The hospital corridor smelled of antiseptic and burning wiring. Mike's bandaged hands trembled as golden light pulsed beneath the gauze - not healing but revealing.
The System's camouflage was failing.
Across the hallway, the soldier's shadow twitched first.
Not just darkness - but something alive. It peeled away from the man's boots like tar, forming a spear of liquid night that hovered at Mike's throat.
"Daddy,"
Lily said, her voice was the only calm thing in the screaming ward.
She wasn't looking at the shadow. She was looking at her drawing.
The crayon door on the floor now bled black wax upward in defiance of gravity, tendrils snaking toward her bare feet.
Her left hand held the scalpel loosely, its surgical steel reflecting nothing - as if light feared touching it.
The shadow-spear struck.
Lily moved like a child playing hopscotch.
One skip to the left, her pigtails swaying. The scalpel traced a lazy arc through the air - not at the soldier, but through his shadow's midsection.
The effect was instantaneous.
The shadow screamed in a chorus of voices Mike recognized - tribesmen from the jungle, nurses from the ICU, his own voice from some forgotten moment.
The spear dissolved into static that crackled across the ceiling tiles.
The soldier collapsed, clutching his chest where a matching crescent wound bloomed across his sternum.
System (Lily):
» SHADOWFRAGMENT ACQUIRED: 1x VOID-GEM (RANK F)
» SKILL UNLOCKED: "EDGE OF THE BETWEEN" (TIER 0)
Mike barely had time to process the notification before the heart monitor behind them flatlined.
He turned to see Lina elbow-deep in a nurse's chest cavity, her tribal marks glowing as she held the woman's still-beating heart away from the shadow tendrils trying to consume it.
Lina fought back-to-back with him, her tribal-marked fists cracking a nurse's jaw - but the woman smiled, her shadow slithering up Lina's leg like a parasite.
Then the TV flickered on.
GLOBAL CHAOS: THE MOON'S CRACK WIDENS
On-screen, a news anchor clutched her desk as the studio lights failed. Behind her, the moon's fissure pulsed - now spanning 1/3 of its surface.
Anchor: "- authorities insist this is a thermal expansion event, but -"
The video feed glitched. For three seconds, the crack gaped, revealing ribs of caged lightning inside. Then:
Chyron:
» MILITARY LOCKDOWN IN 12 CITIES. REPORT "NIGHT STALKER" SIGHTINGS TO -
"Mike!" Lina snarled. "The TV!"
The screen flickered and glitched. A news anchor's face was half-illuminated by emergency lights as behind her, the moon's fissure pulsed like an open wound.
Anchor (glitching audio): " - repeat, all citizens must - "
Then the crack gaped.
For three heartbeats, Mike saw what looked like ribs - not bone, but crackling energy - forming a cage within the moon.
Then the television exploded.
Glass rained down as a spindly figure crawled through - a Night Stalker, its too-many-joints clicking like a spider's legs. It turned its head 180 degrees to stare at Lily.
She stared back.
Lily (cheerful): "Daddy, it's learning."
The creature's shadow detached, lunging -
Lily moved her scalpel.
~
~
~
~
Abby's new tattoos burned.
The jaguar cloak had dissolved into her skin days ago, leaving only gold-trimmed ink that twitched whenever shadows drew near.
Now, as she gutted the shadow-boar, its ribs didn't contain organs - just a pulsing shard:
» CLASS SHARD: "VOIDSTALKER" (2/5)
The jungle canopy trembled. Not from wind - from something breathing.
"Hosts 1-3 summon you."
The voice came from her tattoos. The jaguar's golden teeth chattered against her collarbone.
Abby spun -
- and the world split.
~
~
~
~
Global Alert (All Chosen):
» PRIORITY QUEST INITIATED: COUNCIL OF HOSTS 1-3
» PREPARE FOR UPLINK IN T-MINUS 120 SECONDS
In Lagos:
Adebayo was mid-swing when the alert flashed. His machete froze inches from a hyena's shadow-corrupted throat.
System:
» DISENGAGE REQUIRED (x3 WARNINGS)
He spat and stepped back. The hyena whimpered, its too-many eyes tracking something behind him.
In Kyoto:
Hana's shadow-parry dissolved as the alert pinged. Her opponent - a salaryman whose shadow had turned against him - collapsed, sobbing.
System:
» UPLINK OVERRIDE IN 10 SECONDS
She closed her eyes. When she opened them-
- she stood in a grand obsidian chamber. Ninety-six others appeared in flashes of static, their forms glitching at the edges.
Three thrones sat empty on the dais.
~
~
~
~
48 HOURS BEFORE UPLINK
The System spoke to Mike in his dreams.
Not with words - with equations. Golden fractals spiraled behind his eyelids, resolving into three options:
» UPLINK PROTOCOLS:
~ Arena Summit (Combat Trials to Establish Hierarchy)
~ Silent Communion (Telepathic Data Transfer)
~ Council of Peers (Voluntary Participation with Incentives)
Mike's burned hand twitched. The System responded:
» DETECTED PREFERENCE: OPTION 3
» INITIATING CHOSEN SCAN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HOW THE 97 WERE CHOSEN
1. The Dying Test
In a Mumbai slum, a tea-seller named Priya choked on shadow-tainted rain. As her vision darkened, the System appeared:
» HOST CANDIDATE DETECTED
» SURVIVAL INSTINCT: 94%
» ADMINISTERING TRIAL
Her veins burned gold. When she woke, the puddle that nearly drowned her now obeyed her trembling fingers.
2. The Bloodied Hands
A Maasai warrior (Kito) slew a lion corrupted by shadows. As its blood soaked his spear:
» ETHICAL PARADOX DETECTED
» KILLER WITH HONOR: QUALIFIED
His first Skill Stone embedded itself in his tribal scars.
3. The Unlikely Saint
A Tokyo schoolgirl (Hana) shielded a stranger from a Night Stalker. The shadow's claws stopped millimeters from her face - then dissolved into her shadow.
» P-NUM 87: AUTOSELECT
By dawn, 97 souls across six continents bore the System's mark. Only three things united them:
~ They'd all touched death that night
~ None remembered their exact selection
~ Their shadows now moved just slightly faster than they did
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MIKE'S PREPARATION
T-5 Days, 22 Hours
The bathroom mirror showed Mike's exhaustion - and the golden text scrolling across his reflection:
» UPLINK PREP:
~ Rankings: Base on P-Num (hidden) + Shadow kills
~ Restrictions: No combat, no identity reveals
~ Penalties: Shadow-rot for disruptors
Lina's reflection appeared behind him, her new tribal scar pulsing.
"They'll revolt if you treat them like soldiers."
Mike's finger drew a glowing rune on the glass:
» ADJUSTMENT:
FRAMING = "COOPERATIVE DEFENSE"
The System chimed:
» CONFIRMED. INDUCTION SEQUENCE INITIATED.
~
~
~
~
The meta-hall's obsidian walls absorbed sound. Chosen materialized in bursts of static - some mid-sentence, others naked from interrupted showers. All were whole, unharmed, and terrified.
Mike's distorted voice echoed:
"Sit."
Ninety-seven chairs manifested. Only three remained empty - theirs.
A Ukrainian soldier (Dmytro) reached for his sidearm. The weapon dissolved into shadow.
System (All):
» NON-VIOLENCE PROTOCOL ACTIVE
Mike began his script:
"None of you chose this. The System did."
A screen displayed the moon's crack - now visibly breathing.
"That's not an anomaly. It's an invitation."
Murmurs erupted.
A Nigerian doctor (Adebayo) stood:
"Invitation to what?"
Lily's distorted form tilted her head. The screen changed - showing a priest's shadow strangling him during Mass.
"To the first war fought in two worlds at once," Mike said.
"You'll train. You'll rank. You'll survive."
System (Mike Only):
» QUERY: DISCLOSE LOCK & KEY THEORY?
He pulsed No through his golden veins.
After a quick explanation of what to expect, Mike decides to establish the Rankings.
The hall's floor became a galaxy map, with 97 pulsing stars:
~ Top Tier (Gold): 10 Chosen with 50+ kills (P-Num 80+)
~ Mid-Tier (Blue): 62 Chosen with combat experience
~ Foundations (Red): 25 Civilians with high P-Num
A Chilean gangster (Mateo) laughed.
"Why should I follow your ranks?"
Mike didn't answer. The System did:
» HOST 1 AUTHORITY CONFIRMED
» TIER REWARDS ACTIVATED
Gold-tier Chosen felt warmth as their first Tier I skills unlocked. Mateo's mockery died when his hands erupted in shadow-blisters - the penalty for defiance.
That brought about a slew of questions. As questions flew, Mike carefully avoided:
~ Lily's role as the "key"
~ His SSS+ classification
~ The existence of Hosts 2 & 3 (Lina/Lily)
When a South African miner asked about the moon's ribs, the walls displayed a countdown:
» SYSTEM ARRIVAL: 5 DAYS, 23 HOURS
Then the vision shifted - to a dungeon forming beneath Stonehenge, its entrance carved with the same runes as Mike's scar.
System (Mike Only):
» PHASE 2: DUNGEON TRIALS BEGIN AT NEXT MOONRISE
As the Chosen returned to their worlds, the last thing they saw was the moon's ribs flexing.
~ They weren't prison bars.
~ They were fingers.
~ Something was pushing from the other side.
The Chosen also returned with three truths:
~ Their rankings could change
~ Cooperation meant survival
~ Someone was lying to them
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adebayo stumbled back into his Lagos clinic, the scent of antiseptic sharp in his nose.
His nurse, Folake, lay bleeding from shadow-claw marks across her chest.
"Doctor -!" she gasped.
His hands were already moving, reaching for gauze-
-when his shadow moved first.
The dark silhouette peeled off the wall, stretching toward Folake's wounds like liquid. Needle-thin tendrils of darkness stitched her flesh together before Adebayo's fingers twitched.
System:
» PASSIVE SKILL ACTIVATED: "PHANTOM TRIAGE"
Folake's eyes widened.
"Your shadow... it's smiling."
Adebayo looked down. His shadow's mouth curved upward - three seconds before his own lips followed.
~
~
~
~
Wanjiku pressed both hands against the laboring mother's belly, the woman's screams merging with the mob outside.
Shadows clawed at the clinic's tin roof.
"Push, sister," Wanjiku urged -
- and her palms glowed.
Gold light seeped into stretched skin, mending torn muscle fiber by fiber. The newborn slid out shadow-free, its first cry scattering the darkness at the windows.
System:
» CLASS SHARD ACQUIRED: "LIFEBINDER" (1/5)
Wanjiku stared at her hands. No tribal marks. No tattoos. Just fading gold light that smelled like rain on acacia leaves.
The mother whispered:
"You're an angel."
Wanjiku's shadow shook its head no.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Mike returned, Lily's latest drawing fluttered to the floor - a detailed map of the Stonehenge dungeon.
But in the corner, barely visible:
The crayon door in her drawing creaked open another inch - and this time, something knocked back.