The end came faster than anyone expected.
No virus. No war. No warning.
Just a global tremor… and then, the sky cracked open like glass.
At 11:47 PM, the world as we knew it ended.
By 11:48, monsters were already feeding on the living.
Kael Draven never saw it coming.
He was asleep on the rooftop of an old apartment building, wrapped in a thin blanket, surrounded by the distant hum of sirens and smoke. In the silence before disaster, he had learned to find a kind of peace—half-starved, but alive.
Then came the Notification.
> [SYSTEM INITIATED]
Tutorial Begins: Survive the Night.
Welcome, Player. Good luck.
Every phone vibrated. Every screen lit up. Then silence — eerie and absolute — before screams erupted like wildfire through the streets below. A voice, cold and synthetic, echoed not from speakers, but within their minds.
Kael didn't understand it.
No one did.
Until the world started bleeding.
---
Flames erupted across the skyline. A glass tower crumbled like paper, sending debris scattering in every direction. And then the first creatures appeared—twisted parodies of animals, all fang and limb and muscle.
A hound with metal ribs burst from a parking garage, dragging a screaming man in its jaws. A spider the size of a hatchback dropped from a streetlight, skewering victims mid-sprint. Others simply dissolved, erased as if the world had no space left for them.
Kael ran. No plan, no gear, just survival.
He didn't make it more than five blocks before a thing—part centipede, part ape, all nightmare—slammed into him from a broken window.
He barely saw its eyes.
It didn't speak. It just killed.
Claws tore through his chest. Bone cracked. Blood sprayed across the pavement like ink spilled on a map.
> [YOU DIED]
Checkpoint not found. Respawning at temporary state...
Kael's vision faded.
---
And then…
He opened his eyes.
Same rooftop. Same city. Same chill in the air.
He sat bolt upright, panting hard, lungs aching with a pain that should've been impossible. He was back. Not metaphorically — literally.
> "No way..." he whispered.
The blanket was still on him. The sky still burned in the distance. The same sirens wailed in the background. His hands shook as he touched his chest. No wounds. No blood. But the memory of death remained like smoke in his lungs.
It wasn't a dream.
It happened.
And it would happen again.
---
He died four more times that night.
Each time, his panic lessened.
Each time, his reaction became sharper.
He stopped screaming. He stopped running. He started watching.
He started learning.
Kael realized the world wasn't just falling apart — it had changed.
It had become a system. A brutal, merciless machine.
People could now see Stats. Those who killed monsters gained EXP. Some unlocked Classes — Fighters, Scorchers, Scouts. Skills appeared in their minds like buttons on a menu. Mutated animals became Zone Bosses, controlling entire districts. Checkpoints were rare — often hidden in churches, graveyards, or old shelters.
He met other survivors. Some fought. Others prayed. Some just gave up and walked into death willingly. And some... came back wrong.
They called them Glitched Survivors. People who'd died too many times and lost something human along the way. Their eyes were vacant. Their movements jerky. The system kept them alive, but not sane.
Kael feared becoming one of them.
But every time he respawned, he saw something new. A pattern. A weakness. A path he hadn't noticed before.
That was his ability — not flashy, not legendary. But real.
> [Respawning at Last Checkpoint]
+ Memory Retained: Combat Pattern – Class C Warg Beast
+ Adaptation Bonus: 2% Dodge Timing Correction
He remembered.
And he got better.
---
Now, eighteen deaths later, Kael stood alone in the remains of Downtown Sector 9, surrounded by broken glass, burned cars, and a skyline that bled smoke into the clouds.
His cloak — once a curtain torn from a wrecked apartment — fluttered against the wind. The katana on his back wasn't elegant. It was salvaged. Rusted in places. But it cut. That's all that mattered.
No health potions. No party. No checkpoint nearby. Just Kael... and what came next.
A deep clicking sound echoed between the ruins.
Not footsteps — talons. Heavy. Measured. Intelligent.
Kael turned slowly. A new shadow crept along the wall — long, thin, and wrong.
This wasn't like the others. This was a Variant — a smarter, faster form. One built to adapt just like him. But he had the advantage:
He'd already died for this lesson.
> [CheckPoint Active]
Respawn Available at: Sector 9 Memorial Graveyard
[Quest: Survive the Variant]
Optional Objective: Exploit Weakness. Gain EXP Bonus.
Kael exhaled slowly. The fear was still there, deep in his gut, coiled like a snake. But it didn't control him anymore.
He stepped forward, drawing his blade.
Not to survive. Not anymore.
To understand.
And if he died?
He'd come back.
Smarter.
Faster.
Angrier.
Because death wasn't the end.
Not for him.