The countdown hit ten minutes.
Kael stood at the edge of the shimmering barrier, watching the goblins on the other side. They were getting restless. Pacing. Snapping at each other. A few of them had started hitting the barrier with their claws, making the surface ripple like water when you throw a rock in a pond.
It wouldn't hold much longer. He could feel it.
He turned to face the group. Thirty frightened people. A few of them had weapons now. Marcus the construction worker had found a piece of rebar. The kickboxing woman, whose name was Jen, had a length of chain wrapped around her fist. Cruz still had his pistol, but Kael had counted the bullets. Only seven. Seven shots for thirty goblins. The math didn't work.
"We move in eight minutes," Kael said. His voice was hoarse. "I want everyone in position. Fighters at the front and sides. Non fighters in the middle. If you have a bag or a backpack, wear it on your chest. It might stop a claw."
A man in a suit raised his hand. His tie was crooked. "Why can't we just stay here? Maybe the barrier comes back."
"It won't," Kael said. "Safe zones are temporary. That's how the system works. When the timer hits zero, the barrier drops and doesn't come back. We'll be sitting ducks."
"How do you know that?"
Kael pointed at his status window. "Because I read. The system gives you information if you actually look for it. Check your map. There's a countdown. I'm not making this up."
The man checked. His face went pale. He didn't ask any more questions.
Kael turned back to the barrier. The goblins had stopped moving. They were just standing there now, all of them facing inward. Waiting. Like they knew exactly when the barrier would fall.
They probably do, Kael thought. The system probably tells them too. Why wouldn't it?
He opened his inventory. The bone staff was equipped. He had one minor health potion left, the free daily one he hadn't claimed yet. He claimed it now. It appeared in his hand. He tucked it into his pocket next to his phone. The phone was dead. Didn't matter anymore.
He had 75 coins after the quest reward and the pouch. Not enough for the leather vest, which cost 80. But enough for something else. He checked the Shop again.
[SHOP]
Iron Dagger 50 Coins
Leather Vest 80 Coins
Skill Book Basic Evasion 200 Coins
Minor Health Potion 30 Coins
Bread 5 Coins
Rope 10 Coins
He bought the iron dagger. It wasn't as good as the bone staff, but it was a backup weapon. He also bought rope. You never knew when rope would be useful. His dad used to say that. His dad was dead now. Probably. Everyone was probably dead.
The dagger appeared in his hand. Short blade, wooden handle, wrapped in old leather. Not pretty. But sharp. He tested the edge with his thumb. It cut him. A thin line of blood.
He strapped it to his belt.
Five minutes left.
Sarah walked up to him. She had her pallet wood club and a determined look on her face. "I killed one before. I can do it again."
"I know you can," Kael said. "But stay close to me. Don't get separated."
"What about Cruz?"
"Cruz is military. He can handle himself. You and I are the only ones who understand the system. We need to stay alive so we can explain it to the others."
Sarah nodded. She looked at the bone staff in his hand. "That thing is creepy."
"It works."
Three minutes.
The goblins started hissing again. Louder this time. A few of them banged their heads against the barrier. It was almost like a performance, like they were trying to scare the humans inside.
It was working. People were crying. A woman was praying in Spanish. The man in the suit was hyperventilating, his chest heaving.
Kael walked over to the suit. "Hey. Breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. You're no good to anyone if you pass out."
The man looked at him with wide eyes. His pupils were huge. "I'm an accountant. I do taxes. I'm not a fighter."
"Good. Then don't fight. When we move, you walk in the middle. You keep your head down. You don't look at the monsters. You just move your feet. Can you do that?"
The man nodded slowly. A tear ran down his cheek.
"Good. What's your name?"
"David."
"Okay, David. You're going to make it. I need you to make it so you can do everyone's taxes after we survive."
David laughed. It was a weak, shaky laugh, but it was something. A start.
One minute.
Kael raised his voice. "Everyone get ready. When the barrier drops, we move north toward the next safe zone. Don't stop. Don't look back. If you fall, you get up. If you can't get up, someone help them. We leave no one behind."
Cruz checked his pistol. Clicked the safety off. "That's a good policy."
"It's the only policy."
Thirty seconds.
The barrier was flickering hard now. The golden glow was fading to a dull yellow. The goblins outside were screeching, jumping up and down, slamming their bodies against the weakening wall. It sounded like hail on a tin roof.
Twenty seconds.
Kael raised the bone staff. He activated Detect Weakness. The skill highlighted the closest goblin in red. A small glowing circle appeared on its throat. Right where the artery would be.
That's where I hit, he thought.
Ten seconds.
"Now!" Kael shouted. "Go now!"
The barrier shattered like glass. Thousands of pieces. They dissolved in the air.
Kael didn't wait. He lunged forward and drove the bone staff into the first goblin's throat. The creature gurgled and collapsed. Black blood sprayed.
[COMBAT]
Critical hit! Defeated Goblin Scout Level 3.
50 EXP.
"Move!" he yelled.
The group surged forward. Cruz fired his pistol. A goblin dropped. Jen swung her chain, catching another across the face. It spun and fell. Marcus used his rebar like a baseball bat, sending a goblin flying into a wall. The wall cracked.
But there were too many.
Kael counted at least twenty five, maybe thirty. They were coming from all sides. Every time he killed one, two more took its place. It was like fighting a flood.
He stabbed another goblin through the chest. Pulled the staff out. Spun to his left and cracked a second one across the skull. The skull caved in.
[COMBAT]
Defeated Goblin Scout Level 3. 50 EXP.
Defeated Goblin Scout Level 4. 60 EXP.
His level bar filled. A chime.
[LEVEL UP]
Kael Chen Level 5
5 HP. 3 MP. 2 Unassigned Stat Points.
He didn't have time to spend them. He just kept swinging. The staff was slick with blood. His hands were slipping.
The group was moving, but slowly. The non fighters were panicking, pushing each other, getting in the way. A woman tripped and fell. David the accountant stopped to help her up. A goblin leaped at them from on top of a car.
Kael threw his dagger.
It wasn't a skill. It wasn't anything special. He just threw it. The blade spun through the air and buried itself in the goblin's eye. The creature dropped mid leap. It crashed at David's feet.
David stared at it. Then at Kael. Then he grabbed the woman's arm and ran. Good.
Kael ran to the goblin's body and pulled his dagger out. It was sticky with black blood. He wiped it on his pants and kept moving.
"North!" he shouted. "Stay together!"
They crossed a street. Then another. The buildings around them were still transforming. Crystalline spikes grew from windows. The asphalt cracked and shifted under their feet. It was like the city was alive and trying to eat them. Maybe it was.
More goblins poured out of an alley. At least a dozen. Maybe more. Kael couldn't see straight anymore. His left eye was completely swollen shut.
Cruz fired twice. Two goblins fell. Then his gun clicked empty.
"Out!" he yelled.
Kael ran past him and swung the staff in a wide arc. It caught three goblins at once, knocking them back. He used the opening to stab the fourth one through the chest. Then the fifth. The sixth grabbed his staff. He yanked it free and smashed its face.
But there were still more.
Jen was fighting with her chain, but she was bleeding from a cut on her arm. The blood was running down to her fingers. Marcus had a goblin hanging off his rebar, still snapping its teeth. He shook it off and stomped its head.
Sarah was holding her own with the pallet wood, but she was slowing down. Her swings were getting sloppy.
Kael knew they couldn't keep this up. They needed a different approach. Something clever.
He looked at his map. The next safe zone was still four kilometers away. At this rate, they'd be dead in ten minutes. Fifteen if they were lucky.
Then he saw something. A building. An old department store with metal shutters over the windows. The shutters were down, but one of them was loose. It hung at an angle, leaving a gap big enough for a person to crawl through. Maybe two at a time.
"There!" he shouted, pointing. "That store! Everyone inside!"
He ran toward the gap, killing two more goblins on the way. He reached the shutter and wedged his staff into the gap, prying it open wider. The metal screeched.
"Go! Go! Go!"
The survivors poured through. David went first, pulling the woman he'd helped. Then the others, one by one. A few of them were crying. A few were screaming. Kael didn't care. They were moving.
Sarah went through, then Jen, then Marcus.
Cruz was last. He covered the rear, using his empty pistol as a club. A goblin bit his arm. He punched it in the face with his other hand. The goblin let go.
Kael grabbed Cruz's collar and yanked him through the gap. Then he slid in after him.
He turned and jammed his staff through the shutter's handle, locking it in place. The goblins on the other side slammed into the metal. It held. For now. The metal groaned but didn't break.
Kael slumped against the wall, breathing hard. His chest hurt. His arms were shaking. There was blood on his hands. Some of it was goblin. Some of it was his. He had a gash on his forearm he didn't remember getting. His knuckles were raw.
He looked around. The department store was dark. Dusty. Old mannequins stood in the corners, their blank faces watching. It was creepy as hell. The shelves were mostly empty, but there were a few things. Some clothes. A broken flashlight. A first aid kit mounted on the wall.
Sarah was already grabbing the first aid kit. She opened it and started handing out bandages.
"Everyone check yourselves," Kael said. "Anyone bleeding badly?"
A few people raised their hands. Minor cuts. Scrapes. The woman who had fallen had a twisted ankle, but she could still walk. She was leaning on David.
David was sitting on the floor, shaking. He looked at Kael. "You saved my life."
"Yeah, well. Don't make me regret it."
Cruz was leaning against a wall, examining the bite on his arm. It wasn't deep. The skin was broken but the muscle looked okay. "We can't stay here forever. They'll get through eventually."
"I know." Kael checked his map. The goblins were gathering outside. Red dots clustered around their position. A lot of them. But there was something else. A green dot. Moving.
He squinted. His vision was blurry from the swollen eye.
"What's that?" he muttered.
He zoomed in. The green dot was a person. Another survivor. And they were coming this way. Fast.
"There's someone else out there," Kael said. "Heading toward us."
"Another survivor?" Sarah asked.
"Looks like it. But they're moving fast. Too fast for a normal person."
Cruz raised an eyebrow. "Fast how?"
Kael watched the dot. It was weaving through the red dots, avoiding the goblins. Not fighting. Just moving. Like they knew exactly where the monsters were. Like they could see them.
"Whoever it is," Kael said, "they know what they're doing."
The green dot reached the store. A moment later, there was a knock on the shutter. Three quick raps. Then two slow ones. A pattern.
Kael looked at Cruz. Cruz shrugged.
"Who's there?" Kael called out.
A voice answered. Female. Young. Slightly out of breath. "Someone who doesn't want to die out here. Open up."
Kael pulled his staff out of the shutter handle and pried the gap open. A hand reached through. Small. Calloused. Dirt under the nails. Then a face.
The girl was maybe nineteen. Black hair cut short and messy. Dark eyes that looked like they'd seen too much already. She was wearing a hoodie and ripped jeans, and she had a kitchen knife strapped to her thigh. No. Not a kitchen knife. A cleaver. The big rectangular kind.
She crawled through the gap and stood up, brushing dust off her clothes.
"Thanks," she said. "Those little bastards are everywhere."
Kael closed the shutter and jammed his staff back in place. "Who are you?"
"Maya. I was a student. Now I guess I'm a runner." She looked around at the group. "You guys look rough."
"We just fought through thirty goblins," Sarah said.
"Thirty? That's it?" Maya smirked. It wasn't a mean smirk. Just tired. "I ran past about fifty on my way here. They're all heading this way, by the way. You've got maybe ten minutes before this place is surrounded."
Kael stared at her. "How are you alive?"
Maya tapped her temple. "I can see them. On my map. All of them. It's a skill. I got it when the system started. Enemy Detection or something."
She opened her status window and showed him.
[ENEMY DETECTION Lv.3]
Passive skill.
Reveals all hostile creatures within 200 meters on the minimap.
Upgrade: 50 meters per level.
Level three. That meant she'd killed enough monsters to level it up three times. Or found skill fragments. Either way, she was stronger than she looked. A lot stronger.
"You've been out there alone?" Kael asked.
"Mostly. I had a group. They didn't make it." Maya's voice was flat. No emotion. Like she'd already done her crying. "Now I move alone. It's safer."
"Safer until you get cornered."
"That's why I came here. Safety in numbers, right?" She looked at Kael's bone staff. "You killed a shaman."
"How can you tell?"
"The staff. Only shamans drop those. And you're only level five. That's impressive." She tilted her head. "What's your build?"
"AGI and INT. Improvised weapons."
Maya nodded. "Makes sense. I went AGI and VIT. Gotta outrun the things I can't kill." She looked at the rest of the group. "You're trying to get to the next safe zone."
"Yeah. Four kilometers north."
"You'll never make it with this many people. Not the way you're going."
Kael frowned. His face hurt. "Do you have a better idea?"
Maya pulled up her map and showed him. "There's a tunnel. Old subway line. It runs north south. If we go down there, we avoid the streets. Fewer goblins. But there's something else down there. Bigger."
"What kind of something?"
"Dunno. Never got close enough to find out. But the map marks it as a dungeon. Level five to ten." She looked at Kael. "You're level five. I'm level six. Together, we might be able to clear it."
"Clear a dungeon? With thirty civilians?"
"Not all of them. Some of them stay here. The ones who can fight come with us. We clear the dungeon, get the loot, then come back for the rest. The dungeon exit is right next to the safe zone. It's a shortcut."
Kael thought about it. It was risky. Dungeons were dangerous. Everyone knew that. But the streets were worse. At least in a dungeon, the enemies were predictable. The layout was fixed. It was a game level, not a chaotic warzone with goblins coming from every direction.
"How many fighters do we have?" he asked.
Cruz stepped forward. "Me. Jen. Marcus. Sarah. You. Now Maya. That's six."
"Six is enough for a level five dungeon," Maya said. "If we're smart."
Kael looked at the group. At David, still shaking on the floor. At the woman with the twisted ankle. At the others, scared and tired and hoping someone would tell them what to do.
He didn't want to leave them. But he couldn't take them into a dungeon. They'd die. They'd slow him down and then they'd die.
"Okay," he said. "Here's the plan. Maya, Cruz, Jen, Marcus, Sarah, and I go into the subway. We clear the dungeon and open a path to the safe zone. The rest of you stay here. Barricade the doors. Don't open them for anyone but us. We'll be back as fast as we can."
"How fast?" David asked.
"Two hours. Maybe three."
"And if you don't come back?"
Kael looked at him. His good eye was tired. "Then you find another way. But I'm coming back."
He turned to Maya. "Show me the subway entrance."
She pointed at a corner of the store. "There's a service door in the back. Leads to the basement. The basement connects to the old tunnel. I came through there earlier."
Kael nodded. He checked his staff. His dagger. His health potion. His stats. He still had two unassigned points from level five. He put them both into AGI. Speed was survival. Speed was everything.
"Let's go," he said.
The six of them walked to the back of the store. The service door was old, painted green, with a rusty handle that looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Kael pulled it open. Stairs led down into darkness. He couldn't see the bottom.
He took a breath. The air smelled like mold and old water.
Then he started walking.