Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

Cyanide blinked several times at the all the items he just obtained from one kill.

"… I'm going to assume this wasn't just the product of bringing my LUC stat to 11."

"Naturally not," Luna replied. "Of course, that was part of it, but these rewards are mainly due to the Scarlet Hour. Mutants, in their overdrive state, will drop double or triple the amount of items they usually do. XP is the same."

"… Making this the perfect opportunity to level up fast," Cyanide concluded, a sharp gleam in his deep turquoise eyes that reflected the red moonlight.

Without any hesitation, he swiftly scaled the wall of the building next to him, using the ledges of the windows as handholds and footholds, then glanced around down below for any isolated targets.

He would ask about the Soul Arts and Crafting abilities he just unlocked later — that could wait. The Scarlet Hour's time, however, was limited, hence why he was ignoring everything else for the time being and making the most of what little time he had.

Soon, Cyanide found his next target. A lone civilian mutant, wandering into a narrow alleyway not too far away from here. Immediately, Cyanide followed using the rooftops, like a phantom daredevil in the night.

With his enhanced agility and speed, he caught up to the mutant in no time and was now staring at it from above. It didn't seem to have noticed him at all, thanks to his Fleeting Footsteps passive skill.

Glancing around, Cyanide spotted several mutants on the ruined street, but they should be out of earshot of this alleyway, so long as the mutant was taken down swiftly and stealthily before it got a chance to roar.

With this confirmed, Cyanide took a deep breath and leaped off the roof of the building, dropping straight onto the mutants shoulders and tearing its head off with the help of his knife before doing a backflip and sticking the landing as the mutant collapsed forward, dead. It didn't stand a chance.

As the mutant's body disintegrated along with the decapitated hand he held in his hand, another series of notifications popped up in front of Cyanide.

[Obtained Mutant Blood (Low-Grade) x2.]

[Obtained Metal x5.]

[Obtained Wires x7.]

Sadly, no solar panel was obtained from this one. It was all up to luck, which was

something Cyanide didn't feel too great about. He was a firm believer that rewards should

be earned, and luck should be a false concept that didn't even exist at all.

"Cyanide! Behind!" Luna suddenly called out, and Cyanide quickly performed a side step, just as a mutant came tumbling forward towards him. Had Luna not warned him there, he would've gotten killed.

"Tch...!" Cyanide's eyes widened as he activated his Radar skill, and it picked up on several entities coming around the corner on both sides of the alleyway, trapping him between.

'What…?!' He thought in his mind, perplexed. 'How...'

"Cyanide, overdrive mutants have enhanced hearing as well!" Luna reminded nervously. "The sound of the mutant's body collapsing attracted all those mutants on the streets. You can't take on all of them — we need to get out of here!"

Cyanide gritted his teeth, not needing to be told twice. As the mutants immediately flooded in from both sides, eyes shining red with bloodlust and fanged mouths hanging open in hunger, he scaled the wall using the windows once again, quickly climbing onto the roof.

However, these enraged mutants were ruthless and piled on top of one another, forming a horrifying latter of humanoid bodies as they climbed on top of their comrades to reach the roof.

"Oh, hell…" Cyanide cursed and turned around, running away on the roof of the buildings. Unfortunately, all the noise these mutants were making were only causing more to join in on the chase, and Cyanide was left fleeing for his life.

He's had his fair share of narrow, life-threatening escapes before in his past as a professional assassin, but were as horrifying as this one. But to Cyanide, such 'horror' was a good thing. He was feeling a thrill in his veins like never before as he ran, adrenaline pumping through every cell of his body — and he enjoyed it.

Jumping across to a different roof, Cyanide tore off the cylindrical chimney and set it on the roof before giving it a good kick, sending it tumbling towards the incoming wave of mutants.

"GRAGH!" They roared, eyes completely focused on me and not paying attention to what was coming beneath their feet at all. With Cyanide's current strength, the rolling chimney had enough momentum to knock the entire wave of them over.

The moment the large metal cylinder struck the mutants' feet, they toppled over forward. Their feet kicked up, striking the legs of the mutants behind them, and a chain reaction followed. All of the mutants, like dominoes, tripped over one by one, and it was almost satisfying to watch. Almost, if Cyanide had the time.

But of course, he knew such a setback wouldn't stop them. This was just to buy some time, so that he could hopefully find a good place to hide in until the Scarlet Hour was over.

But as he dropped down from the roof of the building, he saw something he never would've expected.

Two mutants crawled on the ground in front of him, red eyes shining with bloodthirst and canine jaws emitting a low growl.

"Grrr…."

Yes, canine. As in, dogs. Mutant dogs.

"… You've got to be kidding me."

"GRERWL!" The two massive beasts roared and leaped towards Cyanide, who had no time to run. Instead, he smoothly slid underneath them like a scene straight out of a movie while cutting the wires on their underbellies apart, one with the knife and the other with the crowbar, before emerging on the other side.

As Cyanide stood up, the two beasts landed on the ground, dead. However, when passing underneath them, some of their black mutant blood, powered by electricity, had spilled onto Cyanide's face, and it was now burning with pain. He still didn't understand how that worked — drinking it was perfectly fine, but if it makes contact with skin, it'll hurt?

"Tch…" He groaned, touching his face with his hand, but that only caused the sting to transfer over to his palm as well like some sort of infection.

As the beasts' bodies exploded harmlessly into billions of white shards of light, Cyanide began to run once more, knowing he couldn't afford to rest and think about such questions now. The humanoid mutants were bound to have heard the canines' roars, and would definitely be coming this way.

After glancing around, Cyanide turned invisible and disappeared into the darkness of the night where he worked best, entering the desolate ruins of an abandoned parking lot.