Chapter 5: You know me?

"I think it is time to get into the city."

Saransh could finally step out of the stem port.

He was out in the open yard of the association building but the scenery in front of him was quite dreadful. There were broken down buildings all over the place.

Since the first year after the war started, vaults were built all over the world as a shelter for the survivors. But these vaults couldn't hold much of the human population and as a result millions perished.

Many countries succeeded in constructing vaults and saving their population. But most of them perished before they could complete it.

India managed to complete the construction of 79 vaults out of 120 which it had initially planned to construct. Delhi itself had 3 vaults, each one built for a different purpose. The one which Saransh belonged to was a 'residential vault' while the one he was currently in was a 'storage vault'. And the last one is the Country's Primary 'defense vault' which is the largest vault in the entire country.

China and the United American Territory managed to construct the largest number of vaults which was around 190.

The atmosphere inside the vault was thick due to the intense plasma and countless Mansters were roaming around.

"They are usually drawn to humans but it almost feels like the intense plasma is masking my presence."

"Hey Mira, where is this much plasma coming from?".

*[If you can manage to get to the center of the vault and you can see for yourself.] *

Mira replied right away.

"Anyway, I almost forgot to ask. What is this skill Astro Sound?".

*[Wait you didn't know that. Then how come you are using it?] *

"I don't know… you tell me".

*[It is a skill to negate things inside a particular space.] *

"What???.... What does that even mean?"

Saransh was amused.

"I don't even know how to use it and still I'm having such a cool skill. I must be a genius."

He started smirking again.

*[I won't call you genius but it's still pretty weird.] *

*[From what I can sense, there are tons of mansters at the center of the vault. Even though I can't sense long distances, huge amounts of plasma energy is leaking out from there.] *

"Ohho… I think I should head there too. Maybe it is the battle between the mansters and the survivors which is leaking out this much plasma."

*[You are such an idiot. But there is no way you could turn back either way.] *

"Yaya."

He had killed most of the Mansters around the stem port but he could already feel the intense plasma pressure coming from the city.

"I guess I will just have to kill them all as I head towards the Vault's Center."

*[ Don't be stupid. You are just a human and you can't kill this many mansters when you have just become level 3.] *

Saransh ignored Mira and started walking out of the yard.

Each city inside a vault had training facilities, hospitals and even supermarkets. These facilities were necessary for the common public to lead a comfortable life. And the current vault he was in, was primarily built for producing resources, which included the food and weaponry production facilities.

"I still don't get it! How did these mansters infiltrate this place to begin with?"

*[ Don't ask me!] *

"Nobody asked you. I was just thinking."

Mira was shut down this time.

Saransh had already walked out of the yard and was approaching a supermarket.

*[I can sense 4 mansters.] *

"Hmm."

Saransh had planned to do a surprise attack this time and Mira started scanning the vicinity.

*[Two of them are in the supermarket and they are all level 2 Manwolves and the rest are behind the supermarket.] *

"Level 2 Huh?",

He sneered.

*[Oh… Come on..., You were level 1 for almost an year.] *

Saransh had already formulated a plan in his head. It was time to test it out.

"Peela Supermarket! Weird name for a supermarket.". The supermarket was utterly demolished. The windows glasses were already in broken state and the items scattered all around on the floor.

As he entered through one of the wrecked glass entrances, he started channeling plasma into the tip of his gun.

'If can I charge up the snipe skill before I attack and then I can the attack the manster right away.'

He doesn't actually loose his cool most of the time, but he was terrified at the sight in front him. Two Manwolves were feeding on a human corpse. One of the manwolves noticed him and stood up on its two feet as if it had found a new meal. Unlike the lizardmen, the manwolves were much more fearsome. But fortunately,

'The manwolves had a large number of weak points.'

The manwolf started charging towards Saransh. In terms of agility, manwolves were a step ahead of lizardmen. Saransh raised his gun towards the opponent and closed his right eye.

"It's the chest this time".

"Snipe".

Saransh shouted.

Saransh had noticed something from his previous battles. The more time he spent on charging the Snipe skill, the more gruesome it becomes when using it and this time he had already piled up the plasma energy for the past 10 seconds and "Snipe" was at its maximum power right now.

*PIYUUUUNG*

A much thicker beam of plasma energy blasted off from the gun and made a hole in the manster's abdomen.

*KRAAAH*

Before the manster would collapse, he started aiming at its chest again with his right eye closed.

"Rapid Fire."

*PIYUUNG*

*PIYUUNG*

*PIYUUNG*

Three bullets of plasma energy had left the gun and pierced through the abdomen again.

*KRAAAAH*

The manster who was already on the verge of death, collapsed on the ground after receiving both 'Snipe' and 'Rapid Fire' in its abdomen and died instantly.

*[The Manster is dead. It was already going to die from your 'Snipe' Skill, why did you use "Rapid Fire"?] *

"Well, I was trying to improve my shooting technique by aiming at its chest each time."

"Anyway, who knows If it wouldn't charge on me after the 'Snipe' attack. So Prevention is better than cure. Wait, did that proverb suite this situation?".

*[I wonder who the real manster is.] *

The manwolf was dead but its companion was still enjoying the human corpse.

"So, that's how this skill works."

Saransh was smiling.

*[I really don't like the way you smile.] *

"Yaya".

"So there are two conditions for the skill 'Astro' Sound to activate."

*[Ohho…. What are they?] *

Mira asked as if she wasn't aware of it.

Saransh glared at his wrist band and continued.

"First one, I need to attack my enemy with a skill or atleast start channeling plasma into my gun since it is a weapon dependent passive skill."

"and the second one is, I shouldn't be discovered visually."

"If those conditions were satisfied, nothing will be audible to anyone who is outside my perimeter. Think of it as a sphere with a radius of 20 meters or so."

"It apparently confirms one more of my suspicion."

*[Ohho… What is it?] *

Saransh glared at the wrist band again and his eyes were saying "Don't copy my 'Ohho'".

"Manwolves were very good predators who smelled out their prey and even then I wasn't discovered by the manwolf in front of me. And that means 'Astro Sound' doesn't only negate sound, but smell too."

"But maybe negates many more things like the trajectory of my bullets or something."

*[Wow, You're actually close enough to the actual description of the Skill. I didn't expect a human to figure it out this quickly.] *

"Why don't you tell the actual description then?".

*[My creator has forbidden me to do so, hehe] *

"Yeah…Whatever".

Saransh ignored Mira and started focusing on the task at hand.

The manster was still enjoying its meals as it didn't know what just happened behind it. This happened because, the manwolf didn't actually see Saransh and Saransh had already activated the skill 'Snipe' before he entered the supermarket.

And after 10 seconds.

"Ok, Snipe is fully charged.".

He aimed at the manster's head standing right behind it and said "Snipe".

*PIYUUUUUNG*,

The manster crumpled on to the ground from a fatal attack that had perforated its skull without even knowing who attacked it.

*[ The manster is dead.] *

"So, it negates my presence entirely."

Saransh had finally grasped the potential of the skill "Astro Sound."

*[ Yupp, but still not the prefect description.] *

"Yeah… Whatever."

Saransh ignored her and walked towards the backdoor of the supermarket.

"There are two more left now."

After around three minutes.

Saransh had already gathered the bodies of the four Manwolves in one place and yelled.

"It's 'Dismantle time."

The manwolves had their life stones present in their abdomen. Since the plasma energy of the manwolves was already condensed, Saransh started ripping apart the abdomen of the manwolves using his short sword.

*[Why are you so excited about 'dismantling' anyway?] *

Saransh ignored Mira and shouted while holding 4 life stones in his right palm.

"Absorb".

The dark blue life stones vanished immediately and a notification arrived.

*[ You have absorbed 2218 points of pure plasma.] *

"I wonder when I will get a level up notification?"

*[You still need 14,782 plasma points before you can level up] *

"Somehow, hearing that had made me feel drowsy all of a sudden".

Saransh started heading towards center of the vault once again.

"I think there are still 5-6 kms before I reach the center."

*[Looking at the plasma's pressure difference, yeah…. Probably] *

"Wow, you really know complicated stuffs".

*[Well, I'm the perfect device in the entire universe after all.] *

"Yeah… whatever".

Saransh had plenty of friends but he never had a girlfriend. He was a loner in his entire life who never got a chance to get close to any of the women. All of them had rejected him instantly. So he was finally happy having a lively conversation with a lady's voice even though it was just an AI program.

After 20 minutes, he had already covered almost the entire distance and he could see the plasma tower at the center of the vault. Each vault has a plasma tower at its center which casts a powerful barrier around the vault to mask it from the mansters.

During this time, he had countless battles along the way with lizardmen, manwolves and even tugged rats. And he had already received a 'level up' notification once.

"Such a huge tower and it hasn't fallen yet."

*[Don't jinx it dammit…] *

He was still staring at the tall tower in front of him, but suddenly.

*KABOOOM*

He heard a loud explosion around one of the training facilities near him.

He rushed towards the explosion immediately. The thought of seeing another human had delighted him, since the mansters don't battle with each other for some reason.

When he reached the corner of the training facility, he could already see a 30m tall manster and two young ladies battling it.

"Yeah! Finally, I got to see some humans".

He was feeling ecstatic right now and the thought of helping them out had already crossed his mind.

Mira who had completed the scan just now, responded with a notification.

*[It is a level 5 Orc.] *

*[The ladies are also level 5.] *

*[But something seems off about their plasma levels, as if it is fluctuating.] *

"Hmm."

Orcs were huge mansters with human like physique. They had great strength and couldn't be easily killed.

'I'm pretty sure that my fully charged 'Snipe' couldn't insta-kill it.'

'It also look like these ladies have worn it out, so I only need to create an opening for them.'

He aimed at the manster's right leg this time. He charged the 'Snipe' for no more than 1 second and shouted.

"Snipe".

'Let it hit…. Let it hit…'

The piled up plasma energy blasted away from the gun in a straight line and penetrated the manster's left leg even though he aimed for its right leg.

'At least the 'Snipe' hit its leg, no matter which leg it is.'

During his earlier battles, he had discovered something about the paralyze effect in the snipe skill.

'The lower the time he used for charging the snipe skill, the higher were its chances of activating the paralyze effect'.

And the notification he had anticipated arrived.

*['Paralyzed' has been activated on the target. ]*

After having its leg paralyzed, the manster collapsed onto the ground.

'It's massive weight led to its downfall. Well, it cannot support its huge body with just the right leg.'

'and somehow it feels good that I'm not discovered yet.'

It was the perfect opening for the ladies to attack and one of them severed its head using a sword based skill.

*KRAAAAAA*

*[ The manster is dead.] *

Saransh started walking towards the ladies who were very joyful after killing the huge orc. The ladies who had now discovered his presence swayed their attention towards him.

And one of them was constantly staring at him as if she had seen a ghost.

But now Saransh himself was a little worried and asked in a confused manner.

"Do you know me?".