Somewhere in the universe

The soil is a gray-brown mixture of sand and rock on a barren planet. A gust of wind blew away the sand, forming a small, faint sandstorm that enveloped an ancient-looking city. This city's tallest buildings are only three levels and made of some kind of concrete, with the color of the buildings blending in with the color of the ground surface. The streets of this town were sandy, with people of the humanoid race walking around this city. In one corner of the city is a market with a row of store and shop buildings and a row of semi-permanent shops in front of it, which divides the sandy street. These semi-permanent shops are made of some kind of solid wood with a place to shade in front of it. This market is very busy with various kinds of humanoid races who carry out buying and selling activities. The goods sold in this market vary; old furniture and melee weapons such as swords, shields, etc. Also, long-range weapons in forms resembling handguns, assault rifles, and even cannons, etc., along with their ammunition.

A humanoid man walked in a while wearing an ankle-length hooded overcoat of grey-blue color that opened at the middle with a high collar, long pants, and a waistcoat. His forearms are covered with metal armor connected to metal-coated gloves on both his hands, protecting from the elbows to the hands, and knee-high boots covered with metal armor. This humanoid man walked through the market while taking in the sights to his right and left, looking alert.

Before long, a group of humanoid men from other races walked over hurriedly together, carrying their respective single-shot rifles in their hands. Because the attention of the humanoid man in an overcoat was distracted by the market around him, he didn't notice the arrival of this group until they finally found each other and looked surprised while looking at each other. One of the mobs, who was the leader, said

"Finally, we found you!"

The leader said in a raised tone. The humanoid man in the overcoat immediately turned around and ran away. Seeing that, the leader of the humanoid men from the mob continued to speak.

"Dammit, chase him!"

The five humanoid men surrounding the leader immediately ran after the man in the overcoat. The man in the overcoat ran through the market while trying not to bump into the people around him too often, and the chasers did the same. The chasing party heard the command from the single earphone on their right ear. At the other end of the call was the leader of the mob, who was walking at a hastened pace while dodging the people around him

“Don't let him escape, kill him if necessary.”

One of the humanoid men who was still chasing replied in a respectful tone

“Understood sir”

While running, they prepared their rifles to fire as soon as they had the chance because they couldn't shoot carelessly in a crowded place like this.

Back at the man in the overcoat, he was intercepted by a similar mob from ahead, who immediately noticed his presence. The man in the overcoat immediately ran to the side, climbed up the one-story shop building with a parkour-like technique, and quickly climbed up the shop to the roof. The mob still at below immediately shot him, their rifles shooting a kind of red light that rushed towards the humanoid man in the overcoat but failed to hit him and only hit and shattered the nearby wall. These shots created a loud sound that panicked the humanoid people in this marketplace, who immediately moved away. The mob chased the humanoid man in an overcoat through the alley that connected the shop buildings while continuously trying to shoot at him, but he ran steadily while ducking slightly and was able to dodge the shots.

The man in the overcoat jumped down an alley, then immediately turned into another. The pursuing party immediately tried to shoot at him again but failed to hit him and continued to chase him towards the alley the man had turned. However, as soon as they turned into the alley, it turned out to be a dead end by a three-story high wall with a three-story building on the right and left. The chasing parties are surprised to see this; one of them said

"Damn, where did he go?"

He said that because the surrounding conditions made it impossible to park ours. They immediately ran away from there to find another way. Behind the wall from the dead end, a man in an overcoat was behind it; he then ran away from here. Shortly after the man in the overcoat left, the wall that had blocked the alley collapsed and gave off a momentary mist of dust, and the alley opened again.

 

United States 20xx AD

Go back to a few hours earlier. The man in a black armored cloak stared in astonishment at the black screen floating in front of him, with the people around him bustling about talking and watching the news about Black Star. The black screen in front of him showed white writing:

 

[System initiation failure…]

 

[Please wait…]

 

The man in the cloak said

“Failures? I don't know why this has been happening more frequently lately."

Before long, another white writing appeared on the black screen before him.

 

[Searching for the cause, please wait...]

 

The man in the cloak looked curious and intended to wait a moment.

 

[There is an embedded message found blocking the system process]

 

[Displaying a message, please wait...]

 

The man in the cloak said

"Message? What else were you trying to tell me exactly?”

Shortly after that, another white writing appeared:

 

[Beware of...]

 

[Problem detected. Trying to display another part of the message. Please wait...]

 

The man in the cloak is seen from behind, crossed his arms

“Beware of what?”

Before long, another white writing appeared on the black screen in front of him.

 

[M____verse]

 

The man in the cloak is seen from behind, propping his chin with his right hand while resting on his crossed left hand.

“It seems that there is a missing part from that word, what does that mean….”

Shortly after, the black screen before him showed another white writing.

 

[Trying to repair the damaged message, please wait...]

 

[Message too corrupted to repair, deleting pinned message to fix system failure]

 

Reading that startled the man in the cloak, he subconsciously said in a raised voice.

"Wait a minute, don't delete it!"

The voice of the man in the cloak startled the people around him.

 

[Message deleted]

 

The man in the cloak said

"Damn, luckily I remembered the short message, hopefully no other messages are deleted."

 

[System repaired successfully. Please wait...]

 

The man in the cloak said

“Looks like this will take a longer process than before.”

The man in the cloak continued to speak alone without caring about his surroundings, causing the people around him to turn their attention to him with confused expressions. Another white writing appeared on the black screen in front of him.

 

[System maintenance is in progress. Please wait…]

 

The man in the cloak is seen from behind crosses his arms

“Damn, it can't be helped. I guess I'll have to wait.”

The man in the cloak walked away from there, leaving behind the crowd of people looking at him with astonished expressions. While walking, the man in the cloak thought.

“What does that warning message mean… I have to find out.”

The man in the cloak continued walking, and not long after, several fighter jets flew by above him and attracted the attention of the people around him.

It wasn't long before the people around him suddenly started panicking and ran away in the same direction the man in the cloak was walking. From behind him, there was a roar like the sound of an engine, and a gust of wind started to hit quite strongly and fly light objects around, and this man's cloak waved forward. From the front direction above the man in the cloak, several fighter jets flew by him while firing their missiles and automatic guns, causing gunshots and explosion sounds that broke the atmosphere. The man in the cloak turned around; he had seen from the side tilted his head slightly upwards, looking towards the sky.

“What the hell is that...”

Whatever the man in the cloak saw in the sky surprised him, even though until a few moments ago, what was happening around him didn't catch his attention.

“If it's like this, I better act."

The man in the cloak pressed something at his collar cloak, and in an instant, his entire face was covered by a black mask. The man in the cloak was seen from the front, showing his entire face, now covered by a black metal mask with fiery red patterns on the eyes part of the mask.

The man in the cloak pushed aside his cloak, revealing his body wearing a white shirt, black trousers, and boots. Around his waist is a baldric belt for carrying weapons on his lower back, in which both hands are covered with gauntlets up to the elbows. This gauntlet has sturdy blunt carvings, and the fingers have sturdy sharp carvings that are also on the tip of each finger as claws. Throughout the gauntlet, there are carvings that form patterns. On the back of the hand is another solid gold carving, and along the top of the gauntlet is a golden carving that resembles a sword. Along the left side of the gauntlet up to the elbow was a sharp blade covered in armor solidly carved into its surface, whose blade was wide enough to cut when the hand was moved to slash. The right-hand gauntlet is faint blue, while the left-hand gauntlet is yellowish red. The man in the cloak positioned his arms forward, about to attacks.

“Activate skills, Endless Breath and Speedster.”

As soon as the man in the cloak said that, two black screens appeared with white writing on his front right and left:

 

[Endless Breath Skill Activated (1:29 time remaining)]

[Skill: Endless Breath lvl.3]

Type: Active

Mana usage: none

Cooldown: 2 min 30 sec (2:29 remaining)

Effect: over a period of time, the user's stamina will not decrease]

Side effects: none

 

[Speedster Skill Activated (1:29 remaining)]

[Skill: Speedster lvl. 3

Type: Active

Mana usage: none

Cooldown: 2 min 30 sec (2:29 remaining)

Effect: over a period of time, the user's speed increases by 300%

Side effect: Fatigue + 0.2 / second (disabled)]

 

The man in the cloak then ran very fast towards the source that was attacked by several fighter jets earlier.

 

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• New chapters of Yokai novel will be published soon. Please look forward to it ^^