Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

Kuzu placed his hand on Gigi\'s shoulder, he was standing against the toilet\'s door. They both were panting hard but Gigi was panting due to the pain and fear.

"It was not Kamiya. It can not. Kamiya is staying with Hitori."

"He can visit his sister!"

"He would not!"

"How are you so sure?!"

Kuzu looked down, he removed his hand from Gigi\'s shoulder.

"We missed him, Kuzu," Gigi said, "we fucking missed him! It was fucking Kamiya. I know, I saw those glasses! I snow those red eyes!" Gigi shouted.

"Do not fucking shout at me!" He again banged Gigi on the door.

"Fucking listen, Kuzu, listen! I know it was Kamiya." he threw his hands and rubbed his forehead. "Those red eyes remain in my memory fresh, I can not get it out. And this fucking pain!" he looked at his foot.

"We must take a look at your leg first---"

"No," he said, shaking his head, "fuck my foot. We should go down and get that fucking Kamiya. Or he must be with Akemi now. I can move, let us go---"

Kuzu rubbed his nose. "I told you he is not Kamiya, he was not Kamiya."

"Oh, no, no. You are not acting like yourself. I will ask again, what made you so sure? Convince me!"

Kuzu sighed. "The game," he said, "I sent a fake warning."

Gigi\'s jaw dropped. "What warning?"

"I gave them a hint that we will be attacking tonight, on New Year. So those two fuckers, right now, would be waiting for us while we take care of Akemi."

"Huh?" Gigi frowned. "If that was so, then why the hell did we attack Hitori\'s house?"

"Because they both live together? Fuck, think a little! It would have been so easy to kill them while they were immersed in the game."

"Not possible." He still shook his head in disagreement.

Kuzu dropped his head and went towards the door, but Gigi stood like a wall blocking Kuzu\'s way.

"Convince me, or else I am not moving."

"What else do you want me to convince you for? I told you---"

"We checked his house, Kuzu!"

"We did, I know, why the fuck are you telling me that, now?"

"Then you must recall... there was only ONE gaming console in the house."

Kuzu stopped, stepped back, and looked at Gigi. "The Vr-cade," he said, "they must have gone to the Vr-cade!"

"Fucking no!" Gigi shouted, "the Vr-cade\'s closed today! It is New Year.  Even that man and lady---" Gigi opened his mouth, his eyes went up on their own-- as if something just hit him.

Kuzu stared at him. "Complete your sentence."

Gigi looked at Kuzu. "The lady who chased us today in the house, do you recall her face from somewhere?"

"What?" he frowned. "I do not think so."

"I do." Gigi nodded. "The counter lady. The counter lady in the Vr-cade. Yes! Yes! I got it!"

Kuzu thought, he recalled his memory while checking his card at the counter. "B-but she was not this tiny."

"Does that matter? She must be using a spell to look tall. What matters is: She was the one in Hitori\'s house."

Kuzu\'s heart jumped inside. "You mean... fuck..." he grabbed his forehead with one hand. "Shit, Gigi, the counter lady is working for Hitori. Or she wants to protect him at any cost and kill us. She knows, she knew who we were."

"That is why she was present at the right place at the right time. They were expecting us! She told him, she told Hitori we were coming and---!"

"He ran." Kuzu nodded. "Damn. I never thought it would weave into something this big. This is messed up, Gigi."

"Something big? We are BIG!"

"Not without Masao-san. We need him." Kuzu lifted his eyes. "We need him."

"Right now? Not possible."

"No..." Kuzu turned to the portal, "right now, we head to the Vr-cade."

"Those bastards would be sitting in the Vr-cade waiting for us while we---"

"I know. I know." Kuzu dived into the portal.

Gigi stepped but paused when he felt a stinging pain in his foot. "Tch, what the heck is this?"

He squatted and removed his boat to take a look at his foot and oh, boy, oh, was his foot a big melon.

"What the---!" he pushed back and banged on the door. He widened his eyes a the sight.

Redish brown color had wrapped itself around Gigi\'s foot. It had swelled from the bottom, and the color was disgusting.

Gigi put back his boat and dived into the portal.

He saw Kuzu standing in front of the door. It was closed, Gigi could see. Only the color bugs were glowing, and Kuzu banging on the door.

"Kamiya! Hitori! Come out!" he shouted.

Gigi limped his way to the Vr-cade. "They must be hiding inside."

"I know how to bring them out." Kuzu inhaled and shouted, "Room three hundred and three, come out or Akemi dies. I will give you five seconds, Kamiya."

Kuzu started the countdown.

"One and zero!" Kuzu was left speechless. He simply could not understand. "You die first, Kamiya."

Kuzu threw the slug on the door, it opened the Vr-cade\'s door with ease. Kuzu stormed inside with Gigi behind. He pulled a flashlight and searched the whole Vr-cade.

"Find the fucking switches, Gigi."

"I can not. They do not have any!" he called back.

"Ah, fuck you. They are not here."

Gigi limped closer. "Where do you think they would be?"

Kuzu exchanged glances. "In the game, maybe?"

"Waiting for us? Waiting just because of your fake warning?"

Kuzu took out his gaming card and threw it into the magical circle. "We have only one option," he sat and the game loaded, "to find out ourselves. Log in," he ordered.

Gigi sat and inserted his card. "I despise this, seriously."

A man dressed in a black jacket appeared with a ruined build that had no roof but a fountain in the middle-- that was rusted, too-- beside him appeared Gigi.

"Change of plans, let us show them my warning was not fake," Kuzu said and strode towards Hitori\'s territory.

Hitori was straing at his conversation with Kamiya. The last time they ever used the chat box was during the Clone Dungeon\'s conquest when he had asked Kamiya to run to Reon stuck in the pit.

He sighed. \'You are not coming, are you?\' he said, wondering where Kamiya was and what he was doing.

Hitori closed the messages and opened his menu screen, he looked at the bottom and saw the log-out option.

Kuzu appeared in front of the Kori dungeon, he had Gigi with him. Their stamina had decreased a little by fighting the monsters in Hitori\'s territory.

Gigi glanced around and asked, "We two?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you..." Kuzu said, "that we have someone saved for later. If we are going to do this, then we will end this."

Hitori got the red alert. He frowned and shifted to the cameras. Kuzu, Gigi, and a group of fifty monsters were turning the Kori dungeon upside down.

Hitori rushed to the messages and texted everyone again. \'He is here, we are under attack, I need back-up. If anyone reads, join the game ASAP.\'

Then he looked as Kuzu and Gigi cleared the Kori dungeon with ease.  Hitori waited for back-up, he waited for someone to show up. But when he took a look at their accounts, they were still offline.

Of course, it was three-thirty at dawn, who would be awake right now after that New Year celebration? He had expected Kamiya to show up though, but he did not either.

They cleared the Yuki lair, thankfully, not a single person had gathered in front of the territory to watch the match. Kuzu charged inside without waiting for his army to gather.

From the outside, it looked like nothing was going on inside the territory. No one could if the territory was under attack unless they try to enter the territory.

Hitori got up and teleported to the Hogosha dungeon. Since they had not revived their defense since the battle with Kuzu, so the line-up was still the same.

After Yuki lair came to the Hogosha dungeon. Hitori forgot about Pontianak lair-- their base-- and jumped directly to the Hogosha dungeon. To his shock, neither Kuzu nor Gigi bothered to enter the Hogosha dungeon.

They ran past the trap and entered the Pontianak lair, then paused in front of Throne Hill. They had lost their monster army and it seemed as if they were looking for someone.

"Kamiya!" Kuzu shouted, "where are you? Come out, Kamiya!"

But instead of Kamiya, Hitori appeared in front of them. "He is not here," he said.

Gigi stepped forward. "And you want us to believe that?"

"I do not care if you believe me or not, we will fight anyways."

Kuzu let Gigi and Hitori argue while he glanced around the lair. He opened the map and Kamiya was nowhere to be seen in the past dungeons. That left only one place to check.

Kuzu raised his hand and said, "If that is true, Hitori, that Kamiya is not here."

"I am telling you, it is just me. No one from my group is here," he sighed, "no one listens to me anymore. They think I have gone mad."

Kuzu frowned. "Why are you telling me, I do not care?"

Hitori shook his head. "Right, come on then." He drew his katana.

Gigi equipped his cannon but Kuzu stood still. "Can I check?"

Hitori lowered his katana. "Check what?"

"The last dungeon. I want to make sure Kamiya is not hiding there."

Hitori stared at Kuzu from the hill. He threw his katana back into the scabbard and climbed down the hill. Gigi lowered his cannon when Hitori came closer to Kuzu.

"You want to check whether logged in or not?" Hitori looked into Kuzu\'s eyes. "I will tell you. He has not logged in since Christmas, since that---"

"What?"

Hitori looked down. "Does not matter. I told you, no one cares about this territory anymore. Since we waged war against each other, this has turned into a serious situation for everyone. Not a game anymore. They do not care if we lose this territory or not, they just want to stay \'safe.\'"

"And your point is?"

"Heck with you Kuzu and heck me. In the name of God, I just wished that my mates showed a little care about this territory we have built. But no, despite the warning, they want to sleep. I do not blame them either. I blame you and Onogi, your fear has turned them into this.

"You want to kill me? Go ahead. If you want to take my territory, oh you are welcome. Who will stop you? I will. I WILL. With? No one. Cause everybody else is worried about their deaths. But I would not fear you anymore, I would not fear death. I have built this territory and this is mine to keep."

Kuzu\'s mouth dropped open, and Gigi unequipped his cannon and kept staring at Hitori. \'This man\'s screws are loose. Fuck, he is... just out of his mind.\'

Hitori exhaled. He turned, rubbed his brow, and looked back into Kuzu\'s eyes. "There is God. Then there are Powerful People, which include you. Then there are broken people with sheer will and determination to join together, confidence to stand alone in front of the Powerful People, and an attitude to achieve their goals; and that, Kuzu, includes people like me--- heck, there is only ONE Saibai Hitori, so the last category includes ONLY ME."

Hitori tapped the screen in front of him and opened the area\'s map, and shoved it into Kuzu\'s face. "Do you see any blue dot? You would not, there is only me in this territory."

Kuzu examined the map, Hitori was true. He glanced at Hitori and nodded. "We-we will be back," Kuzu stuttered. He was not scared of Hitori, he was just shocked and surprised after hearing Hitori\'s words and viewing Hitori\'s life from his point of view.

Hitori nodded back. "Yes. I will be waiting," then he added, "Alone."

Kuzu turned, and Gigi followed him out of the Pontianak lair and out of the territory. Kuzu was frozen and so was Gigi, they both stayed silent on their way out.

When Gigi broke the silence. "What the fuck was wrong with him? H-he creeped the shit out of me---"

"I-I d-do not want to talk about him. I was just as confused as you are."

"Uhm. Okay." Gigi nodded. "So what was your trump card? I realized I would not see it since we aborted the conquest."

Kuzu looked at Gigi, wide-eyed. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." He grabbed his screen and opened his messages. "You should have said that shit earlier!"

Gigi, even more, confused than before, watched as Kuzu texted someone.

It read: Sorry for the delay, Masao-san. But let me report: Mission aborted. Kamiya is not here, please abort the mission. Thanks.

Gigi\'s jaw dropped open. He hesitantly turned to Kuzu, who opened his screen. "O-O-Onogi-san?"

Kuzu hummed and logged out, leaving Gigi overwhelmed.