Ilwoo pressed his back against the fire escape railing, trying to ignore the warm wetness spreading across his shirt.
The wolf's claws had gone deeper than he thought. Three parallel gashes burned like acid every time he moved.
"Let me see." Sena reached for his shoulder, her accounting firm blazer already torn from their escape.
"I'm fine." He shrugged away from her touch, immediately regretting it as pain flared.
"Just a few scratches."
"Scratches don't bleed that much through a shirt."
Her voice carried that older sister authority that had gotten him out of bed this morning.
"Turn around."
"We don't have time for—"
"Ilwoo."
She grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her.
"You just killed three monsters with a wrench. You can handle me looking at a wound."
She lifted his torn shirt with a steady hand, but flinched when she saw the wound.
"These aren't just scratches...these are deep cuts." She took off her blazer and began ripping it into strips.
"We have to stop the bleeding before you pass out."
"I won't pass out. My HP is still—" he began.
"Shut up!" his sister snapped, cutting him off.
"I don't know your HP or stuff." Sena paused in her makeshift bandage preparation.
"I only know you are hurt."
"Sorry I—"
Another wave of dizziness hit him. The adrenaline was wearing off, and his body was starting to process what had just happened.
[WARNING: BLEEDING EFFECT ACTIVE]
[HP REGENERATION REDUCED BY 75%]
"Ugh!"
The system was being helpful again, in its own ominous way.
"What now?" Sena wrapped the blazer strips around his back, pulling them tight enough to make him hiss.
"More blue text?"
"It says I'm bleeding out." He watched his health bar slowly tick downward.
[70/100]
[69/100]
"Game things status effects that until treated."
"Then we treat it." Her hands moved fast, knotting the bandage like she'd done it a hundred times.
"Mom didn't raise us to give up because of a little blood."
The word "Mom" landed harder than the wolf's claws.
Ilwoo looked at his sister, really looked at her, for the first time in what felt like years.
Her perfectly styled hair was disheveled, her professional makeup smeared with sweat and dust, but her hands hadn't shaken once while dressing his wounds.
When did you learn how to do first aid?" he asked.
"Night classes, after work." She tested the tightness of the bandages. "I figured if I was going to take care of you, I should learn how to do it properly."
The words hung in the air between them, heavy with meaning he'd been too caught up in himself to notice.
While he'd been out there fighting monsters with his life on the line, she'd been getting ready for the real battle. And that included saving his life, apparently.
"Sena, I—"
"Save your sorrys for when we're somewhere safe," she said, standing up and brushing the dirt from her skirt. "Can you climb?"
Ilwoo carefully rolled his shoulder. The bandages held, and the bleeding had stopped, though his HP was still dropping slowly.
[65/100]
"Yeah. I can climb." He looked up at the fire escapes zigzagging toward the roof.
"You coming with me?"
"We need to know what we're dealing with before making any more decisions." Sena grabbed the next rung of the ladder.
"If you want a better view, you've got to climb higher."
"Since when did you become a survival expert?"
"Since this morning," she said with a shrug.
"The world's a warzone now."
She began to climb, every movement steady and focused.
They climbed in silence, the sounds of the city growing both louder and more disturbing with each floor.
Car crashes, screaming, gunshots, and underneath it all, the howls of creatures that shouldn't exist.
By the time they reached the roof, Ilwoo's shirt was soaked with sweat, and his HP had dropped to 58/100.
"Oh my god." Sena's lips barely moved, her eyes wide as she took a step back.
The view from the eight-story building revealed the true scope of what had happened to their city.
Smoke rose from dozens of fires scattered across the skyline. Military helicopters circled in the distance, their searchlights sweeping over streets filled with abandoned vehicles.
But it was the creatures that made Ilwoo's blood run cold.
Shadow wolves were just the beginning.
Massive bird-like things with too many wings circled between the buildings. Something that looked like a tank-sized spider was ripping the bus apart like it had done it a hundred times before, three blocks away.
In the distance, silhouetted against the smoke-filled sky, shapes moved that were large enough to level buildings.
"It's not just our neighborhood." Sena's voice was hollow. "It's everywhere."
[WORLD STATUS: INTEGRATION 23% COMPLETE]
[ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: 72 HOURS]
"The system says it's only twenty-three percent complete." Ilwoo felt sick, and not just from blood loss. But what he saw.
"Whatever is happening, it's only going to get worse."
"What about our place?" Sena asked, pointing at their apartment building, faintly seen through the haze. "Is it safe there?"
Ilwoo narrowed his eyes at the distant building, trying to make out details.
Their neighborhood looked relatively quiet—fewer fires, less visible creature activity. But that could just be because the monsters hadn't gotten there yet.
"It's probably safer than here. And if we're going to hide out somewhere, it should be a place where our things are."
He glanced at his sister, noticing she no longer flinched at the screams far away.
"But getting there won't be easy...it's going to be dangerous."
"How dangerous?"
"Either we have to go from building to building, or take the rooftops and fire escapes." His mind raced, searching for a way to save them from this disaster.
"Even then, we're facing at least a dozen fights."
"Encounters with those wolf things?"
"Wolves are level 1. I'm seeing bigger things out there."
He pointed at a shadow moving between buildings six blocks away, roughly the size of a city bus, but moving too fluidly to be human.
"That looks like it might be level 5, maybe higher."
Sena's eyes widened, and her breath hitched as she stared at the shadow slip between the buildings. Her hand shook a little, fingers curling tightly at her side.
"And you're level 2?"
"Yeah, I am now Level 2," He checked his status again.
[55/100 HP]
"Not great odds, I died at this rate."
"Then let's avoid fighting those monsters." Her voice was firmer now, like when she dealt with difficult customers.
"We're going to have to find a way to get home."
"That's nice thinking." He looked at her with new respect.
"Survival missions need different tactics than raid clearing."
"Stop acting like this is just a game!" Her words burst out louder than she meant. They both froze, listening for any sounds from below.
"It is a game now," Ilwoo said quietly after a moment.
"Whether I want it or not. The question is if I play it well enough to keep us both alive."
Sena stared at him for a long moment, and he could see her wrestling with acceptance of their new reality.
"Alright." She took a deep breath. "Alright. If this is a game, then teach me how to play."
"First rule: never fight fair. Always make sure the odds are in your favor." He glanced out at the burning city.
"Second rule: information is more important than gear. We have to know what we're up against before we face it."
"Third rule?"
"Don't die." He gave a small, tired smile.
"Everything else can be figured out later."
A distant roar echoed across the city, deep enough to rattle windows. Whatever had made that sound was much larger than anything they'd seen so far.
"Home it is," Sena said, checking her small wrench that she got from before.
"Lead the way, guild leader."
"Guild leader?"
"That's what you called yourself in those games, right? The one who makes the decisions and keeps everyone safe?" She looked at him, eyes steady.
"I'm counting on you to get us through this. Don't let me down."
Ilwoo's fingers tightened around the hilt of his weapon, knuckles paling. His breath hitched, shallow and uneven.
The distant groan of the tower echoed like a warning, but it was Sena's voice that rang louder in his ears.
She had always been the one with the plan, the one who never flinched.
Now she was looking at him like he was the plan.
His throat felt dry. He gave a nod—small, stiff, as if anything more would shatter the resolve he was still building.
"I won't let you down." He meant it, maybe for the first time in years.
[HP: 52/100]
His health was still dropping, and they had at least two hours of dangerous travel ahead of them. The smart play would be to find somewhere safe and wait for his HP to regenerate.
But looking out over the chaos consuming their city, he realized safety might be a luxury they couldn't afford.
"Route planning first." He pointed toward a sequence of buildings that would get them roughly halfway home.
"See that apartment complex with the red roof? If we can get there, we can easily go home."
"What about those flying things?" Sena gestured at the bird-like creatures circling overhead.
"The sky's always trouble." He watched their flight paths, noticing how they avoided certain spots.
"But look—they're steering clear of places with too many tall buildings, probably. If we stick to areas with good cover overhead, we might be okay."**
"You really did learn something from all those games."
"Yeah."
He moved toward the roof access door, checking his footing.
"Let's hope it's enough."
As they prepared to descend back into the building, Ilwoo caught sight of their reflection in a broken window.
Two people who'd woken up this morning in the normal world, now planning a sneak through monster-infested streets to reach an uncertain sanctuary.
Sena looked like she had woken up from a dream and saw another dream, but her eyes were steady for whatever came next.
He looked like a bleeding amateur with a sword he barely knew how to use.
With that, he looked at the world below, down to them. Once that world became peaceful, it was now swarmed with monsters that were marked with death.