Broken glass, shredded textbooks, and splattered ink coated the second-floor corridor, crunching beneath his feet as he stalked forward.
"The radar shows another cluster just around the corner," the First Player whispered, checking his glowing interface.
"Keep your eyes sharp... don't walk into an ambush."
A muffled whimper echoed from the alcove beside the biology lockers, accompanied by the low, guttural breathing of a predator.
"Please... don't look over here..." a trembling female voice sobbed in the shadows.
"Stay quiet... please don't sniff me..."
The dark-haired youth peeked around the corner, spotting an adult Gobdog creeping slowly toward a cowering schoolgirl.
The beast was significantly larger than the juveniles, boasting corded muscle beneath its spiked hide and jaws dripping venomous foam.
"That is an adult specimen," he noted, keeping his back pressed against the row of lockers.
"Appraise... show me its threat level."
[ Target: Adult Gobdog (Rank F+) | HP: 120/120 | Mana: 20/20 | Threat Level: High ]
The cowering girl was Ava, the popular student council vice president who sat in the front row of Class 3-B.
She spent two entire years watching Mark extort lunch money, laughing politely at the cruel jokes while checking her manicure.
"Is someone there?" she gasped, her tear-stained face catching sight of his silhouette in the dim light.
"Help me—!"
"Shut your mouth if you want to keep breathing," he hissed from the shadows.
"I can't be quiet... it sees me!"
The adult hound reacted instantly to her shrill scream, snapping its muscular jaws and coiling its hind legs to strike.
"Too slow, mutt," the youth muttered, stepping smoothly around the corner and raising his service pistol with both hands.
He aligned the iron front sight with the soft spinal junction at the base of the beast's skull.
"Eat lead!"
His finger squeezed the trigger, and the 9mm bullet exploded from the barrel with a deafening crack that shook the corridor.
The lead round punched clean through the hound's cervical vertebrae, severing its central nervous system before the beast could leap.
The adult predator collapsed instantly onto the floor tiles, its muscular limbs twitching spastically in a pool of dark blood.
[ Hostile Neutralized: Adult Gobdog (Rank F+) | Experience Value: +20 EXP ]
[ Current Level: 1 (EXP: 50/100) | Ammunition Remaining: 4/8 Rounds ]
"That puts me halfway to Level 2," the First Player whispered, lowering his smoking firearm.
"One bullet for twenty experience points is an acceptable trade."
Ava scrambled out from behind the lockers, her expensive school uniform smeared with grime as she reached for his sleeve.
"You saved my life!" she cried out, tears streaming down her pale cheeks.
"I thought I was going to die right here on the floor!"
She grabbed the hem of his denim jacket with trembling fingers, clutching the worn fabric as if it were a liferaft.
"Please escort me outside!" she pleaded desperately. "Take me to the front gates where the police are waiting!"
"Let go of my jacket," the youth replied coldly, slapping her hands away without a shred of hesitation.
"Why are you being so rude to me?" she sobbed, backing away slightly in shock. "I am asking for your help!"
"I am not a bodyguard service for popular cheerleaders," he said, stepping over the dead hound.
"I am so sorry about Mark!" she blurted out, her voice cracking with guilt. "I should have spoken up when he tormented you!"
"You stayed silent for two whole years," he replied, looking down at her with dead, unblinking eyes.
"We were all terrified of him!" she wailed, clutching her trembling hands against her chest.
"You weren't terrified of him," he answered, his voice slicing through the empty corridor like a cold blade.
"You laughed along with his jokes and enjoyed the status that came with his clique."
"I truly regret everything now!" she insisted, reaching toward him again.
"You don't regret what happened in the past," he said, turning his back to her.
"You are terrified of the monsters in the hallway right now, and you want someone to serve as your meat shield."
"You can't just leave me alone in this hallway!" she screamed, stamping her foot on the floor. "That is cruel!"
"The entire world has become cruel," he answered, checking his tactical compass.
"Pick up a weapon or find a place to hide, Ava."
"I don't have a weapon!" she yelled back in frustration. "I am just an ordinary student!"
"Then you better start adapting before the next pack wanders through that doorway," he said, walking away with steady strides.
"Where am I supposed to go?" she wailed, clutching her temples. "Every classroom is locked!"
"Find an open room and build a barricade," he replied without pausing.
"What if the monsters smash the door open?"
"Then use whatever solid furniture you have to smash their skulls," he answered over his shoulder.
"Wait... please!" she shouted down the hallway. "Where are you going?"
"To the chemistry lab to build real weapons," he replied without looking back.
"Are you going to make bombs?"
"I am going to make whatever kills these monsters fastest," the First Player answered coldly.
"Can you at least give me one of your bullets?" she pleaded, running a few steps behind him.
"A bullet without a firearm is just useless lead," he replied, keeping his pace brisk and steady.
"Then give me your gun!" she yelled, her eyes flashing with desperation.
"Try touching my holster and I will put you to sleep right next to Mark," the youth warned with chilling calm.
"Are you threatening to shoot me too?" she gasped, recoiling in horror.
"I am stating a simple fact about boundaries in a dungeon," the dark-haired youth answered without slowing down.
She froze in her tracks, pale and shivering as the dark-haired youth continued down the blood-smeared hallway toward the science wing.
"You really don't care if I live or die, do you?" she called out with a trembling voice.
"Your life belongs entirely to you," he replied, raising his hand in a dismissive wave.
"Don't expect any handouts from me in an apocalypse."
"You are colder than the monsters," she whispered, backing toward the row of lockers.
A low, guttural growl suddenly echoed from the opposite end of the second-floor stairwell, sending chills down her spine.
Another adult Gobdog padded into view, sniffing the fresh pool of blood from its fallen packmate and baring its teeth.
"Oh god... another one is coming!" she gasped, backing up against the wall.
"Nox, it is right behind me!"
The youth did not turn around, his footsteps continuing toward the double doors of the science wing without missing a beat.
"Nobody is going to fight your battles for you," his voice echoed back down the hall.
"Choose whether you want to be prey or a survivor."
Ava stared at the approaching beast, watching its hungry jaws part as thick drool dripped onto the linoleum tiles.
Her hands shook violently, her breath catching in her throat as the realization sank into her chest with icy clarity.
She remembered that nobody else would make the choice for her, and waiting for a savior was a death sentence.
"I am not going to die on this floor!" she screamed, her eyes snapping toward the red canister mounted on the wall.
She grabbed the emergency fire extinguisher from its metal bracket, ripping the safety pin out with desperate strength.
"Get away from me, you ugly freak!"
The hound lunged forward with sudden ferocity, snapping its jaws in an aggressive burst of speed.
Ava squeezed the trigger lever with both hands, unleashing a blinding cloud of pressurized white chemical powder directly into the beast's face.
"Hssssk—!"
The predator shrieked in pain, thrashing blindly on the floor as the caustic powder scorched its sensitive eyes and nasal passages.
"Take that, you disgusting demon!" she yelled, swinging the pressurized tank like a massive club with both arms.
The tank smashed across the beast's snout with a resounding clang, sending the blinded monster reeling backward into the wall.
The blinded beast whimpered in disorientation, turning in frantic circles while snapping helplessly at the empty air.
"Hey! Over here!" a voice called from an open classroom doorway down the hall.
Two younger underclassmen were waving frantically from behind a barricaded door, signaling for her to run toward them.
"Get inside before more of them show up!" the boy shouted.
"Hurry... run!" the younger girl cried out.
Ava did not hesitate, clutching the fire extinguisher tightly against her chest as she sprinted toward the classroom refuge.
She dove through the open doorway just as the underclassmen slammed the reinforced door shut and wedged a desk against the handle.
"You blinded that monster with a fire extinguisher!" the younger girl gasped in awe. "That was incredible!"
"It was just survival," Ava whispered, sliding down against the door as her rapid breathing gradually steadied.
"Do you know how to fight with other tools?" the boy asked, holding a sharpened broom handle.
"I am going to learn," Ava replied, wiping white chemical residue from her brow.
"We need to find more weapons and fortify this room."
"Let's move the teacher's podium against the door frame right now," the boy suggested, gripping the wooden edge.
"I will help push," Ava said, rising to her feet with newfound resolve.
"We are going to survive this nightmare together."
Meanwhile, fifty yards down the corridor, the First Player pushed open the reinforced doors to Science Lab 304.
[ Subzone Quest Status: East Wing Purge | Hostile Signatures Remaining: 58 ]
"Four bullets left in the magazine," he muttered, locking the laboratory deadbolt behind him.
"Time to cook up some chemical destruction."