The transition was jarring. The moment Leon crossed under the gallery entrance arch and descended the first concrete steps, the temperature dropped five degrees. The air inside was stifling and reeked of mildew, urine, and fresh blood.
However, the biggest change was the sound. The roar of the infected outside was muffled by the thick concrete walls and replaced by the electric hum of a few emergency lights flickering in the ceiling, bathing the wide corridor in a sickly, intermittent yellow glow.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and gave his eyes time to adjust to the lack of light. He holstered the Glock, gripped the crowbar with both hands, and readied himself for anything.
Ahead, the gallery formed a long, dark corridor. Overturned magazine kiosks, scattered trash, and puddles of dark water covered the white tile floor.
There were also some infected, but not nearly as many as outside.
Leon counted six silhouettes standing motionless in the middle of the corridor, about twenty meters away.
Unlike the frenzied beasts on the surface, these infected were immobile. They looked like statues of melted wax, frozen in grotesque positions. Some were hunched over, others had their heads resting against the wall.
"Looks like my theory was right," Leon thought, advancing with light, calculated steps. "Without UV radiation, they go into a dormant state."
He approached the first one, a man in a suit standing with his back turned, swaying slightly back and forth. The black veins on his bald scalp pulsed at a very slow, almost lethargic rhythm.
Leon held his breath. He needed to test their sensitivity.
He raised the crowbar. The tool's shadow fell across the infected's shoulder.
CRACK.
The blow was precise, striking the base of the skull. The infected crumpled without any reaction.
Again, a green light emerged from the body.
[Target Eliminated] [Energy Collected: +1] [Progress: 5/10]
The sound of the body hitting the floor echoed through the empty corridor.
Instantly, the other five "statues" reacted. They didn't run directly. They simply turned their heads toward the sound with a mechanical, jerky motion.
Leon could hear the sound of their neck vertebrae cracking.
Ten white, opaque eyes turned toward Leon in the darkness.
"They're blind or slow in the dark," Leon noted, seeing them sniff the air. "But their hearing is still excellent."
One of them let out a low growl and began walking toward Leon. It wasn't the supernatural sprint they displayed under the sun, but a heavy, staggering walk, like that of an aggressive drunk.
Leon smiled. That, he could handle.
"Single file, I'll take care of you all," he whispered, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.
The first one came with its arms outstretched. Leon sidestepped to the left and sank the crowbar into the side of its head.
[Progress: 6/10]
The second and third came together. Leon kicked the knee of the nearest one, hearing the pop of the rotten joint, and used the momentum to drive the curved tip of the tool into the other's eye.
[Progress: 7/10]
[Progress: 8/10]
It was dirty, brutal work. There was no elegance of a tactical shootout, just the wet sound of metal against flesh and bone. Leon moved like a machine, conserving movement and controlling his breathing.
The fourth infected tripped over a broken bench before reaching him. Leon finished the job with a vertical strike.
[Progress: 9/10]
The last one in the group, a woman dressed in workout clothes, came staggering toward him.
Leon wiped the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his jacket. He could feel the accumulated energy vibrating under his skin, a pressure that grew with each death, like a dam about to burst.
"The last one," he said.
He waited for her to come within range. A strong, lateral swing, partially decapitating the creature.
The body fell. The green light glowed much brighter than the others, floating toward him.
[Target Eliminated] [Energy Collected: +1] [Progress: 10/10]
[MAXIMUM CAPACITY REACHED]
The moment the light touched his chest, Leon felt more than just warmth. He felt a shockwave course through his nervous system. The world around him seemed to freeze. The emergency lights stopped flickering.
The blue window expanded, filling his entire field of vision with crystalline clarity.
[DOCKYARD SYSTEM: INITIALIZATION COMPLETE] [Identity Confirmed: Commander Leon] [Status: No Vessel]
[Passive Ability Unlocked: Captain's Gaze (Level 1)] Description: Allows analysis of the structural integrity of any vessel.
[Dimensional Inventory (Dockyard): Unlocked] Current capacity: 1m³ (Non-living materials only).
Leon blinked, and the interface shrank to the corner of his vision, no longer blocking his sight completely. He looked at his hands. They looked the same, but he felt lighter and brimming with energy.
He looked at the crowbar in his hand.
A small text box floated above the tool:
[Steel Crowbar] [Durability: 92%] [Damage: Low (Blunt)]
"This will be useful," Leon murmured, a genuine smile appearing on his face for the first time that day.
He looked toward the far end of the dark gallery. About five hundred meters to the exit leading to the Marina.
"Now I need a boat to test this."
Leon took a deep breath, testing the new feeling of lightness. He needed to understand what he'd just gained before throwing himself against the horde outside.
He looked at the overturned kiosk beside him. There were a few intact 1.5-liter bottles of mineral water on the floor, rolled away from the broken refrigerator. He crouched down and touched one of them, concentrating on the intention to store it.
In the blink of an eye, the bottle disappeared from his hand. There was no flash, no sound. The bottle simply vanished.
Immediately, a mental image formed in Leon's head: a three-dimensional gray grid, floating in the void of his mind, where the water bottle hung suspended statically.
"Handy," he admitted. "Very handy."
He touched the second and third bottles. Both disappeared into the dimensional space. Leon repeated the process with two protein bars he found under the debris and, finally, tested it with his entire tactical backpack. The weight on his back vanished instantly, but he knew his ammunition and equipment were accessible with a simple thought.
"This changes everything," he thought, realizing its real value. "I can carry food, water, and ammunition without anyone seeing it or trying to steal it. In this situation, resources are the priority."
He gripped the crowbar with both hands again and moved forward. Three hundred meters to the exit.
The gallery curved gently to the right. Leon slowed his pace. The sound of heavy breathing echoed from the walls ahead. It wasn't the slow groaning of the dormant infected he'd killed earlier. The sound was deeper, more muffled and guttural.
He peered around the corner of a concrete pillar.
In the middle of the corridor, blocking the passage to the escalators leading to the surface, was a massive figure. It was a former mall security guard, but the black uniform barely contained his body now. The black uniform was stretched to its limit; the man's muscles seemed to have swollen disproportionately, tearing the seams at the shoulders. He was nearly two meters tall, with veins as thick as steel cables covering his bare arms.
The infected stood still, swaying its head from side to side, gripping a rubber baton so tightly its knuckles were white.
Leon observed the creature. It was obvious brute force wouldn't work there. That monster had twice his weight and reach.
Leon stepped out from behind the pillar. He deliberately struck the crowbar against the metal wall beside him. CLANG.
The giant turned slowly, letting out a deep roar that made Leon's chest vibrate. Upon seeing him, it advanced, raising the baton. It was slow, but with each step the floor trembled.
Leon didn't retreat. He bent his knees and waited.
When the infected was three steps away, it brought the baton down in a vertical arc. The swing was clumsy, but carried terrifying force.
Leon slid to the right at the last second. The baton struck the floor with violence, cracking the tile and sending floor chips flying. The baton didn't break, but the impact made the monster's arm tremble from the recoil.
The creature almost fell forward from its own momentum. The side of its body was completely exposed.
Leon pivoted his hips and brought the crowbar down with all his force into the side of the monster's knee.
CRACK.
The sound was dry and repulsive. The knee gave way immediately, bending the wrong way under the immense weight of the creature's own body. The giant howled and fell sideways.
Now its head was at waist level with Leon.
Without hesitation, Leon drove the sharp tip of the crowbar into the base of the creature's skull, severing the brain stem.
The giant fell dead instantly.
[Target Eliminated] [Energy Collected: +3] [Current Energy: 3/20]
Leon pulled the crowbar free, releasing the metal tip from the infected's neck with a wet sound. Thick, almost black blood gushed from the open wound, staining the white floor. The fight had lasted less than five seconds, but the adrenaline was high.
He looked at the corpse on the floor and then at the baton lying beside the deformed hand.
Leon frowned, looking at the baton on the floor.
That thing hadn't tried to bite him. It had held the weapon and attacked with intent. Was it a remnant of memory? Either way, it was a bad sign.
"This is a problem," he murmured, wiping the blood on the dead man's uniform.
The others in the gallery were irrational animals, driven by hunger. That one had retained muscle memory or some level of primitive intelligence to use tools. If they could evolve or learn... things would be much worse than he'd imagined.
He climbed the stationary escalators, step by step, until he saw sunlight coming from the glass doors at the top. The heat radiating from there was palpable.
Leon approached the glass and looked through it.
He was at the shopping mall's side exit, facing the Imperial Marina.
The view was breathtaking, both in its beauty and its destruction. The sky was clear now, a bright blue that contrasted with the black smoke rising from several burning luxury yachts in the distance. The bay water lapped against the concrete dock, rocking the surviving boats.
And there she was.
At Pier 4.
A Parker 2520. A sport fishing boat with a closed cabin, a sturdy white fiberglass hull, and navy blue details. She seemed untouched amidst the chaos, rocking gently in the tide.
Leon focused his gaze on the vessel. This time, the Captain's Gaze ability activated automatically, as this was his boat. A soft, translucent window appeared beside the boat:
[Vessel: Parker 2520 "Valkyria"] [Class: Coastal Fishing Boat] [Hull Integrity: 94%] [Status: Engine Off / Fuel: 60%] [Core Compatibility: 100%]
"Valkyria," he whispered her name, feeling immense relief. "Still in one piece."
The path to her, however, would not be a stroll. The wooden pier leading to the boat was about fifty meters long. And, blocking the access gate to the pier, there was a group of people.
There were three men and a woman. They didn't appear to be infected. They wore dirty civilian clothes and carried improvised weapons, such as machetes, pieces of wood, and tire irons. Desperate to escape, they were arguing violently while trying to force the lock on the marina gate.
They were positioned exactly between Leon and his only way out.
Leon checked his Glock. Eighteen bullets. The crowbar was heavy in his left hand.
"I hope they know how to talk," he said to himself, pushing through the glass door and stepping out into the heat of the sun.