The two-hour rest ended faster than free snacks at a college fest.
The blue walls of the safe zone rippled, system text shimmering across the air.
[Main Scenario #2: Culling Grounds]Objective: Reduce monster population in the designated zone.Time Limit: 1 hour.Failure Condition: More than 50% of monsters remain alive.
Ravi stared at the glowing words hanging above the gate. His lips twisted."…Reduce monster population? What am I, an exterminator?"
The barrier dissolved.
Heat hit him first thick, smoky, carrying the sharp tang of burning plastic. The city street beyond looked like the aftermath of a war movie. Asphalt split open in jagged cracks. Cars lay overturned, their windows shattered, smoke curling from the wreckage.
Buildings slumped like drunkards, their windows blown out, wires dangling like entrails. Somewhere in the distance, a fire raged unchecked, orange tongues of flame clawing at the sky.
And above it all, faint and constant, came the sound: monstrous roars echoing like thunder through hollow streets.
"Oh good," Ravi muttered. "Outdoor seating."
Other players streamed past him, faces pale but desperate. Makeshift weapons clutched in trembling hands. A kitchen knife here, a cricket bat there. One man hefted a frying pan like he was about to start an omelet-making competition.
Ravi raised an eyebrow. "I guess he's here to make an omelet out of the monsters."
The instant they stepped outside, the world erupted.
A shriek tore through the air. Something small and fast darted between wrecked cars—a creature the size of a dog but shaped wrong. Too many teeth. Too many eyes. Its body rippled like stretched tar.
The frying pan man swung. He missed.
The creature latched onto his leg with a sickening crunch.
The man screamed, toppling backward.
Ravi sighed, swinging his pipe. The blow cracked against the thing's skull, flinging it into a car door with a bone-splitting crunch. It went limp, dissolving into smoke.
[Monster Defeated. +20 Coins.]
He exhaled. "And that's breakfast served."
But more were coming.
From alleys and shadows, they poured outdog-sized, wolf-sized, crawling on too many limbs, eyes burning in unnatural colors. The street became a battlefield of chaos.
Players screamed, some charging wildly, others fleeing outright. Blades clashed with claws. Blood sprayed against broken pavement.
Ravi fought in silence. The pipe whistled through the air, smashing skulls, cracking jaws. His muscles burned, but his breathing was steady. He had done this before. He remembered where the monsters clustered, where the dangers grew worse.
If this timeline matched the last one, there would be a pack up aheadlarger, faster, waiting near the main intersection like a wolf ambush.
He moved quickly, stepping over bodies, past the cries of the panicked. Every fight here was a distraction. The real challenge was coming.
Sure enough, when he rounded the corner, there they were. A pack of six creatures circled a group of exhausted players. One lunged for a woman's throat and stopped midair, an arrow shaft buried in its skull.
The body dropped with a wet thud.
Ravi's eyes snapped upward.
On the rooftop, a figure stood in shadow. Hood drawn low. A bow in hand. Their movements were fluid, precise no wasted effort.
They loosed another arrow. Another monster crumpled.
The figure never lingered. They drew, released, stepped back into shadow, vanishing as if the rooftop itself had swallowed them whole.
Ravi's grip on the pipe tightened.
Same figure from the safe zone. Same watcher.
He clenched his jaw and swung again, finishing the remaining beasts himself.
By the time the timer's final minutes drained away, the street was littered with corpses—monsters dissolving into smoke, humans bleeding but alive. The survivors' cries mixed with ragged cheers as the last creatures fled into shadows.
The system's cold voice cut through the air:
[Main Scenario #2 Completed.][Calculating rewards…]
Players collapsed onto the asphalt, some laughing hysterically, others sobbing in relief.
Ravi leaned on his pipe, eyes scanning the rooftops.
No sign of the archer. No shimmer of cloak.
But he knew better.
They were there. Watching. Always watching.
He spat onto the cracked asphalt."Fine. Keep playing shadow games. I'll find you eventually."