The city felt different.
Nothing had changed yet, but I knew it would.
People walked past me like always. Some checked their phones. Some laughed. A couple argued near the corner as if the world wasn't about to collapse in less than two hours.
None of them knew.
I did.
And I walked among them carrying a decision that had no clean answer.
Kill a human.
The supermarket came into view.
The same place where everything had gone wrong last time.
In less than two hours, this building would turn into a trap. The entrances would clog, panic would spread, and the monsters would tear through everyone inside.
If I did nothing, most of these people would die anyway.
The thought came too easily.
"So this is how it starts."
I went inside.
The smell of bread and cleaning products filled the air. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Shopping carts rolled across the floor. A cashier leaned on the counter, barely awake.
Everything looked normal.
My eyes moved across the people inside.
A man arguing on the phone. A woman comparing prices. A teenager scrolling without paying attention to anything around him.
For a moment, my mind labeled them.
Targets.
I shut that down immediately.
"No."
They weren't targets.
Not yet.
[Time Remaining: 01:34:12]
I walked deeper into the store, forcing my thoughts into order.
If I refused, I would die.
If I accepted, someone else would.
There was no third option.
"Then I choose who."
The system stayed silent, but the attention was there.
That was when I saw him.
Near the drinks aisle.
A man in his thirties, broad-shouldered, moving without any awareness of the people around him. He shoved past someone and kept going as if nothing mattered.
A second later, a kid bumped into him by accident.
The reaction came instantly.
He grabbed the kid by the collar and shoved him hard enough to send him into the shelf behind him.
"Watch where you're going!"
The kid froze, eyes wide, barely holding back tears.
No one stepped in.
No one said anything.
My focus locked in.
"You."
It wasn't justice.
It wasn't righteousness.
But it was enough.
I moved closer.
Slow. Controlled.
He had already gone back to grabbing drinks.
Like nothing happened.
A few steps behind him, my breathing steadied.
Not calm.
Just… aligned.
"This is enough."
[Target acquired.]
"So you do help."
[I observe.]
That figured.
"Hey."
He turned, irritation already there.
"What?"
This was the last point where everything could still be undone.
Walking away remained possible.
Dying later without crossing the line remained possible.
Then the memory returned.
The claw.
The helplessness.
The end that changed nothing.
"…Nothing."
I moved.
What followed wasn't clean.
Wasn't controlled.
Wasn't anything worth naming.
But it was enough.
By the time people understood something was wrong, it had already ended.
The man collapsed.
For a brief moment, everything inside me went quiet.
Not the world.
Just me.
Something shifted.
And it didn't shift back.
A bottle slipped from someone's hand and shattered.
The screaming followed.
I looked down.
My hands felt distant, like they belonged to someone else.
My chest tightened.
"I…"
Nothing came after.
[QUEST COMPLETED]
[First Kill Confirmed]
Heat surged through my body.
My muscles tightened. My senses sharpened. The world felt clearer, easier to read.
[+5 STR]
[+5 AGI]
[+5 END]
[+5 PER]
[+5 INT]
Balance returned quickly.
Too quickly.
"So this is power."
It felt wrong.
That wasn't the problem.
The problem was how natural it felt.
[Sin Level Increased]
[Current Sin: 1]
My breathing settled.
Faster than it should have.
Around me, chaos spread.
People backed away, eyes filled with fear.
Not of what was coming.
Of me.
"Right."
One last look.
No undoing this.
"It was easier than I thought."
[Evaluation complete.]
[You did not hesitate at the critical moment.]
[Result: Promising]
"I'm not doing this for you."
No answer.
Only that same watching presence.
I turned toward the exit.
[New Quest Incoming…]
"…Already?"
[Prepare yourself.]
My jaw tightened.
Because now I understood.
This wasn't about survival anymore.
It was about how far I was willing to go.
And deep down—
I already knew.
I wouldn't stop at one.