Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Jack held onto Spacewind’s attacking hand, firmly and easily. The man looked like he was having a stroke.

“You have no idea what’s going on, and that’s okay,” Jack said. “I’m Jack Rust. You once mocked me, bullied me, and tried to kill me. I’m here to repay the favor.”

“How?” Spacewind cried out. “How can you be alive? How can you be so strong!?”

The poor man didn’t even realize he was seeing a clone. In his mind, Jack going from the middle to the late C-Grade in the span of four years was already a great pace.

Jack didn’t plan to correct his misunderstanding.

“You’ve made a sad life for yourself, Spacewind. As much as you deserve it, it pains me to see you so isolated…but it no longer matters, does it?” He shook his head. “You hate me. Therefore, you must die.”

He punched out faster than Spacewind could react. A hole was blasted in the other man’s chest. Spacewind fell to his knees. Even as life abandoned him, the look of incomprehension never left his wide eyes.

He had once sworn to destroy Jack Rust. He remembered his own words clearly:

Jack Rust, you took my woman, took my treasures, and took my reputation. If I don’t cripple you and feed you to the dogs, I am no man!

Since then, revenge had been his driving force. He’d cultivated intensely, never resigning himself to remaining trapped in this place. He fantasized escaping and dealing Jack Rust a hard blow. He pictured himself laughing over the corpse of his enemy.

Yet, things had changed so abruptly. Spacewind was dying. His enemy had appeared out of nowhere, ruthlessly exterminating him. He hadn't had the slightest chance to fight back. Despair and unwillingness warred inside his heart.

This is…unfair… were his final thoughts before all life left him. His eyes remained glued on Jack, burning with hatred until their light died down.

Jack waited until Spacewind really was dead. He shook his head and sighed. Did he enjoy this? No. As much as Spacewind had been his enemy before, executing someone was never a happy affair, just a necessity.

He would never let an enemy get away again. Artus Emberheart had taught him this lesson.

Then, Jack teleported, appearing right in the middle of the city. He was no longer hiding his presence. Every single cultivator jumped and rushed to surround him, while Sassa took the boy in her arms and prepared to teleport away.

Monk Uruselam stood at the very front of the gathering, with Shi Mo next to him. His wooden hoe had once again been replaced with a sword. Jack was surprised at their reaction speed.

“Jack Rust?” Uruselam asked, as if recalling the name from the depths of his memory. Unlike Spacewind, he didn’t react immediately. He scouted Jack with his Dao perception, sensing the depths of his aura. That gave him pause.

“Hello, everyone,” Jack said. “It’s been a while. I hope you’ve been well.”

“What is going on?” Shi Mo asked, narrowing his eyes. “Are you really Jack? You feel different. And where’s Brock?”

“I will explain everything,” Jack replied, and that’s exactly what he did. For the next hour, he recounted how he’d gained control of the entire realm and sealed them in—without going into details. He informed them about the outside world and the ongoing Crusade.

They were stunned, of course, asking him all sorts of questions. They struggled to believe him. It was only as the hour passed that they came to terms with the world-altering reality Jack presented them—and only because he demonstrated his prowess, enough to easily overpower everyone here combined.

“So, you are responsible for trapping us here?” Uruselam asked.

“I am, and I’m sorry about it,” Jack replied. “I couldn’t risk releasing you without the strength to control things. Now that I do… I have come to give you a choice.”

Before Jack actually saw this place, one of his potential plans had been to exterminate all the Hand of God cultivators and release the others. However, he hadn’t been satisfied with it, because it had felt a bit too brutal. Now, he was glad to see that things had changed. These people had lost their edge—in a good way. He no longer believed any of them deserved killing.

“I will soon attach this entire realm to my inner world,” Jack said. “To those of you who will still be here, you will likely experience no change. You won’t be able to harm me either, as the connection between this place and my inner world will be…special. After I do that, releasing you from this realm will be much more difficult, and I may not be able to achieve it for the near future. Therefore, you need to make a decision now.”

They watched with rapt attention.

“Those of you belonging to the Hand of God, I am sorry to say, but I will not release you. I cannot risk you joining the war and killing any of our cultivators. I will not kill you unless you wish for it, but you can remain here and live out the rest of your lives in peace. When the war is over, then I might let you out.

“Those of you belonging to the Church… You can make your choice. If you want to leave, I will take you just outside System space and help you reach the Church forces. I cannot escort you, however. Your survival will be up to you. If you prefer to stay here and live in peace, then you may do so, until the day comes that I offer to release you again. What do you choose?”

Jack looked everyone in the eye. He expected the Hand of God people to be angry. Instead, they seemed almost…relieved? It was the Church cultivators who showed signs of internal struggle.

“I will stay,” said Borkuren. He reached out to hug Sassa and his little son, who was gazing at Jack with wide eyes. “I never had a family, but now I do. I will not abandon them.”

Jack nodded with approval.

“I will stay as well,” Shi Mo said. “I’m approaching the limits of my life, and after sitting around for four years, my blade has lost its edge. I am no longer a warrior. Just an old man.” He chuckled. “Are you disappointed, Jack?”

Jack smiled. “I’m happy for you, old friend. I liked you as an honorable warrior, and I like you equally now. There is nothing wrong with change.”

Shi Mo laughed, not saying anything else. Besides him and Borkuren, however, all other members of the Church chose to exit. They all had families and friends on the outside. As happy as they were in this place, hiding here and letting their people fight alone would be wrong. Nobody reached this level by being a coward.

Jack watched as these people set their jaws and spoke the words, rising to fly beside him. He saw how torn some of them were. He wondered if, perhaps, he should never have said anything. Then, these people wouldn’t have to go to war, and they could continue living here in happiness.

But that wasn’t the right way. Everyone deserved to make their own choices.

After some time, everyone had made their decision. Every Church cultivator besides Borkuren and Shi Mo had chosen to go. That included two Envoys.

Jack gave them some time. There were heartful goodbyes. These people had all bonded with each other, regardless of their faction of origin, and having to completely uproot these new lives in the span of a few hours must have been difficult.

Unfortunately, Jack couldn’t give them too long. He was also on a mission. Six hours later, after everyone had a huge party, he returned to bid his own goodbyes.

“I’ll visit sometimes,” he said, clasping the hands of both Borkuren and Shi Mo. They pulled him into a hug, laughing.

“We’ll be looking forward to it, old friend,” Shi Mo said, still drunk from the party before. They’d managed to make liquor strong enough to affect them.

“Hey, Jack,” Borkuren said with a drunk smile, “do you know what we named our son? Jack. After you. Because we thought you died too early.”

Jack swiveled, his eyes widening. He looked over at Sassa, who waited by the side. She gave him a coy look. “I did think it was a silly name,” she replied. “But when Borkuren likes an idea, you just can’t get it out of his mind.”

The frog man laughed. So did she. She did not resemble the arrogant young girl of four years ago at all. If Jack didn’t know it was impossible, he would have thought she’d been replaced by a shapeshifting monster.

“Thank you,” he said. A child was named after him. That hit home hard. He’d even lost his breath.

The couple laughed again. Their son, too young to speak, waved at Jack and laughed with his little baby face.

Jack was suddenly emotional. He shook his head to clear it. “See you, guys,” he told everyone who remained as he took to the sky. “Enjoy this place. It’s all yours!”

With that, he wrapped the people who were leaving in a spacetime bubble and took them along, teleporting rapidly. It only took him a couple minutes to reach the location of the portal. The cultivators he was dragging along had tears in their eyes. They looked down, memorizing this happy jungle they’d never see again.

“Heads down,” Jack said, flying into the portal. A few minutes later, it snapped close, and the realm was isolated once more.

They were now floating in space, between the stars. The cultivators he’d brought along were teary-eyed. Druk-Druk was not amused. “Where am I supposed to put all these people?” she asked. “Our starship is tiny.”

“I’ll keep them in a space bubble,” Jack promised. “Once we reach Earth, I’ll give you a larger starship for the way back. Consider it a gift.”

The space bubble would also ensure these people didn’t figure out the location of Earth, but Jack didn’t mention that. Instead, after chatting with the cultivators a bit and introducing them to Druk-Druk, he formed another space bubble, shrank it to the size of a desk, and took it into the starship with him. It was larger on the inside, so the cultivators wouldn’t be crowded.

Maintaining this for the rest of the trip would be taxing, but as long as they didn’t run into enemies, he would be fine. First, however…

“Take the bubble for a second, please,” Jack said. Druk-Druk took over with a grumble—she specialized in spacetime—while Jack turned to regard the open space. He spread his arms, taking a deep breath. The realm heart in the main body’s inner world shuddered. Unique Dao fluctuations passed through their connection and erupted from the clone’s body. He used his Dao to reach into the point where the portal previously hung, the new anchoring point of the Green Dragon Realm to this universe, and pulled.

The universe was a bubble in the dimensional sea. So was the Green Dragon Realm and all other hidden realms, except much smaller. Interestingly, the inner worlds of B-Grade and above cultivators were also their own dimensional bubbles. They were governed by some unique rules, of course, but that was beside the point right now.

The important thing was, since they were dimensional bubbles, they could be connected to places outside the cultivator’s body. Technically, one could even form connection points between their inner world and the universe, but that would be dangerous and pointless. Living creatures from the outside couldn’t enter inner worlds—with exceptions, like Venerable Saint Thousand Shell, who was tied to the Life Drop, which was in turn a part of Jack’s soul.

He couldn’t actually absorb the Green Dragon Realm in his inner world. Not only was it impossible Dao-wise, but it was also too big. It wouldn’t fit. What he would do instead was form a permanent connection between the two dimensional bubbles. Essentially, instead of the Green Dragon Realm connecting to the universe, it would now connect to Jack’s inner world. That would protect the realm from any harm, and also enhance Jack’s inner world.

While living creatures couldn’t pass through the portal, energy sure could, especially when you were the master of both sides of the connection.

Jack pulled at the portal. He sensed it move through space, an invisible anchoring point, then passed it through his body and into his inner world. The sensation was weird, but it succeeded.

At that point, the main body in the Spiral Stair galaxy paused its cultivation to work with the clone. Their two inner worlds were connected. Together, they moved the portal from one side to the other, planting it firmly in the main body’s inner world. It was just an energy signature, so transferring it between two connected dimensional bubbles was doable, if difficult.

When it was over, Jack took a deep breath, exhausted. That was harder than he anticipated. But also very rewarding.

He could feel it already. The portal was open in the main body’s inner world, flooding it with a constant stream of energy. After all, the Green Dragon Realm had existed for a very long time, and it was many times larger than Jack’s inner world. It could supply energy all the way until Jack reached the A-Grade, and the cultivators there would only feel a tiny difference in energy density.

Of course, that would still take a very long time, because the energy which could pass through the small portal was limited. It was a great increase in cultivation speed regardless. Even without any space monster cores, Jack was confident he could reach the peak B-Grade within a millennium.

Having your own little realm, created by an Archon and left to grow for a billion years, was overpowered indeed.

Jack smiled as he rushed back into the ship. Next destination… Earth!