Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

A middle-aged man was checking the available slots for allotting the console station. He looked at the card, the QR code was sitting perfectly on the card.

"I will calculate your time, at the end of the day, your total time will be calculated. Please enjoy," he handed the gaming card to a timid person whose glasses were slipping off his nose.

"T- t- thank you," he bowed, the counterman bowed too, "Uhm." he turned around but turned back to the man, "is… is Hit- Saibai Hitori here yet?"

"Hm?" the man glared at Kamiya, "he is not here yet," the man pulled his chin in.

"Ooh." Kamiya turned around and rushed through the alleys, the hallway, and finally reached his console station.

He sat on the same console station he had sat yesterday. He looked up at the magical safe which was empty. He sighed.

Kamiya inserted his gamin card into the magic circle, the game started loading. He glanced at the time before immersing himself in the game.

It was not morning. The sun had sent perfectly tall and big in the middle of the bright sky. It was right in the middle of the afternoon, twelve O'clock.

[entered Yuki's Lair]

Kamiya entered his level eleven Yuki lair. He walked inside a floor that was covered in ice, crystal ice, frozen water, and snow.

"Welcome, master,"

"Y- y- yes." Kamiya was taken by surprise when a beautiful lady with the perfect hourglass body, long pointed ears bowed her head to him.

The woman raised her pretty face and sat back on an ice stone. An ice throne was raised for Kamiya to sit on. It was light blue in color and nine feet tall.

"We need to do some improvements…" he muttered while taking an aerial look at his territory, "we have not linked Hogosha dungeon either," he continued going through the available upgrades screen.

Traps, canons, monsters, decorations, walls, borders, ice ore mines, etc, but Kamiya's focus right now was on the defenses.

He strolled around the dungeons. He went to the Kori level seven dungeon, then headed to the Hogosha dungeon where a cute little phoenix was waiting for him.

Since she was not Kamiya's pet, but Kamiya was half-owner of the dungeon, she let him close to her with some difficulty. He fed her with another fire mana gem. She got bigger with every meal she ate.

After spending an hour or so wandering around without making any progress with his avatar and status, Kamiya decided to log out.

He opened his menu screen, he was about to click on the log-out button when his eyes fell on the [world announcements] tab. On top of the option was written 3 in superscript.

'Someone managed to get a world announcement?' it was still the starting phase of the game, not even a whole year so forming legal guilds, the leaderboard, and the entry ticket to the world server were not available for anyone yet.

The chances of making it to the world announcements were pretty slim too. So it, of course, would be someone at the level of a pro player if they manage to get on the world announcements.

A screen popped up in front of Kamiya, he read the very first notification.

[Onogi Masao destroyed another player's territory! This player continues their streak of fifty-eight successful raids!]

'This player is not interested in dungeons at all… he just wants to crush other players.' Kamiya slid off that one and went to the next announcement.

[The rising duo: Barbarian God and Rotten Tree. Rumors say this duo has not failed a single dungeon/lair raid.]

'I think… I know them…' Kamiya's eyes twitched, "...."

He slid off the second announcement and finally opened the very last announcement.

[A prodigy or a hacker? This player Ryu #1845 conquers an over-leveled, off-limits level twenty-eight Ghost Lair]

His eyes widened in surprise, 'change of plans, I see.'

Kamiya tracked down the lair's position through the map. He used the safest route but ended up fighting a few monsters on his way to the lair.

There was a crowd of players standing around the lair. Kamiya walked closer to the lair, ignoring the crowd. The lair's description appeared when he was close enough.

[The Ghost Scientist's Lair level twenty-eight]

'Scientist!' Kamiya was shocked, 'you teamed up with a scientist?! I would have understood if it was some other mage but… a scientist?'

[Owned by- Ryu and Leonine]

'...a female?' Kamiya was stabbed through his heart. He felt as if his last hope was crumbling down, the world around him was falling down.

He pulled his lips up, he dabbed his glasses, trying not to cry. His face started shaking in anger.

'I will have to confront you myself.'

Kamiya logged out of the game. He quickly tapped his table and got up from his chair at the same time. He grabbed his card and strode towards the counter.

It was past one in the afternoon. Kamiya could not stand there wasting time. He checked out his card and asked the woman once again, "Hitori here yet?" the woman shook his head, before he could even reply, Kamiya started walking out of the Vr-cade.

The woman kept staring at Kamiya with strangely suspicious eyes, 'what is going on? Do we have to make a move?'

Kamiya stopped and turned around, "what was his last check-in time,"

"Last night around three midnight," she quickly told him without hesitation. Her eyes were fixed on Kamiya, he turned around to walk out.

Kamiya took out his wand from a leather sheat when he walked out of the Vr-cade, "sorry friend, you leave me no choice," Kamiya walked to a dark narrow alley.

He held his wand in the air, with swift movements, he chanted, "tracker, tracker…" he continued chanting the word for five more seconds with swift circling movements of his wrist.

A magic screen appeared in front of Kamiya, it looked like GPS which showed him the directions to a certain place. Kamiya started following the directions.

It took him more than fifteen minutes to finally reach the final destination. He was scared at first when he saw that the area was around the city's border.

A lone house stood in front of him. The house was covered with TREES and other plants. Kamiya pulled down his tracker and started to walk towards the house.

He was not expecting a branch to hit him on the face. Kamiya fell on the grass, his glasses came off. He grunted while he pushed himself off the grass.

'Did a tree just… hit me?' He pulled his glasses on. He adjusted the rim of his glasses.

Kamiya's vision cleared up after wearing his glasses. When his eyes opened, he was left petrified.

All of the trees behind and around the house were moving. A giant sequoia tree danced above the house's roof, to protect and cover it.

He felt something tickling his palm, when he looked down, the grass moved, and it moved once again.

Hitori's hand quickly went for his wand, he took a few steps back and walked out of the house's radius. And soon the trees calmed down and settled.

Kamiya gulped, he clenched his wand tightly, "retreating is not an option." he dabbed his glasses with his middle finger. With sheer will and courage, Kamiya took his first step forward.