She paused on the doorstep. Looked right. Then left.
The street she had known her whole life looked different now. Not because it had changed—but because the life that used to fill it had vanished.
Arya stepped forward, slow.
The sound of her shoes on the asphalt was louder than she expected.
She stopped at once. Listened.
Nothing.
No car engines. No children's laughter. Not even the barking of dogs that used to fill the neighborhood every morning.
Only—
The whistle of the wind.
The wind passed between the houses with a long, mournful sound, as if searching for something lost.
Arya moved slowly down the street. Threads of morning light slipped between the buildings, but the light wasn't warm. It was pale. Gray. As if it had passed through a layer of dust before reaching the ground. Dust was everywhere—tiny particles floating in the air, turning slowly inside the light beams. Sometimes they glinted for a moment... then vanished.
Arya looked at the cars parked along both sides of the road. One had its door still hanging open. Another had stopped at a strange angle, half its body up on the curb. A third... its keys were still dangling from the ignition.
Arya paused in front of it. She stared inside. The seats were empty.
But there was something on the floor. A plastic coffee cup... fallen, its contents half-spilled across the carpet.
Dried.
Everything happened so fast... she thought.
She moved again. Her steps lighter now. Her eyes sweeping constantly.
The corners.
The windows.
The cars.
Every shadow looked like it could move at any second.
Did I do the right thing? she asked herself, her grip tightening unconsciously around the handle of her hidden dagger. The idea of joining a group felt foreign to a mind that had spent the last hours programmed to survive alone.
She breathed in slowly.
But Maryam's face crossed her mind for a moment.
If she had stayed hidden and alone...
Would it have changed anything?
No.
She kept walking.
Can I trust other people? She didn't know. People changed when they were afraid. Every step hid a question—and when will I find the answer?
Fear made some people cooperate... and turned others into something worse than monsters.
She looked toward the end of the street where Jad had pointed earlier. The old tool shop was in that direction.
And what if they become a burden? If they were weak. If they panicked at the first fight. Would she have to save them?
Or—
Would she have to leave them behind?
The thought made her stomach tighten. She lowered her gaze to the ground as she walked.
The sound of her footsteps.
The sound of the wind.
Only those two sounds filled the street.
Then something else surfaced in her mind.
Arya stopped for a moment in front of a shattered barber shop window. She stared at her reflection in the cracked glass. She wasn't the girl she had been two days ago. Her eyes were deeper. Her body was coiled tight—like a bowstring drawn and ready to release.
A sudden thought flared, quickening her pulse.
Monsters grow stronger. Jad said it. The system confirmed it. But... what about humans?
She raised her hand before her eyes and watched the faint black shadow that coiled around her fingers with silent loyalty.
She thought of the night before.
The fight.
The Shadow.
The power that surged through her when the black entity moved at her command.
Was that just chance? Or could humans grow stronger too, in this new world?
She glanced at her system screen, still blinking quietly at the edge of her vision. Everyone had this screen. Everyone had received the same warnings. If those creatures were evolving, breaking through wooden doors—then surely the humans behind those silent walls were also searching for ways to raise their levels.
---
The path to the tool shop ran through a narrow alley where metal trash bins were piled up like lifeless corpses. A strange sound reached her ears.
Crick...
She froze. The sound had come from a tight alley squeezed between two old houses. Metallic scraping. As if something were dragging a trash bin across the asphalt.
Arya approached the alley entrance slowly. The light here was weaker. The shadows, longer. The air, colder.
She tilted her head and peered inside.
A row of metal trash bins lined the wall. One of them shifted slightly.
Then—
Something emerged from behind it.
A deformed body pulled itself out of the shadow. Pale gray skin. Twisted shoulders. Long fingers ending in black claws.
Then a second one appeared. It crawled out from behind another bin, its teeth clicking with a faint grinding sound. Their eyes gleamed with primal hunger beneath the system screens that hovered above their heads, confirming their ranks.
Arya's eyes widened.
Two of them... Rank F.
The two monsters watched her in silence for one heartbeat. Then one stepped forward. The sound of claws on asphalt was sharp. Arya retreated half a step on instinct. The first thought that flashed through her mind was clear.
Run.
But she stopped. She looked at the two monsters again. Then she breathed, slow.
If I'm going out with the others...
She lowered the dagger slightly.
...I need to know the limits of my own strength.
With a surge of will, she summoned the Shadow. She closed her eyes for a fraction of a second.
Then she whispered, "Come."
The shadow behind her shuddered.
It peeled away from the ground slowly... then rose like dense black smoke before condensing beside her. The dark entity took its familiar form.
In the same instant—
The first monster lunged.
A sharp cry tore from its throat as it launched itself across the alley. Its claws stretched toward her throat.
Move.
Arya twisted sideways, fast. The claws swept past her face by centimeters.
Shkssshh!
They slammed into the metal behind her. But before the monster could recover its balance—the Shadow moved. A black flash. It slid across the ground with unnatural speed.
Thud!
It crashed into the monster from the side and hurled it against the wall. The body hit the stone with a force that shook the alley, the Shadow having driven into it like a black battering ram. At the same moment, blue light flared before Arya's eyes.
[Shadow — Shadow Cat: Health -5]
[Monster (F) (1): Health -40]
Arya seized the opening. She vaulted onto the trash bin and drove her dagger into its shoulder while the Shadow harried it from below.
[Monster (F) (1): Health -20]
The second monster tried to circle around, but Arya kicked a heap of trash bags into its path—delaying it by a single second. The exact second she needed to issue a decisive command.
The Shadow clashed with the first monster. The beast's claw raked across it, tearing away part of its black body.
[Shadow has taken damage: Health -5]
Arya grimaced. But the Shadow lunged again with blind, relentless force, tearing into the side of the first monster's neck with its dark claws. The monster collapsed. Its body began to disintegrate, crumbling into gray ash that scattered on the air—leaving behind a Core Shard and seven bronze coins.
[Target Eliminated: Common Monster — Rank F]
[Experience Gained: +5 XP]
The fight wasn't over. The second monster charged at her with feral fury. Arya's feet stayed steady. She twisted aside with fluid ease, and her dagger shot out like a scorpion's sting—one fast thrust under the beast's armpit, then another into its neck.
[Monster (F) (2): Health -20]
Arya ordered the Shadow to finish it.
The Shadow Cat pounced from behind in flawless synchronization with her movement. It tore through the second monster's chest with a single, precise strike. The deformed body convulsed—then went completely still. It crumbled, turning to gray dust. Something heavy struck the ground amid the ash with a dull metallic ring.
[Monster (F) (2): Health -80]139Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BeP8ApV5f
[Target Eliminated: Common Monster — Rank F]
[Experience Gained: +5 XP]
Then—the Shadow flared with a pulse of dark light. The blue screen in front of her trembled.
---
[Congratulations! Active Entity: Shadow Cat has reached Level 2!]
Experience: 0/200
Strength: 13 → 14
Constitution: 10 → 11
Agility: 18 → 19
Health: 100 → 105
[Warning: Spirit consumption rate increased by 2%.]
---
Arya felt a sudden heaviness in her head—a faint pressure demanding more focus.
It got stronger. But it's draining more of my Spirit to give it commands.
[Equipment Drop: Reinforced Leather Armor — Rank F]
[Status: Arya | Level: 1 (65/100 XP)]
---
A heavy silence settled over the alley after the last of the gray dust had vanished into the air. Only the faint sound of the wind remained, threading between the metal bins.
Arya stood motionless for a long moment, her eyes sweeping the space. There was no feeling of triumph. Just quiet focus. The fight was over, but her body hadn't yet released its readiness.
She lowered the dagger. Then looked at the ground. The two dark Core Shards still lay on the asphalt, beside them the small bronze coins catching strands of gray light. The other piece was near the wall—a dark piece of reinforced leather armor, heavier than she had expected.
Arya bent down.
She reached for the coins first. They dissolved into the air the moment her fingers touched them. A small window appeared.
[Balance: 38 Bronze Coins]
Then she picked up the two Core Shards and slipped them into her pocket without a second glance.
The Reinforced Leather Armor was thicker than ordinary clothing, lined with a rough inner layer. She ran her fingers over its surface, feeling the hardness of the treated hide. A system notification opened before her eyes, calm and unobtrusive.
[Equipment: Reinforced Leather Armor — Rank F]
Defense: +1
Durability: 100/100
She turned it over in her hands. Not light... but not heavy enough to slow her down. She glanced around the alley again. Still. Silent.
Her eyes returned to the Shadow Cat standing near her feet. The Shadow was steadier now. Its dark body looked slightly denser, and its movements were lighter than they had been minutes ago. But that faint pressure remained inside her skull. Not pain—a silent reminder. Giving commands cost more now.
She breathed out slowly. Then she folded the armor quickly and stowed it inside the small bag slung behind her back.
No need to show it yet.
After a moment, the Shadow Cat dissolved. The shadow slipped back beneath her feet, flattening against the ground as if it had never left.
Arya wiped the dust from her dagger with the edge of her sleeve. She returned it to its place. She lifted her head toward the alley's end. The gray morning light was showing the main street now. The old tool shop wasn't far.
She stood at the alley's mouth for a moment, catching her breath while her mind processed the new combat rhythm she had just learned. The battle had lasted only minutes, but she was walking out of it with something more valuable than armor or Core Shards. She was walking out with confidence.
The last dust motes scattered on the wind, and the Shadow slid beneath her feet once more—a loyal guardian. She looked toward the sign of the old tool shop, now visible at the end of the street.
The real test hadn't even started yet.
The monsters in the alley were just hungry, she thought. But the humans in that shop...
She had a feeling they would be far more complicated.
Or so she thought...
---
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