It all happened too fast. No one was prepared for what was about to happen.
When Shangguan Bing Xue’s eyes met Bai Zemin’s powerless eyes, the first thing she felt was pain as she realized what was happening but that pain was soon suppressed when a surge of burning anger that threatened to consume her sanity overwhelmed her.
She didn’t have time to say a single word, there were no goodbyes, far from it. Under Shangguan Xinyue’s shocked eyes and Shangguan Bing Xue’s unwillingness, the missile pierced through the black portal that had appeared in the sky, and an instant later the space regenerated at such a high speed that after a slight atmospheric shock everything returned to normal.
Although the missile that had disappeared was several kilometers away, the eyesight of existences like Shangguan Xinyue and Shangguan Bing Xue was good enough to allow them to see far away. Besides, a normal missile would never represent a level of threat where their bodies would freeze as the missile from before managed to do.
“Xuanyuan… Wentian…!”
Shangguan Bing Xue’s body trembled as she whispered those words with fury. She stared at the spot where Bai Zemin had disappeared, ignoring the fact that she was gritting her teeth so hard that the inside of her mouth began to bleed.
* * *
A few minutes earlier.
United States, Washington State.
Just like the whole world, the buildings of the once sparkling city considered to be prosperous due to a large number of technological industries, restaurants, music scenes, sights, etc; had completely collapsed.
Zombies occupied the streets, weeds grew everywhere and mutant beasts from the distant forests slowly began to move into what were once cities, streets split and temperatures went out of control.
A few miles north of Seattle, a human base of colossal size that could easily put the larger base Bai Zemin had into shame had been erected. Mutant trees, reinforced debris, bones of giant mutant beasts, and even apocalyptic-born metals had been used to strengthen the exterior even more.
The base was so large that it stretched from north of Seattle to halfway to Victoria and had taken a total of 3 months to build with the hard work of over 100,000 men. The number of survivors inside easily exceeded 3 million, but it was expected that this number would not increase any higher since almost every living human in Washington State and the surrounding area had been rescued.
Inside the base, there was a military satellite facility as well, and the 15 operators working there in different areas were attentive to the screens. It was at that moment that a red dot lit up on the world map.
“What the-” One of them jumped to his feet as he identified the moving object and shouted in shock, “Shit! The Chinese really fired a missile!”
The U.S. government had fallen, but not completely. The son of the previous president managed to quickly regain the reins, and taking advantage of the fact that he was at a major military base in Washington State at the moment everything started, he managed to crush the zombies and mutant beasts while they were still weak, gathering large numbers of humans in a short time.
With great advisors, Angelo established the Washington State base as he expanded rapidly, crushing all opposition and reclaiming territory after territory. Although Angelo had not yet regained even 1/3 of the entire United States and was in fact having difficulty holding his forts, everyone believed that within 5 years at most the United States would fall back into human hands.
This was the first time that the faction of Angelo, a powerful soul evolver with backing from the previous world and probably the most powerful person in the entire United States, had acquired information that they were not alone in the midst of this catastrophe.
When the news reached Angelo’s ears he was hunting mutant beasts with 6 of his trusted team. His appearance was that of a handsome young man with dark hair and green eyes, his body was neither big of nor small in muscle mass but his height of 1.95 meters definitely made him a considerably tall person.
“I see… Looks like a powerful Chinese faction found trouble big enough to force them to fire a nuclear missile.” Angelo muttered as he wiped the blood off his sword. He looked in the direction of China and said quietly, “I hope they were able to overcome that problem…”
A beautiful woman with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a devilishly seductive body holding a bone staff next to him said in confusion, “Angelo, wouldn’t it be better if the Chinese go down? It will be easier to conquer the world in the future.”
Angelo looked at the beautiful young woman and said very slowly, “Eleanora, we don’t even know for sure if we will be able to regain all the land we have lost…. What is the point of worrying about the rest of the world? If a world power like China manages to stand firm, in the future we might be able to collaborate in many ways.”
Eleanora pouted but said no more. The others had their own thoughts too, but Angelo was the leader so they could only nod.
* * *
Italy, Rome.
Just as had happened not only to Beijing and Washington State, the once glorious Rome was now covered by wild plants and the mutant beasts ran rampant along with the zombies that roamed everywhere.
In the city of Rome, deep underground in the Vatican headquarters, all sorts of high-tech military equipment that only a handful of people knew was there was being operated by some people wearing silver robes.
When they detected the discharge of a nuclear missile on Chinese ground, the 4 operators were about to report when a clear voice sounded from behind them.
“Apparently, mankind has not been abandoned by the Lord after all.”
When the four turned around and saw the young man dressed in silver armor and a silver spear, the first thing they did was kneel down with eyes full of idolatry.
“”””Your holiness!””””
“Mhm.” The young man nodded, and as he watched the screen, following the path of the missile for a few minutes, he suddenly saw something that confused him.
“Oh? No detonation?”
The four operators who were also powerful soul evolvers turned around, and seeing that there was indeed no sign of impact they were very surprised.
“How could this be possible?”
“What happened?”
“Hadn’t China fired a missile just moments ago?”
“… Interesting.” The young man muttered before taking a step to the side, disappearing after turning into a flash of light.
Earth had several powerhouses, however, not all of them possessed control over a satellite base that would let them know that in China a nuclear missile had been fired. Therefore, only the faction established by the Vatican and Angelo’s faction in the United States knew this fact.
* * *
After passing through the portal following the activation of his Irregular title, Bai Zemin felt as if his body was passing through a kind of very thin membrane.
With his now greater understanding of space thanks to the increasing number of skills that somehow or other had some spatial power, and thanks to the passive effect of his Super Warrior skill, he finally came to understand that the thin membrane that his body passed through on every teleportation was actually the space-time barrier bending at the will of the activated skill or magic circle.
His knowledge of the space force would definitely grow if he studied that feeling better while it lasted. However, he wasn’t in a position to worry about something like that.
“Damn it!” Bai Zemin shouted through gritted teeth as he felt the gravity suddenly increase.
He quickly activated Gravity Manipulation, but instead of increasing the gravity even more, what Bai Zemin did was reduce it so that before the intelligent sensor installed in the nuclear missile detected the anomaly and detonated the nuclear warhead inside, everything “returned to normal” and the missile continued its course.
Bai Zemin quickly looked at his surroundings and realized that he was in a forest, all his eyes could see was green and more green along with trees that surprisingly were not as tall as those on Earth but looked much more beautiful and vibrant.
“Good luck and the portal opened high in the sky! This must be like 6000 meters high if I’m not wrong!” shouted Bai Zemin from the bottom of his heart.
“Indeed, you had good luck in appearing in an unpopulated place.”
Bai Zemin’s eyes sparkled when he heard the voice of his wholehearted partner, and even though he couldn’t see her immediately he felt more relieved. He was not alone, that was the important part.
Bai Zemin didn’t even stop to think about it when he jumped off the missile, he didn’t dare to step on it hard for fear of causing the weapon to detonate and instead let himself be swept away by the wind and gravity.
However, Bai Zemin knew that time was his enemy, again.
The small crimson pearl emerged from inside his armor and floated above his head, releasing large amounts of blood that under the control of his Blood Manipulation skill turned into huge crimson platforms.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!….
Bai Zemin used each of the blood platforms without worrying about his Mana. He activated Overlap Regeneration and converted all his Magic into Strength, which increased the power of his legs tremendously.
Every time Bai Zemin stomped a blood platform, his body turned into a torpedo that moved off at least 500 meters per second. The wind cut his face and his eyes closed due to the strong pressure, but he didn’t even care where he was running to as he tried to get as far away as possible in the opposite direction in which the nuclear missile was flying.
When Bai Zemin reached the solid ground he didn’t even stop as he activated Overlap Regeneration and turned all his Magic into Agility. Using Strength in his legs to propel his already terrifying Agility, Bai Zemin’s movement speed could only be called monstrous at this point as he was crossing almost 1000 meters in 1 single second!
This was the first time he gave his all to running, it was no surprise when he felt the muscles in his legs slowly tearing. However, he did not stop and gritted his teeth as he ran for his life.
In fact, Bai Zemin did not hesitate to harm his soul as after the ten safe activations he continued to push himself further and pressed himself with consecutive Overlap Regeneration activations.
Approximately 5 minutes later.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
The earth shook and the sky rumbled. Looking back, Bai Zemin’s face turned white when he saw the huge cloud of smoke and fire rising into the clouds, quickly taking on the shape of a giant mushroom surrounded by fires and lightning.
“Holy shit!”
Every cell in Bai Zemin’s body was aching and each step he took felt heavier than the last. He knew that several of his muscles had been broken due to his soul damaging the body, especially his legs. However, he did not dare to stop.
The shockwave from the nuclear explosion swept through mutant beasts and trees alike, destroying everything in its path with terrifying ease.
Fortunately, Bai Zemin had already moved far enough away to avoid it. However, after about two minutes, he noticed that the radiation reached him. Fortunately, the effect of the third activation of his Blood Manipulation skill was still active.
Bai Zemin had already been saved by Blood Immortal Radiance twice in just 1 day.
Approximately ten minutes later and after feeling that he had moved far enough away from the radiation zone, Bai Zemin finally stopped… or rather, he could no longer continue.
His body rolled over the ground for more than 200 meters, crashing into several trees and rocks, smashing everything in his path and showering himself with dirt and mud. Once his body finally stopped rolling, Bai Zemin looked up at the blue sky above his head and his tired eyes began to close on their own as his chapped lips twitched weakly.
“What a way… to visit a new world.”
* * * * * * *
