2026-05-03 18:40:55Zayn didn’t think,he couldn't the only thing he knew was that he couldn't stop running now
He ran.
His shoes slammed against cracked pavement, breath tearing through his lungs as the night swallowed him whole. Behind him, something scraped, something he couldn't fathom half human half animal and it wasn't just chasing him,it was getting closer to him by the second
“Move move!” he hissed under his breath, cutting sharply into a narrow alley.
The stench hit immediately, something rotten and decaying,his foot slipped on damp ground, but he caught himself on the wall, fingers scraping against rough brick.
This didn't stop him either,he couldn’t stop,a sharp crack echoed behind him.
Too close.
Zayn glanced back taking in the dreadful creature behind him,the creature had twisted itself sideways to fit into the alley, its limbs bending like broken branches. Its glowing eyes never leaving his body.
Its mouth stretched wider, as it appeared to lick its lips,it jaws widened even more, just a little more with each step it took towards zayn.
It let out a sound,not a roar,it sounded more like a laugh.
Zayn’s stomach dropped. “Nope.
Nope nope nope!”
He pushed harder, lungs burning now, vision starting to blur at the edges.
Think.
Think!
Running blindly wouldn’t work,that thing was faster,and it didn't seem kike it was getting tired
He took another turn as he burst out of the alley into a wider street, coming to a pause for half a second.
Bad move,too open,too exposed,came a crackle over the earphones in zayns ears which he hadn't even realized were there
TIP– INTERACTION WITH THE ENVIRONMENT INCREASES SURVIVAL RATE BY 37%
Zayn barked out a breathless laugh. “Oh, now you give tips?”
Another sound echoed behind himbad she snapped out of his thoughts and realized the chase wasn't over yet.
He spun around, panic spiking,and the creature was already halfway out of the alley.
This thing was too fast!.
Too fast!
“Okay okay, think,environment environment”
His eyes darted wildly looking around the street.
He looked around and all he could see were trash bins,broken streetlights,and an abandoned car with its door hanging open.
A car he thought to himself as a desperate plan formed in his head, it was desperate,but atleast it was something.
“Please work…”,he let out a quiet prayer as he sprinted towards the car
The creature lunged out into the street behind him, limbs slamming into the ground as it accelerated towards zayn
Zayn reached the car, grabbing the loose door and yanked at it.
The rusted hinge screamed as the door came free with more force than he expected,he turned around
Too late,the creature had already lunged at him and was on him now
Its arm snapped forward, claws slicing through the air where his face had been a second ago.
Zayn threw himself sideways, slamming into the ground as he managed to take in a whiff of air
“...ck!”
He let out a weary breath
No time.
No time!
He scrambled up, gripping the car door like a shield just in time as the creature came again.
SLAM!
The impact rattled through his arms as claws struck metal, leaving deep, jagged grooves.
Zayn’s eyes widened.
“It’s strong…”
The creature tilted its head again, studying him.
Learning, trying to anticipate his next move and strike faster
Then it struck again,faster.
Zayn barely raised the door fast enough to block the attack. The force sent him stumbling back, boots scraping against the asphalt.
“Okay bad plan very bad plan!”
He kicked forward trying to trip the creature,but his foot was clearly not strong enough,instead he managed to get the creature more angry as it's red eyes locked onto him
It was angry now.
“Yeah… that was stupid,” Elias muttered.
The creature lunged at Zayn again
This time Zayn dropped the door and ran, adrenaline surging through his body pushing his body past its limits
His lungsscreamed for lack of oxygen and his legs trembled violently, but he forced them forward.
Left turn,another alley.
No too dark.
Right into a building,he tugged on the front door but it wouldn't budge
“Come on!” he let out a scream, slamming his shoulder into it.
It burst open.
Zayn stumbled inside and immediately slammed it shut behind him, dragging a broken cabinet across the entrance.
THUD.
Something hit the other side hard,making the door rattle violently.
Zayn staggered back, chest heaving, eyes locked on the shaking wood.
THUD.
THUD.
Soon a few cracks began to spread along the lines of the door and it's frame.
“No, no, no…”
He backed away slowly.
Then,silence,the pounding stopped,and zayn froze.
A few seconds passed.
Ten.
Twenty.
Nothing.
“…Did it leave?”
His voice was barely a whisper.
He didn’t dare move and he hardly took a breath.
And then,a long, slow scratching sound dragged across the door.
Zayn’s blood ran cold.
It wasn’t trying to break in anymore,it was… waiting.
“Hunting him,” he realized.
His grip tightened into fists.
“It’s not mindless.”
Then the a screen appeared before him displaying
NEW INFORMATION UNLOCKED
HOSTILE AGENTS CAN ADAPT
“…Great,” zayn whispered. “That’s just great.”
His gaze shifted away from the door, finally taking in his surroundings,the building was dim, lit only by a faint, flickering emergency light,dust hung thick in the air. Rows of empty shelves lined across the walls in the room,it looked like an old convenience store, long abandoned,or maybe not abandoned,just… changed.
A low hum filled the space,the system again.
OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE DISCOVERED
SEARCH AREA FOR RESOURCES
REWARD– MINOR STAT INCREASE
Zayn let out a shaky breath.
“Search… while that thing is outside?”
He glanced back at the door,he could hear another faint scratch,and the monsters breath against the wooden frame of the door
It was still there,still waiting.
“…I don’t have a choice, do I?”
Because running again meant facing it.
And staying here meant…
He looked down at his trembling hands.
“I need something,” he said. “Anything.”
Slowly, carefully,zayn moved deeper into the store.
Each step he took felt too loud,too exposed.
He crouched slightly, scanning the shelves,most were empty, while some held rusted cans, torn packaging, things that looked too old to touch.
“Come on… come on…”
His fingers brushed against something,a small object tucked behind a fallen box.
He pulled it free,a knife.
Short,worn,but solid.
Zayn stared at it.
“…Okay.”
A flicker.
ITEM ACQUIRED–RUSTED UTILITY KNIFE
DAMAGE– LOW
DURABILITY– POOR
A laugh escaped him half relief, half disbelief.
“A weapon,finally.”
Then a few rows away came another sound,not from the door,but from deeper inside the store.
Zayn froze.
“…I’m not alone.”
Slowly, he turned his head toward the darkness beyond the shelves,and something shifted.
A shadow where there shouldn’t be one,his grip tightened around the knife.
“Please don’t tell me there’s more of them…”
The scratching at the door stopped,the silence that followed was worse,because now
There were two unknowns,one outside,and probably one inside.
Zayn swallowed hard, raising the knife slightly.
“…Alright,” he whispered, voice shaking but determined. “One problem at a time.”
The shadow moved again, moving closer towards him.
And somewhere beyond the door,something smiled in the dark.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 10
Light swallowed everything,not blinding at least, not in the way Zayn expected,it was softer,warmer,and even almost… comforting.That alone made it dangerous.When the light faded, he wasn’t in the containment level anymore, instead he stood on grass.Real grass.Soft beneath his feet, swaying gently in a breeze that actually felt alive,the sky stretched endlessly above him,blue, clear, untouched by the decay and distortion of the world he’d been trapped in.For a moment,zayn didn’t move.“…This is fake,” he said quietly.“Correct.”The voice came from behind him.Zayn turned.A figure stood a few meters away.Human,completely human,no distortion,no flicker,no glowing eyes.Just a man,dressed simply, hands clasped behind his back, watching him with calm, unreadable eyes.“…You’re not an enemy,” Zayn said.“Not in the conventional sense.”Zayn exhaled slowly. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”He glanced around again.No Lira.“…Where is she?”“Removed,” the man replied.Zayn’s expressio
Chapter 9
The door opened and the silence broke,cold air rushed in first, carrying that same heavy, metallic scent. Zayn stepped through beside Lira, every muscle tense, his mind already reaching for the edges of his upgraded skill.The hallway beyond had changed,the red emergency lights were gone,now it flickered in a dull, pale white,but unstable,and glitching“…It wasn’t like this before,” Zayn murmured.“No,” Lira said quietly. “It wasn’t.”The corridor stretched ahead longer than it should be.Too long.Zayn frowned. “…Did it get bigger?”Lira didn’t answer.Because she was already moving.Zayn followed, slower this time, eyes scanning every shadow, every flicker of light,his mind felt… sharpe,not clearer,but faster,like something beneath the surface was constantly calculating,and predicting what was to come.A faint flicker,he saw it.A movement that hadn’t happened yet,a distortion at the far end of the hallway.“…Stop,” Zayn said suddenly.Lira froze instantly.“What?”Zayn’s eyes narro
Chapter 8
Darkness pressed in from all sides.Zayn leaned against the cold wall, forcing his breathing to steady as the lingering effect of the system’s penalty drained through him. It wasn’t just fatigue,it felt like something essential had been taken.He didn't feel much pain,not exactly but he felt an absence within him“…I feel lighter,” he muttered.Lira glanced at him. “That’s not a good thing.”“Yeah,” Zayn said weakly. “Figured.”The room they’d stumbled into was small,and enclosed,no windows,no visible exits beyond the door they had just sealed behind them.And worst of all,no sound,no movement,no enemies,as good as that sounded it wasn't really comforting Zayn slowly pushed himself upright, gripping the wall for balance. His legs still felt unsteady, like they didn’t fully belong to him anymore.“…Where are we?” he asked.Lira moved cautiously toward the center of the room. “I don’t know.”That alone was unsettling,she always seemed to know something.A faint hum began to fill the ai
Chapter 7
The fall felt longer than it should have,wind tore past zayn’s ears as the rooftop vanished above them, replaced by open darkness and the rushing blur of broken walls. His grip tightened around Lira’s arm instinctively, his other hand reaching for anything that could slow them down.“zayn!” Lira’s voice cut through the air, sharp with alarm.“I see it!”A narrow ledge,two floors below,barely standing on its own,barely wide enough to stand on.Not ideal.Not safe.But it was something.Zayn twisted midair, pulling Lira with him as gravity dragged them down faster.“Brace!”They hit hard.The impact exploded up his legs, forcing a strangled gasp from his throat as his knees buckled. Lira slammed beside him, her shoulder crashing into the wall with a dull thud.For a split second,everything went black.Zayn sucked in a ragged breath as sensation rushed back all at once.Pain shooting through his body “…Still alive,” he groaned.“Barely,” Lira muttered beside him.He pushed himself up sl
Chapter 6
Zayn tried to rest for a bit but he just couldn't,he tossed around his head from side to side but whenever he closed his eyes all he could see was what seemed to be a dream but it felt all to real,one of the monsters lunging at him and he narrowly escaping its claws “…Echo Trace,” he murmured.Below, the creatures were still trying to climb up the building Five of them now,their limbs scraping against the wall, their glowing eyes locked onto him with terrifying intent.“zayn!” Lira snapped. “Focus!”“I am,” he said, though his voice had shifted,quieter, steadier,different.The moment one of the creatures moved,he saw it,not just the motion,but a faint after image.A trail of where it had been… and where it was about to be.“…Whoa.”The creature lunged upward,but Zayn moved before it even reached him,he sidestepped instinctively, the claws slicing through empty air where he had just been.His eyes widened.“I saw that…”“What?” Lira demanded.“I saw it before it happened!”No time to
Chapter 5
They didn’t stop running,they couldn't risk stoppingThe alley behind the store twisted into a maze of narrow paths, broken fences, and crumbling walls.zayn followed closely behind the girl, his breath ragged, legs already screaming in protest.“Slow down ” he gasped.“If you slow down, you die,” she shot back without looking at him.Fair point.Zayn pushed himself harder.Behind them, the sounds had changed.It wasn’t just one creature anymore,it sounded like more has joined the chase.Scraping,dragging, roaring and hot on their tail “They’re tracking us,” Zayn said.“Yes.”“How?”“They remember.”Zayn grimaced. “I hate that answer.”She turned sharply, ducking under a half-collapsed metal beam,zayn barely managed to follow, the rusted edge scraping across his jacket.They emerged into a wider space,and zayn skidded to a halt.“…That’s not good.”The alley opened into what looked like a courtyard,wide,empty,and exposed,and worst of all,blocked on the other side by a collapsed buildi
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