Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

​ He was angry at her, he wanted her to die, he wanted to kill her… if she had not done what she did, he would have been alive.

The game loaded. Hitori leaned forward and put his hands on the table when the inbox opened on its own. Hitori groaned and rolled his eyes.

He clicked on the first message to check what was it this time. It read: \'What do you think about the defeat? Do you feel impotent now?\'

He frowned. What did that mean? Hitori wondered. He exited and opened another message.

"Serves you right, bastard! You were flying in the air, now you can not even walk!"

Now that got Hitori, he wanted to know what the heck happened and why were they acting so strange? He opened the next message.

"What would you like to say about your great defeat?"

"Why did you fail to defeat Onogi\'s army?"

Hitori\'s heart picked up the pace. He thought he knew what they were talking about. It should not be the truth, he hoped.

Hitori closed the inbox when it clicked to him– if THAT did happen, then she should have… He went back to the inbox and scrolled.

There. He saw messages from Reon. He clicked on it, found she was online, and started reading the messages.

"Hitori-san, I need your help." It was six days ago. "We are under attack, are you there?"

Then five days ago, it must have hit zero o\'clock. "They have raided our territory, they have taken it all! Where were you all the time?! W-we lost everything!"

Hitori\'s heart sunk, it was a strange feeling, sort of a sad feeling. He knew he could have saved everything, but he could not. Heck, he was not even aware he had to save his territory.

Hitori shook his head and clicked on the log-in option. He closed his eyes, rested in his chair, and soon found himself in the game.

Not strange enough, he was not standing in the courtyard. That was his last log-out spot, he should have been in his territory. Hitori looked around.

There were players all around, they left the place through the black doors all around. He found ruins of cement and stone pillars. He turned around and found a broken fountain in the middle of the spawning spot.

Hitori dashed out of the black door. He opened the map and searched for his territory. He saw nothing. He continued running, he could not teleport either.

He knew the direction to the Hogosha dungeon, he followed the route. Within two minutes, Hitori reached the spot where he had once found the Hogosha dungeon.

He looked around and saw a barren empty land with ruins of walls. In the midst of the destruction, he found a figure of a woman wearing a lab coat.

She took a glance over her shoulder. "Ah, look who is here," she said, "the Ryu who lost the battle."

Hitori stayed silent, he glanced at her and stood by her side.

"Where were you, Hitori-san? Where were you?"

He looked at her. She does not know, he thought.

"I mean, no one came! Senso-san, Monotaro, you, Kamiya… no one. How much do you think I could do? I have no experience, no—"

"What happened?"

She pursed her lips. "Onogi came. He brought an army of around two hundred men! They destructed the dungeons like a giant crushing village under its feet."

"What did Onogi say to you?"

She stuttered. "What do you mean? H-he killed me, duh."

"What did Kuzu say?"

"He… was not with Onogi, for some reason. I thought he was hiding for an ambush, but since you were absent, he did not bother coming out."

Hitori shook his head. "Kuzu is dead, Reon-san…"

"Yeah. Of course."

"He was killed by Kamiya. Onogi saw it all happen, this must be his reply to Kuzu\'s death."

Her eyes widened. "A-are you serious? Kamiya killed Kuzu?"

Hitori glared at her. "I bet Onogi said something like, \'Next you, you traitor.\' did he?"

"Traitor?" Her voice trembled.

"I know, Reon-san, I know…" Hitori shook his head. "Onogi threatened you since the start. You hid it from us and that resulted in Kamiya\'s death."

She felt a stab.

"Kamiya died killing Kuzu. He was electrocuted and so was Kuzu. They killed each other, might be safe to say. Just thought the person responsible should know what price Kamiya had to pay for her betrayal."

Tears formed in her eyes. She took a step back from Hitori, she did not want to believe it, she could not believe it. She shook her head in disagreement.

Hitori turned and looked into her eyes. " It was not an easy death, Reon-san, it was not an easy death, it was not a death he deserved." Hitori bit his lip and frowned.

He stepped towards her, she took a step back till her feet touched a wall behind and could not step back anymore.

He leaned and looked into her eyes. "Fuck this territory, I will create a much bigger territory than this if I need to. But you know what? We fought like dogs for this territory, someone\'s death was not worth it. I give up," he added, "gaming. I do not want to fight like a dog for territory anymore, I never will."

Hitori stood where his territory once stood and now does its ruins. His territory was under Onogi\'s rule and he had no intentions of getting it back. Someone\'s death was not worth two low-level dungeons, two high-level dungeons, and a medium-level dungeon. It was not worth it.

He stepped back and opened the log-out screen, then threw her a last glance. " Come to his funeral, at least. Because I hope you die from the guilt of killing Kamiya."

Hitori then logged out, leaving Reon alone. She squatted and then fell to her knees. Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Kamiya… oh… Kamiya…" She grabbed her face and cried. "What have I done?!" she shouted. She might have really died of guilt.