Name: Kill the Sun
Rating: 4.8 (642 reviews)

Chapter 571: True Purpose

Earth, thousands of years after the apocalypse.

Countless technologies and advances had been lost to time as the Specters, horrifying beings with terrifying powers, arrived and destroyed the world.

Over the coming thousands of years, humanity had built itself up but always died again.

Nobody remembers the past.

Nobody remembers what humanity had once accomplished.

Now, everyone is living in a world where the Specters reign supreme.

A boy with amnesia woke up in the middle of the Dregs, the worst part of Crimson Fungus City.

The boy grows up and manages to become strong enough to pass an exam for one of the most prestigious jobs in existence, a Zephyx Extractor, someone that can harvest the powers of Specters.

Sadly, he had already gained a power from a Specter in the past, which made him ineligible for the position.

But then, a mysterious man visits him.

And his luck finally turns around.

Prologue

“You should kill yourself.”

Inside a dirty alleyway filled with oily pipes, electrical wires, and broken walls, a young man sat on the ground with his back to the wall.

His head was lowered as he lifelessly stared at the ground visible between his legs.

The sun was positioned in the middle of the sky, perfectly above this boy. Because of that, the alleyway was brightly lit.

“I know that it comes as a bit of a shock, but I genuinely think the best course of action for you in this situation would be to kill yourself.”

The boy didn’t lift his head as he heard these words.

At this moment, a dirty and disheveled rat was sitting on top of a small rusty box made of metal. The rat was lightly scratching its snout as it looked with widely opened eyes at the boy, trying to establish eye contact.

“Listen,” the rat said as it jumped down from the box and slowly walked towards the boy. “We all know what happened. It’s not like I’m suggesting suicide without a logical basis, you know?”

As the rat came closer, the boy’s eyes suddenly gained life, and he looked at the rat with intensity.

The rat’s eyes widened, and it went on its hind legs as it slowly retreated. “Calm down, Nick. I’m not going to hurt you,” it said with a nervous smile as it stopped retreating. “Look at me. I’m just a rat. How am I supposed to hurt someone that managed to get through the Zephyx Extractor Exam?”

The boy, Nick, looked back at the ground.

When Nick just lifelessly looked at the ground like that, he looked like a frail homeless person, but when he just looked at the rat, his entire demeanor changed.

In fact, Nick’s body was anything but frail. While he wasn’t very bulky, his muscles were pretty defined, which wasn’t surprising, considering that he had trained for the last four years in hopes of finally getting out of the Dregs.

“Hey, Nick,” the rat said, not daring to get any closer. “I know that you’re still holding onto some hope, but we both know that believing in this fickle light of hope is just delusional.”

The rat slowly moved around Nick’s body, but it didn’t dare to get too close to his body. “Over the last four years, you worked so hard on yourself. You trained every day, and you even committed some terrible acts just to avoid paying the Blood Tax.”

“You didn’t want to do these things, but you still did them. Why? Because you saw a way out of the Dregs.”

“And you did it! You managed to get a spot in the Zephyx Extractor Exam for Ghosty’s Lab, and you even managed to pass it!” the rat said with a lot of enthusiasm.

And then, the rat just sighed. “But your Zephyx Synchronizer was already attuned to a Specter. You managed to pass the exam, but Ghosty’s Lab can’t use a Zephyx Extractor with an already synchronized Zephyx Synchronizer.”

“And you know that they are not the only ones,” the rat said as it stopped on Nick’s right side. “No Zephyx Manufacturer will hire you like this. You know as well as I that all the companies have specific Specters for their Extractors. Without the abilities from these Specters, you will either die very quickly or will cost the company more money than you bring in.”

“So, what now?” the rat asked, looking at Nick with a sympathetic expression. “What’s the plan now?”

…