The cascade of blue screens filled Leo's vision, a welcome sight that momentarily pushed back the stench of acid and melted monster. Two levels. The jump from 3 to 5 felt less like a step and more like a quantum leap. He could feel it immediately—a deep, thrumming reservoir of energy inside him, a clarity of mind that was almost dizzying.
[Skill Acquired: [Improvise Tool (Lvl 1)]]
[Description: Using ambient materials and items from your inventory, you can create a temporary tool or weapon to solve an immediate problem. Quality and durability of the improvised tool are dependent on your INT and WIS stats, and the materials used. The tool will break down after its immediate purpose is fulfilled.]
Leo stared at the description, a slow grin spreading across his face. This wasn't just a skill; it was the codification of his entire survival strategy. The System wasn't just acknowledging his methods; it was rewarding him for them, building them into his Class. He'd been improvising all along. Now, the System would help him do it better.
"Leo? Are you okay?" Evelyn's voice cut through his thoughts. "You're... glowing."
Leo looked at his hands. A faint blue aura was indeed washing over him, a visible manifestation of his double level-up. He waved a dismissive hand. "Just a side effect. It's done. The way is clear."
"Clear?" Evelyn peered cautiously into the ravaged stairwell. "It looks like a chemical weapons test site."
She wasn't wrong. The concrete steps below were pitted and smoking, and the corpse of the Stalk-Weaver was still slowly dissolving into a black, tarry sludge. Loot motes, a brilliant sapphire and a deep purple, floated above the corpse, waiting to be collected.
Leo retrieved them with a thought, not wanting to get any closer to the mess.
[Acquired: (1) Stalk-Weaver's Silk Gland, (1) Shadow-Laced Chitin.]
More exotic components. He had a growing collection of monstrous bits and pieces he had no idea how to use. For now, they were just trophies.
He turned his attention to his stats. Ten points. It was a fortune. He felt the temptation to pour them all into a single stat, to become blindingly fast or impossibly tough. But his fight with the Stalk-Weaver had taught him a crucial lesson: balance was survival. His wits had won, but only because his agility had let him get into position and his endurance had let him handle the strain.
He made his decision. Versatility was the key.
[Allocate 4 points to Endurance.]
[Allocate 3 points to Agility.]
[Allocate 3 points to Wisdom.]
The glow around him intensified for a moment, then sank into his skin. The feeling of power was palpable. The world snapped into even sharper focus. He felt stronger, faster, and more perceptive than he had any right to be.
Generated code
Name: Leo Miller Level: 5 Class: Janitor HP: 200/200 MP: 100/100 --- STR: 8 END: 19 AGI: 15 INT: 11 WIS: 22 LCK: ? --- Stat Points Available: 0 --- Skills: [Mop Up], [Scrub Clean], [Waste Disposal], [Improvise Tool (NEW)], [Deep Clean (Locked)]
content_copydownloadUse code with caution.
"We need to keep moving," Leo said, his voice imbued with a new confidence. "The commotion might attract more."
They navigated carefully down the acid-eaten steps, giving the Stalk-Weaver's corpse a wide berth. The stench was eye-watering. They continued their descent, the silence returning, but this time it felt different. It was the silence of a cleared path, not a waiting ambush.
They passed the 30th floor, the 20th, the 10th. Each landing was a snapshot of chaos: barricades that had failed, barricades that had held but were now abandoned, floors ominously untouched. They saw no one, living or dead. It felt like they were the only two people left in the entire skyscraper.
Finally, they reached the door to the ground floor. It was dented and scratched from the outside, but it was holding. Leo put his ear to the cold steel. He heard nothing. No screams, no clicking, no fighting. Only an unnerving, low hum.
"This is it," Evelyn whispered, her hand hovering over a piece of carapace she had pulled from her satchel to use as a makeshift shield.
Leo nodded. He took a deep breath, readied his spear, and pushed the door open.
The ground floor lobby of the OmniCorp Tower was a warzone. The pristine white marble was shattered, stained with blood of both human and inhuman origin. The massive, ten-foot-tall sculpture of the company's logo was toppled, lying in pieces. But the lobby was empty, save for the corpses. Several Skitterers lay dead, riddled with bullet holes, alongside the bodies of a handful of building security guards who had made a final, futile stand.
The source of the humming was immediately apparent. On the far side of the lobby, the main security office was sealed shut by a heavy, reinforced steel door. But the door was glowing with a faint, pulsing red light, and the hum was emanating from it.
"That's a lockdown protocol," Evelyn said, her eyes wide. "Code Omega. Total biological and electronic seal. Nothing gets in or out. They must have activated it right at the beginning."
"So there could be people in there?" Leo asked.
"There should be. The head of security, a guy named Marcus, and his team."
Hope surged in Leo's chest. The comms panel. The cameras. Information. Maybe even a way to contact Sarah's hospital. "Can we open it?"
Evelyn walked over to the keypad next to the door. It was dark, lifeless. "No. Code Omega requires a command from inside to deactivate. It's designed to withstand a direct assault. We can't get in."
Leo's hope turned to frustration. So close. He slammed his fist against the unyielding steel door. The hum from within seemed to intensify for a second in response, and the red light pulsed faster.
"Wait," Evelyn said, holding up a hand. "The hum. It's not just the door's power system. Listen."
Leo quieted, straining his ears. Behind the low, electronic hum, there was something else. A rhythmic, wet, squelching sound. It was faint, but unmistakable. And it was coming from inside the security office.
A horrifying realization dawned on Leo's face. "The barricade held," he said slowly. "But what if the danger wasn't on the outside?"
One of the first things he'd seen, one of the first things everyone had seen, were the System messages appearing in their heads. What if a monster had been created inside the secure room? What if one of the guards had turned into something else?
"There's an override," Evelyn suddenly said, snapping her fingers. "A physical one. It's a terrible idea, it was only designed for fire emergencies. It's in the main breaker room in the sub-basement. If we can get down there and pull the circuit for the security magnetic locks, it should default the door to an unlocked state."
"The sub-basement?" Leo asked.
"Below the parking garage. It's where all the building's main power conduits are," she confirmed. "But Leo... no one ever goes down there. It's a maze of pipes and generators. If anything got down there during the start of all this..."
She didn't need to finish. The sub-basement of a skyscraper was a dark, cramped, labyrinthine place—the perfect hunting ground. But it was their only way in. Their only path to the answers they desperately needed.
Just as they were about to head for the parking garage stairwell, a new sound echoed from the far side of the lobby. It was a scraping, dragging noise coming from the main entrance, where the revolving doors had been shattered.
Leo and Evelyn flattened themselves behind the wreckage of the toppled OmniCorp logo. They watched as a new type of creature dragged itself into the lobby. It looked like a horrifying fusion of a slug and a centipede, its body a bloated, nine-foot-long sac of mottled gray flesh. Dozens of small, spindly legs twitched along its sides, struggling to pull its immense weight forward. But its most disturbing feature was its "head." It didn't have one. Instead, the front of its body was a gaping, circular maw ringed with hook-like teeth. A Corpse-Guzzler. Another name downloaded into Leo's brain.
It ignored the dead Skitterers. It crawled deliberately toward the bodies of the human security guards. It lowered its maw over the first corpse and, with a series of sickening, wet contractions, began to... absorb it.
[Lvl 6 Corpse-Guzzler]
[Special Ability: Assimilate. Consumes biological matter to heal and grow stronger.]
The creature was a living garbage disposal. A recycler. Leo watched, disgusted, as it completely consumed the first body in under a minute. It seemed to swell slightly, its gray skin glistening. Then it moved on to the next.
Evelyn gagged, pressing a hand to her mouth. "We have to get out of here before it sees us."
The parking garage entrance was on the other side of the lobby. They would have to cross directly in front of the feeding monster.
Leo looked at the Corpse-Guzzler. It was slow. It was focused. This was a risk, but a manageable one.
But as the creature finished consuming the second guard, it shuddered. Its back began to bubble and distend. With a wet pop, a new appendage sprouted from its flank—a crude, fleshy limb ending in a sharp barb of bone.
It was evolving. In real-time.
"Its special ability," Leo whispered, his eyes wide with alarm. "It's not just getting stronger. It's adapting. Taking on traits from what it eats."
The problem had just changed. The slow, predictable monster was gone. In its place was something new. Something unknown. And it was sitting right between them and their only way out.