The rain had stopped, but the city still bled.
Emergency sirens echoed in the distance — faint, broken, tired.
Ryn walked through the empty streets of Sector 7, his shadow stretching long under the flickering neon lights.
Every step left a dark, wet print behind him.
Blood, rain, or both — even he couldn't tell anymore.
He stopped by a shattered storefront window and stared at his reflection.
His eyes… they no longer looked like his own.
Red, feral, unblinking — the eyes of something that had forgotten what it meant to be human.
> [System Notice: Mutation Stable.]
[Warning: Emotional response detected — guilt.]
[Suppress emotion?]
He hesitated.
For the first time, the silence inside his mind felt heavier than the system's voice.
> "…No," he whispered. "Not yet."
He pressed his hand against the glass.
The reflection flickered — for a moment, he saw the boy he used to be.
Weak. Desperate. Afraid.
Then it vanished, replaced by the hunter he had become — the killer that the world had forced him to be.
---
A sound broke the silence — footsteps, soft but cautious.
Ryn turned. A small figure stepped out from the shadows — a girl, no older than sixteen, wearing a torn hunter's jacket.
Her hands were shaking as she aimed a dagger at him.
> "Stay back… you're the one who— who slaughtered them, aren't you?!"
Ryn didn't move.
He just looked at her — not with anger, not even pity, but exhaustion.
> "Go home," he said quietly. "Before this world eats you too."
> "Don't lie to me!" she shouted, tears cutting through the grime on her face.
"You're a monster!"
Something inside Ryn twitched — not anger, but recognition.
He had been called that once too.
Maybe… maybe they were all monsters now.
> [Emotional fluctuation detected.]
[Adaptive Evolution progressing…]
He turned away, his voice barely audible.
> "Then maybe being a monster is the only way to survive."
---
When she looked up again, he was gone.
Only the echo of his steps remained — and the faint shimmer of crimson light disappearing into the rain-soaked alleys.
High above, the System pulsed silently within his mind.
> [Next Objective Unlocked: "The Gate of Origin."]
[Estimated survival rate: 3%.]
[Would you like to proceed?]
Ryn smiled faintly, eyes glowing like dying embers.
> "Three percent… sounds fair."
He stepped into the darkness once more —
and the city trembled,
as if it already knew that a new predator had begun to hunt again.
---