Reincarnated With The Degenerate System

Just as I was laying out my bold plan, I felt a vibration in the air and snapped my spear up.

bang!

The tip slammed into something solid, hammering me relentlessly like a hail of bullets. It was a long-range attack, coming from a building taller than the one we were on.

bang!

bang!

bang!

I could've jumped out right now and fight the attacker head-on, but my feet stayed planted. I was hesitant to leave the two girls behind me unguarded.

Damn it. Moments like this were exactly why I wished I got some kind of Shadow Army I could summon on command.

"Moon Reflection!"

I spun my spear in a tight arc, knocking aside everything hurled at us while retreating one steady, controlled step at a time.

"Go behind the walls!"

The two scrambled through the doorway and pressed against it.

"Stay there, and no matter what happens, don't—"

Every hair on my body stood up at once. I looked up—late by a heartbeat—and a thin, merciless pillar of electricity speared down from the sky.

The electric shock hit my spear first. I could've unsummoned it, but the two girls were too close—letting the electricity run toward them wasn't an option. So instead, I leapt as far away as I could in that split second.

Thud!

I dropped to one knee, smoking slightly, which was not how I planned to start my epic escape plan.

Soon, five figures landed on the rooftop, and every single one of them looked way too familiar.

zitttttttt

Thin threads snaked around my neck, arms, and feet, tightening whenever I tried to moved.

"Looks like we meet again, Mr. Mercer," Dax sneered, every ounce of contempt dripping from his voice.

"Not so arrogant now?" He drawled, looming over me like he was debating which shoe to use to squash a bug. "You really surprised us, hiding your strength so well… Unfortunately for you, the five of us are an A Rank team."

The group erupted into laughter, each chuckle grinding against my nerves as they mocked my current condition.

"Dax, look at those two girls," a bald man pointed. "One of 'em looks real young. Fresh. Think we can share them?"

"Boro, you're absolutely sick," Dax shook his head—though he could not hide his lustful gaze either. "But I'll admit, the one with the black hair? My type. Just don't break her too fast. I'll take my turn with her slowly."

"Take your turn?" I ground the words out through clenched teeth. "You think I'll just stand here and let you hurt them?

Dax leaned back, smirking like he just seen a puppy try to bark.

"Well, I'll give you credit for your pain tolerance. But maybe stop worrying about everyone else and take a look at yourself? Your life is literally in my hands right now." He twitched his fingers, and more threads coiled around me, pinning me even tighter.

I lifted my head and leveled my eyes at him. "Listen, you idiot. If you wanted to stop me… you should've gone for my breath."

With a deep inhale, my body snapped like a coiled spring, tearing through every thread in one explosive motion.

"Moon Needle Thrust!"

My spear spun, gathering force and momentum—more than enough to take his head clean off. Or it would have, if a certain bald idiot hadn't leapt in front of him and crossed his arms.

clang!

The tip slammed to a halt against him. So this was an A‑Rank's combat power. I had to admit—while they weren't as flexible as Alexa, their powers were no joke.

Crack!

Another bolt of electricity screamed down from the sky. But this time I was ready. I coated my spear in shadow, turning it non‑conductive, and jumped out of the strike zone before it could fry me again.

"Get him!" Dax barked the order.

In an instant, all five of them surged forward, moving as one. Stronger threads lashed out like vipers, whipping and snapping in every direction.

I barely had time to react, spinning my spear to block one while twisting to dodge another, the threads grazing my shoulders with a hiss of friction.

One of them lunged at my side; another swung a jagged energy blade from above. I leapt back, narrowly dodging another electric-based strike raining down from above.

Before I could even catch a breath, I ducked low as a whip of threads lashed past my head, narrowly missing my hairline and snapping viciously against the concrete.

This was the perk of a team made purely of A‑Ranks. One‑on‑one, I could flick them off the map without breaking a sweat. But together? Their combat power didn't just add up—it multiplied exponentially.

After a brutal exchange of blows, I hit the ground and quickly recalibrated my stance.

Dax stepped forward, lips curling into that third rate villain smirk he loved so much.

"I've got to hand it to you, Mr. Mercer—you're really good." His voice oozed fake admiration. "But you don't actually think we were being serious yet… do you?"

"Not at all." I shrugged. "Your attacks were so pathetically weak I started wondering if you lied about your ranks—just, you know, in the opposite direction."

I let the insult hang there.

And, of course, the ever-egotistic Dax dove straight into the bait, face twisting exactly the way I hoped it would.

"I won't kill you right away," Dax hissed, voice almost trembling with how badly he wanted to punish me. "You'll stay alive long enough to watch what we do to your friends—every scream, every second. By the end, you'll beg me to kill you."

SWOOSH!

Threads burst from the floor, coiling tight around my feet before I could even shift my stance.

I was just about to yank free when a surge of electricity blasted through the threads and shot straight up my legs, locking every muscle.

"We're not done yet!"

More threads whipped toward me, a dozen silver streaks cutting the air. The moment they latched on, another wave of electricity roared through them—enough juice to turn a normal human into a crispy, smoke‑flavored side dish.

"BOSS!" Amanda's voice cracked so hard it could've been mistaken for another strike.

"BIG BRO!" Hai‑Min's scream followed.

Their reactions hit harder than the voltage buzzing through me—but the team of A‑ranks didn't care. They just watched, expecting my knees to buckle any second, waiting for the smoke to clear and the corpse to drop.

Too bad for them, I was still standing. Red‑hot, mildly sizzling, and extremely annoyed.

"I'm done playing the good guy," my voice boomed, echoing across the rooftop.

Before their eyes, I closed the distance to the bald man—the obvious tank—faster than anyone could track.

"Moon Needle Thrust—Shadow Expanded!"

My spear spun violently, dark aura flaring along its length, hungry to shred anything foolish enough to stand in its path.

The bald man braced himself, pouring every ounce of strength into hardening his body—but when the tip struck, it pierced him like he was made of butter.

BOOOOOOM!

The impact rocked the rooftop, and all anyone saw was the bald man's hardened skin shatter like glass before he collapsed to the ground with a massive hole gaping in his chest.

"Oh man, I was really holding back, thinking you lot could give me the right push for a breakthrough. But… I guess I overestimated just how useful you dimwits really are."