The first thing Ethan Carter tasted was iron.
Metallic. Bitter. Wrong.
His eyelids fluttered open, sticking together as if glued by dried blood. The air was thick — a choking blend of smoke, ash, and something coppery that clung to his tongue like poison.
When his vision steadied, the world around him was… broken.
Skyscrapers that once pierced the clouds now lay fractured and hollow, their jagged spines silhouetted against a blood-red sky. Fires burned unchecked in the distance, sending plumes of black smoke spiraling upward, blotting out what little light remained. And then… he saw it.
It wasn't rain.
It was blood.
Dark crimson droplets fell endlessly from the heavens, splattering against his torn jacket and streaking down his face. The ground around him was soaked in it — rivers of red cutting through cracked asphalt, pooling around charred bodies and shattered glass. The city he remembered was gone. Whatever this place was now, it reeked of death.
Ethan struggled to his feet, his boots sinking into the viscous puddles beneath him. Every step felt heavy, like wading through someone else's nightmare.
> "What the hell happened here…?"
His last memory was fragmented — a train ride, a sudden explosion, screams tearing through the cabin. After that… nothing. Just darkness. And now this.
His chest burned as he breathed, and his heartbeat thundered unnaturally loud in his ears. He pressed a trembling hand to his ribs and froze.
Beneath his skin, something pulsed.
Not his heart.
Something… else.
A deep, rhythmic thrum that wasn't his own. Each pulse sent a faint, crimson glow through the veins of his forearm, like liquid fire racing beneath the surface. He stumbled back, panic clawing up his throat.
> "No… no, no, no. What is this?!"
And then he heard it — distant, distorted screams carried by the wind. Not human screams. Something worse.
Ethan turned sharply, scanning the broken streets. Shadows moved between the wreckage, skittering unnaturally fast. He couldn't make out their shapes, but the sound… wet, guttural snarls that made his skin crawl.
His instincts screamed one word: run.
But his legs wouldn't obey.
Instead, he staggered forward, following a trail of bloody footprints smeared across the cracked pavement. Each step quickened until his boots splashed through crimson puddles, the metallic scent clogging his lungs.
Then he saw it.
A figure crouched over a corpse — pale, skeletal, hunched. Its back rippled unnaturally beneath shredded flesh, twitching as if something moved inside it. Long claws scraped against broken concrete, and when it lifted its head, Ethan's breath caught in his throat.
Its eyes glowed like molten coals.
Its jaw split open far wider than it should, rows of serrated teeth dripping with gore.
The thing screeched — a raw, bone-splitting sound — and launched itself at him.
Ethan barely had time to react. His body moved on instinct, diving behind the twisted shell of an overturned car as the creature slammed into it, metal shrieking beneath its weight.
Adrenaline surged. His heart — no, that other thing in his chest — roared to life. Crimson veins lit beneath his skin, brighter this time, hotter, until the air itself seemed to vibrate around him.
> "Move, damn it, MOVE!"
The creature lunged again, claws slicing through steel where his head had been seconds ago. Ethan rolled, grabbed a jagged shard of metal from the wreckage, and drove it upward with everything he had.
The shard sank into the monster's neck.
For one frozen heartbeat, nothing happened. Then the thing shrieked, thrashing violently, spraying thick black ichor across his face. Ethan shoved harder, twisting until the shard ripped free, severing something vital.
The creature collapsed at his feet, spasming before finally going still.
Ethan stood there, chest heaving, shaking so hard he thought his bones would splinter. His hands were drenched in blood — some his, most not.
Then, he heard it.
> [System Detected.]
A voice that wasn't a voice, smooth and cold, reverberated directly inside his skull.
> [Crimson Core successfully integrated.]
[Vital synchronization at 72%.]
[First kill confirmed.]
[Reward allocated: +5 Vital Capacity.]
Ethan froze. His breath hitched. The red glow beneath his skin flared, brighter now, and with it came a strange, intoxicating rush — strength humming through his veins, sharper senses, faster thoughts.
He dropped the bloodied shard and stared at his hands.
> "What… the hell… is happening to me?"
But the System didn't answer.
And in the distance, more guttural screams tore through the falling blood. Shadows shifted. Dozens of them.
Ethan swallowed hard, wiped the gore from his face, and forced his trembling legs to move.
Because whatever nightmare he'd just woken up into.
Ethan's legs moved on their own, splashing through crimson puddles as the rain of blood fell heavier around him. Every drop stung against his skin, warm and sticky, clinging like it wanted to seep inside him.
The city groaned under its own ruin — distant explosions rumbled somewhere beyond the shattered skyline, glass cracked and collapsed from broken towers, and the wind carried the faint stench of burned flesh.
And beneath it all…
That pulse inside his chest.