In the old world, a wounded IT consultant with a rusted pipe fighting two wolves would have been a tragedy. It would have been a short, bloody nature documentary.
But this wasn't the old world. This was a System. And Systems ran on logic.
The first Hollow reached the shattered doorframe. It didn't run; it buffered. It teleported three feet forward, froze for a microsecond, then snapped into motion again.
Teleport. Pause. Snap.
Kaelen watched the pattern, his eyes stinging with sweat. To a normal person, the movement was terrifyingly unpredictable. To him, it was a rhythmic error. A loop.
He waited, his grip slick on the iron pipe. The pain in his leg screamed at him to run, to hide, to do anything but stand his ground. He shoved the pain down, burying it under a layer of cold, desperate focus.
The first Hollow lunged.
It was a blur of wet muscle and pixelated teeth.
Kaelen didn't dodge away; that would expose his bad leg. Instead, he stepped into the attack, trusting the blue wireframe overlay in his vision.
[ TRAJECTORY PREDICTION: 98% ]
He swung the pipe low, aiming not for the head, but for the front right leg—the anchor point of the creature's wireframe.
CRACK.
[ CRITICAL HIT ]
The pipe smashed into the creature's limb. It didn't break bone; it shattered the code holding the leg together. The limb dissolved into a cloud of blue static.
The beast collapsed mid-air, its physics engine failing. It slammed into the linoleum floor, yelping a distorted, looping sound.
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He brought the pipe down on its skull with a primal roar.
Crunch.
The red knot in its chest shattered. The monster exploded into blue cubes, showering Kaelen in harmless light.
[ TARGET DELETED ]
[ +10 AUTHORITY ]
One down.
But the System didn't give him time to celebrate.
The second Hollow didn't wait for its turn. It used its packmate's death as a distraction. It leaped over the dissolving pixels of the first beast, aiming straight for Kaelen's throat.
Kaelen threw up his left arm to block. It was a clumsy, desperate move.
He felt teeth sink into his forearm.
"Argh!"
Pain flared—hot, sharp, and electric. But unlike a normal animal bite, it didn't just tear flesh. It felt like burning ice. It felt like his arm was being dipped in acid. The creature wasn't just biting him; it was trying to overwrite his existence.
[ WARNING: CORRUPTION DETECTED ]
[ HP: 85% ]
[ STATUS: DATA EROSION ]
Kaelen screamed, jamming the end of the pipe into the creature's exposed ribs. He pushed, leveraging his weight against the beast, slamming it backward into the metal counter.
It wouldn't let go. Its jaws were locked, grinding against his radius bone. The grey smoke leaking from its mouth was burning his skin.
"Let... go!"
He dropped the pipe. It clattered to the floor.
He didn't have a weapon. He had one good hand, a bleeding arm, and an interface.
He grabbed the creature's slippery, inside-out neck with his right hand. He stared directly into its empty white eyes.
He didn't have a skill for this. He didn't have a spell.
But he had Authority.
"Delete!" he roared.
He didn't just say the word. He poured his will into it. He pushed his Authority out of his core and into the monster's code, forcing a command that shouldn't be possible for a Level 1 User.
REMOVE.
The Hollow screeched—a sound like a modem dying.
The glowing red knot in its chest flared blindingly bright, overloading.
POP.
The monster didn't just die. It detonated.
It exploded into a cloud of fine blue dust, blowing Kaelen back against the shelves.
[ TARGET DELETED ]
[ +10 AUTHORITY ]
[ COMBAT BONUS: BRUTE FORCE DELETE (+5) ]
Kaelen slid down the shelf, landing hard on the floor. He gasped for air, clutching his injured left arm.
Smoke was rising from the bite marks. The skin around the wound looked grey and pixelated, like a low-resolution jpeg.
He checked his vision.
[ USER: KAELEN ]
[ AUTHORITY: 30 / 100 ]
He started with 5. He spent 0. He gained 25.
Thirty points.
He looked at the empty First Aid Kit on the floor a few feet away.
"Worth it," he wheezed. "Totally... worth it."
He dragged himself over to the white box. His leg was burning, his arm was throbbing, and his head felt light.
He placed his trembling, blood-stained hand on the plastic lid.
"Restore."
He felt the drain immediately. 15 points vanished from his counter.
The energy left him, flowing into the box.
VRRRM.
The white box glowed with intense blue light.
When the light faded, the scratches on the lid were gone. The plastic was pristine. The red cross was vibrant.
Kaelen clicked the latches open.
The smell hit him first—sterile, sharp, chemical.
Inside, rows of bandages, antiseptic wipes, gauze rolls, and a small bottle of painkillers sat in perfect, factory-fresh order. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
He laughed. It was a dry, broken sound that echoed in the empty store.
"Pay to win," he whispered. "It's literally pay to win."
He didn't waste time.
He tore open an antiseptic wipe. He scrubbed the pixelated bite mark on his arm first. It stung like fire, but as he wiped, the grey "corruption" flaked off, leaving raw but red—human—flesh underneath.
Next, the leg.
He cut away the pant leg with the trauma shears from the kit. The rebar wound was ugly, deep and jagged. But he cleaned it, packed it with gauze, and wrapped it tight with a compression bandage.
Finally, he popped two ibuprofen dry.
He sat back against the counter, closing his eyes, letting the adrenaline crash wash over him.
He was alive.
He had food (restorable trash). He had water. He had meds.
Maybe he could stay here. The store had walls. It had a roof. Maybe he could just barricade the door and—
[ SYSTEM ALERT: ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD ]
Kaelen's eyes snapped open.
The blue text was flashing urgently.
[ WARNING: DELETION WAVE INBOUND ]
[ TIME TO IMPACT: 15 MINUTES ]
[ CURRENT LOCATION: UNSTABLE ]
"Deletion wave?"
He pulled himself up, using the counter for support. He limped to the shattered storefront window.
The sunless sky had turned pitch black. But it wasn't a natural night. The darkness was heavy, suffocating. The only light came from the System Pylons in the distance.
And then he saw it.
Down the street, about three blocks away, a wall of white fog was moving.
It wasn't mist. It was static.
It rolled silently, a towering tsunami of white noise. Where it touched the ground, the pavement didn't just get covered; it ceased to exist. Cars, lampposts, mailboxes—they dissolved into the white wall and simply stopped rendering.
The world was shrinking. The System was freeing up memory by deleting the unused sectors.
"The store," Kaelen realized, looking at the flickering walls around him. "It's not a safe zone. It's going to be deleted."
He needed a Bunker. He needed an Anchor.
He remembered the quest reward from Chapter 1. [ MAP UNLOCK ].
"Map!" he shouted.
A holographic grid expanded in his vision.
Most of it was black, marked [ UNEXPLORED ].
But to the north, about a mile away, a faint, pulsing gold signal appeared.
[ SIGNAL DETECTED: ANCHOR POINT (OFFLINE) ]
[ SECURITY LEVEL: HIGH ]
"A mile," Kaelen hissed. "On a bad leg. In the dark."
He looked at the approaching white wall of erasure. It was eating a sedan parked down the street. The car vanished bumper to bumper, erased from history.
He grabbed the First Aid Kit. He picked up the iron pipe.
He stuffed the restored water bottle into his pocket.
He looked at the scrolling wall of death.
[ TIME TO IMPACT: 12 MINUTES ]
"Run," Kaelen muttered. "Or get deleted."
He stepped out of the store and into the nightmare.
[ QUEST UPDATED: REACH THE ANCHOR ]
[ DIFFICULTY: HARD ]