System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 32: World Quest

A dark steel Jian sword twisted with a sickening crunch before getting ripped out of the monster’s lifeless body.

No more than a second after, a system notification rang clear in Damon’s head.

[You have slain a Level 25 Sea Serpent.] 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

[New Monster Index bonus: +4 Stamina, +4 Dexterity, +6 Vitality]

[You have reached Level 27. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

Standing on top of the massive, crab-like creature, Damon flicked his sword to the side, shaking the blood from the blade before sheathing the weapon and jumping 10 feet down onto the sand below.

A few feet away from him and the slaughtered monster, a large rift core glowed above the sand, its darkness enveloping all the light around it. He didn’t linger as he pushed through the desert below and smashed the rift with a single flicker of his mana.

In an instant, his surroundings returned to Earth and the ruined city. During the last month, he had already closed all the rifts around his shelter, so finding an E-Rank rift was rather surprising.

Especially considering how close it was to his shelter. Nevertheless, he was happy for not having to walk too far out to find one.

He moved quickly through the desolate streets. Corpses of killed monsters filled the area, some recent, others weeks old, but none alive.

His walk only slowed once he approached one of the unruined buildings. He entered without caution, walking straight through the corridor and toward the only closed door at the end of the small hallway.

The moment he entered, he was welcomed by a rather familiar sight. This was his home for the last four weeks, and he had grown quite used to it.

It was a small studio apartment. Small kitchen to his left, a bathroom to his right. And straight ahead was the living space, which, as he approached, he found in complete disarray as a girl with silver-white hair and three tails lay sprawled across the double-sized bed.

"Hmmm, you’re back already?" Kitsune asked as she turned on her stomach.

Damon paused, his gaze narrowing on her.

This time, she wasn’t wearing her usual attire. Instead, she wore something far more... mundane. A nightgown. But not just any nightgown. It looked way too fancy for normal sleepwear, designed more for something a newlywed might wear. A whole lot shorter and daring than a normal nightgown would be.

"You like it?" Kitsune asked, popping up from the bed with a grin, clearly enjoying his reaction.

She twirled around, giving him a full view of her outfit, but it seemed like a rather dangerous idea considering how short the night gown really was.

"Where did you get that from?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Where else?" she replied with a mischievous smile. "I went shopping while you were gone."

"Shopping? Didn’t you say you can’t go out until the sudden increase of your mana from the third tail settles down?" Damon asked with a frown.

For the last week, he had been going out alone. After a deadly battle with a level 30 monster during which Kitsune had to intervene, she had recovered another tail. Unfortunately, according to her, she wasn’t able to leave the apartment until she had refined all her new mana, so he had been forced to go out alone.

Kitsune grinned, unfazed. "It’s all good now. So... what do you think?" She spun once more, the nightgown riding up a little too high for comfort.

Damon turned without answering. "I’m gonna eat. Do you want some?"

Kitsune pouted at his cold dismissal. "You know I don’t eat human food."

Suddenly, soft footsteps came from behind Damon as she quickly approached him.

"My meal is right here," she said, her slender arms coiling around his before he could react.

Instantly, Damon felt half of his mana leave toward her.

During the past week, Kitsune was nice enough to ’lend’ him half of his mana back, so that he could hunt alone more efficiently. But now, with her third tail fully refined, she wasn’t going to leave any mana hanging.

"You got your half already, don’t you?" Damon said, turning toward her.

Her arms moved from coiling around his chest to wrapping around his neck as he turned to face her.

"But I didn’t have my meal yet," she said, wrapping her arms tighter around him and pulling him closer. Her pink lips inched dangerously close to his, but before Damon could react or she could move an inch closer, a sudden sound cut through the entire world.

[The Integration Phase is now over. The First Phase will commence shortly.]

’First Phase?’ The words barely had time to form in Damon’s head as a sudden notification window appeared before him.

[First Phase World Quest]

[Type: Capture]

[Duration: 60 Days]

[Objective: Citadels have now been distributed across the world. Capture and defend the citadel until the time is over.]

[Reward: 1x Ability Card]

[Failure: All participants not registered to a Citadel die.]

Damon’s heart hammered against his ribs as he read the text.

’A quest where the failure condition is death? What the hell is going on?’

His question, however, would have to wait as a sudden, deafening rumble filled the entire city. The apartment shook whole, items fell off the shelves, and dust filled the air as everything around them trembled.

Damon took a single glance at Kitsune, who was already back in her usual attire, before the pair rushed outside.

The moment he set foot on the street outside, a looming shadow fell on him from above.

His head whipped toward the sky, only to see two massive structures hang unnaturally in the air. Two floating islands hung over the city, massive castles built atop them.

They separated, one heading toward the inner city while the other moved toward the outskirts, until both of them came to a sudden halt.

For a little while, an eerie silence filled the world, followed by the last and final notification.

[The First Phase begins now.]