Kai watched in absolute horror.
Because of him—because he had forgotten something as simple as momentum, because his mind had been too slow to calculate the physics—the girl he was trying to save had taken the fatal blow.
For a terrifying moment, his body refused to obey him. A massive shock had struck his nervous system.
His heart pounded wildly against his ribs, yet his limbs felt entirely hollow, as if they belonged to someone else.
Nyra lay in the middle of the shattered asphalt, her body trembling violently as the heavy steel wheel rolled away across the road.
The world around him seemed to plunge into a suffocating, ringing silence.
Move. His mind screamed at his paralyzed muscles. Move!
Then, Nyra's body twitched.
The slight movement shattered his paralysis. Kai rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside her so hard the rough asphalt bit into his skin.
"Nyra! Nyra, open your eyes!" he pleaded, his voice breaking apart in his throat.
He grabbed her hands. They were cold. Too cold.
The shadows pooling across the ruined street seemed to cling unnaturally to her skin, like dark fingers tightening around her fading life.
Her chest rose and fell in violent, uneven spasms.
"Please! Somebody help!" Kai shouted desperately, his voice cracking as he looked wildly around the intersection.
A crowd of dozens of civilians had already gathered to surround the scene, but none of them moved.
No one rushed forward to offer a jacket or apply pressure to the wound.
Instead, the crowd simply stood there, silent and motionless. Their blank faces were illuminated by the pale glow of their smartphones.
They were recording.
They were documenting the dying girl as if it were some grotesque spectacle meant for online entertainment.
Something inside Kai snapped. Thick veins surged along his neck as pure rage flooded through him like molten iron. These bastards.
"Ka… Kai…" Nyra's voice was barely audible.
A fragile, desperate smile forced its way onto Kai's trembling face.
"Yes. I'm here," his hand slowly squeezing her cold fingers. "Keep your eyes open. Don't close them."
Her breathing grew harsher, more ragged. Each breath sounded like it was tearing through broken glass.
Panic completely crushed Kai's logic. His hand shook violently as he pulled out his phone and dialed the emergency helpline.
Ringing. Ringing. Ringing.
No answer. The city's infrastructure had already collapsed.
"Shit!"
Desperation tightened around his chest like a vice. Slowly, his trembling hand drifted toward his inner pocket.
His fingertips brushed against the smooth, cold glass of the vial. The Elixir of Life. A system miracle. A single drop capable of saving a life.
If I give it to her… she lives. But Lilia… Lilia dies.
His hand trembled violently in his pocket. His mind fractured under the weight of the impossible choice. He could see small fragment of Anna smiling at him.
Then, a shadow fell over them. A hand grabbed Kai's shoulder.
"May I help you?"
Kai snapped his head upward. A man had stepped calmly through the ring of digital onlookers.
He moved with an effortless confidence, as if the chaos and the recording civilians surrounding them meant absolutely nothing.
He had a slender, wiry frame, with unruly silver hair framing a pale face marked by sharp, haunted amber eyes.
He wore practical traveler's clothing—a dark brown cowl draped over a charcoal tunic, tied with simple fabric straps and faint lines of muted orange.
"Please!" Kai shouted instantly, abandoning all caution. "Help me! My friend is dying!"
The stranger smiled. It wasn't mocking or arrogant, but it carried a strange, heavy weight.
"Just trust me," the man said quietly. "I am an Executioner."
Kai froze. Executioner. One of the advanced combat classes.
The man knelt beside Nyra, completely calm. "Don't be surprised," he said gently.
He grasped Nyra's bleeding arm, and then extended his other hand toward Kai. "Hold my hand."
Just before Kai took it, something caught his attention. Across the street, standing on the edge of the Seralite Factory roof.
For a brief, terrifying moment, he thought he saw a silhouette standing there. Watching them. A perfectly still shadow against the city skyline.
But the moment vanished, and there was no time to think. Kai grabbed the man's hand.
[ Skill Activated: Displacement Shift ]
Space twisted violently. The ruined street vanished. The noise of the city collapsed into total silence as reality folded around them like a page being turned.
In the next instant, Kai stumbled forward, his boots loudly striking polished white linoleum. They stood directly inside the emergency trauma ward of a hospital.
"Trauma team! Now!" the silver-haired man shouted sharply.
Doctors and nurses rushed forward immediately, their professional expressions stiffening in alarm at the sight of Nyra's condition.
They swiftly transferred her onto a gurney and rushed her through a set of swinging isolation doors.
The doors slammed shut. The sterile silence of the hospital returned.
Kai slowly lowered his head, staring blankly at the spotless floor. A wave of fragile, exhausting relief washed through his chest.
"Thank you," he murmured softly, bowing his head slightly toward the stranger.
The man placed a firm, steady hand on Kai's shoulder. "It is human nature to help others," he said calmly. He extended his hand. "Hi. I'm Arjun."
Kai shook it weakly. "I'm Kai." His tired smile quickly faded into a guarded, defensive expression.
"I'm Level Zero."
Arjun showed no reaction. No disgust. No pity. His face remained completely neutral. "I am Level 101."
Kai's breath caught in his throat. Level 101. "What were you doing at the Seralite Factory?" Kai asked slowly.
Arjun looked up toward the fluorescent ceiling lights for a moment. "I came from India," he said quietly. "I am searching for someone."
Before Kai could press him for more information, the isolation room doors clicked open. A lead doctor stepped out into the hallway.
His head was lowered. He couldn't meet Kai's eyes.
"I'm sorry, sir," the doctor said quietly, his voice echoing in the empty hall. "The internal damage is too severe. We cannot stabilize her."
A long, suffocating pause followed.
"We believe… she will die within an hour."
The hallway fell dead silent. Completely silent.
Slowly, the edges of Kai's lips began to rise.
A faint sound escaped his throat. A breath.
Then another. Then, he started laughing.
It was a broken, terrifying sound. A hollow laugh with absolutely no joy inside it. It was the laughter of a boy whose mind had finally shattered under the weight of a rigged game.
Arjun remained silent, simply watching the Level Zero player fall apart. The doctor took a nervous step backward, visibly shaken by the overwhelming, unnatural despair radiating from the boy.
"I… I will check the patient again," the doctor muttered, quickly retreating behind the doors.
The doors closed, but Kai's laughter continued to echo against the walls.
Arjun stepped forward.
Without a word of hesitation, the Level 101 Executioner wrapped his arms around the shaking boy, pulling him into a steady, grounding embrace.
"It's okay," Arjun whispered softly over the sound of the broken laughter.
"Sometimes saving someone is impossible. But trying… is what makes us human."