The Safe Zone buzzed with low electricity, background chatter from terminals, and the occasional hiss of steam pipes, but Aron barely noticed any of it.
A flickering message had appeared at the edge of his HUD while he scanned the mission board.
[! UNREGISTERED MISSION DETECTED]
Origin: Node, NULL
Classification: [OBSOLETE]
Objective: TRACE THE ROGUE SIGNAL
Reward: Unknown
Risk Level: ERROR
Accept? [Y/N]
It blinked. Once. Then again. Then disappeared.
He didn't ask questions. He accepted.
A new system prompt appeared:
[HIDDEN MISSION: SYSTEM BREACH, INTERFERENCE NODE]
Objective: Trace the rogue signal to its source.
Time Limit: NONE
Optional Objective: Eliminate anomaly.
Reward: Variable.
No one around him noticed.
Dan was still resting, recovering from his injuries. Sarah was out on recon again. Aron moved quietly, slipping behind the scaffolding in Sector B3 where few lingered.
A utility hatch sat sealed behind scrap crates. It hissed open after a manual override, revealing a stairwell covered in dust and old wiring.
As soon as he descended, the hatch sealed shut behind him.
He muttered under his breath and pulled out his flashlight.
Sub-Level Access Tunnel – Zone Unknown
It felt like stepping into forgotten code.
The hallway reeked of ozone and mildew. Broken lights blinked intermittently, and static faintly emitted from wall-mounted speakers. Aron moved slowly, one step at a time, gripping a battered lead pipe and holding a coil of stripped wire under his arm.
He passed exposed conduits, crushed terminals, and a data port sparking with faint blue glyphs.
[WARNING: Obsolete Protocol Detected…]
[Signal Layer Conflict Detected]
[ENEMY DETECTED: SIGNAL LEECH]
Class: Glitch-Type Spawn
Threat Level: ???
Behavior: Anchors to electric fields. Reacts violently to charged feedback. Visibility limited in standard light.
It shimmered into view ahead—vaguely humanoid, with contorted, twitching limbs like corrupted animation frames. Its surface pulsed with unreadable script.
The air thickened. Feedback crackled through the HUD.
Then it charged.
Aron dove left behind a junction panel. Sparks exploded overhead. The creature's arms stretched like cables, slipping through solid matter as if there were no boundaries.
"Okay, think!"
He spotted the emergency kill switch on the conduit near the ceiling. It was bolted in.
He yanked the copper wire coil from his belt and looped it through a leaking battery hub he had passed earlier. The water pooling beneath him hummed faintly, alive with potential.
The creature advanced again.
He threw his flashlight down the hall.
The beam cut through the fog. The Signal Leech turned its head, just enough.
Aron slammed the exposed wire into the wet floor.
The charge hit like lightning. The current pulsed through the puddle and into the creature mid-phase.
It shrieked, but the sound wasn't real. It distorted the HUD itself—letters jittering out of place.
Aron pressed the attack. He leapt forward with the pipe, swung hard, and smashed open a rusted fuse box. Sparks showered over the Leech's flickering form.
The system stuttered.
[DAMAGE DETECTED, HOSTILE INSTABILITY RISING]
The Leech wasn't dead, but it was glitching uncontrollably now, its limbs stretched too long, head reversing in motion.
Aron reached into his pack, fumbled, then struck a flare against the metal railing.
Red light burst through the darkness.
The Leech recoiled, shrieking again—not from the light, but from the interference.
Aron grabbed a frayed length of grounded cable from the ceiling, looped it around the live conduit, and yanked.
Electricity surged again.
The Signal Leech overloaded and exploded in a flash of pixelated static.
[ENEMY TERMINATED: SIGNAL LEECH]
+60 EXP
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD]
Description: Defeat a glitched-type enemy using terrain manipulation.
+10 EXP
[ITEM ACQUIRED: NULL PACKET (Tier ? – Locked)]
[EXP GAINED: +70]
[EXP: 490/500]
[LEVEL: 2]
[Points Available: 1]
Aron stumbled back, gasping.
His lead pipe was nearly bent in half. His knuckles were bruised, and static still buzzed faintly in his ears.
He leaned against the wall, panting in the dark next to the broken terminal. It had stopped pulsing.
The signal was dead.
Return – Safe Zone B3, 40 Minutes Later
The hatch reopened as if it had never been sealed.
No one was waiting.
No alarm. No announcement.
Aron returned to the upper level quietly. He walked past the others with barely a glance. Dan was still resting. Greg was arguing with someone over water rations.
Aron sat in the corner, quietly updating his inventory.
[INVENTORY UPDATED]
– Basic Sword
– Cloth Shirt
– Broken Phone
– Broken Gear Cog (Tier ???)
– Rust-Covered Tag
– Glitched Datacore
– Mini-Map Chip
– Tactical Belt
– Null Packet (Tier ? – Locked)
– Battered Lead Pipe (Durability: 12%)
– Fragmented Wiring Coil (Junk – Residual Static Present)
The flare was gone. His hands were still shaking. But he was alive.
Somehow.
High above, beyond human sight:
[CONSTELLATION: "The Masked Archivist" has recorded a rogue anomaly encounter.]
[CONSTELLATION: "The Mute Herald" attempts to initiate contact…]
[SYSTEM RESPONSE: INTERFERENCE BLOCKED. PERMISSION DENIED.]
[ARCHIVE LOCK: ACTIVE]