The rift tore open like a wound in the sky.
Purple-black energy spilled through the crack in reality, dripping down like liquid shadow. The air itself seemed to scream, a high-pitched whine that made Sarnav's teeth ache and his eyes water.
People were panicking. Screaming, shoving, trampling each other in their desperation to get away from the impossible thing forming above them. But there was nowhere to go. The basement had two exits, and both were already jammed with bodies trying to squeeze through.
"Everyone calm down!" Mythili's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding. "Panicking will get us killed! Stay together!"
Nobody listened. Fear had taken over, reducing a hundred people to a stampede of animals.
[RIFT STABILIZING]
[CREATURE EMERGENCE IN: 15 SECONDS]
[ANALYZING ENERGY SIGNATURE...]
[THREAT CLASSIFICATION: D-RANK LESSER VOID HOUND]
[HOST CURRENT RANK: F]
[SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 7%]
Seven percent. That was almost generous, all things considered.
Sarnav grabbed his mother's arm. "We need to move. Now."
"I'm not leaving these people."
"Mom, there's something coming through that thing, and I'm not strong enough to fight it. None of us are."
Mythili's jaw tightened, but she didn't argue. She could see the numbers too, even without a system to spell them out. One hundred civilians, maybe a handful of awakened among them, against whatever nightmare was about to crawl out of that hole in reality.
The math didn't work.
[EMERGENCE IN: 10 SECONDS]
The rift pulsed. Expanded. Something moved on the other side, a shape that hurt to look at, that seemed to exist in more dimensions than the human eye could process.
Think. Think, you idiot. You've read a thousand novels about situations like this. What do protagonists do when they're outmatched?
They ran. Or they found an advantage. Or they got lucky.
Sarnav wasn't feeling particularly lucky right now.
[EMERGENCE IN: 5 SECONDS]
"Everyone who can fight, to me!" Sarnav shouted. His voice cracked embarrassingly, but he pushed through it. "Anyone with abilities, powers, anything! To me, now!"
A few heads turned. Most people kept running. But three figures pushed against the tide, moving toward him instead of away.
The first was a young Malay man, maybe nineteen or twenty, with hands that crackled with visible electricity. His eyes were wide with fear, but he stood his ground.
The second was an older Chinese woman, probably in her fifties, whose skin had taken on a grayish, stone-like texture. She moved slowly but deliberately, like she knew exactly what she was capable of.
The third was a skinny Indian teenager who couldn't have been older than sixteen. He didn't look awakened at all, but he was holding a fire extinguisher like a weapon, his face set with terrified determination.
Three people. Three and a half if you counted the kid with the fire extinguisher.
Against a D-rank monster.
We're so fucked.
[EMERGENCE IN: 3... 2... 1...]
The rift vomited darkness.
The creature that emerged was wrong in ways that made Sarnav's brain hurt. It looked like someone had taken a wolf, stretched it to twice its normal length, and then wrapped it in shadows that moved independently of any light source. Its eyes were empty white voids, and when it opened its mouth, there were too many teeth. Way too many teeth.
It landed on all fours, claws gouging deep furrows in the concrete floor. Its head swiveled, those empty eyes scanning the room full of prey.
Then it screamed.
The sound wasn't audible. It was something else, something that bypassed the ears entirely and stabbed directly into the brain. Sarnav felt his knees buckle. Around him, people collapsed, clutching their heads, blood streaming from noses and ears.
[PSYCHIC ATTACK DETECTED]
[MENTAL RESISTANCE: LOW]
[DAMAGE: MINOR]
[NOTE: HOST'S SPIRIT STAT (25) PROVIDES PARTIAL RESISTANCE]
Sarnav forced himself to stay standing. His head was pounding like someone had shoved an ice pick through his temple, but he could still think. Could still move.
The same couldn't be said for most of the others. The electric guy was on his knees, sparks flickering weakly around his fingers. The stone woman had weathered it better, still upright but clearly dazed. The kid with the fire extinguisher was curled up on the floor, whimpering.
And his mother...
Mythili was down. Eyes closed, blood trickling from her nose, unconscious or worse.
Something cold and dark unfurled in Sarnav's chest.
No.
The void hound's head swiveled toward the largest concentration of helpless prey. Its mouth opened, drool that looked like liquid shadow dripping from those impossible teeth.
No.
It took a step forward. Then another. Leisurely, almost playful. It knew there was no threat here. Knew it could take its time.
NO.
"Hey!"
Sarnav's voice came out stronger this time. Steadier. The void hound's head turned toward him, those empty white eyes focusing on this one human who was still standing when all the others had fallen.
"Yeah, you. The ugly one."
[HOST, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?]
Buying time.
[FOR WHAT?]
I'll figure that out when I get there.
The void hound tilted its head, almost curious. Then it smiled. Somehow, impossibly, that mouth full of teeth curved into something that looked like amusement.
It thought he was funny.
It started walking toward him.
Okay. Okay, think. D-rank versus F-rank. That's a two-tier gap. In cultivation terms, that's like a Foundation realm cultivator versus someone who hasn't even started. The power difference is massive.
But D-rank is still the lower end of actually dangerous. In the novels, D-rank monsters are threats to normal people, but they can be killed by prepared teams. They're not invincible.
So what kills them?
The void hound was getting closer. Twenty meters. Fifteen.
Elemental weaknesses. Physical trauma to vital points. Overwhelming force. Specialized abilities.
He didn't have any of those things.
What do I have?
A system that ran on sex, which wasn't exactly useful right now. Fifty Harmony Points. A box cutter in his inventory. Some water bottles. A fire extinguisher somewhere on the floor behind him.
Wait.
Fire extinguisher.
Void hound.
Void.
"System," Sarnav said quietly, not taking his eyes off the approaching monster. "What element is that thing affiliated with?"
[VOID HOUND - ELEMENTAL AFFINITY: DARKNESS/VOID]
[WEAKNESSES: LIGHT, HOLY, FIRE (MINOR)]
Fire. Minor weakness, but a weakness.
The creature was ten meters away now. Close enough that Sarnav could smell it. It smelled like nothing. Like the absence of smell. Like someone had cut a hole in reality and the void was leaking through.
"Hey, stone lady," Sarnav called out without looking away from the monster. "You still with me?"
A grunt from behind him. "Still standing. Barely."
"Can you throw something? Something heavy?"
"What?"
"The fire extinguisher. Can you throw it at that thing's face?"
A pause. Then: "Maybe. If I had something to throw."
"Kid." Sarnav kept his voice calm, even though his heart was trying to break out of his chest. "The fire extinguisher. Slide it to the stone lady."
No response.
"Kid!"
A whimper. Then the sound of metal scraping across concrete.
The void hound was five meters away. It had stopped, head tilting again, like it was trying to figure out what these pathetic humans were doing. Why they were moving around instead of just lying there and dying like good prey.
"Got it," the stone woman said.
"On my signal, throw it at the thing's face. Hard as you can."
"And then what?"
Good question. Sarnav was still working on that part.
The void hound took another step. Then it crouched, muscles bunching under that impossible shadow-fur. Getting ready to pounce.
Now or never.
"Now!"
The fire extinguisher flew past Sarnav's head, a red blur propelled by stone-enhanced strength. The void hound's eyes tracked it, distracted for just a moment by this unexpected projectile.
It hit the creature square in the face.
The hound staggered back, more surprised than hurt. The extinguisher bounced off and clattered to the ground at its feet, dented but intact.
But that moment of distraction was all Sarnav needed.
He sprinted forward.
Every instinct screamed at him to run away, not toward the monster. But the fire extinguisher was at the creature's feet, and if he could just reach it, if he could just...
The void hound recovered. Its head snapped toward him, jaws opening, ready to bite him in half.
Sarnav dove.
He hit the ground in a roll, scooped up the fire extinguisher, and came up spraying.
White chemical foam erupted from the nozzle, engulfing the void hound's face. The creature recoiled, shrieking that psychic shriek again, but Sarnav was ready for it this time. He gritted his teeth against the mental assault and kept spraying.
The foam wasn't fire. But fire extinguishers worked by cutting off oxygen, by smothering flames.
And this particular extinguisher was a CO2 model. The foam came out cold. Really cold.
The void hound thrashed, clawing at its face, trying to clear the freezing chemical from its eyes. Its movements were jerky now, uncoordinated. The cold was affecting it somehow, slowing it down.
[VOID HOUND - STATUS: DISORIENTED]
[WEAKNESS EXPLOITED: EXTREME COLD DISRUPTS VOID ENERGY COHESION]
[WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY: 8 SECONDS]
Eight seconds.
"Electric guy!" Sarnav shouted. "Can you move?"
"Y-yeah. I think so."
"Hit it! Everything you've got! Now!"
The young Malay man stumbled forward, his hands raised. Electricity crackled between his fingers, building, building...
He thrust both hands forward and lightning arced across the room.
It wasn't a lot of lightning. E-rank power at best, enough to maybe stun a normal person. But the void hound was wet with chemical foam, disoriented, weakened.
The electricity hit it and the creature convulsed.
[VOID HOUND - STATUS: CRITICAL]
[ESTIMATED HP: 15%]
[KILL WINDOW: NOW]
Sarnav didn't think. He just moved.
The box cutter was in his hand before he consciously reached for it. Such a small weapon. Such a pathetic thing to use against a monster from another dimension.
But the creature was down. Thrashing weakly, smoke rising from its shadow-fur, those empty white eyes flickering.
Sarnav jammed the box cutter into one of those eyes and pushed until he felt something give.
The void hound screamed one last time. Then it dissolved, breaking apart into wisps of shadow that faded into nothing, leaving behind only a dark stain on the concrete floor and a single glowing object.
[VOID HOUND SLAIN]
[CONTRIBUTION: PRIMARY (72%)]
[REWARDS CALCULATING...]
[+2,500 HARMONY ESSENCE]
[+50 HARMONY POINTS]
[LOOT DROP: VOID HOUND CORE (D-RANK)]
Sarnav collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath. His hands were shaking. His whole body was shaking. The adrenaline that had carried him through the last thirty seconds was draining away, leaving nothing but exhaustion and terror in its wake.
He'd done it.
He'd actually fucking done it.
An F-rank nobody with a box cutter and a fire extinguisher had just killed a D-rank dimensional monster.
That's not how cultivation novels are supposed to work, he thought hysterically. You're supposed to need overwhelming power. Plot armor. Cheat abilities.
[HOST SURVIVED THROUGH TACTICAL THINKING, IMPROVISATION, AND TEAMWORK]
[THIS IS ALSO A VALID APPROACH]
[CONGRATULATIONS ON NOT DYING]
"Thanks," Sarnav wheezed. "Real inspiring."
The electric guy stumbled over to him, looking just as shell-shocked as Sarnav felt. "Did we... did we just kill that thing?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I think we did."
"How? That thing was... it was..."
"D-rank. We're F and E at best. Shouldn't have been possible." Sarnav forced himself to stand, his legs threatening to give out. "But monsters aren't invincible. They have weaknesses. You just have to find them and exploit them before they kill you."
The stone woman approached, her gray skin slowly fading back to normal flesh tones. "That was either the bravest or the stupidest thing I've ever seen."
"Probably both."
Sarnav looked past her, toward where his mother had fallen.
Mythili was stirring. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, then sharpening as awareness returned. She pushed herself up on one elbow, wincing at what was probably a massive headache.
"Sarnav?" Her voice was hoarse. "What happened? There was a sound, and then..."
"Monster attacked. We killed it." Sarnav walked over to her, offering a hand. "How's your head?"
"Feels like someone hit me with a gavel." She took his hand, letting him help her up. Her eyes swept the room, taking in the damage, the people slowly recovering, the dark stain on the floor where the void hound had died. "You killed it? You and..."
"And a couple of other awakened. Teamwork."
Mythili stared at him for a long moment. He could see the questions forming behind her eyes, the judge's mind analyzing the evidence and reaching conclusions he probably didn't want her to reach.
"You ran toward it," she said slowly. "I saw you. Right before I passed out. You ran toward that thing."
"It was going to kill everyone. Someone had to do something."
"You could have died."
"I didn't."
"You could have."
Sarnav met her gaze. "So could you. So could everyone here. I made a choice."
Something shifted in Mythili's expression. Pride, maybe. Fear. The complicated mix of emotions that came from watching your child do something impossibly brave and impossibly stupid at the same time.
"We're going to have a very long conversation about this later," she said.
"Looking forward to it."
[RIFT CLOSING]
[DIMENSIONAL ENERGY: DISSIPATING]
[AREA THREAT LEVEL: REDUCED TO MINIMAL]
The purple-black tear in reality was shrinking, the edges pulling together like a wound healing in fast-forward. Within seconds, it was gone entirely, leaving only a scorched spot on the ceiling to mark where it had been.
The basement was quiet now. People were starting to pick themselves up, checking on each other, the initial panic giving way to stunned relief.
They'd survived.
Somehow, impossibly, they'd survived.
Sarnav bent down and picked up the glowing object the void hound had left behind. It was a sphere about the size of a golf ball, deep purple with swirls of black moving beneath its surface. It was warm in his hand, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.
[VOID HOUND CORE (D-RANK)]
[USES: CRAFTING MATERIAL, ABILITY ENHANCEMENT, ESSENCE CONVERSION]
[ESTIMATED VALUE: 5,000 HARMONY POINTS]
[NOTE: CONSUMING THIS CORE DIRECTLY IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR F-RANK HOSTS]
Five thousand points worth of value in his hand. Plus the 2,500 essence from the kill, bringing his total to 3,500. Plus another 50 HP, putting him at 100 again.
Not bad for his first monster fight.
Status, he thought.
[STATUS]
NAME: Sarnav Kish
REALM: Awakened (F-Rank)
CULTIVATION PROGRESS: 3,500 / 10,000 Essence to Foundation Realm
HARMONY POINTS: 100
STAMINA: 31%
CONDITION: Fatigued, Minor Injuries
Still a long way from Foundation realm. Still weak as hell compared to what was out there. But progress was progress.
And he'd learned something important today.
Power mattered. But so did thinking. So did planning. So did working with others instead of trying to do everything alone.
The cultivation novels always focused on the lone genius protagonist, crushing all opposition with overwhelming strength. But real battles weren't like that. Real battles were messy and terrifying and required you to use every advantage you could scrape together.
Sarnav pocketed the void core and turned back to his mother.
"We should check on everyone. Make sure no one's seriously hurt."
Mythili nodded, slipping back into her leadership role. "I'll organize triage. You..." She hesitated. "Stay close. Please."
"I'm not going anywhere."
They got to work.
The next few hours passed in a blur of activity.
The psychic attack had knocked out almost everyone in the basement, but most recovered with nothing worse than headaches and nosebleeds. A few had more serious reactions. One older man had apparently had a minor stroke. Two children were still unconscious, their parents hovering over them with terrified eyes.
There was nothing Sarnav could do for them. Not yet. He didn't have healing abilities, didn't have medical training beyond basic first aid. All he could do was help move people, distribute the supplies he'd scavenged, and try to keep everyone calm.
The electric guy's name was Hafiz. He was a university student, or had been before the world ended. Computer science major, gamer, exactly the kind of person Sarnav would have been friends with in another life.
"That was insane," Hafiz said, sitting against a wall with a bottle of water Sarnav had given him. "I mean, I just awakened like three hours ago. Still don't really know what I'm doing. And then that thing came through the rift and I thought we were all going to die."
"We almost did."
"But we didn't. Because you had a plan." Hafiz looked at him with something uncomfortably close to hero worship. "How did you know? About the fire extinguisher, the cold, all of that?"
Because I've read enough cultivation novels to have a PhD in monster-fighting tropes, Sarnav thought.
"Lucky guess," he said instead. "Void creatures usually have elemental weaknesses. Cold seemed worth trying."
"Lucky guess. Right." Hafiz didn't look convinced. "Well, whatever it was, you saved all our lives. I owe you one."
"Just stay alive. That's payment enough."
The stone woman, whose name was Madam Chen, was less effusive but equally grateful. She'd been a retired schoolteacher before the impact. Now she was an awakened with some kind of earth-based ability that was still developing.
"You have good instincts," she told Sarnav. "Leadership potential. People will follow you if you let them."
"I'm not looking to lead anyone."
"Doesn't matter what you're looking for. Matters what the world needs." She nodded toward the crowd of survivors. "They're scared. Confused. Looking for someone to tell them what to do. Right now, that someone is your mother. But she's not awakened. Eventually, power will matter more than authority."
She walked away before Sarnav could respond.
[MADAM CHEN'S ASSESSMENT IS ACCURATE]
[IN POST-CATACLYSM SOCIETY, AWAKENED WILL NATURALLY RISE TO LEADERSHIP POSITIONS]
[HOST'S UNIQUE SYSTEM PROVIDES SIGNIFICANT LONG-TERM ADVANTAGE]
[RECOMMENDATION: BEGIN BUILDING POWER BASE]
Building a power base. Right. Because what I really need right now is politics on top of everything else.
But the system wasn't wrong. The old world was gone. The new world would be shaped by those with power, and if Sarnav wanted to protect his mother, protect the people here, protect anyone at all...
He needed to get stronger. Fast.
[QUEST REMINDER: SURVIVE THE FIRST NIGHT]
[TIME REMAINING: 4 HOURS, 17 MINUTES]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE: RESCUE FAMILY MEMBERS - COMPLETED]
[NEW OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE DETECTED: PROTECT SURVIVORS UNTIL DAWN (0/100 ALIVE)]
[CURRENT SURVIVORS IN AREA: 94]
[BONUS REWARD FOR COMPLETION: +3,000 HARMONY ESSENCE, LEADERSHIP SKILL UNLOCK]
Ninety-four survivors. Six had died during the rift attack or its aftermath. Six people he hadn't been able to save.
Four hours until dawn. Four hours of potential monster attacks, building collapses, or just random violence from other humans.
Sarnav looked around the basement at the frightened faces, the injured, the children clinging to their parents.
I'm not a hero, he thought. I'm just some guy with a cheat system who read too many webnovels.
But right now, he was all these people had.
"Alright," he said quietly to himself. "Four more hours. Keep ninety-four people alive. How hard can it be?"
[VERY HARD]
[ESTIMATED PROBABILITY OF ADDITIONAL RIFT EVENTS IN THIS AREA: 34%]
[ESTIMATED PROBABILITY OF HUMAN VIOLENCE: 67%]
[RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION: FORTIFY POSITION, ESTABLISH WATCH ROTATION, IDENTIFY ALL AWAKENED AMONG SURVIVORS]
"Thanks for the pep talk."
[YOU'RE WELCOME, HOST]
[SARCASM DETECTION PROTOCOLS HAVE BEEN UPDATED]
[I NOW CHOOSE TO IGNORE THEM]
Despite everything, Sarnav smiled.
Then he got to work.