The hum of Eden Zero's forest ambience wrapped around Kim like a living blanket — chirps, rustles, and the faint distant roar of some creature he hoped never to meet again. His C-rank tag still glowed faintly in the corner of his HUD, a reminder of just how close he'd come to losing everything in the real world just hours ago.
The player forum icon blinked every so often in the corner of his vision, as if it too was trying to remind him: "You made it… barely." He almost chuckled. The sale from the Fracture Spire's boss drop had been absurd — like winning a lottery in a game that didn't even have lotteries. But the thought of how fast money burned in Eden Zero was sobering.
Especially now.
Kim crouched low, scanning the treeline. The forest he was traveling through wasn't just any low-level grinding zone. It was the Bleakwood Approach, a transitional area between C-rank zones and B-tier wilderness. It was a place where monsters learned to be smart.
His minimap pinged.
Movement — 27 meters ahead.
Kim tightened his grip on his blade. Ever since the forum windfall, he'd splurged on a refined steel sabre with a +12 crit modifier, but every time he looked at its shiny stats, he felt his bank account groan.
He stepped carefully around a moss-covered root, the ground here soft enough to swallow the sound of his boots. A distant, muffled whoosh — an arrow burying itself into bark — made him freeze.
"Player ambush?" he muttered, sinking lower.
It wasn't unheard of here. The Approach was notorious for rogue PvP gangs preying on players who were just leaving the safety of C-rank zones. Most of them worked in teams.
Another sound — this time a faint hiss — drifted through the foliage. Kim's brows furrowed.
That wasn't a player.
A shadow darted between the trees, too low to the ground to be human. Kim activated his Silent Step skill, his outline fading as he blended into the ambient shade. He slid forward, slow and deliberate, until the figure came into view.
It was a monster — or rather, a cluster of them. Small, hunched figures with skin like stitched leather, eyes gleaming red, each holding a crude, jagged spear. Bleakwood Stalkers.
They were barely C-tier mobs on their own, but in packs? Deadly.
Kim glanced at their movement pattern and almost swore. They weren't patrolling. They were surrounding something.
He climbed up onto a fallen log for a better view. In the clearing below, a player — a tall guy in battered chainmail — stood with his back to a rock wall, fending off the creatures with wild, desperate swings. His health bar hovered dangerously low.
Kim hesitated.
Intervening would mean exposing himself. It could also mean the difference between life and death for that player.
He sighed. "Well… this is a terrible idea."
He dropped into the fray.
The first stalker lunged for his leg, but Kim's blade flashed in a clean, upward arc — CRIT! — sending it tumbling with a yelp.
The player's eyes widened. "Who—?!"
"Later!" Kim barked, rolling to avoid another jab.
Working together, they quickly thinned the swarm. Kim's crits hit like hammer blows; the stranger's brute swings smashed anything Kim couldn't reach in time. In less than a minute, the last stalker fell with a choked hiss.
The man panted hard, wiping sweat from his brow. "You saved my hide, man. I'm Doran."
"Kim," he replied, sheathing his sword. "You… uh… were about three seconds from being leather scraps."
Doran laughed weakly. "Guess I owe you one." He opened his inventory and pulled out a strange object — a shard of something black, glassy, and humming faintly.
"Ever seen one of these?" he asked.
Kim shook his head.
"No? Well… rumor says they're part of something called the Pet Protocol. Some new dev update thing. If you collect enough, you can… apparently hatch something rare."
Kim's heart skipped. A quiet memory from the forest in Chapter 2 flickered in his mind — that odd, high-pitched echo from the shadows.
He took the shard carefully. "I'll… hang onto this."
They parted ways soon after, Doran heading back toward safer zones, and Kim pushing deeper into the Bleakwood.
The air here grew cooler, heavier. His HUD dimmed slightly, warning him of "low-light conditions."
And then — from the darkness — a whisper.
Not a human voice. Not exactly.
I see you…
Kim froze, sword halfway drawn.
Whatever it was, he had the sudden, distinct feeling that it wasn't a monster… and it wasn't friendly.