The remnants of the Chimera's corpse still twitched in places, slowly vanishing into glitchy fragments as the simulation attempted to render its destruction. Bits of corrupted code fluttered like ash, vanishing before hitting the bloodstained ground.
But the six students present there bloody, bruised and mentally exhausted stood victorious.
Ryker leaned against a cracked pillar, his breath ragged and shallow. Sweat drenched his hair, sticking it to his forehead as he winced, pressing a hand to his ribs. They ached with every breath. He didn't need any scans of his body to tell if something was fractured.
'Professor Aria wasn't joking about the pain being real'
Still, he was upright. Alive.
"Status report," Arthur muttered in a low but sharp voice with authority. His voidfire sword was still humming faintly, the blade cracked down its length and hissing with residual heat. Despite the toll, his posture remained that of a leader.
Steady and Alert.
"Alive," Lia murmured, lying flat on her back. Her breathing was even but her eyes stared up at the flickering surgical lights like she hadn't yet returned to reality.
"Alive here too," Lucas and Dean said simultaneously. Lucas had dropped his spear at his side and was clutching a burn across his shoulder. Dean was sitting nearby, back against a support column. His hands caked in dirt and blood.
One of his eyes was swollen shut.
"Same here," Sasha called out. She was crouched by a wall, her right blade embedded in the floor, using it to stay upright. Her left arm was bleeding but neatly wrapped in a strip of her own tunic. Always efficient.
"Still breathing," Ryker added, attempting a tired smirk. It hurt to even move his lips but humor helped keep the fear at bay.
Silence fell over them, but it wasn't peace.
The air in the surgical basement still felt wrong. It was too quiet now, the kind of silence that follows a scream.
A silence that waits for something else to break it.
That's when Ryker noticed it. A faint gleam in the corner of his vision.
Something too….pristine.
A surgical tray. Untouched. Gleaming silver, unblemished by the carnage that surrounded it. The simulation had rendered it too clean. Too deliberately.
Ryker limped over as he went there step by step, ignoring the throb in his leg.
There, in the center of the tray, lay a single object.
A blood red card.
It looked almost like lacquered wood or stone, smooth and glossy, unlike anything the simulation would generate.
No system UI. No interaction box. No "Item Acquired" ping. Just the card, waiting.
He reached out, fingers trembling from pain and the weight of some instinctual dread and flipped it.
The back bore a jagged line of dark ink as if scrawled by something half mad and completely deliberate.
"Still think you're the only one watching, Ryker?"
His breath caught.
And just like that, the room felt colder. The artificial lights flickered overhead.
Ryker's gaze darted to the others. No one else had noticed.
They were still too caught up in their pain.
Their exhaustion and their survival.
But this message,
It was personal.
It knew who will read and whose name should it have,
It shouldn't know his name.
Luke had taken over Ryker and he followed the script of how Ryker was in the novel. He didn't go out of his way to do anything unless it was for his benefit.
Ryker had taken over the role of a talented but ultimately a dead healer. The others had no idea what he truly was.
This message… meant someone else knew.
Someone else was watching.
Or worse someone else had written themselves in.
Ryker turned the card over again. The ink shimmered faintly, as if mocking him.
'So… the extra I'm supposed to eliminate has started to move,' Ryker thought grimly.
Until now, the threat had been vague. He had been told and warned that one "extra" existed beyond the script. Another anomaly like him. One who would unravel the world's balance if left unchecked.
Until now, Ryker didn't have any kind of contact with it.
But
Now?
Now it was a game.
And this message was the first move.
Ryker tucked the card inside the inner pocket of his coat, near his heart.
No notifications. No alerts. No answers.
Just war.
'Fine... I'll play with you, bitch.
.
.
.
.
Ryker stood still, his fingers clenching the red card like it might vanish if he let go. His heart thudded louder than ever not from exhaustion but from the suffocating awareness pressing down on him.
He looked around once more.
Arthur had slumped against the wall beside Lucas, his massive sword stabbed into the cracked floor beside him. Lia lay sprawled, flames dimming from her fingertips. Dean was muttering something while Sasha inspected a slash across her thigh.
None of them noticed the card.
None of them felt the same dread curling into Ryker's gut.
"We need to move."
Arthur groaned, forcing himself up.
"You see the size of that thing? You don't want five minutes?"
Ryker shook his head.
"We're too exposed. That noise echoed through the entire district. If there are more corrupted monsters, they will come here next."
Lucas nodded, rising with his spear in hand.
"He's right. We secured the hospital, but we haven't swept the upper floors. If we're turning this place into a base, it needs to be secure from top to bottom."
Sasha was already pulling herself to her feet, cracking her neck. "Then let's not wait around for round two."
Ryker looked over to Lia. "Are you okay to move?"
"I've had worse burns in training," Lia said with a dry smile. "Let's go."
The group filed out of the basement, leaving the fallen abomination behind. As they ascended the stairwell back to the first floor, Ryker kept to the rear. His eyes scanned the dark corners. Every shadow now felt like it hid a watcher. Every flicker of light felt like someone was watching.
Something had changed.
This simulation wasn't just a test anymore. It was becoming real.
And Ryker couldn't afford to let the others know.
At least not yet.
********
They entered the hospital lobby, a grand room once filled with pale light and clean tiles. Now it is rendered in half corrupted textures. Chairs floated inches above the ground or sank into the floor. Lights flickered erratically, some glowing blood red, others blinking in and out like morse code.
"Split into pairs," Arthur ordered.
"Dean and I take the West wing. Lia and Sasha, East wing. Ryker, you and Lucas check the ICU and admin corridor. Quick sweeps. Clear and regroup."
Ryker nodded and followed Lucas down the main corridor. The hall was narrow, windows shattered and the walls bleeding with static like cracked screens. Lucas spoke softly as they walked.
"You good? You seem... distant."
Ryker kept his voice level,
"Just tired. That Chimera was nasty."
Lucas didn't press further. Ryker appreciated that.
They pushed open the ICU door. The room was still, but wrong.
Beds were half occupied by twitching forms glitches made to resemble patients. The simulation tried to render civilians, but failed.
Then one twitches violently.
"Contact," Lucas whispered.
A grotesque nurse shaped beast screeched, leaping from the shadows with syringes fused into elongated arms. Ryker ducked as Lucas surged forward.
ZRRRAK!
Lightning lanced from his spear, slamming into the creature and blowing it back. Another emerged behind them, but Ryker reacted quickly.
"Sanctuary Veil"
A dome of gold light shimmered around them, slowing the creature's approach as if it were swimming through syrup. Lucas turned and skewered it with brutal efficiency.
They cleared the rest quickly.
"Room secure," Ryker said through comms.
"Same here," Arthur responded.
"We're done too," Lia followed.
"Meet back in the lobby," Sasha added.
The team regrouped. Arthur wiped his brow.
"First floor's ours. We'll rest an hour, then check the rooftop and surrounding perimeter."
"Agreed," Ryker said,
But inside, he was anything but calm.
That card that message. It wasn't from the simulation.
Someone else was here.
Ryker and his team huddled in what was once a staff lounge. Dean reinforced the walls with earth plating. Ryker went from person to person, using Radiant Mend to patch wounds. Lia flinched slightly as he treated a burn near her collar.
"You've got cold hands," she murmured.
"Light healing always feels that way."
Lucas helped clean weapons. Arthur was sharpening his sword with slow, methodical care.
Sasha sat near the door, ever watchful.
They were quiet. Tired.
"Strange, isn't it?" Arthur said after a while.
"What?" Dean asked.
"That we haven't seen a single other student. Sixty of us entered this simulation. It's been nearly a full day. Just us six."
The room fell silent.
Lia looked up. "You think the others are... gone?"
"Or this simulation isn't what it seems," Sasha said softly.
Ryker looked at them all. He couldn't say it aloud yet. Not until he knew more. Not until he found what the extra was planning.
"We focus on surviving first," Ryker said.
"Then we find answers."
The others nodded. They trusted him.
That made it all the more dangerous.
Because Ryker wasn't just surviving.
He was hunting.