Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging

Staring at the giant Flying Wheel made of countless blades in front of him, Kai York gaped, his eyes wide.

He saw that all the pirates around him were dead.

"Wait, you’re not planning to use that on me, are you?!"

Kai York reflexively took a few steps back.

That thing had just instantly killed so many pirates.

’Never mind that my movements are restricted,’ he thought. ’Even if I were free, I doubt I could escape from that thing.’

’That’s right.’ Kai York hadn’t even considered fighting it. ’Running is the more practical option.’

’Where there’s life, there’s hope, as they say.’

’But right now, there might not be any life, let alone hope.’

Just as Kai York was considering kneeling and begging for mercy—it wasn’t shameful if it saved his life, and besides, no one was around to see—footsteps suddenly sounded from behind him.

He turned his head and saw that Moira Lynch had appeared behind him at some point.

"What are you doing here?"

Just as Kai York was about to warn Moira to run, that this place was dangerous, he saw her raise a hand, palm open.

The Flying Wheel that had been hovering in the air quickly descended, shrinking as it fell.

It continued to shrink until it was the size of his palm, then returned to Moira Lynch’s hand.

"I came to save you, of course. So, how did you get caught?"

’Even if you run into someone you can’t beat, can’t you just run away? Honestly, making me worry like that.’

At this point, Kai York was too shocked by what he had just seen to speak.

’The person who just wiped out all the pirates in one strike was Moira Lynch!’

"That thing in your hand just now was...?"

"My weapon. Impressive, right? I just finished it recently."

Polishing a Yeti Horn requires extreme precision, not to mention that Moira Lynch’s Yeti Horn was one that had been eaten by Snowy and then reconstructed with her spiritual power.

Moira Lynch had no reference to work from while polishing it, nor could she rely on external forces. She had to figure everything out on her own, little by little.

That’s why she had only just recently completed it.

In fact, its current state wasn’t perfect yet; the details still needed some more polishing.

But all in all, Moira Lynch was very satisfied with the Flying Wheel’s performance today.

Kai York didn’t grill Moira Lynch for details; after all, she had just saved him.

Besides, if Moira Lynch had wanted to tell him, she would have already.

’Most importantly,’ he thought, ’even if I did find out where she got such a powerful weapon, could I really get an identical one for myself?’

’Yeah, right.’

After the two of them had looted everything of value from the pirates’ bodies, Moira Lynch took out a shovel, preparing to dig a pit to bury the corpses.

Seeing this, Kai York volunteered to help.

Moira Lynch simply handed the shovel over to him.

Because Moira Lynch had been aiming for a quick and decisive battle from the start, the scene was much bloodier than their last encounter, even though there were fewer pirates this time.

Some of them had even died with their eyes wide open.

After Kai York finished digging the pit, the two of them began moving the bodies into it.

While they worked, Kai York briefly explained what had happened.

Previously, Kai York had stormed off first. But after walking some distance, he realized he had no idea where to even find any pirates.

He then stopped and decided to wait right there for Moira Lynch to catch up.

On this point, their thoughts had been surprisingly identical: one was waiting for the other to return, and the other was waiting for her to catch up.

However, whether it was due to good luck or bad, Kai York had managed to run into pirates just by wandering around aimlessly.

At first, he saw that most of them were women. Though their style was a bit wild, he’d lived through the information explosion on Caelus—what style hadn’t he seen? Besides, this was the interstellar age, with a staggering number of different races.

So, at first, he just thought they were a group of girls with a unique sense of fashion.

It wasn’t until the leader started hitting on him that he gradually sensed something was wrong.

By the time he truly realized what was happening, it was too late.

He had wanted to escape, but the pirate leader used some unknown method to completely nullify all of his attacks, making it impossible for him to flee.

"Moira, is that ability of hers a Talent too?" Kai York asked.

"If I’m not mistaken, that should be a Talent called Mass Exchange. It’s not a particularly powerful Talent; in fact, it’s kind of useless."

Kai York looked skeptical of Moira Lynch’s assessment.

"But it looked really powerful when she used it! My attacks had no effect on her at all."

Putting aside the fact that he’d nearly been... conscripted... in Kai York’s own words, he was once again struck by how awesome it looked.

"I’m not wrong. The Talent seems powerful, but once you understand the principle behind it, it’s nothing special. You could call it a sub-branch of a sub-branch of Space Talent."

Moira Lynch explained, "So-called Mass Exchange is just swapping two different spaces. So your attacks didn’t disappear; they were just swapped to another location."

"Moreover, the Mass Exchange Talent is tens or even hundreds of times harder to develop than other Space Talents. Some people are stuck at level two their entire lives and can’t level up. Reaching level three is incredibly rare, and the Talent only really starts showing its power after reaching level four."

"Before level four, it can only be used for support, and Mass Exchange has limitations on distance, size, and duration."

"If you had used a large-scale damaging attack right from the start, like a tornado or something, you would’ve seen how flustered she’d get."

The reason Moira Lynch could attack the pirate so easily was because her Flying Wheel Blades are, fundamentally, made of spiritual power.

That kind of thing is invisible and intangible; you can’t transfer it away even if you want to.

Seeing Kai York listening intently like a good student, Moira Lynch couldn’t help but tease him, "You should check out the science explainers online in your free time. They’ve covered Talents like Mass Exchange in detail."

"You mean the Astranet? I’m on it every day."

Moira Lynch couldn’t help but roll her eyes. "I’m talking about the Caelus internet, the Talent science channel."

After all, not everyone could afford an Intelligent Brain. Besides, Moira Lynch’s stock of Intelligent Brains wasn’t unlimited; they had sold out long ago.

To prevent the people on Caelus from training haphazardly, wasting their Talents, or making huge mistakes, the planetary governments had jointly launched a program that was broadcast for free worldwide.

Besides some news, its content was dedicated to explaining various Talents.

It provided new ideas for those with useless or weak Talents, encouraging them not to give up on themselves.

After all, on Caelus, just having a Talent already put you ahead of most people.