Hi3rd: Achievement Hunter

Overwhelmingly strong.

That was Carole’s only thought as Aleph escorted her outside. The dozens of bodies piled on the ground was the direct testament on how he managed to save her.

The undeads only needed to bite someone to turn them into fellow undeads. The infection doesn’t last ten minutes due to the influence of honkai energy.

Although only an hour or so had passed, their apartment block was extremely unlucky. Dozens of undeads broke out when they gathered together. Only a few people, including Carole, remained in their apartment units.

“You’re finally here!”

“Mn. Let’s go down.”

Apart from Carole, there were three more people who were lucky to come across Aleph’s killing spree. Two of them were girls the same age as Carole while the last one was a male college student.

Seeing this quiet yet reserved atmosphere, Aleph could only sigh internally. The complex human emotions and whatnot caused them to be reserved. Nobody wanted to behave badly in front of someone who could kill through dozens of undeads. It wasn’t fear, but more of a respect.

“Mister, how is Hua?”

“She’s fine. She was about to come here on her own, you know.” Aleph replied. “I told her that I’d take over this one.”

Tap-!

Tap-!

Rumble-!

Their conversation was interrupted as the floor shook. They were already on the first floor. 

Boom-!

A large silhouette broke a portion of the apartment. It collapsed on half of the apartment. As the cloud of dust was kicked up, Aleph promptly covered his eyes. The fragments of stones didn’t harm his arms, though some glass fragments that flew at a fast pace did.

Fortunately, they were only the ones that he couldn’t dodge—rather, he couldn’t move away from the civilians behind him.

“That is..!”

The moment a portion of the dust cleared up, Aleph saw the thing that crashed into the building. It was a humanoid honkai beast around five storeys tall. Its right arm was missing. Purple blood dripped from the missing portion.

It was extremely huge to the point that its entire waist accounted for the entire width of the apartment. Its upper torso crashed into the other building behind the apartment complex.

“Go! Run outside!”

His words promptly woke up the four people. Three of them didn’t hesitate to rush to the exit. Only Carole didn’t follow his words.

“What about you?”

“I’ll deal with it.”

“You will what?!”

Aleph tightened the grip to his greatsword.

‘It’s already down an arm.’

As he thought of it, ratio lines began appearing on its legs. Since it was lying down, its width was no more than two meters tall.

‘Its injured state was caused by god knows how many artillery strikes. Even missile strikes aren’t impossible.’

Its right arm was missing, and that missing portion is where Aleph got his confidence. He was on the side of the missing arm, so even if it would smash him down, it wouldn’t be able to do so due to the lack of its arm.

“Can you do it?!”

“...Yes. I think so.”

Without any hesitation, Aleph rushed straight to its right leg. He scaled the ratio line so that the seventh division lies on its upper leg.

The pink energy began flowing more actively towards his right arm. The temporary enhancement gave him a more powerful strength, but its cost was exhaustion. It was far different from the measly two points per minute that he spent to carry the fifteen kilogram greatsword.

Psshk-!

The sound of flesh tearing resounded in his ears. The impenetrable silicon shell was forcefully broken by his force as well as cursed technique. 

In the world without opposing cursed techniques, the ‘hacks’ known as cursed techniques were brought to their fullest.

At this moment, Aleph’s eyes turned slightly red. The toughness of a Templar-class beast was far stronger than he had expected. If he was hit by it head-on, he would’ve lost.

It was thanks to his cursed technique that gave him a stronger means of attack that left behind his still vulnerable body.

‘Did it move?!’

Aleph did not let his guard down. He soon severed the other leg of the templar-class beast. With its already serious injuries, it became a stationary target that does not counterattack.

After doing that, he made some distance from the honkai beast. He checked whether it was still moving or not.

If it was still alive, he might need to cut its head off altogether. However, the danger to that was extremely high. Cutting off the legs only served to intensify its prior injuries.

Aleph knew that it was a Templar-class based on its shape, but its size was another matter altogether. At best, it should’ve been around three to four storeys tall. It was an abnormality that appeared during this honkai eruption. He doesn’t know whether it gained some unique abilities or not.

Fortunately, there was something that reminded him of its death.

[Achievement Unlocked: Anomaly Hunter]

[Reward: Perfect Energy Box]

[Anomaly Hunter: Kill a mutated honkai beast for the first time.]

[Achievement Unlocked: Templar Headhunter]

[Reward: Blank Sephira Crystal Fragment]

[Templar Headhunter: Kill a Templar-class honkai beast for the first time.]

[Achievement Unlocked: A Bigger One Minute Wonder]

[Reward: Two Bags of Senzu Beans]

[A Bigger One Minute Wonder: Kill a templar-class honkai beast within a minute of contact.]

[Achievement Hunter: Become The Fisher]

[Reward: Major Energy Box]

[Become The Fisher: Take advantage of a scenario and kill your enemy while it is fighting with someone else.]

[Achievement Unlocked: Blessing of Miracles]

[Reward: Unique Skill {Great Sage} ]

[Blessing of Miracles: Kill an enemy beyond one’s capabilities within a minute of contact.]

A total of five achievements were unlocked by him. They nearly covered his entire line of sight. He immediately dismissed all of them as he brought Carole out of the collapsing building.

Fortunately, exposure to honkai beast corpses doesn’t mean that everyone would become an undead. Only people exposed to high-density honkai energy within a honkai eruption would turn minutes upon contact. The street where Aleph and Sakura met was one such example. Their resistance towards honkai energy was high enough to ignore this issue.

Aleph glanced at the girl being led by him. She didn’t exhibit any signs of exposure towards honkai energy. There is a chance that she has enough honkai resistance.

The honkai energy resistance was still a topic being discussed within Fire MOTH. The fifth research institute that specializes in honkai biology is the leading figure in that field.

Kevin was found to have a high honkai energy resistance, which in turn influenced his physical body to become far stronger than the norm by being exposed to honkai energy.

In short, people who have such resistance tend to become Fire MOTH’s military personnel.

It’s just that Aleph doesn’t know what will happen to Carole, nor to Hua.

‘If they enter Fire MOTH…’

With Fire MOTH’s current treatment of sending human waves to barely defeat the honkai, the future looked dreary.