Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging

Other than an initial sensation right after eating the seed, she felt nothing else.

She tried to summon Snowy, but it refused to appear.

Moira Lynch could sense that Snowy was extremely averse to the current environment, which was why it refused to appear.

She wanted to manifest the seed from her spiritual power, but she was afraid of a repeat of what happened before. That would expose their location.

So, she decided against it.

She checked the time. It was already three in the morning.

Nearby, Barry Wallace was already fast asleep.

Moira Lynch yawned as well and decided to get some sleep for now.

Seeing this, Hugh Finch also decided to get some rest. The game was their top priority right now; everything else could wait.

An unknown amount of time passed before a piercing shriek exploded by her ear, jolting Moira Lynch awake.

’It hurts, it hurts so much!’

Her hands flew to her ears instinctively, and then a wrenching pain seized her heart.

Writhing in agony, Moira Lynch forced her eyes open and saw that Hugh Finch and Barry Wallace were in a similar state.

The sound lasted for nearly a minute before it finally stopped.

The three of them now lay on the ground, gasping for air, their bodies drenched in a cold sweat from the agony.

It took a long time for Moira Lynch to recover. Her ears were still ringing, and she couldn’t hear a thing.

After another long while, the ringing in her ears finally subsided.

Moira Lynch and Hugh Finch helped each other to their feet. Nearby, Barry Wallace had shattered into pieces.

Fortunately, he was still alive. The sonic impact must have been too much for his body to handle, causing it to automatically come apart.

"Moira, use your spiritual power to figure out what just happened," Hugh Finch said, pulling out his own tools to begin a divination.

"Okay, I’ll give it a shot."

With that, Moira Lynch tried to extend her spiritual power.

’To be honest, she really didn’t want to use her spiritual power right now if she could help it.’

’After all, the moment she extended her spiritual power, all the noise in the air would swarm her, as if drawn by a scent.’

After that recent ordeal, Moira Lynch had become extremely sensitive to sound. The slightest noise made her ears ache.

’Fortunately, she still had her priorities straight. Figuring out what happened was the most important task. She would just have to endure the sounds...’

Huh??

’Why isn’t there any noise?’

When she extended her spiritual power, the expected cacophony didn’t materialize.

’It’s so quiet. Unnaturally quiet.’

With no noise to interfere, Moira Lynch smoothly spread her spiritual power, blanketing the entirety of Portmire.

Portmire itself had also fallen eerily silent.

While it was an hour when silence was expected, the scene was anything but peaceful. Cars by the roadside had exploded and were still burning; some had even plowed straight into storefronts.

As for the people inside, they had all died bleeding from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Shattered glass littered the ground, and the entire city seemed to be sinking into darkness.

It all proved one thing to Moira Lynch: this was no ordinary night.

And all of it had been caused by that sound.

Just when Moira Lynch thought everyone in The City of Portmire had been wiped out, that not a single person was left alive, a figure suddenly appeared at the end of a street.

Since this was through her spiritual power and not her own eyes, Moira Lynch couldn’t make out the person’s condition. All she knew was that they were walking very slowly, step by step, and their hair was standing straight up on end.

Just as Moira Lynch tried to get a closer look at this person, she saw the figure’s mouth open slightly. A sharp, piercing, and explosive sound erupted from it.

The resulting soundwave sent the car closest to the figure flying.

Seeing this, Moira Lynch hastily withdrew her spiritual power, a theory already forming in her mind.

’The sound they heard earlier... it was probably made by a person.’

Before pulling back her spiritual power completely, Moira Lynch did one last, quick sweep of Portmire, confirming that there wasn’t just one of these monsters, but a dozen or so.

These... people were rampaging aimlessly through the city, destroying everything in their path.

After retracting her spiritual power, Moira Lynch rubbed her tingling ears.

’My poor ears have really been through a lot with me. I’ll have to see if I can find some items or gear to protect them and make it up to them when I get back.’

She turned to Hugh Finch, saw that his divination was complete, and asked, "What are the results?"

"We’re safe for now."

"’For now?’ So, does that mean we can’t just hunker down here until the game ends?" Moira asked.

"It’s not impossible, but it would be extremely dangerous. We’d be putting ourselves in a very reactive position."

After hearing Hugh Finch’s explanation, Moira Lynch sighed. "All right. I’ll take ’safe for now’."

’At least we’ll have a couple more peaceful days.’

"How about you? What did you find?" Hugh Finch asked.

"I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?" Moira Lynch asked, raising an eyebrow mysteriously.

"The bad news."

"The bad news is, I found the source of the sound. Their power is staggering—a single shout can send a car flying. There are at least a dozen of these enemies. Right now, all of Portmire is paralyzed, and the casualties are devastating. I’d estimate that ninety percent of the population died in that one roar."

"We can’t be sure of the sound’s maximum range, though. We can’t rule out the possibility that neighboring cities were also affected, so that’s just a conservative estimate."

Hearing this, Hugh Finch asked, "I thought you said you had bad *news*, singular?"

Moira Lynch put on an innocent expression. "Did I? You must have misheard. I said I have good news and bad news."

Hugh Finch: "...So what’s the good news?"

"The noise is gone. My spiritual power isn’t being interfered with anymore."

Barry Wallace, who had passed out from the sound, didn’t wake up until the next day.

After piecing himself back together, Barry Wallace said with a look of terror, "Young Lynn, Mr. Finch, I had a nightmare last night! I dreamed that a woman in red was screaming and lunging at me, and then I blacked out."

Moira Lynch patted his shoulder. "We know," she said. "Let’s eat first."

The table was laden with all sorts of food.

After all, they could only stay here for a few days, and they couldn’t possibly take everything with them. It was better to consume what they could now to avoid letting it go to waste.

While they ate, Moira Lynch took the opportunity to extend her spiritual power and check on the current situation in The City of Portmire.

She quickly discovered that the situation outside was far worse than she had imagined.

On a main street, someone was running in a panic, glancing over their shoulder every few moments.