*Attribute Assignment*
The attribute window unfolded in front of Aaron like a digital lotus, glowing lines peeling outward until the air hummed around him. The interface cast sharp blue highlights across his face and the ruined apartment walls.
His pulse thudded in his ears.
The hostiles were already climbing the building.
He didn't have time to learn.
Didn't have time to think.
He needed something — anything — that would keep him alive for the next five minutes.
The menu flickered.
> **ATTRIBUTE POINTS AVAILABLE: 10**
> *Assigned due to Administrative Anomaly.*
A small mercy.
The list beneath it pulsed like a heartbeat:
**• Strength
• Agility
• Endurance
• Perception
• Intelligence
• Willpower
• Mutation Potential (Locked: Requires Focused Intent)**
Aaron's eyes skimmed the glowing stats. His instincts screamed to dump everything into Strength and hope he could punch the creatures to death, but he knew that was cartoon thinking. These things tore through metal.
He forced his breath steady.
"System… what's the minimum I need to survive the next few minutes?"
> **[Recommended Allocation: Suboptimal]**
> *Threat level exceeds baseline human survivability regardless of distribution.*
Aaron blinked. "Not helping!"
The window pulsed again.
> **[Secondary Recommendation: Invest in core physical survivability]**
Another crash shook the building — closer this time. Dust rained from the ceiling. Something huge was dragging metal claws against the outer wall, each scrape vibrating straight into Aaron's bones.
He didn't choose.
He lunged.
**+3 Strength
+3 Agility
+4 Endurance**
The world reacted instantly.
A shock tore through him — raw, white-hot, violent. His muscles seized like they were being torn apart and rebuilt at the same time. His spine arched involuntarily as the System rewrote him on a level nothing human medicine could touch.
He collapsed to his knees, breath ripping from his throat in ragged gasps.
He wasn't evolving.
He was being overwritten.
*This… this hurts—*
His fingers clawed at the floor. His eyes watered. Every heartbeat felt like it was shattering bone.
Then—
**Boom.**
The wall beside him caved inward as a massive shape slammed against the exterior. Concrete split. Rebar bent like wet clay. The sound alone sent animal terror lancing through him.
Aaron staggered upright, still trembling.
Another slam.
A spiderlike machine, twice the size of the earlier walker, punched its serrated limb through the plaster. Red lights flared across its chest like angry veins. It shrieked — a metallic, piercing distortion that vibrated the air.
Aaron stepped back automatically.
The creature forced its way in, limbs unfolding, scraping against the apartment walls.
Aaron's breath hitched.
His upgraded stats weren't enough.
Not for this.
*Move!*
His newly boosted agility surged through him — lighter steps, faster reflexes. His body responded before he consciously processed the command.
The machine lunged.
Aaron dove aside, rolling across the floor. The creature's claw missed his skull by centimeters, carving a deep groove into the wall where he'd just been standing.
He scrambled up — unsteady, not used to the new balance of his body. His legs felt stronger but unfamiliar, like wearing someone else's muscles.
The machine whirled, targeting him immediately.
He wasn't going to outrun it.
He needed to fight.
Adrenaline tore through him. He grabbed a broken metal bar from the collapsed wall — just a length of rebar, bent and cracked.
The enemy charged.
Aaron swung.
The metal bar connected with the creature's joint — and for the first time, something worked.
The impact actually made the thing stagger.
Aaron felt it in his arms — the force, the strength that wasn't there yesterday. But the machine recovered instantly, even angrier, its core lighting up like molten glass.
It lunged again.
Aaron lifted the bar—
The creature slammed him.
Hard.
He flew backward, crashing into a cabinet. Pain exploded through him, sharp and sickening. His Endurance kept him alive — barely — but it wasn't enough to stop agony from ripping across his ribs.
He coughed once, tasting blood.
The creature advanced.
He couldn't win like this.
*Think, think!*
His eyes snapped to the floating System window still hovering nearby, flickering with unread options.
One category pulsed:
> **Defensive Constructs: Micro-Gravity Pulse (Prototype)**
> *Cost: 1 Administrative Charge*
> *Warning: Unstable. Potential backlash.*
Aaron slapped the window with a desperate, shaking hand.
The air detonated.
A shockwave of warped gravity rippled outward, bending space like a heat mirage. The creature was yanked violently sideways — slammed into the wall with impossible force, its armored shell denting inward.
But the backlash hit Aaron too.
His vision whited out. His head felt like it was being compressed in a vice. He collapsed again, clutching at the floor to stay conscious.
The creature screeched — injured, but alive.
Aaron forced himself up, legs shaking, lungs burning.
The machine tore itself free of the wall, sparks flying.
He couldn't use another Pulse. It would kill him before the creature did.
He gripped the metal bar again, knuckles white.
The creature charged.
Aaron charged too.
They collided in the broken center of the room, Aaron swinging with everything the System had forced into him. His strike hit the damaged joint he'd weakened earlier.
It snapped.
The creature collapsed to one side, thrashing. Aaron stumbled with it, adrenaline overriding pain, and drove the jagged rebar into the glowing core again and again until the red light sputtered, flickered—
And died.
The creature twitched once.
Then lay still.
Aaron staggered back, chest heaving, sweat pouring down his face.
His whole body shook uncontrollably.
He barely survived.
He barely survived one.
And the minimap still showed **twenty more** signatures converging on the building.
Aaron wiped blood from his lip, jaw tightening.
"System… give me everything I need to live through this."
The interface flickered.
Then opened a new prompt.
> **[Mutation Potential Unlocked]**
> *The world is changing. You must change with it.*
Aaron swallowed hard.
*No Mutation Yet*
The Mutation prompt hovered in front of Aaron like a threat disguised as an opportunity.
> **[Mutation Potential Unlocked]**
> *The world is changing. You must change with it.*
His pulse spiked.
His instincts recoiled.
"No…" he whispered, shaking his head. "Not yet."
The panel dimmed slightly, as if disappointed.
Another distant crash echoed up the ruined stairwells of the apartment block. The minimap still pulsed with hostile signatures—blunt red dots pushing closer, floor by floor, eating away the little time he had left.
He backed away from the window, wiping sweat and blood from his brow with a trembling hand.
"That thing nearly killed me," he muttered under his breath. "And that was just one."
His ribs throbbed deep and sharp. Every breath burned. His boosted Endurance had kept him from dying outright, but it didn't make him invincible. It didn't stop his lungs from rattling or the hollow ache spreading across his side.
He needed more power.
He needed every edge he could squeeze out of the System.
But Mutation…
Mutation was something else entirely.
The System hadn't described it.
Hadn't explained it.
Hadn't even pretended it was safe.
He imagined twisting bones, organs turning to machinery, nerves being rewired in ways that didn't belong to anything born on Earth.
The creature he'd just fought flashed through his mind.
The serrated limbs.
The unnatural speed.
The red glow in its core.
*What if Mutation makes me like them?*
His stomach tightened.
"No. Not unless I have no choice."
The Mutation prompt stayed on the edge of his vision, faint but persistent—like a suggestion offered by something patient, ancient, and utterly unconcerned about human fear.
Aaron dragged himself toward the exit of the shattered apartment, leaning briefly on the broken doorframe. His legs were unsteady, not from weakness—he actually felt stronger than before—but from *shock*. From everything happening too fast to process.
Down below, he could hear the creatures.
Claws scraping.
Metal grinding.
The rhythmic, unnatural chirring that echoed through the building's hollow structure.
He swallowed, forcing his breath slow.
"Okay… think."
The minimap pulsed again.
Twenty contacts.
Maybe more joining.
He couldn't fight a swarm. Not in an enclosed building.
"I need to get out of here."
The System flickered, offering another prompt:
> **Environmental Awareness Protocols Available.**
> *Cost: 1 Administrative Charge*
> *Description: Temporary structural scan of immediate area.*
Aaron hesitated.
"I'm not burning charges unless it keeps me alive."
Another impact rattled the building. Plaster cracked above him. Dust cascaded around his shoulders like grey snow.
He clenched his jaw.
"Fine. Run the scan."
The air shimmered with blue light.
The walls peeled away into transparent outlines. Floors became wireframes. The entire building unfolded into a glowing, three-dimensional map suspended in the air like a ghost of architecture.
Aaron's breath caught.
It wasn't just a map.
It was a **path**.
A faint glowing line marked a route down the emergency stairwell onto the exposed fire escape, then across a gap between two buildings where the walkway had partially collapsed.
High risk—but possible.
The creatures were flooding the main stairwell. Several more climbed the outside walls. But the System's route curved just around their movements, updating by the second.
Aaron nodded slowly.
"This… this might work."
He took a shaky step into the hall.
Pain flared through his side. His vision blurred for a heartbeat, and he pressed a hand against his ribs, teeth gritted.
He needed medical attention. He needed allies. He needed… he needed a hundred things he didn't have.
What he *did* have was ten minutes of air left in this building before it was crawling with hostiles.
He forced his body into motion.
Down the hall.
Past shattered doors.
Over splintered boards and broken plaster.
Every few seconds, he checked the minimap.
Red dots.
More every minute.
*They're hunting me.*
The thought chilled him deeper than the wind tearing through the cracked hallway windows.
As he reached the stairwell, a nearby floor buckled with a metallic shriek. Something heavy landed above, shaking the entire structure. Aaron froze, breath caught in his throat.
Claws scraped the floor.
Slow.
Searching.
His heart hammered.
He held still.
Silent.
Barely breathing.
The creature prowled the hallway overhead—its weight bending the warped beams like a steel trap being reset.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Finally, the red dot on the minimap shifted away.
Aaron exhaled shakily and continued downward.
The deeper he went, the more he felt it:
his body wasn't human-normal anymore.
Each step was easier, despite the pain.
His senses felt sharper, more alert.
He could almost track the enemies' positions without looking at the minimap.
The System's upgrades had changed him.
Just not as violently as Mutation would.
He reached the fire escape door. A cold wind blasted through the cracked frame, carrying the metallic stench of burning infrastructure from several blocks away.
The city outside was a wasteland of shattered towers and crawling shapes.
But there was a way forward.
"Alright…" Aaron whispered. "One step at a time."
The Mutation panel flickered faintly at the edge of his vision, still waiting.
He ignored it.
He wasn't ready to give up being human.
Not yet.
The fire escape groaned under Aaron's weight as he stepped onto it, rusted metal flexing like it might tear free from the wall at any second. Cold air slapped him, carrying grit and the sharp, bitter scent of burning circuitry from somewhere deeper in the city.
Below him, three floors down, a cluster of red dots moved through the alley—jerky, insect-like motions illuminated by intermittent flashes of electricity arcing across their limbs.
Aaron swallowed hard.
"Nice to know they're still waiting for me."
He climbed down slowly, one cautious foot at a time, avoiding anything that looked too thin, too rusted, or too ready to collapse.
Halfway down, the wind shifted.
A red dot peeled away from the alley cluster.
It turned upward.
Looking… listening…
Aaron froze.
A mechanical click echoed from below—the sound of metal claws unfolding like scalpels.
*It heard me.*
He pressed himself flat against the wall, gripping the railing so hard his knuckles ached.
The hostile creature stepped into view beneath the fire escape. Its body was sleek and blade-lined, like someone had built a hunting raptor out of blackened steel and torn circuitry. Its head twitched, scanning.
Aaron didn't breathe.
Didn't blink.
The creature tilted its head.
Clicked once.
Twice.
Then, as if losing interest, it scuttled forward into the alley shadows and vanished.
Aaron exhaled shakily.
"Okay… okay. Just keep going."
He continued downward, slower now, careful not to shift his weight too suddenly.
At the second floor, the System's projected route in front of him flickered—updating—and a blue line curved toward a partially shattered window leading into the neighboring building.
> **[Recommended Path Updated]**
> *Direct alley exit now classified: Lethal.*
"That's comforting," Aaron muttered.
He stepped off the fire escape and slipped through the broken window frame into the darkened room beyond. Dust puffed under his shoes. The leftovers of an office—papers, collapsed desks, broken monitors—lay scattered across the floor like debris after a storm.
The building was quieter than the last, but not safe.
Nothing was safe.
He crept through the corridor, every nerve sharp, listening for anything out of place.
Metallic scraping echoed faintly from the floors below.
A whirring vibration hummed through a support beam on his left.
A distant screech tore through the streets outside.
"Keep moving… keep moving…"
His minimap pulsed again—two red dots sweeping across the floor beneath him, angling toward the staircase.
He turned the other direction, slipping through a door that hung crooked on one hinge. It led into a storage room, shelves collapsing under their own weight.
Something metallic skittered briefly.
Aaron ducked behind an overturned cabinet.
A small reconnaissance drone scuttled into view—one of the beetle-sized ones. Its tiny red optics scanned the room with precise, slicing beams.
Aaron held his breath.
The drone paused.
Its lenses dilated.
Then it zipped away, climbing up the wall and through a ventilation duct.
Aaron waited another thirty seconds before standing.
"Minimum I need to survive…" he whispered. "This is barely that."
He moved again, hugging walls, sticking to shadows. The System's route guided him through broken hallways, over fallen beams, and down a flight of stairs where the railing had twisted like melted plastic.
Finally, the blue line halted at a heavy reinforced door half buried under rubble.
A flicker of text appeared above it:
> **[Safe Zone Probability: 42%]**
> *Door integrity: Moderate
> Hostile access likelihood: Low
> Structural stability: Acceptable*
"Forty-two percent…" Aaron exhaled. "That's the best I'm getting, huh?"
He heaved a chunk of fallen concrete aside, then another. His muscles strained, but the Strength upgrade let him move mass that would've pinned him before.
Pain rippled through his torso with every push.
His ribs screamed.
His vision blurred once, twice.
But he kept going.
When the debris was clear enough, Aaron shouldered the door with all his strength.
It creaked open.
Inside was a dim, narrow security room with battered chairs, empty weapon racks, and a half-functional emergency light sputtering overhead. The air smelled stale and metallic, but there were no red dots nearby.
He stepped inside and pulled the door shut.
The lock clicked automatically.
Aaron sagged to the floor, chest heaving.
It wasn't comfortable.
It wasn't clean.
It wasn't even fully safe.
But for now…
For the first time since the System Online notification appeared…
He could breathe.
Just breathe.
He leaned his head back against the cold wall and closed his eyes.
Minutes passed.
Then the System flickered again above him.
> **[Warning: Hostile Cluster Converging Nearby]**
> *Recommend: Reinforcement, healing, or relocation.*
Aaron groaned.
"Oh, come on… just give me five minutes…"
The Mutation icon hovered faintly in the corner of his vision.
He ignored it.
But his grip tightened.
And for the first time…
he wasn't entirely sure how long he could keep resisting.