2025-11-14 23:58:02The [Mountain Bike Card (C-Grade Utility/Mobility)] was immediately activated. The carbon frame materialized beneath William, light and perfectly suited for the dense, undulating terrain. He pushed off, trading the exposed risk of running for the focused speed of cycling. His journey to the Weehawken marinas across the river was a race against time and the creeping, oppressive growth of the apocalypse.
The suburbs were a nightmare of overgrown utility poles and shattered asphalt, but the bike cut through the thorny undergrowth with surprising ease, its high-grade tires ignoring punctures that would have crippled anything less. As he rode, William focused his senses outward, hunting for the faint green shimmer of neglected skill drops.
The area wasn't as quiet as he’d hoped. The closer he got to the wealthy marina districts, the more frantic the activity became. Unlike the market raiders, these scavengers were organized into small, nervous gangs, fighting over the few luxury cars that still existed, hoping for a key card or a vehicle card drop. William kept his head down, blending into the shadows. His dark, intense look, paired with his purposeful speed, signaled danger, keeping the weaker scavengers away.
He spotted two low-grade skill drops near a heavily overgrown gas station. He used the bike’s speed to snatch them quickly: [ ✧ Minor Endurance (F) ] Slightly reduces the physical toll of sustained exertion. and [ 🟆 Reinforced Kick (F) ] A basic active skill that adds minimal mana reinforcement to a standard kick. .
He didn't need the Minor Endurance, but the Reinforced Kick was useful for opening stuck doors or clearing sudden root blockages without wasting the higher-cost Mana for his Kong Punch. William slotted them both into his free slots.
The Search for The Culinary Arts
Following his instincts and the subtle logic of the system, William knew that a basic survival skill, like cooking, was essential. The apocalypse shop would eventually sell it, but at an inflated price. He needed to find a natural drop.
He spotted a chain of once-fashionable riverside restaurants, their decks now partially submerged. He abandoned the bike behind a thick curtain of alien bamboo, activated his Iron Skin passive, and silently slipped into the first building through a broken service entrance.
The kitchen was a chaotic scene of dissolved foodstuffs and encarded appliances. The only things left intact were the stainless steel counters and the industrial range hoods. William systematically checked every corner, every discarded menu, and every burnt-out oven cavity. The system rarely placed cards in plain sight.
In the third restaurant, a high-end steakhouse whose interior was now draped in a fine, white spider-silk-like fungus, he found it. Tucked inside the last, heavy professional knife block, resting in the slot for the chef’s best carving knife, was a small, glowing green card.
[ ✧ Culinary Arts (E) ] Allows the host to properly clean, prepare, and cook raw monster materials and flora for maximum nutritional and restorative value.
William sighed in relief. It wasn't the S-Grade Cooking skill he knew existed (which was rumored to instantly refine any food item), but an E-Grade was a massive step up from zero. Crucially, it was a crafting skill, which meant it took up no skill slot, adhering to the rules he knew.
He slotted it instantly. Food security: achieved.
The Waterfront Ambush
The marina itself was a graveyard of nautical aspiration. Luxury yachts and speedboats sat half-sunken or grounded in thick, black mud, their expensive hulls warped by the dimensional shift. The air here was heavy with a strange, saline decay mixed with the metallic scent of Mana.
William moved cautiously along the main dock, now only a spine of twisted concrete floating above the water. He was searching for a few things: a boat that was encardable, or, failing that, the Engine Card or Propulsion Card that might have been left behind when its vessel turned to pulp.
The water of the Hudson River had turned a murky, unnatural black-green, occasionally rippling with phosphorescent patches. William scanned the deeper water, a primal instinct warning him of dangers beneath the surface. He saw a flash of silver far out, but dismissed it as debris.
He reached a massive, three-story yacht that was miraculously still partially buoyant. Its deck had turned a sickly yellow, indicating it was actively dissolving into a card. William hurried onto the deck, trying to reach the engine compartment before the process completed.
Just as he reached the hatch, the water erupted.
It wasn't a standard, known aquatic creature. It was an anomaly: a fish the size of a small car, its body a grotesque fusion of a piranha’s head and the armored plates of an ancient sturgeon. Its eyes were glowing yellow spheres, and its mouth was lined with triple rows of jagged, black teeth. It was a Mana Leviathan (B-Grade).
“Screeaaaak!” the monster shrieked, its roar surprisingly high-pitched.
It slammed its massive head against the deck, the force shaking the entire yacht and sending William staggering. The monster was attracted to the Mana being released by the yacht’s card dissolution.
William recovered instantly. This wasn't a scavenging run; it was a survival check. A B-Grade monster meant high-value drops, but incredible risk.
He had to end it fast, before the chaos attracted other scavengers.
He didn't hesitate. He gathered the endless energy from his Infinite Mana passive, channeling it directly into his arm for his signature move.
“Kong Punch!”
William lunged forward, not toward the monster, but toward the yacht's dissolving deck. He struck the structural beam right near the engine hatch with a devastating, focused blow. The impact—reinforced by the full, terrifying power of the A-Grade active skill—didn’t just hit the yacht; it sent a focused shockwave down into the water.
The Mana Leviathan was still shaking off the deck impact when the sudden sonic boom hit it underwater. The creature's specialized sensory organs, which allowed it to detect Mana, were violently overloaded. It thrashed wildly, its yellow eyes dimming.
William drew his [D-Grade Blade Card]. He activated the card, the basic survival knife materializing in his grip. He jumped onto the monster’s armored back as it surfaced, disoriented. He drove the blade down, aiming for the soft spot just behind the gill plate. The Iron Skin passive flared, deflecting the monster's flailing spines.
He twisted the blade hard, severing the monster’s mana conduit.
With a final, gargantuan shudder, the Mana Leviathan went limp, its massive body flopping back into the water, staining the black-green surface with a burst of oily, red-black blood.
Silence returned to the marina. The yacht, having finished its dissolution process, vanished, leaving only a shimmering [Luxury Yacht Card (B-Grade Mobility)] floating where it had been.
William, breathing hard, pulled himself onto a broken section of the dock. The kill had been brutal, precise, and necessary.
The drops were instantaneous. The corpse of the Mana Leviathan vanished in a pillar of blue light, leaving behind three distinct items:
A large, translucent card: [ 🟆 Water Mobility (C) ] Grants the host the ability to swim at high speeds and breathe easily underwater for up to one hour per Mana cycle.
A dark, scaly card: [Mana Leviathan Hide x 1 (B-Grade Material)].
A small, shimmering card: [Mana Scale Fragment x 5 (D-Grade Crafting Material)].
William quickly secured the materials and, with a rush of satisfaction, slotted the Water Mobility skill. This was a critical piece of the puzzle. He now had land mobility (the bike) and aquatic mobility (the skill). The B-Grade Luxury Yacht Card was the final piece.
Exchanging Contacts
As William was wiping the blood and gore from his tactical vest, a group of three figures approached the dock cautiously. They were clearly low-grade scavengers, two men and a woman, all carrying makeshift weapons. They’d heard the Kong Punch.
“Hey! You took down the beast, right?” the woman, whose hands were wrapped in grimy rags, called out. Her expression was a mix of awe and fear.
William was tired but maintained his predatory composure. He didn’t want to fight these people, but he wouldn’t be robbed.
“It’s handled,” William said curtly, deliberately projecting the cold authority of a high-power Awakened. He had to decide quickly: drive them off, or use them. He chose the latter. Information was scarce.
“We heard the noise from three blocks over. That thing was wrecking the ferry terminal yesterday,” one of the men said, nervously eyeing the floating [Luxury Yacht Card].
“If you’re looking for high-grade loot, it’s gone,” William lied about the yacht card, palming it discreetly. “I’m looking for two things: Engine Cards and information on stable communities west of the river. Are you set up, or just scavenging?”
The woman, who seemed to be the leader, stepped forward. “We’re a scavenging group. We focus on low-risk material collection—mostly textiles and fuel. We call ourselves the Ferrymen. We stick to the perimeter. We know who’s fighting where.”
William nodded. “I am William. I specialize in extraction and logistics. If you encounter any A-Grade or B-Grade Mobility Cards—air, land, or sea—you contact me. I can offer reliable payment in [Mana Scale Fragment x 1] per confirmed, safe lead.”
He then used the system interface to generate three basic, single-use, F-Grade [Contact Cards]—simple networking tools that allowed for short, directional messages.
“Take these,” William instructed, tossing one to each of them. “If you have a lead, ping me. Don’t waste my time on F-Grade fluff. And don’t follow me.”
The Ferrymen looked at the cards, then at the lingering blood on the dock, then back at William’s intensely focused, slightly unsettling gaze. The deal was accepted through fear and desperation. They took the cards and retreated immediately.
William watched them go, satisfied. He had eliminated a B-Grade threat, acquired a crucial C-Grade utility skill, secured his E-Grade cooking skill, and established a low-level information network.
He activated his [Luxury Yacht Card (B-Grade Mobility)]. The card vanished, and a small, sleek speedboat—the yacht's highest-grade dinghy—materialized in the water, already tethered to the dock. The full yacht was too cumbersome; the smaller boat was perfect.
He climbed into the speedboat. The sky was fading to black, and the Mana-infused jungle was beginning to glow with eerie, nocturnal phosphorescence. His next move had to be across the river, towards the more distant, high-value objectives that only a high-speed nautical vehicle could reach. He wasn't just surviving anymore; he was adapting, commanding, and ascending.
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28 - meat grinder
The journey north from the Chesapeake Bay was a lesson in geographical decay. William had piloted the Luxury Yacht (B) as far as the Delaware River delta, but the waterways had become choked with Colossal Algae Mats—thick, fibrous webs of green sludge that fouled the intake of even a warp-capable engine.Reluctantly, he had stored the yacht in the Million Tote—a feat that required draining 30% of his mana pool to encompass the vessel's mass—and switched to overland travel.He was heading for New England. His map, updated by the Voice of the Continent interface he had briefly studied, indicated that the Northeast was a patchwork of dense forests and high-mana zones. It was the perfect place to establish his Sanctuary, hidden away from the factional wars of New York.But to get there, he had to cross the Suburban Sprawl.The vast, continuous stretch of suburbs between Philadelphia and New York—once the hallmark of the American Dream—had become a nightmare of vinyl siding and tall grass.
27 - Sleeping Sovereign
The orange glow of the Scorch-Scale Sovereign descended from the zenith of the sky, casting long, twisting shadows across the drowned ruins of Washington D.C. William, crouched behind the shattered limestone railing of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, gripped the handle of his Gauss Cannon tight, his knuckles white inside the Aegis-Vanguard gauntlets.He expected a siege. The Spydar in his accessory slot was screaming predictive warnings about thermal spikes and mana pressure. In his experience, a Boss Monster returning to its lair after a patrol was hyper-vigilant—a predator checking its territory for intruders before settling down.Wil
26 - Ghost's wrath
The Scorch-Scale Sovereign was a distant, orbiting star in the blackened sky, its thermal pressure turning the D.C. basin into a stifling oven. But the heat radiating from William was entirely internal.He stood in the shadows of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the golden Diplomatic Link cards heavy in his inventory—a physical weight of failure. He had been played. Cecelia Wu, the "mid-grade warrior," had checkmated him in a game of 4D chess while he was busy congratulating himself on finding a radar."Stupid," William hissed, his voice cracking with frustration. "Arrogant."He slammed his fist against the concrete piling. The impact cracked the stone.The anger wasn't just about the deception; it was about the vulnerability. He had allowed himself to become predictable. He had prioritized hoarding over partnership, and in doing so, he had handed the leverage to someone else.He looked at the countdown on his Spydar. Sector 1 (Sky): Sovereign Patrol Cycle. Remaining Time: 9 Hours.Nine
25 - Diplomat's trap
William had just cleared the Pentagon’s watergate, the Spydar humming invisibly in his accessory slot, when the world turned orange.It wasn't the soft hue of a sunset. It was the violent, shimmering orange of a kiln being opened.The predictive algorithm of the Spydar screamed a warning in his retinal display—Thermal Spike Detected. Sector 1 (Capitol) Initiating Launch.—but William didn't need the A-Grade accessory to tell him the sky was burning.From the drowned center of the National Mall, three miles away, the Scorch-Scale Sovereign took flight.It was a terrifying majesty. The A-Grade Boss didn't flap wings; it didn't have any. It simply uncoiled from the shattered rotunda of the Capitol Building, rising on a column of superheated air that instantly flash-boiled the surrounding swamp water. A massive plume of steam, white and dense, erupted upwards, only to be blown apart by the creature’s sheer thermal pressure.The dragon ascended, its long, serpentine body undulating through
24 - Pentagon's eye
William retreated from the petrified white forest of the National Mall, slipping back into the murky safety of the swollen Potomac. He didn't stop until he was aboard his yacht, anchored behind the crumbling concrete shield of the Arlington Memorial Bridge. The heat radiating from the Scorch-Scale Sovereign was still palpable, a ghostly warmth clinging to his armor even in the cool, filtered air of the ship’s cabin.He sat at the console, the holographic display casting a blue glow over his face. He uploaded the encrypted packet to Cecelia: a high-resolution snapshot of the petrified forest, the A-Grade Sovereign, and the swirling, storm-touched Orb floating in the Capitol’s shattered rotunda.He waited. The response time would indicate her level of interest.It took eleven seconds.Incoming Message: Cecelia Wu “Do not engage. I repeat: Do not engage. The Sovereign is a localized disaster event waiting to happen. If you wake it up, you won’t just die; you’ll wipe the entire eastern se
23 - pulse of the swamp
The Luxury Yacht (B) cut through the swollen, silty waters of the Ohio River, its warp-capable engines humming at a low, sub-audible frequency designed to evade aquatic sonar.William stood on the bridge, watching the shoreline of what was once Kentucky slide past. It was no longer a state; it was a wall of impenetrable green. The Thousand Mile Barrier—the atmospheric and systemic wall that prevented high-speed aerial or warp travel—forced him to navigate the old waterways. But for a man with a B-Grade vessel and a silenced engine, the rivers were the veins of the continent, and he was the only blood cell moving freely.He was returning from the Harvest. The Million Tote (L) was heavy with the weight of the Midwest: grain silos, heirloom seed vaults, and enough agricultural machinery to jumpstart a civilization. He had secured the future. Now, he had to survive the present.William turned his attention to the holographic interface floating above the yacht’s console. Specifically, the
