Ark stood between the two trains. His increased perception allowed him to hear what Adam was saying to the crowd of people. The monster who had jumped up the previous day had really shaken them all up. They had only seen a single monster so far. That were the weak Dustbroods, and then suddenly they saw a monster that could fold them in half. It was a huge blow to their already fragile minds.

It was true that Adam’s ability made all the people completely invulnerable to all attacks but the sad reality was that not everything was as it seemed at first glance. They would be invulnerable to all physical attacks. That was the best an epic-ranked card could do against the tadpoles of Cthulhu. The tadpoles had a second skill effect in use too. It was the madness inducing effect which acted in certain vibrations. Ark might have shrugged them off as if they were nothing but it was not the case for the ordinary folks who just wanted to survive.

Ark could hear Adam use his gentle tone of voice, constantly persuading the people that Ark would be able to manage the monsters by himself that day. It was true to a certain extent. When Ark was practicing the fourth technique, “Net” all by himself, he had felt the presence of Adam watching him. He had probably come there to check up on him but when the former saw how hard Ark was working, he would have decided not to disturb him. According to Ark, that was a wise choice.

When he was practicing, he was always in a troubled state of mind. It was a knife that was balanced between two edges. To disturb that would be akin to letting the people die. Adam, the people, and Ark himself all knew that if Ark was not there, they would all be dead by now. It was only due to Ark that there was not a single casualty. The extent of the safe rooms had continued to decrease. The green square which was Ark’s earlier home had vanished on the second day itself.

The disappearing safe rooms had a consistent pattern too. It seemed that the Tower was slowly herding them towards the center of the subway station. By the time the seventh horde of monsters attacked them, all the safe rooms would have disappeared leaving only the ones in the middle. There was certainly a hint of death everywhere the people looked. It was a grim reality they were in. Ark heard Adam mutter that even if the monsters went past Ark, Adam would protect them. Ark could not see anything and yet he could hear the visible relief that everyone showed on their faces.

Ark had mixed feelings about this whole incident. On one hand, they were all normal citizens. Ark and Adam were the heroes who were protecting them. On the other hand, nothing about the situation was normal. Why couldn’t any of them take any responsibility? They had seen firsthand what inaction led to. In most cases, it was death, and yet no one dared to get any stronger. Everyone relied on only two pillars for their support. Ark wondered what would happen when one of the pillars inevitably fell down.

These were not thoughts Arks should have had if he was in his original head space. Perhaps the madness effect had left lingering doubts in Ark’s mind. He knew out of all of them, only Ark and Adam had the option as well as the choice to get stronger. They had gained a story card in the first scenario itself which gave them a huge leg up in the competition. The people were just ordinary. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was not like Ark had given them enough resources to get stronger too. He was the one who was monopolizing all the resources.

Ark shook these thoughts out of his mind. He consoled himself by the fact that he was only doing all that so that he could protect humanity. He was doing his just duty in the very moment too, protecting all those who were weak and innocent, and yet the convincing argument Ark made up in his mind did nothing to lessen his worries. Perhaps he was more power hungry than he had realized. In the Tower, maybe that was a good thing. Ark didn’t know anymore. What was going on in his mind anyway?

Ark forcibly shut off his perception stat as he focused on a single thing. It was the monsters on hand. Ark had already bought the card which would help him defeat the horde of monsters. Ark only wondered how the card would make it possible. He opened up his card deck and looked at the utility card he had bought from the System Shop

[UTILITY][10 SLOTS][1 CARD]

‘Once the head of the snake is cut…’

Unlike his own story card, there was only a single name attached to the card. It was a tarot card too with golden and black archways. It depicted an old man with a grisly beard and a shotgun staring down a monster. The Tower was full of untold stories and those stories were sold in the shop in exchange for coins. When Ark had first seen the card in the System shop, he had not paid much attention to it. The cards of the System shop always had vague descriptions and most of the time were completely useless. That was Ark’s expectation.

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It was then that Ark remembered something from his distant past. In one of the floors Ark and his friends had come across an old shack that had a journal on it. That was Ark’s phase where he was completely obsessed with the stories of the Tower. He would read everything which even vaguely resembled a story. And Ark had found the journal of an old monster hunter. He still remembered it to this day. Something had stirred inside of him and it was then Ark realized that the quote on the card was one of the last lines of the journal.

Ark had decided to take a risk and spent his coins buying the card from the System shop. Unlike regular cards, which were obtainable, bought cards showed the user exactly how the cards were meant to be used. It was like an initiation of some sort and as soon as the card resided in Ark’s deck, he was transported to an otherworldly place where he viewed everything from the eyes of an omniscient God.

Ark saw a young man in his prime getting ready to kill his first monster along with his father. Ark saw the same boy grow up into a teenager who had sneaked out to kill monsters on his own. It looked like his favorite pastime too. In the same way, many instances passed by as Ark continued to watch everything with open eyes. The boy had gotten in trouble. It was his father who came to rescue him. Ark watched the man slowly turn into the man who received the first shotgun. Ark watched as the father slowly became old and the little boy who was enthusiastic about hunting monsters slowly lost his passion.

The man continued to write in his journal every day. He wrote about his adventures as a young lad and he continued to write till he became a very old man. Some of the days, he would go along with the Mayor of his town to hunt some weak monsters. The man never got the thrill of the hunt back. Suddenly Ark’s view changed and he was inside the old shack again. This time the villagers were pleading with him. A monster had taken away their children and only the old man would be able to bring them back safely.

The old man obliged and took up his old shotgun once again. This time though, he did something completely unexpected. There were three bullet casings he brought out from a safe that was there for as long as he could remember. These were the bullets that would help him bring back the children. The old man left his house. His journal lay on the bed.

Something was magical about the three magical bullets. Once the old man hit a monster with it, the entire horde would ignore him completely. Only the monster which was hit would do anything against him. The magic which made the monsters ignore the old man seemed to make the monster even stronger than before. But the old man had time. Slowly and slowly, with the distant ticks of time, he killed the monster and rescued the children. This happened once more. It was the third monster that spelled the old man’s demise. As the man lay dead, so did the monster. In his final moments, the Old man felt like the little child who had always wanted to kill the monsters. His story came to an end

Ark now understood what had transpired. He felt sad for the old man. He prayed that wherever he was he would rest in peace always. The description as well as the effects of the legendary card were now displayed fully in Ark’s status window.

[UTILITY][10 SLOTS][1 CARD]

‘Once the head of the snake is cut…’ : The old man was always a monster hunter by heart and this is his legacy. May the forgotten story of a lonely old man help you in your own journey. The Tower wishes you the best of luck

Effect 1: When this card is used, it marks a particular monster in the horde. The rest of the monsters completely ignore your existence

Effect 2: The monster which is marked by this skill becomes the Boss monster of the entire horde. It is strengthened considerably

Effect 3: Once the boss monster is killed, every other monster will die at the same time.

Cool down period: None

Number of uses left: 3

Type: Legendary Active Type

Ark was astonished. This card was a complete game-changer. With this, he would be able to defeat the rest of the horde. The only bad thing was that the card only had three uses. After the three uses were over, the card would completely disintegrate and the story of the old monster hunter would be lost forever. Ark felt somewhat saddened by the fact. The only consolation was that Ark would forever remember his story. Somehow, the number of uses perfectly correlated with the number of horde monsters that were left.

It was the fifth horde and there were still the sixth and seventh left. Ark wondered though how the monster he marked would become the Boss monster. Would a physical transformation occur right in front of him or would there be something else? Ark could only see it in action when he used it though. Ark readied himself, the monsters were soon going o approach from the dark void. He could only hope that if his net missed a single monster, Adam would be able to save the rest of the people.

And the horde of monsters appeared in front of Ark. Just as they entered his field of vision, Ark automatically used his utility card. He could see something visibly change in front of him. The monsters slowed down considerably and the one which looked the sickliest of them all let out a shriek just like that of a hyena and became almost half the size of the enormous train. Ark cursed under his breath at the sheer absurdity of it. It was not an ordinary monster at all. It was a Wendigo.