The door didn't open. It simply ceased to exist.
The sturdy iron garage door I had just repaired yesterday was ripped off its hinges by a terrifying blow from the outside and sent flying across the room, crashing into the opposite wall where the generator stood. CRASH! The sound of metal hitting concrete echoed like thunder.
Dust and concrete fragments rose into the air. The generator's steady hum distorted, and the lights in the room began to flicker in panic.
From within that cloud of dust, four shadows emerged.
These were no ordinary animals. Rusted Wolves.
They were twice the size of real wolves. Half of their bodies consisted of rotting flesh, the other half of crudely welded metal plates. Instead of spines, they had thick shock absorbers, and their claws were saw blades made from spinning discs. In their eyes burned not animalistic rage, but a cold, artificial red light.
"Analysis complete," said Aidos (Valkyrie), standing beside me. Her elegant, white ceramic body looked like an angel in the dim light of the garage, but the humming plasma blade in her hand made her look like an executioner. "Targets: 4 units. Kinetic shields absent. Recommended strategy: Sever the head from the body."
"I'm falling in love with your strategy," I said, gritting my teeth. My heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. Was there fear? Yes. But this time, alongside it, there was a strange excitement. "The ones on the left are mine, the right ones are yours. Try not to die!"
The first wolf lunged at me.
As it leaped into the air, its claws spun, emitting a terrifying whirrr sound. This saw would definitely cut through my body like butter.
Time seemed to slow down.
I gripped my "Excalibur" (reinforced monkey wrench) tightly with both hands. I jumped to the right. The wolf's metal jaws snapped at the air, missing my shoulder by centimeters.
As the wolf landed, I struck the hydraulic tube on its hind leg with the wrench.
Clang!
The blow was powerful, but the wolf's metal turned out to be harder than I expected. The wrench merely dented its armor slightly.
Growling not from pain but from rage, the wolf immediately turned around. Foul-smelling saliva mixed with oil sprayed from its mouth.
"Damn," I thought. "Physical strength isn't enough."
At that moment, a real dance had begun on the other side of the room.
Aidos moved at speeds impossible for a human. Spinning like a ballerina, she dodged the first wolf's attack and struck its neck with the plasma blade from mid-air.
Vwoom!
The smell of burnt flesh and melted metal.
The wolf's head was severed from its body and rolled onto the floor. Instead of blood, a fountain of pitch-black oil spurted from the cut.
"One target eliminated," Aidos's 'sweet' voice said. "But my gyroscope has a 0.4-second lag. This body needs lubrication, Liam!"
"Not now!" I shouted.
My wolf attacked again. This time it wasn't alone. The third wolf from behind also ran toward me. Two against one. Unfair.
I pulled out the pistol and fired at the first one's eye.
Bang! Bang!
The bullet hit its metal forehead and ricocheted off. The wolf didn't even stop. They cornered me.
"System!" I screamed internally. "Give me a solution! Does a Restorer only fix things? What about breaking them?!"
[Your level is low. "Destruction" branch is locked.]
[However... You can manipulate the "State" of objects.]
[Hint: "Over-restoration" or "Forced Decay" is theoretically possible.]
It was like lightning struck my brain.
Restoration is rewinding an object along the timeline.
What if I push it forward along the timeline? What happens to iron over time? It rusts. It decays. It turns to dust.
The wolf leaped. Its open mouth approached my face.
I didn't dodge.
There was nowhere to run.
I extended my left hand (not the one holding the pistol) forward and pressed my palm against the wolf's metal chest.
"DECAY!" I screamed with my entire being.
A terrifying amount of Ether was drained from my body. My veins burned as if on fire. Black and dark crimson sparks appeared in my palm.
The result was horrifying.
The thick steel armor where my hand touched aged a hundred years in a single second.
The color of the metal changed from gray to red, then to black.
Rust blooms spread across the entire ribcage like mold.
The wolf seemed to hang suspended in the air. Its momentum didn't stop, but its integrity was compromised.
It slammed into me. But instead of the hard impact I expected, a sack of rusted powder and rotten metal fragments spilled over me.
The wolf's chest simply crumbled. The motor and heart parts inside, left unprotected, fell to the floor with a squelch.
The creature moaned – a sound like metal breaking – and died.
[New Ability Discovered: "Forced Entropy"]
[Ether Cost: 40 units]
[Effect: Accelerates an object's aging process by 1000 times.]
Panting, I looked at my hand. My fingers were trembling. This... this wasn't just "fixing." This was dominion over time itself.
Just then, Aidos's scream was heard.
"Liam! Look out!"
I raised my head.
The fourth wolf – the largest, probably the Alpha – had targeted me. Having thrown Aidos against the wall with a single blow (a crack appeared on her ceramic body), it lunged straight at me.
I was low on Ether. "Forced Entropy" had consumed too much energy. I couldn't use it again.
The Alpha wolf bore down on me. Its weight pinned me to the ground. Foul breath hit my face. Its saw-teeth approached my neck.
I shoved the wrench into its mouth, blocking the teeth.
Grrr-r-r-r!
The spinning teeth began to file down the wrench. Sparks sprayed into my face.
My strength isn't enough. It's going to eat me now.
"Shut... it... off..." I wheezed.
At that moment, my eyes fell on an exposed spot on the Alpha wolf's neck. Complex wires and a small Core glowing blue were visible there.
I can't break it (No Ether).
I can't age it.
But...
What does a Restorer know best?
He knows how things are put together.
I activated "Eye of Analysis."
I saw the world in the form of codes again. That core in the wolf's neck... it was fastened with complex bolts.
"Dismantle..." I whispered.
This wasn't magic. This was just the mastery of the "Monkey Wrench."
My "Scrap Engineer" title and Restorer knowledge combined.
I grabbed onto that complex knot on its neck with my free hand.
I didn't use force. I just found the lock.
And I "opened" it.
Click!
A small but crucial fastening bolt popped out of place.
The energy flow in the Alpha wolf's neck was severed. The red light in its eyes extinguished instantly.
The spinning saw-teeth stopped.
The wolf's massive body collapsed onto me with a thud, like a puppet with cut strings. Heavy. Very heavy.
Silence.
Only the low hum of the generator and my heavy breathing could be heard.
And Aidos's disgruntled voice:
"You ruined my kill-statistic. That was 500 XP, idiot!"
I barely crawled out from under the wolf's corpse. My clothes were stained with a mixture of black oil and blood.
"Thanks," I coughed. "I love you too, Eve."
"My name is Aidos!" she shouted, standing up from the base of the wall. Her left leg was limping slightly, the ceramic armor on her shoulder was broken. "Look! My perfect aesthetics are compromised! Do you see this scratch? Do you know how long it takes to polish this?!"
I looked at her and laughed with a mix of exhaustion.
"I'll fix it," I said. "I'll fix everything. Just... let's rest a bit."
I sat next to the Alpha wolf. That blue Core I had pulled from its neck was in my hand.
It was warm. And I could feel a massive amount of energy inside it.
[Loot: Small Mana Reactor (Alpha Wolf Core)]
[Quality: Rare]
[Usage: Powering a generator, Crafting weapons, or... Consuming to replenish Ether.]
"Consume?" I frowned. "System, are you serious? I don't eat iron."
[You are a Restorer. You can convert matter into energy.]
My stomach growled.
I looked at the core. It looked like sweet, blue jelly (if jelly were radioactive, of course).
"Risk it," I said and brought the core to my mouth.
Aidos looked at me in horror.
"Stop! It's unstable! It could blow you up..."
I bit into it.
There was no crunching sound. The core melted in my mouth.
And an explosion occurred in my body. Not pain. Power. Pure, limitless power.
[Ether fully restored!]
[Maximum Ether increased: 110 -> 150]
[Your body is entering partial symbiosis with metal.]
[Skin Toughness +5]
I opened my eyes. My vision seemed to clear up slightly.
I looked at Aidos.
"Didn't explode," I said smiling. "But it tasted like licking a battery."
Aidos shook her head.
"You are not human. You... you are a 'Glitch.' An error."
I stood up and looked at the garage's broken door.
"Even if I'm an error, I'm a living error."
Then I grew serious.
"These wolves didn't just stumble upon us, Aidos. They came looking. We are being watched. This garage is no longer safe."
"What do we do?" Aidos asked, deactivating her laser blade.
I looked at the horizon, at the ruined city lying in the embrace of the night.
"We go on the offensive. We go to the Iron City. We find your server. And whoever sent these dogs at us... we will take them apart and put them back together wrong."
I hoisted "Excalibur" onto my shoulder.