---
The convenience store smelled like death now.
Ren couldn't tell if it was the bodies or just the general atmosphere of a world that had decided to eat itself. Either way, he needed to move. Staying in one place meant dying in one place—that much he understood instinctively.
Maya sat on an overturned crate, methodically packing a backpack they'd found in the storage room. Canned food. Bottled water. A first aid kit. A box of matches. Practical things. She'd stopped crying, which worried Ren more than if she'd kept crying.
"Maya." He crouched in front of her. "Look at me."
She looked. Her eyes were dry, but empty. The kind of empty that came from seeing too much too fast.
"I need you to stay with me," Ren said quietly. "I know you're scared. I'm scared too. But I can't do this alone. I need you to be my partner. Can you do that?"
She blinked. Something flickered in the emptiness.
"Partner?"
"Yeah. Like... like we're a team. You watch my back, I watch yours. You tell me if you see something I miss. You remind me to eat, to sleep, to not do anything stupid." He tried a smile. "That last one's going to be a full-time job."
Maya's lips twitched. Not quite a smile, but close.
"You always do stupid things," she said. Her voice was hoarse, but it was her voice.
"And that's why I need you." He squeezed her hand. "We get through this together. Promise?"
She squeezed back. "Promise."
「SYSTEM NOTIFICATION」
「EMOTIONAL BOND DETECTED: REN VANCE + MAYA VANCE」
「BOND TYPE: SIBLING (STRENGTHENED)」
「EFFECT: +5% TO ALL COMBAT ABILITIES WHEN WITHIN 50 METERS」
「EFFECT: SHARED AWARENESS OF LIFE-THREATENING DANGER」
「THIS BOND MAY EVOLVE WITH TIME」
Ren stared at the notification. The System really did quantify everything, didn't it? Even love. Even family.
"Sentimental," Seraphina's voice came from somewhere above.
He looked up. She was perched on a top shelf like some kind of apocalyptic bird of paradise, legs dangling, flames flickering lazily.
"The System records all bonds," she continued. "Friendship. Loyalty. Hatred. Love. They are all data points in the great equation of evolution. Worlds that produce strong bonds evolve faster. Worlds that do not... stagnate."
She hopped down, landing without sound.
"Your bond with your sister is already uncommon. Most humans on this world will abandon their weak. You carry yours. That makes you both stronger and more vulnerable."
"Thanks for the poetry." Ren stood, testing the weight of his new weapon—the metal pipe, now wrapped in duct tape for grip. "Now tell me something useful. How do we get to the tower?"
Seraphina moved to the shattered window, gazing out at the burning city. The Tower of Solitude loomed in the distance, pulsing with that slow, rhythmic light.
"Three kilometers. Through infected territory, active dungeon zones, and whatever survivors have already learned that humans are the most dangerous prey." She glanced back at him. "At your current pace, moving carefully, avoiding major threats... twelve hours."
Ren's stomach dropped. Twelve hours of this? Twelve hours of hiding and running and fighting?
"Any good news?"
"The good news is that you have me." She almost smiled. "The bad news is that I cannot help you fight. But I can guide you through the safest path, warn you of dangers before they appear, and tell you exactly what each monster will do before it does it."
"That's... actually pretty good news."
"Do not thank me yet. Knowledge without action is useless. You must still survive the encounters I warn you about." She pointed northeast. "That direction. Through the alley, across the parking lot, into the old residential district. Fewer open spaces. More places to hide."
Ren nodded, turned to Maya. "Ready?"
She shouldered her backpack, gripped the small hammer Ren had found for her—not a weapon, he'd said, just something to feel safer. They both knew it was a weapon.
"Ready."
They moved.
---
The alley was a graveyard of abandoned possibilities.
A bicycle lay twisted against a wall, its owner nowhere to be seen. A child's backpack spilled coloring books and crayons across the concrete. A car had crashed through a fence, its airbags deployed like dying flowers.
Ren led, pipe raised, Hunter's Instinct tingling at the edges of his awareness. It was strange—he could feel the life around him. Rats in the walls. Pigeons on the rooftops. Something larger, two blocks east, moving slowly.
"What is that?" he whispered, pointing east.
Seraphina walked beside him—no, not walked. Glided. Her feet didn't seem to touch the ground. "Infected pack. Five or six. They have found a survivor. They are... eating."
Maya made a small sound. Ren pulled her closer.
"Keep moving," Seraphina said. "They are occupied. They will not notice you if you are quiet."
They crossed the parking lot at a crouch, using abandoned cars for cover. The asphalt was cracked, weeds already pushing through—the System's influence accelerating growth even as it accelerated decay. Nature was in a hurry now.
A sound stopped them cold.
Laughter.
Human laughter, coming from the old apartment building ahead. Young. Male. Followed by voices.
"—got three of them before they even knew what hit them. The System gave me a skill—Backstab—increases damage when they don't see me coming."
"No way. Show me again."
Ren pressed against a rusted sedan, pulling Maya down with him. Through the car's windows, he could see the building's entrance. Four figures—teenagers, maybe eighteen or nineteen—lounging on the steps. They had weapons. Baseball bats. A crowbar. One held a hunting rifle.
And at their feet, three bodies.
Not infected. Not monsters. Just... people. A man, a woman, a child. Dead. Freshly dead.
"—couldn't believe how easy it was. The guy begged, you know? Offered us food, water, said he had a daughter we could—" The speaker laughed again. "Anyway, we don't need his stuff now. We take what we want."
Maya's hand found Ren's. Squeezed hard.
Seraphina materialized beside them, her expression unreadable. "Humans," she said quietly. "Adapting faster than expected. They have learned that other humans are easier prey than monsters. The System rewards efficiency."
Ren's grip tightened on his pipe. "They killed a child. For fun."
"Evolution is not moral. It is simply... evolution. The strong consume the weak. That is the law of the jungle, and the jungle is all that remains."
"Then the jungle can go to hell."
He started to rise. Seraphina's hand—cold, insubstantial—pressed him back down.
"What are you doing?"
"Those people—"
"Are dead. You cannot save them. You can only join them." Her eyes bored into his. "Look at them. Four armed. One with a ranged weapon. You have a pipe and a hammer and a sister to protect. What do you think happens if you attack?"
Ren's jaw tightened. "I can't just—"
"Yes. You can." Her voice was hard now. "This is the first lesson of survival, and you will learn it now or you will die tonight. You cannot save everyone. The moment you try, you condemn the one person who depends on you. Your sister. Look at her."
Ren looked. Maya's face was pale, but her eyes were clear. Watching him. Waiting for him to decide.
"If you die," she whispered, "I die. You promised."
The words hit him like a physical blow.
He closed his eyes. Breathed. Counted to four.
When he opened them, the fire was still there—the rage at what those teenagers had done. But beneath it, something colder. Something that understood Seraphina was right.
"We go around," he said. His voice didn't sound like his own. "Quietly. We don't engage."
Seraphina nodded. "Good."
They moved, circling wide through the back lots, keeping buildings between themselves and the killers. Ren heard more laughter as they passed. Heard someone boast about the next group they'd find. Heard the hunting rifle fire once—target practice, probably, on something helpless.
He memorized their faces. Not for revenge—he wasn't that kind of person. But for survival. If he saw them again, he'd know what they were.
The strong consume the weak.
Not on his watch. Not while he was breathing.
---
Three hours later, they reached the residential district.
It was quieter here. The houses stood like sleeping animals, dark and waiting. Some had their doors hanging open. Some had signs of struggle—broken windows, bloody handprints, abandoned belongings scattered across lawns.
Some were completely untouched, as if their owners had simply... vanished.
「SYSTEM NOTIFICATION」
「ZONE: SILENT HILLS RESIDENTIAL」
「THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE」
「ACTIVE DUNGEONS: 1 (BASEMENT OF 47 MAPLE CRESCENT)」
「RECOMMENDATION: AVOID」
"Dungeon in someone's basement," Ren muttered. "Great. Just great."
Seraphina drifted ahead, examining the street. "The residential zones are safer than the commercial districts. Fewer people means fewer infected. But the infected here are older—they have had time to evolve."
"Evolve how?"
She pointed.
At the end of the street, something was feeding on a dog. It had been human once—a woman, maybe, based on the shape of its skull. But its arms had elongated, its fingers curving into claws. Its spine hunched, pushing its head forward like a predator's. When it turned, Ren saw its eyes—glowing faintly red, intelligent, aware.
It saw them.
For a long moment, no one moved.
Then it dropped the dog and vanished into the shadows between houses.
"Shit," Ren breathed. "It ran. Infected aren't supposed to run from prey."
"That was not prey behavior." Seraphina's voice was tense. "That was hunter behavior. It is assessing you. Learning your patterns. It will return when it believes it can win."
"Great. So we're being hunted by a smart zombie."
"Welcome to evolution." She glanced at him. "The strong consume the weak. But the smart consume the strong."
Maya tugged Ren's sleeve. "There's a house. Number 32. The door's open but there's no—no blood. Maybe it's safe?"
Ren looked. The house was a modest two-story, the kind of place families lived in. Door ajar. Lights off. No obvious signs of violence.
He looked back at the shadows where the thing had vanished. Felt its attention like a weight on his skin.
"We rest there. Just until daylight." He checked the sky—still bruised purple, but darkness was deepening. "We can't travel at night. Not with that thing out there."
They crossed the street quickly, silently. Ren went first, pipe raised, Hunter's Instinct scanning. Nothing inside—just furniture, family photos, a half-eaten meal on the dining table. The people had left in a hurry.
"Clear," he whispered.
Maya slipped inside. Seraphina followed, her flames casting dancing shadows across the walls.
Ren closed the door. Locked it. Moved furniture against it—heavy stuff, a bookshelf, a couch.
Then he collapsed against the wall, suddenly exhausted.
Maya was already exploring, her fear temporarily outweighed by curiosity. She found a bedroom, came back with blankets and pillows.
"We can sleep in the living room," she said. "Together. So we can watch each other."
Ren nodded, too tired to speak.
They made a nest on the floor—blankets down, more blankets over, pillows propped against the wall. Maya curled against him like she used to when they were kids and thunderstorms rolled through.
Seraphina watched from the corner, her flames dimmed to almost nothing.
"You should rest," she said quietly. "I will watch. The System cannot stop me from observing."
Ren wanted to argue, but his eyes were already closing. The adrenaline crash was real. His body felt like it had been put through a blender.
"Seraphina," he murmured.
"Yes?"
"Why did you really help us today? Not the contract. Not the debt. Why?"
Silence. Long enough that he thought she wouldn't answer.
Then, so quietly he almost missed it:
"Because you remind me of what I lost. And what I lost... was worth everything."
Ren didn't know how to respond to that. So he just let the darkness take him, his sister warm against his side, a fallen angel standing guard, and a monster with glowing eyes waiting in the shadows.
---
He woke to screaming.
Not Maya—outside. Multiple voices. Human. Terrified.
Ren was on his feet before he was fully conscious, pipe in hand. Maya scrambled up beside him, hammer raised.
"What—"
"Quiet." Seraphina stood at the window, her face illuminated by distant flames. "The pack from the convenience store. They found the killers from the apartment building."
Ren moved to the window, keeping low. Through the glass, he could see figures running down the street—the teenagers, their confidence gone, fleeing something.
Behind them, moving with terrible speed, came the infected.
Not just the smart one from before. A horde. Twenty, maybe thirty, flowing between houses like water. At their center, something massive—a thing that had once been a man but was now a mountain of muscle and bone, its arms dragging on the ground, its head too large for its body.
「SYSTEM NOTIFICATION」
「ELITE INFECTED DETECTED: HORDE LORD (E-RANK)」
「WARNING: THIS BEING HAS EVOLVED ONCE ALREADY」
「RECOMMENDATION: EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY」
The Horde Lord stopped in the middle of the street. Its head turned—slowly, deliberately—and looked directly at their house.
At their window.
At them.
"It knows we're here," Maya whispered.
The Horde Lord opened its mouth and screamed—a sound that shattered windows for blocks, that sent pain stabbing through Ren's skull, that made his Hunter's Instinct flare with a single, overwhelming message:
RUN.
The horde turned toward their house.
Seraphina moved faster than Ren had ever seen. She crossed the room in an instant, grabbed both their shoulders, and pushed—not physically, but with some force that propelled them toward the back door.
"Go. Now. Through the yard, over the fence, keep moving."
"The front door barricade—"
"Will buy you thirty seconds. GO."
Ren grabbed Maya's hand and ran.
They crashed through the back door into a small yard. Fence at the end—wooden, six feet. Ren boosted Maya over, scrambled after her, landed hard on the other side.
Behind them, the front of the house exploded.
Wood and glass and fire. The Horde Lord's scream again, closer now. The sound of many feet, many bodies, many hungers.
They ran.
Through back yards. Over fences. Across a street. Into another yard. Maya stumbled, fell, Ren pulled her up. She was crying but silent, saving her breath for running.
The horde followed. Not directly—they couldn't see it—but Ren could feel them, his Hunter's Instinct lighting up with red dots closing fast.
"We can't outrun them," he gasped.
"You don't need to outrun them." Seraphina appeared beside him, somehow keeping pace despite her apparent intangibility. "You need to outrun the slowest."
She pointed ahead. "The dungeon. 47 Maple Crescent. The one the System warned you to avoid."
"Are you insane?"
"It is the only place they will not follow. Infected fear dungeons. The dungeon's core preys on them."
More screams behind them. Closer now.
Ren made a choice.
"MAYA! THIS WAY!"
He veered toward the house with the dungeon in its basement—a modest bungalow, completely ordinary, except for the faint blue light seeping from its cellar windows.
The front door was unlocked.
They burst inside, slammed it shut. Ren threw the deadbolt, shoved a heavy dresser against it.
The basement door stood open. Stairs descending into pulsing blue darkness.
「SYSTEM NOTIFICATION」
「YOU HAVE ENTERED: DUNGEON - THE BASEMENT OF FORGOTTEN THINGS」
「RECOMMENDED RANK: E」
「CURRENT RANK: UNRANKED」
「WARNING: MORTALITY RATE EXCEEDS 99% FOR UNRANKED HOSTS」
「DO YOU WISH TO ENTER? Y/N」
The front door shook. Something heavy slammed against it. The dresser shifted.
Ren looked at Maya. Maya looked at him.
"Together," she whispered.
He hit YES.
The world dissolved into blue light.
---
They fell.
Not far—just a sense of wrongness, of space twisting, of the basement stairs extending infinitely downward. When Ren's vision cleared, they stood in a place that was not the basement.
It was a room. A child's bedroom, frozen in time. Toys on the floor. Posters on the wall. A bed with a faded quilt.
But the walls breathed. The floor pulsed. The air tasted like memory and loss.
「DUNGEON: THE BASEMENT OF FORGOTTEN THINGS」
「FLOOR 1 / 10」
「OBJECTIVE: REMEMBER」
「WARNING: THIS DUNGEON FEEDS ON YOUR PAST. DO NOT DROWN IN IT.」
Maya clutched Ren's arm. "What does that mean? Feed on our past?"
Seraphina appeared beside them, her flames bright in the strange light. For once, she looked genuinely unsettled.
"I know this dungeon," she whispered. "It is rare. Very rare. It manifests only on worlds with high emotional resonance." She looked at Ren. "It will show you your worst memories. Your deepest regrets. And if you cannot face them, it will consume you."
"Great. A therapy dungeon." Ren tightened his grip on his pipe. "What happens if we make it through?"
"Then you evolve. Not in rank—in soul. Survivors of this dungeon gain abilities tied to emotional strength. Bonds become weapons. Love becomes armor."
The door behind them—the door they'd entered through—vanished.
The bedroom door ahead creaked open, revealing darkness.
A child's voice echoed from within:
"Ren? Why did you leave me?"
Maya went pale. "That's... that's my voice. But I'm right here."
Another voice, older, achingly familiar:
"Son? Can you hear me?"
Ren's heart stopped.
His father's voice. Dead three years. Speaking from the darkness.
"Please. I've been waiting so long. Just come inside. Just for a minute. Let me see you again."
Maya was crying. Ren was frozen.
Seraphina's voice cut through the fog: "It is not real. It is the dungeon feeding on your grief. If you go through that door, you may never come back."
Ren knew she was right.
But his father's voice kept calling.
And his feet were already moving.
---
End of Chapter 3
---
Chapter 4 Preview:
The dungeon shows Ren the day his father died—and forces him to relive every choice he made. Maya faces her own memories of weakness and fear. And in the darkness, something watches, waiting to see if their bond is strong enough to survive.
But the dungeon is not the only threat. The Horde Lord has found the entrance. And it is learning.
Chapter 4: "The Weight of Memory" — Coming Next
---