Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Hitori and Kamiya were standing a few hundred meters away from them, just in case Hitori's name is exposed, the party of tens of players will come for them.

In front of both of them was a huge crowd of other players, they were probably here to raid the dungeon just like the other hundreds of players.

Kamiya took a broken wall's cover to peek at the crowd. He glanced back at Hitori with his trembling hands on the corner of the wall. He saw Hitori staring at his screen and doing something.

"What are you doing?" Kamiya asked. This was his first time dealing with something like this so he was pretty nervous.

Hitori did not lift his eyes off the menu screen, "nothing," he clicked on the reject button and turned around, "just cleared the three hundred and forty-seven friend requests."

Kamiya ignored him and got back to the main concern, "Do you have a plan?" Kamiya asked in a shaking voice, "we- we- d- do you think we will-"

"Calm down, Kamiya," to Hitori, it was obvious how much Kamiya was fretting over the crowd.

You can not blame him either cause well, Kamiya knows there is more to be afraid and concerned about instead of the three hundred plus friend request from the strange people.

"How am I supposed to?" Kamiya asked. He took a look behind them, the crowd had just increased.

"I have contacted Reon-san," Hitori came out from the cover of a rock, "let us go," he started walking.

"Let us go? Where to?" Kamiya asked urgently but Hitori had already walked past him, "crap, are you serious?"

As if nothing was suspicious about him, Hitori calmly walked towards the crowd. As if nothing was wrong with his username, Hitori passed through the crowd. And as if he was definitely not the owner of the lair, he went inside.

But obviously, "Hey! It is him!" Unfortunately, many of the players caught the sight of Hitori entering the lair.

"Damn, he is here!"

"Attack!" the leader of a party shouted.

Hitori and Kamiya walked through the cave's entrance, they both turned around and saw a party of more than fifteen men coming their way.

Kamiya hesitantly pulled his wand out, it almost slipped off his hands. But he lifted it and pointed his wand at the very first person.

Hitori did not bother moving an inch, "Kaminari no Mahou, lightning strike," a bolt of lightning fell on the person who was leading the party.

One bolt of lightning was not enough to completely kill the leader. The leader took out his machine gun, he stopped only a few steps away from the entrance and started firing.

"Defense walls!" Kamiya built invisible walls in front of him to cover both of them.

But to his surprise, the bullets did not come through the entrance. Instead, the bullets fell down and disappeared into pixels on impact with what seemed like an invisible barrier.

The leader quickly noticed what had happened.

"Step back!" he ordered his men, "they have activated the shield!"

Kamiya's eyebrows furrowed, "shield?" he looked at Hitori, "you already have a shield-?"

"It is a level twenty-eight lair, of course, we do."

"Reon-san must be rich to activate the shield,"

"She told me…" Hitori ignored the party and turned around, "that she used up every yen to activate the shield so she is broke now,"

Hitori took a step forward into the lair. Kamiya glanced at the angry leader last time before following Hitori into the lair.

"Kamiya, when do we get a teleporter?" Hitori asked the question that had been flickering in his mind since he saw Uragi use a teleporter.

"At level thirty. But if you want to teleport, you can do it within your territory," Hitori nodded, "why?"

"Because the leader had it," Hitori replied, "and… do you think Darkness will return?" although Hitori already knew the answer to that question, it would not hurt to ask for someone's opinion.

"Huh? Why do you ask something so obvious, of course he will, with much greater force."

"Yeah, with someone like Kuzu." Kamiya stopped walking. Hitori stopped too. The fear that Kamiya had inside his heart regarding Kuzu returned, like a humongous wave of the ocean swallowing up half of the city.

"W- what makes you so sure?" Kamiya gulped. He has been bullied by Kuzu's men since he started his second year at the Mage Academy. Kuzu sometimes showed his presence but whenever he did, it would scare the shit out of Kamiya.

"I am wanted," Hitori turned around, "by Emperor's Scrap Picker. Darkness will surely take this chance to attack me,"

"That… will be the worst-case-" Kamiya's heart took a leap forward.

Hitori nodded his head continuously, "it might be anytime soon, we need to prepare." Hitori's serious tone shook Kamiya's glasses which made them slip off his nose.

It was clear to Kamiya that if the time comes to the worst-case scenario, they will be left with two choices- Fight for everything or run and give up everything.

Kamiya stared at Hitori with small eyes and squinted eyes. Soon, the tension broke when a voice interrupted their silence.

"I see that you have brought a company, Ryu-san," suddenly a voice rang through the lair.

From ahead, the silhouette of a female wearing a lab coat appeared. She took slow steps and approached the duo.

"And how rude of you to not show up for two whole days! I thought you betrayed me!" Reon stepped out from the darkness and complained. Her forehead had snapped together in anger.

Kamiya was surprised, all of the fear had washed away. But he felt a little scared when Reon suddenly burst out on Hitori.

Hiori raised his hand and pointed at Reon, "Kamiya, Reon-san; Reon-san, Kamiya Jigoku." Hitori ignored her and introduced both of them.

Reon turned to the young man standing beside Hitori, she checked him out before bowing, "Hello," she bowed, Kamiya did the same, "so is he the someone you wanted me to meet with?" she got up and asked Hitori, he gave her a nod.

"He is my partner, we… we play as a duo,"

"Ah- oh…" she gasped.

Hitori quickly changed the topic, "Explain the situation to me, Reon-san," Hitori demanded.

After a sigh, Reon started, "we were attacked by over a hundred players by now," she continued, "I was having a hard time since the start, I have not logged out since yesterday's morning,"

"Hm." Hitori nodded as he started walking inside, "how long till the shield deactivates?"

"More than twenty-four hours."

"Alright, Reon-san, I need to tell you something." Hitori suddenly stopped and turned around. He went closer to Reon with a serious expression on his face.

"W- w- what?" she stuttered.

"Do you know that I am wanted?" Hitori asked.

"By?"

Hitori and Kamiya exchanged glances, "our old acquaintance, but he is strong."

"S- so? Is he out there?"

"Not yet, but he will be soon," Hitori took a step back, "I am sorry but we are in danger, this lair is in danger, YOU are in danger," Hitori whispered.

"Ryu-san…"

"Reon-san…"

They both stared at each other, this all happed too suddenly for Reon. she was a newbie who started playing two months after the game was launched. She did not know much but she had a talent for mixing chemicals and, well, her shooting skills are above average.

Meanwhile, Kamiya ignored both of them and opened a screen in front of him. He checked through the lair's design and blueprint.

"Both of you…" Kamiya interrupted, "we need to improve the defenses of this lair, they are pretty weak," Kamiya was analyzing the map of this lair while he interrupted them.

He turned his head to Reon, "you surely have not done a great job to build the defenses." Kamiya's sudden voice change creeped Reon out.

"I- I waited for Ryu-san to come," she stuttered.

"And Hitori you, I think, we should link the dungeons as soon as possible and start upgrading them with all of the money we have in the treasury,"

Hitori was already staring at Kamiya, "hm," he nodded, "when shall we start?"

"Right now, if you want to defeat Kuzu,"

"Kuzu?" she chimed in.

"Look," Kamiya went near Reon with a steer expression on his face, "I do not know if you are good at this or not, but, you are in this with us," she saw a glimpse of Hitori in Kamiya's words, "once Kuzu attacks us, and if we are not prepared, that will be the end of us. Believe me, believe Hitori, it is SERIOUS."

Kamiya turned around and started working on linking this lair to the Hogosha dungeon, and his two properties to the Hogosha dungeon.

"Hitori?" she looked up at Hitori.

"Saibai. Saibai Hitori. I am in the second year at the magic academy,"

"Huh?" her eyes popped out, "wait, you are not a graduate?!"

"I never said I was," he walked past her and reached Kamiya to help him prepare for the showdown.