The deeper they moved into the green sector, the quieter Shawn beca. Conversation had faded naturally at the mont, attention mattered now.
The ruined suburban district surrounding them looked like the corpse of an old world neighbourhood swallowed slowly by nature.
Broken vehicles rested half-buried beneath thick vines while shattered hos leaned dangerously against one another beneath overgrown trees.
So buildings still carried ordinary traces of life. Half-erased children murals, store signs, barely standing rusted bicycles, and sohow the wasteland felt worse.
Silver stepped carefully over cracked pavent while keeping one hand near the gun at his waist. The spiritual density around the area felt heavier than around the checkpoint.
It wasn’t overwhelming but just enough to remain tense through the walk.
Shawn suddenly raised his hand. Silver stopped imdiately.
There was only silence. The wind moved softly through dead branches overhead.
Then, scratching. Movent inside one of the collapsed houses ahead. Shawn’s expression sharpened instantly.
"Three," he said quietly.
Silver narrowed his eyes toward the dark opening in the ruined building. Then, the wall exploded outward.
The scavenger beasts lunged violently into the streets with distorted shierks, their grey skin stretched unnaturally against their feline bodies.
Silver’s body reacted instinctively. His handgun cleared the holster almost automatically.
[Phantom Draw LV1 Activated.]
Bang.
The first reinforced round tore directly through one scavenger’s shoulder mid-lunge, spinning the creature violently sideways across the pavent.
But the other two kept coming. One darted towards Shawn while the other darted towards Silver.
Shawn moved first, and his sword flashed once. Silver barely saw the strike.
A sharp silver arc cut through the air before the scavenger’s head separated from its body. It was clean, effortless, and there were no wasted movents.
The corpses collapsed heavily against the ruined pavents. Silver was left in shock, he had heard but seeing with his own eyes left him in shock.
Rank 7.
The difference between them showed imdiately.
"Focus!" Shawn barked sharply.
The remaining scavenger reached him. It was too fast to fire comfortably. Its jaws opened wide, the rancid sll hitting him. Silver stepped sideways instinctively instead of backward.
Why?
He wasn’t sure. His body simply moved correctly. The scavenger crashed past him. Silver combat knife appeared in his left hand almost naturally.
Then, slash.
The blade curved across the creature’s side in one smooth movent. The scavenger screeched loudly before twisting midair with terrifying flexibility.
Silver fired again imdiately.
Bang. Bang.
Two reinforced rounds punched through its skull at near point-blank range. The body collapsed twisting on his feet.
[Phantom Draw LV1 proficiency increased.]
Silence returned briefly.
Silver stared downward slightly. His breathing was calm, too calm for soone who was doing it for the first ti.
Shawn looked mildly surprised.
"Not bad."
Silver frowned. Sothing felt strange, familiar even. The handgun in his hand, the familiar weight of the combat knife, and the movent all felt natural.
He had expected to teach his new body with ti but it seems to be sohow rembering his last life’s movents and reenacting them perfectly. His brain and body were surprisingly moving together.
Then another sound echoed nearby.
More scratching. More movent.
Shawn clicked his tongue softly.
"Of course there’s a pack."
Four more scavengers erged from the surrounding ruins almost imdiately. Then two more joined the others one after the other.
Silver’s eyes sharpened.
’Six total’
Shawn stepped slightly backwards instead of forward. Silver glanced at him in confusion.
"You’re fighting this," he calmly said.
Silver blinked once.
"All of them?"
"You wanted experience. "
One scavenger lunged instantly. Silver fired on reflex.
[Phantom draw LV1 Activated.]
Bang.
The shot struck directly through its eye socket. Perfect accuracy. The scavenger collapsed imdiately. Silver froze for one second unable to comprehend how clean the shot had been.
The second scavenger attacked from the side. Silver pivoted instinctively, knife first and gun second.
The combat blade slashed upward across the creature’s jaw while the handgun fired simultaneously into its chest at near contact range. Blood exploded across the ruined pavent. The scavenger crashed sideways into a broken vehicle.
Shawn’s eyes narrowed slightly but Silver barely noticed. Because sothing inside him had awakened. It was more like returning.
His body moved before his thoughts fully ford. Footworks, angles, distant managent, and target proximity. The knowledge surfaced naturally beneath the panic. His training on earth, the military drills, gunfire, and combat exercises. His body was naturally rembering and moving according to how he had always moved.
A surprising but pleasant developnt since he had expected to learn everything from scratch.
mories of his instructors screaming at recruits to stop hesitating ca crashing into his mind.
His grip tightened unconsciously.
The third scavenger lunged. Silver sidestepped, slashing his knife down.
The blade buried directly through the creature’s neck while his gun rotated smoothly toward another target already moving behind it.
Bang.
A perfect headshot. The fourth beast collapsed mid charge.
[Phantom draw LV1 - LV2.]
Skill effect improved:
• Faster draw speed.
• Increased first shot precision.
• Reduced recoil stability.
Shawn stared openly at Silver now.
"... What the hell?"
Silver didn’t respond. Not like he could answer at the mont. Because for the first ti since his reincarnation, his old instincts and new body aligned perfectly.
And it felt terrifyingly good.
Another scavenger leapt from above.
Silver rolled sideways across cracked pavent instinctively while firing upwards.
Bang.
The round missed narrowly. He had been too rushed. The scavenger landed directly beside him with snapping jaws.
Silver reacted instantly.
The knife reversed in his grip before slamming upward beneath the scavenger’s skull. Warm blood sprayed across his sleeve.
The scavenger convulsed violently. Silver pulled his blade free.
[Phantom Draw LV2 Proficiency increased.]
He then froze suddenly because Shawn’s expression changed completely. It wasn’t the expected surprise anymore but alertness and danger.
"Silver."
The tone alone made him look up imdiately. The wastelands seed to have gone silent. Even the remaining scavenger beast moved away slowly while whining fearfully toward the ruined street ahead.
Then... sothing enormous moved in the shadows between the collapsed buildings.
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