The monster was watching him.
Kael could feel it even before it stepped out from behind the cracked concrete. Its presence distorted the air — thick, buzzing with static, like the moment before lightning strikes.
It was huge. Eight feet tall, maybe more. Not quite a beast, not quite a man. Its skin was matte black, almost stone-like, but flexed like muscle. Its arms were too long. Its joints clicked the wrong way. And it didn't have eyes — just a slit that pulsed with red light across what might've once been a face.
> [TARGET IDENTIFIED: PLAYER — DRAVEN, KAEL]
Threat Level: 0 → Updating...
The system's voice rang in his head like a notification bell. Calm. Cold. Almost amused.
Kael didn't react.
He crouched low behind a rusted car, hand resting on the grip of a jagged piece of metal — a broken steel pipe sharpened crudely at the edge. It wasn't much. But in this world, even scrap could be a weapon.
His tattered cloak clung to his shoulders, soaked in sweat and ash. His HP bar hovered in the corner of his vision: red, flickering, barely more than a sliver.
> "Great," he muttered, tightening his grip. "Another monster. Just my luck."
The thing stepped forward.
Its limbs moved like hydraulics — stiff, unnatural — and each step echoed like metal on bone. Its chest expanded once, then let out a low, rattling click-click-click, the same sound Kael had heard from other monsters before they struck. It wasn't breathing. It was calculating.
> "One hit and I'm gone," Kael whispered. "So don't get hit."
He lunged.
From the cover of the wreck, Kael burst forward, blade raised, feet pounding over cracked pavement. The monster turned too late — Kael had already closed the distance. He aimed straight for its torso, beneath the ribs where most monsters kept their core.
The makeshift blade bit in. Sparks flew.
But not deep enough.
The monster twisted and brought its claw around in a wide arc. Kael ducked low, but the edge of the strike caught his ribs and sent him flying into a shattered vending machine.
Pain exploded across his side.
> [YOU DIED]
Respawning at last checkpoint...
+ Memory Retained: Claw Wind-up Pattern
+ Muscle Correction: -0.2s Dodge Delay
---
Kael sat up gasping.
Grave dust. Cold wind. Night sky.
The Sector 9 Memorial Graveyard. Again.
He was back.
> "That's twenty," he said aloud. His voice cracked. "Twenty damn times."
His body trembled, but he stood anyway. The bruises weren't real anymore, but his brain still felt them. Phantom pain — his mind didn't care that he was technically unhurt.
He gritted his teeth and picked up his scavenged weapon from beside the altar. Still bent, still chipped, but it hadn't vanished.
> "You remember," he muttered. "So act like it."
He ran.
No hesitation. No creeping.
Only instinct and repetition.
---
Back in the plaza, the monster waited. Still scanning. Still pacing. Its claws dragged along the pavement like it was bored.
Kael slowed his breathing. Felt the tension in his calves, the rhythm in his chest, the wind shifting around the broken buildings.
Then he charged.
The monster lunged, just like before — one long step, claw raised. Kael ducked into the strike instead of away, using its blind spot to get under its shoulder. He drove the pipe into the base of its arm with a full-body push.
A spray of black mist.
The beast screeched, its voice glitched and sharp, like digital static overlaid on metal screams.
Kael kept going.
One strike. Two. Three. He spun behind it, jabbed at its ribs, scraped along its back. The blade wasn't doing much — but he didn't need damage. He needed time.
The monster dropped to all six limbs, crawling low now — its movements sharper, faster. Then its chest split open with a pulsing red glow.
> [Weak Point Identified: Core Node]
Kael's eyes narrowed.
> "There you are."
He ran. Jumped from a chunk of broken stone. In midair, he gripped the pipe with both hands and slammed it into the core.
The steel bent from the impact, crumpling against the glow — but the force pushed deep enough.
The monster staggered.
It twitched. Jerked.
Then collapsed.
> [ZONE CLEARED — MONSTER ELIMINATED]
+ EXP Gained: 230
+ Class Potential Increased: 13%
+ New Passive Skill Available: Reflex Trace (Lv. 1)
Kael lay on his back, chest rising and falling with sharp, ragged breaths. His arms felt like lead. His legs burned.
But he was alive.
> "It's dead…" he whispered. "I actually…"
The wind carried dust across the ruins. In the distance, sirens still echoed — not mechanical ones, but monster howls somewhere far beyond the broken buildings.
Kael sat up slowly. The corpse of the monster was already dissolving into particles — glowing fragments of code drifting into the air like fireflies.
He dropped what was left of his weapon.
It had bent nearly in half. Completely useless now.
> "Guess it's time to find something better," he muttered.
He opened his interface. A new tab had appeared — faintly flickering, glowing softly in the corner of his vision.
> [Skill Tree: Unlocked]
He stared at it, then closed the screen without checking.
Not yet.
This wasn't a celebration. This wasn't victory. It was just survival.
And it was only going to get harder from here.
He looked down at the bent metal in his hand.
> "One day," he said softly, "I'll get a real weapon."
A proper one. One with weight.
Not something scavenged — but something earned.
But for now, he stood alone in Sector 9.
Scarred. Bloody. Breathing.
And after twenty deaths…
He was still alive.