Chapter 23: Who Are You?

The question hung between them like a blade suspended by a fraying thread.

“So, kid,” Jabri asked, tone steady, apprehensive, painfully real, “I need to know who you are.”

The medical tent hummed around them, canvas walls breathing with every gust of wind, wood poles creaking in the loose soil, lantern light swaying in slow arcs that painted their faces in gold and shadow. Outside, the settlement murmured: distant shouts, the clang of metal on metal as barricades were reinforced, wind dragging ash across tarps. Someone coughed in another cot. A child whimpered. The world was raw and wounded.

Inside, the air felt tighter. Still. Expectant.

Jagger’s jaw tightened. He swallowed a knot of dryness that scraped painfully down his throat.

The tent rustled as a cold breeze slipped through the seams, brushing across his bare shoulders like a warning. He gripped the blanket wrapped around his waist, his knuckles whitening. Jabri watched him with eyes that didn’t blink, steady, heavy, carrying the quiet authority of someone who had buried too many people and refused to bury another without knowing who they were.

Jagger gave a humorless laugh, brittle as broken glass. “Who am I?” He exhaled softly, lowering his gaze to the dirt floor. “Does it matter?”

“It does,” Jabri said, his voice losing its casual edge, hardening into something resolute. “People don’t just survive through the massacre you were in the middle of. Even the high-level hunters would struggle with 10 goblins. Just a group of 3 of them creepy motherfuckers can take out a small group of 5 newbie hunters.”

The lantern flickered above them, shadows crossing Jabri’s scarred features. The burn across his scalp gleamed faintly. His tattoos rippled with the movement of his shoulders.

“So yeah,” Jabri finished quietly. “It matters.”

He wasn’t interrogating. He wasn’t threatening. He was… afraid. Not of Jagger but of the unknown.

And Jagger hated that he didn’t have answers. That he couldn’t remember half the carnage. That he had almost strangled a girl who had only tried to help.

“I have no memory of what happened in that grocery store,” Jagger said, voice rough. “Just fragments. Gaps. Flashes.” His fists curled in the blanket until the wool warped around his grip. “If you think of me as a threat to your camp, fine. I get it.” He forced the words out through trembling breath. “Just give me a weapon and a day’s worth of food. That’s all I want.”

He swallowed again, jaw clenching.

“My sister is still out there. Alone.”

The last word cracked something in him. Left a tremor vibrating along his voice.

Silence seeped into the tent, thick as syrup.

Jabri didn’t move, didn’t breathe, didn’t blink. He studied Jagger’s face, the tightness around his mouth, the haunted look in his eyes, the tremor he tried to hide. For a moment, the world outside faded: no monsters screeching, no metal clanging, no wind rattling tarps.

Just two survivors at the end of the world.

Slowly, Jabri exhaled, shoulders easing a fraction.

“I get it,” he said, softer now, almost gentle. “More than you think. But I won’t give you a weapon.” Jagger tensed, anger flashing across his eyes. Jabri lifted a hand. “And I won’t give you a day’s worth of food either.”

Jagger’s voice grated. “Then what’s the point of this?”

“The point,” Jabri cut in, leaning back, “is that you’re not going anywhere.”

Jagger’s breath hitched.

“You look like you got chewed up and spit out by a troll,” Jabri continued. “Your ribs are broken. Half your body is bandaged. If you step outside the walls right now, you won’t last ten minutes.”

The lantern crackled. Dust drifted lazily in the slanted light.

“And what good are you to your sister if you die?” Jabri’s voice lowered. “Or to us?”

The words hit harder than any monster’s fist.

“You stay,” Jabri said simply. “You heal. You eat. And when you’re strong enough, we figure out the next move.” He paused. “Together.”

Trust. The rarest, most dangerous currency in the world, laid at his feet.

Jagger didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know if he deserved it. Didn’t know if he could trust himself.

Then…

A soft metallic chime.

–

[Hunter Registration Complete.]

–

Jagger jerked violently, the sudden motion sending a white-hot lance of agony through his ribs. His breath hitched, chest tightening as the red glowing interface hovered inches from his face.

“W… woah!” he stammered.

Jabri was already on his feet, his chair scraping against the dirt floor. He moved with a speed that belied his size, one hand instinctively going to the knife sheathed at his belt. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Jagger pointed to the red glowing screen in front of him, “There is a game interface in front of me.”

“Fucking hell kid.” Jabri signs and sits back down sheathing his knife back.

“It’s the System,” Jabri said, the name flat, heavy. He ran a hand over his shaved head, the scarred scalp gleaming in the dim light. “It’s the reason we are able to fight back against the monsters.”

–

[Congratulations! YOU ARE A HUNTER!]

–

Another screen expanded outward with a soft metallic chime. Black boards drew themselves into a rectangular shape before blooming into a full interface. Symbols danced across it, angular and sharp, forming English characters with smooth precision.

Jagger lifted a tentative hand toward it. The tips of his fingers met nothing but faint energy, his hand passing through the surface like cutting through warm mist. The screen rippled where he touched, sending soft waves of distorted light outward.

Then new text appeared.

“So, I’m a hunter as you said?” he murmured, mesmerized.

Jabri nodded slowly. “You notice the countdown in the top right corner of your vision?” Jagger’s eyes darted to the top right of the screen. A series of glowing red numbers were ticking down. He had not notice them until now.

–

[1 day: 17 hours: 13 minutes: 59 seconds]

–

“What is it counting down too?” Jagger asked.

“No clue… Maybe somethings coming. Maybe it’s the end.” Jabri said. “Everyone has question, but all of them have been unanswered.”

Jagger nervously chuckled, “Come on, you have to be jo-” He stopped mid-sentence as he saw a new screen and the only a new memory came to his mind, “Fuck.”

–

[Warning: Severe bodily trauma detected.]

[Regeneration Initiating.]

–

It hit him like a truck.

A roar of heat exploded inside his chest, spreading outward like someone had lit his bloodstream on fire. His muscles seized in unison. His bones vibrated, flexed, and then cracked, snapping back into alignment with brutal force. Every nerve in his body screamed.

“What the fuck is going?!” Jabri shouted as he shot up again, unable to understand what just happened. “Hey kid! stay with me!”

Jagger tried to speak, but all that came out was a choked gasp. His body arched, spine bowing off the cot so hard he could hear the metal frame groaning.

His fingers seized around the steel rail of the cot. Metal groaned under the pressure of his grip. “F-FUCK!”

The scream never left his mouth, it strangled mid-throat as the pain devoured everything. His back arched, sweat dripping from his temples to his jaw, his vision going white at the edges. His ribs felt like molten glass twisting beneath his skin. His veins felt like wires being ripped through him. He could feel something… knitting inside him, stitching muscle, fusing bone. It was agonizing.

“SOMEBODY COME HERE, HELP!” Jabri’s voice boomed like thunder beside him. “S-STAY WITH ME, KID!”

Then, silence.

The agony vanished so abruptly it left him dizzy.

Jagger collapsed back onto the cot. He gasped, dragging ragged breaths into lungs that still burned. His entire body trembled violently, aftershocks rippling through him as he slowly unclenched his fingers from the bent cot rail. He stared at the ceiling, his pulse hammering like a trapped bird against his ribs, the phantom pain still echoing in his bones.

“What the fuck just happened to you?!” Jabri shouted.

Jagger couldn’t answer at first. The world was still reeling. But as he tried to lift his left arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead… he realized something.

He felt no pain.

–

[Regeneration Completed.]

–

The tent flap ripped open. Jane and Porpo burst in, followed by Lynis, who was awkwardly trying not to drop the stack of clothes in his arms.

“WHAT’S WRONG?!” Jane cried.

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