The tent's blue barrier shattered with a sound like cracking ice under a hammer. Shards of ethereal light exploded outward and vanished into the dust-choked air, leaving Kai and Lila completely exposed in the half-collapsed apartment room.
The last surviving wolf from the scout pack lunged first, its massive jaws wide and dripping with the same venom that was already eating Kai alive from the inside. Behind it came the rat swarm — at least twenty dog-sized rodents with glowing red eyes and tails that whipped acidic slime across the concrete floor.
And looming in the shattered doorway, the rift beast uncoiled its tentacles like living whips, its bulbous body pulsing with purple veins that matched the glowing vines outside on the broken skyscrapers.
Kai's world narrowed to pure agony and panic. His vitality had dropped to critical levels; the System screen burned crimson in his vision like a death sentence. Every heartbeat sent fresh fire through the four deep claw gashes across his chest and the new bite wound on his calf.
The venom felt like molten glass grinding through his veins, making his muscles twitch uncontrollably. His broken ribs — at least three now — ground together with every shallow breath, sending white-hot spikes straight into his lungs.
Blood soaked the jacket Lila had tied around his torso, and fresh trickles ran down his bare legs onto the cold floor. This can't be how it ends, he thought, anxiety crashing over him like another wave.
I died in a stupid car crash on a normal Tuesday afternoon. One minute I'm complaining about traffic, the next I'm naked under a blood-red sky, staring at skyscrapers ripped apart like paper by monsters.
The whole world ended seven years ago and I missed it. Seven billion people gone. And now I'm going to be eaten in some ruined building because a floating video-game system decided to drop me here?
He forced himself upright on shaking legs, using the broken chair leg as a crutch. Glass shards from the shattered windows cut deeper into his bare feet, but the pain barely registered anymore — everything was just one endless scream. "Lila!" he gasped, voice raw and cracking. "They're coming through!"
Lila Voss moved like death itself. Her silver hair whipped as she spun, knife flashing in the faint red light leaking through the cracks in the boarded windows. She was still cautious — always cautious — even in the middle of the fight.
She owed him her life from the first wolf outside; that debt was the only reason she hadn't abandoned him yet. But seven years in the wastes had taught her that trust was a luxury no one could afford. Men who looked weak one minute could turn into raiders the next.
Lords faked injuries to get close. She kept her body angled, knife hand ready to pivot toward Kai if he suddenly lunged in desperation, while still putting herself between him and the horde.
"Stay in the corner!" she shouted, voice steady despite the chaos.
"The wave scouts are testing us. The real horde is still coming — thousands more out there under that cursed red sky. The Gods force the rifts open every single night at sunset. That's why every settlement has vigil rotations.
Everyone fights — men with bone spears on the walls, women throwing acid vials from dungeon herbs, kids as young as five learning basic System classes so they don't become food."
The first wolf slammed into her. Lila twisted at the last instant, driving her blade up under its jaw and twisting viciously. Hot blood sprayed across her torn military fatigues, but the creature's death throes sent its claws raking across her left arm.
She grunted in pain but didn't falter — ex-Special Forces training mixed with seven years of nightly survival had turned her into a machine. She kicked the corpse aside and immediately slashed two rats that leaped at Kai's legs.
Their acidic tails hissed where they hit the floor, melting small craters in the concrete.
Kai swung the chair leg with everything he had left. The wood cracked against a rat's skull, caving it in with a wet crunch. The creature squealed and died, but its dying bite clamped onto his ankle. New pain exploded — white-hot and immediate.
He screamed, a raw animal sound that echoed off the crumbling walls, and brought the leg down again and again until the rodent went limp.
The venom from this new bite mixed with the old, making his vision tunnel and his knees buckle. He collapsed against the wall, chest heaving, blood pouring from fresh wounds.
The skyscrapers outside… I saw the claw marks on them when Lila was dragging me here. Ten stories high. What kind of monster could do that? The red sun — it's not even natural. It's their energy leaking through. I'm in hell.
A parallel Earth where governments collapsed in six months, bunkers got overrun, and normal people became lords by killing enough monsters. Seven billion dead. And I'm joining them on day one.
The rift beast roared — a wet, gurgling sound that vibrated in Kai's bones. Its tentacles whipped through the air, one slamming into the remaining furniture and shattering an old couch into splinters.
Another tentacle lashed toward Lila. She ducked under it, rolled across the floor, and came up stabbing into the creature's bulbous body. Black ichor sprayed, hissing where it landed and burning small holes in the concrete.
"These rift horrors only show up in the bigger waves," she panted, yanking her knife free and dodging a second tentacle. "They nest in dungeons inside old subways and malls during the day. Roam at night when the rifts open. The Gods watch it all like some sick game.
That's why the population crashed so hard. First three years almost no babies — too much starvation, too many waves. Now some lords force breeding for soldiers. No more pharmacies, no condoms left.
People use bitter herb teas from mutated plants or just take the risk. Kids grow up fast here. Five years old and they already have mini-Systems. They train on the walls or they die."
Kai's System screen flashed urgently, the blue glow illuminating his bloody face in the darkness.
[Host Vitality: 0.4/7 — Critical]
[Venom Synergy Active: -3 Vitality per minute]
[Monster Wave #1 Intensity: Rising — Main Horde Approaching in 4 minutes]
[Bond Slot 1 Warning: Physical contact with Lila Voss could stabilize vitality for 45 minutes. Shared stats and 10,000x Growth Multiplier would activate upon consent. Compatibility still 87%.]
[Settlement Points: 300 remaining. Deploying more structures impossible until shelter is secured.]
The numbers mocked him. Kai laughed bitterly through the pain, coughing up more blood that splattered across his bare chest.
"The System… it keeps pushing this bond thing," he rasped, forcing himself to crawl toward Lila as another rat swarm poured in.
"Shared stats… ten thousand times faster growth… but I'm naked, dying, and useless. I was just an office worker. Spreadsheets and coffee. Now I'm in a world where the sky is permanently red and the cities look like they were clawed apart by giants.
Those broken skyscrapers I saw earlier — one had a mark from something the size of a bus. How do people even survive this? You said lords rose from normal people. Ex-teachers, office guys like me… they became kings by killing enough of these things?"
Lila severed another tentacle with a vicious slash, then stomped a rat that tried to climb her leg. She was breathing harder now, blood trickling from her own arm wound, but her caution never wavered.
She kept Kai in her peripheral vision the entire time, body angled, knife ready to defend or attack him if necessary. "That's exactly how it happened," she said between strikes.
"Governments fell fast. Armies lasted weeks before the waves got too big. New lords appeared — anyone who awakened a strong class or just got lucky with kills. They claim territory, build walls from scrapped cars and monster bones sharpened into spikes. Burn repel-herb braziers that smell like death to the weaker monsters. Everyone stands vigil from sunset to sunrise. Miss your shift and the whole camp gets wiped. Women fight now too — no more hiding. Kids learn early or they don't learn at all. The population is maybe five hundred million left worldwide. Births are rising in safe settlements because lords want soldiers, but it's brutal. No safe sex precautions left. Expired condoms from the old world are traded like gold. Most just use herbs or accept the risk."
Three more wolves burst through the doorway, drawn by the noise. The rift beast roared louder, its body pulsing as it tried to squeeze inside. The room filled with the stench of rot, sulfur, and fresh blood.
Kai swung wildly at a rat that leaped at his face, cracking its spine but taking a deep bite to his shoulder in return. Pain blinded him for a second. He fell to his knees, chair leg clattering away. I can't do this.
The anxiety is worse than the pain. I keep seeing my old apartment, the traffic lights, the normal world. And now this — dying naked in the dark while a woman I barely know fights for both of us. The red sky, the ruined city, the monsters roaming day and night… it's too much. I'm breaking.
Lila was suddenly beside him, dragging him back toward the corner while slashing at the incoming horde. Her grip was firm but guarded — she helped because of the life debt, but her eyes still flicked to him with suspicion. "You keep talking like you really are from before," she muttered, voice low even as she killed another wolf.
"Most memory-loss cases don't last this long fighting. If your System is real… if bonding really gives power… maybe we talk after this wave. But right now, stay alive. The main horde is almost here. Thousands more. If we don't hold this room until sunrise, we're both food."
The rift beast's tentacles finally broke through completely. One wrapped around Lila's leg, yanking her off her feet. She slashed desperately, severing it, but another slammed into Kai's side, cracking another rib and sending him flying into the wall.
He hit hard, vision exploding with stars. Blood filled his mouth. The System screen flashed one final warning:
[Host Vitality: 0.1/7 — Death imminent in 90 seconds]
[Bond Slot 1: Last opportunity. Consent required for activation.]
Kai's mind screamed. The broken skyscrapers outside, the blood-red sky, the endless glowing eyes in the distance — everything pressed down on him.
Anxiety turned to raw, animal terror. He crawled toward Lila as she fought free of the tentacles, his voice barely a whisper. "If this is the only way… if bonding saves us… then do it. I consent. Just… don't let me die like this."
Lila's eyes widened for the first time — caution warring with desperation. The horde surged forward.
The main wave howls grew deafening outside. She dropped to one knee beside him, knife still raised, body tense and ready to strike if this was a trap. "You're serious," she breathed.
"In this world, bonds like that change everything. But if it's real… we might both live through the night."
The rift beast lunged one final time. Rats swarmed. Wolves howled.
And in the blood-soaked darkness of the ruined apartment, with the first full Monster Wave crashing down around them, Kai Reed reached out with trembling, bloody hands toward the only person keeping him alive.
The decision was made.
But survival was far from guaranteed.