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"Fuck… why is this happening?"
Ren paced back and forth along the dark corridor, lit only by the narrow beam of his flashlight and the faint reflection glinting in his deep blue eyes.
His footsteps echoed sharply against the metal floor while small nervous twitches shook the fingers of his free hand. He walked several meters, stopped, turned back the same way, repeating the motion without even realizing it, like an animal trapped inside a cage.
Things had gone off script.
As the Author, Ren knew this situation in the factory simply shouldn't exist. None of this was part of the original events.
He had done everything he could to preserve the course of the story, watching every detail carefully… and yet everything had changed.
A butterfly effect? Something I did without realizing it?
In the end, it didn't matter. The fact was that it had happened.
And Ren hated when things didn't follow exactly the way he had planned. Even if he would never admit it out loud, he was deeply controlling, and the mere idea of losing control of a situation irritated him more than anything else.
"Arff… come on. Complaining won't fix anything now."
He let out a heavy sigh, pressing his fingers against his forehead as he tried to calm himself. No matter how annoyed he felt, he knew complaining wouldn't solve anything. The event had already begun.
Now the only option was to deal with it.
Kevin, Emma, and Jin were fine. That much he had confirmed easily using the Book of Truth, which showed everything Kevin was doing.
As for the so called Proto-Monsters, he had already encountered a few himself along the way. All of them were weak, ranging from Rank G to Rank F.
If they were all like that, nobody should die.
But he still couldn't guarantee that there weren't greater threats hidden somewhere in the factory.
When everything started, there had been only ten minutes left before the end of the excursion. Because of that, most of the students were probably already near the central hall. Ren knew he was one of the few still wandering around the western wing at that moment.
"Come on… hurry up and fix this already!"
He grumbled aloud, irritated by how long the staff were taking to restore the situation.
But the next second, something interrupted his thoughts.
Footsteps.
A soft sound echoed through the dark corridor behind him.
Swooosh.
His reaction was instant.
The sword leapt from its sheath as Ren spun around, aiming the flashlight into the darkness. His eyes narrowed, trying to identify what was approaching through the shadows.
But when the silhouette finally entered the light…
He lowered the weapon immediately.
"You? What are you doing here?"
The figure stepped out of the darkness, revealing long black hair, obsidian eyes, and skin that seemed almost perfectly flawless.
She held a bow in her hand, but the moment she recognized Ren standing there, she calmly put it away. Just like him, Amanda had been moving through the western wing when the alarm sounded. Now she was trying to find her way back to the central hall… although she had gotten a little more lost than she would ever admit.
"Heading to the central hall."
The reply came dry and blunt, as always. Her rigid posture and cold gaze carried that familiar distance that seemed to define her.
"Arff… right."
Ren sighed, pressing his fingers against the corner of his eyes.
In a way, it was almost impressive how bad his luck could be. Running straight into one of the main characters, especially someone he had been trying to avoid at all costs.
But after thinking for a few seconds, he realized it might not be that bad.
In the end, it was one less person to worry about. Besides, Amanda was strong. If something truly dangerous appeared, she could help.
"Alright then, in that case let's—"
Ren started speaking while pointing the flashlight down the corridor ahead.
But he stopped halfway through the sentence when something caught his attention.
A metal door embedded in the wall on the right side of the corridor.
That was strange.
Since they were at the far end of the western wing, almost every corridor in that area curved or branched toward the left. The right side should theoretically face the exterior of the building.
And yet the door was there.
The two of them approached it.
Up close, it looked different from the regular doors in the sectors they had visited during the tour. Heavier. Simpler. Almost industrial. A small metal plaque beside it reflected the flashlight's beam.
BASEMENT – MACHINE ROOM
Now the location made sense.
There was probably a staircase leading underground.
Ren stared at the door silently for several seconds. His mind began working quickly, connecting possibilities.
Then he made a decision.
"You go ahead to the main hall. I'm going this way."
He spoke firmly while pulling another flashlight from his dimensional storage and holding it out to Amanda.
She took the object but didn't answer right away. Instead, she tilted her head slightly, looking at him with silent confusion.
"The situation might get resolved faster if I restore the power."
After a few seconds Amanda seemed to understand. She pressed the button on the flashlight, turning it on with a sharp click.
"I'm coming with you."
"What?"
Ren blinked, clearly caught off guard.
"It'll be faster."
That was partially true.
But Amanda had another reason.
Ren had become one of the biggest mysteries occupying her thoughts recently. Ever since Elijah's attack, she couldn't stop thinking about that student who hid his power in such a suspicious way.
And this seemed like the perfect opportunity. If she was careful, she might be able to discover something.
"Fine… whatever. Let's go then."
Ren finally replied, pushing the metal door open.
It creaked heavily, as if it hadn't been used in a long time. On the other side, a concrete staircase descended into darkness.
A darkness so deep that even the flashlight beam couldn't reveal the bottom.
The groan of the metal door combined with the sight of that black abyss created a scene straight out of a horror movie. For a brief moment, Ren swallowed nervously.
"Ergh… ladies first?"
Amanda didn't even respond.
She simply gave him that cold look filled with quiet contempt that said everything.
"Yeah… yeah. I got it."
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"Another group just arrived!"
A group of students appeared through one of the entrances leading to the central hall, being hurried along by one of the monitors. The man raised his voice to announce their arrival while pushing the last student into the safe area.
"Are they alright?"
Donna asked immediately, her eyes scanning the newly arrived group. Her expression was deadly serious. With a quick movement, she wiped some green slime off her shoulder with her sleeve.
"No visible injuries. Just a little shaken up."
"Good. Go back to the entrance and keep guiding the students who arrive."
The monitor nodded quickly before returning to his post, running back toward the corridor the students were coming from. Donna remained still for a moment, observing the central hall as she organized her thoughts.
She was stressed.
This situation was extremely problematic.
Fortunately, no students had been injured so far. Groups continued arriving at the central hall little by little, which was currently the only relatively safe place.
Deep down, Donna wanted to leave and rescue the students herself. But she simply couldn't afford to.
Constant monster attacks were happening around the hall.
Strangely, the creatures seemed to be concentrating around that specific point, advancing in small groups from several different corridors. Perhaps it was because that was where the highest concentration of people was.
Even though they were weak, they were numerous.
And numbers always meant danger.
There were only a few teachers responsible for the excursion. If any of them abandoned the defense of the central hall, it would create a dangerous opening and put all the students gathered there at immediate risk.
Donna clenched her fists slightly.
All she could do was swallow her anxiety and trust that the remaining students would manage to reach the hall.
"More are coming! I need help here!"
One of the professors shouted from the main entrance, warning about another incoming wave of creatures.
Donna immediately lifted her gaze.
Here we go again…
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[Solitairy Ghoul {RANK D}]
A translucent window appeared before me, displaying the creature's name in orange letters. It distracted me for a moment. It was still strange seeing those windows appear so often.
GRRRR ARGHH!
"Move, idiot!"
Melissa shouted at the exact moment I was still reading the message. When I looked up, the creature's monstrous jaws were already inches from my neck.
Swoosh — PLINC!
I drew my sword at the last second and blocked the attack. Steel and fangs collided in a burst of sparks.
Nice try.
The wolf was thrown several meters backward by the force of the block. It spun in the air before crashing onto the corridor floor.
Grrr… Worf.
It snarled angrily, regaining its balance almost immediately. Then it charged again, claws raised, launching a rapid sequence of attacks.
PLINC! PLINC!
I blocked two strikes in quick succession, claws and steel clashing as sparks tore through the air. The third attack followed instantly, aimed straight for my heart.
I took a small step to the left.
The claw grazed past me and slammed into the wall behind, ripping through the concrete as if it were paper.
Pretty strong…
The creature changed tactics. It abandoned its claws and lunged forward with a brutal bite aimed at my throat, trying to tear out my jugular.
But not enough.
I twisted my body aside, dodging the attack while building momentum for a spinning kick. The impact struck the creature square in the chest.
POW!
The wolf flew several meters down the corridor and crashed onto its back. The blow stunned it for a moment, but it quickly recovered and tried to charge again.
Only to realize it couldn't move.
"Got you."
Melissa declared calmly while making a small gesture with her hand. Several vines erupted from the ground and walls, wrapping around the creature and pinning its body in place.
"Annoying, right? I fell for that one before too. A technique just as irritating as its user."
"Hey! I heard that!"
Ignoring my sympathy, the monster thrashed violently, trying to escape. But the more it struggled, the tighter the vines became.
It's over.
I sheathed the sword for a moment and regulated my breathing. Small electric sparks began crackling around my body.
"Thunder Breathing — First Form: Hekireki Issen. (Thunderclap and Flash)"
Swoosh!
With an explosive burst of electricity, I crossed the entire corridor in a single motion, fast as lightning.
Click.
The sound of my sword returning to its sheath synchronized perfectly with the moment the creature's body collapsed onto the floor. Its head spun briefly through the air before landing several meters away.
"Finally…"
Melissa snapped her fingers and the vines dissolved into small green particles that faded into the air.
"What was that thing?"
I asked while approaching the decapitated body. Melissa did the same, crouching beside the corpse while slipping a white glove onto her hand with the precision of someone who had repeated that motion a thousand times.
"A Beast Wolf corpse…"
she murmured while examining the torn body.
The moment I heard that, I immediately recognized the species. Beast Wolves were relatively known Rank D monsters.
But that wasn't the real problem.
That thing had clearly been dead for days. So how the hell was it still moving? And worse… if there was one here, how many more could be scattered throughout the factory?
A Rank D monster was already something very few freshmen could face head on. You could count them on your fingers.
If more of these things were wandering around, the situation could get ugly fast.
Then again, maybe there weren't many.
These creatures were probably forming from the corpses stored in the factory. And even a place like this likely wouldn't keep many monsters above Rank E.
On the other hand, Rank G and F monsters were probably everywhere in this place. At least those the average students could handle.
"Can you figure out how they revived?"
I watched Melissa as she crouched beside the corpse. She opened her dimensional storage and removed a few simple instruments, an analysis plate and a small portable microscope.
"If you stay quiet for a minute, maybe I can."
How cruel.
Melissa collected some of the dark blood flowing from the wound and mixed it with a drop of the green liquid still pulsing between the muscle fibers. She leaned toward the microscope and remained silent for a few seconds.
Then she frowned.
"There's something here… a pathogen."
"A pathogen? Seriously?"
"Yes… it seems to have formed when that regenerative fluid came into contact with the corpse's residual mana."
She looked up and leaned closer to the creature's severed neck.
"It infiltrates the nervous tissue and begins stimulating the brain's impulses. It doesn't truly revive the monster, but it forces the body to move."
She poked the clean cut on the neck with the tip of a pair of tweezers.
"When you decapitated it, you interrupted the connection. Without access to the brain, the pathogen loses control of the body."
That was… somewhat comforting. At least these things had a weakness.
Still, something didn't add up.
"There's something wrong with that."
Melissa looked at me over the microscope.
"What do you mean?"
"A pathogen like that shouldn't be able to sustain itself. It would need a constant energy source… otherwise it would simply die."
She stayed silent for a few seconds.
Then slowly nodded.
"You're right."
Melissa pulled something else from her dimensional storage. This time it was a small black flashlight, different from the normal ones.
"Let's test something."
Click.
When she turned it on, a beam of purple light filled the corridor.
Revealing something new.
"There it is."
A green mist covered the entire area.
It floated in the air like a thin fog, almost invisible to the naked eye. But under the blacklight it glowed vividly.
I looked up.
The mist was coming from the ventilation shafts in the ceiling.
"We've been breathing that the whole time?"
I asked, surprised.
Melissa swept the light along the corridor, studying the density of the gas.
"Yes… but relax. This pathogen is far too weak to affect a living organism. Any active immune system would destroy it in minutes."
She pointed at the corpse on the floor.
"But in dead bodies… that's another story."
The green mist shimmered over the creature's exposed muscles.
"The gas works as a constant source of that regenerative fluid. It feeds the pathogen and keeps the neural stimulation active."
She turned off the flashlight.
"If we stop the release of this gas… the corpses should stop moving almost immediately."
"Then the mechanism must be in the laboratory. Probably the control room."
I approached the mutilated body of one of the employees still wearing a white lab coat. His death definitely hadn't been quick.
I crouched and noticed something hanging from his neck.
An identification card, completely soaked in blood.
Michael Schmidt — Level III Access.
I stared at the card for a moment.
I'll borrow this.
Melissa was already putting her instruments back into dimensional storage.
"Standing around won't fix anything."
She stood up and looked down the corridor ahead.
"Let's shut this thing down."
Looks like we didn't have much choice. We couldn't just wait for the staff to solve it while getting slaughtered in the process.
I stretched my shoulders and neck, relaxing a bit after the fight, then glanced around the corridor.
That was when I noticed something on the wall that had completely escaped my attention earlier.
"Oh… a map."
It was a factory map fixed to the wall. It was slightly stained with blood, but still perfectly readable.
"Let's see…"
The layout made it clear just how massive the place was. The complex was divided into four large wings forming something like the walls of a square: North Wing, South Wing, West Wing, and East Wing, exactly where we were now.
In the center was a large empty space.
"That space in the middle…"
"Must be the laboratory," I said almost immediately. "It's not marked because technically it isn't part of the factory."
I studied the map for a few more seconds, searching for the fastest route.
Coincidentally, one of the laboratory entrances was very close to the East Wing.
In fact… I had passed through there earlier, just before going to the bone separation sector where this entire mess had started.
"The entrance is close. We got lucky."
I commented while already starting to walk again. I turned on the flashlight and illuminated the corridor ahead.
The path looked almost the same as before… except now it was far more stained with blood.
Fortunately, it wasn't human blood.
Several proto-monster corpses were scattered across the floor. Goblins, gnolls, and other small creatures, all killed in different ways.
At least the students seemed to be managing somehow.
"Strange that we're the only ones who found a Rank D monster."
Melissa commented while walking beside me, stepping over the decapitated body of a goblin.
"Relax… things can always get worse."
I said jokingly.
I had no idea how right I was.
Not long after, we finally spotted the laboratory door in the distance. Even without power, the lock beside it seemed active, casting a faint red glow around the entrance.
Revealing something slumped against the door.
A body.
"Fuck… not this again."
Melissa muttered as we ran toward it, still holding onto the faint hope that the man might be alive.
But the moment she knelt beside him and lifted his head, that hope vanished.
Judging by the uniform, he looked like one of the facility's security guards. He wore reinforced armor and still held an empty pistol in his hand, as if he had fought until the last bullet.
But what truly stood out was lodged in his neck.
Something that looked like a small blade, piercing clean through.
"Murder?"
Melissa murmured as she pulled the object out.
But the moment she removed it, she realized something strange.
It wasn't a knife.
It was a feather.
A feather made entirely of metal.
"Hey… isn't this—"
Melissa began turning to speak to Yuto.
But she stopped.
For a brief moment, her body froze.
Something was rushing toward her at incredible speed.
For a second, the world seemed to slow down. As if time itself stretched that moment.
The projectile flew straight toward her face.
Only centimeters from her eyes.
A sentence of death.
Swoosh — PLIN! PLIN!
Two sparks tore through the air.
The projectiles were deflected by a blade that appeared in their path, ricocheting violently before embedding themselves deep into the wall behind Melissa.
The metal feathers sank into the concrete.
Melissa inhaled sharply, as if she had forgotten how to breathe. For a moment, she truly thought she was going to die.
When she turned her head, she saw Yuto's sword sliding back into its sheath.
His face was completely expressionless.
His gaze fixed on the darkness ahead.
A darkness where something was emerging.
Footsteps so quiet they barely seemed to exist.
A mass of black feathers slid out of the shadows as if the night itself were moving.
They formed something resembling a cloak, but each feather gleamed with a metallic sheen and razor sharp tips, scraping along the walls as the creature advanced.
The figure slowly rose, revealing a height of more than two meters, with limbs far too long for a human body.
Its shape vaguely resembled a crow.
But it was twisted.
As if something had been broken and reconstructed incorrectly.
The proportions were grotesque.
Shoulders too wide.
Arms long like a predator's claws.
Feathers overlapping like living armor.
Above all, its head emerged.
A long black beak, cruelly sharp, projecting forward like a spear.
From its empty eyes, viscous green liquid dripped slowly down the beak, falling to the floor with wet clicks.
For a moment, my brain took a few seconds to recognize the familiar silhouette.
Something like a monstrous plague doctor.
The air suddenly felt heavier.
Another translucent window appeared before my eyes, revealing a name.
But this time… the letters glowed blood red.
[Blood Moon Reaper {RANK C}]
I let out a small sigh.
"You know…"
I tilted my head slightly, cracking my neck.
"I liked you better when you were just a museum exhibit."
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