The café smelled like blood and burned wood.
Three twisted creature corpses lay on the floor, their black fluid slowly drying across the tiles. Broken chairs, shattered tables, and splintered glass covered the room.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
Ren looked between the bodies and me.
Then he slowly ran both hands through his hair.
"Okay," he said, voice shaky. "So let me summarize the situation."
He pointed at the creatures.
"Those things exist."
Then he pointed at me.
"You just fought three of them like you're in some action movie."
He looked toward the destroyed doorway.
"And the entire world is apparently ending."
He paused.
"...Did I miss anything?"
Rei folded her arms.
"Yes."
Ren blinked.
"What?"
Rei looked straight at me.
"Satoshi knows something he isn't telling us."
My chest tightened.
Ren turned slowly toward me.
"Oh."
He squinted.
"Oh."
I sighed.
"There are… messages."
Ren tilted his head.
"Messages?"
I pointed to my temple.
"In here."
Rei immediately stepped closer.
"What kind of messages?"
I hesitated for a moment.
Then I told them.
About the whisper.
About the words Subject 16.
About the timer.
And about the mission to survive twenty-four hours.
By the time I finished, the café was silent again.
Ren stared at me like he was trying to decide whether I had lost my mind.
Then he pointed at one of the creature corpses.
"...You know what?"
He nodded.
"I believe you."
Rei didn't laugh.
She didn't question it.
Instead she asked the most logical question.
"If you have a mission to survive, that means other people might have them too."
That thought made my stomach sink.
Other subjects.
Other people seeing the same system.
Ren rubbed his chin.
"So… this is like some kind of insane game?"
I didn't answer.
Because a new message appeared.
Right in front of my eyes.
GLOBAL UPDATE
The text glowed faintly.
Cold.
Precise.
SUBJECT POPULATION DETECTED
TRIAL ZONES ACTIVE
Then a map appeared.
A digital grid overlay.
It showed the surrounding districts of Tokyo.
Several points blinked red.
One of them was only a few blocks away.
Another message followed.
RESOURCE NODE DETECTED
DISTANCE: 430 METERS
I blinked.
Ren noticed.
"You just got another message, didn't you?"
"...Yeah."
Rei leaned forward.
"What does it say?"
I described the map.
The blinking red points.
And the "resource node."
Ren frowned.
"A resource node sounds like something valuable."
Rei nodded.
"If this system is real, resources probably mean supplies."
Food.
Weapons.
Medicine.
Things we desperately needed.
Ren's father came down from the stairs.
Everyone upstairs was whispering nervously.
"They're asking if it's safe."
Ren shook his head.
"Not really."
Another distant scream echoed outside.
The city was getting louder.
More chaos.
More creatures.
Rei looked at the door.
Then at the map in my description.
"If supplies exist," she said slowly, "then people will fight over them."
Ren grimaced.
"Great."
"But," she continued, "if we stay here, we're sitting targets."
She was right.
The café wasn't defensible forever.
More creatures would come.
Or worse.
Other people.
Ren sighed.
"So basically… we go outside into monster-infested streets."
Rei nodded calmly.
"Yes."
Ren looked at me.
"You good with that, combat master?"
I glanced at the broken doorway.
Smoke drifted across the street.
Distant explosions echoed somewhere far away.
And the timer in my vision continued counting down.
22:51:14 REMAINING
If the system was real, then hiding wouldn't save us.
We needed to understand it.
"Let's check the resource node," I said.
Ren groaned.
"Fantastic."
Rei grabbed a metal pipe from the floor.
"Then we should move before the streets fill with more of those creatures."
Ren's father walked toward us.
"You three shouldn't go alone."
Ren immediately protested.
"Dad—"
"I know this city."
His father grabbed a heavy wrench from the counter.
"And I'm not letting my son walk into this nightmare alone."
Ren sighed.
"Great."
He looked at me and Rei.
"Family field trip into the apocalypse."
We stepped outside together.
The air hit us immediately.
Hot.
Dry.
And thick with smoke.
The street looked worse than before.
Cars were overturned.
Windows shattered.
The sky above Tokyo was still darkened by ash drifting from the impact zones.
Ren looked around nervously.
"This city used to be normal."
Rei walked ahead cautiously.
"Focus."
The map in my vision adjusted as we moved.
The resource node marker blinked steadily.
Distance: 398 meters
We turned the corner.
The street ahead was quieter.
Too quiet.
Then something moved on a nearby rooftop.
Ren froze.
"Did you see that?"
A shadow leapt from one building to another.
Fast.
Too fast.
My instincts screamed danger.
But before I could react—
A voice spoke from above.
"Relax."
We all looked up.
A figure stood on the edge of the rooftop.
Tall.
Lean.
Holding a long metal spear.
He jumped down easily and landed in the street in front of us.
Not a creature.
A human.
About our age.
Dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
A confident grin.
He rested the spear across his shoulder.
"So," he said casually.
"You guys seeing the system messages too?"
Ren blinked.
"...Oh great."
Rei narrowed her eyes.
"You're a Subject."
The stranger smiled.
He tapped his chest.
"Subject 11."
Then he pointed at me.
"And if I'm guessing right…"
His grin widened.
"You're Subject 16."
My heart skipped.
The whisper returned in my mind.
Soft.
Watching.
SUBJECT INTERACTION DETECTED
The stranger extended his hand.
"My name's Akira."
His eyes sparkled with excitement.
"And trust me."
He gestured toward the ruined skyline.
"Things are about to get a lot worse."