Chapter 9

Day 1.

There was no engineer or electrician, in the group of survivors. Even those who knew a bit of electrical engineering where not versed in the subject enough to even determine how exactly to tackle the power outage problem.

Few residences had Access to light from loud fuel generators. First lieutenant Madison was one such lucky person , sleeping under Air conditioning in the heat of summer. But she was not so relaxed in her sleep.

The events that occured at the rift haunted her dreams , forcing her awake with a startle and deep breaths. She walked out of her makeshift room and saw copral Jace on sgaurd duty.

" Couldn't sleep ? He asked looking down at her." He was at a height of 6'6 and she stood at a height of 5'8 feet . He was almost an entire foot taller than her.

" Yeah , I keep thinking about Captain Hudd. He would have survived had I not gotten In the way . I dread to think of the torture he went through, being dragged into the rif—" she said but couldn't finish her sentence.

" You can't blame yourself, you were not in the way . It's just unfortunate you were targeted."

Madison gave him a dry smile " it's the same thing.

" It's not ."Jace asserted.

The two saw someone walking towards their logging, and ended their short conversation.

When the person came close enough for them to see , both were shocked .

"Captain!"

———

The next day came , Daniel had gotten 4 hours of sleep and felt refreshed.his new routine consisted of waking up , putting his vault in order downing a supplement, performing 'light exercises ' then downing a different set of performance supplements, going to the gym performing heavy exercises resting by Taking a cold shower and practicing the combat techniques taught to him by corporal Jace.

With each attack he performed Daniel could find better paths . It seemed difficult exercises had hastened the awareness his mind had on his body .hence he managed to figure out quickly which muscles/ bone movements produced better results . Then his mind back tracked from the muscle / form that produced the result and looked into the auxiliary forms and muscles .

Daniel was improving in real time till the point he had to stop. For some reason he felt his improvement was too fast . He literally had no bottlenecks! His enlightenment was perpetual, never ending. It totally removed the struggle from everything. This was good , but Daniel wanted more of a challenge.

Even the thought that came next came too easily. But it was worth the try.

His goal was to use a simple punch and kick and cause space itself to ripple!.

This was an impossibility. He couldn't do it ! But setting a possible goal would easily be achieved by him . So he set himself something impossible to achieve, by doing this he figured he'd have more drive and less inhibitions to constantly improving!.

He was Happy but sad . Even this strategy came to him too easily. Would he like to go back to being average? No way in hell! It's just that he now understood those isekai protagonists who said they were so competent the real world wasn't as exciting. But whereas they gave up , Daniel didn't. If he was too competent, then he'll discover a whole different field of study and pioneer it .

This embodied his[ perfecting oneself] plan .

Suddenly he found that many had gathered around First Lieutenant Madison's temporary lodging. Curious , he closed in ' had more survivors come? He couldn't help but think of his classmates. If they were still alive they might hate him , Jay and Eric for abandoning them. But as far as all things were concerned he was not their parent.he also didn't have the capability to protect them.

But when he got close , he saw that it was a man . It looked like he'd recently taken a bath , his hair was wet and slicked back finely .He was of Asian decent, and if anything he was soo beautiful he could pass off as a kpop idol.

No , like Jay . Blonde hair blue eyes , perfectly angular facial features, tall , fit and conventionally attractive, and a ' superior human' by the worlds most popular dictator, couldn't compare . Daniel was wondering why with such a face would willingly enter the military. Afterall he noticed how all officers literally fawned over him while showing respect.

' He must be a superior officer.'

" Captain Hudd , what happened to you" Kelvin a Sargent Daniel had interrogated previously asked.

This caused Daniel's eyes to dilate quickly.

A Dead man walking.

" I'll answer all your questions shortly. For now gather all survivors. There is something I need you all to hear."

His tone was grave , like he was about to announce a death sentence. Daniel scrutinized him thoroughly, after all he had been proclaimed dead by most of his men . According to them he was stabbed through the shoulder by a melovus and the beast lost its footing causing both to fall back into the rift.

If something like that didn't kill him , what about Luke. Afterall they hadn't seen him die . Daniel had the urge to back trackto the point they abandoned Luke and confirm his demise .But shrugged it off. Captain Hudd could have a very logical reason for being alive . Or it might be a superhuman or monster that was mimicking the captains apearance, because there was no stab wound, neither was there a scar.

Daniel could tell something was up, but his intuition didn't blare at him that this was an imposter. But he wouldn't trust it . He'd remain skeptical until proven otherwise.

But hearing a dead man came back, made him hope again, and as much as he wanted to squash that hope, it only grew more.

Daniel stayed close , but far enough that should lieutenant Captain have nefarious objectives he'd be the least affected. But it seemed captain Hudd had other plans .

With first lieutenant Madison, he was approached .

"Captain" Daniel gave a salute to his superior officer.

"At ease private . I heard you voluntarily enlisted. Though the state has yet to accept you , we can skip the formalities and add you to the fold. "

" Thank you Lieutenant Captain Hudd " as usual, although the words coming out of his mouth were subservient in nature , Daniels tone , posture and vibe said something else .

It was like he was looking down on you figuratively speaking.

But it seemed Captain Hudd didn't mind .

" I hear you have prodigious martial arts superpowers?"

Something about how it was said made Daniel on edge . His mind went a million miles a minute deciphering what it could mean. As was known humans gained superpowers. But Daniel wasn't aware if there were limitations to what kind of abilities might exist , and what could be chalked up to imagination. But he'd be on guard at all times.

"Let's just say I'm quite skilled in that area."

" Hmm" Captain Hudd didn't seem satisfied with that answer , but didn't pursue it. This all but confirmed Captain Hudd really had a goal while asking that .

'That is a dangerous man' Daniel thought , he must be careful with anything dealing with him.

For some reason Daniel was starting to believe he must put more of his mental faculties into making himself good at dodging questions at least until he was strong enough for it not to affect him.

"I respect your dutiful heart to service of our nation, and you willingness to put your life on the line to protect it's people .Stick around, there is something that you and all superhumans must know ."

Daniel didn't know what horse shoe crap this man was talking about in the start of his sentence, but he stayed silent and mulled over the later half .

" Where are the other two ?" He asked Madison .

" They have been hard at work clearing the perimeter and surrounding areas of all bugs . Their help is gravely needed , out force has been halved , and the civilians are in need of direction."

" I see . Have Amon and Augustine call them back"

Daniel meanwhile scooted further from them until he was gone.

Why couldn't he just say what he wanted , and have a private meeting with those not present on a later date , or even have those who heard his speech retell it ?

Something was wrong here, it was like The Captain wanted to draw everyone's attention from something.

Actually if he came from the rift or the surrounding areas how did he arrive early , afterall they used military vehicles and traversed the distance of an hour and a couple of minutes. So unless he came out exactly when they departed and tailed them to know where exactly they were going, he had the means of tracking them.

He wouldn't talk about transportation after all he (Daniel)knew how to hijack a car, but he asked around in case anyone knew how he got here.

But no one seemed to have questioned it . No the fact that those in the concentrated are did not hear a vehicle already indicated he didn't use a car when within the perimeter.

He might have , until he got close enough, but to get out of your car and walk all the way wasn't smart.

He needed to speak with Madison, she at least would know more details . But lieutenant Captain Hudd made her tail him everywhere.

Daniel knew something was up with the rift , the ominous way it settled there quietly.not spewing out melovus every two seconds . His mind connected these related issues so seemlessly Daniel hardly put in any effort.

At this point Whoever this was , Captain Hudd or someone or something else, they were definitely suspicious. Daniel had charged his mobile phone , but when it came on this morning, it's connection to the Internet was severed .

This was Day 3 of Apocalypse,

There was something really suspect going on. First it was the collective power going out in a county as wealth as theirs , and probably other places as well. Now it was the internet?

Daniel estimated that for power to go out at most 3 weeks must pass. And for the internet at least a month ,2 weeks before that , it would be slow to a craw .

But the speed smashed his estimates. He concluded that humanity was fighting on two fronts , the extraterrestrial threat coming from the rifts , and an internal enemy or a subterfuge force from the rift.

Daniel climbed the 16 story building's 15 flights of stairs as quickly as he could . Once he reached the observatory, Daniel pointed the huge telescope to the rift . But he saw nothing unique happening. Even so he remained still , steeding his breath. He had no proof but he was certain something was about to happen with the rift. He was interested in exactly what Captain Hudd wanted to say , but he'd have to miss out on it for the starting.

Something he did catch onto was when Eric suddenly attacked Jay when Augustine and Amon got into range.

This did not alarm Daniel . As a possible regressor or an individual with future information, Eric must've been aware of something.

This was possibly tied to the reason why he stayed with this particular group. Apart from recruiting Jay .

Power outage, internet down , inoperable rift , Eric and Jay spiralling into what was possibly a heated battle out of no where , the revived Captain's meeting.

All these seemingly random events were tied together. Daniel was sure of it , he just didn't know how they were tied together.

As much as Daniel abhorred drama, this seemed like one he couldn't avoid, not only for the fact that it would possibly claim a lot of lives, but it was a wide and broad in the sense it would chase you down if you run , and if he did nothing about it , it would do something about him.

And a philosophy of his was to end ruin those who wanted to ruin him, although in today's climate it would translate to kill those who wanted to kill him , before they attempted it.

Could he kill a person? , debatable. He hadn't even killed a monster yet . All he'd done is simulate a murder where he was the culprit, but as known by all who walked the earth imagining it and doing it were two different things. He was aware of it , and he promised himself if he couldn't handle it , he'd force himself to kill even more.

Suddenly he saw the rift release a darkness like sludge .

' I knew it . There is something really wrong with the Captain' Daniel thought . If not , then the coincidences were too predictable. And in that case he'd question the legitimacy of reality and how much was in fact operated on free will.

Out of the sludge like substance a blue coated insectoid beast popped out. , compared to the giants of the previous two-tgree days , this one was only slightly taller than the Average human .

But just looking at it sent shivers down Daniel's spine. It was definitely on a higher level of power than the melovus and golden bettle!

Daniel through the telescope saw the bug suddenly look in his direction from miles away. This was supposed to be impossible. But Daniels reaction next was even more shocking.

He kept backwards from the telescope and shot a leaf to shatter the glass of the looking device with precision and strength. But it was later than he'd liked because the blue bug shot out from the telescope glass.

He escaped trouble only to arrive in front of it.

Daniel gave a rueful smile , this was insane!