The station was chaos.
Concrete dust still hung in the air, mixing with the iron stench of blood. Broken lights flickered, casting jagged shadows across the cracked floor. People screamed, shoved, clawed their way toward the stairwell like moths desperate for firelight.
I forced myself up from the rubble, coughing. My legs trembled, my ears rang, and my heart hadn't slowed since the world ended.
Twelve—no, fifteen of us. Strangers, but now bound by fear.
"Stay calm! We just need to get topside!" shouted Kang, a man in a half-torn suit, trying to sound like he was still in charge of a boardroom.
Calm? I almost laughed. If he'd seen what I had—the sky bleeding, constellations burning, eyes staring down from the heavens—he wouldn't have said that word.
We pushed toward the exit.
Then it appeared.
At the top of the cracked stairwell, shadows moved. Something padded forward on four legs. For a heartbeat, I thought it was a stray dog. Then it opened its mouth.
Its jaw split far too wide. Obsidian fur shimmered like broken glass, and its eyes burned with pale blue fire. Black saliva hissed as it dripped onto the steps.
It wasn't a dog.
It was hunger given form.
The first man to scream didn't get to finish. The creature lunged, and his body snapped like dry wood in its jaws. His blood painted the wall.
Panic erupted. People shoved and scrambled, trampling each other to get away.
I froze. My body locked. My mind screamed move, but my legs refused.
The creature turned toward us.
That was when Do-Hyun moved. Broad-shouldered, with the calm eyes of someone who had seen war, he snatched up a length of rebar from the rubble. With a roar, he swung. The metal slammed into the beast's flank. It howled, surprised more than hurt.
"Run!" Do-Hyun barked. "Move, damn it!"
I stumbled after Hana, a sharp-eyed woman in sportswear, dragging a teenager—Jin-Ae—by the wrist. Behind us, others screamed, begged, and died.
We burst into the shattered street above. The air was sharp with smoke and ozone. My chest heaved, my throat raw.
Silence fell.
When I finally dared to look, there were only thirteen of us left.
Then it happened.
A burning message appeared across my vision. Not a hallucination. Too sharp. Too real.
[System Notice: First Trial Completed.]
[Candidates Survived: 13]
[Reward: Temporary Clearance to Safe Zone.]
The words seared themselves into my mind, undeniable.
Candidates? Trial? Safe Zone?
This wasn't survival. It was a game.
And someone—something—was watching us play.