2026-02-02 17:05:52NO SAFE ZONE
Jack's point of View I didn’t move for a long time. I just stood there, staring at the place where the ruin hound had died. The ground was still dark with its blood. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I had killed something. Not by being strong. Not by being skilled. By being desperate. My shoulder burned like fire. Every time I breathed, pain spread through my chest. The blue screen hovered quietly, like it was waiting for me to fall over again. I looked down at myself. My shirt was torn. Blood soaked the fabric. My legs felt weak, like they might give out any second. I checked my status. HP: 9/50 Status Effects: • Bleeding (Minor) • Malnourished • Fatigued “Great,” I muttered. I didn’t know how long bleeding lasted. I didn’t know if it would stop on its own. I didn’t know anything. There was no tutorial. No guide. No friendly voice explaining things. Just survive. That was the quest. I pressed my hand against my shoulder to slow the blood. It hurt, but it helped a little. The screen flashed again. BLEEDING REDUCED So… it reacts to actions. Good to know. I looked around again. The ruins were closer than I thought. Broken stone walls. Collapsed buildings. Nothing moved, but that didn’t mean anything. The hound had come out of nowhere. Staying in the open felt stupid. I forced my legs to move and limped toward the ruins. Every step hurt. But I kept going. Inside the ruins, the air felt colder. The walls blocked some of the strange hum in the sky. I found a small space between two fallen stones and slid into it, breathing hard. I sat down. The moment I stopped moving, exhaustion crashed into me. My hands trembled worse than before. My stomach twisted painfully. Hunger hit me like a punch. I hadn’t eaten properly in days. Maybe weeks. The screen appeared again. WARNING: ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL “Yeah,” I whispered. “I know.” I leaned my head back against the stone and closed my eyes. For a second, I thought about the bridge. The cold cardboard. The sounds of cars above me. Funny thing was… this place felt worse. At least under the bridge, I knew the rules. Stay quiet. Stay invisible. Stay alive. Here, the rules were trying to kill me. A soft chime broke my thoughts. NEW FUNCTION AVAILABLE I opened my eyes. A small icon blinked on the screen. INVENTORY. I focused on it, and a new window opened. It was almost empty. Items: • Broken Core (Common) That was it. I took out the shard again. It glowed faintly in my hand, warm like a living thing. The screen reacted. ITEM INFORMATION: Broken Core Description: A damaged energy fragment from a low-tier entity. Use: Unknown Value: Low “Unknown,” I repeated. That word followed me everywhere. I tried tapping it. Nothing happened. So I put it back. My stomach growled loudly. “Don’t tell me you want to eat it,” I muttered. No response. Thankfully. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. My vision blurred slightly. I wiped my eyes, annoyed. I wasn’t going to cry. I’d done enough of that in my life. A sound echoed through the ruins. Footsteps. I froze. Slow. Heavy. Not running. More than one. I held my breath and pressed myself deeper into the shadows. Three figures walked into the open space ahead of me. Not monsters. People. They looked… human. They wore rough armor made of leather and metal plates. Each of them had a weapon. A sword. A spear. A bow. Text appeared above their heads. PLAYER – LEVEL 5 PLAYER – LEVEL 4 PLAYER – LEVEL 6 My heart started pounding. Players. Like me. Except not like me at all. They laughed as they walked, loud and relaxed. “Did you see the spawn area today?” one of them said. “Three newbies dropped at once.” “Yeah,” another replied. “One of them didn’t even last ten minutes.” They laughed harder. I felt sick. “Free exp,” the third one added. “If they’re lucky.” My fingers dug into my palms. They were talking about people. About deaths. Like it was nothing. They passed by without noticing me. I stayed still long after they were gone. So that was it. I wasn’t alone in this game. But that didn’t mean I was safe. If monsters didn’t kill me, other players might. The screen blinked softly. NEW INFORMATION ACQUIRED: THIS WORLD HAS NO SAFE ZONES I let out a slow breath. “Of course it doesn’t.” When the pain in my shoulder eased a bit, I carefully stood up. I needed to move. Sitting still was how you died. I searched the ruins slowly. Most of it was useless. Broken stones. Rusted metal. Dust. Then I found something. A small, cracked chest half-buried under rubble. My heart jumped. I pulled it free and opened it. Inside was a roll of cloth and a dull metal knife. The screen chimed. ITEM ACQUIRED: • Ragged Bandage (Poor) • Rusted Knife (Poor) I almost laughed. Poor or not, it was something. I used the bandage on my shoulder. Pain flared, then eased. HP: 14/50 Bleeding: Removed “Thank you,” I whispered, not sure who I was thanking. I picked up the knife. It was light, unbalanced, but sharp enough. Better than nothing. As I stood there, holding it, something strange happened. The screen flickered. NEW NOTICE: PLAYER ZERO DETECTED AS ANOMALY MONITORING INCREASED My chest tightened. “That doesn’t sound good.” Another message appeared, smaller this time. HIDDEN CONDITION ACTIVE: THE UNWANTED Description: This world does not recognize you as a valid player. Effect: Certain systems may behave abnormally. I stared at it. “So… even the game hates me.” The screen didn’t disagree. I tied the knife to my belt using a strip from the bandage cloth. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. Then I looked ahead. The ruins ended in a narrow path that led deeper into the dead land. Far away, I could see something tall and dark rising from the ground like a broken tower. I didn’t know where it led. But standing still wasn’t an option. I took my first step forward. Every part of my body screamed in protest. But I kept walking. Because my whole life, stopping had never saved me. As I moved, a final message appeared. NEW QUEST UNLOCKED: THE ZERO PATH Description: Grow without permission. Reward: Unknown Failure: Death I smiled. Not a happy smile. A sharp one. “Sounds about right.” And with that, I walked deeper into a world that never wanted me ready to take everything from it anyway.
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10
THE SYSTEM WATCHESThe sky wasn’t supposed to flicker.But it did.Jack noticed it first at dawn.He was alone near the outer gate, leaning against the repaired barricade, pretending to watch the horizon.The sky above the wasteland shimmered for half a second.Not lightning.Not weather.A distortion.Like a reflection on broken glass.Then it was gone.Jack stared upward.“…You saw that too, right?” he muttered.No one answered.Because no one else reacted.The guards beside him didn’t move. Didn’t look up.The sky returned to normal blue.Clean.Empty.Jack swallowed.Maybe he imagined it.A faint chime echoed in his ears.SYSTEM UPDATE…The words appeared in the corner of his vision.Then froze.The text glitched.Pixelated.Then vanished.Jack stiffened.“What?”Nothing else happened.He opened his status panel.Level: 0HP: Stable.No notifications.No alerts.He closed it slowly.Behind him, the morning bell rang -training hour.He turned and walked back toward the yard.But so
9
HOW LEVELS WORKThe village felt different during the day.Less afraid.More structured.Jack hadn’t noticed it before, but everything ran on quiet efficiency. Teams were assigned to wall repairs. Scouting parties rotated shifts. Resource gathering had fixed routes. Even combat drills happened at the same hour every afternoon.It wasn’t random survival.It was organized progression.Jack stood near the training yard, watching two mid-level players spar. Their movements were sharp, deliberate. Not flashy efficient.Every strike calculated.Every dodge precise.“Do you see it?”The voice came from behind him.Jack didn’t turn immediately.“I see two people fighting,” he said.Level 24 stepped beside him, hands folded loosely behind his back. His expression was as calm as always. Measured. Observing everything.“No,” the Level 24 said quietly. “You see levels.”Jack frowned slightly.The sparring players clashed again. One moved faster. Cleaner. Stronger.The other yielded ground almost
8
AFTERMATHThe smell of burnt wood lingered long after the monsters were gone.Morning light bled slowly over the village walls, revealing what the night had taken. Splintered barricades. Cracked stone. Blood darkening the dirt pathways. A collapsed watchtower still smoldered near the northern gate.Players moved like ghosts through the damage.No one spoke loudly.No one laughed.This wasn’t like the smaller raids.This one had hurt.Jack stood near the outer wall, staring at the deep claw marks carved into the wood. They were higher than his head. Deeper than he thought possible.He could still hear it.The sound of bone snapping beneath his blade.The moment his body moved faster than it ever had.The moment everything sharpened.He swallowed.He didn’t understand what had happened.And that scared him more than the monsters did.Behind him, whispers drifted through the air.“That’s him.”“Player Zero.”“He killed a Level 29 alone.”“No party support.”“I checked the combat log. It
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THE FIRST NIGHT RAIDJack's point of View The alarms started as a low hum.I was sitting alone near the back of the village, close to a stack of empty crates. No one had offered me a place to stay. No one told me to leave either.Just space.Then the hum became a sharp metallic ringing.LOUD.Over and over.Players froze mid-step.Then someone shouted—“Raid!”Everything moved at once.Lanterns were lifted. Weapons drawn. Boots hitting dirt fast.The air changed.Fear.Real fear.I stood up slowly.“What kind?” someone yelled.“Outer field breach!”“Multiple signatures!”The red-haired player was already running toward the wooden walls. His sword drawn. Calm. Focused.Level 50.This was his world.Torches along the fence burst brighter as players climbed the guard platforms.I hesitated.I could stay behind the houses.Hide.No one would blame Player Zero for not fighting.No one expected anything from me.Another scream cut through the air.Not human.Something deeper.Something wro
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THE GLITCH Jack's point of View No one spoke as I walked through the gate. The wood creaked behind me when it closed. The village didn’t look like much up close. Rough wooden houses. Stone paths. Smoke rising from chimneys. A few lanterns hanging from posts even though the sky never changed. It should’ve felt safe. It didn’t. Every step I took, I could feel eyes on me. Not mocking anymore. Watching. The red-haired player walked a few steps behind me. Not close enough to touch. Close enough to stop me if I tried something. His voice cut through the silence. “Check him.” Two players stepped forward immediately. One was Level 14. The other Level 11. They focused on me. Their eyes shifted slightly the way players do when reading status windows. The Level 14 frowned. “…That’s weird.” “What?” someone asked. “I can see his name. Player Zero. But the level isn’t stable.” The Level 11 squinted. “It keeps flickering.” My chest tightened. Above me, I saw it too. PLAYER Z
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ONE MINUTEJack's point of View The gate opened wider.Not to welcome me.To give space.Players gathered quickly when they realized what was about to happen. Some leaned against the wooden fence. Others climbed onto barrels. A few looked bored.This wasn’t new for them.I stood in the dirt clearing.Across from me stood the red-haired player.Up close, he looked even more confident. His armor was clean. His sword polished. He didn’t look worried.Above his head floated the blue text:PLAYER – LEVEL 50My eyes moved up to my own.PLAYER ZERONo level.Just that.Zero.He saw me looking.“Don’t worry,” he said calmly. “I won’t use everything.”The crowd laughed softly.A tall player near the gate raised his hand.“One minute,” he called. “Fight.”The red-haired guy didn’t rush wildly.He walked toward me.Slow.Controlled.Then suddenly—He disappeared from where he stood.My brain barely caught up before something slammed into my stomach.I folded instantly.Air gone.Pain everywhere
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