John hit solid stone shoulder-first, rolling across rough, damp gravel until he crashed hard against a cold rock wall. The air was knocked out of his lungs in a sharp gasp.
He scrambled to his knees, his hands frantically searching the ground around him. His fingers brushed against canvas—his duffel bag was still right beside him, bruised but whole.
John squeezed his eyes shut, opened them, and blinked.
He was completely in a different place. Compared to the cathedral earlier, this place was vast, cold, and utterly desolate. Embedded high in the center of the jagged rock ceiling was a massive, naturally glowing crystal stone, casting a harsh, pale blue luminescence across the entire cavern.
The light revealed a staggering expanse of dead silence. The cavern floor was completely flat, empty, and stripped bare, just acres of cold gray rock stretching out in every direction toward massive dark tunnel exits. It felt less like a living dungeon and more like a tomb waiting for its next occupant.
"Now what?"
Although he had said that he’ll take his revenge, how could he possibly do that? He was an E-rank hero, basically an ordinary human being in this world. It was just a tough talk to save his dignity but now faced with a certain danger in any moments, he felt the icy claw of dread squeeze his chest.
Then, the dead silence shattered.
THUMP.
The entire cavern shook. Loose pebbles rattled against the stone floor, vibrating around his knees.
THUMP. THUMP.
A sickening, heavy stench rolled out from the cavern’s largest dark tunnel—a rank, overpowering odor of rancid fat, stagnant blood, and decaying meat. It was so thick John nearly gagged, the back of his throat burning with acid.
From the ink-black shadows of the archway, something began to drag itself into the pale blue light.
It was a monstrosity that defied reason. A towering, grotesque mass of grey, bloated flesh standing nearly fourteen feet tall. It lacked a proper head; instead, its upper torso was a split, gaping maw lined with rows of jagged, yellowed teeth that twitched continuously like grinding gears. Thick, tar-like black sludge dripped from its jaws, sizzling as it hit the stone floor and dissolving the rock in tiny plumes of acrid smoke.
Worst of all were its limbs. Multiple human-like arms—distorted, elongated, and covered in pulsing purple veins—protruded from its torso at unnatural angles, their fingers clawing twitchily at the air. Beneath its translucent skin, pale, worm-like parasites squirmed in visible networks, feeding on its living fat.
The creature didn’t make a sound from a vocal cord. Instead, a chorus of wet, muffled groans echoed directly out of the pulsing slits across its bloated body, sounding like dozens of drowning men screaming at once.
Its milky, lidless eyes—a cluster of six scattered unevenly across its chest—snapped toward John.
SCREEEEEECH!
A shockwave of foul air blasted across the cavern as the beast accelerated, its asymmetrical limbs pounding the stone floor in a sickening, uneven gallop. It didn’t just walk; it surged forward like an avalanche of rot, closing the distance at a terrifying speed.
John froze, his blood running dead cold, every survival instinct screaming at him that he was about to be torn apart and digested alive.
"I have to run!"
John didn’t think twice. He grabbed the strap of his duffel bag, scrambled to his feet, and bolted in the opposite direction as fast as his legs could carry him.
His sneakers slapped hard against the cold stone floor, the sound drowned out by the thundering, uneven wallop of the fourteen-foot nightmare charging behind him. The stench of rancid fat and sizzled rock washed over his back in a hot, suffocating wave.
"Holy shit! Holy shit!" John screamed under his breath, pumping his arms, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped wild animal.
Over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of the monstrosity closing the distance with terrifying speed. Its dozens of distorted, vein-covered arms scraped along the cavern floor, leaving deep gouges in the solid rock, while its gaping, gear-like maw snapped open and closed, hungrily churning the air.
He lunged toward the narrowest tunnel exit at the far edge of the cavern, praying the tight opening would slow the giant beast down.
He dove headfirst into the narrow fissure, scraping his shoulders against the jagged rock faces. The tunnel was barely five feet wide, forcing him to duck low as he sprinted into the darkness. Behind him, the cavern detonated with a deafening CRASH.
The towering abomination slammed violently into the tunnel mouth, unable to fit its bloated, fourteen-foot mass through the slit. The entire rock structure groaned overhead, sending a shower of heavy dust and sharp stone fragments cascading onto John’s head.
He let out a ragged breath, skidding to a halt twenty yards down the passageway. His lungs burned, and sweat stung his eyes as he leaned against the cold tunnel wall, clutching his duffel bag tightly against his ribs.
I made it, he thought, his chest heaving. It’s too big to fit—
SNAP-CRACK.
A horrific sound of fracturing bone and tearing flesh echoed down the corridor.
John whipped his head around, his heart leaping into his throat. At the tunnel mouth, several of the monster’s distorted, vein-covered arms began to sickeningly elongate. Joints popped and hyperextended as the gray, translucent limbs stretched out like unnatural rubber, popping their bone sockets to extend deeper into the narrow shaft.
Thick, purple veins pulsed wildly along the unnatural arms as they slithered along the floor and walls toward him like pale, giant serpents. The razor-sharp, twitching fingers scraped against the stone, leaving long, bloody gouges in the rock as they relentlessly reached for his boots.
"You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!" John gasped.
The lead hand shot forward with terrifying speed, its elongated fingers snapping outward to grab his ankle. John threw his weight backward just in time, the monster’s sharp, blackened nails grazing the rubber sole of his sneaker with a violent screech.
The rank stench of acid and rot surged down the enclosed tunnel as the creature’s gaping, gear-like maw jammed hard against the outer entrance, spewing thick black sludge that sizzled and dissolved the stone walls, slowly widening the gap.
John kicked wildly, his sneaker slamming hard into one of the unnatural wrists. The impact felt like hitting solid oak, vibrating right up his leg, but it bought him a fraction of a second to scramble further back into the dark passageway.
He pushed himself up, turned on his heel, and sprinted down the shaft—only to skid to an agonizing halt five yards later.
The tunnel didn’t keep going. It collapsed into a solid wall of fallen boulders, choked shut by an ancient cave-in.
"No, no, no! Fuck!" John yelled, throwing his hands against the cold, immovable granite. He turned around, his back slamming hard against the dead end.
He was completely trapped.
The claustrophobic chamber offered nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. At the narrow entrance, the abomination’s acidic black sludge continued to sizzle against the rock, melting the tunnel mouth wider inch by inch. But it didn’t even need to fit inside.
SNAP. POP.
Three more elongated gray arms forced their way down the enclosed corridor, joints snapping violently as they stretched past their limits. The pale, vein-bulging limbs slithered along the floor, ceiling, and walls, effectively sealing off every inch of the narrow passage.
"Fuck, am I going to die here?"
This is the worst! Imagine he was on his way to file an application and end up in another world? That fucking Goddess! He killed him! Those fuckers! He didn’t even want to be here! So why is he suffering?!
This is so unfair! This is so unfair! He didn’t do anything bad in his life to deserve this!
Just as he was about to give up, something flickered before him.
[Military System Initializing...]
John stared blankly at the translucent blue words floating less than two feet from his face.
For a moment, his terrified mind simply refused to process what he was seeing.
"What...?"
SNAP!
A gray hand slammed against the stone beside his head.
John jerked sideways.
CRACK!
Five blackened claws tore through the rock where his skull had been a fraction of a second earlier, carving deep trenches into the granite. Stone fragments sprayed across his cheek, leaving several thin cuts that immediately began to bleed.
"Fuck!"
John dropped onto his hands and knees and crawled backward, though there was nowhere left to go. His back struck the collapsed boulders again.
Another elongated arm slithered toward him.
Then another.
The passageway had become a nest of writhing limbs.
[Military System Initializing...]
[Neural synchronization: 23%]
"Initializing?!" John shouted. "Can you initialize a little fucking faster?!"
[Neural synchronization: 41%]
The creature outside released another deafening shriek.
SCREEEEEECH!
The narrow tunnel shook.
John covered his ears as pain stabbed through his skull. Dust poured from the ceiling while the monster repeatedly smashed its massive body against the entrance.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Each impact widened the opening.
The creature was getting in.
[Neural synchronization: 67%]
One of the elongated hands suddenly wrapped around John’s left ankle.
His eyes widened.
"Oh, shit!"
The arm yanked.
John crashed chest-first against the ground.
His fingernails scraped desperately against the gravel as he was dragged several feet toward the entrance.
"No! NO!"
He twisted onto his back and kicked the arm repeatedly with his free leg.
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
Nothing.
The creature’s grip felt like a steel clamp.
John grabbed a loose rock from the ground and smashed it against the monster’s wrist.
CRACK!
Again.
CRACK!
Again.
CRACK!
Dark blood finally sprayed across the floor.
The arm spasmed.
John ripped his ankle free and scrambled backward.
[Neural synchronization: 89%]
"Come on!"
Another hand lunged.
John ducked.
Its claws passed over his head and buried themselves in the boulder behind him.
A second arm swept low.
John jumped awkwardly over it, but a third slammed into his chest.
WHAM!
His body flew backward.
John struck the collapsed rocks hard enough to make his vision flash white.
Pain exploded through his ribs.
He collapsed onto one knee.
For several seconds, he couldn’t breathe.
Something warm ran down the side of his forehead.
Blood.
John touched it with trembling fingers.
The monster’s arms surrounded him.
One crawled across the ceiling.
Two moved along the walls.
Another dragged itself across the floor.
Their fingers opened slowly.
John looked at them.
Then at the impossible blue screen.
[Neural synchronization: 97%]
"Please..."
His voice came out weak.
For the first time since arriving in this nightmare, John prayed.
To anything else that might be listening.
"Please."
[98%]
The arms moved closer.
[99%]
John clenched his fists.
"COME ON!"
[100%]
DING!
The sound was absurdly soft.
Yet to John, it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.
[Neural synchronization complete.]
[You can now access the Military System!]
[Host: John Smith
Level: 1
Experience Points: 0/500
Mission:
Troops:
Soul:
Infantry: 0/20
Special Forces: 0/10
Non-Combat Personnel: 0/50
Military Hardware Limit Composition
Weapons:
Land: 30
Air: 15
Navy: 10
System Points:
Inventory:
System Shop
]
[Warning: High-threat target approaching enclosed kill zone.]
[Target Analysis: Class-A Abomination - Corpse-Feeder.]
[Anatomy Profile: Dense, reinforced bone mass beneath multi-layered subcutaneous fat. High-density soft-tissue elasticity.]
[Combat Environment: Enclosed subterranean corridor. Distance to target: 12 meters.]
The interface shifted, cycling past standard small arms schematics at blinding speed. High-resolution 3D renders of infantry weapons flashed through John’s field of vision before settling on a glowing red tactical recommendation window.
[Tactical Assessment: Standard small arms fire (5.56x45mm NATO, 9x19mm Parabellum) will suffer high fragmentation degradation against target’s outer fat layer. High probability of ricochet in enclosed space.]
[Recommended System Deployment: Anti-Structure / Anti-Fortification Shoulder-Fired Rocket System.]
[Item Recommendation: SMAW (Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon) Mk 153 Mod 0]
[Manufacturer: Nammo Talley / Ordnance Division]
[Caliber: 83mm Rocket System]
[Primary Munition: High Explosive, Dual-Mode (HEDM) Mk 3 Mod 0 Cartridge]
[Arming Distance: 10 meters]
[Effective Fuzing: Auto-sensing crushing cap fuze. Optimised for soft-target penetration followed by delayed internal detonation, or instant contact detonation on hard stone.]
"What the fuck...is this?" John stared at the technical breakdown. He doesn’t get it but it seemed that the this interface might be his power.
[Would you like to summon the SMAW (Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon) Mk 153 Mod 0?]
"Uhm...yes," John answered and immediately, the SMAW appeared right into his hands.
The heavy, olive-drab fiberglass launcher tube—over three feet long and weighing nearly eighteen pounds—materialized. Pre-loaded with an 83mm High Explosive Dual-Mode Mk 3 Mod 0 rocket container clamped into its rear receiver. Mounted on the side was the Mk 42 Mod 0 optical sight.
[System Blessing: You can operate weapons within your level without prior experience.]
The instant the notification flashed, muscle memory he never possessed flooded his body.
His fingers moved on pure, unadulterated instinct. He flipped open the optic covers, hoisted the eighteen-pound fiberglass launcher onto his right shoulder, and unfolded the forward grip.
He braced his feet against the damp gravel, leaned into the rubber eyepiece of the Mk 42 Mod 0 sight, and dialed the range reticle directly onto the abomination’s chest.
"Clear backblast!" John barked out habit, though he was entirely alone in the tunnel.
The monster’s elongated, vein-bulging arm shot forward, razor-sharp claws snapping less than six inches from his cheek.
John didn’t flinch. He held his breath, squeezed the 9mm spotting rifle trigger integrated into the assembly to verify his line of sight, and instantly followed through by crushing the primary rocket trigger.
FSHHHHH-BOOM!
A blinding flash and a violent shockwave detonated inside the tight passage as the 83mm rocket motor ignited. Backblast scorched the cave-in behind him, throwing up a choking cloud of pulverized stone and cordite smoke.
The High Explosive Dual-Mode rocket slammed out of the tube at 730 feet per second. It traversed the short twelve-meter distance in a fraction of a millisecond, punching straight through the writhing mass of gray limbs and burying its nose cone deep into the monster’s dense, bloated torso before the crushing cap fuze triggered.
KABOOOOOM!
A secondary, catastrophic detonation shattered.
The auto-sensing fuze delayed the primary explosion just long enough for the warhead to penetrate deep inside the creature’s internal organs before detonating its high-explosive charge. Thousands of pounds of pressure and searing three-thousand-degree thermal force expanded violently from the inside out.
The abomination didn’t even have time to shriek. Its fourteen-foot body inflated like a grotesque balloon before detonating into a massive, red-and-black cloud. Gray fat, severed arms, yellowed teeth, and boiling black sludge were atomized instantly.
The lower half of the mutilated carcass skidded across the stone floor and collapsed into a lifeless, smoldering heap.
[Target Eliminated: Corpse-Feeder Abomination (Level 50 - Class-A Boss)]
[Calculating Experience...]
[Massive Level Gap Bonus Applied!]
[Experience Awarded: 150,000 XP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[Level 1 -> Level 24]
[System Points Awarded: +52,500 SP]
[Souls Received: 50]
John stood frozen in the choking cloud of cordite smoke, the empty, smoking launcher tube resting on his shoulder as level-up notifications cascaded down his vision like a golden waterfall. The sheer weight of the rewards left him breathless.
He unlatched the spent 83mm rocket canister from the rear receiver, letting the heavy metal casing drop to the gravel.
John wiped a streak of sweat and black monster blood from his forehead, staring through the widened tunnel mouth at the steaming crater left behind.
A slow, vicious grin spread across his face.
"So this is it huh? My power is American freedom."