The Void Lurker's subsonic drone vibrated Leo's teeth, a physical pressure threatening to liquefy his bones. Its twelve violet eyes, cold and utterly alien, pinned him to the spot. Level 25. 5000 HP. Against his pathetic 20. The numbers screamed impossible. The Cleansing Wave countdown blazed in his vision: 00:02:30... 29... 28...
Panic threatened to drown him. Run? Where? The Lurker blocked the direct path to Bastion's pulsing blue dot, now agonizingly close – less than 500 meters beyond the overpass. The ruined city offered scant cover against something that size. Hiding? Its multi-faceted gaze seemed to pierce the mangled van he crouched behind.
[Reality Editor]. pulsed in his skull, a raw, hungry thing. The Lurker wasn't just a monster; it was a walking storm of complex, terrifyingly powerful code. Layers upon layers of shimmering, intricate data streams representing its chitinous armor, its fractal teeth, its corrosive blood, its sheer mass. It was overwhelming, dizzying. Altering a Jackal's Agility had nearly shattered his mind. This... this was digital suicide.
But the alternative was physical annihilation.
Focus, damn it! Leo snarled internally, forcing down the terror and the lingering agony from the Agility edit. His Sanity ticked down: 86%. He couldn't attack its core HP – too vast, too fundamental. He needed a weak point. A variable he could break.
His Observe skill flickered uselessly against the Lurker's level. ⌈ OBSERVE FAILED! TARGET LEVEL TOO HIGH! ⌋. Useless. He had to rely on the raw, unfiltered sight of [Reality Editor].
The acid. Thick globs of green-black ooze sizzled where they dripped from the Lurker's scythe-claws, eating through reinforced concrete like sugar. The code surrounding the dripping venom was complex, but less dense than the creature's core systems. A variable pulsed within it: VISCOSITY.
Thicker acid flows slower… maybe even clogs? It was a desperate gamble. He visualized the number increasing. Make itlike tar.
⌈ TARGET ACQUIRED: VOID LURKER ACID SECRETION. EDIT VARIABLE: VISCOSITY. CURRENT: 0.8. DESIRED: 50. CONFIRM EDIT? Y/N ⌋
The cost warning screamed – a skull-splitting shriek of psychic feedback. Higher than the Agility edit. Much higher. ⌈ ESTIMATED COST: SANITY -10% ⌋
No choice. Yes!
Leo shoved with his mind, pouring his will, his fear, his rage against the Lurker's reality.
⌈ EDIT SUCCESSFUL! COST: SANITY -12% ⌋
The world dissolved into a kaleidoscope of screaming colors and discordant noise. Pain, white-hot and electric, exploded behind his eyes, radiating down his spine. He tasted blood, felt a warm trickle from his nose. His vision blurred, doubled. SANITY: 74%. The disorientation was crippling.
But across the shattered highway, the effect was immediate and grotesque. The thick, viscous acid now oozing from the Lurker's claws didn't drip – it stretched, forming sticky, glutinous strings. As the creature took another earth-shaking step forward, raising a massive claw to swipe at the van, the thickened acid gummed up the joint. The claw jerked, slowed, the thick ooze clinging stubbornly.
The Lurker let out a grating shriek of annoyance, a sound like tearing metal. It shook its massive limb, trying to dislodge the clinging sludge. It was distracted. Slowed. Not hurt, but inconvenienced.
It worked! The thought was a lifeline in the sea of agony. Now move!
Leo scrambled out from behind the van, legs trembling, vision swimming. He didn't run directly towards Bastion – the Lurker was still between him and the overpass ramp. Instead, he darted sideways, towards the skeletal remains of a collapsed billboard structure, hoping to circle around.
The Lurker's twelve eyes snapped back to him, burning with cold fury. It abandoned trying to shake off the acid and lunged, its massive body surprisingly fast despite the hindrance. The scythe-claw, still trailing thick strings of black-green ooze, whistled through the air where Leo had been a millisecond before. It sheared through the van's remaining structure like paper, sending twisted metal flying.
The shockwave knocked Leo off his feet. He hit the rubble hard, his remaining HP jarring down to 18/30. Gasping, he rolled behind a chunk of fallen concrete. The Lurker's shadow fell over him. Its fractal maw opened, that subsonic drone intensifying, vibrating the ground beneath him. He could see the swirling, impossible geometry of its teeth.
Gravity. The thought was insane. Reckless. But [Reality Editor] was already flaring, drawn to the complex field surrounding the creature. He saw a variable tied to its local gravitational pull – a subtle manipulation that likely aided its massive leaps or held prey in place. CURRENT GRAVITY MULTIPLIER: 1.1x. Barely noticeable, but there.
Reverse it. Make it lighter. Make it fly!
⌈ TARGET ACQUIRED: VOID LURKER LOCALIZED GRAVITY FIELD. EDIT VARIABLE: GRAVITY MULTIPLIER. CURRENT: 1.1. DESIRED: 0.2. CONFIRM EDIT? Y/N ⌋
The cost warning was apocalyptic. ⌈ ESTIMATED COST: SANITY -20%! LIFESPAN POTENTIAL DRAIN DETECTED! ⌋. Lifespan? The skill description had mentioned it… but seeing it? Terror warred with desperation.
The Lurker's maw descended, fractal teeth rotating towards him. The drone became a physical force, pressing him down. The countdown screamed: ⌈ NIGHTFALL IN: 00:01:05! CLEANSING WAVE ACTIVATING! ⌋
YES! DO IT!
Leo committed everything – his fear for Mia, his rage at the System, his sheer will to survive – into the edit. It wasn't a push; it was a psychic detonation.
⌈ EDIT SUCCESSFUL! COST: SANITY -15%, LIFESPAN POTENTIAL -1 YEAR ⌋
The world didn't just spin; it inverted. Leo felt a terrifying lurch, as if his soul was being partially ripped free. A wave of profound, existential cold washed over him, followed by a crushing fatigue deeper than any exhaustion. His vision went utterly black for a terrifying second. SANITY: 59%. A new, horrifying icon pulsed beside his HP bar: a small, hourglass with a crack, labeled ⌈ LIFESPAN REDUCTION: 1 YEAR ⌋.
But the effect on the Void Lurker was spectacular.
As the gravity field around it inverted, the massive creature didn't just become lighter; it became virtually buoyant. Its lunge became an uncontrolled, lurching *float*. Its claw, aimed at crushing Leo, swung wildly off-target, slamming into the billboard support with bone-jarring force. The Lurker itself, bewildered, flailed its multi-jointed legs in the suddenly thin air, its chitinous body rising several meters off the ground. It emitted a high-pitched, confused shriek, spinning slowly, its acid-dripping claws flailing uselessly. It was trapped in its own localized anti-gravity bubble.
Leo didn't wait. Blinded by pain and disorientation, gasping with the effort of simply breathing after the lifespan drain, he scrambled on hands and knees. He couldn't see the Lurker, couldn't see the path, only the pulsing blue dot of Bastion on his minimap. He followed it like a beacon, stumbling over rubble, falling, getting back up. The Cleansing Wave timer was a death knell: 00:00:45... 44...
Behind him, the Lurker's shrieks turned furious as it thrashed against its unnatural buoyancy. The gravity edit wouldn't last. He knew it. The System would compensate. He had seconds.
He reached the base of the overpass ramp. Bastion wasn't a building; it was a fortress. Towering walls, easily twenty meters high, constructed not of brick or steel, but of interlocking hexagonal energy shields shimmering a deep, protective blue. They pulsed with contained power, radiating an aura of safety that felt almost tangible after the hellscape outside. A massive gateway stood open, flanked by crude but functional guard towers constructed from salvaged concrete and metal. Armed figures manned the battlements.
"Move! Move! Cleansing Wave incoming!" A voice bellowed from the gate, amplified electronically. "Last stragglers! Get your asses inside NOW!"
Leo poured every ounce of his meager VIT 3 stamina into a final, desperate sprint up the ramp. His lungs burned. His legs felt like lead. He could feel the air changing behind him – a static charge building, the hair on his arms standing on end. The Lurker's furious shrieks reached a crescendo. The gravity field was normalizing. It was coming.
He stumbled through the massive gateway, collapsing onto rough, packed earth just inside the walls. He rolled onto his back, gasping, his vision still blurred, the world a smear of pain and exhaustion.
⌈ QUEST COMPLETE: REACH SAFE ZONE 'BASTION'! ⌋
⌈ REWARD: 100 XP, COMMON LOOT BOX (x1) AWARDED! ⌋
⌈ LEVEL UP! YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 2! ⌋
⌈ STAT POINTS AVAILABLE: 5 ⌋
⌈ SKILL POINTS AVAILABLE: 1 ⌋
The notifications flashed, momentarily pushing back the agony. Level 2. 5 Stat Points. 1 Skill Point. Choices. Survival. But before he could process them, the world outside Bastion ended.
⌈ NIGHTFALL. ⌋
The swollen blood-moon vanished, swallowed by an absolute, impenetrable darkness that fell like a physical shroud. Not just dark – void. Light died. Sound died. Then, the Cleansing Wave hit.
It wasn't a wave of fire or monsters. It was a wave of unmaking.
Starting from the horizon, a wall of shimmering, iridescent static advanced, taller than the skyscrapers. It moved with silent, terrifying speed. Where it touched, reality dissolved. Rubble, twisted metal, abandoned cars, the corpses of Scavengers and humans – everything simply ceased to exist, erased into streams of pure, chaotic data that flowed upwards into the void above. No explosion. No sound. Just… deletion.
The Void Lurker, finally freed from the gravity anomaly and lunging towards the gate, met the wave head-on. Its terrifying form shimmered, its chitinous plates fracturing into pixels, its twelve violet eyes flickering out one by one. It let out a final, digitized shriek that cut off abruptly as the wave consumed it entirely, leaving nothing behind. Not even mist.
The wave hit Bastion's energy shields. The blue hexagons flared blindingly bright, straining under the onslaught. A deep, resonant hum vibrated through the ground, shaking the walls. Cracks of energy spiderwebbed across the shield surface where the static pressed hardest. People inside the gate screamed, ducking, covering their heads.
Leo watched, paralyzed, from the dirt. The sheer, apocalyptic scale of it dwarfed the Lurker. This was the Cleansing Wave. This was what failure meant. Oblivion.
The shield held. The wave of static passed over and around Bastion, continuing its relentless path of erasure, leaving behind only a perfectly smooth, featureless plain of dark glass where the city ruins had been. The hum faded. The shield cracks slowly sealed themselves, returning to their steady blue glow.
Silence descended within Bastion. Heavy. Stunned. Then, the sounds returned – ragged breathing, sobs, the low murmur of terrified voices.
Leo pushed himself up onto his elbows, wincing. His head pounded, a constant drumbeat of agony behind his eyes. SANITY: 59% glared at him, a stark reminder of the cost. The lifespan icon pulsed faintly. He felt… hollowed out. Aged. He looked at his hands. Did they look slightly more weathered? Or was it just the hellish light filtering through the energy shield?
"Hey. You. The one who crawled in." A gruff voice. A boot nudged his leg.
Leo looked up. A man in patched military fatigues stood over him, a worn rifle slung over his shoulder. He had a scar running through his short-cropped grey hair and eyes that had seen too much. ⌈ OBSERVE: HUMAN (LVL 6) - NAME: SERGEANT BRENNAN. AFFILIATION: BASTION MILITIA. HP: 110/110. THREAT: LOW ⌋.
"New arrival processing," Brennan stated, no-nonsense. "Get up. Follow me. Need to log you, assign quarters. Bastion's got rules. Break 'em, you answer to Commander Vance." He gestured towards a cluster of prefabricated shelters near the inner wall.
Leo staggered to his feet, every muscle protesting. He took one last look back at the gateway. Beyond the shimmering blue shield, there was only smooth, dark obsidian stretching to the horizon under the now-starless void. The Void Lurker, the ruins, the evidence of billions lost… all gone. Cleansed. Only Bastion remained, an island in an erased world.
He turned to follow Brennan, his mind reeling. Stats. Skill Points. Loot Box. Mia. The System. The glitch. The cost. So many things demanded his attention. But a new prompt, smaller and easily missed in the chaos, flickered at the very edge of his vision before vanishing:
⌈ SYSTEM ANOMALY DETECTED: ENTITY 'MIA CHEN'. STATUS: UNKNOWN. LAST KNOWN LOCATION: FLOOR 1 (EARTH PRIME). FLAGGED FOR REVIEW. ⌋
Leo froze mid-step. His breath caught. Mia. Flagged? Unknown? Not deleted? Alive The spark of hope was terrifying, fragile, but it burned brighter than the pain, brighter than the fear. He clutched the faded blue scarf still tucked into his inventory slot.
"Move it, kid," Brennan grunted, already walking away. "Daylight's only a few hours. Got work to do."
Leo forced his legs to move, following the sergeant into the heart of Bastion. The Safe Zone wasn't peaceful. It was a pressure cooker. Makeshift shelters crowded the open ground. Fires burned in barrels. People huddled in groups – some silent and shell-shocked, others arguing fiercely. He saw distinct factions forming already:
The Militia: Men and women like Brennan, organized, armed with scavenged weapons and makeshift armor, patrolling the perimeter. Their symbol: a blue shield.
The Survivors: Ordinary people, families, the injured, looking lost and terrified, clustering together for comfort. No symbol, just desperation.
The Gamer Guild: A louder group, mostly younger people wearing scavenged gear that looked deliberately 'RPG-ish' – leather patches sewn onto jackets, pipes fashioned into staves. They clustered around a banner depicting crossed swords over a D20 die. Leo spotted the fire-bolt throwing man from earlier (**LVL 5**) holding court among them.
The Disciples: A smaller, unnerving group clad in dark, hooded robes. They knelt in a circle, chanting softly. Their symbol: a stylized, fractured eye. Leo's Observe flickered over one: ⌈ HUMAN (LVL 4) - NAME: DISCIPLE THORN. AFFILIATION: CHURCH OF THE SHATTERED VEIL. HP: 80/80. THREAT: NEUTRAL ⌋. The description sent a chill down his spine.
Brennan led him towards a large tent marked 'INTAKE' near the Militia section. "Name?" the sergeant asked, pulling out a cracked tablet.
"Leo. Leo Chen."
Brennan tapped the screen. "Level?"
"Two. Just hit it."
The sergeant grunted, seemingly unimpressed. "Class? Starter Skill?"
"Uh... no Class yet. Starter skill is Observe."
Brennan raised an eyebrow. "Just Observe? Tough break, kid. Most get something combat-useful, even if it's just ⌈ PUNCH (COMMON) ⌋." He tapped again. "Alright. You're assigned to Shelter Block D, Bunk 47. Rations once a day at the central depot – water, nutrient paste. Don't expect gourmet. Work details get posted at dawn. Contribute or get kicked out. The Cleansing Wave doesn't care about freeloaders." He handed Leo a chipped plastic token with 'D-47' etched on it. "Don't lose it. That's your life here."
Leo took the token. "My sister... Mia Chen. Did she make it? Has anyone seen her?"
Brennan's expression softened slightly, then hardened again. "Kid... the Integration killed billions. We logged maybe ten thousand survivors who made it inside these walls before nightfall. Names are... chaotic. System logs are spotty." He tapped his tablet again, frowned. "No Mia Chen in the initial intake manifest. Doesn't mean she's not out there somewhere, maybe holed up. Doesn't mean she is." His tone was blunt, pragmatic. "Focus on staying alive. If she made it, she'll find her way."
Leo's grip tightened on the token. The cryptic System message flashed in his memory: Status: Unknown. Flagged. He knew Brennan wouldn't believe him. He barely believed it himself. But it was something. A thread to cling to.
"One more thing," Brennan said, his eyes sharpening. "Commander Vance saw you crawl in. Saw that... thing... chasing you. The Lurker. Said it looked like it tripped over air just before the Wave hit." He leaned closer, his voice dropping. "You do something out there, kid? Something... glitchy?"
Leo's blood ran cold. He met Brennan's gaze, seeing the suspicion, the calculation. [Reality Editor]felt like a burning brand hidden in his skull. "I... I got lucky," Leo stammered, forcing his voice steady. "It stumbled. I ran."
Brennan held his gaze for a long, uncomfortable moment. "Lucky," he repeated slowly. "Right. Well, keep your head down, Leo Chen. Luck runs out fast in the Tower." He jerked his thumb towards the crowded shelters. "Block D's that way. Get some rest. Dawn comes early."
Leo turned and walked into the crowded, tense heart of Bastion, the sergeant's suspicious gaze burning into his back. He was inside the walls. He was alive. He was Level 2.
But he was also dangerously low on Sanity, marked by a System he didn't understand, carrying a secret power that cost pieces of his mind and his life, hunted by something that flagged his missing sister, and now potentially on the radar of Bastion's leader.
Safety, it seemed, was just another kind of battlefield. He pulled Mia's scarf tighter around his neck, the faint scent of lavender a fragile anchor in the alien night. He had stats to assign. A Loot Box to open. And a glitched reality that needed editing.
The climb up the Tower of Eternity had just begun.