Kill The Old Ones!

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Ren doesn’t know about others, but he settled in his dome rather nicely. He’s got a large tent, a portable and comfortable bed, food and water to last for an entire year, and clothes.

Sure, the place could use a little more lighting, but all in all, his situation wasn’t so bad. But of course, he’s an exception because he knew that this was coming.

The first thing he did upon arriving here was to read the message on the wall. After taking everything in, especially that last line, he proceeded to unload his stuff and make his temporary home for the next year or so.

It didn’t take him long; he moved fast and decisively. He needs to move fast because after a few hours upon his arrival, the ’first night’ will begin. He didn’t want to return to an unfinished base.

Once he was done setting up his camp and getting comfortable, he gauged the time and started cooking food. He timed it well so that by the time he returned, it would be done. He could just sit down, eat it, clean up, and sleep.

Once the food was there, Ren stood up and began his warm-ups. He got his chakra flowing and felt the difference of his surroundings. He didn’t think too much of it for now.

His ’first night’ began with him being pulled out of his dome.

He was pulled by a strong and irresistable attraction from the outside. Ren knew that there was no use fighting it since he wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to do so, so he didn’t. He allowed the invisible force to pull him out, and because of that, he landed outside gently like a falling feather.

Ren also didn’t bother trying to return to his dome because he knew that it would just repulse him.

Instead of trying to return, he began using the Chakra Sensing Technique 1.0. He thought that the earlier he did so, the sooner he could cover his surroundings and learn where he was supposed to go.

As Vordt’s message said, it was true that his vision was limited. He couldn’t see anything past 500 meters around him. He was surrounded by a thick fog.

He only knew the general direction of where his dome was, but as soon as he began moving away from it, everything would become even more confusing.

However, this restriction wasn’t absolute. Ren knows this because he has read the story. There are ways to circumvent this restriction, and it just so happens that he recently made something that could make that possible.

As his chakra threads dissolved in the air while keeping their connection to him, more and more of his surroundings were resonating in his mind. The longer this went on, the greater the distance he could cover.

He even started seeing the monsters he’d have to deal with.

Zombies.

Ren would say that he’s impressed that the concept even reached this world, but then he remembered that this story was written by a modern-aged human, so he really wasn’t.

To be fair, the proper term here was ’undead creatures,’ and these things, aside from being re-animated corpses of the fallen, differ from the zombies that he knew since they are somewhat smarter.

Their instincts are sharp enough to identify which one is like them from those who aren’t. And in this world, they could sense the general direction of the one they have to kill.

Sure, they aren’t as strong, but they mutate outrageously. Undeads have the most knowns variants compared to a large majority of monsters out there.

The most annoying part about them is that, while being injured by them won’t immediately turn the target infected, they do inflict gangrene and necrosis.

Necrosis could stack up to ten times. Once it reached the maximum stack, it started spreading fast and was basically incurable. It would even affect chakra itself.

Those who died with max necrosis stack will rise as undead moments after they’re dead. This rule, however, is not banned in this place. Vordt did promise that all who had been taken would return to where they came from, alive.

Ren wasn’t in a hurry.

If he didn’t have the Chakra Sensing Technique 1.0, sure, he’d feel more pressed and claustrophobic because there will always be a feeling that he will be surrounded soon.

But enough time had passed for him to spread his sensory network far and wide. He now knows where everything was in a kilometer radius around him. He had already doubled his starting vision. And it would only grow larger the longer this went on.

The zombies were closing in. The reanimated corpses started off slow. Their bodies were practically falling apart; they were able to stand and drag their bodies towards him as if they were only held by thoughts and prayers.

He could throw stones at them and easily kill them that way. Unlike the zombies he knew, though, these ones didn’t require their heads being blown off to die. That’s effective, yes, but so long as they’re damaged enough to not be able to stand up again or be a threat, that counts as a ’kill.’

But Ren knew this was only the beginning.

The longer the night went on, the stronger and fiercer they became.

At some point, zombie variants will appear. Ones that have more muscle mass, could move faster, and are harder to kill. Ones that could leap over great distances, ambushing him by falling on top of him. Ones whose limbs could stretch and wrap around him to restrict his movements. Ones that have a belly full of acid, who could not only projectile vomit at him but also explode upon death...

And in extreme cases, zombiefied Sky Archons will appear. Those are the most dangerous ones. If Ren starts seeing them around, it means that he has reached the most difficult setting of this trial ground, and he’s probably going to die.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to reach that level. At least, not yet.

For the time being, the Sky Archon pieces are just scattered across this entire battlefield. All he has to do is to collect five, and he’d safely return to his dome. The sooner he finds them, the better.

Those who are at least sensible enough to inspect their surroundings will see Vordt’s message on the wall, and having learned the mechanics of this place, they will try to frantically search for the pieces so that they can return to safety as soon as they can.

...or perhaps, they’d just choose to die and return to their domes. Not wanting to participate in any of this. That’s also an option. Who’s going to force them? Vordt’s dead.

But Ren had other plans.

In truth, this place doesn’t just offer the Godly Sky Archon’s inheritance, as Vordt designed it too.

It was revealed later in the story that the surviving members of the Sky Archon Race found this place by studying Vordt’s hints and seeing his message—the one that was only meant for Sky Archons to see; they modified it and decided to include the rest of the Sky Archons’ legacy here as well.

The Sky Archons are long dead. Extinct. Wiped out of existence by the Old Ones. Sure, some of them survived, but only for a bit. In fact, their survival was just prolonged agony and suffering.

Fate declared that the Sky Archons have failed and thus no longer have the right to remain. Their legacy could continue on, but its people cannot.

The surviving Sky Archons knew this too. And even though they’re unreconciled, they can’t do anything about it. They were branded as failures, and that’s final. But they can’t bear the thought of leaving nothing behind.

So, they left their legacy here, too. At least, the ones they were able to secure before the demise of their kind.

And they’re not difficult to access, unlike the godly Sky Archon’s inheritance. They could be bought from the store that accepts points gained from killing zombies.

The stronger the zombie was, the more points there were to gain by killing them.

Vordt said that daily necessities could be bought using these points, but he died before knowing that the survivors of his kind added more to this.

The other legacies and inheritances won’t be visible to the ’store’ unless one collects a certain amount of points. And for staters, that would be 1,000 points. The rarer ones will be unlocked after 5,000 points and beyond.

That’s why Ren wasn’t in a hurry. He wanted to buy copies of the other Sky Archon legacy.

Some might brand him a traitor to the human race by doing this. It was, after all, known to the public that the Martial Gods banned people from practicing unorthodox paths. There’s only martial arts for them.

But betraying the human race wasn’t Ren’s intention at all.

He’s buying the legacy purely for inspiration.

And to be honest, the Sky Archon Arts weren’t really that different from martial arts.

The Sky Archon race themselves don’t look that much different from humans; they just have wings and could easily transform part of their bodies into bestial parts. That’s all.

The hero of this story himself used the Sky Archon Arts until the end of the story. If he could do that, then what’s stopping Ren?