Heading toward the mountains, Reever noticed something different this time. The distance was shrinking with every step. Unlike his journey toward the city, where each stride only made the horizon stretch farther away, the mountains actually seemed to draw nearer. That small change filled him with a rare spark of excitement. He increased his pace, the quiet rhythm of his movement steady and sure. After what felt like only a few hours, he arrived at the foot of the mountain.
The air here was cold, though he could not feel it. His body was made to endure all temperatures, designed to fight and survive in any terrain. Bots were built for adaptability — it was what was to make them superior in battle. Reever thought about that for a moment. If bots truly took advantage of everything they were made for, most human players would never stand a chance. Yet, few ever realized it.
He looked around the base of the mountain, scanning for a cave or opening. The mountain was massive, its surface covered in a mix of rock and ice, stretching endlessly upward until it vanished into the still, bright sky. He had already placed several landmarks with his bullets so that, in case he died, he would respawn somewhere nearby. The mountain's base was uneven, filled with sharp rocks and frozen slopes, but after nearly a full day of walking around it, he finally found a small hole near the bottom.
Without a second thought, Reever crouched and slid into it. Before entering, he made sure to adjust his armor and weapon to blend with the environment. The dull grey and white tones of his suit matched the icy walls around him, making him nearly invisible to any possible observer — though he doubted anyone or anything was watching him here.
"Man, I never knew this game was this complex," he said softly, his voice echoing faintly off the stone. "Before, I thought it was all about missions, buying new skins, new weapons, ranking up to legendary... but this feels different. It feels messed up somehow. Still, who cares? As long as I can play and survive, I'll keep going."
Inside, the darkness was complete. It swallowed everything, thick and heavy, until even the faint light from the entrance disappeared behind him. Reever couldn't see a thing. He had no light source, so he decided to rely on his armor's systems.
He remembered the night vision buff that came with all rare or higher-grade armor. With a soft hum, his visor flickered on, and green-tinted vision filled the tunnel ahead.
There was nothing strange inside — no signs of life, no odd patterns, nothing at all. The tunnel stretched deep into the mountain, silent and empty. The air was still, and the walls glistened faintly with frost. It looked untouched, as though no one had ever set foot here before.
He moved forward, taking careful steps, his weapon ready. The tunnel continued for several meters, winding downward and narrowing at points, but there was still nothing that hinted at who or what had made it. Reever expected to see carvings, machines, or artifacts — something to explain why the place existed — but there was nothing. It was as if someone had deliberately erased every trace of what had once been here.
Even the walls looked unnaturally clean, smooth in some parts, rough in others, like something had scraped away all marks of time.
Reever stopped, listening to the silence. It was deep, almost suffocating. Not even the faint hum of his systems seemed to echo properly.
"This mountain..." he whispered, eyes narrowing as he scanned the passage ahead. "It's like it doesn't want to be found."
Then, without another word, he kept moving forward into the unknown darkness.
He couldn't tell how long he had walked through the tunnel, but at some point, it began to grow hotter. The deeper he went, the more it felt like he was walking into the heart of the mountain itself. The heat pressed against him, thick and heavy, but his armor held firm, shielding him from what would have melted flesh in seconds.
Eternity passed by in silence. Slowly, the heat began to fade, replaced by a cold that was not of this world. It wasn't the kind of cold that froze skin or bone. It was something deeper, sharper — a cold that tried to reach into the soul, if he had one. But he was a bot, a machine born of lines of code and memory, and so the cold ignored him.
He walked on, whistling softly, his tune echoing weakly through the hollow passage. It was strange, how peaceful everything was. Too peaceful. The silence here wasn't calm — it was the kind that watched you, that waited. He was used to the roar of battle, the screams of men and the chaos of bullets. This quiet unnerved him more than any firefight ever could.
Time meant nothing here. He tried to measure it, but it slipped through his thoughts like sand through open fingers. It felt as though he had been walking for an entire lifetime, yet at the same time only a few days had passed since he had left the fields of green. The more he thought about it, the less it made sense.
The air grew colder still. Frost crept along the tunnel walls, shimmering faintly under the faint blue light of his visor. Then, far ahead, a dim glow appeared. The end of the tunnel.
Hope stirred in him again. He quickened his pace, then began to run. Maybe it was a city, maybe a place the system had forgotten to seal. Maybe, finally, he had found a way out.
But when he reached the light and stepped out, his heart — if it could still beat — would have stopped.
Before him stretched a vast wasteland of ruin and decay. The air was filled with the scent of burnt metal and oil. Broken tanks lay scattered across the cracked earth, their hulls melted and twisted. Choppers were half-buried in the ground, their wings torn apart like dead birds. Suits of armor lay open and empty, their once-glowing cores now dull and lifeless.
Weapons jutted from the soil like gravestones, each one frozen mid-use, each one marking where something had fallen. The ground itself pulsed faintly, like the dying heartbeat of a machine too old to keep going.
Reever stood there, silent.
He had found it — the System's Graveyard.