"Danger Level 5 breach detected. Stay indoors. Evacuation in progress."
– Automated Broadcast, Zone 9
It started as a tremor.
Erwin was buying instant coffee from a roadside dispenser when the earth shook — not violently, but wrong. Like something deep below the city had exhaled.
Then came the sirens.
Red lights flared across buildings, followed by the mechanical voice of the City Core AI:
"Rift Detected.
Zone 9. Breach Status: Escalating.
Citizens are advised to evacuate."
The screen on the vending machine turned to static. Then flashed a warning:
DUNGEON BREACH – CODE BLACK
Around Erwin, the crowd started moving. First with confusion. Then panic.
Jhon called. "Erwin, you seeing this?!"
"I'm already heading south."
"Meet me at Eighth and Cordex. We help who we can."
Erwin ran.
By the time they reached the intersection, the street had turned to chaos.
People screamed. Children wailed. Hovercars crashed into walls trying to escape.
Then the sky tore open.
A jagged rift split the air above the mall district. Shadows poured out — twisted things with glass bones and snapping jaws.
Monsters.
Dozens at first. Then hundreds.
And the defenders?
There were none.
No Murim.
No System-Blessed.
No heroes.
Just civilians.
Erwin and Jhon grabbed whatever they could — pipes, rods, even trash lids — and ran toward the crowd, pulling people out of the open and into alleyways.
They weren't strong.
They weren't fast.
But they were human.
Jhon knocked a crawling creature off a girl's back. Erwin stabbed another with a broken pipe. Blood hissed as it ate through metal.
People kept dying.
And still… no help came.
"They're late on purpose," Jhon spat, gripping his bleeding arm. "They want the casualty count high. Drama sells."
Erwin didn't reply. But deep inside, something was fracturing.
They reached a collapsed building. A young boy was trapped under debris.
Jhon dove in, using his bare hands to pull rubble aside.
"Help me lift this!" he yelled.
Erwin nodded. Together they heaved—
And that's when the monster came.
It landed behind them. Twelve feet tall. All bone and tendrils. No face. Just hunger.
Jhon saw it first.
"Run," he said. "Get the kid out."
"Jhon—"
"GO!"
Erwin grabbed the boy and ran.
Behind him, he heard the scream.
Not the monster's.
Jhon's.
By the time he turned around, Jhon was on the ground.
A claw through his chest.
Eyes wide. Mouth trembling.
He reached for Erwin with a shaking hand.
And whispered:
"Live… different."
Then his hand dropped.
And he was gone.
The world went quiet.
Erwin stared as the monster raised its claw again.
But before it struck—
A beam of blue light incinerated it.
The System-Blessed had arrived.
Too late.
They descended like gods, wrapped in light and tech and symbols. Killing beasts with choreographed ease. Cameras floating beside them.
"We're live!" one shouted.
People cheered. Some cried.
Grateful for their saviors.
Erwin stood in silence.
Blood on his hands. Jhon's body cooling beside him.
They came too late on purpose.
They let people die... for the broadcast.
For the illusion of rescue.
For control.
Something in Erwin snapped.
Not loudly. Not with a scream.
But like a fault line giving way beneath centuries of pressure.
He looked at the sky.
At the fake gods.
And whispered,
"I will burn all of you."
[End of Chapter 4 – The Breach]