My legs pump beneath me, each stride pushing me farther from the shambling mass of infects behind me. Sweat streaks down my temples, stinging my eyes. The trees blur past the hollow skulls of a world that no longer exists. Then I hear a shrieking sound. It starts low that gradually build into a louder that seems to split the air itself. My spine turns to ice. Every hair on my body stands rigid. Something is coming. I don't need to see it to know what it means. Whatever makes that sound will definitely tear through me like paper. My eyes sweep the landscape seeing nothing but sparse ruins, fallen trees that are cover with moss, cracked grounds that are overgrown with weeds. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. The forest that's surrounding this vicinity leaves me shudder. More kept coming slowly with different varieties of walking bone with skin like wet leather, their movements twitchy and disjointed. Some of their mouths hang open, revealing tongues blackened and swoll

Brixen and Sommy rush onto the balcony beside me, staring down at the chaos below. "That's impossible," Brixen breathes. "The walls was reconstructed only recently." But something did. And it brought catastrophe with it. The streets have transformed into a nightmare. People pour from buildings like water from a broken dam, crashing into each other, trampling anyone who falls. The infected move through them like sharks through a school of fish. One grabs a man, sinking its teeth into his neck. His shriek cuts off into a wet gurgle. Blood sprays across the pavement in an arc that catches the light. More infected pour from the alley beside the building. They don't run. They never run. But that shambling, relentless pace devours the distance as surely as sprinting. Another person trips on the curb. She scrambles backward on her hands, screaming until one drops onto her. Her scream becomes something inhuman. "We have to go." Brixen's voice cuts through the horror. "Righ

I hit concrete hard. The impact jolts through my spine, but my lungs are already screaming, dragging in air that tastes like copper and sand.I roll onto my side, coughing. Sand pours out from my mouth, my nose, even my ears. It's everywhere, caked in my clothes, grinding against my skin with every movement.My throat feels thick, coated. I gag and retch, bile and more sand splattering the pavement.My arms shake as I push up to my hands and knees. The coughing finally stops, leaving me hollow and trembling on the ground.Then it hits me.I freeze, staring at the same ground I was stabbed. The memory slams back with brutal clarity when it replays what went down till that last moment. I force myself to look around, dreading what I might see. The street is still chaos. Buildings on fire. Overturned cars. Blood everywhere. And the infected? They're still here. Dozens of them, shambling through the wreckage to hunt for prey.But they're not attacking me.I'm sitting in the open, covered

I kneel beside the nearest human corpse, rolling it over with my boot. The infected's chest is torn open from where I killed it, ribs splayed like broken fingers. I reach inside, searching for that telltale red glow.Nothing.I try another. Then another. Five bodies. Ten. Twenty. All the same. No gems. Only rotting flesh and congealed blood."Why?" I mutter, pulling my hand back from another empty corpse. "The animals all had them. Why don't the humans?"The system doesn't answer. It never does when I actually want information.Maybe it depends on location?The more I think about it, the more it makes absolute no sense to me. "You know. You never told me why you chose me." I look, hoping that the screen pops up. Nothing. "I need answers. A sign. Anything."Still silence. I sigh. It's no use. It will only pop up whenever it wants to. That's when the system pops up, showing new tasks. NEW TASKS UPDATE. TO GAIN THE MASTER-SHEPHERD SKILL, YOU NEED TO VISIT THESE PLACESONE. THE SE

This doesn't look like a village at all. It's not even close to it. There are no buildings. Not a single sign of civilization. Everything is covered in swamps and vegetation like I'm inside a whole new different world. “What kind of place is this?” That's the first line of thought that hits me as I step deeper into Seron. The trees stand like hollow brown skulls, vines hanging loosely on their branches. There are little green puddles scattered around with insects hovering around it. Little shrubs are scattered on every foot path, splitting the ground into jagged fragments. But it's not the eerie sights that disturbs me. It's the feeling it gives. Like whatever it is, made this place it's home. It's hive. The hive structures cling to everything. Massive gluey mass that pulse with sickly green bioluminescence, stretching between trees like grotesque spider webs. They're made of something that looks like flesh but moves like it's breathing. Veins run through them, thick as my arm