Chapter 47

Who knew it would rain cats and dogs with meteorites?

At least, that was what Dhar perceived.

He was a ring maker, not a stable job but fortunately enough to survive in a financial hub like Palican City.

His crappy apartment wasn't terribly small. It was a one-bedroom apartment. Maybe around 60 square meters/645 square feet? No room to roam, big enough to live a comfy life.

Without any expectation for a better future, he thought he would struggle through life like this forever.

Until one day, violent zombies suddenly plagued the streets overnight. They reaped the lives of adventurers scavenging for food daily, instilling so much fear in Dhar that he never dared to step foot out of his apartment.

Cowering within his apartment and consuming his meagre inventory of canned food, he struggled to survive. Yet out of all the places the meteorites could have struck, his apartment became target practice. Punctures the size of grains scattered across his yellowing ceiling like honeycombs in beehives.

But standing amidst the menacing barrage of glowing meteorites, Dhar nearly shat his pants in fear despite having an empty stomach. His trembling hands were still attached to a demolished coffee mug, owing to the speeding meteorite that had nearly decapitated him.

Dhar could already hear the hungry growls approaching his location, attracted by the destruction caused by the concentration of meteorites.

He closed his eyes in disbelief.

Was this his end?

However, as he gradually reopened his eyelids to face reality, he witnessed something strange.

Apart from the rubble left behind, there were no signs of any meteorites— the very thing that destroyed his home.

That's when he noticed the golden particles permeating the air.

When did this appear?

Reaching out his arms, a grand explosion of golden light blinded Dhar's sight. And as the brilliance subsided, an inconspicuous item amongst the debris reclaimed his full attention.

The item hidden underneath wood and plaster shed its facade, revealing its ostentatious glamour.

"What's this?" Dhar muttered as he bent down to claim the shining item.

Suddenly, his body froze.

He wanted to move his arms further, but his brain never transmitted the command. He had lost full control over his muscles.

As warm liquid trickled down Dhar's forehead, he toppled onto the debris lifelessly, his eyes wide open with bewilderment.

"Yes… Yes! I found one! I found an enchanted item! It's mine!!!"

Pulling out a cleaver from the poor ring maker's skull, a man with a crooked nose squealed with lunacy as he flipped Dhar's body aside to reveal the source of the light.

Perched within the debris was a delicate ring, rose gold in colour and carrying the residue of the lustrous gleam.

"Hah! An item with great potential! I can't wait to see what it'll develop into…" The man gulped as his greedy eyes delineated the item that belonged to the dead. "I can't believe my luck! I thought being reincarnated into a fat landlord was a curse, but this!"

He inserted the rose gold ring into his finger and he instantly felt energy surging through him. Sneering from ear to ear, the man beamed.

"This is spectacular! A rare one this is!"

While blood poured down his cleaver, his ignorant laughter escaped through the damaged ceiling of the apartment.

"I must have been the chosen one!"

"Chosen one? Are you sure about that?"

A chilling voice crept up his spine abruptly as he felt an icy sensation pressed against his vulnerable neck.

After registering himself at the centrepiece and achieving a respectable record, he never imagined a superhuman like himself being caught off guard.

"Who! Who are you?!" The man who had just brutally killed an innocent person screamed almost inaudibly, constraining his airway so that the blade wouldn't slice through his neck.

As though this was the work of a phantom, he never heard anyone approaching. The knife had appeared out of thin air like magic, determining life or death.

"Just someone who wants to ask a few questions."

Replying calmly, Jericho inched his blade closer to the man's protruding veins.

"Would you care to answer?"

"Yes! Yes, I would!"

"Great."

Jericho drew his weapon slightly further away, but still near enough to decapitate the man at any given second.

The man gulped, finally able to sneak in some air to breathe. He balled his fist, only to realize that the ring wrapped around his finger had vanished.

"First question. Do you know what a centrepiece is?" said Jericho. The rose gold ring coiled peacefully around his index finger.

"Centrepiece? I have never heard of—"

All of a sudden, the man felt agonizing pain in his hand.

"AHHH!" The man screamed in terror as the thumb on his dominant hand plopped onto the ground.

Jericho placed his boots over the severed thumb, feigning a stomp.

"First question. Do you know what a centrepiece is?"

"Yes, I do! It registers your…"

"Good answer. I hate people who lie. So don't." Before the man could finish his sentence, Jericho had proceeded on. "Now second question, where is the centrepiece?"

As Jericho interrogated the whereabouts of the obelisk, the man realized the aggressor's identity without a good look at his face.

Only a human from Earth would call the obelisk a centrepiece, for it is yet a prominent name for humanity on Terra.

At this point, he had determined the height of Jericho from the angle of the blade and his age from his youthful voice.

But no matter what background this kid had, negotiating would be the worst idea because anyone who had lived through an apocalypse would be no stranger to this principle— Any decision to release an enemy could eventually come back to bite you.

Deep down, the man knew retaliating would be the only option.

'Not bad, kid. But I am not someone whom you should mess with! My superpower at this stage allows me to ameliorate my skin, making it as tough as stone!'

Thinking inwardly, the man began to concentrate on channelling the energy within his body. His skin started to roughen up as rocky scales enveloped his entire body like a set of armour.

Hearing the shuffling of the blade below his chin, the man broke into a sinister smirk. By then, perhaps the kid is already panicking. Who would expect him to have a perfect counter to melee weapon?

He could already picture himself shearing off the kid's fingers, one by one, slowly and painfully…

Ding—

He suddenly heard the crisp noise of metal clanking onto the ground.

What? Did this kid seriously drop his knife? He's more pathetic than I thought?

The man wanted to break out into hysterics, but his expression remained unchanged despite how much he tried.

His crooked nose picked up a pungent scent.

It smelt smokey as if something had been charred with extreme heat.

Gazing at the dead ring maker on the floor with a fractured skull whom he had just killed, his eyes gradually grew blank and void of life.

Misty sizzles pervaded out from the blistering hole through the man's hardened neck. The jagged skin of the man began to retract, returning the man to his original, vulnerable state.

"This ring is a nice surprise. I hope Esther will like it." Jericho murmured nonchalantly and stroked the rose gold ring on his finger as an ephemeral beam of light vanished from his palms.

The apocalypse has made the world a bizarre place.

While exceptional humans developed superhuman abilities, some inanimate objects 'came to life.'

It was like they had somehow experienced genetic mutations, growing more nuanced and evolving like sensate beings, such as this supernatural ring.

"So…"

Recalling the directions of the centrepiece whom he had interrogated from the man, Jericho left this room silently to report back to the group.

Soon, zombies that were attracted by the ruckus stormed up the stairs, devouring both of the corpses lying lifelessly in the debris.