Earlier
Phil can be seen sneakily walking into the alleyway near Fourteenth Street's Hollow, trying to avoid any eyewitnesses. He had to do everything he can to avoid anyone, especially when he carried a huge bag and some of his tools stuck out of the bag like a sore thumb.
He wishes he could use a better and bigger bag, but his budget is very tight. It didn't help that all stores and even the black market only sold at a high price.
He nervously looks at the giant Hollow in front of him before pulling out a handmade device from his pocket. This is his solution for his lack of Bangboo with the implanted Carrot program, created using the resources from the university he's attending.
Phil has been using this since his first day of Hollow Raid, and so far, it has never failed him. He just hopes that nothing will happen in the Hollow. Without hesitation, he rushes towards the Hollow.
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Now
Caelus and Slyboo ride a bus to get to Fourteenth Street, and they have zero time to waste. Phil has been inside the Hollow for quite a long time, and they had no idea what had happened to him.
'I was hoping I could take my time to see what job I could apply for, but I ended up doing something illegal like this,' Caelus thought. '...but, then again, if the PubSec didn't find me, I would be tempted to make Hollow Raiding my permanent job to get more Dennies...'
Caelus glances at the giant Hollow swallowing parts of Fourteenth Street, noticing a crowd had taken pictures or recorded the Hollow while Public Security Officers have been trying to keep people away from it. Caelus covers his head with his coat's hood before grabbing a paper bag to disguise Slyboo. He isn't planning to go back to PubSec as a criminal.
Caelus stealthily moves through the crowd while carrying disguised Slyboo before going to the alleyway near the Hollow. Caelus takes off Slyboo's disguise before summoning his baseball bat, preparing himself for the danger upon entering this twisted dimension.
"Ehn-na!?! (Where did you get that!?!)" Slyboo can't help but exclaim in shock. Out of nowhere, his partner-in-crime had somehow pulled a baseball bat. He didn't even see a glimpse of it under his long coat, so where did he get that?
"Now's not the time, we got a kid to search," Caelus says as they look at the Hollow once again. Caelus takes a deep breath before he and Slyboo enter the Hollow.
Upon entering, Caelus is greeted with a familiar sight. Everything inside the Fourteenth Street Hollow is similar to what he saw in the game. The bright sky, the ruins, the iconic ruined trains everywhere, and hold on, did some of the trains move!?
'Oh, right, there's this one stage where you need to ride a train in a Hollow...' Caelus shakes his head and focuses on his mission. There's just one issue remaining.
'How am I going to look for a bunny Thiren in this place? It's not like there's a tracker on him...' Caelus thought before noticing Ethereals start crawling towards him. Caelus takes a deep breath before gripping his bat using both of his hands.
"Slyboo, stay behind me. Don't leave," Caelus says as he feels a familiar hum from his baseball bat. He calms himself down, trying not to let himself get carried away like last time. Previously, his panic had caused the Destruction Path's energy to overflow, resulting in widespread destruction.
'It's a stretch, but that's the conclusion I made based on my minimal experience with Path energy.' Caelus thought. The Ethereals roar before charging at Caelus, who starts swinging his bat. He made sure to target their head to kill them instantly, but like his first time experiencing combat, it required him two swings to shatter the core on its head.
The battle ended slower than Caelus had hoped, and it didn't help that his body instinctively raised his bat to block the incoming attack from Ethereal. Sadly, blocking using a bat tends to be inefficient, especially when the enemies crowd him like a horde of zombies. So, he tends to dodge their attacks, but it is also inefficient when Ethereals are around you.
[-5 HP]
[-5 HP]
[-5 HP] (X3)
'Okay, this is super inefficient...' Caelus thought in annoyance before unconsciously charging Destruction into his bat and swinging it around, destroying every Ethereal around him. Then, his system displayed several screens.
[Notice: You gain 20 EXP] (x17)
[Notice: You Level up! HP and PE are fully restored!] (+20 HP, + 10 PE)
[Destruction (LVL 1): 150/200]
[Preservation (LVL 0): 90/1000]
'...why do I feel insulted by how many points I got for Preservation?' Caelus thought as he felt his body heal. 'The System was like 'Hey, you fail to dodge, but at least you endure.''
Caelus shakes his head before picking up the drop items (Dennies and Ethereal Cores) as Slyboo approaches him.
"This is gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack..." Caelus rubs his head in annoyance before looking at Slyboo. "Buddy, can you detect any spatial movement inside the Hollow?"
"Ehn-na (There's none nearby)." Slyboo shakes his head as Caelus nods at the information.
"Alright, please warn me when you find something," Caelus says before giving Slyboo a piggyback ride and starting to run around the Hollow. As Caelus runs around the Hollow, he starts to regret ever coming here, as he is constantly getting crowded by a ton of Ethereals while he can't find the damn rabbit Thiren.
And Caelus also notices that for whatever reason, the Ethereal seems to crowd him like moths to a flame. He knows Ethereal targets non-Ethereal beings, but the numbers didn't make sense. Caelus wonders if somehow Aeon of Propagation was involved in this chaos, which he instantly dismisses so he won't jinx himself.
Another thing that made him think that way is how the Ethereal is constantly targeting his chest. They're not Ethereals who somehow maintain their consciousness, given how they act, and even when they crowd him, they tend to ignore his other vital targets while continuing to target his chest.
He suspects that Stellaron may be the flame that attracts the Ethereal, but the reason is a whole other matter. He knows Stellaron and how it works, capable of granting anyone's wishes in exchange for bringing disaster to a planet, massively changing a planet's ecosystem and civilization in a bad way. There's a reason why Stellaron is named Cancer of All Worlds.
After a while, Caelus had explored a section of the Hollow with an exhausted look. Slyboo looks at his partner in concern, wondering if he's going to be okay.
'This is getting nowhere,' Caelus thought in annoyance. 'System, can't you find where the bunny is?!'
To his utter disbelief, the system displays a map screen with a bunny icon and a raccoon icon on the map. Caelus stares at the system in disbelief before he feels veins popping on his forehead.
'You could've saved me so much time by displaying this earlier!' Caelus thought in anger.
[You didn't ask, dumbass]
'...oh, for fuck's sake,' Caelus wants to be angry, he really does, but he can't blame anyone else but himself. He hadn't properly analyzed every function the system had provided; he had only expected limited functions based on the displays. He had thought the system would provide limited functions, since most people with such powers tend to be limited by the System, so he didn't expect more.
So, all he could do was to accept that he's a dumbass and continue his mission, but at least now he has directions.
'Once I went back, I'm making sure to see whatever functions this System could provide...' Caelus thought before noticing he had a lot of notifications from the System.
[Notice: You gain 20 EXP] (x30)
[Notice: You gain 30 EXP] (x14)
[Notice: You Level Up! Your HP and PE are fully restored!] (x2) (+40 HP, + 20 PE)
[Destruction (LVL 2): 100/300] (+10 PE)
[Preservation (LVL 0): 310/1000]
'...so, leveling up my path also increases my PE...' Caelus thought before shaking his head as he rushed towards the target.
"Ehn-na? (Why the rush!?!)" Slyboo asks in confusion.
"I think I may have found our wabbit," Caelus says, which only confuses Slyboo more.
"Na? Ehn, Ehn-na?! (Wabbit? Never mind that, how can you be so sure?!)" Slyboo asks in disbelief.
"Trust me, buddy," Caelus didn't provide more explanation. As he ran, he was greeted with a train blocking his path. He looks at the train before looking at Slyboo.
"Na (No spatial rift)," Slyboo says as Caelus nods before gripping his bat. He didn't pour any Path Energy into his bat as he tried to test if his weirdly durable bat could destroy it, but to his grimace, all he did was create a dent in it.
"...is there another path for us to get to the other side?" Caelus asks Slyboo.
"Ehn-na, na na (There's one, but it's very far)," Slyboo replies. Before he could ask more, both of them heard a scream from the other side.
"Ehn-na! (That's Phil's voice!)" Slyboo had only heard Phil's voice once, but he remembers it clearly.
"Get back!" Caelus exclaims before charging Destruction with his bat. Caelus could feel the violent shake coming from his bat, but he gripped it tightly before slamming his charged bat into the train, causing an explosion that tore down a new path through the train and clouded the area with smoke.
From the smoke, several Ethereals charge right towards Caelus, who endures his pain before killing all Ethereals on the path without stopping, while Slyboo goes to find a safe place to hide. He grits his teeth as he feels the burning pain in his hands, but he doesn't have any luxury to rest now, as the Ethereals might kill him if he lowers his guard.
As the smoke clears, Caelus takes a glimpse at the other side and sees one Ethereal trying to target Phil, who seems to have a broken ankle. Caelus breaks through the crowd of Ethereals and takes down the Ethereal before it could touch Phil, using his bat to shatter the core on its head.
Caelus breathes heavily before turning around to see the leftover Ethereals. Caelus charges Destruction into the bat and tosses it towards them, causing a huge explosion, and the Ethereals are all gone. Caelus let out a sigh before looking at Phil, who had been staring at him in disbelief.
"Brat...you are in so much trouble!"
To Be Continued