The science building hummed with a tense, uneasy quiet.
People whispered, tending to wounds, gathering supplies, barricading windows with overturned desks. The air reeked faintly of antiseptic, dust, and fear. Every slam of a door made heads snap toward the sound. Every flicker of the emergency lights sent a wave of anxiety through the hall.
Ethan leaned against the wall near the entrance, arms crossed tightly, eyes scanning the scattered survivors.
He'd fought a monster that defied physics, survived a deletion sphere, and punched an Administrator in the chest until it exploded into digital shards.
And somehow, this scene—terrified students trying to process the end of their world—felt heavier.
Ash hovered shoulder-height, glitching only slightly.
[YOUR HEART RATE IS ELEVATED.]
"Pretty sure that's normal after fighting a cosmic deletion machine," Ethan muttered.
[BUT YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY IN COMBAT.]
"Yeah, well. Try telling my body that."
Lena approached, brushing dust from her torn lab coat. Her blonde hair was tied back hastily, streaked with soot. Despite exhaustion tugging at the corners of her eyes, she moved with purpose.
"You holding up?" she asked quietly.
Ethan tried to nod. The attempt wobbled.
She sighed and handed him a bottle of water. "Drink this."
He drank half in one go before realizing how thirsty he'd been. Lena sat next to him against the wall, pulling her knees up.
"Medical team stabilized most of the injured," she said. "A few fractures. Burns. Some concussions. But no casualties from the courtyard."
Ethan lowered the bottle. "…because I stalled the Administrator."
Lena shook her head firmly. "Because you fought it. Because you won."
He didn't reply.
He still wasn't sure if what he'd done was bravery or stupidity wearing a costume.
Ash chimed:
[CLARIFICATION: STATISTICALLY, YOUR DECISION QUALIFIES AS BOTH.]
Ethan groaned. "Stop helping, Ash."
Lena cracked a small smile, the first he'd seen since the apocalypse began.
But it faded as she leaned closer, voice lowering.
"We need a plan."
Ethan exhaled. "Yeah. I figured."
"Not just for us," she said. "For everyone here. If another monster comes—or another Administrator—we won't survive. Not like this."
He scanned the room. Students clutching makeshift weapons. A professor is using duct tape to fasten a table against the door. A group is crying quietly in a corner.
They were alive.
But barely.
And the world outside was only getting worse.
"What do we even do?" Ethan said. "I'm not a soldier. I'm not a leader."
"No," Lena said, "but you're something else."
He raised an eyebrow. "A cosmic punching bag?"
She shook her head.
"You're the strongest person here."
The words hit him like a weight.
"Lena, that Administrator nearly erased me."
"But it didn't," she replied. "You evolved. You fought back. That means something."
Her voice softened.
"And more importantly? Everyone saw it. They've been watching you. They trust you, Ethan… even if they're afraid."
He glanced around.
Several students kept looking his way—some with awe, others with caution, but all with a shared expectation.
"Perfect," Ethan muttered. "I always wanted to be a walking pressure cooker."
Lena nudged his arm lightly. "Come on. You're not alone in this."
He met her eyes for a long moment.
And then—
BOOM
A distant explosion echoed outside.
Panic rippled through the hall.
"Not again—"
"Is it coming back? Is it another one?!"
"Everyone down!"
Ethan straightened instantly. "Ash?"
Ash rotated.
[SCANNING…]
A pause.
[NO ADMINISTRATOR SIGNATURE DETECTED. LIKELY MONSTER ACTIVITY WITHIN 300 METERS.]
"Great," Ethan murmured. "Monsters now."
Lena stood. "We need to scout the area. Or at least see how bad it is."
Ethan's muscles still ached, but he pushed himself upright.
He didn't have forty-eight hours to rest.
He had forty-eight hours to prepare.
They approached the shattered entrance together. Someone had wedged a broken display case against the door as reinforcement. Ethan helped push it aside and stepped into the ruined courtyard.
The scene outside was worse than he expected.
Smoke drifted from the far side of campus. A thick plume rose into the sky, blending with the glowing cracks. Something had exploded near the library—a car, a transformer, maybe something worse.
Shrieks echoed faintly from beyond the science building.
Not human.
Ethan tensed. "More monsters?"
Ash hovered forward.
[AFFIRMATIVE. MULTIPLE HOSTILE DETECTED.]
"Are they coming here?" Lena asked.
[PROBABILITY: HIGH.]
Ethan scanned the courtyard.
Bits of the Administrator remained—glittering particles floating like ash in sunlight, fading slowly.
The rebar he'd used was still gone, cleanly erased from existence.
He clenched his fists. "Lena… I think people here need more than a safe room."
"What do you mean?"
"They need protection. A group. A defense plan. A base."
"A base?" Lena echoed.
Ethan nodded.
"Yeah. Somewhere we can fortify. Somewhere we can gather supplies. Somewhere we can build from."
Her expression tightened thoughtfully. "You're talking about forming a party. Maybe even a… group."
"Call it whatever," Ethan said. "But monsters are spreading. Administrators might return. The city's probably worse. And I doubt we're the only ones fighting to survive."
He paused.
"And if I can get stronger… if I can evolve again…"
Lena stepped closer. "Then we train you. Together."
Ash chimed cheerfully:
[YES. TRAINING. AND ALSO: YOU ARE TOO WEAK.]
Ethan glared. "Ash—"
[THAT IS NOT AN INSULT. THAT IS A FACT.]
"Still not helping."
Lena rested a hand on Ethan's arm. "Where do we start? What's the first step?"
Ethan surveyed the campus.
Collapsed buildings. Fires. Monster prints burned into the soil. The distant roars are growing louder.
His system whispered at the edges of his perception—
raw potential, waiting to be shaped.
"We start with information," Ethan said. "We need to know what monsters are out there. How strong they are. What we're dealing with."
"And after that?" she asked.
He cracked his knuckles, feeling a spark of energy pulse through his battered muscles.
"After that… I need to see how much stronger I can get."
Lena nodded slowly. "Then we scout. Carefully. No charging into fights like last time."
"That Administrator nearly vaporized me," Ethan said. "Trust me, I learned my lesson."
A distant howl echoed across the broken quad.
Ash pulsed.
[MONSTER GROUP APPROACHING. ESTIMATED COUNT: 5.]
Ethan turned to Lena.
"…Guess we start sooner than expected."
Lena tightened her grip on her improvised metal pipe. "Right beside you."
Ethan looked out at the ruins of the campus—his first battlefield—and felt something shift inside him.
Fear was still there. Yes.
But something else had begun to grow larger than the fear.
Purpose.
Resolve.
A spark of defiance.
He rolled his shoulders, feeling Null Strike humming like a dormant ember in his hand.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Let's get ready."
And together—Ethan, Lena, and Ash—they stepped forward toward the approaching shadows.