"

I frowned. "Aren't your ability to see through things related to the angels? Aren't you an oracle?"

"Oracle? How did you get such a nice name from?`` Unlike my uneasiness, she jumped in delight and even clasped her hands together in a cute way.

Did she do it on purpose? Yeah, I thought so.

"I just heard it before," I didn't explain much. I needed to deal with these new changes that I never expected.

Was that god wrong? How could this be?!

"About my ability," she suddenly said after a moment of silence, "it's useless if you asked me. I only can see pieces of images related to things those angels are doing at this moment or planning to do in a fixed period of time. I don't know what you are talking about but if you want to know about their plans for now, I can tell you."

"Useless?!!" hearing her selecting such a word about her ability forced me to bitterly smile. Since when was the power to see the future bad? Especially the future related to your enemies?

Knowing anything hidden from you was a power of god, true and mighty god! "So you can tell me what they are planning for now and later on?" I asked before adding, "will your ability work on things they'll do in a month from now?"

"Month? That's ridiculous!" she furrowed her brows before adding in a serious tone, "I can only see through things they'll do in one week. Yet again I have no total control over this ability, nor can I easily access it without paying a price."

"You became weak after using it?"

"Not this point," she didn't deny it clearly but the next thing she said enlightened me, "I have set of rules about this ability, can only pay with my stat points to use it."

"Your stat points aren't locked then?" This was against what Angelica told me before.

"Angelica must have told you another misunderstanding of her. That girl… Tsk," she shook her head in disappointment before adding, "I have the right to add points to my stats like you do. Yet I used all my stats before just to pry over the angels and know what they plan for me and my other friends. So I ended up with zero stat at the start of the apocalypse. And you can understand how hard it is to get more stats in such a state."

Yeah, that might be hard for anyone to handle, but not me girl!

"Take these," I took out a large number of stat points and gave them to her, "use them to add points to all your stats. We are currently waiting for the second quest to officially start, meaning our limit is one hundred point per single stat."

"These…" her eyes gleamed with bright light before adding, "aren't these stats points? Damn! You are truly wealthy!"

Despite saying this, she was polite at all and even jumped to take my gift. I couldn't help myself from laughing. "Now I want to know what they are planning to do now and in the next week. Try to see things related to the heroic calling, or the realm gates."

"But…" she reluctantly looked at the stat points in her hands. I could understand the thinking of a beggar who finally found a paper of one hundred dollars on the side of the street.

"I have tons of these," I reassured her, "don't hold back."

"You aren't just bragging to impress me, right?"

Girl, who did you think I was? Impressing you?! C'mon, you already were totally impressed by me!

"Just do it," I hurried her, "we have not much time to waste here."

During our little talk, I already gathered every warrior scattered around and were now moving in a big group towards the direction of the closest castle.

In the past hour that I spent inside that hospital, the jumper didn't stop sending info constantly to me. I knew he was doing a great job already, so I had to do my part in taking control of these castles fast.

Thinking about it, the most dangerous person in the Jersey city next to here was already my lackey. There was nothing to prevent me from expanding my dominion over there as well.

As she started to arrange herself to use the stat points, I also kept myself busy buying a few things I desperately needed.

I bought two items from the channel market, one for contacting my own channel personnel, and the other was to allow me to exchange items with them.

These two items were vital and crucial for my next plans. As I finished using them, and before getting the chance to experiment their usages, a bright light shone from the still Alex.

To make her use her ability we had to stop walking. We were still in the vicinity of the hospital region, with not a single castle around.

So monsters didn't appear yet. But that didn't prevent me from scattering my forces again.

"I need to find an item that can allow me to directly communicate with them from far," as I sent one quarter of the Bulltors around to act as scouts, I thought about this stressing issue.

Yet when I scanned the market, I found nothing like I wanted. It seemed I needed more privileges to get such an item.

As she started to use her ability, I stood on the side watching and guarding with much anticipation.

To use her ability, she had to sit on the ground, close her eyes, and perform many hand seals constantly.

From her hands bright white light appeared first as long wisps of weaving threads. In my eyes, she looked like she was weaving a cloth or breaking one down.

She stayed in such a state for a long ten minutes. Just after ten minutes, she suddenly opened her eyes and they were all white, scaring the sh*t of me!

Damn girl! Did you want me to lose the ability to have kids or what?

"Angels are working for their top plan, setting it into motion step by step," a deep and strange voice appeared like it came from the depth of her abdomen. I blinked for a moment before I realised something.

This was her way to use her ability. Could she recall what she was saying just now? Or she wouldn't?

If she couldn't then it meant her ability was limited. Someone must be with her whenever she uses her ability, someone honest and trustworthy.

Aside from myself, I didn't feel anyone else was suited for such a task. But taking her with me all around was like me being her babysitter.

"Oh, I can always use my channel privilege for that!" a realisation hit me at this moment. Yeah, I could simply observe her whenever she performed this ability.

So even if we were separated by lands apart, I could still watch her using her ability and listen to everything she said.

"They are now trying to push for something big. A merge is coming, one way or another. They aren't only using one method for it. One short path and one longer are being sent into motion. A direct path of quest is starting, and if it fails, a longer gate of the realms path is being prepared for."

Gate of the realms? This was something related to the heroic calling I knew about!

All the realms could be merged using different methods. One simple direction was by the use of the quest and the support of the system.

But what if it failed? Then there was another way, using the total opposite of what they used in the first path; points of weaknesses in the system.

Each realm had many gates securing the path for it. It was rumoured that the system was able to bring worlds apart together thanks to its control over these gates.

If the angels reached these gates and secured them, they could easily smuggle forces from any realm to another.

It wouldn't be a large-scale merge by the support of the system, but this would end up with the same result.

Our human world would be submerged under deadly waves of attacks from other races. Damn! Even if I managed to stop them here, danger still lurked at the corner.

However after I calmed myself, I realised something else. "Having few groups of races scattered around the world isn't as bad as opening the gates of hell directly upon us!"

Yeah, this might be selecting the frying pan rather than jumping off it. Yet it wasn't that bad. After all humans weren't void of heroes.

"The gates of the realms issued their list of missions. Completing any of it would allow anyone the privilege to control one gate for one day," she gasped for breath like she was on the verge of dying before coughing out a large amount of blood.

Her face turned instantly pale. Yet I didn't intervene to stop her.

She was just about to tell me what I wanted to know.

C'mon girl, just hang a little more in there. You could do it!

But my hopes were crushed the next instant when she started to convulse like crazy. At this point I had to act and immediately shook her body firmly to snap her out of this.

"Cough… Cough…!" she kept coughing and sneezing, but the seizure was stopped. I didn't know what to do but to search the market for a healing potion and gave it to her.

In the next five minutes she started to get better. Her cheeks regained the rosy colour and her lips parted away from the blueness they had.

"What happened?" I asked with worry.

"Told you," she bitterly smiled, "this ability comes with a price."

Damn! I thought she might be weak, but not to reach such a miserable state!

"It seems what you wanted to know is tightly guarded by those bastards," as she got better, she stood by the help of my arm and cursed the angels. "I felt like I was dying. Thanks for helping me there."

"No problem." I paused before asking, "is it the weakness of the body or the soul?"

If it was the body, then I might have a solution for that. Once she stepped on the path of cultivation, gained the support of the gods, she would be more secured.

But if it was the weakness of the soul, then there was no cure for that.. People either had strong souls from the start or fragile one.

Chapter 71 - Gate Of The Other Realm

"Bit of both actually," she gave me a smile that wasn't like one, "anyway, did you get what I said? I only recall fragments aside from it."

"You said a few things before…" I paused as I didn't want to remind her of what happened.

"Did you get what you wanted?" she asked and as if she knew the answer she waved her hand at me, "I only got a glimpse on a large stele made out of black and sturdy stone. It had writings by green neon coloured letters, in many languages. But I understood part of it."

"Really?" my hopes were rekindled, "did you get to see everything?"

"No," she shook her head, "I might need to try it again, but…"

Without thinking about it, I took out a large amount of stat points and gave them to her. She used up her stat points during the past attempt. And I still needed to get the answer to my questions.

"Take these as well," I also bought a bunch of various healing potions, and few of body strengthening ones. "Consume one of each for now, leave the rest for later."

She wasn't polite and took everything away. "Thanks, you are really a good sponsor for me," she suddenly stretched her hand and touched my face without warning. "I can't believe someone like you is living without a girl by his side. What do you think?"

I coughed and took a few steps away from her, "thanks, but let's get to our task."

"Humph," she shrugged as if she didn't care about my rejection for even a bit, "one day you'll be mine, mark my words pretty boy."

You should say rich boy instead, you lewd girl! I inwardly snorted but didn't show anything on my face.

"Alright, I'm ready," she sat again on the ground after using part of the stat points I gave her and a few potions.

Then she restarted using her ability while saying in warning:

"I never tried to use my ability two times in a row, so I don't know what might happen to me."

"I'll stop you if things went wrong," I reassured her, "just focus on the stele this time, try to see the whole thing and memorise it."

"Leave it to me," she then started to perform her hand seals again and I only waited on the side for the results.

Like before, she released dense threads of bright white energy for ten minutes. However when she started to speak, she spoke in a language that I couldn't understand.

"Shall I stop her or what?" I stood in front of her while hearing a weird tongue coming from her mouth. I didn't understand a thing, but let's hope she would remember that stele.

Like before, she gushed out blood and turned ashen white before convulsing. Once she started to convulse, I snapped her out of it.

"This time I managed to see more of it," she panted after taking two healing potions, "but I don't think I can sustain another attempt today. My body seemed to crack and crush… It was like… was like my soul was about to leave my body and get sucked by that stele."

Her tone came shaky and even her body trembled. I didn't tell her that she didn't speak in a known language. I already expected that. I had no other choice but to inwardly sigh and accept such a result.

"Tell me what you saw," I helplessly asked, hoping she might say something noteworthy and useful.

"There are a lot of missions there," she said before having an apologetic expression, "but I only got to see five missions only."

"Just say them," I gnashed my teeth while repressing my disappointment.

"First mission is to challenge a god and survive in half an hour fight," she paused before adding, "it's a suicidal mission, right?"

I nodded but said nothing. I already was aware of this mission and another one. And both were practically impossible.

"The second mission is to capture an angel alive," she also paused and looked straight at me before sighing and continuing to narrate the missions.

"The third one is to capture twenty cities in one day. The fourth one is to establish a kingdom…"

All of these weren't something I could possibly do at this moment. The second mission was already known to me. In fact it was the mission given to the dragon race, as the first mission was the one given to humans before.

As for capturing twenty cities in one day, it didn't make any sense. Not to mention the vast distance between cities, taking a city and controlling it was a very hard mission that would take a long time to do.

I was lucky that Jersey city was just on the other side of Hudson river, not far from here. But other cities were. So this mission was something I couldn't do for now.

As for establishing a kingdom, it was already one of my top priorities here. But it needed lots and lots of preparations. I lacked strength, enough backing, and not a single condition fulfilled.

So all the missions she told me about so far weren't suitable at all. That left only the last one. C'mon, give me something easy and it could be done girl, c'mon!

"The last mission is to get total control over a gate linking to another realm," she slowly said before adding another condition, "provided that you have someone of your people inside that realm."

"...!!!"

At this moment I couldn't help but stop myself from shouting in delight. This… this might seem impossible for other people, but not me.

I already had someone from the succubus race bound by a contract with me.

"Why do you look so happy?" she asked, "is it an easy task? It's impossible! How can you send someone of us to a realm without stirring a big fight? You might not know this but any gate to another realm is now secured by many forces."

"Not a problem," I didn't think about this mission like her. In my eyes, this was the only doable mission I had in this list.

"No, you don't understand," yet she persisted, "the issue isn't about wiping them out, but the way to send someone inside in the first place! To do so you need to take total control over a gate for an entire day without losing your grip over it for even one second. It's impossible, not to mention the worldwide subquest it would be issued once you attacked that gate!"

I now realised why this mission was mentioned in the heroic calling list. This mission contained the ability to issue a world wide calling to arms. If it was doable to my enemies, then if I succeeded it was logical to have it as a reward for me as well.

Yet still there was a single issue I needed to solve.

"Do you know the locations of these gates?" I asked, "I have a world where I need to locate the nearest gate."

"Are you out of your mind?" Alex didn't understand my plan at all. And I didn't bother explaining things to her.

"Just tell me if you know or not," I said while opening my list of contacts, sent a message to my dear succubus and waited for her answer.

As I waited for Rachel to give me her answer, I also waited for Alex's as well. Seeing my calm expression with no speck of worry or hesitation, Alex couldn't help but loudly sigh.

"I dunno what went wrong inside that big head of yours, but I'll tell you about the gates," her face changed to show a far more serious one, "the angels just shared a list of places she asked top traitors to go there and defend them. According to the latest message sent by them in the traitor channel, they said these were related to five main realms coming to merge with us very soon."

"I know about this," I said in a way to hurry her to give me the answer I wanted, "I only want the closest gate of a certain realm to New York. Do you know such info?"

She shrugged, "I only know the locations they asked everyone to go there, but can't tell which belonged to any realm from the other," she said.

"Is there anything like this inside the city?"

"Not a single one," she shook her head again, "but the nearby Jersey city had five locations at one go."

"Five?" my eyes shone in realisation, "that means a gate for each realm, right?"

She hesitated before trying to dissuade me again, "this is a suicidal mission! They didn't only send a large number of strong traitors there to defend these gates, but they mentioned the assembly of a large number of higher grade monsters as well. Higher grade monsters, do you get it now? It's impossible, impossible!"

"If you are afraid," I shrugged back, "then stay here and don't follow me."

"Crazy," she said in deep belief, "you are really crazy."

And her remark made me laugh without saying anything.

[My world is called the Gmini world]

At this moment the answer of Rachel came through and I couldn't help but shake my head in regret. I had no way to tell which gate belonged to which world.

Or else I might have just swarmed that location head on without any trouble.

This only meant one thing, that Jersey city must be conquered and controlled by me.

I had my warriors, my dragons, and my jumper. Thinking about mobilising the human forces of New York city over there was out of option.

"I can also use him," I thought about using the help of a spearhead. His unique domain could turn any strong human or other race into useless weak being.

"What?" Alex asked as it seemed I said it out loud.

"Nothing," I rubbed my face with both hands, even slapping my cheeks to get ready for this mission, "let's go. We have to control this city before going to the other one."

"Ah, about that…" she stopped for a moment there before asking, "can you drop me to a place more secure? You know…"

"You have enough stat points to make you one of the strongest in this city," it seemed she got used to being broke on stat points to the point she mistook her current situation.

"Oh yeah… But I don't have any skill at all."

I looked into her eyes before realising it. "Just say you are afraid to come with me," I teased her and her face turned all red from embarrassment.

"It's not! I just don't have the strength to fight! Not to mention no weapon or gear at all!"

"Here," I threw two swords, full body armour, even gauntlets and boots for her to use. "Happy now?"

"..."

I knew she didn't want to tag along, but sending her back to that spearhead was out of question. In time I would mobilise the people inside the central park, but not for the next few hours at least.

"Just stay by my side," I started to walk in wide strides, "and you'll be fine."

Having no other option here, she started to follow in full silence. I didn't bother with her. After all, she would not make much difference anyway in the upcoming mission.

The next thing I did was to get myself busy fighting all the way to the scattered castles. Just seeing the vast scene of wolves growling at both of us made Alex almost faint out of fear.

But when she saw the way I fought, or my warriors did, she realised how strong I was. After taking control of a bunch of castles, she finally left her fear far behind.

Yet the more castles I conquered, the less warriors I had.. I had to leave behind a group of mixed warriors at any castle to defend it against any monsters.

"Bit of both actually," she gave me a smile that wasn't like one, "anyway, did you get what I said? I only recall fragments aside from it."

"You said a few things before…" I paused as I didn't want to remind her of what happened.

"Did you get what you wanted?" she asked and as if she knew the answer she waved her hand at me, "I only got a glimpse on a large stele made out of black and sturdy stone. It had writings by green neon coloured letters, in many languages. But I understood part of it."

"Really?" my hopes were rekindled, "did you get to see everything?"

"No," she shook her head, "I might need to try it again, but…"

Without thinking about it, I took out a large amount of stat points and gave them to her. She used up her stat points during the past attempt. And I still needed to get the answer to my questions.

"Take these as well," I also bought a bunch of various healing potions, and few of body strengthening ones. "Consume one of each for now, leave the rest for later."

She wasn't polite and took everything away. "Thanks, you are really a good sponsor for me," she suddenly stretched her hand and touched my face without warning. "I can't believe someone like you is living without a girl by his side. What do you think?"

I coughed and took a few steps away from her, "thanks, but let's get to our task."

"Humph," she shrugged as if she didn't care about my rejection for even a bit, "one day you'll be mine, mark my words pretty boy."

You should say rich boy instead, you lewd girl! I inwardly snorted but didn't show anything on my face.

"Alright, I'm ready," she sat again on the ground after using part of the stat points I gave her and a few potions.

Then she restarted using her ability while saying in warning:

"I never tried to use my ability two times in a row, so I don't know what might happen to me."

"I'll stop you if things went wrong," I reassured her, "just focus on the stele this time, try to see the whole thing and memorise it."

"Leave it to me," she then started to perform her hand seals again and I only waited on the side for the results.

Like before, she released dense threads of bright white energy for ten minutes. However when she started to speak, she spoke in a language that I couldn't understand.

"Shall I stop her or what?" I stood in front of her while hearing a weird tongue coming from her mouth. I didn't understand a thing, but let's hope she would remember that stele.

Like before, she gushed out blood and turned ashen white before convulsing. Once she started to convulse, I snapped her out of it.

"This time I managed to see more of it," she panted after taking two healing potions, "but I don't think I can sustain another attempt today. My body seemed to crack and crush… It was like… was like my soul was about to leave my body and get sucked by that stele."

Her tone came shaky and even her body trembled. I didn't tell her that she didn't speak in a known language. I already expected that. I had no other choice but to inwardly sigh and accept such a result.

"Tell me what you saw," I helplessly asked, hoping she might say something noteworthy and useful.

"There are a lot of missions there," she said before having an apologetic expression, "but I only got to see five missions only."

"Just say them," I gnashed my teeth while repressing my disappointment.

"First mission is to challenge a god and survive in half an hour fight," she paused before adding, "it's a suicidal mission, right?"

I nodded but said nothing. I already was aware of this mission and another one. And both were practically impossible.

"The second mission is to capture an angel alive," she also paused and looked straight at me before sighing and continuing to narrate the missions.

"The third one is to capture twenty cities in one day. The fourth one is to establish a kingdom…"

All of these weren't something I could possibly do at this moment. The second mission was already known to me. In fact it was the mission given to the dragon race, as the first mission was the one given to humans before.

As for capturing twenty cities in one day, it didn't make any sense. Not to mention the vast distance between cities, taking a city and controlling it was a very hard mission that would take a long time to do.

I was lucky that Jersey city was just on the other side of Hudson river, not far from here. But other cities were. So this mission was something I couldn't do for now.

As for establishing a kingdom, it was already one of my top priorities here. But it needed lots and lots of preparations. I lacked strength, enough backing, and not a single condition fulfilled.

So all the missions she told me about so far weren't suitable at all. That left only the last one. C'mon, give me something easy and it could be done girl, c'mon!

"The last mission is to get total control over a gate linking to another realm," she slowly said before adding another condition, "provided that you have someone of your people inside that realm."

"...!!!"

At this moment I couldn't help but stop myself from shouting in delight. This… this might seem impossible for other people, but not me.

I already had someone from the succubus race bound by a contract with me.

"Why do you look so happy?" she asked, "is it an easy task? It's impossible! How can you send someone of us to a realm without stirring a big fight? You might not know this but any gate to another realm is now secured by many forces."

"Not a problem," I didn't think about this mission like her. In my eyes, this was the only doable mission I had in this list.

"No, you don't understand," yet she persisted, "the issue isn't about wiping them out, but the way to send someone inside in the first place! To do so you need to take total control over a gate for an entire day without losing your grip over it for even one second. It's impossible, not to mention the worldwide subquest it would be issued once you attacked that gate!"

I now realised why this mission was mentioned in the heroic calling list. This mission contained the ability to issue a world wide calling to arms. If it was doable to my enemies, then if I succeeded it was logical to have it as a reward for me as well.

Yet still there was a single issue I needed to solve.

"Do you know the locations of these gates?" I asked, "I have a world where I need to locate the nearest gate."

"Are you out of your mind?" Alex didn't understand my plan at all. And I didn't bother explaining things to her.

"Just tell me if you know or not," I said while opening my list of contacts, sent a message to my dear succubus and waited for her answer.

As I waited for Rachel to give me her answer, I also waited for Alex's as well. Seeing my calm expression with no speck of worry or hesitation, Alex couldn't help but loudly sigh.

"I dunno what went wrong inside that big head of yours, but I'll tell you about the gates," her face changed to show a far more serious one, "the angels just shared a list of places she asked top traitors to go there and defend them. According to the latest message sent by them in the traitor channel, they said these were related to five main realms coming to merge with us very soon."

"I know about this," I said in a way to hurry her to give me the answer I wanted, "I only want the closest gate of a certain realm to New York. Do you know such info?"

She shrugged, "I only know the locations they asked everyone to go there, but can't tell which belonged to any realm from the other," she said.

"Is there anything like this inside the city?"

"Not a single one," she shook her head again, "but the nearby Jersey city had five locations at one go."

"Five?" my eyes shone in realisation, "that means a gate for each realm, right?"

She hesitated before trying to dissuade me again, "this is a suicidal mission! They didn't only send a large number of strong traitors there to defend these gates, but they mentioned the assembly of a large number of higher grade monsters as well. Higher grade monsters, do you get it now? It's impossible, impossible!"

"If you are afraid," I shrugged back, "then stay here and don't follow me."

"Crazy," she said in deep belief, "you are really crazy."

And her remark made me laugh without saying anything.

[My world is called the Gmini world]

At this moment the answer of Rachel came through and I couldn't help but shake my head in regret. I had no way to tell which gate belonged to which world.

Or else I might have just swarmed that location head on without any trouble.

This only meant one thing, that Jersey city must be conquered and controlled by me.

I had my warriors, my dragons, and my jumper. Thinking about mobilising the human forces of New York city over there was out of option.

"I can also use him," I thought about using the help of a spearhead. His unique domain could turn any strong human or other race into useless weak being.

"What?" Alex asked as it seemed I said it out loud.

"Nothing," I rubbed my face with both hands, even slapping my cheeks to get ready for this mission, "let's go. We have to control this city before going to the other one."

"Ah, about that…" she stopped for a moment there before asking, "can you drop me to a place more secure? You know…"

"You have enough stat points to make you one of the strongest in this city," it seemed she got used to being broke on stat points to the point she mistook her current situation.

"Oh yeah… But I don't have any skill at all."

I looked into her eyes before realising it. "Just say you are afraid to come with me," I teased her and her face turned all red from embarrassment.

"It's not! I just don't have the strength to fight! Not to mention no weapon or gear at all!"

"Here," I threw two swords, full body armour, even gauntlets and boots for her to use. "Happy now?"

"..."

I knew she didn't want to tag along, but sending her back to that spearhead was out of question. In time I would mobilise the people inside the central park, but not for the next few hours at least.

"Just stay by my side," I started to walk in wide strides, "and you'll be fine."

Having no other option here, she started to follow in full silence. I didn't bother with her. After all, she would not make much difference anyway in the upcoming mission.

The next thing I did was to get myself busy fighting all the way to the scattered castles. Just seeing the vast scene of wolves growling at both of us made Alex almost faint out of fear.

But when she saw the way I fought, or my warriors did, she realised how strong I was. After taking control of a bunch of castles, she finally left her fear far behind.

Yet the more castles I conquered, the less warriors I had.. I had to leave behind a group of mixed warriors at any castle to defend it against any monsters.

Chapter 72 - Hunting People Operation

"Time to move them," when I conquered my tenth castle, I didn't hurry to leave as usual. Right now I was inside the Harlem neighbourhood, already having total control over Manhattan.

[How are things at your part?] I sent it to Angelica while thinking about my next move. This was the location where my jumper should be, but he went already east and crossed the east river to the other side of the city.

[We already took control of two castles here] Angelica sent back, [Do you want us to move now?]

[How many people do you have in total?] I didn't hurry to give her my orders. After all, it was nice to take control over new emblems. But if we didn't secure what we got, our enemies wouldn't show us any mercy.

[Around five hundred] she sent, [all are eager to fight]

Five hundred seemed a good number to cover all the castles in Manhattan, but it wasn't enough for the entire New York city. Taking over Manhattan took almost three hours total, and I was rushing over from one place to another.

[You'll move like this…]

After thinking about it for a few minutes, I started to send my orders back to her. I ordered her to leave around twenty people at each castle, with one leading them belonging to our elite forces.

The number of elites I had for now was limited, not even reaching twenty. That meant I could only control twenty castles, which wasn't logical at all.

[I need your elite forces to be ready to move] as I finished telling her what to do and where to go, I sent a message to my spearhead before summoning my other three dragons as well.

The sight of dragons made Alex speechless and a little scared. It seemed to miscalculate my strength before.

But girl, this was the total power I currently had. "Go towards the central park in that direction," I pointed out towards the central park, "and help people there move from one castle to another. Also bring back all the warriors stationed in each castle. We are going to meet at this place where a big bridge is made out of red metal and looks like a big toy."

I was trying to describe the Ed Koch Queensboro bridge to them. I selected that after speaking a little with Alex about New York city's general layout as it linked Manhattan with Queens districts.

Queens was considered the central place of New York city. From there I could span my forces and reach everywhere inside the city.

"We'll do it, my lord," the three dragons bowed in respect before flying high in the sky. I left my grand dragon behind, the strongest of them all, for my personal protection.

"Will you move to Queens now?" Alex noticed what I did and couldn't help but ask.

"Do you want to tag along?" I evilly smirked, knowing that she wouldn't dare to.

"Of course not!" as expected, "I'll just remain here."

[I have around twenty elites with full armour and good fighting skills] As I laughed at her appearance, the spearhead sent me his response.

[Send them all to Harlem] I said before giving him the instructions.

[The road is long and risky]

[I'll send a dragon to help clear the path for them]

I had no other choice but to do so. The dragon was peerless in the sky at this stage. Not a single monster would endanger him, and he would be a god of death to any kind of monster on the ground.

As I sent my last dragon over to bring the twenty guys along, I started to consider something else.

Near this place, I knew of a location that held many people inside. I didn't forget the people staying under the spearhead control, but they were far from enough.

To control such a large city like New York, having a couple of thousand people wasn't enough at all. Not to mention the number of elites required. Not to mention I also had another city to conquer in the next hours.

At such a point, I saw the greatest weakness that I didn't consider before. I needed to start taking care of this point; recruiting people and gathering humans around.

But I couldn't move at the moment. All I could do was to send a message to notify the jumper to also look for places with human survivors. If he met a small group, he should recruit them directly. If he found a large group, then he shouldn't touch them and only share their location with me.

Considering everything, this was the only way I could handle things for now. In all my few numbered forces, the jumper and that spearhead might be the only two able to handle any group of survivors and force them to join my side.

I was always looking for elites and good people to recruit. But at this point I realised the importance of having normal people as cannon fodders.

Any army wouldn't become one without a large number of weak soldiers. Even stating that the most majority of any army were weak and normal soldiers without outstanding talents or abilities might not be an exaggeration.

So I leisurely waited for an hour. During which I did nothing but to first eat some cooked meat, drank water, closed my eyes and got a bit of deserved rest.

I decided that after finishing all this today, I needed to sleep for a long time. The upcoming quest wasn't going to work anyway, and so I didn't need to worry about anything else.

"Wake up," I felt like I closed my eyes for one second before I felt the strong shaking and the clear voice of Alex. I opened my eyes, jumped to my feet, grabbed my swords, and took the stance of a tiger waiting for a fight.

"Wow! You are really on the edge," but I saw nothing but familiar faces coming from far. The street was still filled with monsters but with the help of my dragons and warriors, not a single one managed to stop the few people coming my way.

"They are already here?" I felt it was weird, "how long did I sleep?"

"For one hour, lazy big boy," Alex seemed to return to her usual self and even winked at me. "They are the first group to arrive. Didn't you say there are two groups coming here?"

"They must be the ones from the spearhead location," I yawned and stretched my arms in laziness, "Damn! I would pay anything just to have more hours of such nice sleep."

"You can rest here, y'know that," Alex hinted again at my mission, but I only rolled up my eyes and said nothing.

The group that came were from the hospital as I expected. But they also had a group of people from the central park as well. It seemed both groups met halfway and came together.

"Finally managed to see you," the one leading them was the four eyed Isabella. She adjusted her glasses, gave Alex next to me a side glance before adding, "I brought the rest of the people who had no castle to defend."

She led five elites and almost three hundred people. As for the group from the hospital, spearhead sent his twenty elites leading a group of five hundred people as well.

In just this place, a group of eight hundred people led by twenty-seven elites were gathered. My warriors were partially gathered here as well.

"Go back and call everyone here," I said to the strongest dragon I had, "make sure they waste no more time in coming here."

"Right away, my liege," the dragon said in usual respect before soaring fast in the air and vanishing in a few breaths.

"Are you not going to Queens side now?" Alex, who was aware of my plans, seemed a bit puzzled.

"There is something I needed to do first here," I said and Isabella seemed to cheer up when she heard about that.

"I was dead bored in that rotten park until I got out," she stretched her arms and added, "it's time to have more fun. Where is the target? Are we going to kill traitors or monsters?"

"Neither," I smiled in return for her unexpected enthusiasm, "we'll go to hunt people down."

"Hunt?" she wasn't the only one surprised by the word I chose to describe my next move.

"There will be many chances to kill monsters and traitors as well," I gave her what she wanted to hear, "so if you want, you can come with me."

"Can we also come?" another elite called Markos from the spearhead group said.

"What about us?" a few of the normal people here also asked.

"Whoever wants to come is welcomed," I didn't find any wrong in bringing them along. After all they weren't that weak after surviving the first quest already.

Also I needed to train them and make them see the harshness of the apocalypse. A sharp blade left to rust wasn't a good thing after all. Even dust wasn't good for any good gem.

"What about here?" Alex seemed to get panicked when she heard many whispers of people around. It seemed the thought of coming with me appealed to most of them.

"This place can be defended by one elite and twenty humans," I said while giving her a meaningful glance, "you can be this elite…"

For a second there a flash of fright appeared on her face before it vanished when I added, "and I'll leave fifty humans with you, enough?"

Having the strong defences of the castle was enough to make her pleased and feel more secure. She nodded in satisfaction while jumping around selecting the people to join.

It was expected that any strong looking human didn't want to stay behind. Apocalypse might have aroused the deep sense of danger in anyone's soul, but it also stirred the hidden potential and the fighting spirit of many.

Helplessly resigning to the weak looking ones, she couldn't help but give me a side gaze from time to time. I only shrugged as if I was telling her: What can I do? You shall convince them yourself!

"Ready?" I stood in front of the large group of people behind me. Out of all the forces that came here, almost seven hundred and sixty people were marching after my warriors.

Just looking at them made me realise the importance of establishing a force of my own. How could I possibly dream about having a kingdom in times of chaos like these without having a strong army?

"Where are we going?" Isabella was the only one walking by my side up front. We were already exiting the empty and devastated blocks, heading to a street filled with wolves.

"We are going to a city college in Harlem," I said, "there we will find a great number of people ready to be recruited."

"City college?" she seemed to frown, "shouldn't we go and seek other colleges? Shouldn't we hit Columbia University instead?"

She had a point here. After all Columbia university was the most famous university in New York and even in the entire US. But she missed a simple point here.

"Most of the students there went home a week ago thanks to the limited vacation for the world forum of students," I slowly said before adding, "and that makes the city college we are heading to important."

"In which way?" she asked.

"One second," I didn't hurry to answer her as I arranged my forces. The warriors were asked to deal with the wolves, while the large army behind had the liberty to join the attack, or keep along my pace to not fall behind and die.

"I heard over twenty thousand students came from across the globe, right?" I said after arranging everything. The fight started in an immense way all around, but I didn't care about that.

I only cared about keeping the fast pace and reaching that side of the city fast without wasting time.

"That's correct," Isabella nodded, "but why is that related to the college?"

"Because the dorms of that college were given to those students to live in," I finally gave her the reason, "so in that place, we can find many suitable people to recruit."

I didn't tell her that I already know of the sheer size of the surviving students in that college.. In fact the twenty thousand student number wasn't correct.

Chapter 73 - [Bonus Chapter] Fighting Ambitious People

At the time of the apocalypse, almost half of them were scattered all around New York in sightseeing. Even a considerable number went to visit other states nearby, like New Jersey, Washington DC, Massachusetts and many other states at that side of the coastline.

There were only less than ten thousand students at the college right at the start of the apocalypse. And after the first quest, it was remarkable to know that over eight thousand of them survived that ordeal.

They weren't united. After all, they came from different countries. Despite the large number advantage they held, they lacked common leadership.

And that was why I was going there right now. If I managed to subdue them, then I would have a great amount of capable talents serving under my command.

The journey to the college took almost half an hour. We didn't pause for even a second thanks to my warriors and dragons.

In addition to that, many of the people following me showed their strength, especially Isabella and the other elites.

Isabella was special. She shone brightly under the pressure of such an enemy. No matter what, she just used her swords to kill, dancing all around without any moment of rest or hesitation.

She showed me a glimpse of what she would grow up to become, a legendary figure who was just serving under my command from the start.

How nice it would be if I managed to snatch many great figures early on in the apocalypse?

When we arrived at the location of the college, we were welcomed with its big space of thirty-five acres of area, and many large buildings.

But what was remarkable even from far away was the brightness of that place. It went without saying that people there were smart. Given the right minds, good equipment and materials they could do miracles.

They saw through the fatal weakness of the monsters in this stage. So it went without saying that the entire campus was surrounded by lights, and that wasn't all.

From what I read, many of these lights used the ultraviolet rays and sunlight as well. What did that mean? It didn't only emitted light, but also targeted other weaknesses of the monsters like their liability to warmth from sunlight and deadly UV rays.

They were smart! I couldn't take that from them. But even with such smart minds, they couldn't bring themselves all along under one unified leadership. And that was the sole reason which led to the demise of such a sizable force at quest five of the apocalypse.

"We are here," I said what wasn't needed to be said.

"Wow! They turned the entire campus into such a myriad of lights!" Isabella came and stood by my side. At this point, while walking down One hundred and thirty street, the waves of the monster dwindled here.

Despite the fact that it was impossible for such a grand place to lack any castles, the lights, warmth, and deadly UV rays helped in securing the place and scaring many monsters away.

Only the stupid hyenas remained behind. "Kill them all, clear the streets around the campus… Go!"

For the first time since walking out from that castle, I finally sat my forces loose. I didn't need to arrange many things here, only assigned dragons to hover over the entire area and scattered warriors to help the people on my side.

Isabella looked at me in doubt. She was a smart girl, and she must have noticed the bizarre act of mine here.

I had a reason. In front of such smart youths, words weren't going to do any good. If I needed to rally most of them under my banner, then I had to show them my value in a real demonstration of my strength.

That was why I finally released all my forces without any restraints. I had to show them how strong and mighty I was, the forces under me were, and made them accept me even before we even met!

"Let's stay here for now," I only kept five Bulltors, five shield warriors and three archers and wizards with me. It wasn't a big force but it was enough to secure my safety if anything went wrong.

I wasn't worried from monsters, but from the youths inside the college. It went without saying that amidst genius minds, arrogance was one of the biggest weaknesses you'd find.

I might be able to convince many with my actions, but whom of them wouldn't see through my real intentions here? Those who had the ambition to become leaders would be threatened by my show of strength.

Those would come and target me with their lackeys. Let them come, I dare them to do that.

After all this would help to prove another thing to those youths; I wasn't a merciful person or tolerable to any signs of revolt.

They either submit to me, or f*ck the hell off my face.

The sounds of battle emerged from all over the place. My forces were hungry to kill monsters, and hyenas were already vulnerable to begin with.

Not to mention my forces already were aware of the fatal weakness of these monsters. So the battles rumbled all around the campus, bringing many eyes to fall over what was going on outside.

I could feel many eyes looking at my direction. If they were smart as I took them for, they would know I was the leader of such an army.

I waited… Waited for a whole ten minutes before the first waves of youths got out from the campus. They looked like Indians, Africans, Europeans, and also Asians. Simply put; they came from all over the world and walked in small groups towards me.

"Wow! A welcome party is coming," Isabella mistook the different groups heading towards us to be friendly.

If they were, they should have stayed back in the campus or waited just at the main gate. I didn't say anything, and only looked high in the sky and simply raised my fist.

Without saying anything, my four dragons assembled from all around in less than a minute. Their sudden presence made the groups pause and didn't know what to do for a second.

Did I scare them too much? I didn't think so. They came here knowing whom they were going against.

In face of greed and arrogance, fear paled and even withered away.

They took only a couple of minutes before coming to a response. For the first time ever since the apocalypse, the different groups finally came to a consensus.

They merged together in one bigger group. Yet even if they managed to put their differences aside, the ones leading that group were still a myriad of bosses.

If a single ship had two bosses, it would be disastrous. Then what about dozens of bosses? I didn't need to worry about anything. Even with a large group of almost three hundred youths coming at me, I knew they weren't really unified as one like they tried to show.

"Welcome friends from the far," I was the first to speak when they came just one hundred metres away, "what good winds brought you here?"

"Who are you?"

"What business do you have with our campus?"

"You aren't welcomed here! Go back now and forget about this place."

Of course they saw through me, but who cared! I simply grinned devilishly in front of all these hidden and clear threats.

"C'mon, we are all here together in such a mess. Why not work together instead of fighting?"

At this point, if Isabella didn't understand what was going on then she wouldn't be that Isabella. She simply raised both swords in the air, prepared to fight at any given moment.

"Shall we call others back?" she asked without turning to me.

"No need," I shrugged in a casual way, "one doesn't need a cannon to get rid of a few flies."

Isabella went through a lot with me to understand my personality very well. She must have seen through my trap here. Everything was calculated, meticulously calculated to drive out such troublemakers early on and cleanse the campus of such people.

If those people remained inside, then they would be able to cause more harm than they could do right now. But I sent out most of my forces away, showing a vulnerability for them to seize.

And they were so impatient and pressured to jump at such an opportunity without even thinking rationally about it.

"We warned you," one big youth with dark skin said in a rude way, "don't blame us for killing you."

"If you have the ability to try, then I urge you to do so," I raised both hands holding my swords and shrugged as if I was helpless in such a situation.

"Attack!"

The fight erupted with a shout that came from within the group. I knew this battle was closely watched by the youths in the campus. Whoever won would gain great reputation and might be the long awaited leader of them.

But who said I was this weak to begin with?

"Move," I casually waved my sword at my dragons, "entrap them and kill a few at first. Let's see if this will knock some sense into their hardened skulls."

Despite knowing their ambition, I knew they weren't without great potential. It was a waste to lose such a big group of elite seeds without trying to subdue them first.

Of course I wasn't going to accept mere words of allegiance and loyalty. These might suit the normal kids inside the campus. But for those cubs, I had only my contracts to bind them to me.

*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!* Roar!*

Four mighty roars erupted and rumbled across the sky. The ground even shook the moment their deadly breaths went down and killed those brazenly running at the front.

Then as I said, they started to create a deadly circle of their breaths all around the group. The faces of these youths changed the moment they witnessed the true might of my dragons.

That was the reason I kept my dragons hovering high in the sky. In their eyes, my warriors were strong but they were few in numbers. They mistook their ability to overcome them with sheer numbers.

But what about my dragons? They would be dreaming if they thought for a second they were a foe for them. Even other races elites would have a hard time dealing with them.

As the dragons completed the encirclement, it was time for diplomacy.

"Surrender," I shouted in a domineering aura, "take your weapons back, sign these contracts with me and your lives will be spared."

"Don't listen to him! He is lying and will kill all of us once we surrender!"

A shout came from within, but before he could finish I simply snapped my fingers.

A single dragon moved and bathed the place where the sound came with a deadly fountain of blue lightning fire. Everyone's face paled even more while my voice came like it was from the depth of hell.

"I won't give you another chance to survive, and I hate playing games and wasting time. You have one minute to decide, whoever wants to live just raise his fist high up and I'll throw a contract over."

I said those words and closed up my eyes. If anyone dared to try his luck again, then he was playing with his life.

That mere attack of my dragon was precise, yet it killed a few of those around the one who spoke. At least ten died in that simple attack, and it happened in a blink of an eye.

They were prepared for a ground battle against my warriors, but facing my airborne dragons they lacked any means to even defend themselves.

"You are… really something," Isabella said from the side in a whispering tone.

"This apocalypse is harsh enough to live in," I simply said before the minute passed and opened my eyes.. "So we shouldn't fight among ourselves like this."

Chapter 74 - Going To Queens

As I moved my eyes around, I saw all of them raising hands in the air. Who was stupid enough to not accept such a bargain? Even if it was on the edge of the sword, the value of their lives was far more important than such useless past concepts of civilization.

"Go and throw these contracts over them," I roughly counted them and almost two hundred and fifty people stood there. From the initial three hundred, fifty were killed in such a short time.

"Why me?" Isabella asked despite knowing the answer for sure.

"I'm the king," I rolled my eyes and said the obvious, "which king will go and deliver things like this?"

"A king? Humph, who said you are my king?" she said in a teasing tone with no ill intention whatsoever. Without waiting for me to say anything else, she grabbed my contracts and went to the front.

"Just remember, you owe me one, ok?"

I kept signing the large number of contracts while she kept throwing them over the circle of myriad coloured fire. Anyone who signed a contract with me had two, not one contract to sign; one binding contract, and another for my channel.

They might be rogue and hard to tame lions for now, but later on they would become strong and one of my strongest and capable generals.

Binding them for the channel was a must. Not to mention I'd already use them sooner to conquer this city and the next one, they would also help me later on.

So having an eye over them was something I wouldn't neglect, and also adding more excitement to my channel was also a bonus.

My current subscribers of the channel were going slowly up. Right now I am still swaying around six thousand subscribers.

It wasn't a big number, but it was good for now. By adding more assets to my channel like these elites, the subscribers would have more videos to watch and share, more subscribers to come, and more influence I would get.

In just ten minutes I was done with all this. As for the various breaths surrounding them, they had to wait for ten more minutes for these to vanish.

During this time, not a single person came out from the campus. In exchange I saw many heads looking like black dots from far away.

They were all curious to meet me, and I was curious about their abilities and talents.

During this time I started to get to know my elites better. From their mouths I knew more about the status of the campus.

My knowledge from the records was wrong! There weren't eight thousand people here, but fifteen!

From what I heard, once the apocalypse befell the world the scattered students all went back to here. Out of the original twenty thousands, only twelve thousand returned.

Then the difference came from the original students living inside the dorms at this point of time. They were also scattered over the city for fun and helping their fellow visitors.

According to these two hundred and fifty students, I learnt there were initially ten thousand from the local students. But after the first quest ended, the number dwelled from twenty-two thousand students in the campus to the current fifteen thousand.

What astonished me next was the fact that the entire campus was void of any emblems or castles. How could this be? This college was so massive.

But according to their words, they had people covering everywhere inside the campus for security.

That was it for the good news. As for the bad news, there were a lot of them.

First the large number of students faced huge waves of monsters. But in the end they lacked the knowledge to get materials from those monsters, or even gaining skills.

Beside that, most of the students were barely ten points above the lower level of the stat points; mostly at twenty points and weren't equally distributed.

Not to mention that a large number of them accepted the blessing of the lower gods already, losing the chance to accept more gods in the future.

That might not be a big issue if the number wasn't this large. But considering the fifteen thousand students in the big picture, I had to frown.

How could I solve this without wasting more time? The only option here was to take them with me on this trip. However I would lose many of them while facing monsters and other traitors.

Not to mention the trip to the other city would be far more dangerous than here.

For a moment I hesitated before I made up my mind. This wasn't a tour or a school trip, this was the apocalypse. If they couldn't survive, then it would be their fate not my problem.

"You'll lead the others and go and teach them about our little tricks," I turned to Isabella before adding, "after you finish, take them towards the east river and cross it to the Queens district. I'll be in touch with you all the time."

Isabella seemed to notice the same problem as I did. "Shall I babysit them or what?" she asked in a mocking tone, but her deep meaning was far more serious than her tone.

"Make them have a taste of what apocalypse is," I seriously said before adding, "let them gain points and coins during the journey. They were living off the real apocalypse and enjoying a fake peaceful life so far."

Isabella nodded in understanding. As for the other elites, they didn't get what we two just chatted about.

"Also don't forget to dispatch a group to collect their data," I stressed over this point, "anyone with attributes above unique is considered a good seedling. Pay more attention to these and make sure they won't suffer much."

"Got it," Isabella knew my way of doing things, so she got what I wanted to say thoroughly fast.

"Let's go," as the sounds of battles became scarcer, I knew my warriors and forces were about to finish their task, "let's get them to know their future king."

"Again with that nonsense," Isabella rolled her eyes and smiled. For a second there her face beamed with such a bright smile.

Even if she acted this way, she seemed to be happy, happy for being on my side from the start.

Who wouldn't be? After all I was now walking a path that not a normal human being would walk usually in such dire times.

Before moving again, I used these minutes to look for something necessary. I found an item in the market used to add people as friends and allow many things like chatting, exchange items, and even sound and video calls.

"Here, accept my invitation," I instantly bought it despite its astronomical price of one million coins. After all this was a one time gadget and it would allow me to use its features for unlimited times.

As she accepted the friend request, I checked it and made sure it worked properly. Then I started to move.

As I walked among my warriors and with the strongest of those survivors becoming my lackeys, the rest inside the campus couldn't have any dreams of going against me.

Things went on smoothly after that. I bought a bunch of compasses and gave them to Isabella for scanning the people here, looking for traitors.

I also gave her the orders to kill them by herself, and made sure to take her loot from their bodies. As for the loot, half would go for me, the rest would be left for Isabella to strengthen anyone worthy of support.

As things stabilised and everything began to move in clear order, I started to move again. This time I led my warriors and dragons towards the east river, heading straight for the big bridge.

Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge was a marvel to the eye. When looking at it amidst the dim world and the clear signs of destruction all around the city, that bridge seemed to be made especially for such an era.

The road wasn't smooth, after all dense packs of monsters tried to stop me and my little boys. But they couldn't. In one hour I finally managed to set foot over the bridge and started crossing it.

The bridge wasn't clear. There were a lot of cars scattered in both directions. Some were left intact, yet others appeared to experience heavy damage coming from monsters.

But what they all shared was the strange irregular parking, even most rotated and had their front looking for the river instead of the bridge itself.

And all had their doors opened, giving me the impression that the drivers and the ones who were inside these cars had to leave in a hurry.

If I tried to cross the bridge when the next quest started, then I doubted this journey would be in such a smooth way. Avian monsters weren't here yet, not to mention the aquatic monsters as well.

If any of those were here, then trying to cross this bridge would be a disaster.

Crossing such an old cantilever bridge made me reach the long island city block of Queens.

"It's time to get more castles," I didn't enjoy the amazing sight anymore and started to move towards the nearest castle.

According to the jumper, he already scanned the Queens area and moved to Brooklyn. I had to admit, having the scout mission was the easiest and most suitable one for that crazy dude.

At the same time, I started to ask Isabella about the situation at her part. I couldn't hold the large number of castles here alone. I needed more of the army to move out and if they would come, they surely needed my support.

It seemed that Manhattan was cursed with monsters. Queens wasn't that bad. Streets weren't void from wolves and hyenas, but they weren't even close to half the number or density shown at that island.

It must be the difference in size. After all, Manhattan island was smaller in size compared to other districts in this city.

As I knew my army would come here soon, and those monsters didn't put enough pressure at all on me, I ordered my little boys to go and kill everything in their path.

[We found a lot of traitors so far] The answer I got from Isabella wasn't a surprise. Such a large number of survivors wouldn't come without infiltrating them from the angels.

[Out of the three thousand people we scanned, five hundred were traitors]

[Kill them all] I sent in cold blood, [I'll transfer more coins for you if you needed]

[No need, most of them were wealthy little bastards] her message told me their fate was already sealed. [We also got a lot of things. I'll send your share once I'm done]

[Keep the gears] I sent to her. [Make sure many are well armed. The monsters from your place to the bridge are really dense, but I'll clear the rest inside Queens]

[Ok]

In fact I had no use for such gears but this one. What was the benefit of selling them for a low price? It was better to arm those kids and turn them into strong forces.

Just as she was busy handling the situation at her end, I also checked through the video feed on the spearhead.

He led many of his people and started to widen the gap I found. The ore was sparkling in pure scarlet red light, making the scene closer to being a scene of hell.

During past hours, they managed to mine a few ores. The tools they got were all purchased from the market at a low price. That stingy spearhead complained a lot for the lack of coins, but I gave him a compass and released him on the people he had.

In my eyes, having such a strong person was enough to lead an entire army at this stage.. He found a good number of traitors, and got to clean their inventories as I taught him.

Chapter 75 - The Army Is Here!

This came as a surprise for him. He never expected for other traitors to be inside his people. He thought, in a wrong way indeed, that the angels fully trusted his capabilities.

But he didn't know how treacherous and meticulous those angels were. They never trusted anyone, it was a fact I learnt from dealing with them so far.

As he got a stable source of income and many other treasures, he stopped nagging me.

Seeing the smooth progress of people there made me happy. That ore would become one of the cornerstones of my futuristic power.

But leaving the spearhead there wasn't good. It was an insult to his capabilities. So I sent a message for him, asking him to go to the campus leading his best men.

As for the ore mining process, I asked Alex to leave her castle and go there. Of course I wouldn't let her go alone, I also sent a word for her girl, Angelica.

I tried to act as a messenger of peace here between these two. If Angelica managed to take Alex back to her embrace, I would have cleared two nuisances off my back.

The first castle I reached was just at the middle of the street parallel to the east river. It didn't hold much resistance and I conquered it in no time.

As I left a few warriors over, I started to jump from one spot to another. According to the jumper, there were forty castles in Queens alone.

I could never cover them freely this way. But the good news was in the lack of the dense waves of monsters like before.

Even around the castles, monsters weren't as much or fierce as in Manhattan.

As I started my part, I sent a message for Isabella to dispatch a group of those she scanned here. I asked her to make spearheads lead them, and if possible she should send most of them.

According to her, she scanned almost three quarters of them so far and gathered their info. She asked for one more hour to finish scanning, arranging them into teams, and gear up those who were worthy.

One hour wasn't a short time, but I had no other choice but to hold back when I conquered my fifteenth castle. At this point, I already cleared the left side of Queens, and was close up to Brooklyn.

I was just near a large bridge that had its upper half of steel and the bases of cement. I didn't know why, but this city seemed to have many steel bridges that suited the apocalypse.

As I had nothing else to do, I sat inside the castle and sent a few warriors around to kill anything. As for my four dragons, I had to send them a couple of minutes ago back to the college campus.

What I noticed though was the low number of traitors holding these forts. It seemed that at the time of the apocalypse, most of the traitors were positioned in Manhattan.

Didn't know why, but it seemed absurd in my eyes. What? Did they go shopping? Or for seeing Broadway shows?

That was ridiculous!

Anyway, that decreased a lot of pressure on me. From what I could see, the rest of New York could be conquered in the next four to six hours, given the help of the incoming army.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

Just as I was resting, half awake and half asleep, a series of mighty explosions occurred not far from here.

I jolted awake and jumped on my feet to see something amazing! Just a mile away from my place, many huge explosions happened. I could count at least ten big clouds of bright red fire rising high in the air, with pure whiteness in their hearts.

"This…" I tried to recall if something this big happened in this part of the city. But from the records I read before, nothing mentioned anything like this.

The answer came swiftly in the next few minutes. I could see dark spots flying on low level, opening up their fire and raining down everything on the ground.

"Helis? That's the army!!" It hit me! That was the US army! The army must have finally reacted from the early shock of the attack of the apocalypse.

At the start, everything advanced that made human civilization unique was lost. The military wasn't an exception for that. Most, if not all, of their big guns depended on chips to run.

"That's…" I used my skill to see far away and I could instantly count dozens of big sized helicopters.

At this moment, if not for the lack of my warriors, I would have gone there and helped. For unknown reasons, just seeing humans fight for their lives in such a big and mighty way made my blood boil.

I wanted to go there! I wanted to fight with them as well!

"Hell, why are they taking this much time?" as the sounds of explosions continued, and the horizon began to be painted in dark orange red colour, I couldn't help but curse at those kids coming here.

I sent a message to Isabella and she replied instantly that she sent all of the forces my way. From the initial fifteen thousand, only twelve were proven to be pure and not traitors.

I didn't mind or even think about that. I only asked about how long they were gone and she said something around three quarters of an hour.

That meant they were nearby! I instantly recalled the spearhead. He was the one leading them here. Without any delay I opened the channel and saw the feed coming from him.

The moment he appeared on the floating screen in front of me, I recognized the place he was in. He was just at the bridge. That meant he wasn't that far away from here.

He stood in the middle of a large number of people, shouting and distributing orders like a mighty general in battle. He was fighting against waves of monsters at one end of the bridge.

"They are trying to cross over… Damn!" At such a realisation, I knew the angels weren't planning on letting my new army come here without pressure.

Or was it the attack of those helis?

I didn't care about the reason at all. I sent a direct order to the spearhead, simply saying one thing:

[Send a group to take over the castles while you are holding the bridge]

As I sent this, I waited for five minutes before a group of youths appeared. They were around a thousand, looking warry and covered in monster's blood.

But the look on their faces was brimming with delight, pride, and challenge. Their fighting spirit seemed to ignite during this short trip here.

"Boss, we are here," one of them said, a tall youth with tanned skin. He looked like the leader of such a group, and I only nodded to him.

"Stay here," I said while another wave of explosions rang across the other end, "don't think of coming. That battle is way above your abilities for now."

Indeed they looked stronger than before with all these gears and weapons. I could tell their stats were higher as well just from their speed and the look of confidence on their faces.

But that ongoing fight over there was literally hell in its true ugly face. They wouldn't survive such a warzone for now.

As they took over the castle, I instantly summoned my warriors back before resummoning them out.

"Let's go," I didn't delay any further. The army seemed to attack in waves, each would release hell over that part of the city before retreating.

The reason was obvious; they lacked ammo. The bombs might be causing damage to the monsters, but I knew even before reaching there they wouldn't enough to kill the monsters.

I went straight to the bridge linking Queens to Brooklyn. The distance of the fight seemed almost half a mile away from this bridge, or slightly longer.

The bridge had a sign stating that it was the Pulaski bridge. I never heard about it before.

As I got to Brooklyn, it was obvious things were different here than in Queens. The familiar sight of densely packed monsters appeared again in front of me.

"Go," I didn't hesitate to give the order for my little boys, "kill anything standing in my way."

The warriors alone were enough to create a massive gap in their numbers. But with the aggressiveness of the dragons, it was more like a massacre.

As I went deeper, I lost my sense of time and direction. I only moved forward towards the site of the explosions. The closer I got, the louder these explosions became.

I could clearly see the thick tongues of fire rising in violence towards the sky. But that wasn't enough to kill these monsters.

The bombs might be helplful in weakening the monsters using fire, light, and heat. But it wasn't enough to take their lives.

What these bombs mostly could do was to throw the monsters apart and break their formation. Other than this, even with bullets raining like snow balls from the helis, they wouldn't be able to kill the monsters.

They needed the system weapons, system stats, system gears… simply put, they needed to integrate the system advantages into their weaponry.

I knew that from the records and the old man's rich stories about such ironic facts. What made this ironic was that by the time the thick headed military personnel got to realise this, they already lost most of their power.

It wasn't the military gears alone, but the biggest blow was by losing the military factories and the genius minds who could make such a theory possible.

So it remained only a theory. The biggest hurdle was the loss of the factories. After all, to build a tank or a heli from scratch, one had to spend a lot of time, effort, and use many resources.

And all these couldn't be done outside special factories designed for such a thing.

As I got closer, I could finally get a clear look at what was going on. I stood at one end of a high levelled street, looking at the ongoing brutal hellish fight at the other end of it.

A distance of almost five hundred metres separated me from there, but even from such a distance I could feel the heat and the brutality of that fight.

Monsters came in endless waves, aiming to break through a densely packed line up of big tanks. The cannons of these tanks never stopped firing, even turning the metal of their big cannons into bright red.

Around the tanks, a lot of military personnel were scattered. I didn't need to use my special skill to know they were fighting using their firearms, their useless firearms.

Damn! How thick headed those military personnel could be?!!

Shaking my head in disappointment, I started leading my warriors to the frontline. At this point, even with the help of all my warriors I had to act.

I used my two swords and started to attack right and left without any restraints.

I didn't need to fight my way through. But I was worried these idiots would launch an attack in my direction, mistaking my little boys for monsters.

Seeing me in action was enough to knock some sense into their thickened skulls. And it also felt great stretching out a bit.

*Roar!*

I could now pierce any monster's flesh with my current strength stat. It felt nice to do so. As I advanced, the fire started to grow scarce while the monsters became more focused on me.

The sight behind that thick line of tanks and soldiers wasn't clear yet, but I could see a shadow of a subway station not far off behind.

Were they trying to prevent monsters from reaching there? But what made such a station unique in the first place?

Getting over the damned first line took longer than I expected.. What I appreciated though was for these soldiers, tanks, and helis to stop their blind firing spree and focused on areas away from me.

Chapter 76 - The Daughter Of The US President

Just hearing the sounds of explosions this close startled me a few times. That banging loud noise of the explosions was really annoying! And on top of everything, nothing of their actions would work at all!

"I'm Major Mingel," a tough looking middle aged man appeared once I passed through the monster tight encirclement. I looked at him but didn't say anything in return.

"Go, kill those bastards coming closer to here," I said to my warriors and dragons first, "don't let a fly pass by, do you understand?"

*Roar!*

My warriors and dragons issued an ear piercing unified roar as an answer. I didn't know why, but seeing such violent explosions close up made their monstrous nature ignited.

"Thanks for coming to greet me," I finally turned to Mingle. He had a short beard, short hair, both were a mix of orange and yellow. His eyes were blue, reminding me of those famous Hollywood actors of this time.

Yet his face didn't show anything like an actor. Tough skin, broad cheeks, pointed chin, and few recent wounds appearing all over his face. His stance was rigid, like he was a robot or something.

Wearing his military uniform, holding his rifle like he was holding the most precious thing in the world, he stood in front of me with eyes filled with doubt and shock.

"Is it possible to tame these things?" he couldn't finally control his curiosity and asked such a weird question.

"They aren't monsters," I said to correct this info, "they are my warriors."

"Good for you," he patted my shoulders and I felt a faint pressure coming from him. He had unlocked his system and added stat points as well.

Yet he still was using such retarded and obsolete ways and weapons to fight in the apocalypse? C'mon! Gimme a break!

"Are you the leader here?" I asked while starting to walk inside the troops like this was my place.

"I'm," he didn't deny it, "did you come from the other side? Queens?"

"Manhattan," I said while examining the forces here. There weren't just tanks, I also saw many rocket launchers as well! Big guns were like cabbage here on this wide square!

I finally managed to see what lies behind them. A lot of people stood around the entrance of a subway, seemingly looking with fear and curious gazes towards the ongoing battle.

"You came all the way here?" I could feel his puzzlement.

"I didn't come alone," I didn't hide this either, "I'm raising an army right now and they are controlling Manhattan and scattering all across Queens as we speak."

"An army of those giant monsters of yours?"

Again such a dumb a question coming out from him! I rolled my eyes without correcting him. Let him think that way. It would help me in my target here.

"Let me guess, you are trying to protect people inside that subway?" I pointed towards the direction of that station. And he nodded.

"The president's daughter is inside that station," he said in deep respect, throwing a piece of missing info into my face.

Damn! The current president of the USA 's daughter was here? "Don't tell me, it's Karoline?" I asked with doubt while turning to see his expression.

And as I feared, his face changed when I mentioned her name.

"You guessed it right," yet he was conservative in his words. After all, I showed a grand power that he couldn't overcome even using his entire army.

Things started to become clear in my mind. Karoline Rosevelt! The one considered a prodigy even by the words of the old man, the granddaughter of the famous ancient president of the Us, Franklin Rosevelt, and the one who was said to cause a massive massacre at the army forces in the apocalypse.

But wait… Didn't the old man say it started to happen at the fourth quest and later? I couldn't help but raise my head high, check the dark sky of anything shining red above my head.

Yeah, it was as you imagined, that damned city destroyer star weapon. This young lady had something like a death feud with the angels, making them attack her one time after another using such a mass destruction weapon.

Yet she held something that kept her alive even after getting hit by that weapon. I didn't recall exactly what the old man said about such ability, but it must be the reason why the angels targeted her.

Such a girl in her seventeen years old, brimming with life and ambition, plus the inherited genes of leadership coming from her prestigious family, was destined for something great.

Yet that greatness came to stop by the blades of the other races when they started invading our world. The angels couldn't kill him using that deadly weapon, but they butchered a lot of military forces along her course of escaping.

From what I could remember, she managed to run such an astonishing distance from the Atlantic ocean to the pacific side, to be killed at last in California.

She was relentless, cold hearted, and someone with a determination to live and avenge all the people died for her. Yet in the end she had to face such a brutal end. And that was the ugly face of this apocalypse.

The more I thought about her, the more I wanted to meet her and add her to my forces.

I wasn't that much afraid of the big star cannon. After all, I would know first about her ability, then decide the best course of action.

Not to mention she was like a hot cake to the military. Her father was killed during the first hours of the apocalypse, but those who were trying to organise the nation now were desperately looking for her.

They wouldn't only send this group of soldiers, they would send armies upon armies to call her back.

And I now drooled at all these armies coming for her.

Realising all this made me see the reason behind the fast assembly and swift reaction of the military. They solved the chip problems fast enough and came here to rescue her.

And now I had to make a simple move and add her to my force. She wasn't just a single person, but a person holding the dedication of an entire army behind her.

Damn! How could my luck be so good?!! I hoped I wasn't going to jinx myself by thinking like that!

"Go and call her out then," I said in a bossy tone that made that major raise his eyebrows. "What? Do you even think she is going to be safe like that? I need to arrange things with the leader here, and it's obvious who she is, right?"

He hesitated before finally walking away. He couldn't resist my orders, or else I would simply leave. He saw with his two eyes how capable and strong I was.

If not for my warriors holding the frontline all by themselves by now, they would be eventually swarmed by monsters. They might be using strong and showy ways to stop the monsters for now.

But what about an hour later? A day later? Could they possibly have an open arsenal of ammunition for this operation? I hardly believed that!

As he retreated and vanished inside that station, I started to observe the overall situation. My warriors were giving the monsters what they deserved. However they couldn't route them back.

The sheer number of these monsters was simply amazing! I had no doubt now that the reason Queens looked this empty was thanks to the battle here.

The monsters were assembled from all over the city. It wouldn't be surprising if even the nearby counties' monsters were also called here. Only Manhattan stopped more to come, as my deeds over there came as a surprise for the angels.

I looked again at the sky to make sure there was no sneaky attack coming. I knew it would be impossible for the angels to drive such an attack soon, but I couldn't prevent myself from worrying about that.

Just in less than five minutes, that major returned with a young girl. She was almost the same height as me, shoulder by shoulder I believe.

As I looked at her, I couldn't help but feel a strange warmth inside my heart. She exuded such aura whenever she walked, just like the sweetest rose on earth.

Her elegant features were obvious from her face, despite thick layers of dust and ash covering her pretty face. Yet she was a beauty, I could vouch for that.

She seemed to inherit her great grandfather's pure blue eyes, forehead, and mouth. Yet she had a touch of asian genes appearing in her small nose, slit like lips, and petite oval face.

Her hair was grey white, with strands of blackness scattered in the middle. This wasn't the act of inheritance, only by dying her hair or under the effect of her abilities would she turn into that.

As she walked, I noticed her steps to be small, yet strangely covering the same distance at each step. She seemed to wear a tight black sparkling dress at the time of the apocalypse, but only fragments of it remained covering only her chest and waist.

Her body showed how much she struggled in the past day. I even saw white wrapping over her left calf like it was hiding an ugly wound.

As she got closer, I could finally get a clear and deep look at her eyes. She looked like a strong young girl coming from an elegant family, rich with etiquette. She seemed like someone holding his own very well in such dark times.

But when I looked at her eyes, I didn't feel any of that. She looked strong and proud, hard on the surface. Yet her eyes betrayed her and showed what she truly felt deep inside her heart.

She gave me the impression of being weak, terrified, and foremost… Lonely! I couldn't help but look around and ask myself: How can someone be surrounded by all these people and feel such loneliness?

"Hello, sir," as she got near me, she slightly bowed her head and said this greeting in a soft and angelic voice.

"Hi, I'm Hye," I said, "How are you feeling?"

I didn't know why I asked such a question. C'mon, I shouldn't have shown her my concern, not in such a frank and silly way!

*Bang!*

Just before she could say anything, a mighty hitting sound came from the direction of the ongoing battle, so intense that it made the entire ground underneath my feet shake.

"What is that?!!" Just as I turned to see what happened, I heard her gasping in shock.

I didn't see anything apart from my warriors and dragons to be worthy of such gasp. That shock came as a dragon of mine seemed to get tired of spraying his breaths over the monsters, and instead he fell on the ground and used his heavy body and high momentum to smash and crush any monster he met.

He left a long vacancy in the heart of the monster army. It was a good scene and such a nice tactic worthy of praise. "They are my little boys," I returned to her and said with a wide smile.

"Your… Little boys?" she pointed in their direction while her face told me how shocked and disbelieved she was. And I simply nodded.

"He brought monsters to fight for him," the major spoke and tried to explain things.

I glared at that thick headed major and decided to lose all hope in correcting this wronged belief of his.

They weren't monsters, they were races coming from fallen worlds. But who cared about his opinion anyway?

"Impressive," Karoline said in honest admiration, "so they follow your command?"

I nodded.. "I heard from the major about your current situation," I shifted the topic back to what we should be talking about, "but I want to speak alone with you about it."