Entering Apocalypse in Easy-Mode-Chapter 578: Target

Clyde scanned the horizon and frowned. Everything about this place felt dangerous. The air pressed against his skin unevenly, thick in some places and thin in others.

His muscles felt slightly out of sync as if this world resisted his presence. Through the greenish fog drifting low across the ground, he caught sight of distant silhouettes of skyscrapers. Or what remained of them.

Their upper halves had been torn away, foundations cracked open and exposed like broken bones. Some leaned at strange angles but didn’t fall and some floated in fragments, suspended by glowing greenish light.

That was enough to confirm that this was a Ruin. A world that had been destroyed after the Selection Stage. A place stripped of value, harvested, and abandoned once it could no longer produce entertainment or results.

A moment later, space warped behind him.

Another portal opened, smaller and cleaner than the one Clyde had entered.

The World Master stepped out casually, as if he were walking into a private garden rather than the corpse of a world.

He adjusted his cuff and walked to Clyde’s side, eyes sweeping the wasteland with mild interest.

"This will be your test," he said. "There is an artifact here. A relic left behind by a Demon King. Bring it to me and I will consider your offer."

"Alright," Clyde replied.

The World Master glanced at him. There was no fear or hesitation in his face and voice. Not even a surprise.

He frowned slightly. He had dragged this human into a destroyed world, one steeped in residual malice and corruption, yet Clyde stood there as if he had expected it. As if he had already seen places like this before.

That made no sense.

But the World Master dismissed the thought.

As long as the human did his job, nothing else mattered.

"I won’t give you any hints. You’re strong, after all," he said, his tone edged with sarcasm. "If you die here, then that’s the end of it."

"I won’t die here," Clyde said.

There was no bravado in his voice. Just certainty.

The World Master’s lips curved into a crooked smile. "We’ll see about that."

Then he vanished.

The pressure in the air lifted slightly once he was gone, but the world remained hostile and silent.

Clyde took a deep breath slowly and began to move.

He already had a direction in mind.

Demon King artifacts carried a distinct presence. A residue born from their authority and power. Clyde had been in contact with such beings before in his previous life. He knew the feeling they left behind.

He closed his eyes briefly and focused. And it turns out that his sense was still there. There it was. He could feel the power of a Demon faint and distant.

The real problem was not finding it. It was how much hell he would have to walk through to reach it.

Clyde moved deeper into the Ruin without wasting too much time.

The ground gradually changed beneath his feet. What had once been open wasteland gave way to the remnants of a city. He could see clearly that there were broken asphalt roads running beneath layers of rubble, then warped steel, and something else that made his skin crawl.

Flesh.

Masses of hardened, organic matter had grown over the streets like tumors. They pulsed and stitched together with veins of green light as if the city itself had been swallowed and digested by something.

Half buried street signs jutted out at odd angles. Vehicles were fused into the ground, their shapes barely recognizable.

This place had not just been destroyed. It had been repurposed by whatever forces left behind after the Selection Stage.

Clyde slowed his pace. He saw the flesh twitched.

The surface split open with a wet tearing sound. Shapes crawled out from within the organic mass.

Humanoid outlines at first, then it shows too many joints. Limbs bending backward. Faces stretched thin and melted together, mouths opening without sound.

The monsters had come.

They dragged themselves free, bodies leaking green mist that spilled across the road in rolling waves.

The fog hissed softly as it spread, thick and heavy, carrying a sharp chemical stench.

Clyde reacted instantly.

His spear snapped up into his grip and he stepped forward, driving the tip straight through the nearest creature’s chest. The monster convulsed and collapsed inward before dissolving into sludge.

Another monster lunged at him.

Clyde twisted and swept the spear in a clean arc that slash through its neck. A third monster leapt from the side and he jumped then crushing its skull with the butt of the spear before finishing it with a thrust.

But the fog thickened.

It wrapped around his legs and rose to his chest. Clyde felt his head spin. His vision blurred at the edges and his balance wavered. His lungs burned as if he had inhaled poison.

"Tch."

He staggered back a step, planting the spear into the ground to steady himself.

Then something clicked. A familiar sensation surfaced from deep within him.

A system notification flashed before his eyes.

[You skill: Toxic Resistance had been Awakened]

The dizziness stopped suddenly. The burning in his lungs faded rapidly. The fog no longer felt heavy. It was still unpleasant and hostile, but it no longer threatened to overwhelm him.

Clyde straightened slowly.

He stared at the notification for a moment, genuinely surprised.

"So it works like this," he muttered.

He had thought he would need higher levels, more time, or more progress before his old skills from his previous life could return.

He had assumed they were locked behind power thresholds.

But this one had awakened through exposure. Through necessity.

A slow grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"This is good," he said quietly.

He tightened his grip on the spear and stepped forward into the green fog with sharp and focused eyes.

EXP points kept pouring into him as he moved forward. Each kill fed his system.

Clyde did not slow down. He attacked, advanced, and attacked again. His spear became an extension of his intent. He thrusts, sweeping, and crushing. Monsters lunged and died in seconds. The flesh-lined streets were painted with dissolving remains.

There was no hesitation or caution in his movements. It was as if he was carving a path on purpose, making his presence known. Showing dominance to this Ruin.

—

In the white room, the World Master leaned back on his sofa. His eyes fixed on the floating monitor.

Clyde’s figure moved through the green fog like a blade cutting through rot. The World Master’s lips curled in interest.

"Hm."

He watched the bodies fall, the poison mist failing to slow the human down. For a moment, genuine fascination flickered in his eyes. Then he scoffed softly.

"It’s nothing," he murmured. "The interesting part hasn’t started yet."

He adjusted his posture, fingers tapping lightly against the armrest.

"He is able to resist the poison for now," he continued, voice calm. "But that won’t last forever."

The screen followed Clyde as he pushed deeper into the Ruin.

The environment changed again. The streets widened, the buildings growing taller despite their ruined state. Entire blocks had collapsed inward, forming canyons of twisted steel and concrete.

Here, the monsters changed. Smaller swarms skittered across walls and ceilings, while larger forms dragged themselves from fused buildings, their bodies armored with hardened flesh and jagged growths.

Some of them screamed and the other monsters just watched and waited for now.

Clyde didn’t stop even for a second to assess the situation.

He felt it more clearly now. There was a pull and a weight in the air that did not belong to this world. He felt Demonic power bleeding into the Ruin from a single direction.

"There you are," he muttered.

Without wasting any time, Clyde shifted his stance and burst forward.

The ground cracked under his feet as he dashed through the ruined city, spear angled behind him, eyes locked on the path ahead.

Monsters lunged into his way and were either impaled or thrown aside. He ignored the rest.

After carving his way through countless streets, Clyde finally reached the source of the Demonic presence.

He slowed to a stop and lifted his gaze.

A tower rose before him, grotesque and unnatural. Skyscrapers had been fused together by massive layers of flesh, twisted into a single towering structure.

Concrete and steel jutted out at broken angles, trapped inside pulsating organic walls. Thick greenish fog poured endlessly from cracks along the tower’s surface. The air there was heavy, saturated with Demonic and toxic energy.

Around the tower, monsters gathered in overwhelming numbers. They packed the streets, climbed over one another, filled every open space. There was no ground visible beneath them.

Crawling forms and towering brutes all circling the tower as if guarding it.

However, even after seeing that, Clyde did not hesitate. He dashed forward.

His spear swung, piercing, cutting, and shattering bodies as he forced his way into the horde. He dropped a monster instantly into sludge and mist. But the space they left behind was filled immediately. More monsters crawled over the corpses of the killed monsters.

There was no end to them.

—