For the first time since entering Death Land, there was… stillness.
Matthew and Sora sat on the roof of a half-collapsed apartment building, overlooking the broken city. The sky had softened to a smoky blue. No blood-red warnings. No alarms. Just low wind and the distant echo of some long-dead world.
A single vending machine nearby still worked, humming faintly. They'd shared a flat bottle of lukewarm soda. It tasted like chemicals—but it was something real.
Sora leaned back against the concrete wall, eyes half-closed. "Feels like the world forgot to chase us today."
Matthew didn't answer right away. He was looking at the sky.
The stars above Death Land weren't real. They were wrong.
Some blinked in patterns.
Some never blinked at all.
And one of them—always in the same place—never moved.
Sora noticed him staring. "That one again?"
He nodded. "Doesn't move. Doesn't flicker."
"Maybe it's not a star."
Matthew's grip tightened on the edge of the roof. "Maybe it's watching us."
Sora didn't argue.
They sat there for a while in silence.
Then, out of nowhere, she asked, "Why'd you come here?"
He looked at her. "I didn't choose to."
"No," she said. "But you pressed yes, didn't you? On the message. 生定死. Life or death."
Matthew exhaled slowly. "Because… I thought the worst thing had already happened. Turns out, I was wrong."
Sora smiled softly, not unkindly. "Still think that?"
"No," he said. "Now I think the worst thing might still be ahead."
A buzz on their wristbands broke the calm.
They both tensed—but it wasn't a game alert.
Just a quiet message.
NEXT CYCLE BEGINS SOON. REST WHILE YOU CAN.
Sora lay back and closed her eyes.
Matthew didn't.
He kept watching the sky.
And that one star that wasn't a star at all.