Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 465 THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTA

CHAPTER 465 THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTA

“Did people just let zombies bite them?” The shadow clone asked as he punched one of the zombies. It’s face caved in and it’s brains shot out the back of it’s skull, spraying them on another zombie behind it.

I had been working with Weston’s shadow clones on Nen. Because we had mainly focused on using chakra and haki he never really just used nen. Mainly spinning all three energy sources into attacks, Weston hadn’t understood the different uses that Nen had. Since we were Enhancers the power allowed it to strengthen us with a different energy source than his chakra, while also making him practically invulnerable to attacks. 

Like when I charged pieces of paper with Nen, there was an impenetrable barrier around us as we channeled Nen. Though we still mixed in Haki into our attacks, it was good for us both to focus on one energy source now and then. A fact I felt he was slowly admitting, since chakra was the main source of empowering energy he had been using. 

“Obviously,” I said. “This group was probably some hippies that thought the undead needed a hug.” I sliced through another four heads with my Soulsword. The blade was pure Nen, and shined brightly as I swung it expertly. I had made the blade a while ago after a stint in Limbo and the System downloaded the plans in my head on how to make it. By layering my Nen over and over again I continuously made it stronger and sharper as I grew in strength. Since it hadn’t been much help against a Kryptonian I needed to make it far better, in hopes that it’s strength would transfer to my other bodies in different Halls. 

“Fucking hippies!” Clone Weston said as he shot a wave of Nen through the heads of two zombies. “I was wondering what that weird smell was.” 

I barked a laugh and we continued yet another zombie killing spree. As I did I received a new quest notification. 

Walking Dead Quest 1.3:

Kill Zombies (5,000/5,000)

Rewards:

Bonus Upgrade+

Walking Dead Quest 1.4:

Kill Zombies (0/10,000)

Rewards:

Dead Man Walking+

“Oh shit,” I said as I read through the notifications. “I got to the 1.4 quest for killing zombies.”

“Finally,” Clone Weston said.

“What? That didn’t take too long.”

“Psh, main me is at quest 1.5. I should get Dead Man Walking plus soon,” he said. “Whatever the hell that is.”

Other Weston was a quest reward behind me since the original quest rewarded him the World Lasting Physique in the Comic Hall. Since then his rewards had reflected my own. “He already killed the 10,000?” I asked, surprised. 

“Yeah, shadow clones killing the zombies counts for him. He already has a huge pocket of South Carolina cleared of the Zs,” he said.

“What the fuck, you’re supposed to tell me this stuff,” I said. 

“Sorry, slipped my mind,” he said. “Any idea what Dead Man Walking+ is?”

“No idea,” I admitted as I continued killing the zombies. “L said it let’s us do things only dead people can do. Maybe we can control zombies or something.”

“That would be…stupid,” the clone said. I agreed, but wasn’t going to complain about rewards. I had received plenty of rewards I didn’t understand, but all were useful in some way. We had been working our way slowly West jumping from one problem to another. From zombie groups sieging households, to humans taking advantage of others. We had been freeing people and directing them to Myrtle Beach as I continued my search for the main group from The Walking Dead.

I couldn’t remember exactly where they were supposed to be at this point. The outbreak of zombies had started in July and it was currently late August. The world went to shit pretty quickly, and what I could remember was Rick Grimes should have awoken from his coma and made his way to Atlanta, Georgia right away. Weston’s clone and I had been in the area checking out the suburbs when we stumbled on yet another group in peril. 

Wrapping up the immediate threat of zombies the survivors peaked their heads out from the line of cars. Their leader was a middle aged man. 

“How did you do that?” The man asked as he approached slowly. He was dirty but unharmed at least. His group a mix of adults and kids, I could tell the group had started with his immediate family and stragglers had latched onto them. Allowing them to work together to stay safe. Unfortunately they were set upon by a large group of zombies from the nearby highway. 

“We are just that good,” the clone said. 

“You made their heads explode,” a woman said, amazed. “Were you bitten?”

“What? No,” I said, annoyed she would suggest a death sentence like that. 

“Sorry, I just heard some people get superpowers if they’re bitten,” she mumbled. 

“What the fuck,” I said, growing angry. “What kind of asshole would suggest that?” I didn’t remember that being a rumor in the comic or show. 

“Y-yeah,” the clone said. “But hey you all should be safe if you head that way. If you’re feeling adventurous. Head East to Myrtle Beach. There is a safe zone there.”  

“Have you been all over Atlanta? We heard that there was a group-“

“Everyone’s dead,” I said. We had looked extensively in the city. “Get away from big cities. Don’t trust anyone. And here…” I opened my subspace to pull out some semi-automatic rifles I’d taken from zombie soldiers. I walked the leader through how to use them and gave him some ammo. Hopeful it would help them on their journey. It wasn't long until we were flying again. 

Weston’s shadow clone latching onto my back it was easy to traverse the world with my flight. No helicopters or planes in the area I doubted I was helping the mention of superpowers by openly flying, but I didn’t care. 

I had no idea what caused the zombie outbreak, and I wasn’t about to try to find out by walking everywhere. After saving another group on the edge of the city Weston and I flew to the top of one of the skyscrapers and started a fire. Munching on some food we continued our stories of what we had been up to. 

“You went out into space?!” The clone asked. “Like full on, no space suit, just your bare balls in the vacuum of space?!”

“I mean, I was wearing clothes, but yeah,” I said, enjoying his reaction. Anne and Phoenix had acted like it wasn’t some great accomplishment when they flew up with me. 

“What was it like?” He asked. A fire between us, we were atop a random skyscraper. One of the few places in the city far enough from zombies. It was nice to be away from the constant groaning they let out. 

“Empty,” I said, thinking back. “The vacuum of space tries to pull out your eardrums and eyes. I didn’t hear anything either. Cold too.”

“Fucking badass,” he said. “I didn’t even think about space.” He poked the fire, the remains of our ramen noodle dinner burning inside it. “What happened after that?”

“Well Phoenix went a little murder crazy. We got this ship, grabbed everyone. Then she asked me to stay out there with her. Travel the universe with her.” Weston frowned, not liking the sound of that. “What?” I asked, brought out of my regret of letting her go with the others. 

“Dude, she sounds pretty unstable,” he said. 

“So?”

“So, she’s already got another personality. What makes you think she doesn’t have another?”

“What makes you say she has a third?”

“You forget what she was called in canon? Dark Phoenix,” he reminded. 

“So?”

“Dude, she seemed a little trigger happy as Phoenix. What if there is a darker Phoenix in there. The type to destroy civilizations like in that prophecy,” he said. 

“I…don’t know,” I said. We grew quiet. It was some time before I added, “after that the System offered me a new role as a Galactic Hero. The others escaped and I was left behind.”

“Yeah fucking right,” he said, laughing. “You stayed behind on purpose. You just didn’t want to have another fight with Anne.”

“You’re not wrong there,” I said. “I figured I might as well travel in space for a few months. Let her cool off. Then deal with it when I get back. Unless the System pulls me to some other crap I guess.”

“Which it will,” he said. I nodded in agreement. 

“What about you? What was the last step for you that brought you here?” Our nights had been filled with stories since we left Myrtle Beach. Mainly about the women we had bedded, it became something of a bragging match. He did have more women, but mine were actual people from canon, it was a toss up on who was winning, at least, that’s what I told myself. We had been sparring now and then as well, but his clones were still pretty weak. It was nice to get some pointers though. We had laughed and joked pretty hard about the fights we had been in, making them sound far grander than they actually were. 

We had told stories, did random things that would only interest us, and teased one another for days. Now on my third clone sent from Weston we were almost fully caught up with one another. Like old friends reuniting after years past, it was nice to have someone I didn’t have to worry about giving away my secrets. A part of me knew he was just me, so I was talking to myself, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t crazy for talking to him so candidly.

“So I told you how we got called to that dungeon, right?” He asked as I nodded. “So this Awakening thing happened and I was thrust into this vision. I didn’t know it at the time but I’d actually been dreaming parts of the vision since I became a Player. This time I saw it all though. From beginning to end. I was this disembodied passenger as it all played for me.”

He continued to poke a stick into the fire. “In the universe of Solo Leveling, in the beginning there was the Absolute Being. Basically, God in our home world. I saw this great white light when I looked at him and-“ I cut him off. 

“Wait, was there a narrator explaining this stuff to you as it went on?” I asked. 

“No, more of an idea,” he said. “Maybe I was reading the Haki of the vision, I don’t know. Either way, this Absolute Being creates everything. Humans, planets, life, death, light, shadow, nature, everything. Along with humans he created other species. Demons, orcs, ice elves, giants, fairy’s, and every fantasy creature under the sun, and then some.”

“The same creatures that tried to escape the dungeon portals on Earth?” I asked, just confirming it was the same as canon. 

“The same. But hold off on the questions for a bit. I’m still like 100,000 years till the present,” he said. He took in a breath then let out a tired sigh. “So things were going great. This Absolute Being was happy with what he made. Then in his plane of existence a new being was formed out of nowhere. A wisp of an essence. Hardly anything that could be noticed by us normal people, but it intrigued the Absolute Being. He watched, learned everything he could about it, and eventually it began to grow. Slowly he learned that this was the essence of what he had created. This specific one was the wisp of Man.”

I held off my questions as he continued. “The Absolute Being had created humans, and somehow as they grew and prospered a part of their essence came back to him. Over time more wisps of the people and elements began to awaken in his existence. He eventually gave them shape. Allowing them to gain substance and bodies to interact with the dimension they occupied.”

“Wait, so he was in another dimension?”

“Yeah, basically heaven,” he said. “I don’t think it’s important to the story. So anyway, these natures of the aspects of sentient existence he created, became Rulers. They were the beings that governed their nature. There was the Ruler of Frost. Ruler of Shadow. Venom, reptiles, man, elves, all that shit. In the end there were 144 of them. And the Absolute Being was happy with them.”

He paused again. “Then?” I asked, knowing this wasn’t the end. 

“Then Man fucked up,” he said. 

“How did I know it would be us?” I asked. 

He smirked at me. “Well, not really us, but the…what was it? They have weird names later on, but right now he was just the Ruler of Humanity, or Man. He was attuned to all the pain humans went through. Trying to survive all the lions, tigers, and bears and shit. You see, back then all the monsters and sentient beings were all on the same planet, Earth. So we had to deal with elves, orcs, mermaids, dragons, and all the shit of the world. The Ruler of Man took pity on us. As the oldest of the Rulers he had seen a lot. One of many projects of the Absolute Being were the Cups. They were the Cup of Life, Death, and Reincarnation. More of a passion project than anything. The Absolute Being had even sent more than a few of his creations in search of the Cups. Gifting mortals the chance at the cups to drive and push them.”

“So the Holy Grail?”

“Basically,” Weston said. “There are a hell of lot of civilizations that were created and destroyed between now and then. I’m talking a looong time. So long even a hint of a story is lost in our history. Anyway, the Absolute Being didn’t let all of these cups out. As the beings on Earth continued to fight one another, the Ruler of Man stole the Cup of Life. Secreting it away to Earth he let five rulers of men drink of the cup. Allowing them to live for centuries.”

“What does that matter? How did that help us?”

“It matters because of inheritance,” Weston said. “I’m talking about a time period when men were always on the brink of extinction. The elves, dwarves, orcs and trolls were the real rulers of the world. We humans only had a few camps left. When the Ruler granted the leaders a chance to drink from the Cup, they were able to survive no matter what. No longer was all knowledge wiped out. They could pass on new information, new innovations were made, and we began to pull out of the really fucking dark ages.”

“Shit,” I mumbled, trying to picture humans on the verge of extinction. They had to have been tough as nails back then. 

“Yeah,” he said. “It was bad. But luckily the other Rulers didn’t notice it for a while. When they did, they tried to do the same for their people. The Absolute Being stepped in and kept the Cups back. He didn’t even punish the Ruler of Man. Which pissed the other Rulers off more. They sent their people after the humans, but as they did, men showed the upper hand. They began to rule over all of the species. Which caused the Schism. A great war between the species and man. It got really bad. Every species was on the brink of extinction so the Absolute Being had to step in.”

“The Absolute Being reluctantly sent the other beings to different worlds. Splitting them up for the first time. This appeased some. But as the humans continued to grow in power on their world, a few of the Rulers killed the Ruler of Man. Which caused a huge war between them. When the Absolute Being stepped in many turned on him. Rather than destroying the essences of everything he made, the Being escaped to a new plane of existence.”

“They didn’t kill him?” I asked. I had thought they did in canon. 

“Dude, he was called the Absolute Being for a reason. He literally made it all. These Rulers were far stronger than they used to be, of course. As Man grew so had the Ruler of Man, as new suns were made, the Ruler of Light got stronger, as light grew so did the Ruler of Shadow. They were all so interconnected it was impossible to know who was the strongest, but they had no chance against the Absolute.” 

“Fair enough.”

“So yeah, that takes us to about 10,000 years ago.”

“10,000 years?! We were just at 100,000.”

“Yeah, this fighting between the Rulers lasted a long ass time. It got so bad they started recruiting from the new worlds to help fight each other. Even we humans fought. Then the Rulers on the Absolute Beings side got the upper hand. The Rulers that rebelled were cast out and labeled as lesser Monarchs. The Monarchs escaped to a hidden dimension and things went quiet for a while.”

“Okay?” I said. Tired of his pausing and starting. 

“Then about 10 years ago the first portal appeared on Earth. It was a gate to one of the worlds the Absolute Being sent the other races to. The thing about these worlds is they didn’t have dozens of species fighting for dominance and using all the Mana in them for millennia. Earth had been ravaged by all the wars. Mana existed, but the way to use it was long forgotten. Mana Cores from the Earth had been mined to extinction a long time ago. These new worlds had them in plenty. So we were once again subjected to mana. Awakening a lot of power in people. Bloodlines long forgotten resonated with the mana, making people far stronger. They became Hunters.”

“Eventually we ran into other species in these random portals. They were primitive but had long memories. Hating humans above all, we fought and killed one another.”

“What caused the portals?” I asked. 

“No idea,” he said. “In the Awakening it was implied that maybe it was the Absolute Being. Finally bringing the species back together on Earth. The portals are supposed to close after you kill bosses, but sometimes they stay, so maybe. Either way, the Monarchs that stayed hidden, saw it as a sign. They began to gather their strength. One of the Rulers stayed hidden and was on their side. I’m not sure what he was the Ruler of, but they called him the Architect. He made the trial that awoke the Players.” 

“I really thought I squeaked by,” he said as he shook his head. “No, the Architect wanted Hancock and I there. The more people that awakened as Players, the more Monarchs could come back to the physical plane and this dimension. Since they are basically angels, they needed vessels. Rather than piss off the other races and their Rulers, since the Ruler of Man was dead, they decided to take our bodies over. The whole Player thing was meant to help us get stronger to survive becoming their vessels. So that means there are currently 19 Monarchs loose in the universe. Which is not good.”

“What about the Cup of Reincarnation?” I asked. “Wasn’t that the retarded ending Sung Jin-Woo did?”

“I think so, again it’s all kind of jumbled for me between canon and the real thing,” he said. “What do you remember?”

“I could have sworn he fought the Monarchs, and a lot of people died. Then he drank from the Cup of Reincarnation which allowed him to go back in time 10 years. Then somehow he beat them when he was like 10 years old.”

“That’s dumb,” Weston said. “It’s called the Cup of Reincarnation, that has nothing to do with turning back time. If anything he should have been reborn.”

“Don’t bitch to me. Pretty sure that’s what happened. He drank it then became like a 10 year old fighting the Monarchs.”

“Was the ending really that bad?” He asked. “That makes no sense.”

“You don’t gotta tell me. You probably blocked it out,” I said. “Or got hit one too many times.”

“True,” he said, shaking his head. “Either way, Hancock is one of them. I got a bunch of super powered Monarchs aiming to kill me, and we need to find a way to either kill the Monarchs or end the canon while somehow bringing Hancock back.”

“Okay,” I said. “Got a plan?”

“Nope,” he said. 

“Sounds about right,” I said, thinking as I looked into the fire. “Hey, what about those humans that drank from the Cup of Life?”

“What about them?”

“Are they still alive? They’d be super old, but maybe they can help.”

“No, they died,” he said. “It was the cup of Life, not eternal life. They just got really old”

“Damn, what’s the Cup of Death do?”

“Kills people, I’m sure.”

“Well there we go,” I said. “We trick the bad guys into drinking it.”

“Perfect,” he said sarcastically “so we get to Solo Leveling.” He paused for a moment. “Then get them to kill themselves.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, dropping it for now. Completely lost, I left the thinking for another time as I heard gunshots in the distance. Letting out a sigh I stood up, ready to begin saving people once again.