In the harbor city of Veren, the sky fractures into glass-like layers and reality begins to “read itself.” Names appear above objects, the sea hums with a cold, measured rhythm, and a message echoes inside every mind:

Assessment has begun.

Kael learns that survival is no longer just courage—it’s a system that grants power for a price. When the first Rift opens near the harbor’s ancient tower, he and Lyra are pulled into a trial that forbids withdrawal. Veren collapses into a new order: human factions trading in upgrade points, dungeons that open and seal by hidden rules, and data-fed creatures that hunt meaning instead of flesh.

With every victory, one truth becomes impossible to ignore: this isn’t random disaster—it’s a managed experiment. Watchers stand behind the system, and Earth has been merged into a far larger network of worlds. Faced with an impossible choice—join the system and gain overwhelming power, or break it and risk reality itself—Kael must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice.

Will he remain a player fighting to survive… or become the one who rewrites the world’s rules?

Kael slammed the shed door shut and threw his weight against it. Old barrels rolled and thudded against a wall. Lyra slipped in behind him, pale-faced but sharp-eyed.


From the other side came wet thumps—then a scraping, like something wiping its writing across the wood.


"Does it… know where we are?" Lyra whispered.


Kael pressed an ear to the door. No breathing. No growl.


Only that faint measured hum, like a device running.


"It's not a normal beast," he murmured.


In the shed's corner lay a battered tool chest—rope, a rusted knife, a long plank. Kael reached for the knife.


Rusty Knife — Damage: 1–2 — Break Chance: High


Lyra moved to a small window looking over the docks and pulled aside a rag. She stared—and inhaled sharply.


Thin lines of light crisscrossed the piers. At certain points, small circles pulsed like a heartbeat. One pulsed near a short old stone tower at the harbor's center—an ancient guide-spire for ships.


And over that spot, larger than the rest:


Node: Veren Harbor — Status: Unstable


Kael's skin prickled. "So… the harbor itself is part of a—task?"


"And who said we can ignore it?" Lyra replied, eyes locked on the pulsing circle.


Outside, the Extractor wasn't alone anymore.


More wet clots of shadow climbed from the water—smaller, faster, moving like a swarm searching for a crack. The people still alive either fled into alleys or gathered behind overturned carts, trying to fight with whatever they could grab.


Then the air tore open near the old guide-tower.


This time not in the sky—at ground level. An oval opening shimmered from within, a color that wouldn't hold still, like the world inside was loading.


And Kael felt it—without seeing it—that something in that opening was looking back.


The meaning returned for a third time, crisp as a blade's edge:


The question was no longer Do we go out?


Chapter 3 - The Harbor Node