Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

In the Lab Dungeon, before the battle between Kuzu and the trio.

Kamiya pulled a folding chair from the pile, unfolded it, and sat next to Hitori. Reon was on his right while Hitori was on his left.

"One of the most important things that I want you to keep in mind, always," Kamiya began, "is that: When we are in the Pontianak's courtyard, we have a defense shield that would protect us."

"For how long?" Reon asked, nervously. She cupped her hands together and pulled them on her lap, over her lab coat.

"It depends." Kamiya turned to Reon and said, "on how long you are exposed to their weapons." Kamiya then glanced at Hitori. "It can shatter in a second if a forbidden weapon is used or it can last as long as half an hour if only normal bullets are used," he completed.

Hitori listened carefully to what Kamiya had to say. "What is the catch?" Hitori stopped nodding his head.

"If you step out of the courtyard, your health bar is all that you can rely on," Kamiya said.

Back to the present. The ongoing fight between Uragi and Reon. When Reon pulled out a strange opaque tube and made Uragi inhale the colorless gas from the tube, Uragi struggled for breath.

He grabbed his neck tightly, his face slowly went pale but he found a way to hide behind the courtyard wall before Reon could shoot him down.

Loud coughing sounds filled the courtyard. Uragi's grip around his neck tightened. His face went redder with each passing moment.

Uragi's right hand released his neck and his left hand shifted down to grab his chest. He muttered something (probably cursed) but his words did not come out clear.

He moved his hand behind his back to reach for something. Uragi's back left the wall's surface as he leaned forward and opened his mouth wide, he made some strange gagging sounds-- as if trying to throw up, but nothing came out.

He applied even more pressure and collapsed to the ground, his face entered the dirt as his hands struggled due to the unbearable choking pain.

Reon had walked back to the control panel. She took a look at the remaining men in the Hospital room-- Pontianak's turf.

Ten men all acting the same as Uragi. Grabbing their necks, chest and choking for life. Coughing as if they would throw their hearts out anytime.

Reon stood in front of the screen, solemnly. She looked down at the panel to check the time. "One minute," she muttered, "fifteen seconds more." She looked at the men suffering from severe choking.

The Audience's faces were pale. Most of the audience could not watch Reon kill the men mercilessly. Most of them gulped, some opened their screens to watch, and some were attracted to her merciless side (mostly masochists).

For the next ten seconds, the ten men and Uragi coughed their hearts out. They coughed as if their life depended on it. Two men from the hospital room died from choking when poison should have been the reason for their deaths.

After five more seconds, a man from the room collapsed on the broken pieces of glass, his choking sound disappearing slowly. His rest mates followed him. They fell to the ground, their hands leaving their necks and chests as their gagging stopped.

"First they choke till the hollow tube that connects their throat pharynx to the respiratory system bursts and they can not scream," Reon mumbled. "Then they suffer till the poisonous gas takes their lives."

Reon turned around. Her eyes bolted straight at the end of the courtyard walls. From the corner of the wall's end, she could a hand lying lifelessly.

Reon jumped down Throne Hill. She was sure he could not do much now that the poison was taking his life but she wanted to make sure he does not log out and escape the pain.

Her hands were empty and so was her inventory, well, almost empty. She took quick strides towards Uragi and stepped on Uragi's hand by mistake. His scream did not come out either.

Reon stopped beside him and looked down to her right. Uragi's right hand was lying on his sword's hilt but lifelessly. His neck was tilted to his right, his helmet on the ground, and his long black hair reached his shoulder from one side.

His face was still red but his eyes were covered behind his long hair. Reon walked in front of him before squatting down.

Uragi was staring at the ground, he could not move his eyes to look straight at Reon. Reon wanted Uragi to look into her eyes but she was grossed out to even touch Uragi's dirt, and blood-covered face and make him look at her.

"She is here...." someone from the audience muttered.

"Hope... nothing happens." Another gulped.

"Oh fuck, I can not see her die." A person jerked around.

"A more minute or two and you will be dead. I know you know that," Reon said, trying to make eye contact with him.

Uragi did not lift his head, did not look at her but he definitely heard her, and she knew that.

So she continued, "You should not have betrayed us that time." Reon did not expect a response from him, and she was not disappointed.

"Fine." She sighed. "I will let you die in peace." Reon dropped her head.

She stared at the dirt, too, for a few seconds. She banged her knees and stood straight.

Reon walked past the wall, she did not step on Uragi's hand this time. She did not even look at his hand, her eyes were partially closed.

Suddenly her eyes popped up, that too, wide. Her right foot stopped in the mid-air. Reon hesitated but turned around and confirmed it.

Uragi's held her wrist tightly. Reon could not muster up the strength to push his hand away but then she realized, he can not do much. The fact that he could still grab her wrist surprised her though.

"S--shit." Magus gulped. "No, move away," he muttered under his breath.

"Tch." Kuchiki shook his head. "I was afraid this might happen."

"Fuck! Move!" a person slapped his hand on the ground after he squatted down. He held his hand in his hands. "I kind of liked that girl..." his face wrinkled.

Reon lifted her eyes and glared at Uragi. His head was still facing the ground but now to the left side. His grip got tighter, Reon took a step back and stood by his side.

Uragi's right hand moved over his sword's hilt. His grip tightened but he suddenly let it lose when Reon stepped in front of him, his hand still on his sword.

"I can not believe you can still move..." Reon shook her head in disbelief.

Uragi tried to lift his head but failed. His lips parted apart though and he said, "And you should not---" he coughed, his grip tightening on Reon's wrist.

Reon slowly, without Uragi noticing, pulled her hand into her lab coat's pocket and spread her fingers over a slender tube.

"We should never turn our backs to the enemy," Yaban bit his lip. Kuchiki glanced at his friend, his eyes were wide because he was surprised by his friend's wisdom at times.

Only Kuchiki knew, though, at what times Yaban's wisdom comes out. He was afraid that Yaban might take Reon competitively.

"But she did." Kuchiki turned back to his screen, with a  sigh of relief.

Reon's eyes widened along with other people from the audience. "How can you speak?" But theirs was for a different reason.

Uragi stopped coughing. His left eye twitched as he tried to look up at Reon. Reon stared down at him, she could feel his grip loosen on her wrist. He still held her wrist but loosely.

"And you should not trust your enemy twice."

Reon saw a flash of Uragi's eyes. Uragi tightened his grip on the sword, his sword left the dirty ground.

She twisted her wrist free. It could not happen in a fraction of a second. Reon pulled a hand above her head as Uragi's sword shattered her defense shield.

She pulled her hand out of the pocket. Uragi grunted, he applied all of his strength to break the defense shield, and now his sword was going for Reon's abdomen.

Clang.

Reon opened her eyes and pushed against Uragi's sword with all of her strength. "Aaah!" she groaned.

"W--Whoa!"

"She did it!"

"Fuck yes! Fuck yeah, s--she did it." The man rose from the ground in joy.

Uragi pressed his left hand on the ground. "You stepped on me." He brought his legs closer to stand up.

A gun cocked.

Uragi stopped.

Uragi's eyes went up. Reon's arm was stretched out, her gun's tip was resting on Uragi's head.

"Fuck... she is awesome."

Yaban frowned. "Her reflexes..." Kuchiki heard it. His eyes did not move directly to his friend. "No. She had it all planned."

Kuchiki's arms unfolded. 'No,' he thought, 'that is not happening.'

"Yes!" Magus threw his hand. "Safe!"

Uragi tensed his sword. "Do not move it," she said, "take a look."

Uragi frowned and looked at what had blocked his sword. A tube. An Opaque tube.

"The way she pulled out a Phosgene tube so quickly..." Yaban squinted. "It was planned."

Kuchiki's expressions dropped. "We do not want another rivalry."

Uragi gulped. A gun on his head, and his sword in a chemical weapon's tube.

Reon moved her finger on the trigger. "When I failed the Close Gun Combat class in the mid-terms," Reon said, "I did not only fail at any class for the first time, I realized an important lesson."

Her opponent, during the close gun combat class, did some karate sparing with her (she did not shoot a single bullet), before she brought a gun to Reon's stomach out of nowhere. And Reon lost her grade.

Her finger pulled the trigger. She had to beat her fears.

"Never let the same snake bite you twice."

With a loud bang, Uragi's brain was blown away. She closed her eyes as his blood slapped her face.

"And she does not hesitate to kill," Yaban added.

Uragi's body dropped dead on the other side, dust blew when Reon opened her eyes. With Uragi's body, his sword fell too.

Reon jerked and jumped to Throne Hill. She quickly opened the 'Gas Them' option and threw the damaged tube into the slit, and hence into the hospital room to gas the other players if they are not dead yet.

Reon navigated to the Hospital room and the scene she saw the driver with all of her confidence. "W--What?"

An iron stake was in Pontianak's chest. Numerous arrows went through her as she struggled to hide in the dark corners of the room.

All of the eight players threw cornered Pontianak and pulled two stakes in front of them. For the first time, a ghost was intimidated by humans.

[Chat with 'I'm Darkness' has started]

[You were right

One minute more and I would have totally healed the gas's effect. But. Alas]

Reon's wide eyes moved back to the screen. A guy from the crowd threw his stake right into Pontianak's left chest. But she does not have a heart though.

Reon's hands started trembling. She sat back on her throne and grabbed her head. "W--What shall I do now?" she muttered. "W--What do I do?"

Her mouth opened in uncertainty, her eyes wide in shock, and her hands trembling with fear. She gulped.

"They might lose this Lair too," Kuchiki said with certainty.

"Hm." Yaban was still staring at Reon as if she was worthy of being his rival.