The satin metal street stretched before Gale. Its surface reflected some of the tricoloured shining lights from up above. Could be moons, but didn’t look like moons at all. It didn’t move.

“Guide,” Gale whispered as he walked through the street. “Explain the missions.”

[Analyzing mission parameters.

Exterminate the Corrupted: This mission requires the elimination of corrupted entities detected in this region. Host capabilities assessment indicates sufficient power levels for complete annihilation of corrupted entities.

Primary objective: search and destroy.

Reward structure: 10,000 points upon full completion plus 10 points per entity eliminated.]

[Find the City’s Energy Source: This mission requires location and activation of the primary power generation facility to restore functionality to city systems. Power restoration will assist with corrupted entity extermination by activating defensive protocols. Reward: 10,000 points upon successful completion.]

[Two hidden missions detected within city boundaries. Mission details will be revealed upon proximity to objective locations. Rewards: 15,000 points and 5,000 points respectively.]

[Vianne’s Origin Fragment: High-priority recovery mission. Fragment detection systems confirm presence within city limits. Recovery imperative regardless of resource expenditure. Reward structure classified.]

[Additional missions requiring Core Class: Resonant are available but currently locked due to host’s Core Class status.]

[All new missions have been automatically accepted into the OS. Failure to complete accepted missions will result in point penalties proportional to mission value.]

Gale stopped walking. “Wait. Penalties? Why would there be penalties now? I couldn’t kill all the corrupted last time?”

[Previous environment served as initial adaptation. No formal mission parameters were established for corrupted entity elimination. Current environment contains formalized mission structure with corresponding accountability metrics.]

“That’s stupid,” Gale said. “You’re about as useful as licking my finger and seeing where the wind blows. And Vianne even called you Guide.”

[Guide Module is designated Strategic Analysis and Guidance Entity. Primary functionality limited to combat-related analysis and tactical recommendations. DOS management falls outside direct operational parameters. Information provided on request basis only.]

Gale sighed, mentally shaking his fist. Stupid Guide. One of these days… for sure, he’ll beat up Guide mentally and physically if that was even possible.

Walking forward to the nearest building, the whole building was made of the satin metal. The shattered glass of the windows seemed to fuse with the metal with no seams.

This wasn’t his first time alone in a strange new world. Landing on the Eclipsed, he just fumbled through it all by thinking of his parents’ teachings. Now, he’s evolved. He’s become the dark hunter of the night in this abandoned tomb world.

Mom did always say, urban environments give you shelter but also danger. More places to hide, but more places for others to hide too.

“Guide, use Breath of the Void. Scan for entities.”

[Initiating usage of Breath of the Void. Scanning environment.]

The feeling of Breath of the Void’s tendrils spreading out from him without his control no longer felt foreign. At least he didn’t have to manually do it himself. Fortunately, Guide can use passive skills.

[No entities detected within skill range. Maximum detection radius: 10 km. Corruption interference detected. Breath of the Void effective range reduced by 94%. Increase Core class to mitigate negative corruption effects.]

So his gut feeling was right. This whole place was abandoned. No life, no movement anywhere. Then why did the mission say to kill the corrupted when there’s nothing here? Or maybe, the entities are deeper within this place.

Somewhere in this city were Rachel and the others. He wanted to shout to call for them. But the urge to stay low clawed back at him. Dad said, never call out for companions in a dark forest. There could be things in the dark forest that are listening too.

Gale moved silently through the first street he arrived in. Tendrils checked each shadow he passed by and any corner that could be a hiding spot. He pushed the awareness outwards, reaching the maximum distance of 10km, no longer able to push further.

A sound caught his attention, metal scraping against metal. It was distant and confirmed to him that there were things that lurked in the city.

“Guide, what are the corrupted in this place? Same as the Eclipsed?” Gale whispered.

[Insufficient data. Corrupted entities vary between rifts. Recommend caution until specimen identification can be completed. Current environment suggests technological-organic hybrid corruption probability higher than previous forest environment.]

“Great,” Gale said. “So they could be anything.”

He kept moving, checking doorways and alleyways. The metal street eventually opened into what looked like a central plaza. A structure in the middle had the semblance of what was supposed to be a statue, broken in ways that it was no longer recognizable as one other than it being once a bipedal species.

Beyond the plaza, smack down the middle of the street, a path led to the massive tower in what looked to be the centre of the whole city. A massive tower spire that made the surrounding buildings look small. Unlike the buildings around, there were faint lights that flickered in what could be windows.

Where there was power, there might be information. Or people. Or traps. Or things no one wants to see.

So, let’s think about our options. The tower could be a target for several of his missions. Energy source, corrupted entities, and probably maybe even Vianne’s fragment. But that was one big landmark. It could be a beacon for all the dangers in this place.

First things first, watch then act. Learn the area, find resources, identify threats, set up base. Just like what he did in the Eclipsed.

Survive first. Find friends. Do the missions. Can’t do any of these if he literally dies.

Gale picked a mid-sized building on the edge of the plaza. Five stories tall with a narrow entrance and few windows on the lower levels. Defensible. He approached carefully, Weber blade drawn, and pushed through the entrance.

Walking inside slowly, it looked like what could have been a lobby of sorts. The style made it hard to tell, but the distinct spiral pillars and furniture with flowing floral sculpted metal designs resembled the fancy hotel he saw in downtown that was called Fair Mountain Royal Housing. That was a made up name. He actually forgot the name of the hotel.

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Gale checked every corner meticulously. The upper floors had more of the same strange rooms, but no signs anyone had been there recently.

“This will work,” he decided, picking a room on the third floor with one entrance and a view of both the street and the distant tower. He pulled items from his storage box. The null field generators, anti-mage flashbangs as a last resort, and the rest of the items.

Using a thin line cord, he set up five different trip wires that would set off an anti-mage shockbangs or a null field generator. He didn’t really know what they did, but what mattered was that Rachel sounded like she brought the big guns.

“Guide, help me prioritize missions.”

[Based on current parameters, recommended mission priority is as follows:

1. Secure immediate perimeter.
2. Locate city energy source.
3. Eliminate corrupted entities encountered.
4. Locate Vianne’s Origin Fragment.

Host survival probability increases significantly with power restoration to city systems.]

“Makes sense. Food first, though. Then survivors,” Gale said.

He went back to the entrance, scanning the plaza outside before taking a deep breath and stepping out. He stayed close to the walls as he circled around.

Gale found what might have been shops. He checked a couple of them, finding nothing that resembled food. He only found strange objects, orbs that had insertion pins on them that looked like something from the back of a computer where they put things called ‘USBs’ in and other stuff.

His stomach growled. At least in the Eclipsed, it was a literal forest teeming with food, albeit garbage truck sized ones and pulsating mango hearts. This place seemed to have nothing organic at all.

He moved to the next block, still searching. A strange feeling crept up the back of his neck as if someone or something was watching him. Gale spun around with his blade in hand.

Nothing there.

“Guide, use Breath of the Void to do a full scan.”

The feeling spread from him again, invisible tendrils reaching out to feed information back.

[No entities detected within range. Environment scan complete. No movement. No heat signatures. No ether signatures.]

Yet the feeling stayed.

He kept moving, pretending to search buildings while actually paying attention to everything around him. The feeling got stronger as he approached a narrow alley between two twisted spiralling structures.

A skittering noise came from above him. Gale didn’t look up or acknowledge it. Instead, he pretended to check on a doorway, then stepped into the shadows and used Distort to make himself invisible.

Then without looking at anything directly, he slashed at where he felt the stare coming from. He felt the tip hit something invisible.

Looking down, he saw a human eye, perfectly formed, with tiny mechanical spider legs attached to its sides. Clear liquid leaked from where his blade had slashed open the membrane.

“What the hell?” Gale poked at the eye with Weber.

The eye was definitely human. It had a blue iris, white part, now slashed open and deflating like a water balloon. But the legs were made of metal, each joint twitching on its own.

[Corrupted entity detected. Classification: Scout-type. Threat level: Minimal. Analysis indicates technological spatial, thermal, visual camouflage capabilities explaining detection failure.]

“First rule of unknown objects,” Gale muttered to himself. “Don’t touch them.”

He backed away from the dead scout and continued searching, moving from building to building carefully. The twisted architecture made it hard to tell which structures might have once held food or supplies.

After checking two more buildings with no luck, Gale spotted another shop-like structure across the plaza. Unlike the others, this one had intact display windows. He approached carefully, Weber blade still drawn.

The entrance slid open automatically as he got close, the mechanism somehow still working after who knows how long this place had been like this. Cool air rushed out, smelling only of metal and the weird smell of what could be just glass. No decay, just the absence of any life.

Gale stepped inside. It was dark, but tendrils fed him visuals regardless of the luminance levels. Rows and shelves lined the interior like a convenience store, except more advanced looking, whatever that meant. Most of the shelves were empty, but a few still held materials such as empty containers and what looked like bottles.

In the back corner of one of the shelves sat neat piles of what looked like bricks wrapped in metal foil. Each was roughly the size of his palm. He opened one and it looked to be gray-brown in color, with a texture like compressed powder. Gale picked one up, testing its weight. Dense and heavy, this thing the size of his palms weighed about 10kg. Way too heavy for its size.

He tried to break a piece off with his fingers. The material wouldn’t budge. Pressing harder and using more of his strength, he managed to make a small crumble fall away. A mundane probably wouldn’t be able to break one of these off.

“Guide,” Gale said, “what am I looking at here?”

[Analysis complete. Object appears to be nutritional supplement block designed for long-term storage. Composition indicates high caloric density, complete protein structure, and essential micronutrients. Designed to withstand environmental degradation. Estimated shelf life: effectively unlimited under proper storage conditions.]

Gale turned the brick over in his hand. “You’re telling me this is food?”

[Affirmative. Recommend consumption to maintain optimal combat efficiency.]

“Better than starving,” Gale put several of the bricks into his storage box. The others would need something to eat too.

Breaking off another piece from the brick, he put it in his mouth. It felt like chewing on a rock, and the taste of pulpy sand. Gale never did like the taste of sand compared to dirt. Mushy sand with some water tasted better.

Continuing to chew the nutritional brick piece, he continued exploring the shop. Behind the counter looked like an employees’ only room. He vaulted over the counter and pushed the door open, finding several more stacks of food bricks.

Good. At least they won’t starve for a while until they find something else.

Gale put literally all the nutritional bricks into the storage box when suddenly an explosion exploded, cutting through the silence of the dead city.

Drop to the ground. Eyes staring directly at the entrance. Weber gripped tightly. If anything comes through the door, he’d be ready to slash at it. It definitely wasn’t a ghost. It sounded like grenades or worse, missiles.

After a while, the rumble of the explosion faded. He moved to the doorway, staying in the darker shades of shadows as much as possible. Looking outside, smoke rose a couple of blocks away, lit by constant flashes that disappeared after a couple of seconds. No explosions from those flashes, but something was definitely happening.

Maybe those flashes were Rachel though. She had fire powers and could explode explosions like that. Probably.

No.

Caution always won against curiosity. Remember what mom said, curiosity killed the boy who cried wolf.

What did that even mean? It doesn’t matter. Mom said to not eat the neon coloured frog, and that neon coloured frog right now was those flashy bright things happening in the distance.

“Ok… What about looking but not touching?” Gale muttered. “Guide?”

[Recommended action: scout enemies to gauge threat level.]

Guide’s right this time. See-see no touch was the golden rule.

Gale slipped out of the shop, pressing himself close to the buildings as he moved toward the noise. The sound got louder, electronic and mechanical joints whirring while metal clacking feet hit the metal sheets of the streets and the distinct sound of laser weaponry that he knew from movies.

He rounded a corner and stopped.

A massive mechanical thing walked the metal street on four jointed legs. Each limb ended in a clawed foot that dug into the reflective surface. Its body looked like a mechanical spider but with four legs, covered with weapons that rotated independently, firing at something Gale couldn’t see.

The spider was at least fifteen feet tall, its surface a mix of metal plates and exposed circuitry as if it was attacked by something. Where a head should have been, multiple optical sensors swiveled in different directions, looking for targets. The spider itself gave off a signature, one that of an attuned.

Although large, it could move through the streets unimpeded, just like a spider in its own web. It skittered around, turning and chasing at something invisible that Gale couldn’t see. Blasts from its weapon tore chunks of metal from nearby buildings, putting down debris onto the street.

Gale pressed against the wall, thinking about what to do next. The mechanical thing hadn’t noticed him yet.

Then the machine stopped. Its weapons stopped firing. All optical sensors swiveled in perfect unison toward Gale.

For three heartbeats, nothing moved.

The sensors flashed red. The construct’s legs repositioned, its weight shifting forward. Weapons systems locked onto Gale’s position.

Then it charged, metal feet tearing up the street as it closed the distance in a blink of an eye.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep