Kenji stood before his dusty mirror, adjusting the worn baseball cap low over his brow. He then pulled up the collar of his old jacket.
"Right," he mumbled to his reflection.
It felt more like someone who had faced many hidden struggles than a weary twenty-year-old.
"I am just a normal guy enjoying his… midnight stroll through abandoned industrial zones."
He gave a wry smile. "Yeah, that will fool them."
Or... maybe not, he thought.
The past weeks had seen his training intensify. He'd practised linking Shadow Step with Dark Slash so much that the moves felt smooth and almost instinctive.
His Void Bolts were now very accurate. They could hit a moving target with surprising force. He had started to understand the scary power of Abyssal Shield.
He could create flickering barriers of dark energy that deflected small debris. But keeping them up still drained his MP.
"The corruption is not just a force; it is a parasitic consciousness that feeds on despair and sorrow, twisting souls until they become extensions of its will."
Kenji read aloud from a recent entry, his voice carrying a grim tone.
He paused, looking at the familiar cityscape through his grimy basement window. "Happy… despair… sounds like the evening news these days."
The journal explained how corruption seeped into Aethelgard's fabric.
It created "nodes," which are local points of blight. These nodes amplified corruption's influence and spawned more dangerous creatures.
This could turn them into twisted "Corrupted Ones."
His eyes moved to the Quests tab in his system.
[Side Quest: Neutralise Corrupted Node – Old Foundry District]. Threat Level: Moderate.]
The "Old Foundry District" was notorious, even for the powered community. News reports had become more frequent, detailing strange disappearances and bizarre creature sightings.
The official narrative was always "rogue Awakened gone wild" or "unstable game monster." But Kenji knew better.
That's the corruption. They just don't know it yet.
He decided he couldn't wait any longer. The Gutter Crawlers were just pests. This was a node. A core. And if left unchecked, it would grow.
He quietly left his house as twilight fell. The soft glow of distant city lights gave him just enough shadow to move unnoticed.
He looked at the night sky: "Perfect time to go and finish things off."
He stuck to the darkest alleys. He used Shadow Step in quick bursts to avoid streetlights and open areas.
"Found it!" he mumbled, glancing at the Old Foundry District.
The buildings were hulks of rusted iron and broken glass, set against the purple sky.
SKREEECH!
Kenji froze, his senses on high alert. The Shadow Brand on his palm burned, a tingling warning. He moved faster than any human could see, flickering into the dark shadow of a fallen archway.
Ahead, in a clearing swarmed by a towering, crumbling chimney, he saw them.
Not small crawlers. These were larger, hunched figures, vaguely humanoid but covered in grotesque, pulsating growths.
Their movements were jerky, unnatural, and their eyes glowed with an eerie, sickly green light.
"Corrupted Ones," he breathed, his breath hitched.
They were swarming around a lone figure—a young woman. She was likely an Awakener because of the faint blue energy shimmering around her hands.
She was exhausted, her energy bolts weak and desperate. One of the Corrupted Ones lunged, its clawed hand outstretched.
Kenji didn't hesitate. This wasn't just a test; it was a rescue. He focused, channeling MP.
Whoosh!
He wasn't behind the enemy. He was above it. Shadow Step to the top of a rusted beam spanning the clearing. A silent, perfectly executed maneuver.
From above, he aimed. Void Bolt. Not one, but two precise shots, each glowing with dark purple energy, impacted the creature's head.
The Corrupted One stumbled, its form spasming, then collapsed. Kenji landed softly beside it, his steps soundless.
The remaining Corrupted Ones shrieked, turning their malformed heads towards him.
The Awakener girl, catching her breath, stared, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and surprise.
"Who…?"
Kenji didn't answer.
He couldn't risk exposing himself. He moved like a wraith, blurring into the shadows. He used the environment, ducking behind crumbling walls, using the massive machinery as cover.
He fired Void Bolts from unexpected angles, each one striking a weak point in the Corrupted Ones' pulsating forms.
One of the creatures charged, a guttural roar tearing through its warped throat. Kenji met it head-on. As it lunged, he unleashed a fierce Dark Slash. The energy flared, raw and powerful, shimmering around his blade before he even drew it.
The moment the creature's claws met his shadowy strike, its grotesque form ripped apart, dissolving into black smoke. The impact sent a jarring shockwave through him, but his enhanced body held firm.
[Corrupted Hunter (Lv. 25) defeated! EXP gained: 150!]
[Corrupted Node – Old Foundry District. Status: weakened.]
He turned to the last two. They were faster, sensing his presence. They split, trying to flank him. Kenji smirked.
"Two on one? You'll need more than that."
He performed a quick Shadow Step, darting between them. Then, he unleashed a strong Dark Slash that split one in two.
The other tried to retaliate, its claw raking across his arm. Kenji felt a sharp sting, his HP bar flickering, but an Abyssal Shield snapped into existence, deflecting the blow just before it could deepen.
He countered with a swift Void Bolt to its knee, making it stumble, then closed the distance with another Dark Slash, ending the fight.
He stood over the dissipating forms, breathing heavily, but exhilarated. The Awakener girl stared at him, her face pale.
"You… you took them out. Just like that." She moved towards him, but Kenji was already retreating, fading back into the shadows.
"Stay safe," he whispered, his voice hidden by his collar and cap. Then, he vanished into the dark, leaving her alone with the dead corrupted.
He walked home. The adrenaline faded, leaving him satisfied. His HP had regenerated, a testament to his impressive stats, but the thrill of battle still coursed through his veins.
Back in his basement, he looked at his system. The Quests tab now showed [Corrupted Node – Old Foundry District. Status: Severely Weakened. A source of lingering corruption remains].
His eyes narrowed.
So, I didn't destroy the core. Just weakened it. That means it can come back.
He glanced at the Shadow Brand on his hand. It pulsed with a faint, steady glow. This showed he had contact with the Corruption.
"Grima wrote about these nodes," Kenji whispered, pulling out the journal. He flipped through the pages, searching for more details.
"They're like roots. You cut the branch, but the root remains." He found a passage describing powerful artifacts, Aethelgard relics, that could erase the nodes.
He looked at the map in the journal, then at the virtual map in his system, trying to overlay the two.
The symbols were complex, but a pattern was emerging. Some specific places in the game world showed faint signs of corruption in the real world.
And the Heart of the Eclipse… it was described not just as a weapon against Noxius, but as the ultimate cleanser of the blight.
"They're blind,"
Kenji muttered, thinking of the Enforcers and the powerful Game Borns.
"They're fighting symptoms, not the disease. They don't see the true enemy, not like Shadowbane did."
He looked at the now fully healed mark on his palm, then at the glowing map.
"This isn't just about the Old Foundry. This is happening everywhere, like a slow poison."
He clenched his fist. The faint tremor of power under his skin felt familiar and almost comforting.
"This world… it's still caught in Shadowbane's war. And I'm the only one who knows. The only one who can fight it, really."
He looked at the Shadowfang greatsword, resting innocently against the wall.
"They can laugh at the powerless. They can dismiss the norms. But they won't be laughing when the greedy consume them. And I'll be ready. I have to be. Because no one else will."