laulau20
patreon
Chapter 26: New World
🕑 Added 2025-01-21 00:40:01 +0000 UTCJames dashed through the building. All streets were full of people and housed more tents. James wondered where all the cars had gone and why these streets were full of people. However, his house came first. He surmised that these people had become homeless due to system trials upon this world.
Thanks to his new stats, even the four-kilometer bus ride seemed close, like a walk in the park. James saw people sleeping in tents all over the streets.
James looked over at his apartment door. The five-year-old Christmas decoration that he had used on the door was gone. James put his keys inside the doorknob and turned it. However, it wouldn’t budge. James only had a single key to his apartment, so there was no way he could have gotten the wrong key.
A rustle came from inside the door—something that was supposed to be impossible for James, who lived alone. The door soon opened, revealing a man James didn’t know. James could only be left agape at the situation.
“Excuse me, may I know who you are? This room is occupied. I and three other families live here,” the unknown man answered.
“The limit was supposed to be three months! How could he sell my room to others without consulting me?” James muttered in disbelief. He then looked at the man. “Umm… I am sorry, but I am the previous resident here…”
“Previous resident? Landlord Franklin said the previous tenant didn’t pay rent. Look, I don’t know what your problem is. Everyone has been through shit right now. This room is full. I suggest you find another room or go and sleep on the street like most people are.”
“No! What about my things? My photo, my degree, my laptop! How am I supposed to find work without that?” James was not the sharpest tool in the shed as panic ran through his head. He had been planning to move out from this room and probably find cheaper rent somewhere in the suburbs when he was trapped in the dungeon. However, fate ran another course. Nothing had ever gone according to James’ plan.
“This room was empty when we moved in. I didn’t touch your stuff. Please ask Franklin about that. I need to figure out my shit too. The whole world has gone through shit. Half of all the people in the world suddenly became homeless—not just you, my man. But I lost my job too. Only that prick landlord, Franklin, got all the luck. He got triple the rent,” the unknown man sighed. After patting James on the shoulder, he closed the door.
James could only stare at the door in a daze. His soul had left him. After a few minutes of staring at the door, his gaze turned to the building next to it—to where his former landlord lived.
James found his steps were light and his heart calm. However, an ember of fury lit up inside. With every step closer to Franklin’s house, the ember burned brighter and brighter until it raged deep inside his heart.
His fist inadvertently pounded the door to Franklin’s home. He only stopped when he saw cracks forming around the door. His new stats came with dexterity, so he should have been able to control his power without any problem. Yet, he still damaged the door.
“What’s with that racket? All of our rooms are full!” The greedy landlord swung the door open as he brought a shotgun with him, only to find James towering over him. However, just because James was taller didn’t mean he would back down. He said, “What do you want?”
“Where are my things? The contract said I should still have one month of leeway. I haven’t even gotten my eviction notice yet!” James tried to contain his fury, but his rising tone proved that he had failed.
“Huh? What things? Of course, I threw them away. No pay, no room. Get lost! Don’t you know how many thugs I had to chase out today? Besides, I doubt you could even pay for your room with your staff salary. The rent has increased since the new year.” The bald, half-naked man shooed James away. The fact that he knew about James being a staff member proved that he remembered James.
“I see. So you threw away my things. Even though I was never late to pay for the last ten years, you dare just toss me away!” James swung his golem arm at the door. The door shattered like it was made of candy. The black cloak James wore swayed at his sudden movement.
“What the hell…” Franklin’s eyes widened as he saw the scales attached to James’ left arm. He inadvertently raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger.
An explosion rang from the gun barrel, and a clunking sound from a falling cartridge soon followed. Silence suddenly filled the room as James felt a pricking pain in his body. James looked at his leather armor. He saw a new hole that was filled by a flattened bullet.
James glared at Franklin. The realization that Franklin was ready to kill him surged at once.
“You dare!?” James roared. He then raised his hand overhead and swiped the gun from the bald man. The helpless old man could only run inside, but it was futile—there was nowhere to escape.
“M-m-monster!” he shrieked as Franklin’s wife and son came into view. James grinned as he saw the fear on his face. His heart leaped in joy as he saw his nemesis suffer. Finally, the debt was due. This evil man would pay for all the suffering he had caused others.
“Aarrgh!” Franklin’s cries echoed through the building. James had stepped on his leg, and it let out a satisfying crack. James smiled at the realization of how easy it was for him to avenge his grudge. He was no longer a pushover. He was now the new tyrant.
“Please. Don’t kill me. You can take anything you want. I have money.” Franklin started to cry for real as he held his broken leg.
“Begging for mercy? Do you think I want your filthy money?” James smirked as he hung Franklin on his arm like one grabbing a piece of cloth. James’s stats allowed him to lift Franklin with just one arm, and he didn’t even need to try. With just a light grasp, Franklin’s arm let out another crack as another scream rang through the house.
“Monster! Release my daddy!” The ten-year-old boy threw kitchen utensils at James.
“Monster? No… this is the monster!” James stepped on the bald man’s back, and it let out another crack. This time, no scream was heard. Franklin let out a grunt as blood seeped from his mouth. Soon, his life was reaped away.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Two policemen came to the scene of the murder. Seeing the humongous James stepping on a bleeding man with his scaly feet sent them reaching for their guns.
“Hostile alien!” Several gunshots rang from their pistols, pricking James like BB pellets to a person.
“Get lost!” Ice spears formed around James and flew, aiming above their heads. The shock of actually killing a person still weighed heavily on James. So, he missed his shot subconsciously.
“Uwaa!” The two policemen leaped out of the room and hastily called for backup. James’ bad habit peeked out again. He hesitated. He gazed upon the lifeless body and the crying mother and son. Like before, he chose the most obvious thing to do. He escaped. He leaped out from the fourth-floor balcony of the ten-story building and landed on his sahuagin feet.
The black asphalt cracked as his feet slammed the ground. Sirens from policemen began blaring as the backup from the fleeing officers earlier reached them. The blue officers used a nearby concrete fence as a shield as they pointed their guns at James. The siren came from one of the policemen, not cars, as they were unusable right now.
James glared at them, again with hesitation. His subconsciousness as a human feared the gun even though he had proven that they were ineffective against him. Moreover, he didn’t want to kill them, so James had a staring contest with the cops for a while before he decided to move. The cops reacted with gunshots.
The bullet felt like a BB gun on his head. However, its power was enough to damage the mask James wore, reverting its magical power. The face James wore turned into a fleshy mask as a hole poked through the mask on the side of his forehead.
[Mask damaged. Would you like to repair your axe, leather armor, and mask for 50 coins?]
“Later.” James put the mask in his bag and started running outside. Thanks to the crowded street, James, who was as fast as a speeding car, could evade police chases easily.
James didn’t have a plan. He didn’t know where he had run off to. All he knew was that he had to get away from them—but where?
James stopped as he saw a translucent wall before the cemetery. The wall was clearly not from this world. It was definitely made by the system. When he touched it, a system notification appeared.
[Dungeon name: cf1590
Dungeon level: Medium
Survivors: 0/10
Would you like to enter? Y/N]
“System. What is this?” James wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He realized that. That’s why he never hesitated to ask, and the system answered him dutifully.
[The world has undergone a trial. Numerous dungeons have spread around the city, blocking paths or blocking homes. It’s up to you to clear the dungeons and free the world.]
James wondered as memories from before he was summoned began to resurface. He remembered that the world would undergo a trial. And the dungeon trial that had almost killed him over and over was at a novice level.
“I see. The trial was to take houses, hospitals, and other facilities and turn them into dungeons. Then, you made the survivors fight inside the dungeon to free it.” James nodded. He then pulled his hand away from the translucent wall. He was grateful the system asked for confirmation before sending him in willy-nilly.
[Roughly correct. But we didn’t turn those facilities into dungeons. The dungeon inside the wall might be completely different from its outside appearance.]
“I see. This is the perfect place to hide. But I won’t enter a medium-level dungeon. Find me a novice-level dungeon.”
[Information classified. Please find such a dungeon yourself.]
“That’s the first time on Earth you’ve said ‘information classified.’ Heh.” James smirked. However, time was running short. Helicopters started flooding James’ position with their floodlights as the missile boxes opened below them, aiming at him.
James dashed as he ran into another building. Two howitzer missiles shot out with a burst of flame.
Explosions rang behind James as heat seared his leather armor. Two machine guns zeroed in on him. They started spitting out bullets. The ground lit up like fireworks. Many hit James right on the legs and torso. However, it was still too weak to kill him. It was merely a flesh wound.
James continued to run before he rammed himself into another invisible wall.
[Dungeon name: cf1902
Dungeon level: Novice
Survivors: 0/5
Would you like to enter? Y/N]
“Yes!”
White light flashed from the wall as James was sucked into a familiar white room.
