Zane stared at the floating cube, the eerie glow from its surface pulsing in the dark like a heartbeat. The light cast strange, dancing shadows on the damp cave walls, making the already unsettling space feel even more claustrophobic. He'd been stumbling through this godforsaken cave for hours—lost, terrified—and now this… this glowing geometrical anomaly.
"What… the hell?" he muttered. His voice, dry and hoarse, cracked from disuse. The words barely echoed in the confined space, swallowed by the oppressive silence. Each breath felt like sandpaper scraping against his throat.
It hovered silently in front of him, perfectly still in mid-air. No visible means of support, defying gravity with an unsettling ease. Despite the quiet hum it gave off, a subtle vibration that tickled at the edge of his hearing, it didn't feel threatening—just… waiting. An expectant stillness that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.
His instincts screamed not to touch it. Every fiber of his being urged him to run, to get as far away from the unnatural object as possible. But curiosity—or maybe desperation—won out. He was lost, alone, and probably starving. Maybe this… thing… was his only way out.
He hesitated, took a slow, shaky breath, trying to calm his racing heart. The air tasted of dust and something metallic, like dried blood. Then, steeling himself, he reached forward. His hand trembled as it approached the pulsating glow.
The moment his fingers brushed the cube's surface, a chill ran up his arm—so sudden and intense it felt like liquid nitrogen flowing through his veins. A mechanical voice, devoid of emotion, echoed not in the cave, but directly in his mind, bypassing his ears entirely.
Level 1 Cube
Max 1 Beast Slot (scales with Zane's star rank)
Tame beasts with no resistance
Heals tamed beast fully upon contract
Passive stat boost + inherit 1/3 of beast power and talent
[Cube of Evolution: Scan Complete]
Analyzing Subject...
Classification: Ordinary Human
Physical Strength: 1.0
Agility: 0.9
Endurance: 0.8
Spirit: 1.0
Reference Note: Attribute scale calibrated to average human standards. Subject matches baseline metrics. No evolutionary enhancements detected.
Zane jerked his hand back as if burned, stumbling backward and nearly falling on his ass. He scrambled upright, eyes darting around the cave, searching for the source of the voice—or maybe just an explanation for the impossible.
"What the hell did I just unlock? A Pokémon starter pack?!" he blurted out, the ridiculous comparison a desperate attempt to inject some normalcy into the situation.
Even as he tried to joke, his eyes widened. The feeling of wrongness intensified. He quickly flipped through the memories of the real Zane—the original one, the one whose body he now inhabited. A jumble of fragmented images and emotions flooded his mind, a crash course on a life that wasn't his.
He stared at the cube, hovering innocently. It was the same one he'd bought as a "cool accessory" from some shady old vendor in his last life. He'd thought it was a futuristic USB stick. Plugged it in… and died not long after. A jolt, then darkness.
So it followed me here. Or maybe it brought me here.
He didn't know how, or why—but the cube didn't belong to Earth. Not the old one. Not this one.
The implications crashed down on him, a dizzying wave of confusion and nascent hope.
Zane let out a shaky laugh, bordering on hysteria. "Okay. Weird alien pet system… fine. At least now I've got something that gives me a chance in this hellhole." He needed to figure out how this thing worked—what its limits were—everything. This cube could be his ticket to survival.
He was about to delve deeper into the information dumped into his mind when a low growl rumbled through the cave, vibrating through the ground beneath his feet.
Zane froze, every muscle in his body tensing. The air thickened, heavy with unspoken threat.
Heavy pawsteps echoed—slow, deliberate, menacing. Each footfall was a promise of violence. A shadow loomed at the entrance of the cave, blotting out the little light that remained.
A bear.
But not a normal bear. This wasn't the kind of animal you saw in nature documentaries.
Its body was warped and bloated, grotesque and unnatural. Patches of bristled, matted fur clung to its hide, interspersed with exposed, rotting flesh. Mutated bone spikes jutted from its shoulders like grotesque ornaments. Saliva dripped from its oversized jaws, splattering on the cave floor with a sickening sound. Its eyes glowed with a faint, sickly yellow light as it sniffed the air—its nostrils flaring.
And it was coming straight for him.
"Oh, come on!" Zane scrambled to his feet. His newfound hope curdled into pure, unadulterated terror. He hadn't even had a chance to figure out the cube—and now he was about to become mutant bear chow.
Zane bolted deeper into the cave, his feet slipping on the uneven ground. The bear snarled—a guttural sound that reverberated through the cave—and charged, its massive frame shaking the walls with each step.
He ran blindly, heart pounding like a war drum. Panic clawed at his throat, choking him. Up ahead, he spotted a narrow crack between two jagged rocks—barely wide enough for a human to squeeze through.
"No time to think!"
He dove in sideways, scraping his shoulder and hip against the sharp, unforgiving rock as he forced himself through the narrow opening. Behind him, the bear lunged—its huge head slammed against the rock wall with a sickening thud that sent tremors through the cave.
Stuck.
It roared furiously—a sound of enraged frustration that nearly deafened him. Its jaws snapped just inches behind him, the stench of decay and raw meat filling his nostrils.
Zane crawled back a little, panting. Then he saw it—its thick neck and skull fully exposed, vulnerable. The beast thrashed and growled, but it couldn't move.
And for the first time… Zane saw an opportunity.
He grabbed a loose stone from the cave floor—jagged, heavy, and surprisingly sharp. He gritted his teeth, tasting iron.
"I swear, if this doesn't work…"
He lifted the rock with both hands, muscles screaming in protest, and brought it down with all his strength on the exposed skull.
Crack.
The bear roared louder—a sound of pure agony that made Zane's ears ring. The bone cracked, but didn't break.
Again.
Crack.
Blood splattered his arms, warm and sticky. He could feel the vibrations as the bone began to splinter.
Again. Again. Again.
He swung the rock with a primal ferocity, fueled by adrenaline and sheer will to survive.
Until the bear finally slumped forward, breathless and still.The roaring ceased, leaving behind an eerie, blood-soaked silence.
Zane collapsed against the wall, trembling. His arms ached. His chest heaved, lungs struggling for air—but he was alive.
He'd done it. He'd actually killed a mutant beast.
"Holy shit," he breathed, half laughing, half crying. "I'm still alive."
He crawled toward the bear's head, hands slick with blood, and searched. After a few minutes of digging through bone and tissue, his fingers brushed something hard—and glowing.
A faintly pulsing crystal, embedded deep in the brain. The source of the beast's unnatural strength.
Zane pulled it free, holding it up to the faint light filtering into the cave.
It wasn't big—about the size of his thumb—but it thrummed with raw energy, a tangible power that made his skin tingle.
In this world, this was wealth. Power. Life.
He remembered from Zane's memories: normal folks still used paper money, food stamps, or bartered. But awakened? They used crystals—taken from the heads of mutant beasts—as currency.
Now, with this crystal, he could return to the shelter and get a week's worth of food. Maybe even more.
And if he gathered enough… he could buy an awakening serum. Become a 1-Star awakened. Maybe even get a talent—something unique that could set him apart.
Even the strongest person in the shelter was only a 3-Star awakened. If he could just reach 1-Star, he'd have a shot at survival. And with the Cube of Evolution… maybe more than that.
He glanced at the cube, floating nearby like a silent guardian.
"Alright. First kill. First crystal. Not bad for day one," he said, a flicker of hope in his voice.
Exhausted but emboldened, he tucked the crystal into a makeshift belt pouch—fashioned from scraps of scavenged cloth—and made his way out of the cave.
The sun was setting—or what little of it managed to pierce the dust-choked sky—casting long, distorted shadows across the ravaged landscape. He kept low, skirting twisted ruins and dried-out, skeletal trees, until the walls of the shelter rose in the distance—a beacon of precarious safety in a world gone mad.
Guards stood at the gate, weapons in hand, their eyes hollow with exhaustion. Survivors huddled near fires, their faces gaunt. Smoke and iron filled the air—a constant reminder of the brutal cost of survival.
Zane paused just before the gates, gathering his breath and his resolve. The cube had vanished again, fading into the air like a shadow—but he could still feel it, tethered to him by some invisible thread.
This world wanted me dead. It threw me into the deep end with nothing but the clothes on my back. But now…
He clenched the crystal in his fist, feeling the hum of power.
I've got something it didn't expect. And I'm not going down without a fight.
The cube flickered back into view behind him, glowing softly, as if in silent agreement.
Not with the cube by my side.
He stepped through the gates—and into whatever came next.