Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

A warm glass of water touched Hitori's lips, he took a huge gulp and emptied the glass in one go.

"Ah. Feels good." He kept down the glass on a counter, the glass then was pulled inside by magic, "thank you,"

"You are welcome, sir." A voice popped from behind the counter but no one was visible.

Hitori smiled, thinking that the woman might notice it, and turned around to leave the area.

It was rather a small spaced area that had a menu board flying above the counter for the customers to order their favorite. No one stood there as the orders were fulfilled by magic.

Hitori walked out of the room, on top of the entrance door a board labeled the room as, 'Refreshments'.

Hitori rubbed his hands against each other, "winter." he muttered and continued to walk to his console station in the fourth gaming alley.

His card was still in the magic circle and when he sat on his chair, another magic circle appeared on top of his head. Hitori adjusted his jacket, then leaned forward on the station.

Hitori navigated through the game's screen with the help of his finger. Hitori clicked on an icon represented by a small mail sign.

He had received messages from two different people. The first one had fifty-plus messages just in a fraction of time and the other one had two messages.

"She must have spammed," he muttered under his breath and shook his head.

He decided to ignore the chat that had fifty-plus messages and instead opened the chat that had only two messages.

[Why did you log out? Are you done with the work?]

Hitori continued reading.

[But I have not received a notification and Reon-san is not here either, where is she?]

Hitori moved his fingers to type an answer when he suddenly paused. Hitori leaned back and stared at the screen, "he might help."

He thought for another minute or so before he leaned forward and typed his message.

[I am sending you a dungeon's position, hurry up to it!]

Hitori tracked down Reon's position, pasted the link on their chat. He was about to press enter when Kamiya's reply came.

[and leave our dungeons? Why did you even leave her alone there?]

Hitori pressed control plus X.

[yes, activate the traps and leave the dungeons]

Hitori replied.

[I will tell you the reason later] he replied to Kamiya's second question.

Hitori pasted the link once again but did not press enter. He inhaled air, leaned back, and started waiting for Kamiya's reply.

Hitori started looking around him. His eyes fell on the time, it was eight fifty-four.

Finally, Kamiya texted back.

[why? And where is the dungeon?]

He continued.

[what are you planning to do?]

Hitori glanced at the time once again, he leaned forward. It was eight fifty-seven, "so you took three minutes just to come back with suspicion?"

[I would not betray you, chill]

Hitori solemnly got to the point. Hitori remained sedate even at Kamiya's suspicion. Hitori wanted to give Kamiya a sober view of his plan but it looks like he will have to keep Kamiya in the dark.

Eight fifty-eight.

[for me to betray you? You know too much about me, even things you were not supposed to]

It turned eight fifty-nine but Kamiya did not reply.

[so be rest assured, I have better things to do instead of planning how to betray my partner]

Nine O'clock.

[Alright]

Kamiya replied.

[send me her location, Hitori]

"Here you go," a grin appeared on Hitori's face. He pasted the location's link and pressed enter, this time, without thinking twice.

He closed the chat window, made himself comfortable in the chair, "spawn in front of the Pontianak Lair." he entered the commands.

Since it was his dungeon, the game allowed Hitori to spawn anywhere around or inside his territory.

Therefore, without any trouble, Hitori was transmigrated from the real world to the gaming world.

He spun his head around him to quickly examine his surroundings. The night sky, as always, is full of stars. Chaos was on the other side of the map and the north side, was still empty with not many players.

Hitori's territory was in the middle of the map, more like in the mid-south of the map. Their dungeons were not high-leveled enough to enter the north region. Only the players above level thirty-five were allowed to enter, forget the survival part.

Right behind Hitori was a dark cave protected by an invisible defense wall. It made one thing sure, Kamiya had left the dungeons.

With that being checked and surroundings examined, Hitori turned to his left and walked in the southwest direction of the map.

In the southwest part of the map, not too long away from Hitori's territory, stood a man covered in hood, cloak, and robes.

He looked down at a thin key that lay lifelessly on the dirty ground, "have I… failed?" he gulped.

The name of the player was NewbieNoob. He swung around and smashed his fist against a withered tree, "how can I fail? After coming this far?" he grunted, "I should have not touched the key, but… I thought it would make things easier for him…"

The man kicked the tree and punched it continuously. He did not bother to think about the key on the ground, all he wanted to do was vent his anger on something, anything!

"Shit." he snapped at the tree, with the last kick, the withered tree fell.

"You…" he suddenly turned around.

"This voice…" he tried to hide but he knew the person had already spotted him.

"You need practice," Hitori emerged from the night with the body of a dead monster, "both at scrap picking and deceiving."

With a slight jerk, Hitori threw the monster away. The noob pulled his weapon out, a sword.

"Cool down, we would not fight before Sunday," Hitori walked close to the Noob, "just hand me the key," Hitori stretched out his hand and came to a stop.

They both kept staring at each other, "I do not know your reasoning behind rigging us up to conquer your dungeon but, now I want to conquer it for real, so hand me the key."

Hitori took a step forward when suddenly noob raised his hand, "stop right there. I will come to you," he replied.

Hitori gave him a slight nod and took a few steps back. Noob walked up to the key and picked it up from the ground, "take it."

He raised his hand and threw the key at Hitori. Hitori calmly stood where he was and caught the key easily. He glanced at the key then at the noob.

As if the key was a glass full of Champagne and Hitori was making a toast, he raised it in front of his eyes and nodded.

The noob on the other side nodded too. Hitori turned around to head back to the dungeon.

"And…" Kuzu's voice stopped Hitori, "that dungeon is not mine… was not mine, at least."

"Hm." Hitori nodded and continued to walk.