The night had settled like a damp blanket over the remnants of the old city. The air smelled of rain and rust, thick with the kind of quiet that gnawed at the back of one's neck.
Yu Ren lay on the upper bunk of the abandoned military dormitory they had claimed for the night. A low hum vibrated through the walls—too soft to be machinery, too steady to be natural. He stared up at the cracked ceiling, its peeling paint forming strange shapes in the shadows. Something was wrong.
Kai was sitting near the window again, back straight as always, peering through a thin slit in the boarded-up wall. Even now, when they weren't running or fighting, Kai never seemed to fully rest. He hadn't spoken much since they reached the shelter ruins that morning.
[System Notification:
Kai's Favorability has increased: 87% → 88%
Reason: "Trust under silence."]
Yu Ren blinked at the floating prompt. The last few days had chipped away at the walls between them. Words weren't always needed anymore.
He sat up slowly. "You hear that too?"
Kai didn't move. "It's not the wind."
They'd encountered no infected today—just silence, and that made it worse. Empty cities didn't breathe like this. They held their breath before the scream.
Yu Ren climbed down and picked up his pack, rifling through for the last protein bar they'd saved. When he offered it, Kai didn't take it right away.
"You haven't eaten today," Yu Ren said, voice quiet. "Split it?"
Kai hesitated—then nodded. A small thing. But Yu Ren noticed the way his expression softened just slightly.
Silas stirred from his spot on the floor. The ex-lab survivor had grown quieter since they left the hospital zone. He still hadn't said much about what happened to him—only that he remembered screams and glass breaking and the taste of blood in his mouth.
"Did the hum follow us?" Silas asked groggily, rubbing his face. "It's been getting louder…"
Yu Ren exchanged a glance with Kai.
Kai stood. "Pack light. We leave in fifteen minutes."
"Where?" Silas asked.
"Down. Underground."
Yu Ren frowned. "There's another shelter?"
Kai turned to him. "Maybe. There's an access shaft. It wasn't on the public schematics, but Silas's map fragment showed something."
They didn't have better options. Above ground, nothing moved—but that didn't mean safety. Sometimes the worst things waited in silence.
—
The access shaft was behind a false wall in the dormitory's laundry room. Kai found the release switch embedded in a rusted pipe. The hidden door groaned open with a hiss of stale air.
"I'm not going first," Silas muttered.
Yu Ren went instead. The ladder creaked under his weight as he descended into darkness. His fingers brushed grime and spider webs. The farther down he went, the more unnatural the hum became—less like wind, more like breathing.
He reached the bottom. A maintenance tunnel stretched ahead, lit by flickering emergency strips.
[System Alert: Hazard Detected –
"Unstable Signal Interference: Mutation Field Level 2."]
Yu Ren froze. "Kai…"
"I see it," Kai said from above, beginning his descent. "Be careful. We don't know if it's environmental or alive."
The three of them stepped into the tunnel. The hum grew louder.
Then they saw it.
Not a creature.
Not a person.
A machine.
Half-sunken into the floor, cables splayed out like veins, pulsing dim red light. Around it, growths of crystal-like infection pushed through the concrete, humming in time with the machine's beat.
"Is that… pre-apocalypse tech?" Yu Ren whispered.
Kai knelt. "Worse. It's hybrid. Tech mutated by exposure to high-level infected."
Silas began backing away. "We shouldn't be here."
But the system spoke again.
[New Objective: Interface with Hybrid Beacon.]
[Reward: Unknown.]
[Warning: Unpredictable Consequences.]
Yu Ren's hands trembled.
"Do we do it?" he asked.
Kai stared at the core. "We'll do it together."
—
Yu Ren stepped closer to the strange machine, his boots making soft, sticky sounds against the partially crystalized floor. The red glow from the pulsing veins illuminated his face, giving his skin a faint, unnatural hue. The hum had become rhythmic, like a second heartbeat echoing in his skull. The system's prompt still hovered in the corner of his vision:
[New Objective: Interface with Hybrid Beacon]
[Warning: Unpredictable Consequences.]
[Reward: Unknown.]
He turned to Kai. "We don't even know what this thing does."
Kai remained crouched near the base of the beacon, eyes narrowed at its exposed interior. "Whatever it is, it's drawing power from something… or someone."
Silas took a step back. "I've seen tech like this before. In the lab. They were experimenting—trying to use the infection as a power source, to create something that could 'speak' to the virus, manipulate it."
Yu Ren's stomach tightened. "Like… control it?"
"No." Silas's voice dropped to a whisper. "Worse. Sync with it."
Kai stood. "That's why it's humming. It's not broken—it's alive."
Yu Ren hesitated. "Then the system… wants me to interface with a living machine?"
[Confirm: Engage with Hybrid Beacon?]
[Estimated Risk: High.]
[Requirement: Physical Touch.]
[Backup Recommended.]
Kai moved first, placing his hand lightly over Yu Ren's. "If it goes wrong, I'll pull you back. Don't do it alone."
[Favorability: Kai +1. (87% → 88%)]
Reason: "Standing together in the unknown."
Yu Ren let out a shaky breath. "Okay. On three."
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
His palm pressed against the warm, humming surface of the hybrid beacon.
The world vanished.
—
In that instant, time warped.
Yu Ren's mind was pulled through the interface like a string caught in a drain. Memories not his own rushed through him—shattered lab rooms, corpses hooked to wires, figures in hazmat suits whispering about "the Source." Screaming. Always screaming.
[New Data Acquired: "Origin Protocol – A5."]
[System Alert: Mutation Resistance +5%]
[System Alert: Unknown Skill Acquired – "Pulse Sense (Locked)"]
[Warning: Partial Contamination Detected.]
Yu Ren gasped, stumbling backward, Kai catching him before he hit the ground.
"What did you see?" Kai demanded.
Yu Ren's hands were shaking. "It's… it's a relay. Like a signal tower. But not for communication—for mutation fields. It's sending out frequencies that agitate infected biology, speeding up changes."
Silas's eyes widened. "You mean it's making things worse?"
Yu Ren shook his head. "No. Not worse. Directed."
Kai's gaze hardened. "Someone's guiding the mutation?"
Yu Ren nodded slowly. "Or something."
—
They disabled the beacon by severing its exposed nerves—thick, twitching cables that pulsed like arteries. As soon as the last one snapped, the red glow dimmed, and the hum died.
But the silence that followed wasn't comforting.
It was like something out there had noticed.
—
Back in the dormitory, Kai was unusually quiet. He handed Yu Ren a canteen and sat beside him on the bed, arms crossed.
Yu Ren looked at his hands. They still felt… wrong. Tingling with static, like a radio stuck between stations. "The skill," he murmured. "The system gave me something new, but it's locked. I think it has to do with sound."
Kai didn't answer immediately. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft. "You were screaming while connected. Like you were being torn apart."
Yu Ren looked up at him. "I don't remember that."
"I couldn't reach you. I couldn't do anything."
There was something raw in Kai's voice. A rare crack.
"I'm still here," Yu Ren said.
Kai looked away, but his knuckles tightened.
Silas had retreated into one of the side rooms, his paranoia heightened again. He kept muttering something about "the voices" and "the tower's song." Whatever the machine did, it touched more than just Yu Ren.
That night, Yu Ren dreamed of a tower built from human spines, pulsing with red light at its peak, calling to something in the sky that answered back with thunder.
—
Morning in the Safe Zone felt different now.
Even with its fortified walls and sterilized checkpoints, there was an eerie sense of watchfulness. Yu Ren kept glancing at the sky, half-expecting something to answer the signal the beacon might have sent. It had gone dark, yes—but he couldn't shake the feeling that something had heard.
Kai was the first to break the silence during breakfast.
"We can't stay here long."
Yu Ren looked up from his protein bar, barely touched. "Because of the beacon?"
Kai nodded. "If there are more… they're part of something bigger. Some kind of coordinated network. And whatever's behind it is using infected zones as testing grounds."
Silas was pacing near the window, twitchy. "I've seen it. Maps. Patterns. The outbreaks aren't random. They spiral outward, always centered near an old military bunker."
Yu Ren frowned. "Then we go there."
"No." Silas's voice was sharper than usual. "That place… it's singing. Even now. Can't you hear it?"
Yu Ren blinked. "No…"
But then—
A vibration.
Faint, like a heartbeat under his skin. He rubbed his temples, trying to clear it. Then a system prompt blinked into existence:
[Skill Activation Triggered: Pulse Sense – Level 1 (Unlocked)]
Description: Perceive structural and biological frequencies within a limited range.
Range: 10 meters
Cooldown: 5 minutes
His heart skipped a beat. "The skill's… active?"
Kai stood beside him. "Your eyes just flashed. Silver."
Yu Ren turned toward the window, focusing.
The world slowed. He could feel the heartbeat of the walls, the electric hum of distant panels, the subtle thrum of Kai's pulse—calm but alert. Silas's, by contrast, was erratic. Like a bird trapped in a cage.
Yu Ren staggered back as the sensation vanished.
[Cooldown Initiated: 5 minutes]
Kai caught him by the arm again. "Useful, but dangerous if you push too hard."
Yu Ren steadied himself. "It confirms something, though. That tower wasn't just a fluke. Someone's setting up a network. And if the center of the spiral is the military bunker…"
"We go there," Kai finished.
Silas looked stricken. "I'm not going back to that place. Do you know what they did there?"
Yu Ren approached slowly. "Then help us avoid their mistakes."
Silas shuddered but didn't argue.
—
Later That Day
Yu Ren stood at the trading board near the main safe zone plaza. A map was displayed on a digital board, and several marked "hazard zones" pulsed faint red. In the center of a dead zone was the label: "Apex Bunker 017."
Under it, a note:
[RESTRICTED] Authorized Personnel Only. Last transmission: 3 months ago.
"Three months?" Kai muttered. "That's… recent."
They returned to their room and began prepping for departure.
Yu Ren opened their supplies:
Water (10L)
Canned rations (6 days)
Ammunition (22 rounds)
Medical packs (3 minor, 1 major)
Emergency flare (1)
Crowbar, hunting knife, and a short-range EMP (given by a tech trader in exchange for 2 silver shards)
[Inventory Value: ~9 silver crowns]
Kai glanced at the sparse supplies. "We'll need more for a five-day trip."
Yu Ren hesitated. "I can trade a skill shard."
Kai frowned. "That's rare. You sure?"
[Favorability: Kai +1 → 89%]
Yu Ren smiled faintly. "Only if it keeps us alive."
They sold the shard for 4 silver crowns and stocked up:
Extra rations (+3 days) – 1 silver
Battery pack – 2 silver
Old world map (waterproof) – 0.5 silver
Emergency injection (unknown use) – 0.5 silver
Remaining currency: 1 silver crown
As night fell, they packed quietly. Silas scribbled in his notebook, muttering about frequencies and patterns again.
Yu Ren looked out the window, the skyline of the safe zone barely visible beyond cracked glass and patchwork metal. He whispered, "Whatever waits in that bunker… we have to see it."
Kai stepped beside him, silent.
The stars above flickered.
But one, near the horizon, pulsed faintly red.
—
To be continued.