Reincarnated With The Degenerate System

Chapter 257: Another Card Part 2

Her words didn’t just hang in the humid air; they acted as a key, turning a lock in a door .Another memory surfaced.

Leon was ten years younger, standing on a sun-drenched balcony in the upper city.

The smell of coffee drifted up as he tilted his head toward the sky, watching the solar eclipse like everyone else.

The moon crept slow and inevitable across the sun’s face, and the city hushed around him.

Millions of people looked up at the same moment, sharing the same silence. There was something almost holy about it.

Then the darkness came.

Expected. Natural. The corona flared at the edges like a crown of white fire, and someone a few balconies over started clapping. Leon smiled into his coffee cup.

Then the first drop hit his forearm.

He looked down. Clear. Odorless. He assumed it was rain. A second drop struck his cheek, then a third hit the rim of his cup.

Then the sky opened.

Not like a storm opens. Not gradually, not with the courtesy of distant thunder. The sky split, and what poured from it was not water.

It took Leon three full seconds to understand what he was seeing. His brain refused to accept it.

Refused the shapes. Refused the movement — the way they writhed as they fell, adjusting mid-air, limbs elongating.

Some were the size of dogs. Some were the size of a house. They came down in a flood, a biblical torrent of flesh.

They hit the streets below like a wave hitting shore.

The screaming started everywhere at once.

Leon stumbled back from the balcony railing, his coffee cup shattering on the tile, and froze for a second — watching the city below convulse.

Cars crushed. Glass exploded outward from storefronts.

A bus lifted and folded in half like paper. People ran, and the things behind them moved, devouring everything.

"Get inside!" someone screamed from above. "Get inside get inside get in—"

The voice cut off.

Leon didn’t look up.

He spun and crashed through the balcony door into the apartment.

The first thing he saw was his mother standing at the kitchen counter, still holding a dish towel, staring at the window with an expression he had never seen on her face before and never wanted to see again.

His father had his arm around his sisters, pressing them toward the hallway.

James was on the couch, frozen mid-reach for the television remote.

"We have to go," Leon said. His voice came out wrong. "We have to go now."

They immediately ran out of their unit and heard loud noises from the other apartments as the monsters began attacking. In one corner, a creature that looked like a melting dog with an oversized mouth knocked down a door.

"Leon, take them with you!" his father roared, trying to buy some time. But it was useless — the monster struck him down in an instant.

The scene that followed was hard to describe. All of his family had died except James.

They barely managed to escape, reaching the subway station, which for some reason the aliens avoided.

"Leon are you alright?" Sera’s voice woke me up from my thoughts.

"Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry. I’ll try to do better tomorrow," I answered.

Now that I remembered more from the original, I realized that in this world, scavengers like me were vitals. We were practically the ones keeping sanctuaries like this alive.

It made sense that those who contributed more earned more recognition, while people like Leon were at the bottom.

This was also why we hid our relationship — her family would never have allowed her to date someone with no future.

We reached our quarters — though calling it "quarters" was too generous.

We reached our quarters — though calling it "quarters" was generous. It was barely a space for one person, and I had to share it with other stinky people.

For some reason, the smell was so omnipresent that I eventually just got used to it.

James started eating the food we had. I, however, didn’t waste any time and went to sleep — or at least pretended to.

What I was really doing was cultivating, and just as expected, I managed to temper my dantian here as well.

The memory also reveal that in this world, humans could grow stronger through mutation and even begin to control Qi.

But it happened unintentionally, so there was no way to speed up the process.

The only options were to wait for it to develop naturally, rely on innate talent, or face life-and-death situations that forced growth.

Next was magic. I tried, but to my surprise, I wasn’t able to form a magic circle. It wasn’t that this body was incapable — something was actively blocking me.

It sucked, but at least I still had Qi to rely on.

For the time being, I decided to focus on enhancing my body first. If this world worked the same way as last time, I would need to defeat an enemy and save the planet.

That enemy would probably be the alien leader

Weeks passed, and I stuck to the same grueling routine without fail. Every day was a cycle of training, cultivation, and testing my limits

Slowly but steadily, my body caught up with the effort.

By now, I had reached the strength of a C Rank — a level that, while not extraordinary, was a massive improvement over where I had started.

However, what I was still missing was a weapon — and what better choice than my iconic spear?

There were plenty of stores here that sold makeshift weapons, but they lacked the quality and precision I needed to fully maximize my techniques.

A cheap weapon like that would barely withstand a single strike from me.

"Hey Sara, do you know anyone who sells an authentic spear around here?"

"An authentic spear? You mean the ones that were displayed in museums before the invaders?"

"Yeah, something like that." I leaned on the counter and gave her a wink.

"Leon," she dragged her words. "You do realize that all those weapons were either destroyed or are in the possession of the strongest scavengers. They cost a fortune."