2025-03-24 17:12:41Ethan stood over the bodies, the rain washing thin trails of blood down the uneven stones beneath his feet. His breath came in ragged gasps. His heart hammered so hard in his chest that he thought it might burst.
The screen still floated before his eyes, pale blue light casting a soft glow against the darkness of the alley.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZING…]
[Combat Synchronization Complete][New Skill Paths Unlocked]"Survivor: Adapt and overcome through instinct and violence."
"Shadow: Embrace the darkness. Kill without being seen."
"System…?" Ethan whispered.
No response. The screen flickered slightly, the words shifting and blurring before stabilizing.
Ethan crouched and wiped his dagger on the tunic of the nearest guard, ignoring the way his hands trembled. His stomach churned at the sight of the growing pool of dark blood. His breathing was still shallow and sharp. He’d killed before — rats in the sewers, street thugs in self-defense — but never like this.
Never this easy.
He glanced at his hands. No shaking. No hesitation. His body had moved with deadly precision, like he'd been doing this his whole life. But he hadn’t.
It was the System.
His eyes flicked back to the screen.
[System Level: 2]
[Health: 60/65][Stamina: 38/50][Strength: 3][Speed: 2][Stealth: 1][Skills: Blade Strike (Lvl 1), Stealth (Lvl 1)]A surge of heat flickered beneath his skin. His muscles felt tight — stronger. His mind clearer. He ran his tongue across his teeth, tasting copper.
"This… isn’t normal."
No response from the System.
The surviving pouch of gold marks lay scattered across the wet stones. Ethan knelt, scooping them up one by one. He counted fourteen marks — enough to buy food for a week, maybe longer. His hands hesitated over the last coin, slick with blood.
His father’s face flashed behind his eyes. A pale, gaunt man hanging from the gallows. His mother’s scream, cut short by a noble’s sword.
House Valtorin.
The System’s words echoed in his mind:
"Kill to grow."
A low groan pulled him from his thoughts.
The guard with the crushed leg was still alive, crawling toward the alley’s edge, leaving a trail of blood in the water.
Ethan stood slowly, flipping the dagger in his hand.
"Wait… wait…" The guard coughed, spitting red. "Please… mercy…"
Ethan’s jaw tightened. He stepped toward the guard and pressed his foot against the man’s injured leg.
The guard screamed.
Ethan crouched down, his eyes dark. "Mercy?" His voice was cold, empty. "Did House Valtorin show my parents mercy?"
"I-I… it wasn’t… I was just following—"
Ethan drove the dagger into the man’s throat.
A wet gurgle. A final shudder. Silence.
[EXP Gained: 15]
[Level Up!][Health +5 | Strength +1 | Speed +1]The screen pulsed faintly as the body slumped. Ethan watched the light fade from the man’s eyes.
A small weight lifted from his chest. A small spark of satisfaction settled in its place.
"Kill to grow."
Ethan straightened and turned toward the mouth of the alley. The cold bite of the rain seemed duller now. His steps were steadier. The trembling had stopped.
He started walking.
[System Notice: New Stat Threshold Reached – Strength 4]
"Physical capacity increased. Speed and power enhanced."Ethan’s lip curled. "That easy, huh?"
His steps echoed down the dark alley as he slipped through the rain-drenched streets. He pulled his hood up, disappearing into the shadows.
The streets of Black Hollow were quiet this late at night. Most of the slum dwellers had long since retreated to whatever hovels they called home. A distant scream echoed down the stone alleys, followed by the heavy clatter of boots.
"Shit…" Ethan ducked into an alcove beneath a broken archway. He flattened his back against the wet stone.
Two figures in crimson-and-black cloaks strode past the mouth of the alley. More Valtorin guards.
"...Lord Darius will have our heads if he finds out about this."
"Selene’s going to handle it."
"You think the Heir’s going to care about some street rat?"
The other guard laughed darkly. "Not about the rat. About the System."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
The guards disappeared around the corner, their voices fading.
The System…
How did they know?
Ethan pushed off the wall and slipped back into the alley’s deeper shadows. The chill in his chest had nothing to do with the cold rain.
The System hadn’t appeared by chance. Someone — or something — had triggered it.
His fingers closed around the hilt of his dagger as he slipped between the alleyways, sticking to the shadows. His newly enhanced senses tracked the sound of the guards’ footsteps ahead.
He followed.
Ethan scaled a broken drainpipe and climbed onto the edge of a low roof, peering down at the next street.
The guards approached a black carriage drawn by armored horses. A cloaked figure stood beside it — tall, lean, face obscured beneath a dark hood.
"Report," the figure said. The voice was soft. Female.
"Two men dead," the guard said. "Throat cuts. Fast. Precise."
"Survivor?"
"No."
The figure tilted her head. The hood shifted, revealing the faint outline of pale lips.
"And you’re certain it was the System?"
"Yes. No one else moves like that."
The cloaked figure’s gaze lifted toward the rooftop. Ethan ducked behind the stone ledge, heart hammering.
"Selene?" the guard hesitated.
"Find him." The figure’s voice sharpened. "Before he learns too much."
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
Selene Valtorin knew about the System. And she wanted it.
He smiled faintly as he slipped away into the dark.
"Let her come."
[NEW QUEST: The Noble Hunt]
Objective: Survive the hunt. Defeat Selene’s assassins.Reward: Skill Upgrade — Blade Strike (Lvl 2)The screen flickered and faded as Ethan dropped from the rooftop and disappeared into the winding alleys of Black Hollow.
Rain hammered down on the stones as he moved, fast and silent.
Tonight, Ethan Cross had stopped being a street rat.
Tonight, he became a predator.
Previous Chapter
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Lyra’s Poisoned Gift
The upper quarter of Black Hollow had once belonged to merchants, bankers, and minor nobles. Now it belonged to fear.Lyra walked through it dressed like a message.Tight crimson leathers, one dagger visible, five not. Her cloak was black silk that shimmered when it caught the torchlight — spun from noble funeral robes. She’d stolen it off a Valtorin corpse weeks ago.The guards saw her. And looked away.No one stopped her anymore.She didn’t walk fast. She strolled, because speed would’ve admitted risk. And Lyra never let herself admit fear — not out loud, and never to herself.The House Valtorin estate towered ahead — not the Spire where Selene ruled, but a city manor used for "outreach" and political intimidation.Tonight, it would bleed.[Side Quest Active: Provocation – Embarrass Selene Before Her Arrival]Target: House Valtorin's City SeatObjective: Plant a forged relic, steal back a true one, and leave a mark.Risk: ExtremeReward: +10 Infamy | Selene’s rage escalates encounte
The Box That Whispers
They didn’t return to the Guildhall. Too exposed. Too obvious.Instead, Ethan led the crew into the catacombs beneath the burned-out husk of the old cathedral — the one Black Hollow’s priests abandoned after the God of Silence stopped answering.Only the brave or the cursed came here now. Ethan was probably both.The air was thick with old ash and mold. Dead candles littered the floors. Bones, too.Kael set a perimeter. Lyra lit three torches and wedged them into the crumbling stone. Nara laid down an inkline ward circle — fast, practiced, whispering in that inhuman tongue she used when working.Ethan sat at the center of it all, the black box resting on his lap.[Item: Sealed Black Box]Status: Locked – Requires Forbidden Lineage AccessWarning: Unknown consequences on open“You’re sure about this?” Kael asked, crouched nearby, blood still drying on his temple.“No,” Ethan replied.Lyra sat cross-legged behind him, blade out, expression unreadable. “Good. We’re already cursed. Might
Whisper-Path
Beneath Black Hollow, past the abandoned waterway and through the cracked aqueduct wall, the whisper-path opened like a throat cut into the earth.It was silent. Too silent. Not the kind where you can hear your own breath — the kind where you start to forget what breath sounds like.Ethan moved first.His dagger was drawn, but it wasn’t the blade he trusted — it was the System, humming just beneath the skin, highlighting every motion, every sound, every stone out of place.Behind him, Nara walked barefoot. Her steps didn’t echo. The sigils inked into her skin pulsed like faint, slow heartbeats — one red, one black, one pulsing to a rhythm no one else heard.Kael moved third. His breathing was calm. Focused. Calculated. Every step had purpose. Every glance had a weight.Lyra brought up the rear, flipping a silver coin between her fingers like they were walking into a tavern, not a noble vault heist.[System Alert: Whisper-Path Detected – Forbidden Construct]Type: Residual Thought Echo
The Gathering Storm
The rain fell hard on Black Hollow.It poured down the slate roofs of the slums and sluiced through the cracked alleys like veins bleeding water. Thunder rumbled across the sky in long, low groans — not angry, just tired.The city listened. It always listened. Especially when things changed.Tonight, they had.The Guild was his now.Ethan stood beneath the great skylight of the Guildmaster’s sanctum, high in the center of the old blackstone tower. The rain tapped steadily against the stained glass above, casting distorted ripples of color across the chamber walls.Kael stood to his left, silent, arms crossed. The shadows beneath his eyes were darker than usual.Lyra lounged across a half-collapsed velvet settee to Ethan’s right, boots kicked up, blade twirling idly between her fingers. She was dressed in black tonight. No red. No smiles.They had all killed this week.Ethan’s fingers traced the edge of the map spread across the stone table in front of him. The city was etched into it
Lyra’s Game
The Eastwatch brothels glittered like dying stars.Red lanterns hung low over narrow alleys, casting flickering shadows across sweat-stained walls. Perfume, wine, and blood all clung to the same sticky air. Music drifted faintly — hollow flutes and off-key strings — masking the whispers and screams in the rooms behind closed curtains.Lyra moved like smoke through the crowd.She was dressed in silk now, all deep red and gold, a slit riding high up one leg, a dagger sheathed against her bare thigh. Her face bore a velvet mask, but her smile was all teeth.[System Interface: Linked – Guild Captain Elimination in Progress]Target: Sarn VoxLocation: The Crimson Lantern, EastwatchStatus: Paranoid | Drunk | Surrounded by escorts and mercsShe slipped past a heavy-set guard at the door with nothing more than a wink and a whisper. He didn’t even look back.Inside, the Crimson Lantern was less a brothel and more a palace for the wicked. Every corner overflowed with noise — laughter, moans, m
A Throne of Knives
The throne room smelled of blood and smoke.Ethan stood beneath the carved silver insignia of the Guild — a blade beneath a crown. The corpse of Varric Kaen, the Guildmaster, lay slumped at the foot of the throne, blood pooling beneath his body in slow, widening rings.Kael cleaned his daggers with calm, clinical precision, but his eyes were on Ethan.Lyra was already climbing the steps to the black stone throne. She dropped into the seat with a sigh, crossing one leg over the other.“Well,” she said brightly, twirling her dagger, “that was dramatic.”Ethan didn’t move. His breathing had slowed, but the System still pulsed in the back of his skull — cold, alive, watching.[System Update: Title Opportunity Available]"Position of Power Vacant: Guildmaster."Would you like to claim this title?[Y/N]Ethan’s eyes narrowed on the interface.“Do it,” Kael said. “No hesitation.”“Obvious trap,” Lyra muttered. “Still… power’s power.”Ethan stared at the floating text for a moment longer. The
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