NOVGO.NET Chapter 42 Heading home.
Chapter 42: Chapter 42 Heading home.
Luna wasn’t afraid.
At least, not anymore.
Something deep inside her chest stirred, almost like an instinct telling her she would win this battle.
This was her second life.
She hadn’t been thrown back into this apocalypse only to die the exact same way again. No matter how impossible the situation looked, no matter how terrifying the enemies became, she would always find a way to outsmart them.
That was exactly what she planned to do.
Then her stomach growled.
Luna blinked.
"...Seriously?"
Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t the only one starving. None of them had eaten properly in hours, and Adrian had practically drained himself trying to open the portal.
As she impatiently waited for her sluggish System to finish processing the vehicle, she kept one eye on the battlefield.
Rowan had just been thrown away like a ragdoll.
The sight alone made her flinch.
Then she noticed it.
One of the monsters had already broken away from the fight and was charging directly toward her.
At first, her eyes widened in surprise.
But only for a moment.
The panic disappeared as quickly as it had come.
Instead, Luna calmly stood her ground and waited.
Come closer...
Come just a little closer.
She would show the damned creature exactly what Luna Hart was made of.
The two gigantic monsters shot toward her, smashing through everything in their path with their enormous bodies. Concrete walls crumbled. Abandoned cars were tossed into the air as though they weighed nothing.
Strings of thick saliva dripped from their twisted mouths.
The stench nearly made Luna gag.
It smelled like rotten flesh that had been left under the scorching sun for months.
Even worse...
Fat white maggots crawled out of the saliva before dropping onto the ground, wriggling in every direction.
A disgusting sight.
She had no doubt those parasites would become another nightmare if left alone.
Fortunately...
That wouldn’t be her problem.
By then, she intended to be long gone.
"Well..."
A grin slowly appeared on her face.
"Time to flex my muscles."
Leaving Adrian, who still lay unconscious behind her, Luna slowly rose to her feet.
She stared directly at the incoming creatures.
They were only a few meters away now.
Without another word, she reached into her System storage and pulled out her newest weapon.
It wasn’t an ordinary gun.
Far from it.
These beauties had been enhanced using Power Level Crystals—divine crystals capable of multiplying destructive force to ridiculous levels.
Luna honestly had no idea where her System kept finding such ridiculous treasures.
The crystals cost an outrageous amount of points.
Painfully expensive.
But...
Looking at the weapon in her hands now...
It was worth every single coin.
Its metallic surface shimmered with faint violet patterns as energy flowed beneath it.
Beautiful.
Deadly.
Exactly the kind of thing she liked.
She raised the weapon and aimed straight at the approaching beast.
The creature roared.
Its enormous pincers snapped open as it lunged for her.
Too slow.
Bang!
A single shot echoed across the battlefield.
Then another.
Another.
Another.
The shots quickly became a relentless barrage until dozens of glowing bullets slammed into the creature’s chest all at once.
The monster shrieked.
That same unbearable scream echoed again.
Luna grimaced.
"Oh, scratch that."
She rolled her eyes.
"You’re not making that horrible noise around me, ugly."
She squeezed the trigger again.
An even heavier storm of bullets erupted from the weapon.
The second creature became the next target.
Judging by the way it screeched, it seemed far angrier than the first.
Perhaps it had finally realized she was killing its companion.
Good.
That only made Luna smile wider.
The glowing bullets buried themselves deep into the monsters’ flesh.
For a split second...
Nothing happened.
Then their bodies suddenly began changing.
They swelled unnaturally.
Their flesh twisted.
Their bones cracked loudly beneath their skin.
Luna frowned.
"They’re evolving?"
But no.
It wasn’t evolution.
The opposite happened.
Instead of becoming stronger, their bodies started melting from the inside.
The energy contained within the bullets spread through every inch of their bodies like acid.
Their grotesque flesh dissolved into thick black sludge.
Blood poured onto the ground.
Their horrifying forms slowly collapsed.
Then...
The transformation ended.
The gigantic monsters were gone.
Lying in pools of blood were nothing more than two ordinary birds.
Or...
At least they had once been.
The horrifying scorpion-like mouths had disappeared.
Their enormous pincers were gone.
Only small, badly deformed birds remained.
Broken.
Rotten.
Dead.
Luna stared at them silently.
"What..."
That wasn’t normal.
Not even close.
Mutated beasts weren’t supposed to evolve into things like this.
In her previous life, mutated animals had simply become undead versions of themselves.
They retained their original appearances.
Perhaps they gained claws.
Perhaps sharper teeth.
But they still looked like animals.
These...
These had transformed into something completely different.
Something far more horrifying.
Far more unnatural.
Whatever was creating these abominations...
It was unlike anything she remembered.
She didn’t have time to think further.
"Kai!"
Her attention snapped toward the battlefield.
Kai was still fighting desperately.
Without hesitation, Luna spun around and fired toward the creature attacking him.
By now, Kai had already inflicted serious damage.
The monster’s grotesque mouth had been ripped open.
Decaying flesh hung from its jaw while black, rotten matter continuously spilled onto the ground.
More disgusting maggots crawled endlessly from inside its mouth like swarms of insects escaping a nest.
Even so...
It refused to die.
Kai gritted his teeth.
His ice abilities had reached another level entirely.
Using the blood covering the battlefield, he froze it into crimson ice.
It wasn’t the pure white ice Luna had seen before.
This one glowed dark red.
Blood Ice.
Long crimson blades formed around him before shooting forward.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Each strike carved fresh wounds into the creature’s massive body.
The beast stumbled backward.
Its gigantic legs trembled beneath its own weight.
If something that enormous actually fell...
The impact alone would probably split the ground apart.
Luna didn’t give it the chance.
She pulled the trigger.
The enhanced bullets pierced straight through the wounds Kai had already created.
The glowing projectiles burrowed deeper and deeper until they completely disappeared beneath the creature’s flesh.
Another horrifying scream echoed across the battlefield.
This time...
There was no recovery.
The beast’s body rapidly dissolved before collapsing into another puddle of blood.
Moments later...
Another rotten bird landed lifelessly on the ground.
Only one remained.
Unlike its companions, this one wasn’t heavily injured.
The creature looked around frantically.
Its companions were dead.
The humans it had looked down upon had somehow turned the tables.
For the first time...
Fear appeared inside its monstrous eyes.
It turned.
It was trying to escape.
"Oh no."
Luna laughed coldly.
"You’re not getting away."
She tightened her grip on the weapon.
This time she didn’t hold back.
An endless stream of bullets poured from the gun like a raging waterfall.
Round after round.
Magazine after magazine.
Yet...
The ammunition never ran out.
That was the beauty of this weapon.
Since she possessed no supernatural abilities herself, she had long accepted one fact.
She couldn’t always rely on other people protecting her.
She refused to become baggage.
Yes, she owned a supermarket space.
Yes, she had resources others could only dream about.
But none of that would matter if she died before using them.
The supermarket wouldn’t come running to save her.
Reality was cruel.
Which was exactly why she had prepared weapons capable of protecting herself.
The final creature never escaped.
Its body convulsed violently under the barrage before letting out one last deafening scream.
Then...
It exploded into a shower of blood.
When everything settled, another tiny deformed bird lay motionless on the ground.
The rotten smell intensified almost immediately.
It was so foul that Luna instinctively pinched her nose.
"Ding."
The familiar System notification echoed inside her mind.
A brilliant light suddenly appeared a few meters away.
Space distorted.
Then something enormous materialized from thin air.
The amphibious vehicle.
Only...
Calling it a vehicle now almost felt disrespectful.
Its size had nearly tripled.
Heavy armor covered every side.
Massive reinforced wheels rested beneath it while thick plating surrounded the windows.
Mounted defensive systems lined the roof.
It looked less like transportation...
And more like a moving fortress.
Before Luna could admire it further—
The horizon lit up.
The obliterating light had arrived.
It swallowed everything in its path.
"Hurry!"
Luna pointed toward Ethan.
"Bring him."
Kai rushed over and threw the unconscious man over his shoulder.
At the opposite end, Rowan struggled to stand.
He barely managed two steps before collapsing again with a painful groan.
"Damn it..."
Kai immediately changed directions.
Luna didn’t waste another second.
She dragged Adrian’s unconscious body into the vehicle with all the strength she had left.
By the time she finished...
She was breathing heavily.
"Fuck..."
She wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"I’m exhausted."
Looking outside, her expression became solemn.
Everything beyond them was either burning...
Or melting away beneath the advancing light.
Kai hurried as fast as he could, but carrying Ethan while trying to help Rowan slowed him considerably.
Luna’s blood pressure nearly shot through the roof.
"Move!"
She started the engine.
The gigantic vehicle roared to life.
The scorching light was only a few feet away now.
The side door slid open.
Kai practically threw Ethan inside before helping Rowan climb in after him.
The instant everyone was aboard—
The door sealed shut.
Outside...
The obliterating light swallowed the entire area.
Buildings melted.
Roads disappeared.
Everything beyond the windows vanished beneath the blinding brilliance.
Yet none of it penetrated the upgraded vehicle.
The overwhelming heat was instantly neutralized by the powerful cooling system inside.
Cold air filled the cabin.
Everyone finally breathed again.
Rowan leaned against his seat with a tired sigh.
Every inch of his body hurt.
His back screamed in agony.
But despite the pain...
A smile still formed on his face.
"That..."
He laughed weakly.
"...was insane. I honestly didn’t think we’d make it out alive."
Luna glanced toward Ethan.
His eyelids slowly opened.
Confusion flashed across his face as he looked around.
Then his eyes widened.
Without hesitation, Luna pointed toward the burning world outside.
"Whatever business you had here is over."
Her voice turned ice cold.
"Everything has been destroyed."
She narrowed her eyes.
"So either you stay inside quietly..."
"...or I’ll personally throw you out there to melt like candle wax."
Ethan looked at her.
Then outside.
Then back at her again.
His lips parted.
But no words came out.
Luna simply rolled her eyes.
This wasn’t over.
Not by a long shot.
He would eventually answer for everything that had happened.
She reached into her storage again.
One by one, wrapped sandwiches flew toward everyone.
"Catching them is your problem."
Kai caught his with a grin.
Rowan barely managed to lift a hand.
Luna pointed toward Adrian.
"Leave his. He needs sleep more than food right now."
Silence settled inside the vehicle.
Only the sound of wrappers opening and people eating filled the cabin.
Kai stared through the armored windshield.
Everything outside had disappeared.
Zombies.
Mutated beasts.
Buildings.
Roads.
Nothing remained.
Only endless scorched land stretched toward the horizon.
Goosebumps spread across his skin.
"I don’t know why..."
He swallowed another bite.
"...but I’m curious what we’re going to face next."
Rowan slowly turned toward him.
His exhausted glare alone was enough.
"Don’t."
Kai blinked.
"Don’t jinx this peaceful moment."
"...Keep those thoughts to yourself."
Kai immediately shut his mouth.
For once...
He wisely decided to listen.
The vehicle continued driving forward in silence, carrying the survivors away from the land of death while the quiet sound of chewing echoed softly through the vehicle.