Leon listened in silence. When she finished, he let out a quiet snort and pulled a crooked smile, the kind you made when someone finally said out loud what you'd already worked through in your own head.
"You know…" he said evenly. "I've known that for a long time. If you can count, you count on yourself."
He glanced down the street, at the scattered zombie corpses, the empty windows that had been someone's normal life not that long ago, and gave a small shrug.
"I just wanted to see if there was an easier shortcut," he added without shame. "Something other than constant killing, constantly checking over my shoulder, constantly wondering if something's about to jump out and try to eat me."
Valeria nodded slightly, a gentle, understanding smile touching her lips.
"Compared to life before the Essence Record…" she said, "…this must be difficult."
Leon looked at her, then back at the dead zombies, then down at his own hands, still faintly tight from the fight. He didn't speak for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. His smile didn't fade.
It widened.
Slowly.
Becoming clearer… and less normal.
"Difficult?" he echoed softly.
He lifted his gaze, and something appeared in his eyes that hadn't been there before, a glint that had nothing to do with humor or relief.
"Yes. It's difficult," he said, his voice gaining energy with every phrase. "It's damn difficult. But for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm actually alive."
He spread his hands as if trying to show something invisible.
"The adrenaline. The fact that one mistake can kill me. That I have to keep moving, because if I stop, those mutated beasts or the zombies will eat me." He let out a short, nervous laugh. "It scares me… but it also winds me up."
His heart was pounding faster even now, just from talking about it.
"And when I think about how far I can go… how strong I can become in this new world…" he added, and there was pure excitement in his voice.
A beat of silence.
Valeria studied him closely. No smile. No mockery. Her brows were faintly drawn together, like she was deciding whether what she was hearing was normal adaptation… or something drifting into a less healthy direction.
"Tell me something," she said at last, dead serious. "Did you fall out of your stroller as a kid?"
She tilted her head, looking him over again.
"Is everything in your head… okay?"
Leon blinked.
Then he burst out laughing, because in this world, asking if someone was "okay in the head" already sounded like a luxury no one could afford.
"You're seriously asking me that?" he said, shaking his head. "After what I've been through in the last several hours… you think it's even possible for my head to be okay?"
Valeria stared at him for a fraction of a second without a word. Then a smile appeared, neither warm nor innocent. It was strange. Too wide. Too calm. There was something in her eyes that made even Leon feel a cold shiver crawl up his neck and goosebumps rise on his arms.
"That's impossible," she replied gently.
Her voice was soft, almost tender, which only made it worse.
"Anyone who climbs even a little higher…" she continued, "…has to have something wrong with their head, in their own way."
She paused, as if she wanted the words to sink in, then added more lightly:
"And don't think I consider that a flaw. Having a few screws loose… is more like a requirement."
She licked her lips slowly, deliberately, an intimate, almost erotic little gesture that was far too natural to be accidental. Her smile widened again.
"I find it rather attractive."
The wave hit Leon instantly.
That familiar, dangerous fascination tried to spill through his thoughts, to make everything else stop mattering, but Cold Mind reacted in time, sending an icy pulse that snapped his focus back and forced air into his lungs.
He turned away from her sharply, staring down the street as if something incredibly interesting had suddenly appeared a few meters away.
"You must have something wrong with your head too," he muttered under his breath, more to himself than to her.
Valeria heard him anyway. She laughed softly, and her smile turned sharper, predatory now, all pretense of innocence gone.
"You have no idea…" she said sweetly. "How much."
Then Valeria looked at Leon with clear curiosity, calm, unintrusive, like she genuinely wanted to know what he, an ordinary human with a newly awakened Essence Record, would choose to do next in a world that had just shattered.
"So what now?" she asked simply, without provocation or irony.
Leon fell silent for a moment, then raised his eyes toward a building that yesterday had been nothing more than a place to sleep, eat, and stash his things between classes, now something far more important. He lifted his hand and pointed.
"We need to go there," he said calmly. "To the dorm."
Valeria took a few steps closer, glancing in that direction as if trying to see something beyond concrete and windows.
"And what's so interesting about it?" she asked with a hint of almost girlish curiosity.
Leon sighed softly and shrugged.
"I left my phone there," he said. "Yesterday, before I went to campus. I was in a hurry and forgot it, and then… well. The world ended."
He started walking toward the dorm, and Valeria matched his pace, listening.
"If the network still works, or even comes back for a moment," he added, "I want to call my parents. My sister. Just… find out if they're alive."
Something heavier entered his voice as he spoke, a shadow passing through his eyes that hadn't been there a moment ago. The adrenaline and excitement and talk of power slipped into the background, replaced by something simple and human.
"They're in another city," he said more quietly. "I'm only here because I moved for university. Toruń was supposed to be temporary. A few years, a degree, maybe a job… and now I don't even know what's happening to them."
Valeria watched him closely, no smile this time.
"You have a family?" she asked.
Leon nodded.
"My mom, my dad, and my little sister," he began, as if saying it out loud helped keep his thoughts from unraveling. "Dad's done physical work his whole life. He always said your hands are the one thing no one can take from you. Mom's a nurse, so…" He trailed off, then added with a bitter half-smile, "if anyone in this chaos has a chance to help people, it's her."
He fell quiet for a moment, then continued.
"My sister… she's still in high school. Next year she was supposed to go to university. She was picking a major, making plans, arguing with me that I'm dramatic when I tell her not to put everything off until later."
He let out a quiet snort, without humor.
"I just hope they're sticking together."
And then something clicked in his head, not like a sudden epiphany, but like a thought that had been there from the start, only now daring to surface. Leon slowed, looked at Valeria with visible tension, and with a hope he didn't want to have, but couldn't stop himself from having.
"Valeria…" he began carefully, as if the question itself might break something. "What if… if I gave you the exact address? In Kalisz. What my house looks like, my parents, my sister. You wouldn't have to go there, just… look. Check, and tell me if they're alive."
For a brief moment she looked at him without speaking.
Then slowly, very clearly, she shook her head.
"I can't," she said calmly.
Leon didn't reply, but something in him sagged anyway, as if the tension holding him upright had lost its support for a second. His shoulders felt heavier. He kept walking.
Valeria sighed softly and added, as if trying to soften the blow.
"Even if I wanted to… from where I am, I could see it." She glanced in the direction where the city he'd mentioned would roughly be. Her voice lowered a touch. "But the Essence Record would consider that too much interference in a lower world."
There was no superiority in it, no coldness, just a dry fact. Something that existed whether it was fair or not.
"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "I can't help you with that."
Leon nodded without looking at her, more out of habit than need.
"I understand," he said quietly.
They walked in silence for a bit. Then Valeria glanced at him from the corner of her eye, at his focused, worried face, and spoke with genuine curiosity, without irony.
"Having a family…" she began slowly. "That must be very nice."