I Awakened the Apocalypse System

The Hunter Raid

The warehouse fell silent for only a single second before the Hunters opened fire without warning. Ethan shoved his mother behind a stack of wooden crates as bullets tore into the metal walls around them, and Mary screamed and covered her head while he tightened his grip on the Beginner Blade. “Stay down!” he shouted over the chaos.

Another round struck the crate right beside him, and he moved before he even had time to think, his Danger Sense having warned him just a moment before, saving his life as he rolled across the floor while another burst of gunfire tore through the space where he had been standing only seconds earlier.

The Hunters advanced steadily, and it was clear immediately that these were no ordinary men. Each of them wore heavy black protective armor and carried weapons clearly built for killing monsters rather than people, and their commander walked ahead of the group, gripping a long metal weapon that looked far heavier than anything the others carried. “Player Zero,” the commander called out. “You cannot escape.”

Ethan scanned the warehouse frantically, aware that there were simply too many of them to fight head on, that attempting a direct confrontation would be suicide. His eyes eventually landed on several large fuel containers sitting near the back wall, and an idea began forming in his mind. He grabbed his mother’s hand. “Mom, we are moving.”

“Where?”

“Just trust me.”

He pulled her toward the rear of the warehouse while Victor remained near the entrance, watching everything unfold without offering any help. “You are wasting your time,” Victor said. “Those Hunters will not stop until they get you.”

Ethan glanced back at him. “Then help me.”

Victor only smiled. “I never said I wanted to.”

The commander raised his weapon and gave the order. “Take the woman alive. Kill Player Zero.” Several Hunters rushed forward immediately, and Ethan waited until they drew close before kicking a wooden crate directly into their path, tripping two of them instantly. He grabbed a metal pipe from the ground and used it to knock a weapon from another Hunter’s grip, and though he was nowhere near strong enough to overpower them through force alone, his Danger Sense allowed him to anticipate nearly every attack coming his way, warning him whether danger approached from the left, the right, or from behind, letting him move through the chaos of the warehouse with a fluidity he had never possessed before that night.

When one Hunter swung his weapon toward Ethan’s head, he ducked beneath the blow and drove his shoulder hard into the man’s chest, sending him crashing into a nearby table before Ethan turned and sprinted away. “Get him!” someone shouted, and the remaining Hunters gave chase as Ethan reached the fuel containers and stopped abruptly, turning to his mother. “Get behind the wall.”

Understanding instinctively that something dangerous was about to happen, Mary hurried out of the way as Ethan lifted one of the heavy containers and hurled it toward the approaching Hunters, watching it crash to the floor and spill fuel across the concrete. The commander realized what Ethan intended a second too late. “Stop him!”

Ethan struck the ground with his blade, generating a shower of sparks that ignited the spilled fuel instantly, sending flames rushing across the floor and forcing the Hunters to retreat as the fire spread between them and their target. Ethan grabbed his mother and bolted through a narrow passage beside the storage area, with Victor following close behind. “You are clever,” Victor remarked as they ran.

“I thought you did not want to help.”

“I did not,” Victor replied, gesturing toward another doorway ahead. “I am simply going in the same direction.”

Ethan did not bother responding as the shouts of the Hunters echoed behind them, struggling to navigate around the spreading flames. Moments later, the entire warehouse shook violently as one of the fuel containers exploded, throwing all three of them against the wall and leaving Ethan’s ears ringing painfully for several long seconds before the System appeared before his eyes.

MISSION PROGRESS UPDATED. HUNTER RAID SURVIVAL: 12 MINUTES REMAINING.

His eyes widened at the realization that they had already survived eighteen minutes, though the mission was clearly far from finished. He forced himself upright and found his mother alive, though bleeding slightly from a small cut on her forehead. “Mom, are you okay?”

“I am fine,” she said, nodding despite the injury.

Ethan glanced toward Victor, who was already standing tall, seemingly unaffected by the explosion that had thrown them all off their feet, a stark reminder of the gap between them. Victor was a seasoned player who had clearly been surviving this new world for far longer than Ethan had, whereas he himself was still only beginning to understand any of it.

Suddenly his Danger Sense activated, and he turned his gaze upward toward the ceiling, sensing movement above them. Victor noticed the shift in his expression. “What is it?”

Before Ethan could answer, the ceiling burst open and something dropped down between them, a Shadow Eater far larger than any he had faced before, its body encased in thick black armor with eyes glowing a menacing red. The System flashed an urgent warning immediately.

NEW THREAT DETECTED. SHADOW EATER LEVEL 3. WARNING. TARGET EXCEEDS PLAYER LEVEL.

Ethan tightened his grip on the blade as the creature turned its attention toward him, and Victor took a step backward, an expression of genuine fear crossing his face for the first time that night. “You need to run,” Victor said.

Ethan looked at him in disbelief. “You are afraid of it?”

Victor offered no response as the creature suddenly charged, and Ethan shoved his mother out of harm’s way and raised his blade just in time to absorb the impact, though the force sent him flying across the room and slamming into a metal shelf hard enough to leave him crumpled on the floor in pain. The creature advanced on him again, and though he tried to rise, his legs trembled too violently to support him. His Danger Sense screamed a warning that the attack was coming from his left, and he rolled aside just as the monster’s claws tore into the concrete where he had been lying, cracking the floor beneath the force of the blow.

Ethan stared at the damage in horror, understanding that a direct hit from those claws would kill him instantly, and he desperately searched for the creature’s weakness, remembering that the System had already taught him Shadow Eaters were vulnerable to fire. His eyes swept the room, but most of the fuel had already been consumed by the earlier explosion, until he spotted a burning cable dangling from the damaged ceiling. An idea struck him immediately, and he grabbed the cable and dragged it toward the creature, causing it to leap backward in retreat.

He sprinted toward a broken electrical panel and struck it hard with his blade, sending sparks exploding outward in every direction, and when the creature charged at him again, he waited until the very last possible moment before sidestepping out of its path, sending it crashing directly into the exposed wiring. Electricity surged violently through its body, and the Shadow Eater let out a deafening scream of pain. Refusing to waste the opportunity, Ethan grabbed a burning piece of metal debris and pressed it against the creature’s body, watching flames spread rapidly across its armored skin until it finally collapsed to the ground.

The System appeared before him once more.

SHADOW EATER LEVEL 3 DEFEATED. EXPERIENCE GAINED: 40. SYSTEM POINTS GAINED: 2.

He stared at the message as his experience total climbed to seventy out of one hundred, putting him remarkably close to reaching Level 2, but before he could take a moment to process the victory, another message appeared.

SPECIAL CONDITION COMPLETED. PLAYER ZERO REWARD AVAILABLE.

Ethan froze in place as Victor stepped closer, clearly curious. “What did you receive?” Ethan looked at him but chose to say nothing, and the System delivered its final message.

PLAYER ZERO HAS UNLOCKED A HIDDEN FEATURE. FEATURE: EVOLUTION PATH.

His breath caught in his throat, and Victor’s expression shifted into something Ethan had never seen from him before, genuine shock. “You saw it too,” Ethan said.

Victor slowly shook his head. “No.”

“Then why are you afraid?”

Victor looked at him with a seriousness that felt entirely different from his usual composed demeanor. “Because I know what that means.” When Ethan waited for him to continue, Victor lowered his voice. “The System does not give that feature to normal players.”

A loud alarm suddenly blared from somewhere outside the warehouse, and it became clear that the Hunters had survived the explosion after all. Their commander reappeared at the far end of the building, but this time he was not alone. Standing behind him was a man dressed in a white coat, his eyes locked directly onto Ethan, and a slow smile spread across his face. “Finally,” he said. “We found Player Zero.”

The System flashed one last warning before Ethan’s eyes.

EXTREME THREAT DETECTED. UNKNOWN HUMAN TARGET. LEVEL: UNKNOWN.

Ethan tightened his grip on the blade, understanding with sudden clarity that the real battle had only just begun.