The howls weren't just noise—they were layered, like someone had sampled a wolf pack and ran it through a nasty distortion pedal. Three, maybe four sources, closing in from different angles. On the minimap, red dots crept toward the diner like ants on a sugar spill.
I leaned out the shattered front window, tire iron still sticky in my grip. "How many nights have you guys survived this?"
Marcus spat on the floor. "This'll be the second. First night we lost a guy who thought he could solo a pack with a steak knife. Dumbass."
Mia adjusted her glasses, her fingers twitching like she was debugging code in her head. "They come in waves. First wave is scouts—fast, low HP. Second wave is the heavies. If we hold until dawn, they back off. System calls it 'beta stress testing.'"
"Stress testing the players, not the code," I muttered. "Classic."
I pulled up my status. Level 2, with three stat points burning a hole in my pocket. Wisdom was tempting—better decision-making under pressure and all that—but I dumped them into Dexterity instead. 10 → 13. My movements felt… lighter. Not superhero fast, but like I'd just chugged a double-shot espresso after three all-nighters.
[Passive Skill Upgraded: Analyst's Eye (Lv.1 → Subtle Improvement)]
[DEX Synergy Bonus: Chance to identify exploits/hidden mechanics +2%.]
I grinned. The system was already leaking minor buffs for hitting stat thresholds. Sloppy coding. I loved it.
"Alright, quick huddle," I said, turning to the group. "We've got seven people, one Safe Zone, and presumably zero respawns if we wipe tonight. Positions?"
Marcus pointed his axe. "I'll hold the front door. Range is good for crowd control."
A skinny kid—maybe nineteen, hoodie pulled tight, name tag [Tyler – Lv.1]—raised a hand. "I found a crossbow in the kitchen. Bolts are limited, but I'm decent at shooters."
Mia pulled a fire poker from behind the counter. "I'm support. I'll watch the flanks through the side windows."
The other four were quieter—two women in their late twenties, an older guy who looked like ex-military, and a silent dude clutching a broken chair leg. They nodded when I looked at them, but nobody was volunteering for glory.
I tapped the minimap. "Scouts are 200 meters out, ETA three minutes. We need to manufacture a bottleneck. Barricade the side doors with tables, but keep the front door open—we want to funnel them in."
Marcus raised an eyebrow. "You sure? An open door means more of them at once."
"Exactly. Control the flow, control the fight. If we seal everything, they'll just bash the Safe Zone timer until something worse spawns. Let's kill them while the buff is still active."
He chewed on that for a second, then nodded. "Tech support has a point."
We moved fast. Tables were stacked and chairs wedged under side-door handles. Tyler climbed onto the counter for a sniper perch. Mia and I took the front window; the broken glass gave us perfect sightlines and swing room.
The first red dot hit the 50-meter mark.
[Enemy: Veil Scout – Lv.2]
HP: 90 / 90
Threat: Swarm
It looked like a starved greyhound made of smoke and rebar. Fast. Four more followed right behind it.
"Three… two…" I counted under my breath.
The lead scout leaped through the open door. I swung first. The tire iron caught it mid-air, right in the ribs.
Crack.
Critical Hit! (Momentum Bonus)
[Veil Scout HP: 41 / 90]
It yelped—a high-pitched, modem-like screech—and skidded across the checkered floor. Marcus stepped in and brought the axe down like he was splitting firewood.
One-shot.
[Enemy Defeated! +30 XP (Group Share)]
The rest piled in. It was chaos, but controlled chaos. Tyler's crossbow twanged—a bolt took one in the eye. [Critical! +25 XP shared]. Mia poked her fire poker through the window gap, sinking it into a throat as black ichor sprayed the wall.
I danced between two of them, the tire iron whistling. One clipped my arm—pain flared, sharp but shallow.
[HP: 108 / 132]
[Bleed Applied: -3 HP/sec for 10s]
"Dammit." I ignored the tick, focusing. Analyst's Eye pinged: a weak point at the base of the neck, right where the smoke met the metal. My next swing was surgical.
Exploit Hit!
[Veil Scout HP: 0 / 90 – Instant Kill]
The bleed ticked twice more before it wore off. Annoying, but manageable. Wave one was cleared in under ninety seconds. The bodies dissolved into wisps of digital ash. No loot, just XP.
[Wave 1 Cleared. +120 XP (Group Share)]
[Level Up! You are now Level 3]
[HP +14 | MP +10 | SP +12]
[You have 3 stat points available.]
Everyone else dinged too. The cheers were short-lived. The howls outside changed pitch—deeper, throatier, coming from the gut.
[Wave 2 Incoming – Heavy Bruisers]
Estimated arrival: 60 seconds.
Marcus wiped sweat from his brow. "That was the easy part."
I checked the map. Five big red circles, moving slow but steady. HP bars were already visible at range: 350–420 each.
"Shit," Tyler whispered. "Those are mini-boss tier."
I scanned the diner. Counter, booths, kitchen door, walk-in freezer. An idea started forming.
"Mia, Tyler—grab every flammable thing you can find. Cooking oil, napkins, booze from under the bar. Marcus, you and me hold the door. Everyone else, get ready to funnel."
We had maybe forty seconds.
Mia and Tyler raided the kitchen, coming back with bottles of cheap whiskey, canola oil, and a half-empty propane canister from the grill. I directed them to pour a shallow pool right inside the doorway—about a meter wide.
"Light it when I say," I told Mia. She nodded, lighter ready.
The bruisers arrived. They weren't subtle. Hulking things, seven feet tall, with arms like concrete pylons wrapped in rebar. Their faces were featureless except for jagged, glowing cracks.
[Enemy: Veil Bruiser – Lv.4]
HP: 410 / 410
Threat: High
The first one charged. Marcus met it axe-to-fist. Sparks flew. He staggered back two steps but held his ground. I flanked, the tire iron cracking against the thing's knee.
36 damage. Barely a scratch. But it turned toward me—slow, predictable.
"Now!"
Mia flicked the lighter. The oil caught instantly. Blue flames whooshed up, and the bruiser stepped right into the center of the inferno.
[Burning Applied: -18 HP/sec]
[Flammable Debuff Triggered – Movement Speed -30%]
It roared, thrashing. The fire spread to the next one crowding the doorway. We had ourselves a chokepoint fire-wall.
Marcus grinned like a maniac. "I like this plan!"
We picked them apart. Tyler sniped eyes. I targeted the joints. Mia darted in for quick pokes when they slowed down. The propane canister? I rolled it forward when the third bruiser got stuck in the entrance.
Boom. It wasn't a movie explosion, but it was enough to stagger two of them and apply a [Concussion] debuff. By the time the flames died down, all five were dissolving into smoke.
[Wave 2 Cleared. +480 XP (Group Share)]
[Level Up! You are now Level 4]
[New Skill Unlocked: Improvised Traps (Lv.1)]
[Effectiveness +15% when using environmental objects for combat setups.]
The diner smelled like burnt plastic and a barbecue gone horribly wrong. Everyone slumped into the booths, breathing hard. But we were alive.
[Night Watch – 78% Complete]
[Dawn in 4 hours, 22 minutes.]
They were all looking at me. Mia wiped soot from her glasses. "That trap… you just thought of that on the fly?"
I shrugged. "Old habit. When production breaks at 2 a.m., you use whatever's lying around the server room."
Marcus clapped me on the shoulder—hard enough to make my HP flicker. "Tech support just became the Raid Leader."
Outside, the howls were quieter. Waiting. But on the leaderboard, my rank had done a massive vertical jump.
[Global Leaderboard – Beta Phase 1]
#47: Alex Chen – Level 4
Not bad for a single night shift. I leaned against the wall, resting the tire iron across my knees.
"Four more hours," I said. "Let's try not to die before coffee."
Somewhere in the dark, something answered with a low, mechanical chuckle. Like the system was laughing along with me.
[To be continued…]