The red sky hadn't dimmed by morning.
If it even was morning.
The System didn't track time the way clocks did anymore. Logan's internal calendar was still anchored to a pre-apocalypse standard, but outside? The world was fractured. Sunlight bled through the sky at odd angles, and shadows moved in ways that didn't align with physics.
Time felt like it was stalling, like Earth had lost its orbit, and the universe hadn't noticed yet.
He sat on the bunker floor, stripped down to a gray thermal undershirt, slowly cleaning the barrel of his shotgun. Every motion was ritual—wipe, rotate, scrape—a rhythm that kept his hands busy while his mind tried to stitch itself back together.
Yesterday had been survival.
Today?
It was the beginning of reclamation.
He stood, stretched his spine until it cracked, and opened the console.
[System Sync Complete.]Base Interface IntegratedEngineering Tier 1: ConfirmedBlueprint Access UnlockedScouting Mode: Available
The terminal displayed a familiar wireframe of his home and the surrounding blocks, though the map had begun changing independently. Roads that were once straight had started bending. A gas station that used to be six blocks north was now marked Unreachable—with jagged coordinates tagged as "Distorted Zone."
Logan squinted at it.
"Zones are warping…"
He turned to his supply wall.
Time to scout.
Outfitting
He strapped on the ballistic vest, holstered the shotgun, secured the compound bow across his back, and clipped his scavenger pouch to his left hip. Inside were the basics: crowbar, flashlight, lockpicks, wire cutters, duct tape, spare batteries, chalk for marking trails, and two protein bars.
He pocketed a flare and hooked his EMP-resistant tablet to a chest strap.
He also added a new tool: a small signal dart launcher he prototyped months ago. It could fire homemade beacons into surfaces to mark or track mutated wildlife. Now that the system recognizes tech-based items, it would likely grant bonuses if he used them creatively.
The moment he opened the hatch and climbed to the surface, the scent hit him.
Pine, smoke, blood, and… something fermented. Like the earth itself was rotting.
He stepped into the backyard, scanning the treeline.
No sign of the antlered creature. No signs of new tracks either.
Still, the wind whispered with static. It was low and constant, like it was coming from beneath the soil, not above.
Into the Rupture
Logan moved fast but quietly, keeping his feet light and knees bent. He avoided the alleyways between houses. Everything was abandoned, but the houses weren't empty. Some had blood trails leading into dark garages, and others had half-barricaded doors left open, inviting traps.
He skipped them all.
His goal was the DollarValue convenience store at the edge of the neighborhood. It had solar-powered fridge units and stocked many canned goods, batteries, and clearance medications.
At the halfway mark, the terrain changed.
Literally.
The road tilted—not from damage or potholes, but like someone had pulled up one edge and let it fall again. Asphalt rippled. Cars sat askew. One street lamp had bent in half, as if it had melted from the top.
A cat walked across the sidewalk ahead of him. Or what had once been a cat.
Its body was longer now. Thinner. Too thin. Its tail had become a stiff, bony whip. It turned and looked at him with round, humanlike eyes. No hiss. No growl.
Just a long, slow blink.
Then it disappeared between two broken trash bins, silent as a ghost.
[Zone Entry: Tier 1 – Mild Warp]Environmental Effects ActiveMapping Accuracy Reduced by 12%Audio/Visual Distortions Possible
"Christ…"
Logan ducked into the convenience store's side entrance. He'd scouted this place pre-Crimson—knew the layout well. The back led to a storage room, which opened into aisles of processed junk food and expired milk. Today, the front glass was blown out, and the security camera had fused to the ceiling.
Inside, it was cold. Too cold for a building with no power.
Frost clung to the inside of a broken beverage cooler. Every breath steamed.
Logan moved slowly, sweeping the aisles.
[Scavenging Check: Passed]Loot Found:
Canned Beans (x3)
Iodine Tablets (x1 pack)
Adhesive Gel (Used in crafting tier-1 medkits)
Expired Antibiotics (Low-grade effectiveness)
He loaded them quickly.
Then he found something strange.
There was a glowing mark on the wall near the cooler aisle. It was bright red-orange and pulsing softly. It was not paint. It was not graffiti. It looked burned into the wall like heat damage, but was shaped like a glyph—something tribal and chaotic—a circle broken by jagged claw marks.
[Unknown Sigil Detected]No translation available.I just wanted to let you know that you should not touch.
"Noted," Logan whispered.
He didn't.
Instead, he snapped a picture with the tablet and backed away. Then he made one critical mistake.
He turned his back on it.
Encounter: Tier 1 Mutant – Shadowlurker
The temperature dropped instantly.
Behind him, a scrape. Like nails across tile.
Logan spun—and saw nothing.
Then the lights flickered. Once. Twice.
And something dark peeled itself off the ceiling.
It dropped silently. No impact. Just there.
Slick-black limbs. No eyes. Teeth like shattered glass. Skin that shimmered like tar. It hissed, but no air came out—just a pressure wave that cracked a lightbulb.
Logan's brain screamed MOVE before the System could.
He dodged left as the creature leapt. Its claws slammed into the shelf behind him, sending cans and shattered glass flying.
He rolled, brought the shotgun up, and fired.
BOOM.
The shot slammed into the creature's side, tearing muscle and ichor in a spray of black smoke. It shrieked—but didn't fall.
It charged again.
He fired a second time, closer, right into its center mass.
BOOM.
That dropped it.
It twitched. Shrieked once more.
Then it dissolved. Right there. Melted into the ground like tar down a drain.
And in its place?
A small glowing orb.
[Enemy Defeated – Tier 1: Shadowlurker]Experience Gained: +45Loot Drop: Condensed Mutation Core (Tier 1)Perk Progression: Close Combat 47% → 92%
Logan stared at the orb, still panting. It hovered just off the ground, pulsing like a heart. Faint lines of code shimmered across its surface. It was not magic, not tech, but something in between.
He picked it up.
[Mutation Core – Tier 1]A condensed essence of evolved life. Can be:
Absorbed (Risk: 10%)
Stored (Stable)
Used in Crafting (Biotech)
He bagged it.
No absorption. Not until he knew what the risk meant.
Outside, the world shook again.
But this time, it wasn't an earthquake.
It was an expansion.
He saw it from the window. The horizon shimmered and then moved, like the land unfolding like origami, stretching and reshaping the terrain. A forest appeared where a mall used to be. A spire of black stone erupted from a suburban street, piercing the sky.
Reality wasn't just breaking.
It was rebuilding into something new.
And Logan had a front-row seat.