The road to Sector 7 took two hours on foot.
Kai used the first hour to adjust his guard posture while walking.
It wasn't formal training. He was just correcting what he noticed — the angle of his right shoulder, the weight distributed too far forward in his left step. Small things.
[Micro-progression detected. Logging.]
[Rank: unclassified. Internal progress: continuing.]
Serah walked three meters behind without saying a word.
---
[GarcíaFTW: bro is training while walking to the quest]
[NocheEterna99: the system has been logging micro-progress for 40 minutes without raising his rank]
[StreamerHunter: Serah has been following him in silence for 2 hours. Is that normal for an SSS?]
---
The unstable zone had no signage.
There was just a point where the smell of the forest changed — something denser — and the birds stopped making noise.
Kai stopped.
Three C-rank beasts emerged from the trees on his left.
Mountain wolves. Dark fur, twice the size of the normal variety. They stopped six meters away.
They didn't attack.
They looked at them.
First at Serah — and tensed, quickly recognizing the higher-level aura.
Then their gaze shifted to Kai.
[Beast Resonance active — 3 entities within influence range]
[Behavior: non-hostile]
'This again.'
Kai kept walking.
The three wolves followed him.
---
By the time he reached the core of the zone, he had twelve beasts following him at a prudent distance. Mostly C and D ranks. One B-rank at the back of the group, the largest, staying farther away than the others.
[Beast Resonance active — 12 entities within influence range]
[Behavior: non-hostile]
"Does this always happen?" Kai asked, not addressing anyone in particular.
"It's normal for me, I suppose — instinct always makes them follow the strongest. But for a normal human…" Serah said from behind. "I've never seen this."
Kai looked at the B-rank wolf at the back. The B-rank wolf looked away.
---
[NocheEterna99: THEY'RE ESCORTING HIM]
[GarcíaFTW: the B-rank wolf got intimidated when Kai looked directly at it LMAO]
[StreamerHunter: 12 beasts following him and Serah says she's never seen this. Normal.]
---
The core of the zone was a clearing.
In the center stood a beast.
It had been an A-rank mountain bear at some point. The body structure still showed it — the mass, the posture, the size. But its eyes were completely black. Its fur had dark, pulsing veins. It moved with a constant tremor, as if something inside was fighting something else inside.
[Beast detected: A-rank Mountain Bear — Corrupted]
[Status: unstable. Combat capacity reduced to estimated 60% due to corruption.]
[Threat level to user: HIGH]
[Recommendation: assess before acting]
Kai stopped twenty meters away.
The bear smelled him. It turned its head. The black eyes fixed on him.
It roared.
It wasn't a normal sound. It was deeper, more distorted, as if the roar came from two throats at the same time.
The twelve beasts following him all retreated five meters at once.
Kai didn't move.
'It moves with its weight on the right side. The left hind leg has issues.'
---
[GarcíaFTW: THAT'S AN A-RANK]
[NocheEterna99: KAI IS RANK F]
[StreamerHunter: RANK F VS CORRUPTED A-RANK. I LOSE ALL MY COINS AGAIN AND I REGRET NOTHING.]
[Current viewers: 89,204]
[Gift received: Gold Coin x30 — StreamerHunter]
[System note: user StreamerHunter has sent gifts during every dangerous situation. The system considers this statistically concerning.]
---
The bear charged.
Four tons in motion. The ground shook with every step.
Kai waited.
Three meters. Two. One.
He dove to the left at the last second, toward the problematic hind leg, and struck with his elbow at the front right knee joint as he passed.
It wasn't a power hit. It was about angle.
The knee buckled inward. The bear lost its stride, turned badly, crashed into the ground with its right shoulder.
It got up in three seconds.
'Faster than I expected. The corruption didn't take that much away.'
---
The bear reoriented and charged again. This time slower, more cautious.
Kai noticed the change.
'It learned from the first one. Good.'
This time he waited less. When the bear was four meters away, he threw a straight jab to the nose — not to damage, to redirect the head's trajectory — and used the moment when the animal compensated to get under its neck and strike with both fists together into the sternum.
The bear stumbled back two steps.
Kai did too. His knuckles were numb up to his wrist.
'That hurt. Good, now I know the limit.'
---
[NocheEterna99: TWO ATTACKS AND BOTH ENDED WITH KAI MOVING FIRST]
[GarcíaFTW: 'that hurt. good, now I know the limit' — this man uses pain as information]
[StreamerHunter: Serah hasn't moved this whole time. What expression does she have?]
The stream's camera, which the system generated automatically, took an angle of Serah.
Serah had the expression of someone watching something she was still calculating.
[StreamerHunter: that's not a worried expression. she's taking mental notes.]
---
The third exchange was different.
The bear didn't charge. It stood still and roared again — that double, deep resonance — and the corruption in its veins glowed.
The ground around it darkened in a three-meter radius.
[Corruption skill active: Contamination Field]
[Any entity within the radius suffers aura degradation.]
[Effect on user: NONE]
Kai stepped into the radius without thinking.
The bear blinked — its black eyes, for a fraction of a second, showed confusion.
Kai used that second.
Open-palm strike to the snout — upward, to expose the neck. The bear lifted its head by instinct.
Knee to the chest with his full body weight behind it.
The bear fell onto its back with a sound that made the trees in the clearing vibrate.
It didn't get up.
[Beast defeated: A-rank Mountain Bear — Corrupted]
[Corruption dissolved at time of death. Clearing area: stabilized.]
[Note: The corruption area dissolved upon contact with the user's aura during combat.]
---
Kai shook out his hands.
His right knuckles were red. Nothing broken, but tomorrow they'd hurt.
The twelve beasts that had retreated slowly approached the edge of the clearing. The B-rank wolf came a little closer than the others this time.
Serah walked up until she was beside him.
She looked at the fallen bear. She looked at the clearing, which no longer had the darkness from before.
"Corrupted A-rank," she said.
"Yeah."
"You've been in this world for less than 48 hours."
"Yeah."
Serah looked at him.
"You adapt quickly."
"It's the basics."
Serah didn't answer immediately. She looked at the clearing again.
"No," she said finally. "It's not. But that's exactly why you're perfect for procreation."
"Thanks… I think."
---
[NocheEterna99: 'you adapt quickly' — lol, he's the first streamer I've seen who doesn't care about his life situation]
[GarcíaFTW: viewers: 124,000. WE DOUBLED SINCE THE QUEST STARTED]
[StreamerHunter: 50-coin gift. Well deserved. Absolutely well deserved.]
[Gift received: Gold Coin x50 — StreamerHunter]
[Gift received: Gold Coin x100 — NocheEterna99]
[Gift received: Gold Coin x500 — User: unknown]
---
On the way back, when the clearing was already far behind, the system sent a notification Kai hadn't seen before.
[ALERT]
[Additional SSS entity has detected your aura.]
[Location: 40 km to the north.]
[Approach speed: slow. Constant.]
[Intent: unknown.]
[This is the second SSS entity registered within your radius.]
[The first is Serah, who is walking to your right.]
"That last part is very obvious."
Kai looked at the notification.
Then he looked at Serah.
"There's another one on the way," he said.
Serah didn't seem surprised.
"I know," she replied. "I can feel its presence in the distance."
Kai waited.
"It's already coming," said Serah, with a territorial tone, pulling Kai firmly against her chest. "But no one will take what belongs to me. I chose you first as my mate. If they want to steal you from me, let them try."
A thick layer of ice formed around them.
Kai just let himself be carried off into pillow heaven.