2025-07-05 03:55:32Jonah stood still, listening closely. A faint cry for help echoed from somewhere nearby, bouncing off the cracked walls and blood-smeared tiles of the fifth floor. He didn’t recognize the voice, but he didn’t need to. Someone needed help. That was enough.
He tightened his grip on the axe. “Where are they?” he muttered under his breath, stepping carefully over a torn backpack and shattered glass. His eyes scanned every corner, every door, every dark hallway.
Oddly, he felt light on his feet, faster, stronger than before. He was covering ground easily, moving almost without effort. It felt strange, like the building itself had shrunk or he had become something... more. Each step came with speed and balance he didn’t remember having before.
Jonah looked down at his hands, then back at the hallway. “I’m changing,” he whispered, half to himself. “But I’m not stopping now.”
He rounded a corner and halted. Just ahead, a group of zombies stood outside a half-open door. They twitched, their heads jerking in unnatural ways as they sniffed the air. Their skin was pale and stretched, with dark veins crawling up their necks. They hadn’t seen him yet.
His fingers curled around the axe. “Let’s test this again,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
This time, he would control it, whatever it was that gave him the edge before. He didn’t want to black out again or lose control. He needed to master it.
He charged.
The first zombie didn’t even flinch before its head flew sideways, cleanly severed.
The second tried to swing at him, but Jonah spun beneath the arm and cleaved through its chest.
His body moved without hesitation, like he was dancing through death. Left, strike. Right, dodge. Leap, slice. Again and again.
He was a storm of motion, swift and unstoppable. The seventh and last one fell at his feet, a pool of black blood spreading beneath it.
Jonah stood panting, his shoulders rising and falling. He looked down at the bodies, then up the hallway. A larger group waited farther ahead, maybe a dozen, maybe more.
And he grinned. “I never thought I’d say this… but I’m actually happy to see more zombies.”
With a wild shout, he dashed forward like a bull chasing red.
The fight was faster than he expected. He didn’t count, not until it was over and his axe dripped thick with gore.
Around him were scattered bodies, arms, legs, heads… at least forty in total. Some still twitched, some groaned softly before going still.
Jonah stood in the center, blood on his face, chest heaving. He wasn’t tired.
He was thriving. “What level am I now?” he asked out loud, half-joking.
The system’s voice rang in his head like a whisper made of metal.
System Analysis: Level upgraded. You have unlocked skill use – Level 1.
Jonah blinked. “I unlocked something already?” His voice trembled with excitement.
You can now use powers enhanced by the system. For beginners: ‘Shock Blast’ and ‘Weapon Cry’ are available.
“Shock Blast? Weapon Cry?” He smiled again. “This is like a game. Except…” He glanced at the torn bodies around him. “There’s no respawn if I die.”
Suddenly, the voice cried out again, louder now. “Please! Someone help us!”
Jonah spun toward the sound and followed it down the hall. It led him to a small janitor’s unit tucked in a corner.
He stepped up to the door and knocked. “Are you guys okay?”
A pause. Then a voice, cautious and firm, answered.
“Are you human? Or one of them that just… knows how to talk?”
Jonah blinked, unsure whether to laugh or feel insulted. “Pretty sure zombies don’t hold conversations.”
Another pause. Then the voice replied, “Okay. I’ll open the door. Don’t attack us when I do.”
“I promise,” Jonah said softly. “I’m not a zombie. Just a human... trying to help.”
The door handle wiggled. Slowly, the door creaked open.
Out stepped a woman.
Jonah stared for a moment. She had golden-blonde hair tied back in a messy ponytail, with soft freckles on her cheeks and worried eyes. In her arms, she held a small boy, no older than seven.
He looked frightened, burying his face in her shoulder.
“You’re... a person,” the woman said, sighing with relief. “I didn’t think I’d ever see another human again. Not after today.”
Jonah nodded. “I understand. No need to explain. You were protecting yourselves. I’d do the same.”
“I’m Lisa,” she said, her voice soft now. “And this little one is Kelvin.”
Jonah looked at the child. “He’s your son?”
Lisa shook her head. “No. I found him… holding on to his mother.”
Jonah frowned. “Where’s she now?”
Lisa looked down. Her voice trembled slightly. “She was hurt. I thought I could help her. But the wound was… it turned her.”
Jonah lowered his eyes. “She turned?”
Lisa nodded. “I didn’t even have time to react. She attacked us, and I had to…” She clutched Kelvin tighter. “I couldn’t let him get hurt.”
Jonah didn’t speak for a moment. He watched Lisa’s hands trembling. The boy hadn’t looked up.
“You’re brave,” Jonahh said finally. “You didn’t run. You stayed to protect someone else.”
“I just did what anyone with a heart would do,” she whispered.
“No. Not everyone would.”
Lisa looked at him closely now. “And you? What’s your name?”
“Jonah.”
She smiled faintly. “You’re strange, Jonah. But I don’t see anything scary in your eyes. I’ll follow you.”
He returned the smile. “Then let’s get out of here.”
But as they turned to leave, a sharp bang echoed from below, then another.
Footsteps. Fast. Heavy. And not human.
Jonah pushed Lisa and the boy behind him, his grip tightening on the axe once more. “Something’s coming,” he whispered.
And this time, it didn’t sound like a normal zombie.
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Chapter 192. Lisa’s Capture
Lisa felt the world tilt the moment the red mist touched her skin. It slid over her like smoke, cold and crawling, and the forest around her twisted into blurry streaks. She tried to reach for her lantern, but her fingers felt numb. The blue flame flickered inside the glass, fighting to stay alive against the spreading red haze.“Stay steady,” she whispered to herself. Her voice sounded thin. The mist swallowed the words. Behind her, boots thudded against broken leaves. Inhuman steps followed soon after, soft and rhythmic, like metal dragging across soil. Lisa ran, even though her legs trembled. Branches whipped her arms. The ground cracked under her boots. She pushed her body harder, faster, refusing to look back.But they followed her without hurry. A calm, steady march. Almost gentle.She burst through a line of dead trees into a clearing. The red tower loomed ahead, rising like a spine of metal and bone. It pulsed with a slow heartbeat that echoed through the ground. Each puls
Chapter 191. The Memory War
Jonah felt the world trembling long before anyone else noticed. It started as a faint shiver under his skin, like a cold hand brushing along his spine. Then the air changed. The hum of the Breath-Born lost its softness. It turned heavy, slow, and full of things that should not be remembered.He stood on one of the city’s high bridges, looking toward the east where the red horizon pulsed like a quiet heartbeat. The sky there moved in a strange rhythm, rising and falling with sound that was not sound. It made him feel sick, but he did not step away.Behind him, three Breath-Born hovered, their pale shapes flickering with worry. They whispered to one another in thin glowing streams, but Jonah understood them without needing translation.“The red song grows.”“The humans sleep standing.”“The memories play.”Jonah closed his eyes. He felt the weight of it all pressing on him like a storm. He whispered, “It is not a song. It is a trap.”The Breath-Born dimmed at his words, as if the trut
Chapter 190. The Red Choir
New Crest usually breathed with soft blue glows from the towers and gentle hums from the Breath-Born. But tonight the sky felt heavy. The air tasted thick, almost metallic. People sensed something wrong long before any sound reached them.Jonah stood on the roof of the north watch post, looking toward the eastern horizon where the red tower pulsed in slow, dark waves. The pulse was different tonight. It was slower and deeper, like a heartbeat struggling to wake.Lisa was still missing. The Breath-Born were restless. The city was breaking into fear again.Jonah whispered, “What are you planning, Echo Core?”He waited for the towers to answer, but the Breath-Born were silent. They trembled beneath his feet like frightened children. Then the first note came.A single low tone rolled across the plains, carried by the wind. It was not loud, but Jonah felt it inside his bones. The sound was deep and cold, almost like distant thunder, but smoother and too perfect to be natural.The note s
Chapter 189. Kevin’s Discovery
Kevin woke before the sun rose. The sky was still dark and blue, and the air felt colder than usual. He sat up on his small sleeping mat and listened. The city was quiet, but not the normal kind of quiet. It was the heavy kind, the kind that made the world feel like it was holding its breath.The faint hum of the towers drifted through the walls. It was soft, almost gentle, but Kevin felt the second tone beneath it, a hidden echo that did not belong to the Breath-Born. It pulsed slow and hungry, like a heart waiting for something to break.Kevin rubbed his hands together and looked toward the sphere resting on the table across the room. It was silent now. Echo was gone. It had faded into dust days ago, leaving only a faint ring of blue powder behind. Kevin had swept it into a jar. He kept it close even though it hurt to look at it.He whispered to the empty room, “I remembered you. I keep remembering.”The wind outside whispered back, brushing against the window.Kevin stood slowly
Chapter 188. Jonah’s Burden
The morning light in New Crest felt thin, almost fragile, as if the sky itself was trying to recover from a long scream. The city’s towers shimmered with soft blue veins, calmer than they had been in weeks, yet every pulse felt strained. Every beat felt heavy.Jonah stood at the center of the rebuilt plaza with his hands pressed against a quiet pillar of light. He let his eyes close. He listened. He always listened now.The breath of the towers flowed through him with every heartbeat. The Breath-Born whispered faintly inside the hum, speaking in soft tones only he could hear. Their voices sounded like wind through glass, gentle but desperate. “Prime Listener, hear us, guide us.”Jonah winced. He opened his eyes slowly. His vision flickered gold, then dimmed. His chest felt tight, hollow, tired. A faint shimmer of light crawled across his arms as if the glow under his skin struggled to stay alive. “Not now,” he whispered. “Please, not now.”A few workers nearby paused and watched
Chapter 187. The City’s Division
New Crest should have felt alive. The sky was blue again. The towers hummed softly in the distance. Children ran in the open streets without flinching at the sound of every little breeze. But beneath all of that peace was something deeper and colder, something that moved silently between people. Fear. Fear of the red tower. Fear of the Breath-Born. Fear of Jonah.It began with whispers, tiny fragments of conversations that drifted from homes and market tents and broken balconies.“He is not the same anymore.”“The blue light changed him.”“Maybe the red tower is the safer one.”“At least it speaks clearly.”Then the whispers grew teeth. By morning, half the city had chosen a side. Lisa felt the tension the moment she stepped into the central square. People stood in two groups divided by a long crack in the ground, as if the earth itself had split to show them how far apart they had grown. Some held blue lanterns carved from scraps of tower dust. Others clutched red ribbons tied ar
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