Ki Horizons - [Litrpg, Adventure, Power Levels]

"I am taking this seriously, you know? I mean, how did he even get out?"

"That's your question? Really? Now?"

"Hey, hey, I want to live too you know? You know whoever's fuckup this is isn't going to be long for this world."

I continued walking forward, towards the voices, my mind in a daze. No… No. It couldn't be. It'd been years. There's, there's no way they're-

And then the woman that'd been arguing with the man laughed.

My whole body froze, as if in a nightmare. That laugh. That laugh! I'd heard it a million times, the words reverberating through me in all my nightmares, my worst fears, my most terrible moments. Like a haunting specter come to mock me, to come and kill me.

For a moment, I was no longer Mutai the Warrior or Mutai the Martial Artist.

I was Mutai, the level [1]. Mutai, the broken and weak. Mutai the half dead, in a place he didn't know, in a way he didn't know, while a woman held him down and-

"You know what? Nice!" The woman said. "I wonder if I can get Penny to be blamed for this. I never did like that stuck up octopus."

She popped the P. She popped the P. She-

My mind was on a loop as I stumbled towards her. As I heard a monotone man speak words with barely any life.

"Hmm. Maybe? We could try our best but we might want to avoid this mess."

Finally, I was past the machinery, past the walls, and I stared at two people. Two humans. Two people I'd never forget in my entire life.

"Only one survivor this time?" One said. He wore white clothes, with a bored expression.

"Yup." Said the woman with her hand on my chest, popping the P. It was wrong, it was so wrong. They, who were they? Where was I? What was happening? Why were they so casual?! My village… mother… father…

The man finally looked at me.

"Congratulations." He said, his voice monotone. "You've survived King Vega. As a reward for surviving his trial, you will be healed and dropped off into Vega City. You may seek revenge at your leisure. Per the King's instructions, he heavily encourages you to try. If you die before being able to challenge him, then you clearly weren't worthy of seeking revenge in the first place. After all…"

"Only The Strongest Is Allowed To Face The King." The man said. He said those words. He said them. But… but they were all wrong. Monotone, as if from a script. A script he'd read so many times before, as if…

The woman laughed. She laughed. I'll never forget that sound, so long as I live.

A haunting sound entered my ears. Laughter. It was so wrong, it was all so wrong. Everything was so wrong. I puked. I leaned to the side and puked hard, gagging, crying, sobbing, still being held down.

The world was broken and so was I.

"Hey, sorry." She said, staring down at me, a cruel smile on her lips. "For you, this is the worst day of your life. For us? Vega? It's just another Tuesday."

There they were.

The same two people.

A woman, human, average in every way with long black hair and cruel eyes and a mischievous look in them. She even wore a similar outfit, the same white uniform but unlike the employees above it was more, battle like.

The man wore the same, brown hair, average looks, young. He practically radiated disinterest and dispassion. One of his eyebrows slightly rose as he saw me, but that was it. He was as plain as a man could be.

And yet… these were the people who'd forced me away. Who'd broken my arm and drowned me in a tank. Who'd laughed at my pain and misery and forced me to eat and drink before practically throwing me into a Vega City survivor housing. Who'd treated me like nothing more than a process.

Whatever emotions I'd been feeling were swept away in a tide of chaos as old horrors reawoken in me.

"Hey, Sam. Who is that?"

Sam.

"How should I know George? Wait. They seem… kind of familiar."

George.

They don't remember me. They were the dark ghosts of my past, riding the wave of evil that was Vega, and they didn't even remember me.

Something dark cracked open in my soul at that moment.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Sam, the evil bitch called out. "Isn't that the scrawny kid from a few years ago? You know, one of the survivors!"

"Hmm. Maybe? Looks a bit different." George, the evil bastard replied.

These two were worse than vultures. They were the closest thing I knew of to Vega followers. Not just innocent employees working a job. They did evil in the name of evil. They were first on the scene to strip my island and cart me off. They were the ones who forced survivors away. Who hadn't even let me mourn properly. They were the part of the problem.

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And by God. I was going to be the solution.

[35]

[37]

Stronger than me. But not by a lot. What were once monsters were now nothing more than a bit of hard work. I got in a stance, ready to rush them down.

"Huh. Looks like he here's for revenge!"

"I warned you that laughing at people so much was a bad idea."

"But it's funny!"

The man raised his arm, scanning me with his Vambrace. His eyes widened.

"Oh. Power Level [32]."

The look on the woman's face instantly got a lot more serious. Good.

"Damn monsters. Why does every survivor have to get so strong so fast? Practically unfair if you ask me." She grumbled.

"Most of the power is out across the building." The man said. "Turrets are offline."

"Ah damn it. Well, we should thank our good fortune it wasn't one of the strong ones that came looking for us. That might've been dangerous."

Dark anger flowed through me. If they thought two on one was going to be enough, they were going to be sorely mistaken. I was tired of listening to them and watching them for any tells. The answer was clear. They were trained, well even, but not as well as me.

I ran toward them, practically teleporting in front of Sam, my fist cocked back and-

Was that a gun-

Bang bang bang.

******

Run. I had to run. Pain lanced through me but I'd felt far worse. It barely slowed me down despite how damn much it hurt. Like lances of boiling heat destroying my insides, my blood rapidly cooling them down. I could feel the metal still inside me but it was rapidly becoming just a rather large annoyance.

But they represented something dangerous.

I'd been shot three times in the chest and it was only quick movements that had saved my heart from becoming a useless lump of meat. I knew guns were dangerous but feeling the three in my gut that had managed to pierce my flesh, with some difficulty, I was gaining a new appreciation for the threat.

"After him!"

"I know."

Bullets came from behind me. Not mindless ones shot with no purpose, ones that would hit me if I didn't dodge constantly. I felt less like I was running and more like I was sprinting while dancing as I tried to predict where they'd aim and fire. I failed and felt more bullets enter my back, making my eyes go wide in panic.

I was strong. I was durable. I could feel the bullets needing to work to get through my flesh and mostly stopping at the bone. But it'd only take a few wrong holes in me to kill me. A few wrong holes to put me down longer and longer, enough to also kill me. The two in my back felt like they tore through one of my lungs and I coughed up blood as I sprinted with all my might.

I knew guns were dangerous. I knew they existed. I just hadn't thought anyone would actually use them! They were the weapons of cowards and the normal ones stopped being useful at a certain level of power! Even if you had one, at a big enough power difference, you'd struggle to actually hit someone. If an average person used one, I could dodge their aim.

Sam and George weren't average.

Bullets came like hail, each closer than the last despite me throwing my whole body into the dodges. They were only using handguns and yet their aim, speed, and accuracy were downright horrifying. This wasn't some random pickup and use of the cowardly, or the weak going against the strong with small hopes. These people were trained to use guns. I thought only the military did that!

A bullet clipped my ear and I decided enough was enough.

Master and Vincent had both taught me something.

The durability of walls.

"What's he- No!"

I jumped off the side of one wall, putting my full force behind it, and launched myself into the other. I'd seen a bullet go through one and that told me all I needed to know. Running in a straight line was going to get me killed.

I broke through, shards of metal cutting me on the way through. I thanked any deity that was listening that the metal walls down here seemed to be so thin and weak. Slightly sturdier and I'd at most dented it.

I found myself in another hallway and began running for my life as Sam and George burst through, chasing me down. The speeds we were all moving at left me in a daze! I knew I was fast but I felt like I was practically a blur being followed by blurs. I ran through room after room, trying to throw them off. I saw more than a few weird machines, factories, even a warehouse, but I kept going. It became clear that I was running out of space when I saw something that made my eyes light up.

An Elevator.

I smiled and ran for it.

"Damn it George! Stop him!"

I was halfway there when I felt a serious threat to my life.

I didn't question it, I just threw myself to the ground.

A bright white beam the size of my head rocketed over me, before dying down.

"Damn it!" Sam yelled.

What the hell? These people knew how to use Ki and were shooting at me? What the hell was wrong with them?! Who were these people?!

I threw myself forward, sprinting towards the destroyed Elevator, and jumped into the mess.

******

Sam frowned as she finally caught up to her target. That sneaky son of a bitch…

"He got away."

"We can follow him."

"Where? You saw how fast that slippery eel was. If he moved up, he could already be out of the building. But if he moved down…"

"There's no telling what floor he could be on."

They both sighed.

Their line of work made enemies sometimes, sure, but it rarely ever came back to bite them in the ass like this. None of their shots had been that lethal, the little bastard dodging like he did. How he dodged George's Beam was beyond her. Did he really just have that great of a danger sense?

She sighed again.

"All these stupid survivors. Fucking monsters."

"Let's get back to the computer. We need to track the mutant. If he also gets away…" Even George trailed off at that, seemingly at a loss for words for how bad that'd be. Not just for them, but for everyone.

This was… not a good day.