I didn't sleep. I couldn't.
The moment I stopped running, my body wanted to collapse, but I forced myself to stay alert. I had put as much distance between myself and those things as I could, but that didn't mean they were gone. They were still out there, hidden in the dunes, watching. Waiting.
The desert was quiet now, but it was the kind of quiet that felt wrong.
I crouched behind a ridge of rock, my breathing slow, my hands resting on my knees as I forced my pulse to settle. My skin was slick with sweat, my muscles burning from the chase. Every part of me screamed for rest, but I couldn't risk closing my eyes. Not yet. Not with the creatures still fresh in my mind.
They weren't just fast. They were smart.
I had fought people before—the scavengers, the restless one who lunged too soon—but those fights had been predictable. This wasn't. These things moved in bursts, their joints bending in ways that shouldn't have been possible. They reacted to my movements, adjusted to my pace. The System had given me speed, but it had given them something too. And they hadn't been hunting me just for food.
They were guarding something.
My gaze flickered toward the direction of the buried ruin. I had felt it when I touched the symbols—a pulse, like something recognizing me. Then the System had warned me: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
I exhaled sharply, staring at the ground.
The System had rules. It had been guiding me, leveling me up, keeping me alive. But now? Now it had called me unauthorized.
That meant there were people who were authorized.
I clenched my fists. Who?
The hooded figure's words whispered through my mind again. You're not the first to come through here… The System doesn't care about you.
If I wasn't the first, then where were the others? Had they all died? Had they found a way out? Or had they become part of the System itself?
The thought made my stomach twist.
I forced myself to refocus. I couldn't get caught up in questions I didn't have answers to. What I did have was a lead—the ruin. If those creatures had been guarding it, then that meant there was something inside. Something valuable.
Or something dangerous.
I stood, rolling my shoulders, testing my muscles. I was still sore, but my stamina was holding. The System's stat boosts were still working, making me stronger, keeping me going. I had come too far to hesitate now.
The ruins were waiting.
I wasn't running anymore.
I was going back.
The journey didn't take long, but every step felt heavier. The closer I got, the stronger the air around me felt. The scent of metal and dust, the faint static hum in my ears, like the world itself was holding its breath.
When I reached the half-buried structure, I hesitated. It looked the same as before—smooth stone, glowing faintly, the strange symbols carved deep into its surface. But now that I had time to actually look at it, I realized something.
The ruin wasn't just a building. It was a door.
The stone wasn't just sitting in the sand—it was angled, tilted slightly backward, like the entrance to something buried beneath the dunes.
And now that I was looking for it, I saw the outline. A faint seam in the rock, running along the edges, almost invisible beneath the layers of dust and time.
I stepped closer, running my fingers along the crack.
The System's warning flashed in my mind again. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS.
I gritted my teeth. Fine. Then I'd make myself authorized.
I pressed my palm against the stone again, feeling the cool surface beneath my fingers. The last time I had done this, the response had been instant. This time…
Nothing.
I frowned. I could still feel it—the faint hum beneath the surface, the presence of something deeper inside—but it wasn't reacting anymore.
Had I triggered some kind of lock?
I exhaled through my nose, stepping back to scan the door again. If the System was keeping me out, then there had to be a way in.
I crouched, running my hands along the base of the door, feeling for anything unusual. It was buried deep, but there—a gap. Just barely wide enough to slide my fingers through.
I hesitated for only a second before gripping the edge and pulling.
At first, nothing. Then, slowly, the stone shifted.
A deep grinding sound rumbled beneath me, and dust shook loose from the cracks. My muscles strained as I pulled harder, feet digging into the sand. The weight was immense, but little by little, it moved.
A sliver of darkness appeared beneath the door.
My breath hitched.
Beneath the stone, something stirred.
Not a sound. Not movement. Just a presence.
A feeling like something watching me from below.
I almost let go.
Almost.
Instead, I gritted my teeth and kept pulling.
With a final, ear-splitting crack, the door shifted open, revealing a gap just wide enough for a person to slip through.
And then the smell hit me.
Rot.
Not like a corpse in the sun. This was deeper. Older. The kind of decay that didn't just come from death, but from time itself.
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to stay steady. My heart was pounding, but I was still here. I had made it this far.
I wasn't backing down now.
I crouched low and slipped inside.
The moment my feet touched the ground, the temperature dropped. The air was thick, heavy, pressing against my skin. The glow of the markings outside barely reached down here, but as my eyes adjusted, I could just make out the walls.
Smooth metal. Not stone.
A tunnel.
My stomach twisted.
This wasn't just a ruin. It was a facility.
I took a slow step forward, my breath shallow. The walls stretched out ahead of me, disappearing into the dark. The deeper I went, the more I could feel it—the hum of something still alive.
Not a person.
Something else.
I swallowed, gripping my stone shard tighter. If I turned back now, I could still make it out before the door sealed again.
But I knew myself.
I wasn't going to turn back.
I stepped forward into the dark.
And behind me, without a sound, the door slid shut.
The last sliver of moonlight vanished.
I was inside.
And I was alone.