If he could get to Gamdu Communications Tower before the start of the event, that would be the ideal situation for him. Nobody else had awakened their demon summoning app, so he’d have a complete monopoly on harvesting the resources available there.

Limit break potions, demon crystals, gold coins, and a mana-rich meditation zone… just thinking about it made Zack’s heart beat harder. All of that stuff was hoarded by the Anti-Terrorism Task Force during his last time around.

Zack emerged from the long tunnel right as the sound of more Drakken wolves spawning could be heard from behind him. The scurrying of their claws on steel, and their ragged breath could be heard from a mile away.

He could take them on, but he risked getting too caught up fighting that he’d end up running into the Anti-Terrorism Task Force and getting into a horrible situation.

Ah… the Anti-Terrorism Task Force. Just remembering that name made Zack’s head hurt. The captain of the task force was a real thorn in his side for the longest time.

There were three people that Zack needed to be very careful of. Despite the calamity being a monster versus human conflict, it turned out that humans could be some real sons of bitches as well.

The three main sons of bitches or head honchos he had to watch out for were Gareth the captain of the Anti-Terrorism Task Force, Governor Barst who was governor of the city, and… damn, he was having a hard time remembering the last one. A celebrity actor, perhaps? Or an actress?

Gareth was the muscle, and Governor Barst was the hand pulling the strings behind the scenes, exerting his political influence to quarantine entire sections of the city so that his own men could benefit from the demon events and lie to the civilians under the guise of terrorism or national emergency.

Zack was nowhere near ready to confront them yet. For now, it was best for him to just avoid these figures and collect as many resources and do as much training as he could before they caught on about the whole demon summoning thing.

Woooooooooooooo…

Zack sped up his pace upon hearing the canine roar, realizing that two new Drakken wolves had just come out of the rift. Emerging out of the tunnel, he began to sprint back towards the way he came from.

Darting across the subway tracks while breathing in the damp air, he arrived at the subway train where it all started.

It didn’t take long for Zack to realize that something was wrong. Far more windows were shattered than before, and blood splatters outlined the seats of the subway car. He caught the faintest glimpse white fur dyed red with gore, and of a Drakken wolf pacing away from the destroyed car dragging the body of an eldery woman with its mouth. Several mangled bodies lay on the subway platform, accompanied by the sickening sound of canine teeth sinking into their flesh and feasting.

“Shit.” Zack muttered to himself softly. “This is worse than I thought. A double dungeon break…”

These civilians were never saveable, as he could now clearly see that there were four wolves pacing across the subway.

The number of wolves was an obvious sign that another dungeon break had occurred in another one of the tunnels.

Four was far too many for him to take on at once, and a simple mental calculation told him that there could be far more. One wolf spawning plus two wolves spawning was not equal to four wolves, which meant that three rounds of spawns had occurred, and that there were at least two more hidden somewhere. He needed to get out of here, quickly. Holding his breath, he kept his back against the pillars and shimmied as quietly as he could.

After reaching the end of the pillars, Zack knew that he had no more cover left to rely on. He took a deep breath, focusing his attention on his legs to use a body awakening technique. A red qi-like force coalesced around his legs, causing his calf and thigh muscles to bulge and glow hot, increasing the explosiveness of his mobility temporarily. However, the awakening technique was actively destroying his muscles, so he could only use it for a brief moment.

He needed a lot more practice to raise his body awakening technique to a comparable level to what it was before. But for now, the inferior version of the body awakening technique would have to do.

Zack exploded out from behind the pillar like a bullet, alerting all four Drakken wolves. The wolves looked up from their meal and snarled at him, then began to chase. But Zack was too fast. His calves felt like they were burning as he ran, but he just grit his teeth and stomached the pain, darting towards the utility pipe as fast as he could.

The wolves were chasing in earnest now after their initial surprise, and Zack could hear their murderous claws scraping against steel as they chased him. They were gaining ground as Zack’s awakening technique was beginning to falter, but he just barely managed to make it to the pipe which had its door slightly ajar.

Throwing himself through the pipe, he quickly slammed the door shut behind him and twisted the dial to the locked position with both hands. Snarls and angry scratching sounds came from the other side of the door, as the wolves were not pleased that their prey had escaped.

Zack let out a deep breath, wincing as he felt his legs go to jelly. His current mastery over the awakening technique was far too poor for him to sustain over a long period of time. Thankfully, he managed to survive.

He pulled himself up the utility pipe, holding the railings with his hands and pulling himself up using his arm muscles alone to avoid further strain on his legs. Time to get out of here and head to a mana-rich hotspot so that he could recover his body and meditate to train his qi manipulation.

It took him twenty minutes to reach the top of the utility pipe, and he emerged into a rundown side street of the city, landing onto a dumpster. His white office wear dress shirt was covered in blood, and his pants were ripped and tattered. It was raining lightly, and the faint breeze carried those familiar odors of trash and cooking oil from a nearby restaurant’s exhaust fan.

Limping forward, he pulled out his smartphone and checked the time. It was almost midnight. He was tired, but he still resolved to go to Gamdu Communications Tower and find that hotspot.

Sirens blared in the distance as police and firefighters were dealing with the collapsed subway station situation. Zack could only hope that they would resolve that situation with minimal casualties, but he knew that that was probably wishful thinking.

He shielded his face from the light drizzle with an elbow as he hobbled down the rundown side street, making sure not to step in any pools of dirty water. Emerging onto the main street which was bustling with pedestrians hurrying about with umbrellas and store fronts with lit neon lights, Zack made a right turn and headed towards a convenience store.

Ding, ding!

The sound of a door charm rang sweetly as Zack stepped into the convenience store completely drenched.

“Welcome to Seven Up! How may I help you–” asked a polite female cashier before seeing the state that Zack was in. “Sir, are you injured? Do you need me to call the ambulance?”

Zack shook his head. “It’s alright, I’m headed to the hospital now. Just need an umbrella and two bottles of water. Oh, and a sandwich,” he said, taking two water bottles and a triangular chicken katsu with tomato and lettuce sandwich from the fridge area.

“Do you sell umbrellas here?” he asked, limping towards the counter.

“Yes, right here!” the polite female cashier replied, taking a small umbrella out from underneath the counter.

Zack placed his food items on the counter next to the flimsy umbrella that looked like it was made for school children. It had been so long since he did something like this that it almost felt foreign to him.

“Will that be all, sir?”

“Yeah.”

“Your total is twenty seven fifty four zed,” she replied.

Zack took out his wallet, which had thankfully survived the scuffle unscathed, and swiped his card.

The cashier quickly bagged his items and handed him the plastic bag. “Thank you for your patronage!”

Zack nodded, heading out the door as the bell jingled once more.

“We hope to see you again!”

He let out a weak smile. It was nice to be back in society.

With his plastic bag in hand, Zack headed down the street towards downtown. The chicken katsu sandwich currently resting in his bag was very important. Every time he went through qi manipulation meditation, he got extremely hungry. Maybe he should’ve bought two.