The trap clunked into place beneath the scorched garden soil. A faint click echoed through the chute—confirmation it had appropriately armed. If anything stepped on that ground without knowing where to tread, they'd walk away missing a leg… if they walked away.
Logan closed the chute and turned back to his console.
He tapped through menus, monitoring the perimeter grid. His house's defenses were nothing flashy. He wasn't some billionaire survivalist with automated drone swarms. His gear was DIY—crude. ugly.
But it worked.
Now that the System had synced to it, the interfaces were changing. Smart glass overlays flickered on terminals that once required a USB keyboard to control. Crafting logic began predicting failure rates and efficiency outcomes. Resource nodes appeared on his internal map—locations of scrap piles, wiring, chemical compounds, and water sources that had no business being tracked by a tablet made from salvage.
The System wasn't just reacting to what he did.
It was integrating with the world around him.
Like it had always been there, buried just beneath the skin of reality, waiting for the proper pressure to peel it open.
He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes for the first time in what felt like days. His shoulders ached. His breathing was still off. But his heart rate was beginning to steady.
He'd made it through Day One.
No, not day. The time of day didn't matter anymore. The clocks were lying. The sun didn't set; it just bled. The air didn't cool at night; it thickened like soup. Nothing made sense anymore.
But he was alive.
And that meant he had work to do.
System Entry – Journal Log #001
He tapped on the glowing screen again, navigating to the newly integrated Journal option.
[Personal Log – Crimson Earth]Entry 001 – First Kill, System Awakening, Bunker Secured
"I killed my neighbor today. Or… what was left of him. The System called it an 'infected.' But that thing wasn't sick. It was changed. The eyes weren't human. The muscles didn't pull right. It moved like something else was behind the wheel.
After the kill, something triggered. A glowing panel opened in my head like an RPG status screen. It called me 'Awakened.' Don't know what that means yet. Nobody else was around to confirm.
I've deferred picking a class for now. No use choosing a path before I know what this game even is. My gut says this isn't just some survival mechanic. It's a test. Maybe a trap. I don't trust it.
The bunker held. Most of the neighborhood is dead, and some are worse. Something big came through during the earthquake—something with three claws and burning tracks. I didn't see it, but I heard it.
The world is not just ending. It's changing fast. It feels like Earth is… adapting.
I don't know how far this goes. But I'm going to build. I'm going to dig in. If this is the end of the world, then someone will need to survive long enough to rebuild it."
He paused before closing the log.
Then added one last line:
"Let the dead rot. I'm building a kingdom."
He tapped SAVE.
Perimeter Recon
By late afternoon—or whatever was now—the air had gone still again. The redness in the sky pulsed gently, like a heartbeat above the clouds. Shadows moved wrong. Sunlight didn't seem to obey physics anymore.
Logan stepped back onto his porch with old binoculars and scanned the treeline behind the house. The woods had always been a quiet little nature buffer between his neighborhood and the next. Deer roamed there. Coyotes. Occasionally some asshole kids with fireworks.
Now?
Now it felt like a different world.
The trees leaned away from something. The grass had stopped growing in one direction. Like a ritual site, a section of the forest floor was blackened into a perfect circle. The wind carried a stench like wet fur and rotting meat.
Then he saw it.
Far off—maybe seventy yards out—stood a shape.
At first, he thought it was a deer.
Tall. Antlered. Thin.
But the legs were wrong. Too long. The back was hunched. Its antlers didn't branch—they spiraled. Like ram horns, twisted backward and fused into bone armor.
Its eyes glowed faintly red in the shadows.
It didn't move.
Just watched.
A twig snapped near the edge of the fence.
Logan slowly raised the shotgun.
But the creature didn't charge. Didn't flee.
It lowered its head.
And nodded.
Then it turned and walked silently back into the forest, vanishing like smoke.
Base Update
Back in the bunker, Logan updated his internal map. Added a new marker to the grid:
[Unknown Mutation – Antler Entity]Behavior: Non-aggressiveEstimated Tier: 2 or HigherLocation: Eastern TreelineAction Taken: None
The System flickered.
[New Achievement Unlocked – First Contact (Passive)]You have encountered a mutated beast and survived—bonus: +1 Perception.
Logan felt something shift behind his eyes again. His hearing sharpened. His pulse leveled. The world didn't sound as chaotic now. He could filter it.
It wasn't just a status screen anymore.
The System was rewiring him.
He closed the map and stared at the bunker door.
He had food for weeks. Water for longer. But he couldn't stay in here forever.
There were survivors out there, probably people he hated, people he loved, people he didn't know existed but who would be critical for rebuilding something that didn't end in smoke and blood.
He needed resources.
He needed people.
He needed answers.
However, he first required defenses.
He stood up, his bones creaking from too much tension, and picked up a new blueprint that had just appeared on his crafting screen.
[Reinforced Gate – Tier 1]
Materials: Metal Scrap x10, Wood Planks x6, Bolts x8
Time: 2 hours
Requirements: Engineering Lv.1, Power Tools
It wasn't much,
but it was a beginning.
He rolled up his sleeves and started working, mumbling to himself as the System's schematics glowed against the bunker walls:
"Let them come. I'll build higher."
He stood, bones creaking from too much tension, and grabbed a new blueprint that had just become available on his crafting screen.
[Reinforced Gate – Tier 1]Materials: Metal Scrap x10, Wood Planks x6, Bolts x8Time: 2 hoursRequirements: Engineering Lv.1, Power Tools
It wasn't much.
But it was a start.
He rolled up his sleeves and got to work, muttering under his breath as the glow of the System's schematics burned against the bunker walls:
"Let them come. I'll build higher."