Rain falls like needles…Cold… sharp… endless.
He stands in the alley again… same cracked bricks… same flickering neon. But something's wrong.
The shadows don't move the way they should.
He knows this isn't real… not his dream.Someone else is here.
The silence stretches… and then—Laughter.
Low… childlike… echoing. Like glass breaking in slow motion.
He turns fast… nothing. Just the dark.Then—
A girl steps out from the wall itself. Not through a door. Not from behind it. Through it.
White dress… drenched. Hair clinging to her face. Eyes wide and black.
She smiles.
"Found you," she whispers.
He doesn't move. Can't. The system isn't reacting.No prompts. No missions.Just—static.
[ERROR: Shadow_Protocol_001 Interference Detected][Searching for Source...][Source Not Found]
The girl steps closer. Rain doesn't touch her.
"You shouldn't have opened that door," she says, voice bending… like it's echoing from five places at once.
He tries to speak.
Nothing comes.
Tries to run.
His body doesn't listen.
Then—pain.Burning. Chest splitting. Something inside him screaming.And the mask—his mask—peels itself off his face like it's alive.
She tilts her head.
"That doesn't belong to you."
She reaches for it.
And the system fights back.
[WARNING: Hostile Entity Detected. Activating Emergency Shroud Mode.][Do you wish to—HIDE or FIGHT?]
His eyes flash."FIGHT."
Everything slows.
He lunges—But she's gone.
No sound. No blur. Just vanished.
Then a whisper in his ear… from behind.
"Wrong choice…"
And he wakes.
Soaked in sweat.Gasping.
He's not in bed. Not in the safehouse.Not even in the city.
He's underground. Cold metal beneath him. The walls hum softly.
A voice—mechanical, female—speaks.
"Welcome to Deep Node 3. Shadow Candidate #013, your trial begins now."
Trial?
What the hell is going on?
He stumbles to his feet.
The room lights up.
Twelve doors.Each identical.Each marked with a symbol—skulls, flames, serpents, crowns.
[Mission: Choose One Door. Only One Leads Forward. The Others Lead to Death.][Timer: 60 Seconds.]
A puzzle? No…
A test.
He breathes in.
Focuses.
And the shadows answer.
They crawl out from beneath his feet… slithering toward the doors… scanning… sensing.
One door hums softly. The crown.
He walks to it.
Pushes.
It opens into darkness.
He steps through—
—and the door slams shut behind him.
Darkness again.No sound.
Then…
Clapping.
Slow. Mocking.
He turns.
A man sits in a throne of bones.
Wearing a black mask. Just like his.
But the smile behind it…
It's the same one the girl wore.
"You're not the only one playing in the shadows, boy."
The system goes silent.
[???]
His heartbeat slows.Not out of calm.
Out of fear.
Because for the first time since awakening this cursed power…The shadows…Aren't listening to him.
To be continued...