The safe zone didn't look safe.
It looked like an abandoned metro station that someone had wrapped in glowing blue walls and stamped the word [SAFE] on top.
The barrier shimmered faintly, like heat on asphalt, stretching over the crumbling platforms and rusted tracks. Inside, it was chaos—not of monsters, but of people. Survivors.
The moment Ravi stepped through, text appeared in his vision:
[Safe Zone: Eastern Terminal][PvP Disabled][Time until next scenario: 2 hours, 13 minutes]
Two hours. Time to breathe, to panic, or to waste coins on nonsense.
He scanned the crowd. Some collapsed immediately to the floor, weeping into their hands. Others clung to each other, whispering frantic reassurances. A few moved with manic energy, as if constant motion could drown out fear.
And then there were the entrepreneurs.
A man in a pressed suit and sunglasses stood at a makeshift stall, grinning like he'd been waiting for this moment all his life. "Fresh fruit, only 100 Coins each!" he announced, waving a basket of shiny apples like a magician presenting a trick.
Ravi blinked. "Ah yes, the end of the world… and the first business to open is a fruit shop."
Still, his eyes flicked to the corner of his vision where his balance displayed:[Coins: 500]
Five apples. Or something useful. Or five apples to beat someone with. Choices.
The stall wasn't limited to fruit. Beyond it, translucent panels floated in midair, flickering faintly like holograms. Each displayed lists of items: weapons, armor, consumables.
The first panel listed basics—battered bats for 400 Coins, rusty daggers for 350, a loaf of stale bread for 50. A length of "mysterious rope" hung at 250.
Ravi squinted. "…So my options are stabbing things with bread or eating a dagger. Great economy."
As he scrolled, the panel glitched.
[System Notice: Price list loading…][Error: Unstable signal detected.][Message Injected.]
The words warped into jagged static, then reformed into a private line of text:
@Unknown_Origin: Someone else walks your path. Don't let them get ahead.
The message blinked once, then vanished. The price list returned as if nothing had happened.
Ravi stared for a long moment."Someone else? …What, is this a race now?"
Nearby, a heated argument erupted. Two players were locked in a debate over whether the "long stick" for 300 Coins was a disguised spear or just a broom handle. One picked it up, immediately began sweeping the floor with it, and declared victory.
Ravi snorted despite himself. "Yeah. This is definitely the elite force that'll save humanity."
He wandered away from the stalls, weaving through the crowd. The station's roof dripped occasionally where cracks had formed, faint echoes of water pattering against broken tiles. The electric hum of the barrier gave the space a restless energy—like the whole safe zone existed on borrowed time.
Then he saw it.
Through the throng of players, beyond the flickering blue walls, a figure leaned casually against the far station wall. Cloaked head to toe, hood drawn low.
People brushed past without noticing. Their eyes slid off him, as though something in the world itself didn't want them to look too long.
But Ravi saw.
And the figure saw him.
Just for a moment, the hood tilted—barely a fraction—acknowledging him.
A chill rippled down Ravi's spine. His breath caught.
By the time he blinked, the figure was gone.
No sound, no trace. Just the faint hum of the barrier and the stale scent of metal and dust.
Ravi exhaled slowly, muttering under his breath."Fantastic. Monsters in tunnels, gods in the sky, and now cloaked stalkers. Yep. Totally normal Tuesday."
He adjusted his grip on the pipe, scanned the crowd one last time, then turned toward the dimly lit corner of the safe zone where the least people gathered. If the next scenario was coming in two hours, he wanted his back against a wall.
But even as he sat, leaning against the cracked tiles, the words from @Unknown_Origin echoed in his mind.
Someone else walks your path. Don't let them get ahead.
The thought gnawed at him like a hidden toothache. Because if someone else really did share his second chance, then he wasn't just playing for survival anymore.
He was playing for position.