The squad waited behind him in silence, watching their captain stare down at the bloodied face of his sister.
Rex hand shook as he closed her eyes with two fingers.
"That Runner… ate my sister… and left her here like trash."
He turned to his squad, eyes burning with a fury they hadn't seen before.
"This mission isn't yours anymore."
"Captain—"
He raised a hand to silence them.
"You'll stay here. Guard the bodies. If anything comes close… cut it down."
"But Rex, you can't go up there alone—"
"I said stay put!"
The street fell quiet. Not even the wind dared to move.
He looked back at Lex one more time, jaw clenched tight.
"I won't let her death end like this. That Runner dies by my hand, and this nest will crumble beneath my blade."
Without another word, Rex turned toward the skyscraper, cape snapping behind him as he sprinted across the cracked road.
Alone.
Up the broken staircase. Through twisted halls. Past fresh blood trails and twitching limbs.
Toward the Queen's nest.
Rex ascended the skyscraper like a phantom. The interior was crawling with Eaters, but they barely slowed him down.
One lunged from the side.
He didn't pull back. His serrated sword tore through its chest, ripping bone and muscle apart like wet paper.
[Feed Count: +10]
[Feed Count: 129,140/ 130,000]
Another dropped from the ceiling.
He pivoted, drove his blade upward through its mouth, splitting its skull clean in two.
[Feed Count: +10]
[Feed Count: 129, 150/ 130,000]
He didn't stop moving.
Step. Slice. Step. Cleave.
Every creature in his path was shredded. Limbs flew. Heads rolled. The walls were painted in deep violet blood.
[Feed Count: +100]
[Feed Count: 129, 250/ 130,000]
He didn't even bother using any of his skills.
By the time he reached the final staircase, the trail behind him was a massacre. Rex kicked open the last rusted door, stepping out onto the rooftop.
And there it was. The Queen.
A hatchling but already grotesque. Its bloated body was fused into the rooftop like a web of glistening flesh. Dozens of limbs, tendrils, and pulsing tubes stretched across the roof, clinging to pipes, walls, and broken beams.
From her center, small twisted Eaters slid out of fleshy sacs, still wet, their eyes twitching open.
A woman's voice echoed in Rex's mind. Soft. Haunting.
"Brother… my big brother Rex. You came for me. I always knew you loved me…"
Rex's grip tightened.
The Queen laughed. A sick, wet gurgle.
"Will you feed me too?"
Rex stepped forward, blade gleaming with fresh blood.
"You fed on the wrong girl."
He charged.
A dozen tendrils whipped at him from all directions. He ducked, rolled, slashed through them mid-air. The rooftop shook as he ripped one anchor limb free from the concrete, sending part of the flesh-web collapsing.
The Queen screeched, the voice turning monstrous.
He didn't stop.
He hacked another limb. Then another. Each one burst with violet ichor, spraying the roof.
Spawns scrambled from her belly, screeching. He tore through them with one clean arc, the shark-toothed blade shredding them into chunks.
He climbed onto her back, sword in both hands, eyes wild.
"You don't get to speak with her voice."
Then he drove his blade deep into her center.
The Queen let out one final scream, something between a woman's wail and a beast's roar.
[Feed Count: +250]
[Feed Count: 129, 500/ 130,000]
The rooftop went still, drenched in flesh and blood. Rex stood there for a moment, breathing hard. He pulled his blade free.
He looked out over the ruined city. The wind pulled at his cape, blood dripping from his sword.
"Lex… I'll make sure to avenge you. That Runner… every inch of me knows it's still alive."
His eyes narrowed.
"And I'm going to find it. Cleave it in half!"
Back in the old park, Johnquis sat cross-legged, the Runner crouched beside him. Both silent and alert. Both had their eyes locked on the faint digital screen floating above his Eater Stone.
Their gazes were sharp, focused.
They waited. The hum of wind through the trees…
Ting!
A soft chime rang out.
A new F-tier quest popped up.
Johnquis didn't hesitate. His finger shot out and tapped the screen in a flash.
[Quest Accepted]
He looked at the Runner.
"FINALLY! Getting an F-tier quest is harder than the actual mission. It's a battle of the unranked; quickest finger win!"
Beside him, the Runner tilted its head and let out an eager growl. Almost like it was cheering too.
Johnquis stood up and stretched his arms.
"Alright! Let's check where the quest is... there!"
He stepped to the edge, scanning the view.
"That's why I like being up here. You can see everything. It's right in the middle of it all."
He tapped the map projected from his Eater Stone, a red marker blinking faintly.
"See that? The red mark? That's it. A school building. Come on, let's go!"
The Runner leapt to its feet, muscles coiled, ready to run.
As they approached the quest marker, Johnquis broke the silence.
"These F-rank missions are all cleanup. Stray Eaters that wandered off after their nests were destroyed. Some make it to settlements, others just rot in places like this. Usually two to four of them... sometimes only one. That's the worst kind of luck."
A sharp chime rang from the device.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
Quest Range Entered: F-TIER
Objective Activated: Eliminate all Eaters in the area.
Time Limit: 3h00m
Status: Solo
Johnquis glanced at the Runner beside him.
"Don't expect me to finish this under the time limit. Might as well tell you now. Your master is a noob. Weakest. Hardstuck. Tryhard. Trash. Pick a word, it fits me."
He smiled faintly.
"But we better get a three-to-five-star rating out of this."I need those stars if you want your master to stay alive. No, we better, for my sister Jiana, right?"
They stepped through the rusted gates of a ruined school building. The wind stirred loose papers on the floor, and distant creaks echoed down the halls. Moss had crept across walls. Broken lockers were buckled and gutted. A smashed vending machine lay on its side, covered in soot and dried blood. The whole place felt hollow like it had forgotten it used to be full of life.
Johnquis glanced at a cracked mural on the wall: children in uniform, laughing under a blue sky.
"This school's too damn big. Too many facilities. It might've been a nest before. If that's the case, we need to be careful. Could be plenty of strays still crawling around."
He wandered into the main hall, spotting faded posters on the wall—clubs, festivals, smiling faces from a world long dead.
"Early people were lucky to have this kind of life. If this world hadn't gone to hell, we might've been students here. Might've had normal childhoods. Friends. Exams. Bullshit drama."
He turned slowly, eyeing every hallway, stairwell, and shattered door.
"You know what makes this hard? Three hours. And I have to sweep every corner of this damn place. Every floor, every closet, every shadow. How the hell am I supposed to clear this whole school solo?"
As they walked deeper in, the Runner's ears twitched. It froze. A low growl rumbled from its throat.
"Grrrr..."
It crouched low and suddenly bolted forward on all fours. Johnquis shouted,
"Hey! What are you doing? Come back here!"
But the Runner was already gone, sprinting ten meters ahead in a blink. Suddenly, a metal chain snapped into existence between the collar on the Runner's neck and a link on Johnquis's belt.
[WARNING: SYNC LIMIT - 10 METERS]
"What the—? A leash?! Sync limit - 10 meters?!"
At the far end of the hall, a classroom door burst open. A Level 1 Eater stumbled out, its limbs twitching unnaturally. It let out a guttural shriek.
"GRRRRKKKHSSSS!"
The Runner stopped, snarling right back with more force, more fury.
"SSSKRRRRAAAHHH-GHHHRRRHHHK!"
Then, like animals in a death match, they both charged.
"Wait—WAIT!!"
The chain went tight.
Johnquis didn't even have time to brace.
"WAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
He was pulled straight off his feet, dragged down the hallway behind his crazed Runner bouncing hard against walls and debris. The Runner scrambled ahead on all fours, Johnquis's weight nothing to it.
The Level 1 Eater struggled to keep up, eyes wide as it watched the Runner's lightning speed. In a flash, the Runner lunged and bit the Eater's head clean off.
[Feed count: +50]
[Feed count: 10,050/20,000]
Johnquis clutched his head in surprise.
"What? I got a feed count? But why only 50? That's half…"
He glanced at his Runner.
[Feed count: +50]
[Feed count: ??????/??????]