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nSoon his meal was ready and he ate like a ravenous beast. He practically inhaled the food like a certain pink star warrior, leaving nothing behind. After cleaning up, he went to bathe and then left his residence.

nHe had immediately scheduled his first gene treatment at the Institution of Student Enhancements out of the free 15 granted him. From the moment Dante landed in that fight with the wolves, he had direly understood the importance of stats, especially after using absorption.

nHe had been given a false understanding of the SDI by the natives of this universe who treated it like trash, something that was a given. They only looked at superpowers and gave that full credence, but Dante saw differently.

nAs a non-native, the most important to him was one’s SDI and to some extent Bionics and Psionics. Because of the way superpowers were given, it seemed more to Dante like they were ‘granted’ rather than ‘awakened’ and that was food for thought.

nMaybe the upper echelon of this universe knew some secrets and the truth of the Zero Gate. Maybe that was why the headmistress gave him those encouraging words.

nDante didn’t much know. He felt he would find out in due time, but he had to do what he could now to better himself and catch up to the level of those in this universe.

nUpon reaching the facility, Dante noticed it was full up again. Once more due to his identity as a student of the Unique Batch and the fact that there was no other Unique Batch student in line, he was able to cut the queue and enter a treatment room instantly.

nUnlike the Bionic and Psionic installation room, this place was more like the typical sci-fi medical room. There were plenty of computers and monitoring equipment around while in the center was a standing tank full of greenish-blue liquid.

nDante couldn’t help but picture bacta tanks from SW and the healing chambers from DBZ. He was instructed by a female android wearing a nurse attire to undress completely.

nDante was not exactly comfortable going all naked, but he was not going to act shy. He quickly undressed and followed the android’s instructions on how to enter the tank.

nDante was a bit apprehensive about entering liquid like this, but he found that there was no problem. In fact, the moment he dropped in, he did not feel like he entered liquid, but rather a sort of warm, breezy solid.

nHe floated in the tank softly and his limbs felt light. What shocked him was that he could actually breathe in this miraculous thing and he even opened his mouth.

nNothing entered as he inhaled actual oxygen and he felt like he could even speak normally. The android seemed accustomed to such behavior from the meatbags, and waited by the side in a gentle posture with an accommodating smile.

nDante saw this and stopped playing around, glancing over to know what would happen next. According to the android, he would be put into sedative sleep for a day for the process to begin and end.

nIn this time, he could use the quantum network freely, so Dante shut his eyes and entered the Quantum Network. He simply navigated to the Etraverse and honed in on his account in the Apocalypse World.

nWhen he descended once more, he saw that it was still nighttime. This was the case both in reality and in the network. He had only been away for about 30 minutes at best, but the change was quite noticeable.

nThere was a gleam in his eyes that was present, much different from the fatigued and weary look he had before. His change in attitude almost seemed to affect his body as his recovery became even faster.

nDante carefully sensed the area around him and was sure that it was safe. He then shook off the leaves and the clothes covering his body, carefully packing up the latter as he got up and flexed his body.

nHis acquired power was still there, so he did feel the overall enhancements straight-up. He walked out of the cave and began searching around the mouth of the cave for anything he could use to start a fire.

nStarting a fire in the wild was dangerous but also useful. Dante felt around a few bushes and found some pieces of fallen wood from the trees as well as the shrubs.

nHe assumed this to be dry wood, so he collected enough of it and brought it to the firepit. He swept away the dirt and then set the wood up. In his backpack was a working lighter, so he used it to set some dry leaves aflame that soon lit up the wood.

nThe fire gained traction and then stabilized, granting Dante light. He then sat nearby and enjoyed the warmth while lying across the wall. He did not plan to move from here unless dealing with a threat.

nSeeing that there was nothing to do, Dante forced himself to sleep once more. Well, it was not that hard since he was still in the recovery phase. He tried to sleep lightly so that he would be aware of any danger, but something like that didn’t work on command.

nHe had grown up in the safety of a city, so his sleep was designed fully for rest and not for wariness. He slept deeply and heavily, and the next time he opened his eyes, it was already morning.

nWhat made him startled was that he could hear some movements outside the cave, as if something was searching the area. Dante stiffened and listened quietly, hearing whatever it was come closer and closer.

nHe tensed up and reached for his knife. There was a moment when the search got so close that it seemed like it was right beside the entrance of the cave.

nOnce it reached here, the person or thing searching around suddenly paused as if they had detected something, and the area quickly fell into a tense silence.

nDante began to sweat slightly as he remained tensed for anything but he knew he could remain like this. The cave entrance was not large enough for him to just rush out and hope for the best.

nIf whatever was outside was large enough, it could easily block the entrance and then deal with Dante at its leisure. As such, despite his better judgment, he held his backpack tightly and then rushed out.

nHe held the backpack to the side where he heard the rustling like a shield, hoping it could block at least one attack before he got into a defensible position.

nWhen Dante emerged and glanced to the left using his peripheral vision, his heart shook greatly. What stood there was actually not what he expected, which was a monster that was searching around.

nIt was rather a zombie-like creature that had the body of a human but was slightly larger. Dante turned suddenly to see that its eyes were hollow and its mouth was wide open, leaking a black, viscous liquid that stank like undeath.

nIt was naked and possessed no genitals or hair. Its skin was extremely gray to the point of being ash-like. It had two huge hands covered with claws and its legs as well as its body, were very thin.

nMonster Name: Withering Irradiated Walker

nMonster Rank: E

nHP: 45

/45

nStrength: 7

nAgility: 4

nDexterity: 8

nIntelligence: 2 𝗻𝐨𝐯𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

nConstitution: 1

nVitality: 9?

nAfter checking its SDI, Dante’s first thought was to flee. He definitely could not fight this thing and he had learned his lesson from dealing with the dogs. He was unskilled, untrained, and did not have any advantages or useful weapons to make up for his flaws.

nHis thought right after that was that he could not flee because that thing could probably catch up to him with ease if not outrun him. His third thought was that, since it was an ‘irradiated’ monster, maybe he could use the Anti-Radiation fluid like some pesticide.

nHe fantasized that he would throw out the glass bottle and have the liquid pour on the monster which would cause it to melt into goo. However, his heart told him that doing so would be unprecedentedly stupid because if it did nothing and he actually fought this thing, he would not have anything to use to treat the radiation.

nIn these split seconds of thought, Dante felt incredibly somber. His chances of death were around 99% and the 1% was all up to luck. He did not have the ability to win using his own merits and he recognized that fully.

nDante sincerely prayed his luck was up to par.

nThe monster seemed shocked and startled that Dante had rushed out like this, so it had not attacked yet as it stood stupidly in place. However, that soon changed as it let out a strange roar that made the ear uncomfortable and then pounced at Dante with its claws outstretched.

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