The screen on Riko's wrist jolted so hard he almost dropped himself down the junk slope. Its surface flickered from blue to white to a sick, reddish static, like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. Symbols blinked across it-numbers, letters, shapes he didn't recognize, half of them looking like someone had mashed up five languages together and then set the result on fire.
"Okay, chill," he muttered, shaking his arm as if the screen was a bug he could flick off. It clung tighter.
The device buzzed with a high-pitched whine, bright enough to sting his eyes. Lines of data scrolled so fast he couldn't read them, except for one fragment that kept repeating: ERROR: LEVEL ZERO DETECTED.
"Level zero?" Riko squinted. "What's that supposed to—hey!"
A grid of red light expanded outward, sweeping across his chest, his legs, his face—everything. It felt cold, like a gust of winter wind. He stumbled back as the beam passed over him, but the screen didn't let up. Slower this time, it scanned him again, making a quiet, judgmental beeping noise that sounded a little too. unimpressed.
At last, the lights disappeared. A line of text appeared.
BODY ANALYSIS: WEAK.
Riko blinked. "…Excuse me?"
The screen chimed, as if to confirm:
VITALITY: WEAK.
STRENGTH: WEAK.
SPEED: WEAK.
OVERALL RANKING: VERY WEAK.
Riko's mouth fell open. "Hey! You don't get to call me weak, you weird wrist-leech!"
The device pulsed. TRUE
"What do you mean 'true'? Take it back!"
CAN'T. DATA ACCURATE.
"Oh my—" Riko threw both hands in the air, which only made the thing jostle and scream in a burst of static. "I skipped P.E. once and suddenly I'm a disaster? You have some nerve for a broken screen that lives in a trash pile!"
The screen flickered again, almost like it was rolling its digital eyes. USER: EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY DETECTED.
"I AM NOT-" Riko jabbed at it, then winced when it sparked. "Okay, maybe a little unstable, but you started it!"
The ground vibrated beneath him.
Riko froze mid-argument. "Uh… did you do that?"
The screen dimmed. NO.
The vibration grew stronger-subtle at first, then heavy enough that the loose bolts danced across the metal slabs. Riko took a step back. The junk beneath him trembled, like something underneath was trying to crawl free.
"What the—"
The ground buckled, a crack tearing straight through the pile. Riko jumped just in time as the slab he'd been standing on split in half and crumbled downward. A burst of foul-smelling steam hissed out, carrying a rotten-battery stench that burned his throat.
He stumbled, coughing. "Great. Rotten gas. Exactly what I needed."
Another shudder. Then another.
Then the pile erupted.
A small creature clawed its way out of the hole, hauling its squat body into the sunlight like it had been sleeping under the mountain for a hundred years. Riko scrambled backward, slipping on loose screws. The monster blinked at him, its eyes huge and glossy like wet camera lenses. Its skin-or maybe armor-looked like cracked plastic, patched together with old circuit lines glowing faintly beneath the surface. When it opened its mouth, a row of square, pixelated teeth clicked together like a glitched animation caught in a loop.
The creature sniffed the air. Sniffed Riko. Sniffed again, longer this time.
"Nope," Riko whispered. "Whatever you're thinking, please stop thinking it."
The monster edged closer, head cocked to the side. It let out a low warbling growl that could've been cute if it wasn't echoing from a hole that looked like an exploded sewer pipe. The screen on Riko's wrist vibrated furiously, flashing a new warning.
HOSTILE ENTITY DETECTED.
DANGER RANK: VERY LOW.
ACTION RECOMM
Riko stared at the words. "Eliminate? Are you insane? I'm not eliminating anything! Look at me, you already said I'm 'very weak'!"
The monster leaned forward, stretching its neck, and sniffed his shoe. Then it licked it.
Riko's soul attempted to leave his body.
"Okay, absolutely not!" He pulled his foot back so fast he almost fell.
The creature chomped at the air where his shoe had been, letting out a chirpy screech that didn't fit how sharp its teeth looked. Another growl bubbled from its throat—higher pitched, hungry.
The text on the screen changed once more.
ENTITY INTEREST: HIGH.
REASON: USER = FOOD SOURCE.
Riko clutched his wrist. "IT THINKS I'M FOOD?!"
A delighted sound, like confirmation, issued from the monster.
Riko moved back, and back, until the pile of junk pressed cold against his spine. "Buddy, I am not on the menu! Try literally anything else! Batteries, wires, old robot heads-look around it's a buffet!"
It did not heed a word and still advanced.
Then another.
It crouched, preparing to spring.
Riko's breath caught. His hands shook. The shaking spread through his whole body.
The device constricted around his wrist, shining much brighter than before.
USER ACTION REQUIRED.
PREPARING ASSIST MODE. The edges of the screen unfolded like mechanical petals, interlocking into place with a soft click. Light surged from its surface, coating Riko's arm in a thin digital haze. "What are you doing?" he whispered. UPGRADING USER. LEVEL ZERO PROTOCOL: ENGAGED. The monster leapt. And the screen flared white.