96 The Lifeless Town

The Quest tab then vanished as I turned my head toward the bright sky. A small dot was circling the town, acting as my second set of eyes. It was a shadowy creature, a product of my Limbo. The shape resembled a crooked vulture.

Aside from being able to command it, I could share my hearing or vision sense with it. Something that I just found out this morning.

Behind me, the car was parked next to a gas pump. All shorts of used tires were strewn or stacked all around. Just like its name, this small town was very dry and hot. Not that it affected me or anything, but still, I'd prefer a bit milder temperature.

"Do you think someone could be living here?" asked Aya.

From how it looked, my answer would be a bit pessimistic. Using both my Radar Sense and my familiar, I could not find any life inside. They were already long gone. Not because they moved out, but because they were either dead or turned into one of those creatures.

Toward the question Aya asked, I just shook my head. She already knew that, but she still hoped that I was wrong, that both of us were wrong.

"Let's just see what we can find. It's a bit too early to get this depressed, don't you think so?" I said, cheering her a little bit.

Aya nodded before asking, "Do you want to split up?"

"No, we'll never know what's gonna happen later, sticking up is a much better choice," I replied.

Misinterpreting my gesture as an act of worry, Aya felt a bit amused. Little did she know that I was just being too petty.

'She's the main character this time, who knows what or who will appear in front of her. I need to keep her close by.'

As I swore to myself to not leave her side, we walked past the "Welcome to Dryfield" signboard, hanging on the very entrance of the small town. The buildings were built very simply, accentuating the style of a small Mexican town rather than an American one.

Just as we passed the entrance, we heard a small growl of a beast. Looking over, I noticed it had the same form like the one I singlehandedly massacre earlier. It seemed this type of NMCs were quite common.

Upon looking closer, I could see the human face on this alpaca-like creature. What made them even more distinct compared to normal NMCs was that they had certain parts in their body that was adorned with mechanical parts. It stood on top of a roof a few meters away from us. Too bad...

Guaaarrrh!!

A huge vulture with a shadowy body fell upon it, ripping it apart, and swallowing it bit by bit. I didn't have my Pokemon yet, but this Limbo's creature was more than sufficient enough to have.

Screeaakk!!

A few more NMCs were attacking, but I left them in my lovely birdy's care. I just wanted to search for the clues and possibly, some optional quests. Aya was left agape, watching the battle of a car-sized bird, against the four-legged demonic alpacas.

"What are you doing? Let's go." I said, snapping Aya out of her daze.

"Is it okay?"

"Oh, don't worry. I'll know if something ever happened to it."

'That's not what I'm asking about, though.' thought Aya while looking at the crumbling houses caused by the battle.

We started checking the houses one by one, looking for survivors. And by 'we' I meant only Aya. I know that there were only two survivors here, an old man and his dog.

'Wait a minute!'

Suddenly I recalled a piece of memory when I played the game. It was the old man, he knew the location of the underground laboratory.

Using Radar Sense, I started scanning every nook and cranny of the town. However, I couldn't bypass certain walls in certain ranges, forcing me to move on my feet as well.

Before I knew it, Aya stumbled upon a garage, not far from the entrance. While my bird was still rampaging outside, I decided to follow her.

Surprisingly, the interior was cleaner than I thought. Although dusty, compared to the other building full of claw marks and blood, this garage was left intact. There was nothing useful inside though, only a broken car and tools laying about.

'Wait... broken?'

"Reinforce."

The car glowed before assembling itself. From nothingness, all of the parts that were missing somehow appeared and assembled themselves like a transformer.

It was an old one, a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T 440. The black paint that was scrapped away returned to its former glory. I'm not a car guy, but I could understand what beauty is. And this one was one hell of a kind.

Touching the now polished car, I stored it into my spatial inventory. Now Arceus had all the more reason the hatch faster.

Suddenly, Aya saw something moving in the dark through the window connected to the other side of the garage. However, the rolling door was tightly closed, and there was no power to activate it.

'There he is.' I thought to myself.

Aya started to look for the generator so that she could raise the rolling door. It wouldn't have taken too long, but I didn't have that much patience. Light flickered inside the dimly lighted garage, and then...

Bam! Bam!

The rolling door was disintegrated by Blackbeard, leaving Aya speechless. Well, modern problem requires a few shots straight to the target. If it persists, just shot even more.

This, of course, alarmed the man on the other side of the rolling door. He pointed the shotgun in his hands to me, and yelled, "Halt!"

Sensing that something would go wrong if this continued, Aya ran to me, standing between me and the man with hands spread out.

"Don't shoot!" she yelled.

It was very reckless of her. If I was the man, I would've thought she was charging at me, causing me to pull the trigger without batting an eye. Thankfully, the plump man was very reserved, knowing that he was facing a fellow human this time around.

"Who are you!?" yelled the man, now pointing the gun between us.

"We're FBI!" replied Aya, immediately.

Still suspicious, the man asked, "Since when does the FBI have the right to invade private property?"

'I don't know, maybe since forever?' I wanted to say that but I decided to close my mouth and let Aya talk with him instead.

The man then added, "Unlike that small one over there, you looked more human."

'Hey!' I felt offended, but after realizing that I was hiding my face, I could understand where he stood on, 'Well, fair enough.'

Aya shook her head and tried to convince him, "We're not one of those creatures. Can you at least let me show you my badge?"

"Go ahead." replied the man, still pointing the gun at us.

She carefully reached into her pocket, as to not cause a misunderstanding. After she gave him the badge, the man looked at it.

"M.I.S.T.?" muttered the old man. It was the first time he ever heard of this name.

"Right, MIST. We're a top-secret agency. We hunt those creatures."

"You bring any friends?" asked the man, thinking that the government was rescuing him.

"No, just the two of us," replied Aya, shaking her head.

Realizing his hope was crushed, he muttered to himself, "Instead of cavalry, they sent a dwarf and a princess all alone!? What is this, an opera?"

"Hey, I heard that. I'm not a dwarf, I'm still growing!" I yelled, feeling offended.

'That's what you're complaining about?' thought Aya.

Gruuuughh!

Outside, the battle between my lovely vulture and the NMCs was still ongoing. We could feel a few tremors and loud noises, mainly the agony of the poor NMCs being chewed and snapped in half with the vulture's beak and claws.

"Shit! I don't care who you are, or what you're after. I suggest you leave this town now. It's already hopeless."

The man was frustrated. Before the mysterious bird appeared, he could still hold on by taking advantage of the traps he planted around the town. Now, this new fellow started wrecking the town, destroying his carefully placed traps, rendering his efforts futile.

"That thing over there, it will be about time until it notices us. By then, it will be too late."

"Ohh... that's actually my birdie, I'm naming it Woody."

It was quiet. Aya nodded to herself, 'yep, it's not only me.'

The man sat on a box near him, contemplating something. He said, "You named it Woody?"

'That's what you're bothered about?!' complained Aya, secretly.

It was then that somehow, it got silent outside. It seemed the battle had ended earlier than I thought. Suddenly, I felt a slight chill from my gauntlet.

'Huh? It died?'

My connection with the bird abruptly ended. I already predicted that a single bird would have had a hard time contending against the many NMCs. I already calculated it, but not this fast. It was supposed to hang on for another hour.

"What's wrong?" asked Aya, after noticing that I suddenly turned stiff.

"We got company," I replied.

And surely, we heard a chilling shriek of a woman. It was so eerie, that it sent a wave of goosebumps to my scalp. There weren't supposed to be any survivors left.

I turned to Aya and the latter nodded to my questioning look. She ran with a handgun in hands while I used my stealth and followed her, all the while using Radar Sense to check my surroundings.

However, I was forced to stop myself as I found the reason why my connection with the vulture abruptly ended. Turned out, it fell inside a well and somehow got defeated while being inside.

'Shit, what do I do now?'

Leaving Aya all alone would be dangerous, this was not a game. If something ever happened to her, I don't know what it would bring to this world. It was not a joking matter. At the same time, I need to check for any odd development that wasn't supposed to happen in the game.

And to do that, I need to know everything.

A sigh came out of my mouth, 'It really sucks reincarnating to this world.'

I drew a line in the air using my index finger, like opening a zip, the dark portal appeared spitting out a small pitch-black butterfly. It couldn't attack, because its abilities were more focused on pathfinding and protection. I ordered it to follow Aya, while at the same time I decided to get down and investigate the deep dark well.

I could hear the growling and howling of all sorts of creatures underneath. I checked all of the weapons I had on me. Two Glock-19 pistols, an M4A1, several types of grenade, and two knives. I left the sniper in the car because it would be impossible to bring it with me. I don't want to bring all of the weapon factories with me. That would be ridiculous.

'Shit, I missed my inventory.'

With a single leap, I jumped down the well. The diameter of this well was only around two meters. However, after 3 seconds passed, I could feel that my surroundings suddenly widening. It seemed I just entered the underground cave system.

Bamm!

My foot actually sank a few centimeters when landing. Looking up, I could see the light, but since the angle was bad, it couldn't reach inside the cave. Looking left and right I closed my eyes.

"I wish I have the Soul Stone on me!" I yelled, but nothing happened. Well, even though I knew it was not wishing well, it was worth trying.

<Congratulations! You've triggered an optional Quest!>

<Reward: Two Random Items of grade C or lower, and 25% of Max Exp>

<Countdown... Start! 5:59:59.>

<5:59:58>

<5:59:57>

...

"Hell yeah! Now, this is finally looking good!" I shouted in joy, something that only me who found it fortunate.

Like a swarm of ants from the Starship Troopers, all kinds of NMCs emerged from the holes all around the wall. For a cave, the place I was in was quite spacious, wide enough to place one pyramid of Giza.

"Come to daddy!!" I yelled while spawning multiple fireballs around me.

After spinning a few times, the five fireballs flew in five separate directions, blasting everything around me.

Boom!

No matter how massive the damage I caused, it seemed to have no effect on the cave itself as it still stood undamaged.

<+5500 EXP>

<+10500 EXP>

<+6000 EXP>

...

The amount of EXPs I got kept fluctuating because of the difference in size. It didn't matter though as all I ever thought of was eliminating them with everything I got. And the explosion from before seemed to produce some kind of vacuum in this closed space, so I had to count that as well when I use any explosive type of attack later on.

"Mass Reinforce!"

After my whole body was covered in light, I made my first step. I couldn't use my guns yet, since there was a limit to how many rounds I could shot.

<Durability: 20/10>

As the knives turned into a shadow sword, I dashed toward the closest NMC, splitting its head in half.

"Wind Wave!" I yelled, slashing one of the knives downward, sending a crescent wind to a group in front of me. Those that made contact with the wind would have some parts of their bodies cut off.

The best part of using item abilities was that I didn't need to waste any MP on it. It's free real estate. But, I wouldn't last long if this kept going on, and I had to stay for six full hours.

[Sir, I think this is the best time to use it.] interrupted Regina.

"Do you think so?"

[Yes, you're all alone now. Moreover, you're in an enclosed space.] added Regina.

Making up my mind, I kicked the head of the biggest NMC that looked like an ogre and flipped backward, while drawing a single long line with my index finger until I landed on the ground.

"Come! Limbo!"

Like the mouth of a demon, the portal opened wide, releasing a multitude of dark creatures. Human-sized bugs like mosquitoes, killer bees, praying mantis, even a house-sized spider and its spiderlings came out of the portal, attacking and devouring everything around them. Even Woody came back to life and started his devastating revenge.

"Now this what I called fighting fire with fire."

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