Vell looked around their small living room. It felt safe, but he knew it was a temporary illusion. The world outside their apartment was still a battlefield.
"We need to get stronger," he said, breaking the silence.
Maya looked up from the old comic book she had found. "Stronger? How?"
"Those system messages," he explained. "Experience points, levels, skills. We got them by fighting, by surviving. If we want to keep surviving, we need more of those." He tapped the metal pipe leaning against the wall.
"We need to hunt."
Maya put the comic book down. Her expression was serious. "Hunt infected?"
"Yes. And whatever else is out there. Carefully, of course. We stick to areas we know, take them one or two at a time if we can." He did not like the idea of putting her in more danger, but he liked the idea of them being too weak to defend themselves even less.
"We can't just hide here until the tutorial ends. The system said the difficulty is increasing."
She nodded slowly. "Okay. If you think it's what we need to do."
He felt a pang of guilt. He was asking a seventeen-year-old to fight monsters. But then, she had already faced so much.
"We do it together. We watch each other's backs."
"Always," she agreed.
Before they headed out, Vell tried calling his friends again. He dialed Jun's number first. It rang several times, then went to voicemail. He left a quick message.
"Jun, it's Vell. Just checking in. We're back at our apartment for now. Hope you're still okay at the university. Call me if you get this."
He tried Mia next. Straight to voicemail. Then Alex. Same result. A heavy feeling settled in his chest. He knew the networks were probably still unreliable, but part of him had hoped for an answer, for some connection to the old world.
He put the phone down and opened the internet browser. The forums he had found earlier were still active, buzzing with messages from all over the world. He started reading, trying to absorb as much information as he could.
"This is happening everywhere," he said, mostly to himself. Maya came over and looked at his phone screen. "Japan, Brazil, Germany… people are posting from all these places. Same towers, same monsters, same system."
He scrolled through a thread titled "Who are the Top 10?" Players were speculating, sharing rumors of incredible feats. Someone mentioned a player in Korea who had supposedly cleared out an entire subway station full of infected single-handedly.
"Some people are getting really strong, really fast," he murmured. "There are posts about players with crazy skills, taking down huge monsters."
Maya pointed to a specific comment. "What does 'C-Rank Alpha Dire Wolf' mean?"
He focused on the post. "It says here monsters have ranks. Like, grades. F, E, D, C, B, A, and then S for the really dangerous ones. For some reason, our system never told us that."
He read further. "The Alpha Dire Wolf we fought? That was a rare C-Rank monster. Level 10, apparently."
He remembered their fight with the wolf, how close they had come to dying.
Level 10.
It made him feel a little sick.
"And that was only C-Rank?" Maya asked, her voice quiet.
He nodded, continuing to read. A new rumor was spreading like wildfire across the forum. "People are saying the number one ranked player killed a Level 50 monster. Some kind of… 'Abyssal Serpent'."
"Level fifty?" Maya's eyes widened. "How is that even possible? We're only level five, and we almost died fighting a level ten."
Vell shook his head. He had no answer. The gap between them and players like that felt impossibly wide.
It was like they were playing two different games. But knowing this, knowing how much stronger others were, only hardened his resolve. They had to get stronger, not to compete for the top spot, but just to survive what was coming.
They left their apartment building an hour later, Vell with his pipe and Maya with her kitchen knife. The streets were quieter than they expected.
The increased monster spawns the system had warned about were not immediately obvious, but an unsettling stillness hung in the air.
They moved like hunters, a stark contrast to their desperate dashes for survival days earlier. Vell spotted the first infected—a lone shambler in an overgrown front yard.
He signaled to Maya, and they approached from different angles. It was less a fight and more a swift, coordinated takedown.
Vell used the pipe to break its legs, and Maya finished it with a quick thrust of her knife to the base of its skull.
[Experience Gained: 20]
The notification felt routine now.
They continued this way, tracking down isolated infected in back alleys, abandoned stores, and quiet residential streets. They learned to read the signs – a disturbed flock of birds, a distant moan, the faint scent of decay.
They were not just surviving; they were actively seeking out the danger, treating the infected like rabbits to be flushed from their hiding spots.
A few hours passed.
Each successful hunt added to their experience, and with it, their skills improved. Vell felt his swings with the pipe become more accurate, his movements more fluid. Maya's confidence grew with every infected she dispatched.
She was no longer just reacting; she was anticipating, moving with a newfound sureness.
[Vell - Level Up: Level 5 → Level 7]
[Enhanced Strength Level 4 → Level 5]
[Combat Awareness Level 3 → Level 4]
[Maya - Level Up: Level 3 → Level 5]
[Basic First Aid Level 2 → Level 3]
[Courage Level 1 → Level 2]
[New Skill Unlocked: Agility Level 1]
"Feeling good?" He asked after they took down a pair of infected near a burned-out car. He was breathing a little easier than he had after their earlier fights.
Maya wiped her knife on a patch of grass. "Yeah. It's… easier than I thought it would be. Once you get used to it." She flexed her fingers. "I feel faster."
"Your Agility skill, probably," he said. "Let's head back. We've done enough for today."
They started the trek back to their apartment, taking a slightly different route to scout new territory. As they passed a small park, overgrown and wild, they heard a panicked shout.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Boar! Please don't eat me! I didn't mean to step on your flowers!"
A young girl, maybe ten or eleven years old, burst from the trees, tears streaming down her face. She sprinted awkwardly, a brightly colored backpack bouncing on her shoulders.
Right behind her, snorting and tearing up the ground, was a creature that looked like a wild boar, but larger and angrier. Its tusks were unnaturally long, and its eyes glowed with a faint red light.
[Enemy Detected: Frenzied Tuskfiend]
[Danger Level: Low-Mid]
Vell glanced at Maya. He saw the familiar spark in her eyes – the one that appeared when she faced a challenge head-on.
He remembered her saying she felt faster. This was a good chance to test that.
"Want to take this one?" he asked, a slight smile on his lips.
Her grin was immediate and fierce. "Definitely."
Without another word, she pushed off the ground, her body a blur. Her speed was visibly greater than before.
She covered the distance to the Tuskfiend in seconds, moving much faster than the crying girl. The boar-like monster, focused on its fleeing prey, did not seem to notice her approach until she was almost upon it.