Infinite Regeneration In The Apocalypse-Chapter 59: Stages Of Evolution

"I need to find a weapon," Vogue muttered as the wind shook from their approach.

The first radiant appeared before him in a flash, moving so fast its claws made the air shriek, aiming to tear out his throat

Vogue clenched his fist and the wind trembled as he immediately punched out, hitting the first radiant straight in the face.

"Bang!"

The impact created a shockwave that rippled through the air, scattering loose papers and candy wrappers in all directions. The radiant’s head snapped to the side with a sickening crack, but instead of flying backward like Vogue had expected, its feet dug into the tiled floor, creating deep gouges as it skidded backwards. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Its face, which was twisted to the side at an unnatural angle, suddenly snapped back to their normal position with a wet popping sound.

Then, it charged at Vogue again. Saliva mixed with blood dripped from its jaws as it lunged with renewed ferocity.

Vogue was slightly stunned. Although he hadn’t used all of his strength and had used only twenty percent in that punch, for a radiant to be able to withstand his punch and remain standing was surprising. These things were tougher than he thought.

At this moment, the other two radiants had reached Vogue, their claws stretching out as though they couldn’t wait to rip him to shreds. One lunged from the left, the other from the right.

Vogue eyes narrowed and grabbed a glass bottle of strawberry jam from the aisle beside him and smashed it against the second radiant’s skull.

"Crack!"

The bottle exploded on impact, sending glass shards and sticky red jam flying in every direction. The radiant’s skull caved inward, fragments of bone mixing with the jam scattering everywhere.

The creature was sent hurtling backward, crashing through a display of cereal boxes that scattered everywhere.

With a quick sidestep, he dodged the charge of the third radiant. As it passed him, he grabbed it by the back of its neck. His fingers dug into cold, flesh as he lifted the two-meter-tall radiant up like it weighed nothing.

"Time Decay!" Vogue activated his ability without hesitation.

The body of the radiant, which had been that of a middle-aged man before he transformed into this creature, began to change. The moment Vogue activated Time Decay, the middle-aged man’s body started to grow older and older at a very rapid rate. Skin that had been muscular became loose and wrinkled, sagging like melted wax. Hair turned from brown to gray to white in the span of a heartbeat.

In just half a second, it had transformed from a middle-aged man to a white-haired old man with dried mummified skin. Its struggle slowed as strength drained from atrophied muscles, and its bones becoming brittle.

It’s body had been completely mummified, all moisture sucked away by passing of time.

Vogue tossed the radiant to the ground where it landed with a hollow thud, only to see the blur of the first radiant appearing before him once more. This one had recovered from the punch and was coming back for round two.

"Falling Sun," Vogue murmured, activating his combat technique.

He slapped away the stretched claws of the radiant and his other hand transformed into a blur, becoming almost invisible as it stabbed straight through the chest of the first radiant.

His fingers, pierced through its flesh and armored rib bones like a spear and shattered the heart without warning.

[Normal Radiant Eliminated 2/100]

He immediately turned around and pierced the heart of the second radiant, the one whose head he had smashed using the bottle of jam. His hand punched through its back, ribs cracking and splintering, until his fingers closed around the infected heart and crushed it like a an egg.

[Normal Radiant Eliminated 3/100]

Vogue sensed movement at the side and was stunned to see the radiant he had used Time Decay on actually recovering.

Its mummified body was slowly filling out, dried skin plumping up as it absorbed energy from somewhere. The process was slow but it was definitely happening as the mummified corpse gradually turned fresh.

Without hesitation, he formed a blade with his palm, activated the Falling Star technique to maximize penetrating power, and stabbed his hand straight through its infected heart. The hard ribcage shattered like dry wood as his hand plunged deep into the chest cavity.

[Normal Radiant Eliminated 4/100]

The supermarket was in complete chaos with radiants killing humans and infecting them, but Vogue didn’t care about saving anyone else.

Self-preservation came first. He grabbed a shopping trolley with one hand, went aisle after aisle and packed enough food to last three days and a six-pack of vodka inside, then stored it in his system’s inventory with a thought. The items vanished from physical space, safely tucked away in his personal storage dimension.

Vogue was about to head out through the shattered automatic doors when a deafening crash made him freeze.

A massive delivery truck smashed through the supermarket’s front wall, sending chunks of concrete and twisted metal flying in all directions.

Vogue’s expression changed and he immediately used Big Dipper Step. His body flickered through space, leaving afterimages as he repositioned himself ten meters to the left. The truck collided through the exact spot where he’d been standing, crushing everything in its way to pieces.

"Not today, truck-kun," Vogue muttered as he halted at the truck seriously. He had read enough stories to know the legendary power of the truck-kun isekai method, and despite his infinite regeneration, he didn’t want to risk being sent to another realm, again.

-----

Vogue’s plan was simple, kill as many radiants as possible to evolve. The numbers game was simple: more kills meant stronger evolution, and stronger evolution meant better chances of survival.

He knew the other players were also trying their best to evolve first. The competition was cutthroat, everyone racing to reach that first threshold of power.

As the person who evolves first would possess the strength of a New Moon Stellar Knight with the power to easily kill those that were still just in the Evolved realm.