Titan Rising Online: World Breaker

Chapter 177 177: Cradle In The Apocalypse

?Cole followed Irma into the building, it was as expensive inside as it was outside and also just as busy. He kept his head down following after Irma, not that he felt that there was any need to do so, but it was better for him this way to not draw any attention to himself.

Most definitely news about his arrival would not have spread across the outpost yet, but even at that he really just wanted to get into a cradle and log off. He had to be on a ship off earth as soon as possible, he was sure he was the person delaying his own departure by how long he has spent connected to titan Rising online.

"The outpost is the largest of it's kind on our world, there are few communities of survivors around the globe that had banded together to survive. Those who were more privileged had left the world with the rich folks, all of them in their big ships heading off to other worlds.

The arrival of the system made it a lot easier for them in that regard while the rest of us were left behind to rot or be eaten by those who have rotted. But ultimately we have a good thing going here and population is on the rise once again.

We grow most of our own food, and what we don't have we trade with other outposts or we risk our lives to scavenge from the ruins of what used to be the crowning jewels of our civilization.

But I'm sure none of things means anything to you, so I'll just skip right to the important part. About two months ago, cradle facilities popped up within and around every major outpost.

Even the Dremonai have a cradle facility of their own. The system announcement of your arrivals followed soon after, so we have all been preparing. While were not too fond of aspirants, people who can't die once running around and making things difficult for us. However your arrival means more streams of revenue and perhaps an improvement to our current state.

The aspirants are a necessary shock to the system so you and your people will be tolerated and a lot of people would want to do business with you.

Of course they'd probably end up cheating you guys a lot more than should be necessary, but in the end it is all about survival. So due to that even without the system's protection the facilities are the most heavily fortified and guarded part of the outpost.

But even at that this the home of battled hardened survivors, even the kids here know how to use a gun better than your average soldier from before the apocalypse, I'd advise you to be cautious at all times…. We too used to be aspirants once."

Cole raised an eyebrow at that and realized that she was right. Every floor had to be a world that the system had visited and assimilated into a greater whole.

They too had the same opportunities he had to make themselves stronger by foraging into strange new worlds. The fact that they were in such a state meant that probably they did not make good use of the opportunities. How long ago that was, Cole had no idea, but this knowledge made him even more worried and more firm in his conviction.

Before the system takes over earth completely he has to be prepared, he has to be stronger, or he and his people would end up scrounging for scraps in ruins just like Irma and her group were doing.

She led him to the back of a building where a set of massive mechanical double doors were sealed shut. She stopped last a certain distance and gestured for Cole to go in. Never one to stand on ceremony he walked past her without so much as a word moving towards the doors as the slid open with a hiss.

The room beyond was extremely dark, but as soon as he stepped last the threshold it lit up as rows upon rows of pods began to hum. It didn't warrant any sort of reward, but there was a certain level of pride in Cole's chest that he was the first person within the Cradle, it looked decidedly less crowded than any of the other cradles he has come across.

He picked the first one and went in, not caring that the doors were still open or that, Irma was still watching. He immediately accepted the prompt to begin his racial refinement as he locked in his information into the Cradle.

7 lives left, Cole had to make the most of each and every single one of them, especially as he still had 21 more floors to go through. Sure that everything was intact he attempted to log out, 9nly for a system prompt to pop up in his face.

[Log Out/Return To 3rd Floor]

It was nice to see that he could return to the 3rd floor from here and at any time and it seems with no cost to himself.

Cole would deal with that later though, but for now the real world beckons, when he returns, he would see just what his Glade has been up to.

Besides he could now buy land and start development , that would most definitely be another streak of revenue waiting for him to grasp, it was not just special skills and high stats and rank that was power….. ultimately Money really is what power was. The world turned dark, and he woke up staring up at the barrel of a gun.

It went off before he could possibly react, which meant that he expected death to come for him in that moment. But it didn't, Cole felt as if he had been hit by an incredibly hard and blunt object on his forehead.

He screamed out in pain as the blood began to pour from where the bullet was lodged into his skull. His ears were ringing as he grabbed the lamp that was at the side of his bed and chucked it at the person who had shot him.

A wave of their hand sent the lamp flying to the side and the pushed outwards , creating a powerful pressure that lifted Cole off the bed and flung him across the room, smashing through a glass table and a couple of chairs before coming to a stop against a wall.

His head was still ringing, and try as he might to get back to his feet or at least get a smidge of his coordination back, he could not. He was completely disoriented, dizzy and unable to fully bring his perception to bare.

And how could he, he literally had a bullet lodged into his forehead and kissing his frontal lobe, causing excruciating agony for him even just to think.

"Ha! You aren't shit Cole Night, some fucking World Breaker you are!"

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Three more bullets found their mark, one grazing the side of his head and giving him a haircut he did not ask for.

The second slammed into his collar bone, and just like his skull it didn't not go in too deep, but as for the bone underneath Cole could feel it break and puncture deep within his own body.

The bullet might not be able to bring him down, but there was nothing stopping his own body from causing him severe injuries. The final bullet slammed into his sternum and fell to the ground deformed, however it would leave a very nasty bruise, and even without the bruise Cole felt like someone had slammed a sledgehammer into his stomach.

He gasped, doubling over as he struggled for breath, blood rapidly pooling into his lungs as he tried to focus on the person who was attacking him.

The enraged look on his aunt's face was more than enough proof of who his enemy was. How could he had forgotten, his grandfather had three children, his father, his uncle and his estranged aunt born to the same mother as his uncle l, someone he had suspected was definitely in cahoots with his uncle for the murder of his brothers.

He growled out in anger, berating himself for his lack of foresight, he should have seen this coming.

"What kind of freak! Are you! How are you still alive you Bastard!"

Cole knew she would pull the trigger again, and perhaps this time the next salvo of bullets would be what would put him down for good.

He needed to move, but he couldn't , his limbs locked up as a kind of paralysis fell over him. He looked up, bloodied and teary eyed as he stared his death right in the face, since this entire event started Cole had been marching forwards, facing off against enemy after enemy and coming out on top, he has never been in such a state where he was completely at the mercy of his opponents…. He felt it, tasted it, the ugly taste of fear and defeat, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it…. Was this perhaps the end of who and everything that he was, is this how he's going to die.

But try as he may there was no answer coming forth, no option and no way to save himself. His story was at an end, and just like every other person he had put down, there was nothing he could do about, nothing to be done but to accept it, to accept death and the end of his story…." Fuck!"

*Bang!*