The steel door exploded inward with a deafening crash.
The filing cabinet that Lila had dragged into place flew across the room like it weighed nothing, slamming into the far wall and shattering into rust and splinters.
Dust and debris rained down from the cracked ceiling as the first wave scouts poured through the gap — not one wolf this time, but a snarling pack of five. Their eyes glowed the same vicious red as the ones on the horizon, fur matted with dried blood and glowing purple veins pulsing under their skin.
Behind them came the skittering horror of a rat swarm — dozens of dog-sized rodents with razor teeth and whipping tails that left acidic trails on the concrete floor.
Kai's heart slammed against his shattered ribs. The venom from the earlier wolf claws burned hotter than ever, spreading like molten lava through his veins. His vision swam with black spots, and every breath felt like knives twisting deeper into his lungs.
This is it, he thought, anxiety exploding in his chest like a second wave. I woke up naked in a ruined world with a blood-red sky and broken skyscrapers, and now I'm going to die in some collapsed apartment because a video-game system decided to drop me here.
Flashes of his old life hit him harder than the pain — the safe glow of his computer screen, the boring commute, the way he used to complain about traffic. None of it had prepared him for this.
The red sun was gone now, replaced by total darkness outside except for the glowing eyes that filled every crack in the walls. The ruined city — those leaning towers he'd stared at in panic earlier — now felt like a tomb closing in.
Lila moved like a ghost. Her knife flashed in the faint blue glow from the deployed tent's barrier. "Stay behind the tent!" she shouted, voice steady but laced with the same caution she'd shown since the first fight.
She owed him her life — that debt was the only reason she hadn't left him outside — but seven years of this hell had taught her never to turn her back completely. One wrong move and a stranger could become a raider in a heartbeat.
She angled her body so she could still see him while lunging forward, knife hand ready to pivot if he suddenly attacked instead of helped.
The first wolf slammed into her. Lila twisted at the last second, driving her blade deep into its throat. Hot blood sprayed across her torn fatigues, but the creature thrashed wildly, its claws raking her shoulder.
She grunted in pain but didn't falter — years of nightly vigils in survivor camps had hardened her reflexes. "They're testing the barricade!" she yelled over the chaos. "Waves always start like this — scouts first, then the horde. Settlements survive because we build walls tall enough and burn repel-herb braziers that smell like death to them. But in a ruin like this? We're sitting ducks!"
Kai tried to stand. His legs betrayed him instantly.
The venom had dropped his vitality to nothing; the System screen pulsed in his blurring vision like a cruel countdown.
[Host Vitality: 1/7]
[Venom Progression: -2 Vitality per minute]
[Monster Wave #1 Active: Scout Pack Detected]
[Temporary Tent Barrier: 47% integrity remaining]
[Bond Slot 1 still available. Physical contact with Lila Voss could delay death by 30 minutes —
Compatibility 87%. Consent required.]
He grabbed the broken chair leg he'd picked up earlier, using it as a pathetic crutch to haul himself upright. Glass shards from the shattered windows cut deeper into his bare feet.
The cold concrete floor felt slick with his own blood and the acidic slime from the rats. Anxiety clawed up his throat — I'm useless. Naked, broken, dying in a world where 93% of people are already gone.
Those skyscrapers outside… they were torn apart by things like this. The red sky isn't even natural — it's the Gods leaking through. And I'm supposed to survive this?
A rat the size of a large dog leaped at him from the side. Its teeth sank into his calf before he could swing. Pain exploded — white-hot and immediate. Kai screamed and brought the chair leg down again and again, cracking its skull with wet thuds.
The creature convulsed and died, but not before its acidic saliva burned through his skin like battery acid. "Lila!" he gasped, collapsing to one knee. "They're everywhere!"
She was already there, slashing two more rats in a blur of silver hair and steel.
Her movements were precise, born from ex-Special Forces training that had somehow survived the Cataclysm, but the caution never left her eyes. She glanced at him mid-fight — not with trust, but with the guarded calculation of someone who had seen men turn on their saviors the second they got weak.
"You're still fighting even like this?" she muttered, voice tight. "Most would have given up by now. Head injury or not, you're not like the lords I've met. They'd be demanding I carry them while they hide." She kicked a wolf corpse aside, buying them a second of breathing room.
"The Gods force these waves every night at sunset. Rifts open — thousands of monsters pour out. Smaller ones roam all day, nesting in dungeons inside old malls and subways, but the waves are coordinated. They hit weak spots first. That's why every settlement has vigil rotations. Men on the walls with spears made from monster bones. Women and kids learning to shoot scavenged guns or throw acid vials from dungeon herbs. Miss your shift and the whole camp gets overrun. No mercy."
The barricade remnants finally gave way completely. Three more wolves burst through, followed by a larger horror — a rift beast with tentacles whipping from its shoulders and acid dripping from its maw.
The room filled with the stench of rot and sulfur. The tent's faint barrier flickered wildly as a tentacle slammed against it, cracking the blue glow.
Kai's world narrowed to pain and panic. His broken ribs ground with every ragged breath. The new bite on his leg burned hotter than the chest wounds. Black spots swallowed his vision.
I died in a car crash and woke up here — naked under a blood-red sky, surrounded by broken skyscrapers that look like they were clawed apart by giants. And now this? I'm going to die on day one without ever understanding what happened.
Anxiety turned to raw terror. Flashes of his old life crashed in — the lonely apartment, the ex who left, the dreams he never chased. All pointless now.
"The System… it keeps saying bond with you," he rasped, crawling toward the tent for any cover. "Shared stats… 10,000 times growth… but I'm dying. I can't even stand. Those eyes outside — there are thousands more coming. The whole city is full of them."
Lila spun, knife flashing as she severed a tentacle. Black ichor sprayed across the floor, hissing where it landed. One wolf got past her guard and slammed into her side, knocking her against the wall.
She grunted, blood trickling from a fresh gash on her arm, but she drove her blade into its eye and twisted until it went limp. Her breathing was heavier now, but her caution remained — she kept Kai in her peripheral vision the entire time, ready to defend or strike if he suddenly lunged in desperation.
"Bonding sounds like something the lords would kill for," she said between strikes. "In this world, strong men claim what they want. Women learn to fight back or become 'protected' in their camps. Kids grow up too fast — five years old and already learning System classes. The population crashed from eight billion to maybe five hundred million in seven years. Births almost stopped the first three years — too much starvation, too many waves. Now some lords encourage it for soldiers. No condoms left; pharmacies were looted years ago. People use bitter herb teas or just pray the System gives them a break."
She hauled him the last few feet into the tent's flickering barrier. The blue glow stabilized slightly around them, buying precious seconds. Outside the barrier, the remaining rats and one last wolf slammed against it repeatedly. Cracks spread like spiderwebs. "I'm helping because you saved me out there,"
Lila said, voice low and guarded even as she pressed her jacket tighter against his worst wounds. "Debt is everything in the wastes. But don't mistake it for trust. I've seen men fake memory loss to get close, then turn on their saviors the second they're patched up. This world broke everyone. Governments fell in six months — bunkers overrun, armies eaten alive. New lords rose from normal people who awakened strong classes. Ex-office workers, teachers, anyone who killed enough monsters became kings of their little territories. They demand tribute — food, crystals, women. That's why I'm cautious. Always."
Kai's head lolled against the tent wall. The venom was winning. His vitality screen flashed critical red.
Every muscle screamed. The broken skyscrapers he'd seen earlier flashed in his mind — those impossible claw marks on the tenth floor, the purple vines pulsing like veins. This is Earth, but seven years after hell opened. I'm not dreaming. The red sky, the monsters roaming day and night, the waves every sunset… it's all real. Anxiety choked him until he could barely speak.
"I'm not… one of them," he whispered. "I was nobody. This System… it's different. Harem Settlement. If I bond… maybe I can help. But I'm dying here. The barrier… it's cracking."
The tent barrier shattered with a final crack. The last wolf and a swarm of rats poured in. Lila rose, knife raised, blood dripping from her own wounds. She stood between Kai and the horde, body tense, eyes flicking back to him one last time with that same guarded caution. "Then fight with me until the end," she said. "Or we both die in this ruin."
Kai forced himself up on pure willpower, chair leg raised. His legs shook violently. The rats leaped. The wolf lunged. Tentacles from the rift beast whipped through the broken doorway. Pain and fear swallowed everything.
And in the blood-red darkness of the first Monster Wave, Kai Reed realized that surviving one night in this hell was going to take everything he had left — and maybe something the System was offering as a last, desperate chance.