Kael scanned the terrain below as the wind picked up, sending the scent of rust and dust through the air.
The system pulsed in the back of his mind, silent but waiting.
He crouched on the edge of the roof, eyes drifting over shattered streets and collapsed scaffolding. The bones of a dead city. Wires hung like vines. Cars were husks. No greenery. No life. Just a ruined grid of stone and silence.
Not a place to rest.
Not a place to build.
But somewhere out there, there had to be ground that held.
He opened the system again, flicking through options with precise, emotionless fingers.
[Blueprint: Survival Shelter – Tier I][Cost: 80 Points][Requirements: Stable terrain, clear radius 15m, no active threats]
He had 60 points.
Still not enough.
And he wasn't sure he'd even use that shelter if he had it. Not yet. Not until the thoughts stopped circling. Not until he knew who he was building for.
But even in uncertainty, some things still made sense.
He needed more points.
Which meant more monsters.
"Steel Sentinel," Kael said quietly.
The Sentinel whirred from below and looked up at him through glowing red optics.
"Hunt with me."
The Sentinel didn't nod. It never did. But it began moving.
Kael followed.
Miles away, inside the shattered shell of an old CostCraft Supermarket, twenty people were trapped in uneasy silence.
The automatic doors had been barricaded with shopping carts and broken shelving units. Emergency lights cast dull flickers over aisles that once held cereal and soda, now stripped bare. Rows of makeshift bedding had been arranged between the freezer section and the staff-only corridor. Cardboard. Plastic sheets. Torn jackets.
Somewhere in the store, a baby cried, then quieted.
Monsters still circled in the parking lot. Lurking. Waiting.
Inside, the stench of rotting meat came from a collapsed creature—a gnarled, dog-sized beast with scales and glass-like bones. It had torn through the side entrance three days ago.
It didn't survive the attempt.
Now, its corpse steamed slightly under a plastic tarp, untouched since.
But that was about to change.
A man named Raj, broad-shouldered and in his late thirties, stepped forward. He adjusted his cracked glasses and crouched beside the beast. His hands were calloused. His fingers moved slowly, peeling back the tarp and examining the unnatural flesh.
The others watched from a distance—older men leaning against carts, a pair of young women holding onto each other, a boy holding his sister's hand. Everyone quiet. Everyone uncertain.
"This thing isn't like the others," Raj muttered.
"You shouldn't touch it," someone said from behind. "What if it's infected?"
"Everything's infected," another voice muttered bitterly. "So are we."
Raj ignored them. He pushed aside the skin with a broken mop handle and reached inside.
The meat gave way like wet fabric. Then something caught the light.
A small, glowing shard.
Blue. Pulsing. About the size of a chicken egg, perfectly smooth.
He reached in with both hands and pulled it free.
Everyone leaned forward.
"…What the hell is that?" an older woman asked.
Before Raj could speak, a girl—maybe eleven, maybe twelve—piped up from behind a counter.
"It's a core," she said matter-of-factly.
Raj looked over. "A what?"
"A core," she repeated. "You know—like in those apocalypse manga. When people kill monsters, they sometimes leave behind magic crystals. And if you absorb it, you might get powers."
Everyone stared at her.
She looked around, then crossed her arms. "What? You guys don't read?"
A teenager snorted. "So you're saying we should just… eat it?"
"Not eat it!" the girl said, mock-scandalized. "Ew. No. But like… maybe it fuses with you or something."
Raj raised the shard slightly. "And how exactly do you suggest I… 'fuse' with it?"
The girl tilted her head, thinking. "Okay, okay—maybe, like, you hold it to your chest. And… wish really hard. I dunno. It's not like I've done it before."
"Sounds like a suicide attempt," an older man growled. "Put it down before it explodes."
But something in the room had shifted.
A sense of curiosity. Desperation. Hope.
Raj stared at the shard. Its glow pulsed faintly with each heartbeat, or maybe he was imagining it.
"Maybe," he murmured, "if it's real… it's worth trying."
He held it to his chest, hesitated—
"You're not actually gonna do it, right?" the girl asked, her eyes wide now, suddenly unsure.
"Too late," he muttered.
He pressed the core to his chest.
It didn't explode.
It melted.
There was no fire. No flash. Just heat—an instant surge of it, pulsing through his ribs like warm lightning. The crystal liquefied and vanished beneath his skin. He gasped. Clutched his shirt.
Everyone stepped back.
"Raj—?" someone called.
He dropped to one knee, breathing hard. Then looked up.
"I'm fine," he said, voice shaky.
"No, you're glowing," the girl whispered.
A faint outline shimmered under his skin, then vanished.
"What did it feel like?" someone asked.
"…Like my blood caught fire," Raj said slowly. "But not in a bad way."
Another silence fell.
Then someone muttered, "Try something. Anything."
Raj looked at his hands.
Nothing happened.
He stood slowly.
"Maybe it takes time," he said.
"Or maybe it was nothing," someone else muttered. "You could just be radioactive now."
Raj didn't respond.
But somewhere deep in his chest, something had changed. A flicker. A tension.
He didn't know what it was.
But he felt stronger.
Outside, the monsters in the parking lot stirred.
Inside, the girl was grinning now.
"I told you," she whispered.
Someone slapped a battery-powered light on.
The others gathered around the spot where the crystal had been.
And outside, the number of creatures began to shift.
But they weren't the only ones hunting.
Not anymore.