I woke up expecting nothing. No light. No sound. Just the slow awareness that I was still breathing. For a while I didn't move because I was afraid that if I did, whatever miracle was keeping me alive would disappear. My body felt heavy, like it had been stitched together wrong. When I finally forced myself to sit up, pain spread through me in a dull wave, but it wasn't as sharp as it should've been. I remembered the claw. I remembered the gate closing. I remembered their faces. My chest tightened, not from injury, but from something worse. They didn't even look back twice. I touched my side where the attack had landed. The armor was shredded, but the wound underneath was already closed, just an angry red line across my skin. That's when I noticed the faint blue glow in the corner of my vision.
A system window hovered there quietly, almost patiently. [Absolute Evolution System Activated.] I stared at it, half expecting it to vanish like a hallucination. Another line appeared. [You survived lethal damage. Adaptation complete.] I frowned. "Adaptation?" My voice echoed slightly, telling me I was somewhere deep underground. Cold stone surrounded me, the air thick and unmoving. The dungeon hadn't spat me out. It had swallowed me whole. I pushed myself to my feet slowly. My legs trembled at first, then steadied. Something about my body felt different—not stronger in an obvious way, just… reinforced. Like the part of me that had almost broken had been rebuilt thicker. I clenched my fist. It didn't shake.
A low growl echoed from deeper in the darkness, and reality settled back in. I was still inside the SSS-Rank dungeon. Still alone. Still a target. I swallowed, picking up what was left of my broken shield out of habit. "You sealed the gate," I muttered to myself, the words tasting bitter. "So I guess I'll make my own way out." The growl came again, closer this time. My heart started pounding, but it wasn't the same fear as before. Before, I fought to protect others. Now, there was no one behind me. No one to save. Just me and whatever this system had turned me into. I took a slow breath and stepped toward the sound instead of away from it.