I Found a Forbidden SSS-Rank Nanosuit After Being Abandoned

Zion woke up a few hours later, also finding Uriel fully recharged by that time.

"It's time to head to the surface," he said seriously while stacking a few food bars into his bag. "Uriel, can you show me the way out of here?"

[Sure, host,] Uriel's cheerful voice echoed through his mind.

A small map appeared inside one of his eyes, showing him a marked spot not too far away from him.

After turning a few corners and walking through empty metal corridors, Zion finally arrived in front of the door mentioned on the map.

"I'm not going to find another corpse behind this door, right?" Zion asked, narrowing his eyes at the strange symbols scribbled beside it.

[Rest assured, host,] Uriel responded. [That will not happen.]

"Good," he sighed out in relief.

[Opening door…] Uriel's voice said, sounding robotic.

Slowly, the door shifted open, revealing a small room compared to all the other rooms he'd been in.

"Is this an elevator?" Zion asked, spotting several large buttons with foreign symbols inside the room.

[Correct, host,] Uriel said, sounding cheerful again. [I'll make sure it takes you outside the ship.]

The elevator shook violently before Zion felt a feeling in his stomach as if he were going up.

'It's probably been ages since this thing was used,' he thought, shaking his head.

After three minutes, the elevator finally came to a stop.

Zion shifted out his sword and covered his arms with scales before the doors in front of him opened.

A wave of warm air washed over him as the doors fully opened.

Zion smiled as he saw the cracked earth and the two suns rising on the horizon.

It was the first time he'd seen natural light in over a week, after all.

"Uriel, please show me the map to the location," Zion asked, stepping out of the elevator while enjoying the sunlight on his body.

A small map popped up inside his eye once again, showing him a path leading far into the distance.

"Thank you," he said, walking away from the elevator as it slowly vibrated into the earth again.

Zion looked around, trying to get a sense of where he actually was.

Turning around, he spotted the destroyed city around a mile behind him.

'The ship is actually that long, huh,' he thought. 'And I probably wasn't even halfway yet.'

Paying close attention to the map, Zion started walking in the opposite direction of the city behind him.

"Looks like it's several miles away," he mumbled, the heat burning his skin as the suns climbed higher.

The suns slowly moved higher into the skies as Zion walked toward his destination.

'The heat is killing me,' he thought, sweat dripping down his face.

By this point, he'd walked several miles already and was finally getting close to his destination.

Zion squinted his eyes as he saw unnatural shapes far in the distance.

"Is that another destroyed city?" he wondered.

As he got closer, his ears picked up strange noises from the distance.

"That sounds an awful lot like scraping and screeches," he thought, closing his eyes to focus on the noise.

[Be careful, host,] Uriel's voice echoed through his head. [Up ahead is a small group of Deathcrawlers!]

"Can I go around them to reach the pod?" he asked, opening his eyes again.

[Negative, the pod is located within the city.]

"Alright," Zion said, narrowing his eyes again. "Let's see how many there are first."

Carefully moving closer, he finally got to see how the creatures actually looked.

"Absolutely disgusting."

The creatures looked like a combination of muscles and metal, having pure black skin and sickle-like claws. Their jaws held multiple sharp teeth, while a metal plate covered their heads like some kind of external skull.

But that wasn't even the worst part for Zion.

'How many of these damn creatures are there?' he thought, spotting several groups with over five each.

[Detected a total of 64 creatures in vicinity,] Uriel's robotic voice echoed through his head.

Crouching low to the cracked ground, Zion slowly moved closer.

'I'll have to separate them somehow,' he thought, scanning the metal buildings. 'But how?'

His railgun was a last resort since he had a maximum of twenty shots before he'd run out of energy, and his other weapons required close distances.

Studying the layout of the city carefully, he saw a small alleyway surrounded by two large houses and a tower.

'I could work with that,' he thought, squinting his eyes. 'Narrow entry point, and escape routes into the buildings in case things go bad.'

The screeching from the creatures got louder as he headed closer to the city.

Zion stayed on edge, scanning his surroundings to avoid getting spotted before he reached a good position.

'That staircase,' he thought, looking at the tower. 'I can bait them over from there.'

Glancing at the group of five Deathcrawlers in front of it, he nodded slowly.

"It'll be a nice way to thin out the herd too."

With his back against a thick metal wall, he stayed out of the creatures' sight as he crept closer.

Reaching the end of the fence, Zion didn't hesitate.

He jumped forward toward the unsuspecting Deathcrawlers, his sword sliding through his knuckles and scales covering his arms.

Zion reached the first one before they even realized his existence, stabbing his sword deep into its back.

The Deathcrawler let out a loud screech, alarming the other four of Zion's presence before collapsing to the ground.

Green blood splattered across his face as he yanked out his sword and rushed to the next one.

'That screech... they all noticed me,' he thought, dashing toward the next one. 

Suddenly, the Deathcrawlers in front of him changed, thick rows of metal spikes growing out of their spines as they screeched.

Their tails grew a long and thin metal blade, alarming Zion immediately.

'Are these their combat forms?' he thought, slicing his blade toward the second one.

Instead of meeting him head-on, the Deathcrawler jumped to the side and rapidly spun around, swinging its tail toward Zion with rapid speed.

Zion raised his scaled arm, a loud clunk echoing through the alleyway as it blocked the Deathcrawler's tail.

[Warning, host,] Uriel's voice echoed through his head. [All creatures in the city are heading your way!]