For a split second, nothing happened.

Theo shut his eyes as the ground rushed at him.

Then—

Whoosh!

Everything around him changed.

[Daily Descent activated.]

[Remaining Punishment days: 1]

Theo’s eyes snapped open, feeling an uncomfortable sensation run down his spine.

’’It worked,’’ he mumbled as fierce wind pulled on his body from all sides.

He’d been teleported three thousand yards above his last location, saving him from the building collapse.

’And I should lose my momentum when I reappear too!’

Theo let out a few heavy breaths.

Then his gaze fell on the city below.

From this height, everything looked much clearer... and for the worse.

Massive fires burned through multiple districts while smoke rose high into the night sky.

The barrier dome flickered under the constant bombardment from outside.

Tiny flashes erupted all over the city as it had fallen into a war-like state.

BOOOOM!

Another skyscraper suddenly collapsed not too far away.

’What... can we even do?’

With tens of thousands of creatures surrounding the city and thousands more inside... everything felt pointless.

Of the three hundred thousand people inside... more than ninety percent were doomed to die.

’No,’ he thought, shaking his head. ’Concentrate.’

’I don’t have time to worry about that.’

His expression sharpened.

He needed to save his family, then search for his friends and save them too.

As for the other people... he didn’t owe them anything.

Theo rapidly accelerated toward the ground, yet even now his attention was fully on the city around him.

His eyes rapidly scanned everything below.

Each destroyed building, monster swarm, flooded road... he took note of it all.

The closer he got, the clearer his path became.

Finally, he only glanced down as he entered a massive dust cloud.

’Please,’ he thought, heart pounding. ’Make me lose my momentum.’

Just as he came within inches of the ground, his body vanished.

The next moment, he reappeared several yards above the street, completely still.

Then—

He dropped the remaining distance.

Thud!

Theo landed heavily atop a pile of broken concrete and twisted metal.

’’Ugh,’’ he let out.

For a brief moment, he simply remained crouched there, breathing heavily.

"It actually worked..." he muttered, staring at his hands.

If the ability hadn’t reset his momentum from before, he would’ve broken all his bones and might’ve even died outright.

But he quickly forced those thoughts aside.

’I need to move now!’

The dust from the collapsed building wouldn’t last for long and right now, it served as perfect cover.

He pushed himself up right away.

Then his expression tightened slightly.

Bodies littered the street everywhere.

Some were buried beneath collapsed debris while others had clearly been torn apart by creatures during the chaos.

Worst of it all, the water streaks that ran through the roads were dyed red.

’Go,’ he thought, forcefully looking away.

Following what he’d just seen from the air, Theo made his way towards a row of smaller houses on the opposite side of the street.

Just before he reached them, a soft screech echoed through the street.

Theo’s head snapped to the side.

There, buried underneath the same debris, lay a crab-like creature with large, metal-like claws.

It was covered in blue and red blood, with clothes stuck between its pincers.

Theo reached for the spear on his back immediately.

But stopped.

’Just walk,’ he thought, turning away. ’Conserve your energy and mana.’

The creature was already incapacitated either way, and would likely even bleed to death.

Another distant screech echoed somewhere farther down the street moments later.

Theo’s eyes narrowed immediately.

More creatures were approaching the collapse site.

Without wasting another second, he quickly slipped between the smaller houses ahead.

Even in the alleyway, a thin trail of water was already practically up to his ankles.

’It must be because of those large creatures,’ he thought, his expression dark. ’They must be S-ranks or... maybe even higher.’

He glanced ahead, finding a single ladder leading up to the roof of the smaller buildings.

’That’s my way out of here.’

Once he was up there, he could travel from roof to roof and avoid the majority of the predators feasting in the streets.

Just then, his eyes locked onto movement.

Three smaller shrimp-like creatures were digging through several human corpses.

’Skitter Shrimp,’ he thought, pulling the spear off his back. ’Seems like all three are F-ranks.’

The shrimp barely reached his knees in height and were only two feet long.

But they were famous for going around in massive groups and swallowing creatures a hundred times stronger than them.

’With so much helpless food laying around, their group might’ve just scattered though.’

Without another thought, he walked up to them.

Crunch! Crunch!

The creatures were still biting into the human corpses, their antennae twitching as blue saliva fell into the human bodies and melted through their bones.

Theo didn’t hesitate.

He lunged forward—

And before any of them reacted, he swung his spear horizontally.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The spear sliced through them like they were butter.

Blue blood shot into the air, even covering the walls.

The three Skitter Shrimp twitched violently for a brief moment before collapsing into the shallow water below.

Theo immediately pulled the spear back.

He let it simmer in the stream for a moment, washing all the blood away.

Now that the obstacles were gone, he quickly made his way over to the ladder and climbed up.

The moment he pulled himself onto the rooftop, cold wind washed over his body again.

BOOOOM!

Another explosion rang out behind him.

Theo immediately crouched lower, not feeling safe in the slightest.

’I won’t run into them now,’ he thought. ’But I stand out like a sore thumb.’

It was a choice between bad and worse.

Without wasting time, he quickly moved across the rooftops, jumping between the tightly packed houses one after another.

Thud!

Thud!

Each landing remained as quiet and controlled as possible.

Human screams and monster screeches covered his landings most of the time, each ringing out from the streets below.

But then—

Theo suddenly slowed down.

He’d reached the end of this line of buildings, the wide main road stretching out in front of him.

But that wasn’t all.

Farther ahead, several massive holes had been torn open straight through the streets below.

Creatures continuously crawled out from inside them.

Some dragged corpses back underground while others spread through the flooded roads above.

Theo’s expression darkened immediately.

"...Sewers," he muttered.

The memories of finding strange pipe fragments inside the creatures on the beach resurfaced in his mind again.

His grip around the spear slowly tightened.

"Don’t tell me... the creatures planned this from the start."