Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode-Chapter 592: More Monsters

The city had crossed a threshold. What followed after the portals opened was no longer chaos. It was a hunt.

The monsters kept coming in waves. Some portals flickered and collapsed after releasing a few creatures. Other portals were stabilized and just continued to pour out monsters.

Entire streets became killing grounds layered with corpses, blood pooling between cracked asphalt and rubble.

The players of the game who survived the first wave of onslaught adapted quickly or died just as fast.

Sean and Connor carved a path forward without slowing. Sean’s breathing stayed even as he cut down another monster, his sword already moving toward the next target before the corpse hit the ground. His [Apex Mark Detection] pulsed in his mind, the pull growing stronger with every minute.

"He is closer," Sean said to Connor.

Connor glanced around, crushing a monster’s skull beneath his shield.

"Is that so? Heh. Good."

They didn’t bother counting their kills or pay attention to their EXP anymore. Numbers meant nothing, only how to reach their target mattered now.

The group of four was doing the same. Their formation tightened as resistance around them thickened.

Monsters grew larger and smarter. Some of the monsters tried to flank them and used the environment like collapsing buildings or ambushing from below the ground.

It didn’t help them, though.

The spear-wielder’s runes glowed brighter with every kill. The shield-bearer laughed as impacts rattled his armor. The caster’s magic skills warped the air violently. Her elemental attack grows faster and more efficient. The agile woman moved with predatory movements, blood streaking her armor like paint.

All of them felt it. The pull, which means that the Apex was near.

—

Clyde himself felt the city breathing down his neck.

The pressure had changed. It wasn’t just monsters anymore. It was people with high-level ones, they moved like predators with intent instead of panic like usual players.

"I feel too much hostile magic in the air," Mina whispered as they moved through a half-collapsed subway entrance. "I can feel them... everywhere!"

Clyde nodded. "They’re converging on us."

They didn’t slow. The new armor helped them tremendously. Mina moved more confidently, her body responding faster than her thoughts.

Clyde also noticed immediately that the armor wasn’t just protecting them. It was sharpening their whole body.

They killed a monster blocking the tunnel exit and slipped back into the open city on the other side of their previous area. Smoke drifted low, mixing with the bluish glow of distant portals. Screams echoed farther away. But now they were fewer than before.

"The players are thinning out," Mina said quietly.

"Yes," Clyde replied. "Which means the ones left are dangerous."

He stopped briefly on a shattered overpass and closed his eyes.

He could feel it clearly now as the one marked as the Apex, the strongest. Multiple presence coming to him. Lines of intent pulling inward like threads being tightened around a single point.

Around him.

"Tch," Clyde clicked his tongue. "This will become annoying."

Mina looked at him sharply. "How bad? Can you feel them?"

Clyde opened his eyes.

"Several groups," he said calmly with a nod. "They are strong. And I felt one presence that doesn’t feel human at all."

She didn’t ask which one made him worry the most.

They moved again.

—

Ray was enjoying himself while hunting. He cut through monsters effortlessly, not even bothering to dodge most attacks. The Demon Sword sang softly with every kill. Its black surface pulsing as if drinking deeply.

The pull was strong now. Very strong.

Ray leapt onto a ruined building and looked across the city. He saw fires burned, portals flared, people dying, and somewhere ahead he knew someone strong stood at the center of it all.

"The Apex," Ray said, laughing under his breath. His smile widened further. "Don’t disappoint me."

He stepped off the building and vanished into the chaos, heading straight toward the heart of the pull.

—

The sky now suddenly also screamed. That was the only way to describe it. It did not merely crack open this time. It tore like paper being shreds.

The air above the city folded as enormous portals forced themselves into existence. They were far larger than the previous ones, wide enough to swallow entire buildings.

The light spilling from them was darker, heavier, and tinged with deep crimson and sickly violet hues that warped the space around them.

The pressure dropped instantly. The players that were still alive felt it in their bones.

Then the monsters emerged. They were nothing like the earlier waves.

Massive figures fell from the portals with ground-shaking force. These monsters were taller than buildings, they slammed into the streets, their bodies armored in layered bone and blackened chitin.

Some of the monsters had a lot of limbs with claws. Other monsters had none of their limbs at all and still moved, dragging themselves forward with sheer malice like slugs, or snakes.

One creature landed on an apartment block and crushed it flat under its weight without even noticing.

"ROAR!"

Their roars rolled through the city. Entire districts collapsed under the impact. Shockwaves sent debris flying. Fires spread wider. The smell of blood was drowned out by ancient power.

Survivors who had thought they were strong realized how fragile they still were.

Some ran and were crushed. Some stood their ground and died screaming. A few fought and lived.

Sean skidded to a stop as a colossal monster burst through the street ahead of him. The monster’s body was covered in layered plates and glowing veins. His eyes widened slightly, not in fear but in focus.

Connor tightened his grip on his shield. "Now that’s more like it."

The creature swung an arm the size of a truck. Connor met it directly. The impact hurled him backward through a wall, but he laughed as he rolled to his feet.

Sean moved in immediately. His blades flashing, adapting to the monster’s movements. They managed to kill it. Their levels surged again.

The group of four also faced one of the giant monsters. The shield-bearer anchored himself at the front. His muscles were screaming as he held the monster’s charge.

The spear-wielder drove his weapon deep into the body. The caster unleashed everything she had, skills detonating against the creature’s chitin. The agile woman scaled its body like a shadow, slashing into weak points with precision.

They killed it. And when they did, something changed.

The pull sharpened.

—

Clyde stopped dead in his tracks as a shadow passed over the street.

He looked up and saw a portal the size of a stadium was forming above a distant district, its edges grinding the space apart. The monster halfway through it was so large that only its upper body had emerged and it was already tearing buildings apart with casual movements.

"So that madman raised the stakes again," Clyde said quietly.

Mina felt her stomach drop. "Those things... we can’t fight all of them."

"We’re not meant to," Clyde replied. "I guess they were dropped to make us gather in one place faster."

Clyde could feel it clearly that the Apex Mark placed on him wasn’t drawing only a few predators. It was drawing many of them.

There were groups he hadn’t sensed before were moving toward him. Lone hunters, duos, or even entire squads.

Clyde didn’t know much. But actually the players that hunted him had skills like Sean and Connor. Other players simply followed instinct, rumors, or the trail of destruction.

All of them were strong and cruel, and were heading toward him.

Clyde gritted his teeth.

"We can’t run anymore," he said.

—

Ray landed on a rooftop as a massive beast crawled out of a nearby portal. He didn’t even spare it a glance. His eyes were fixed forward, locked onto the pull that dominated his senses.

Across the city, dozens of the players adjusted their paths at the same time to avoid the monsters without knowing that they were being pushed to Clyde’s direction.

—

Clyde and Mina met one of their hunters at the edge of a collapsed boulevard.

Five men stepped out from behind the wreckage almost at the same time, spreading out instinctively to cut off escape routes. Their eyes locked onto Clyde the moment they saw him. Their pupils dilated, and their breathing quickened. The pull was unmistakable. They immediately know that this was the Apex.

None of them spoke. They just attacked while roaring.

A fireball moves through the air, followed by a charging figure wielding a heavy axe. Another man vanished from sight, activating a stealth skill. The remaining two moved wide with their weapons raised, trying to box Clyde in.

Clyde did not retreat. The glint in his eyes sharpened into cold clarity. Killing intent bled out of him without restraint.

"Let’s kill them," he said calmly.

Mina was already moving.

She darted to the side, daggers flashing as the invisible attacker revealed himself too late. Her blade slid across his throat in a clean arc. Blood sprayed and he collapsed without a sound.

Clyde stepped forward into the axe swing. Metal screamed as his Rank A armor absorbed the impact. He drove his fist into the man’s chest, shattering his bones. The body flew backward and didn’t rise again.

The fire caster screamed as Mina reached him next. The remaining two hesitated.

That was their mistake.

Clyde advanced without mercy.

—