Cherreads

Chapter 3 - Tutorial

The sniffing sound stopped.

Vell and Maya froze, barely daring to breathe. Then came a horrible scratching noise against the storage room door, like claws dragging across metal.

Maya whimpered softly. Vell moved closer to her, putting his cuffed hands protectively around her shoulders despite the pain in his wrists.

The scratching continued for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. Then, silence again.

"Is it gone?" Maya whispered.

Before he could answer, they heard heavy footsteps moving away. They waited until they could no longer hear anything from outside.

"I think so," he said quietly. "But we should stay here for now."

Maya nodded, her face pale with fear

. "What happened out there? First those towers falling from the sky, and now... what was that thing?"

"I don't know." He shifted, trying to get more comfortable with the handcuffs still on his wrists. "But we need to find something to get these off."

They began searching the storage room more carefully. Maya found a toolbox behind some boxes and brought it over.

"Maybe there is something in here that can help," she said.

He sorted through the tools with his limited mobility. "A hacksaw. That might work on the chain."

It took nearly thirty minutes of awkward sawing before the chain between the cuffs finally broke. The metal bands were still locked around his wrists, but at least his hands were free from each other.

"Better than nothing," he muttered, rubbing his sore wrists.

Maya sat down against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest. "What do we do now?"

Before he could answer, a bright yellow light filled the room. It was not coming from anywhere specific—it just appeared in the air in front of them.

"What is that?" Maya gasped.

The light formed into what looked like a floating window with words on it. Both of them could see it clearly.

[Tutorial Mode Activated]

[Welcome to the Tower Survival System]

[The Tutorial will last for 2 weeks]

[The highest ranked player at the end of the Tutorial will receive the Null System as a gift]

[All Towers will open once the Tutorial ends]

[Good luck, Survivors]

Vell stared at the floating yellow window in disbelief. "Can you see this too?"

"Yes," she whispered. "What does it mean?"

He shook his head. "I have no idea. Tower Survival System? Tutorial mode? It sounds like..."

"Like a game," she finished his thought. "But how is that possible?"

The yellow window disappeared, but another one immediately took its place.

[Player Status] 

[Name: Vell] 

[Level: 1]

[Skills: None] 

[Rank: Unranked]

Then another appeared in front of Maya.

[Player Status] 

[Name: Maya] 

[Level: 1] 

[Skills: None] 

[Rank: Unranked]

"This is insane," he muttered. "Are we hallucinating? Maybe there was something in that dust when the towers fell."

Maya touched the space where the window had been, but her hand just moved through empty air. "It felt so real, though. And we both saw the same thing."

A distant scream reminded them of the danger outside. Vell moved to the door and pressed his ear against it. He could hear nothing now.

"We need to figure out what is happening," he said. "But first, we need to find a safer place. Somewhere with food and better shelter."

"What about the thing that was outside?" she asked, fear in her voice.

"We will be careful. Move quietly. If we hear or see anything strange, we hide." He looked around the storage room once more. 

"Let us take anything useful we can find."

They gathered a few items: a flashlight, the hacksaw, a box cutter, and some rope they found on a shelf. Vell put everything into a small backpack he found hanging on a hook.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded, though she did not look ready at all. Her hands trembled slightly, but her jaw was set in determination.

He unlocked the door as quietly as possible and peered out. The store was empty and dark. Outside the windows, he could see that the sky had turned a strange reddish color. Dust and debris filled the air.

They moved carefully through the store, grabbing a few bottles of water and some packaged food. As they approached the front door, Vell held up his hand for Maya to stop. Something was moving outside.

Through the dirty glass, they saw a figure stumbling down the street. It looked human at first, but there was something wrong with how it moved—jerky, unnatural. Its skin had a grayish tint, and its clothes were torn and bloody.

"Is that person hurt?" Maya whispered.

As if hearing her voice, the figure suddenly turned toward the store. Its face was twisted into something inhuman, with glowing yellow eyes and teeth that looked too sharp to be normal.

Vell pulled Maya away from the window. "That is not a person. Not anymore."

The creature outside began moving toward the store entrance. Its movements were faster now, more purposeful.

"Back door," whispered. "Now."

They hurried to the rear of the store, finding a door that led to an alley. Vell pushed it open slowly, checking that the way was clear before they slipped outside.

The alley was narrow and littered with trash, but empty of threats.

In the distance, they could see one of the fallen towers. It was massive, stretching up so high that its top disappeared into the reddish clouds.

"Those towers," Maya said. "The message said they would open after the tutorial ends. What do you think is inside them?"

"I do not know," he replied. "But right now, we need to focus on surviving for the next two weeks."

As they cautiously made their way down the alley, another yellow window appeared before them.

[New Quest: Survive the First Night]

[Reward: 100 Experience Points]

"Experience points?" Maya read aloud. "It really is like a game."

Vell nodded grimly. "Except we cannot restart if we lose."

They continued moving through the back streets, avoiding main roads where they heard strange noises or saw movement. The city they had known their whole lives had transformed into something alien and dangerous.

After an hour of careful progress, they found an apartment building that seemed relatively intact. The front door was locked, but Vell managed to break the glass and reach in to open it from the inside.

"We should check a few apartments," he said. "Find one that is secure and has supplies."

They climbed the stairs to the third floor, not trusting the elevator even if it still worked. Most doors were locked, but they found one that was slightly ajar.

Vell pushed it open carefully. "Hello? Anyone here?"

No answer came. They entered slowly, checking each room. The apartment was empty of people but showed signs of a hasty departure—drawers pulled open, clothes scattered on the floor.

"This place should work for tonight," he said. "Let us block the door and windows."

They used furniture to barricade the front door and covered the windows with blankets to hide any light. In the kitchen, they found some canned food and more water.

As night fell, the sounds from outside grew louder and more frightening. Howls and screams echoed through the streets. Maya sat huddled on the couch while Vell kept watch by the window, peering through a small gap in the blankets.

"Do you think other people got those messages too?" Maya asked after a long silence.

"Probably," he replied. "The message mentioned players and ranks. That means we are not the only ones."

"It said the highest ranked player gets something called the Null System," she remembered. "I wonder what that is."

"Whatever it is, people will fight for it," he said grimly. "That makes everyone else potentially dangerous too."

Maya pulled her knees closer to her chest. "So we have to worry about monsters AND other people?"

He nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."

Just then, another yellow window appeared.

[Quest Completed: Find Shelter] 

[Experience Gained: 50]

[Current Level: 1 (50/100)]

"I did not even know we had that quest," she said.

"The system must assign them automatically based on what we do," he guessed.

He moved away from the window and sat beside Maya. Despite everything, her eyelids were drooping with exhaustion.

"You should sleep," he told her. "I will keep watch for a while."

"Wake me up when it is my turn," she insisted.

"I will."

She curled up on the couch and closed her eyes. Within minutes, her breathing became deep and regular.

He watched her sleep, feeling the weight of responsibility pressing down on him even more heavily than before.

This was not just about keeping her safe from everyday dangers anymore. The world had changed in ways he could not understand, and somehow they had been thrown into the middle of it.

More Chapters