Zack's POV
The moment we stepped into the store, the barricated doors slammed shut behind us, cutting us off from the outside world. The only sounds left were our heavy breathing and the distant, unnatural clicking of the creatures prowling beyond the glass.
For now, they had a moment to breathe. But not for long. I pulled a piece of wood from the corner and started sharpening it with my dagger.
"You can't kill it with that."
Clark wiped the sweat off his brow and eyed my makeshift weapon — a piece of broken shelf with a jagged edge.
"That won't work," he said. "Not against that thing."
Zack frowned. "And how would you know?"
Clark's expression darkened. "Because we've seen them before," he sighed heavily.
"We call them Shadeborns. They don't die unless you use weapons from the system."
His words sent a ripple of unease through the group.
System weapons only?
I clenched my jaw, glancing down at the jagged edge of my makeshift spear. If Clark was right, then all our efforts to arm ourselves had been meaningless.
Ellie cursed under her breath. "So what, we just sit here and wait to die?"
Mark ran a hand through his hair, looking around. "So, all we have is a dagger…a sword… and whatever weapon Clark used to kill the other monster?"
"Yeah, basically," Nicole breathed.
"What is that thing anyway?" Jake asked Clark while pointing at the weapon on his hand.
"It's the Bladepiercer. I purchased it with my points from the system. It was quite expensive tho. It cost me 2000 points," he said while cleaning the blade.
"2000 points?!" Ellie exclaimed. "I barely have 50 points," she frowned.
"Well, we're ahead from you, aren't we?" Clark let out a chuckle.
My mind was racing with thoughts on how we could defeat these monsters. Then — a lightbulb moment.
"Wait. Arya, you said something about the cameras before, like they are operational, right?" I glanced at her, while the group's focus shifted on us. She was staring in at me but not entirely at me — It was like she was staring absentmindedly.
"Arya," I called her again. Then, she came back to her senses. She's acting weird.
"Well, yeah — I — uhm," she cleared her throat. "Despite of this building being abandoned, the security cameras are much alive and operational," she said.
"That means there's a surveillance room somewhere in this mall," Ambrose said, his brows furrowing as if piecing the puzzle pieces together.
He was already scanning the ceiling. His sharp golden eyes landed on a blinking red light.
"There," he pointed. "The cameras are still running."
Arya nodded. "We might be able to track their movements."
A hidden room meant power. It meant security feeds. It meant a possible advantage.
Arya and Ambrose exchanged glances before nodding in silent agreement.
"But we don't know where the control room is," I said.
Mark interrupted. "Maybe, it is the locked room, we encountered before?"
"What room?" Clark asked.
"The one beside the exit, at the end of the hallway," Ellie said.
Nicole interrupted. She was looking towards the front door. "Guys, the fire is starting to…die."
I shifted my gaze on the entrance of the store. The shadeborns are starting to get near us, preparing to lunge.
There is no enough time.
"We have two options," I said, glancing at the others. "If we kill that monster, we'll have a safe place to stay. But if we run… we'll have nowhere to go."
No one wanted to admit it, but they all knew — facing the Shadeborn was a death sentence. No one talked for a second, then Clark broke the silence.
He exhaled sharply, then, cleared his throat, "So, here's the plan."
"Ambrose, Nicole and Arya, you will find the surveillance room, start searching from the ground floor then go up," Clark said, they nodded.
"Take this with you," Jake handed the walkie-talkie to Ambrose. "I already changed the channel, so it will be easy for us to communicate."
"When you find the room, tell us how we can attack the shadeborns without them noticing us. You will be our eyes. We will distract them first, so you could go your way." Clark said, he is talking fast but steady.
Arya nodded. "Yes, got it."
"Jake, and I will distract the first shadeborn," he pointed at the left one out the door. "Then, Mark, Ellie and Zack will distract that one," pointing at the other one on the right.
"We will split the two creatures into different directions. Then you," pointing at Arya, Ambrose and Nicole. "will run in the middle towards the escalator," he continued.
Clark probably went through a lot, having this kind of calm demeanor despite having his life at stake. Sometimes, people just keep on surprising you.
Mark handed Jake the other walkie talkie, maybe because Ellie already has one on her hand, and he probably thought each group should have one walkie-talkie so we could all communicate.
"Come on, time is running out," he walked towards the front door. We stood behind him.
He sighed heavily. He grabbed a curtain from the window. He opened the door and threw it over the flames.
"Let's get these bastards," he said.
The fire flickered once — twice — before dying completely.
The darkness that followed was immediate, suffocating.
A guttural screech tore through the silence as the Shadeborns sensed their opportunity. Their inky bodies twisted unnaturally, limbs elongating as they rushed toward us.
"Move!" Clark barked.
The group burst into motion.
Clark and Jake sprinted left, leading the first Shadeborn away, while Mark, Ellie, and I darted right, drawing the second toward us.
Arya, Ambrose, and Nicole wasted no time, bolting toward the escalator as planned.
The Shadeborns reacted fast. The one chasing us let out an eerie, screeching sound before lunging.
I barely dodged, rolling to the side as its clawed hand slashed through the air. A display shelf exploded into splinters behind me.
Ellie wasn't as lucky.
The creature's tail-like appendage snapped out, catching her ankle mid-run. She yelped as she hit the ground hard.
"Ellie!" Mark skidded to a stop.
I turned just in time to see the Shadeborn rear up, ready to strike her down.
No hesitation. I threw my dagger.
The blade buried itself into its shoulder — deep, but not enough to kill. The Shadeborn shrieked, twisting toward me, its hollow white eyes gleaming with rage.
I gulped. Well, that got its attention.
Ellie scrambled to her feet. Mark yanked her forward, and we ran.
Arya's POV
My heart pounded as I sprinted up the escalator, my boots barely making a sound against the dust-covered steps. Ambrose was ahead, his movements smooth and controlled, while Nicole kept pace beside me, her breaths quick but steady.
The mall was eerily silent except for the distant screeches and crashes from below. Clark's plan was working — for now. But we had little time before those creatures adapted or worse, turned their attention back to us.
"Let's split up, so we can move faster," I said, barely slowing my pace.
Ambrose glanced back at me, his expression unreadable. "Are you sure?"
Nicole hesitated. "That's risky."
"We don't have a choice," I said, gripping my weapon tighter. "If we waste time, those things will figure out Clark's distraction and come straight for us."
A loud crash echoed from below, followed by a guttural screech.
"Fine," Ambrose relented. "You take the east wing. Nicole, head west. I'll check the north side. We regroup here in five minutes. If anything goes wrong — "
"I know," I cut in. "We run."
No more words were needed. We broke off in different directions.
I sprinted down the empty corridor, passing darkened storefronts and overturned kiosks. The air was thick with dust, the remnants of whatever catastrophe had struck this place.
Nothing.
There is no surveillance room. I ran towards the center of the floor where Ambrose and Nicole were. "It's not here." I said gasping for air.
I snatched the walkie talkie on Ambrose's hands. "Jake! Do you copy?"
"It's Jake. Have you found the room?"
"Not yet," I said into the walkie-talkie, pushing forward. Then, something in my mind clicked. If the surveillance room was hidden, it wouldn't be in plain sight. It had to be somewhere secure — somewhere a manager or security personnel would have access to.
"We're heading back up. Mark said something about the locked room, right? We'll try that."
"Hurry. These things are faster than we thought," Jake's voice crackled through. In the background, I could hear frantic footsteps and the sound of something heavy crashing. "We won't be able to hold them off for long."
The walkie talkie roared back to life. "It's Mark." I can hear his heavy breathing. "The locked room can only be opened with a system token!"
"What the hell is a system token?" I cursed.
"I know it what it is! Come on!" Nicole said and bolted to the escalator going up.
We raced up the escalator, our hurried footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. My heart pounded against my ribs as Nicole led the way toward the locked door at the end of the hall.
"There it is!" she called, skidding to a stop in front of a reinforced metal door. The dim emergency lights overhead barely illuminated the keypad embedded in the wall beside it.
Ambrose reached for the handle and yanked — it didn't budge. A faint red glow flickered across the keypad's screen, displaying a system prompt:
Access Restricted. Requires 2 System Tokens to Unlock.
Nicole cursed under her breath. "Shit! I only have one."
"What?" I snapped my head toward her.
Nicole hesitated before pulling up her a small metallic card from her pocket. It gleamed in the dim light, with strange engravings that pulsed faintly.
"I bought this during our third trial," she admitted. "It cost me 1500 points. I figured it might come in handy one day."
"1500 points?!" Ambrose's eyes narrowed. "You've been hoarding points while we've been scrambling to survive?"
She glared at him. "It's called being prepared. But it doesn't matter now—we need two tokens, and I only have one."
A frustrated silence fell between us.
I exhaled sharply, already focusing on the system's interface. My Machine Whisperer ability flickered to life, code unraveling before my eyes as I reached out to manipulate the lock.
"What are you doing?" Nicole asked, her brows furrowing.
"Shh, I'm trying something," I said with my eyes closed while touching the keypad.
Access denied.
The words slammed into me like a physical blow. The lock wasn't just an ordinary system restriction—it was reinforced, locked behind a firewall I couldn't bypass.
"I can't break through," I admitted, frustration seeping into my voice.
Nicole groaned. "Even if we could buy another token, we can't access our status screens right now." She threw her hands in the air. "How the hell do we purchase anything if we don't know how to open our screens?"
The walkie talkie roared back to life. "Arya, hurry up!" I recognized Jake's voice.
I glanced between them, a smirk tugging at my lips.
"You don't know how to access the system?" My voice was almost teasing as I stepped forward.
"Well… I do."