Reborn as the Apocalypse Master

The Harvest

"Get down from there right now." Zoey pointed a trembling finger at the monster. "This is a trick."

Kai sat on the back of the Malakor. He looked down at the broken squad.

"You are a porter." Zoe raised his voice. "You carry bags. You do not command floor bosses."

Kai rested his hands against the plates of the beast. The obsidian shell felt warm.

"You found a taming artifact." Zoey took a step forward. He tried to project authority. "You stole it from the Silver Fangs. Hand it over to me."

"You are in no position to issue orders." Kai kept his voice even.

"I am a ranked Awakened." Zoey glared at him. "You are an unawakened rat. The Guild laws dictate you surrender all high tier loot to a sanctioned squad."

Kai laughed. The sound echoed in the quiet cavern.

"The Guild laws do not reach this deep." Kai looked around the stone walls. "This is my domain."

"If you do not hand over the artifact I will report you to the city guard." Zoey ignored him. "They will execute you in the public square for theft."

The other three men nodded. They stood behind Zoey and gripped their weapons. They still believed their status meant something.

They still believed the hierarchy of the city mattered.

"The portal is sealed." Kai stated the fact. "No one is reporting anything."

Zoey turned his head. He looked at the dead blue archway. The reality of their situation finally set in.

"You sealed the gate." Zoey swallowed hard. "You used the artifact to lock us inside."

"I locked the gate to prevent your escape." Kai said.

"You cannot keep us here." Another archer spoke up from the back. "Our guild master knows we entered this zone. If we do not return he will send a strike team."

"I'm counting on it." Kai welcomed the idea. "I need more souls to feed the core."

Zoey stepped back. He looked at the glowing purple teeth of the Malakor. He looked at Kai sitting comfortably on top.

The pieces clicked into place in his mind. The porter was not using an artifact. The porter was in control.

Kai raised his right hand. He waved it toward the ceiling.

Varnids dropped from the stone crevices. They landed on the rock floor with heavy thuds. They formed a tight circle around the four men.

Mandibles clicked. Corrosive acid dripped onto the stone.

Zoey dropped his weapon. The steel axe hit the floor. He fell to his knees.

The archer and the two other men followed his lead. They threw their weapons away. They pressed their hands against the dirt.

"Wait." Zoey raised his head. Panic replaced his anger. "We can make a deal."

"I do not make deals with scavengers." Kai looked down at them.

"We have money." Zoey rushed his words. "We have a vault in the middle district. Over two million credits. It is yours."

Kai did not answer.

"We can sponsor you." The archer cried out. "We can get you a residency pass. You will never have to sleep in the slums again."

"We will give you our gear." Zoey pointed to his armor. "This chest plate has a passive barrier skill. Take it."

"Three months ago." Kai broke his silence. "You hired me to carry your salvage through the rot zone."

Zoey froze. He stared up at Kai.

"You told me to walk twenty paces ahead of the squad." Kai recited the memory. "You said my job was to check for traps."

"It was standard procedure." Zoey whispered.

"A swamp serpent bit my leg." Kai continued. "The venom burned through my veins. I fell into the mud."

The cavern fell quiet. The Varnids waited for their command.

"I asked for one vial of antivenom from your supply pack." Kai locked eyes with Zoey. "You carried twelve vials in that bag."

"We needed them for the boss fight." Zoey tried to defend himself.

"You said the antivenom cost one thousand credits." Kai ignored the excuse. "You said my life was worth less than the medicine. You left me to rot in the swamp."

"We survived." The archer pleaded. "You survived. The poison did not kill you."

"I survived because I dug a knife into my own leg and bled the venom out." Kai tapped his thigh. "I dragged myself out of the rift over three days."

Kai looked at the men begging for their lives. They looked exactly like he did in the swamp.

"You valued my life at zero credits." Kai rendered his judgment. "I value yours at the exact same price."

Zoey realized the begging was useless. He stopped trembling. He slowly pushed himself up from the floor.

He wiped the dirt from his knees. He looked at Kai with pure hatred.

"You are a traitor." Zoey spat on the rock floor. "You sold your soul to the monsters."

Kai laughed. The sound was cold and devoid of humor.

"Humanity betrayed me the day the rifts opened." Kai countered. "The elites hoarded the cores. You built walls to keep the weak outside."

"We built the walls to save the species." Zoey shouted.

"You built the walls to protect your wealth." Kai corrected him. "You force the unawakened to carry your burdens. You leave us to die when it suits you."

Zoey reached down. He grabbed the handle of his axe.

"I am not a traitor." Kai leaned forward. "I am the consequence of your system."

Zoey roared. A bright yellow aura erupted around his body. The stone floor cracked beneath his boots.

He activated a high tier combat skill. The energy rushed through his muscles. He kicked off the ground and charged at the Malakor.

He swung the axe toward Kai. He aimed for a lethal strike to the chest.

Kai did not flinch. He did not issue a verbal command.

The Malakor moved. It was faster than the human eye could track.

A massive scythe flashed in the dim light. The sharp edge tore through the yellow aura. It sliced through the steel breastplate.

The blade cut Zoey cleanly in two.

His upper torso hit the ground a dozen feet away from his legs. Blood pooled heavily on the rock. The combat aura vanished.

Zoey did not even have time to scream.

The remaining three men broke. They scrambled toward the walls. They screamed for help.

Kai waved his hand a second time.

The circle of Varnids collapsed inward. They swarmed the survivors.

Mandibles tore through leather armor and flesh. Corrosive acid melted skin and bone. The beasts ripped the men apart piece by piece.

The screams echoed through the cavern. They lasted for ten seconds.

Then silence filled the space. The first revenge was complete.

A chime rang inside Kai skull. The system delivered the rewards.

[Intruder slain. Fifty Dungeon Points awarded. Rift energy increased.]

[Intruder slain. Fifty Dungeon Points awarded. Rift energy increased.]

[Intruder slain. Fifty Dungeon Points awarded. Rift energy increased.]

Kai watched the numbers update on his interface. His resource pool was growing. The core was feeding.

He swung his leg over the armored plating. He dropped down from the Malakor. His boots hit the stone.

He walked among the bodies. He assessed his own losses.

Five Varnids lay dead on the cavern floor. The Vipers managed to kill a few before the boss arrived.

Kai noted the fragility of his basic units. A single strike from a steel axe easily cracked their gray carapaces. He needed to invest points into upgrading their armor.

He kicked a severed arm out of his path. He searched the shadows near the cavern wall.

He found the heavy canvas sack he carried earlier. He had dropped it when the Malakor attacked.

Kai dragged the bag into the center of the room.

He walked over to the remains of Zoey. He found the smaller canvas sack attached to the severed belt. He pulled it free.

Kai stood in the light of the glowing red crystals. He emptied both sacks onto the stone floor.

Over one hundred beast cores scattered across the rock. They glowed with faint red energy. They hummed with trapped mana.

This was the harvest.

Kai knelt on the floor. He picked up a single baseline core. He held it up to the dim light.

He did the math in his head. The numbers were staggering.

A single baseline core sold for one hundred thousand credits in the city markets. The elites used them to power their spells. The corporations used them to fuel the city generators.

Kai looked at the pile in front of him. There were at least one hundred and twenty cores scattered on the ground.

The pile represented over twelve million credits.

Twelve million credits bought a permanent residency pass in the upper district. It granted access to the inner city walls. It granted access to clean water and good food.

The unawakened drank from the polluted river. They ate scrap meat.

Twelve million credits bought a private mansion with automated defense turrets. It bought a life of absolute luxury.

Kai spent the last year starving in an alley to earn ten credits a day. He carried two hundred pounds of monster parts just to earn a single core.

Now twelve million credits rested at his feet.

Kai looked up from the pile. He stared at the living Varnids.

They stood in a line near the wall. They waited for his command.

Kai saw money. He saw currency standing in his cavern.

An armored Varnid core was worth three times as much as a baseline core. One armored kill yielded three hundred thousand credits.

The Malakor core was worth millions on its own.

Kai gripped the handle of a discarded axe. He could kill the bugs right now. He could slaughter his own units and harvest their cores. He could walk out of the rift a billionaire.

He stopped himself. He dropped the axe.

The system warning flashed in his memory. The core sustained his life. The beasts defended the core.

If he killed his own defenders the rift became vulnerable. A strong squad of Awakened would eventually breach the final floor. They would shatter the red crystal.

If the crystal broke Kai ceased to exist.

Money possessed zero value to a dead man. He must prioritize the rift above everything else. He cannot kill his own units.

But he needed more cores. He needed funds to buy human gear for his avatar.

The twelve million credits were a starting fund. It was not enough to build an empire. He needed billions.

An idea formed in his mind. The logic was simple and brutal.

He could not harvest his own dungeon. But the world contained thousands of other rifts.

Other rifts possessed their own monsters. Other rifts contained hoards of cores waiting to be claimed.

The human elites raided rifts to steal power. Kai could do the exact same thing.

He would use their resources to fortify his own domain.

Kai looked at the dead portal. The one hour lockdown timer expired. The blue archway sparked and flared back to life.

He gathered the cores from the floor. He stuffed them into the canvas sack. He threw the heavy bag over his shoulder.

The weight felt different this time. It did not feel like a burden. It felt like power.

"System." Kai looked at the blue portal. "Prepare the avatar."

"Time to go out."