Monsters!
They were the bane of this world and the cause of the Apocalypse that befell the world several decades ago. They were twisted entities created from rapid mutation whose origin was largely unknown to the masses.
What people knew, however, was this:
Monsters were once regular things—living or non-living—that existed before mutation.
They were generally classified into six Ranks, namely:
Rank E
Rank D
Rank C
Rank B
Rank A
Rank S
Other Ranks existed, but these six were the mainstream. The higher the Rank of a Monster, the more dangerous they were to the people of the world.
Rank E Monsters, with Zombies as an example, were rather common in the apocalypse. Regular people could probably encounter one and survive, though the risk of suffering injuries, getting infected, or dying was relatively high.
As for Rank S Monsters, their threat spanned an entire Region.
The existence of a single Rank S Monster would warrant immediate evacuation in a zone, and its threat could affect an entire Region.
In essence, it could potentially destroy one of the 12 Regions that remained for humanity.
This was why everyone in the meeting hall was in a panic, their faces pale with deep anxiety. S Rank Monsters were rare, and most of them already had their names plastered in the Apex Monster Index.
"Damn it…" One of the leaders gritted his teeth. He was an old man with a wrinkled face and whiskers for a beard.
"These things are usually content with staying in their desolate territory and preying on weaker Monsters. Why would something like this appear close to an inhabited zone in our Sector?"
Despite Sector E having a total of one hundred Sectors, only about forty-five were inhabited.
Nearly fifty percent was unclaimed land already overrun by monsters, while industrial lands occupied the rest. The inhabited zones were the only areas where humans could live and thrive, so the presence of an S Rank Monster near a location like that was catastrophic.
"None of our barriers will work to take that thing down."
"We're doomed! So doomed!"
"What of reinforcements? The other Sectors should understand our terrible situation is, especially since Headquarters won't be able to help us after failing their umpteenth attempt at interdimensional travel."
The head of the table, a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties, heard all of these remarks and sighed powerlessly. Her pitch black hair was short and wavy, perfectly complementing the suit she wore and the dark irises that graced her determined eyes.
Her skin appeared delicate, but the deep frown on her face made her visage appear dull.
It wasn't that she didn't understand all of their concerns, but there was legitimately nothing that could be done about the current situation.
'Even though the situation of other Sectors isn't as bad as ours, they'll naturally be reluctant to send out forces to deal with this creature—especially since it could leave them vulnerable.' She thought to herself. 'S Rank Monsters usually don't appear at random like this, but if this is happening to us, it means there's a chance it could happen to them as well. Their priority will be to protect their Regions."
She understood all of these things.
'But what should we do? None of our current forces is strong enough to handle this matter. Our S Rank Riders are still not back from that urgent task at the Regional Industrial Plant, which means we're on our own for now…'
When dealing with the threat of Monsters, Riders were humanity's greatest champions.
Naturally, since the current threat was an S Rank Monster, it would take S Rank Riders to stand up to it.
Unfortunately, they were unavailable.
'Seems we'll have to sacrifice a lot of infrastructure… and soldiers… just to stall for time until the Riders return. Or, at the very least, until evacuations can be made.'
Just thinking about the staggering number of potential losses made her heart sink. It caused her to be lightheaded.
Unlike before the Apocalypse, where the leaders of the world were very selfish and corrupt, only moving for personal interests and their respective businesses, this world's leaders were the complete opposite.
They truly cared about humanity's survival.
All the selfish businessmen and tycoons had retreated to the deep corners of their estates and held little to no interest in governmental positions and affairs. As a result, only those passionate about humanity and its survival were bolstered to the forefront of leadership.
Sharon, the head of this table, was one of such people.
Despite her relatively young age when compared to the rest of the leaders in this room, she was more than capable. Her deep interest in the well-being of the people of Sector E was admirable, and in terms of practical solutions, there were very few leaders who exceeded her—even in other Regions.
As such, no one was more qualified to lead this Region than her.
Unfortunately…
'It looks like we'll be experiencing a catastrophic loss that humanity has yet to see in nearly a decade in the next couple of days.' As she joined her fellow leaders to close her eyes and sigh helplessly, feeling the rising pressure in the room, a strange development occured.
"SYSTEM ALERT! SYSTEM ALERT! SYSTEM ALERT!"
"W-what is that?!" Sharon was taken aback by the blaring sirens and constant alert by the room's system. The current gathering they were having involved the leaders of every habitable zone which meant it was a high priority meeting that could not be disturbed.
The only exception was a state of emergency that concerned an entire Region.
For example… an S Rank Monster.
'Don't tell me… the Deepcrawler King has made its move already! But it hasn't even been a week since it appeared. I thought we had more time to prepare!'
Sharon's body trembled as she hurriedly turned to look at the large screen in the meeting room.
They had satellites monitoring the S Rank Monster in real time, so its orbiting sensor must have noticed a noticeable change in the Monster's pattern—hence the System Alert. As scared as she was of what the satellite picked up, Sharon had to see it.
She needed to know how bad the situation had become.
However, much to her surprise, all the saw was the mutilated corpse of the Deepcrawler King.
"E-Eh…?"
It wasn't just Sharon who was puzzled.
Everyone in the meeting room had stupefied looks on their faces as they watched the scattered chunks of the seemingly invincible colossal.
Its multiple arms were scattered all over the area of impact and its many tentacles were like spaghetti drowned in the pool of its dense blood. Its torso had a large gaping hole at the center, and its head had a twisted expression that depicted… fear?
The S Rank Monster… Number 23 on the Apex Monster Inex… was afraid?
"Pull up past footages!" Sharon yelled out. "Show me what happened right before this moment!"
The images on the screen rapidly changed.
After a few blurry footages and several glitches, a short video footage was displayed. It showed the massive S Rank Monster just lumbering around. It was at least fifty meters tall, with a body that resembled an evil god.
Yet… within the next second, it collapsed after its entire body shattered upon impact.
But, the impact of what?
"Reverse image! Zoom in! Magnify!" Sharon quickly commanded and focused her attention on a silhouette that appeared right before the Monster met its end, and right after it got destroyed.
The 'thing' was hard to describe.
It was relatively huge, but nowhere near the size of the Deepcrawler KIng.
It had two glowing eyes, a bulky body, and what appeared to be wheels for limbs. It had a silver-like sheen that seemed to darken in the image.
There seemed to be horns protruding from its forefront, and after slamming into the monster, it glowed with eerie light and had the mucky blood of the monster cling to it for a few moments.
Unfortunately, due to how fast the vehicle was moving, even the satelite couldn't fully capture it in frame. The blurry silhouette was the best it could do—though this was partially due to the interference of the strange energy that currently wafted around the planet, causing surveilance in certain areas to be compromised.
Still, even without the interferance, it would be difficult to pick up the true image of the strange entity.
One thing was certain, though.
"That thing… isn't human! And the mere fact that it could destroy the Deepcrawler King within the fraction of a moment shows that it is unfathomably stronger." Sharon shuddered in absolute dread.
She didn't want to think of it, but there was no other explanation.
'Could it be… a multi-sectoral threat?" Heavy silence immediately permeated the meeting hall. "Has SS Rank disaster once again descended upon humanity?"