The wind that swept across Zone 5W didn't carry the scent of life. It reeked of rust, ozone, and decay.
Jace adjusted the weight of his pack across his shoulders and stepped off the transport path. Behind him, the automated convoy truck rattled back toward the city, leaving him in silence. The energy gate at the edge of the human zone hissed shut, and for the first time in his life, he was outside the Federation's walls, alone.
His boots crunched over blackened gravel and patches of moss that clung to crumbling pavement. A shattered highway stretched ahead, partially swallowed by overgrowth. To the west, twisted rebar and steel beams rose like skeletal fingers from the remains of an old-world factory. Lightning cracked across the distant horizon, illuminating the scorched skyline.
He brought up the HUD on his visor. A blinking orange dot marked his assigned patrol path.
> [Active Mission: Tier-1 Scavenger Run]
[Zone 5W Sector 17A]
[Objective: Survey and recover any live cores or salvageable material]
[Estimated Threat Level: Low to Moderate]
It sounded simple enough. But Jace knew better. Any place that had remained unclaimed for more than a week was dangerous. Beasts moved through here—not just mutated wildlife, but corrupted energy spirits, failed evolution experiments, and occasionally rogue systems that never properly bound to a host.
The thought made his stomach tighten.
He turned north, following a collapsed rail line choked by thorny vines and broken glass. Even without enemies in sight, the zone pulsed with unease. It wasn't just the silence. It was the wrongness in the air—as if something watched him from just outside reality.
Ten minutes into the trek, his Echo Sight activated.
> [Echo Sight Active: 3 Seconds Remaining]
Crimson trails lit up before his eyes—a flicker of footsteps over broken rock, barely visible. Something had moved here recently, fast. Clawed feet. Quadrupedal.
Then it faded.
"Beast-type," he muttered. "Probably a scavenger."
Still, his grip tightened on the salvaged alloy blade strapped to his side.
He continued forward until the path narrowed between two fallen towers. Jagged metal leaned inward like the jaws of some ancient god. On the other side, the land opened into a clearing—or what had once been a central plaza. Broken benches lay scattered. A collapsed monument bore the symbol of a lost corporation. Near the base, a dim blue flicker caught his eye.
Jace crouched.
A rodent-type beast, mutated with patches of crystal plating, sniffed at the air. Its ears twitched, and a second one emerged from behind a stone slab. They were low-tier—F-rank at best—but aggressive in packs.
He waited, breath steady. When the larger one moved away from the core pile, he struck.
His boot crunched gravel.
The beasts shrieked.
The first one lunged. Jace sidestepped, ducking low, and brought his blade upward in a sweeping arc. Sparks flew as metal struck crystal. He stumbled from the force, but the blow cut deep. The rodent writhed and screeched.
The second slammed into his side, knocking him into a wall. Pain flashed in his ribs.
He rolled, drawing his backup blade—a shorter, sharper spike—and drove it into the creature's chest. A crunch, a gurgle, and silence.
Both beasts collapsed. Blood steamed on the cracked concrete.
Jace groaned and wiped his forehead. His visor blinked.
> [+12 XP]
[Beast Cores x2 Acquired]
[Upgrade Crystals +2]
He dropped to a knee beside the corpses and retrieved the cores—dull blue gems embedded near the beasts' hearts. They pulsed faintly. Low grade, but sellable.
As he stood, something shifted beneath his foot.
A crack. A hollow thunk.
He stepped back and brushed away dirt and moss. A metal panel beneath the soil. Not factory flooring. Older. Smoother.
He pulled out his knife and dug around the edges, revealing a circular hatch sealed with three overlapping rings.
A symbol sat in the center: a stylized eye formed of crimson and black.
Not human.
Not Federation.
> [Echo Sight Active.]
For a moment, the world peeled back. Trails of energy converged on the hatch—ancient, layered pathways etched into the earth, pulsing with forgotten power. And just for a breath—a heartbeat—he saw a silhouette.
A figure cloaked in red, standing below the hatch, motionless.
Then it vanished.
His hand hovered over the hatch.
He should report it.
He didn't.
Instead, he touched the center.
The rings rotated with a metallic groan. Dust spiraled into the air. A deep, resonant hum echoed from below. The ground trembled. Vines recoiled as the hatch hissed open, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.
Jace stared into the abyss.
Something pulsed beneath his feet—like a heartbeat, but older, colder.
The HUD on his visor blinked.
> [Unknown Energy Source Detected]
[Warning: Signal Interference Detected. Recommend Immediate Extraction.]
He hesitated. Every training protocol screamed at him to retreat. To mark the site. To wait for clearance.
But he couldn't.
He needed this. He needed something.
He took a breath.
And stepped down.
The stairs went on far longer than he expected. He passed alcoves and empty torch brackets, his boots clicking on black stone. Strange runes pulsed faintly on the walls—sometimes shifting when he wasn't looking directly at them.
After what felt like ten minutes, he emerged into a chamber bathed in red light.
The walls were covered in carvings. Battles between monstrous figures. Beasts. Armies. Sacrifices. And at the center of them all—a cloaked being with wings of bone and fire.
A pedestal waited in the center. Suspended above it: a black tome with the same crimson eye on its cover.
Jace stepped forward.
Whispers rose from the floor, the walls, the air itself.
His name.
He reached toward the book.
The world exploded in light.
> [System Detected]
[Analyzing Host Physiology…]
[Error. Error. Unknown System Contamination Detected.]
[Attempting Fusion…]
Jace screamed as power flooded his veins.
And then—darkness.
---
He awoke in darkness.
The chamber was silent again, but something had changed. He could feel it—something inside him pulsing, moving, alive. His heart pounded, but it was accompanied by a second rhythm. An echo. As if something else beat inside his chest alongside his own.
He rose to his knees, dizzy, and wiped blood from his nose. The red light above the pedestal had dimmed, and the book was gone.
No—not gone.
It hovered in front of him, pages flickering open and closed like the wings of a bird. Then it disintegrated into motes of crimson light that shot toward his chest. He screamed, but there was no pain. The energy wrapped around his arms, seared into his bones, and etched foreign symbols into his skin.
> [System Fusion Complete.]
[User: Jace Emberlin]
[Hybrid System Online]
[Core Type: Vampiric – Forbidden Archive]
[Secondary Core: Adaptive Upgrade Integration – Linked]
[Status: Incomplete Integration. Further synchronization required.]
"What the hell..." Jace gasped, clutching his chest.
More messages appeared before his eyes, projected by the newly awakened system:
> [New Abilities Unlocked: Passive Regeneration – Level 1]
[Skill Tree Unlocked: Blood-Fused Talents]
[System Store Access: Locked – Requires Sync Key]
He pushed himself to his feet, his legs shaking. He looked down. The etched red eye had faded, but he could feel it beneath the surface of his skin, like it had branded itself into his very being.
He staggered toward the stairs. As he climbed, the pressure in his chest slowly eased, but the whispers didn't vanish completely. They became distant murmurs, like wind brushing past ancient ruins.
The ascent felt shorter, though his muscles screamed with every step. When he reached the hatch again, daylight filtered through the cracks. He emerged back into the open air and collapsed beside the panel, sucking in deep breaths.
But the world wasn't the same.
His senses felt sharper. Every sound was clearer—the buzz of insects, the crackle of static in the air, even the faint rustle of leaves half a kilometer away. His wounded leg had stopped bleeding entirely.
And in his mind, he heard the system's voice once more:
> [Next Trial: Blood Awakened]
[Time Remaining: 72 Hours]
[Objective: Slay a C-tier Beast or higher. Claim its core. Prove the fusion was not in vain.]
He lay back, laughing softly, even as sweat poured down his face.
So that was it. No one was going to hand him power. Not this system. Not the world. He had three days to kill something that should be far beyond him—or die trying.
But for the first time in his life, he didn't feel weak.
He felt chosen.
And that terrified him.
Jace sat up and opened his HUD. The mission he had originally taken was still active—but it had been completely overwritten by the system.
> [Active Quest: Ascension Path – Initiation]
[Location: Unstable Zone – 5W – Outer Ring]
[Required Objective: Survive and Evolve]
[Rewards: Unknown]
There was no going back now.
He stared at the jungle of twisted metal and decaying structures ahead. Somewhere in those ruins was a beast strong enough to kill a squad of trained Federation scouts—and he had to find it.
He retrieved his blade, checked his supplies, and stood.
His journey had truly begun.
---
Jace moved carefully through the shattered streets beyond the hatch, every sense alert. Now that the system had awakened, the world around him felt deeper—more vibrant and more dangerous.
As he passed an overturned cargo hauler, his Echo Sight triggered on its own.
> [Echo Sight: Triggered Automatically – Threat Response Active]
[Duration Remaining: 3 Seconds]
Crimson outlines traced the recent passage of something massive. Clawed footprints, at least twice the size of his boot, led from the alley into a collapsed parking structure. A heavy smear of blood followed.
Jace instinctively crouched and backed away, heart thundering.
That... was no rodent.
Whatever made those prints could tear through reinforced armor—and he was still in academy garb with a salvaged blade and a half-charged stim.
> [System Advisory: Detected Beast – C-Tier Class]
[Category: Shardhorn Strider – Mutation Class]
[Probability of Survival in Current Condition: 12%]
"Twelve percent is better than zero," Jace muttered, breath shaky.
He didn't approach. Not yet.
Instead, he skirted the structure and marked its location in his HUD. If he had to fight it, it wouldn't be now. He needed preparation. Gear. Strategy. And ideally... backup.
Too bad no one was coming.
As he moved on, a shadow shifted atop one of the broken buildings.
A pair of glowing red eyes tracked him from the ruins.
The figure crouched in silence, a blade of bone slung across its back, armor of living sinew clinging to its limbs.
"So, another one chosen..." it whispered. "Let's see if you're worth watching."
Then it vanished into the mist.
Jace didn't notice the eyes watching him. All he saw was the horizon—and the challenge that waited beyond it. With his hands clenched and resolve steeled, he took the first real step toward changing everything.