"Arya."
She stopped.
Uncle Jad's voice came from behind her. Calm... yet carrying an unfamiliar heaviness, and a hoarseness of exhaustion he couldn't quite hide. She turned her head slightly, without turning her body fully.
He took two steps closer, then spoke in a hesitant tone. "Are you... leaving?"
His gaze settled on her small back—on a composure that didn't match her age. Then he added, regret bleeding through. "I'm sorry, my girl... I was the one who called you to join this group. I never imagined the real monsters would be inside... not outside."
Arya turned half her face toward him. The violet glow in her blue eyes had dimmed, leaving them cold as two shards of glass. She answered with direct calm. "It's not your fault, Uncle Jad. Greed doesn't need an invitation. It wakes up on its own when the world's laws collapse."
Jad was silent for a moment. Then a pale smile crossed his face. He let out a soft, tired laugh, shaking his head as if genuinely surprised by her steadiness. "You really have caught me off guard... But listen to an old man's advice. Power draws eyes. Don't turn your back on them, alright?"
She gave him one last, unreadable look, then turned toward the dark emptiness beyond the door. Her voice came out cold. "I'll be back soon. I just need some air... away from them."
The words Watch out for yourself were the last thing that reached her ears before the street's darkness swallowed her.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the air slapped her.
It wasn't refreshing the way the wind pretended. It was heavy, saturated with the stench of rust, blood, and dust.
An eerie stillness gripped the street. Shadows danced beneath the flickering light of the lampposts... but Arya's heart didn't tremble. She didn't falter. Her mind began its automatic calculations.
She checked the corners. Estimated the distances. Her grip tightened around the handle of her Rusty Dagger. She spoke to herself in silence.
Danger is behind me. And danger is ahead. But at least the front is honest.
She walked a few steps from the shop's doorway, then stopped abruptly.
She froze completely in the middle of the deserted street. She tilted her head back, casting a slivered glance at the building where she had left the crowd behind. Her look wasn't nostalgia or hesitation. It was cold contemplation over a bitter truth.
A chain of events scrolled through her mind like a transparent reel: Cam's greed... Richard's manipulation... the weakness of the rest.
Humans... she told herself bitterly. Unreliable entities. They consume power and time in petty conflicts with no real purpose.
Then she lifted her eyes toward the darkness stretching through the city streets. Out there, the monsters waited.
That was different. The monsters' hostility was honest. No hypocrisy. No honeyed speeches. And above all—they were the only source that granted Experience.
The safe zone? Maybe it was a dream for the others.
But for her, going there now—while she was still weak—wasn't salvation. It was a transfer from one prison to another. And in the end, that place belonged to humans. She didn't know what would happen there.
With a cold resolve that matched the frost of the night around her, she made her final decision.
She would not go to the safe zone. Not yet.146Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsAeYaKCJxf
She gripped the blade of her dagger tight. Her eyes flared with hardened determination, and she whispered into the silence. "I'll become stronger first... before anything else."
---
Arya moved with intelligence and calm. She didn't stray far from the shop. Wisdom demanded she keep her eyes on the humans there... and on the monsters that were beginning to fill the sidewalks.
She chose a building across the street—five stories high. A strategic angle that overlooked both the main road and the shop's entrance at once. Her objective was clear: observe without direct involvement, and secure a position that gave her the advantage in vision and escape if necessary.
She stopped at the building's entrance. Before she crossed the main gate, a disturbance inside the guard's glass booth outside caught her attention.
A monster was trapped in a space no wider than two meters. It still wore the remnants of an official guard's uniform.
The moment it glimpsed Arya's silhouette approaching, it hurled itself at the glass in a frenzy, slamming its hardened hands against the pane that separated them. It let out a muffled, nauseating growl as it tried to shatter the only barrier keeping it from its prey.
Arya gave it no emotional attention. She didn't consider summoning her Shadows. This creature was only Rank F—helpless behind the glass.
She waited for the right moment. When the monster's head thrust through a gap in the broken window, she moved her Rusty Dagger in a single, precise motion. Smooth. Fluid.
The blade punched between the monster's ribs. A furious snarl didn't last. It collapsed to the ground, its body dissolving into gray ash within seconds.
The transparent system notifications bloomed before her eyes.
---
[Target Eliminated: Common Monster — Rank F]
[Experience Gained: +5 XP]
[Reward: 3 Bronze Coins]
[Material Drop: Core Shard — Rank F]
---
In that moment, the air around her shivered. She felt a sudden heat surging through her spine, spreading into her limbs like a quiet electric current. A system panel flared before her eyes with a faint golden flash.
---
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 2.]
[Status: Arya | Level: 2 (0/200 XP)]
Strength: 10.1 → 11.1
Agility: 10 → 11
Constitution: 10 → 11
Health: 100 → 105
Spirit: 50 → 55
Mana: 100 → 110
---
Arya clenched her fist and opened it again, repeating the motion. She felt her muscles grow denser. Her body felt lighter, more responsive. The cold she had been feeling in her chest—the Spirit energy—had deepened and grown more stable.
A barely perceptible smile touched the corner of her mouth.
This feeling of strength is the only real thing in this world.
She collected her reward coldly, then turned toward the building's gate and began her ascent toward the upper floors.
But the moment she entered the dark lobby of the ground floor—before her foot touched the first step of the stairs—Arya froze.
From the darkness of the long corridor, two Rank E monsters emerged.
They weren't slow like the Rank F creatures. Their movements were steadier. Their eyes held a hungry, blood-red gleam.
Arya whispered, cold. "The cat..."
The small shadow detached from her foot like lightning, taking the shape of a glowing black cat. It shot toward the first monster with a speed no human eye could fully track.
In a blink, it had scaled the monster's chest and driven its shadow claws into its throat, tearing through tendons and black flesh in a single fatal strike.
Before a second had passed, the monster's body began crumbling to dust.
The second monster charged at Arya with a savage roar.
This time, the cat didn't kill it outright. It moved to cripple. The cat sprang onto the monster's leg and sank its claws into the nerve at the knee. The beast staggered and collapsed to its knees, helpless.
This was her chance.
Arya surged forward, exploiting the monster's momentary paralysis. She tightened her grip on her Rusty Dagger and drove the blade into the weak point behind the monster's neck with a controlled, graceful thrust. She felt the skin resist... then the blade punched through to the spine.
The monster went still. Its body vanished into black ash, toyed with by the wind. It left behind gleaming rewards on the bare floor.
---
[Target Eliminated: 2 Common Monsters — Rank E]
[Experience Gained: +20 XP]
[Reward: 14 Bronze Coins, 2 Core Shards — Rank E]
---
Arya turned toward the ground-floor lobby. She began her harvest with mechanical coldness.
No door left ajar was spared—she pushed each one open with the tip of her dagger. No closed door went unchecked—she knocked, provoking whatever death lurked behind it.
She knocked on the decaying wooden door of a dark corridor. The echo of a muffled, strangled roar rippled across the building's walls. The smell of fresh blood mixed with rot struck her senses like a physical blow.
Inside the room, the scene was far more horrific.
A child's body, nearly torn apart. And the two monster parents feeding on it without mercy. Their bestial instincts had swallowed every last trace of humanity. On the floor, a small hand hung lifeless, and beside it lay a tiny toy, smeared with blood.
Arya's emotions trembled... but her arm did not falter.
A sharp stab in her chest—a mix of rage, disgust, and sorrow—burned through her, as if her heart understood the full scale of cruelty this world demanded.
With terrifying calm, the two monster parents lurched toward her in contempt. She didn't hesitate.
She signaled the cat. It launched like a black arrow to disable one of them with its claws. Meanwhile, Arya slipped under the other's arm and drove her Rusty Dagger into the hollow of its eye socket, all the way to the brain.
She pulled the blade free and turned to the second. Already crippled by the cat's previous strike, it ended with a swift thrust into its spine. The parents' bodies dissolved into black ash, leaving behind a few Bronze Coins.
[Target Eliminated: 2 Common Monsters — Rank F]
She stopped at the child's body. She looked at the emptiness the killing had left behind. She exhaled slowly. Her voice was muted inside her own chest.
This world... shows no mercy to anyone. Not even its innocent.
She approached the nearby bed. She pulled a clean white sheet and covered what remained of the child's body.
It wasn't just an action. It was a final gesture of respect for an innocence that reality had violated.
She looked at the small, bloodstained toy, as if speaking to herself. Your soul will rest here. At least that.
With every movement, she felt the weight of life. It was as if every day in this world taught her a new lesson in survival, planting a mixture of caution and strength deep in her heart.
After that, she searched the corners of the home and gathered whatever provisions she could: canned food, a bottle of water, medicine, a bandage—anything that could keep her alive.
She didn't stay long. But she left carrying the feeling of loss and the lesson of cruelty in her heart, as if she had stored the entire world's experience inside a single moment.
She left the room to continue clearing the floor.
In the second room, she knocked and received no answer. She tried the door—it was sealed shut. She moved on.
In the third, silence ruled. No movement behind the wood. She continued.
She reached the fourth and final room. She knocked... and a weak, hesitant roar answered.
The moment she opened the door, she found a lone Rank F monster spinning in frantic, aimless rage. The fight didn't last. In sync with the Shadow Cat, she ended it. The monster vanished like dust.
She took what supplies she found, feeling the weight of her bag increase—just as the weight of strength had increased inside her body.
[Target Eliminated: Common Monster — Rank F]
[Status: Arya | Level: 2 (35/200 XP)]
While she searched the open rooms, she realized the ground floor had become empty. The silence was no longer just the absence of movement—it was a feeling of power and control. A sense that her body and mind had become a single, complete tool for the conflict to come.
She secured her bag. Then she moved toward the stairs leading to the first floor.
---
She set her foot on the first step of the upper corridor. Her blue eyes swept the darkness with the sharpness of Level 2.
And then... the Shadow Cat stopped moving.
Its smoky body dropped low to the ground, emitting a faint, warning hiss she hadn't heard before. But she no longer needed it.
From atop a shattered wooden cabinet at the end of the corridor, two red eyes emerged, glowing with a strange light.
This time, it wasn't a humanoid monster.
A sleek creature slid forward, slow, into the pale moonlight leaking through a broken window. It had once been a house cat. Now it was the size of a small leopard. Sharp, bony protrusions jutted from its back. Its fangs had lengthened, emerging horribly from its jaws.
[Target Detected: Feline Monster — Rank D]
It didn't growl like the human monsters. Its sound was like metal scraping against metal.
It readied itself to leap. The muscles in its hind legs coiled with imminent explosion.
And in that suspended moment before the storm, Arya understood. Fighting the distorted humans had only been a warm-up.
The animal monsters... possessed a killing instinct that knew no error.
Her pupils contracted. She whispered to herself.
Let's begin...
---
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