The air inside the Safe Zone was thick with tension. The survivors huddled together, their makeshift weapons clutched tightly in trembling hands. The robotic voice of the system had warned them—another wave of monsters was coming. This wasn't part of the tutorial's script. Something had gone wrong.
Liam wiped sweat from his brow, his hazel eyes scanning the sterile white walls of the Safe Zone. The room, once a pristine haven, now bore the scars of their previous battles—scorch marks from fire skills, cracks in the walls from desperate struggles, and the faint metallic tang of blood in the air.
Aria stood beside him, her ice-blue eyes narrowed. "They're testing us," she muttered. "Pushing us to see who breaks first."
Liam forced a grin. "Well, I've always been great at improv---."
Aria shot him a look. "This isn't one of your failed auditions, Crest. If we screw up, we die."
Before Liam could retort, the walls shuddered. A deep, guttural roar echoed through the Safe Zone, followed by the sound of claws scraping against metal. The survivors tensed, their breaths coming in short, panicked gasps.
Then, the first monster burst through.
It was a hulking, insectoid creature, its chitinous shell glistening under the artificial light. Six spindly legs carried it forward with terrifying speed, its mandibles clicking hungrily. Behind it, more creatures poured in—twisted amalgamations of flesh and bone, their forms defying logic.
"Fall back!" someone screamed.
Chaos erupted. The survivors scattered, their earlier camaraderie forgotten in the face of raw terror. Liam's heart pounded, but his mind raced faster. He grabbed a broken chair leg from the ground, his fingers tightening around the splintered wood.
Aria didn't hesitate. She lunged forward, her collapsible staff extending mid-swing. The weapon cracked against the insectoid's leg, sending it stumbling. But the creature recovered quickly, its tail lashing out. Aria barely dodged, rolling to the side as the stinger embedded itself in the wall where she'd been standing.
Liam's eyes darted around the room. The Safe Zone was supposed to be a controlled environment, but the system had clearly thrown them into the deep end. He needed to even the odds.
"Aria! Buy me thirty seconds!" he shouted.
She didn't question him. With a grunt, she launched herself back into the fray, her movements a blur of calculated strikes and evasions.
Liam sprinted to the far wall, where a cluster of abandoned supply crates lay overturned. He rummaged through them, his hands closing around a length of frayed wiring and a cracked tablet. The tablet's screen flickered weakly, but it was enough.
The monsters were closing in. Aria was holding her own, but she couldn't keep it up forever. Liam's fingers worked frantically, twisting the wiring around the tablet's exposed circuitry. He didn't have time for finesse—just brute-force ingenuity.
"Come on, come on…" he muttered.
Aria's voice cut through the din. "Liam, whatever you're doing, do it now!"
He looked up just in time to see her duck under a sweeping claw, her staff snapping out to trip another creature. But more were coming. Too many.
Liam slammed the wired tablet against the Safe Zone's control panel. Sparks flew as the makeshift device overloaded the system. The lights flickered, then died—plunging the room into darkness.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then, the emergency protocols kicked in.
Red floodlights bathed the Safe Zone in an eerie glow, and the vents along the ceiling hissed open. A thick, acrid gas began pouring into the room.
The monsters screeched, their movements becoming erratic. The gas wasn't lethal—not to humans, at least—but it was clearly disorienting to the creatures. They stumbled, their attacks growing sluggish.
Aria didn't waste the opportunity. She moved like a shadow, her staff striking with precision. One by one, the monsters fell.
Liam grabbed a jagged piece of metal from the ground and joined her. He wasn't a fighter, but he didn't need to be. He just needed to survive.
Together, they carved a path through the chaos. The other survivors, seeing their chance, rallied. Weapons rose and fell. Screams filled the air.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
The last monster collapsed, its body dissolving into motes of light. The gas dissipated, leaving the survivors coughing and gasping. The Safe Zone was a wreck, but they'd held their ground.
Aria leaned against her staff, her breath coming in ragged bursts. She turned to Liam, her expression unreadable. "That was stupid."
Liam grinned, wiping blood from a cut on his cheek. "But it worked."
For the first time since they'd met, something flickered in Aria's eyes—something that might have been respect.
The robotic voice of the system crackled to life overhead.
"Tutorial phase complete. Proceed to the final task."
The survivors exchanged exhausted glances. They'd survived the breach. But the hardest part was yet to come.
And Liam couldn't shake the feeling that the system wasn't done with him yet.