The connection cut. Sebastian shoved the phone into his pocket.
He reached the roof of the apartment complex. The wind up here was fierce. Carrying the stench of ozone and smoke. The rain had stopped. Replaced by a strange, dry heat radiating from the Red Moon above.
He looked out over the city.
It was burning.
Columns of black smoke rose from the downtown district. The holographic billboards were glitching. Flashing between advertisements for soda and emergency alert symbols.
"The Vanguard will be mobilizing soon," Sebastian muttered. Recalling the paramilitary group that would try to contain the outbreak. "I need to be gone before they lock down the sectors."
He looked down. He was on the fifth floor. The street below was a gridlock of abandoned cars and fleeing pedestrians.
The elevator was a death trap. The stairs were slow.
He walked to the edge of the roof.
"Let's see if this works," he whispered.
He closed his eyes. Visualized his Skill Tree.
[Skill: Featherfall (Tier 0 - Wind Magic)]
[Proficiency: Maxed]
In the game, this skill slowed descent speed. In reality? It required manipulating the air pressure around his body.
He jumped.
For a second, gravity took hold. Pulling him down towards the concrete alleyway fifty feet below. The wind rushed past his ears.
"Featherfall."
He pushed his mana outward.
WHOOSH.
The air around him thickened. It felt like falling into a pool of water. Without the wetness though. His velocity decreased rapidly. He didn't float. Didn't plummet. He fell with the grace of a leaf.
He landed in the alleyway. A soft tap of his boots.
[Ding!]
[Real World Skill Usage: Aeromancy.]
[Mana: 110 / 120]
"Costly," Sebastian noted. Feeling the drain. "But useful."
He didn't have time to recover. A shadow detached itself from the wall near the dumpster.
"Hey! You!"
It was a looter. A desperate man in a torn suit. Holding a kitchen knife. His eyes were wild with fear.
"Give me your phone! And that... that bar!"
Sebastian looked at him. The man wasn't Infected. Just broken by fear.
"Go home," Sebastian said. Walking past him.
The man lunged. Desperation made him stupid. "I said give it to me!"
Sebastian didn't even use the crowbar. He simply stepped inside the man's guard. His Agility of 9 made the man look like he was moving underwater.
Sebastian grabbed the man's wrist. He squeezed.
CRACK.
The man screamed. Dropping the knife. Sebastian shoved him into the pile of trash bags.
"I said go home."
He didn't kill him. Killing humans didn't grant EXP unless they were players or marked as enemies by the System. Right now, this was just a civilian. Waste of energy.
Sebastian moved out of the alley. Onto the main street.
Chaos.
A bus had crashed into a storefront. People were running in every direction. A group of teenagers were filming a dead body with their phones. Hysterical laughter bubbling from their throats.
Amidst the crowd, the monsters hunted.
A [Demon Rat] the size of a bulldog was tearing at the leg of a police officer. The officer was emptying his pistol into it with zero effect. The bullets hit the rat's mana-hardened fur. Flattened.
"Physical immunity," Sebastian noted. "Low caliber rounds are useless."
He ran toward the officer.
"Move!" Sebastian shouted.
The officer looked up. Blood spraying from his leg. "Freeze! Get back!"
Sebastian ignored him. He sprinted. Using the hood of a taxi as a springboard. He launched himself into the air.
He raised the crowbar. Channeled his mana into the iron.
"Heavy Strike."
SLAM!
The crowbar hit the Demon Rat's spine. The mana-reinforced steel shattered the creature's defenses. The rat squealed. Collapsed. Its back broken.
[Ding! Kill Confirmed.]
Sebastian didn't stop. He grabbed the stunned officer by the vest. Dragged him onto the hood of the taxi.
"Go," Sebastian ordered. "Find a church or a bank. Thick walls."
"Who... who are you?" the cop stammered. Clutching his leg.
"A concerned citizen," Sebastian said dryly.
He turned north. The warehouse district was five miles away.
"Valerie," he thought. "She has the gold bullion. She has the satellite phones. If she dies, my plan is set back by months."
He needed to move faster.
He looked at a motorcycle lying on its side nearby. The rider was nowhere to be seen—just a smear of blood on the pavement.
Sebastian picked up the bike. It was a heavy electric cruiser.
He ripped the ignition panel off. With his Engineering skill from the game (which he'd dumped infinite points into), he understood the mechanism instantly.
"Hotwire."
He twisted two wires together. The engine hummed to life.
"Get to the warehouse," he told himself. Revving the engine. "Secure the perimeter. Then... we build the Kingdom."
He accelerated. Weaving through the wreckage of the old world. Driving straight into the teeth of the new one.
Behind him, the red moon pulsed. Watching.
[Synchronization Rate: 3.0%]