Kyle looked down and saw a young man, about his own age, mortally wounded with no hope of survival.
His sides were torn open, and one of his hands had been severed. From his build and frame, it was clear he was no longer at the Ungraded stage.
The dying man's eyes burned with desperation as he looked up at Kyle, struggling to breathe.
Na-Ri remained seated, watching with a flat expression, while Kyle grew increasingly unsettled, tugging at his leg to break free from the scavenger's grasp.
For someone at the edge of death, his grip was unnaturally firm, each attempt to pull away met with surprising resistance.
'Why is he this strong? Get off my leg,' Kyle thought with irritation, glaring down at the man.
Suddenly, he coughed blood across Kyle's boot, and Kyle's expression hardened with irritation. The scavenger, half-conscious and faltering, forced out broken words:
"…Th– there is a… t–al… break… soon."
The slurred mutterings only deepened Kyle's confusion. Moments later, the man went limp at his feet, his grip loosening as life left him.
Kyle stepped back sharply, refusing to dwell on the ramblings of the dead. He had not understood them in any case.
'What on earth was he trying to say…?'
The stranger rose from her seat, her gaze flicking from Kyle to the corpse with a peculiar scrutiny.
She asked in a nonchalant tone, "What did he say?"
Kyle lifted his eyes to her, confusion etched into his features. His lips trembled as though anger were about to spill out.
"I do not even bloody understand what he was saying… but I caught something like, 'There is a t…' That is all I heard."
The stranger blinked repeatedly, struggling to make sense of the broken words, but nothing surfaced.
She exhaled lightly, swung her pack over her shoulders, and remarked:
"Let us move on. We should head to the safe zone for now. There ought to be an establishment for scavengers, or so I would assume."
Kyle froze, his scowl deepening.
The man's dying words refused to leave his head, gnawing at his thoughts.
Na-Ri stepped away without another glance, treading over the corpses with a blank expression.
Kyle looted the body in silence before following after her, his mind turning in restless circles.
He kept looking back, unable to shake the sense that the words had carried a warning.
Perhaps the execution of the boss was not the true cause of what was coming.
His instincts insisted on it, and though they were not always right, he trusted them all the same.
***
Ten minutes later, they were moving through the wreckage of the outer perimeter.
The area opened wide after the market, and they kept their ears and eyes alert for any sign of danger.
But no monsters appeared. Either they had already been killed or they had withdrawn from the zone.
With luck, none had entered the safe zone.
Even if they had, well-prepared teams were always stationed there to deal with whatever emerged.
Their numbers would not be overwhelming, and the threat could be managed.
Hunters often sought to tame certain beasts, but the Spineback Boar was despised by nearly everyone.
The Glassfang rats and several other breeds, even when classed only as Feral-ranked mutants, were valued in hunting.
The pair exchanged little more than silence as they walked, either preoccupied with their own thoughts or simply with nothing worth saying.
Beyond that, they still were not fond of each other. Kyle had managed to secure a weapon on his own, without Na-Ri's involvement, which left her feeling she had nothing more to contribute.
The weapon, though not exceptional, was serviceable in combat.
It was a fire axe, heavily modified for killing. The original head had been honed to a sharper edge, and the back had been fitted with a welded rebar spike capable of piercing a skull with ease.
The wooden shaft had been replaced with a steel pipe, wrapped in leather strips to provide grip and balance.
At the butt end, a bolted scrap-metal cap gave it enough weight to serve as a blunt weapon.
More strength, however, would be required for such a weapon to inflict real damage on a creature like the Spineback Boar.
The trailer had managed to kill them even though it had been neither a weapon nor Qi-infused, which should have been impossible.
It had only succeeded because of its sheer weight and the frenzy of the stampede, which crushed many of the beasts against one another.
Even so, they had not died immediately under the pressure, and there had been a brief interval before they succumbed.
As they continued along the direct route towards the safe zone, they passed countless carcasses of beasts scattered across the ruins.
Most bore the marks of recent battles, and the sight strongly suggested that the creatures had already been slain.
That still did not mean there were no more of them left in the city.
From the one Kyle had escaped, to the one where he had stumbled into the boss chamber, to this place he now wished to leave behind, each had been its own pit of chaos.
Maybe, just maybe, he would finally find some semblance of a good life.
'Break soon? I am still unsettled by what exactly is meant to break…' Kyle's thoughts circled endlessly around the dying man's slurred words.
Whatever the meaning, there was no reason to remain here.
Resources had been cut off, and danger was greater than ever.
Even if the threat later eased, he would not stay.
This place had been nothing but hell, and he had endured it far too long.
Na-Ri glanced at him, her face sombre as she noticed how lost he was in thought. She spoke with quiet resolve:
"Hey, we are getting close to the safe zone. Prepare yourself."
Kyle lifted his eyes ahead and saw a tunnel.
At the far end, light spilled through, carrying with it the suggestion of new hope.
Together, they passed through the tunnel and stepped into the safe zone.
Ahead stood a fortified gate that sealed the road. Several armed men, roughly ten in number, were stationed there.
The guards spotted them at once, raising their weapons.
Some relayed information through radios as others advanced on the two strangers.
"Contact Team A. Two more refugees are coming out from the Green Zone. Looks like the zone really has been cleared," one of them reported over the radio.
The stranger leaned slightly towards Kyle and murmured, as they both raised their hands in the air as though under arrest:
"…Kyle, welcome to a cold hell."
His chest tightened as he turned towards her, but before he could speak, the guards forced him to his knees.