The cold air cut into Noah's lungs as he pushed himself up from the frost-covered grass. The world above was quiet—too quiet. The remains of the hospital loomed behind him like a carcass of twisted steel and shattered concrete. Smoke still curled from the ruptured walls, drifting into a pale morning sky.
Noah looked down at his shaking hands.
952 Vital Points.
It should have felt like victory. A reprieve. A breath of safety after clawing his way out of hell.
But the system's final message echoed like a warning carved directly into his mind:
[NEW MAIN QUEST UNLOCKED]
"Find the other Subjects."
Other Subjects.
Other people like him.
Other victims.
Or… other monsters.
Noah exhaled slowly, breath frosting in the air.
He didn't even know which he was anymore.
The ground trembled faintly beneath him—dust shifting around the collapsed hatch.
It made him flinch.
The Warden shouldn't have been able to survive that. Its body had been torn, crushed, buried under solid tons of reinforced concrete.
But the Warden had also withstood explosions… steel doors… and multiple resets of the day itself.
Noah didn't trust the idea of "dead."
Not down there.
Not anymore.
He pushed himself to his feet and scanned the area. The back courtyard of the hospital was nothing like before the collapse. The earth was split. Pavement twisted upward like something had tried to claw its way out from below.
Bits of rebar and concrete jutted from the ground like ribs.
A thin trail of smoke seeped from a crack in the rubble.
Noah tensed.
Nothing moved.
No sound—no growl—no scraping of those elongated limbs.
Still… he stepped back anyway.
The sky above dimmed as clouds gathered in thick grey clumps. Winter sunlight struggled to push through. Noah hugged his arms around himself, cold biting straight through his torn shirt. His skin was covered in bruises, smudges of soot, dried blood.
Most of it was his.
Some… wasn't.
He glanced at the glowing countdown floating at the edge of his vision:
Day Reset in: 23:52:03
Almost a full day remained.
Time both abundant and brutally insufficient.
Noah pulled in a shaky breath and asked aloud:
"System… define 'other Subjects.'"
A soft chime responded immediately.
[Query Accepted]
[Definition: Other Subjects = individuals integrated with preexisting system prototypes.]
Prototypes.
Noah swallowed.
"How many are there?"
[Data Restricted.]
"Can I find them?"
[Affirmative.]
[Main Quest Progression: Locate and identify remaining Subjects in nearby sectors.]
Nearby sectors.
So they weren't far.
Maybe they were trapped in facilities like he had been.
Maybe they were running for their lives from creatures like the Warden.
Or maybe—
They were already dead.
Noah clenched his fist. "Give me the nearest location."
A new marker blinked on his interface, projected onto the air like a faint hologram.
[Nearest Subject Location: 3.4 km north-west]
[Status: Unknown]
Northwest.
He turned in that direction, toward a cluster of broken streets and collapsed buildings visible beyond a line of dead trees. The city had been abandoned long before he woke in the underground bunker. Windows shattered. Roads cracked open. Cars rusted and overturned.
Something catastrophic had happened long ago.
Whatever the experiment was—whatever the system was supposed to do—
It wasn't meant to save this place.
It was meant to test him.
Noah's jaw tightened.
He started walking.
Every step away from the collapsed hatch felt like peeling away from a nightmare.
But the nightmare clung to him—through the countdown floating over his vision, through the ache in his ribs, through the metallic taste of fear still stuck in his throat.
He kept scanning the ground behind him, half expecting the rubble to explode upward, the Warden tearing its way out like a resurrected corpse.
But nothing followed.
The world only grew quieter.
Noah crossed the ruined back lot, crunching over shattered glass and patches of frozen mud. His breath fogged the air as he moved into the skeletal remains of the city.
Broken traffic lights dangled overhead like snapped marionettes.
Storefronts were smashed, signs half buried under snow and debris.
The silence unnerved him.
No birds.
No animals.
No people.
Just the wind, whispering through hollowed-out buildings.
The system pinged.
[Environmental Alert]
Temperature drop detected: -4°C
Risk of hypothermia in: 2 hours 14 minutes
Recommendation: Find shelter.]
"Shelter?" Noah muttered. "In this place?"
But he quickened his pace.
Whatever happened here had frozen the world into a graveyard.
He kept following the marker.
3.4 km.
He didn't know what he would find.
A survivor?
A corpse?
A monster wearing a human face?
His steps slowed as a collapsed apartment block came into view.
The map marker pulsed brighter.
The Subject was close.
Noah swallowed the icy knot of dread crawling up his spine.
He stepped through the shattered entrance…
into absolute darkness.
His flashlight flickered to life.
Dust hung in the air like old memories refusing to settle.
Concrete slabs leaned against half-collapsed walls.
Furniture lay scattered across the floor, broken and rotting.
Then Noah's flashlight caught something.
Footprints.
Small. Bare. Human.
Fresh.
Noah went still.
Someone had been here moments ago.
He followed the prints deeper into the shadowed building. His heartbeat echoed louder than his footsteps.
He turned a corner—
—and froze.
A girl stood at the far end of the corridor.
Barefoot.
Thin.
Wrapped in a hospital gown identical to his.
Her long hair hid her face, but Noah could see her shoulder blades trembling with each shuddering breath.
She was alive.
A Subject.
Noah opened his mouth.
"Wait—"
She lifted her head.
Her eyes glowed with system light.
Not normal system light.
Not like Noah's soft blue interface.
Hers blazed a sickly, pulsating red.
Noah took a step back.
The system screamed in his ears:
[WARNING: Subject 0-2 DETECTED]
[STATUS: HOSTILE]
The girl tilted her head.
Then smiled with cracked, bloodless lips.
The temperature around Noah seemed to plunge.
Her voice came out distorted—like two voices speaking over each other:
"…Found you."
Noah turned to run—
but too late.
She moved.
Not walked.
Not ran.
Teleported.
One moment she was across the corridor.
The next—her hand was around Noah's throat, slamming him into the wall hard enough to knock dust from the ceiling.
Noah's flashlight dropped to the ground and shattered.
Darkness swallowed them.
Her grip tightened.
Vital Points: 952 → 876 → 804
"St… stop!" Noah choked.
Her face was inches from his.
Her eyes burned like red fire.
A whisper crawled into Noah's ear.
"…I remember you."
Then she threw him across the room like a rag doll.
He crashed into a metal cabinet, pain ripping through his shoulder.
Vital Points: 804 → 721
Noah gasped, forcing himself up.
"System—what the hell is she?!"
The system chimed, unfazed:
**[Subject 0-2]
Prototype instability detected
Adaptation Level: HIGH
Directive: Terminate Host]
Terminate…
the host.
Her mission was to kill him.
The girl—Subject 0-2—stepped closer, bare feet crunching glass.
Her red interface flashed rapidly, casting eerie light across her pale face.
"Noah…" she whispered.
Her lips stretched unnaturally.
"…I'm supposed to break you."
She lunged.
Noah rolled aside, scrambling to his feet.
He reached for a broken metal pipe—anything to defend himself—
She teleported again.
Noah felt cold fingers brush the back of his neck.
[Vital Points: 721 → 693]
His vision blurred.
Noah ran.
Not out of fear—
but because if he stayed, he would die in seconds.
The corridor twisted into darkness behind him as her footsteps stalked after him, slow and deliberate.
She wasn't rushing.
She didn't need to.
She knew she would catch him.
Noah rounded a corner—
and the floor collapsed beneath him.
He fell.
Concrete smashed into his ribs. Dust filled his lungs. He tumbled through debris until he hit another floor with a brutal thud.
Everything went black for a moment.
Vital Points: 693 → 512
His ears rang.
His head swam.
Then—
A soft giggle floated down from the hole above.
A silhouette peered down at him, her red eyes glowing like coals.
"Noah…"
Her voice echoed through the ruins.
"…you can't run from the reset."
Her hand reached toward him—
her fingers stretching—
her system light blazing—
And the countdown ticked on.
Day Reset in: 22:48:09
The nightmare hadn't paused.
It had evolved.