The girl leaned her back against the door and slowly slid to the floor. The strength in her legs had vanished. She sat on the concrete floor, taking deep, wheezing breaths.
I, however, did not stop.
I immediately headed for the hallway. I might not have had a knife or a club grabbed from a kitchen yet, but I moved with the confidence my mutant muscles and reflexes gave me.
As the sound of the girl's breathing faded behind me, I began to clear the rooms one by one. Luckily, the kitchen was clear; I grabbed a knife and continued checking the other rooms. Bathroom... Clear. Bedroom... Empty. Inside closets, under beds...
"Hey! What are you doing?"
The girl's voice echoed from the hallway. She had stood up and was looking at me from the doorway. On her face was a mixture of surprise and slight anger replacing the fear.
"Checking the rooms," I said, opening the door to the guest room.
"I told you no one was home," she said, her voice trembling. "Do you not trust me? Do you think I'm lying?"
I stopped and looked at her. Her eyes were swollen from crying.
"This isn't a matter of trust," I said coldly. "How do you know a ghostly monster that can pass through walls or a mutated rat like the rabbit we encountered at school didn't enter the house before us? We have to be cautious. Otherwise, our throats get slit while we sleep."
The girl couldn't say anything. She knew I was right, but she still didn't want to accept this reality. Had I done the right thing by saving her? I wasn't sure yet, but I would have to make a decision soon.
After checking the last room, I went into the living room. I shut the curtains tightly and slumped into a chair.
The girl, meanwhile, was pacing in the middle of the living room. Phone in hand, she was constantly dialing a number, putting it to her ear, then looking at the screen with disappointment.
"Come on... come on, pick up..." she whispered. "Mom... Dad... Where are you? Please look at your phones..."
I watched her for a while. Then I couldn't help myself.
"You're wasting your time," I said. My voice came out harsher than I expected.
The girl stopped and turned to me.
"Most likely all networks are down," I continued, pointing outside. "Those falling meteors didn't just crush people. Base stations, satellites, internet providers... They must all be damaged. Right now, that phone is just an expensive flashlight."
"Then what am I going to do?" The girl's voice cracked. "I have to reach my family! I need to know if they're okay! You... don't you worry about your family?"
That question touched a soft spot in my heart. I paused for a moment. I fixed my eyes on the pattern of the carpet. My mother's face, my father's usual calm demeanor, my sister returning from school... It all flashed through my mind like a film strip.
"There's no point in thinking about that right now," I said, suppressing my emotions. "Considering we can't take a train, it's impossible for me to survive if I try to walk to my family. I have no choice but to trust them. You'd better trust yours too. For now, the only thing we can do is this: survive."
A heavy silence fell over the living room. Only the muffled sirens from outside and the girl's sniffing could be heard.
A few minutes later, I was the one to break the silence again.
"We need two bags," I said, standing up. "Backpacks. And food, water, and first aid supplies if you have any. Do you have anything we can use?"
The girl looked at me with tearful eyes. "I do... I have my school bag and a bag we use for camping but... what are we going to do with the bags?"
"We'll head out after resting a bit," I said. "We can't stay here forever."
"Are you crazy?" The girl's voice rose an octave. "Heading out? Weren't you the one who just said you couldn't go to your family? It's like hell out there! What are we going to do by going back out?"
I let out a deep breath and put my hand to my forehead.
"This is getting exhausting," I muttered. Explaining things to people was harder than fighting monsters. I turned to the girl and locked my eyes onto hers.
"Did you spin the wheel?"
The girl hesitated. The question was so unexpected it floored her.
"What?"
"The wheel," I said emphatically. "The damn wheel that appeared in front of you when the apocalypse started. Did you spin it? Yes or no."
The girl nodded hesitantly. "Y-yes. I did. I was afraid of facing that 'punishment' thing otherwise."
I frowned. I was surprised.
"Then what did you get from the wheel?" I asked, taking a step toward her. "Why didn't you defend yourself against that rabbit? Why did you cower in a corner waiting for death?"
The girl looked at me blankly. "I don't remember... I was so scared at that moment, I just spun it and then everything exploded. I must have fainted. When I woke up, those creatures were there... What does this have to do with being able to stand up to that rabbit?"
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I shook my head. She truly knew nothing.
"Have you ever played an RPG before?" I asked. "Or do you at least know what they are?"
"I... I don't really play them," the girl said, stepping back. "But I've seen my little brother play. Mages, levels, and such..."
"Good," I said. "You can compare our current situation exactly to that. Imagine there's a window in your mind that only you can see, where your information is written. Call it 'Status Window.' Focus."
The girl looked at me as if I were crazy, but then she did as I said. She closed her eyes, frowned, and whispered.
"Status... window?"
A second later, the girl's eyes snapped open. She was looking at something in the air right in front of her. At a screen special only to her, which I couldn't see.
"W-what is this?" she said in surprise, reaching her hand out into the air.
"What do you see?" I asked. "Read it."
The girl took a shaky breath and began to read the text in front of her.
[STATUS WINDOW]
IDENTIFICATION
- Name: Elara
- Class: Light Priestess
- Level: 1 (0 / 100 EXP)
"So your name is Elara, we're officially introduced now," I said. Elara nodded and continued reading.
HEALTH STATUS
- HP (Health): 60 / 60
- MP (Mana): 180 / 180
ATTRIBUTES
- Strength (STR): 2
- Agility (AGI): 3
- Vitality (VIT): 3
- Intelligence (INT): 9
- Luck (LUK): 6
CLASS SKILLS
- [Active] Holy Light:
- Description: Creates a beam of pure light that heals the target's wounds and damages dark entities.
- Cost: 15 Mana
- [Passive] Protection of Light:
- Description: Provides mental resistance to those near the user.
When she finished reading, she turned to me, her eyes wide. "Light Priestess? Healing? I... I'm not a doctor, what do I know about healing?"
My eyes gleamed. A healer. I wasn't just carrying a burden; I was carrying perhaps the most valuable thing in this new world. Moreover, her Intelligence (INT) score was incredibly high for a starting level. While mine was 5, hers was 9. This meant her mana pool was nearly double mine.
"You don't need to be a doctor," I said, my tone softening. "The system sets the rules of the game, not medical school. If you want to survive, look closely at that window, Elara. Because that skill you have right now might be the only thing that keeps us alive."
A heavy, dusty silence settled in the living room. The sound of the chaos outside had turned into a muffled hum behind the double-paned windows and thick curtains. I leaned my head back against the chair and closed my eyes.
Darkness. It was the greatest luxury I possessed right now.
The adrenaline had drained from my body, replaced by a deep exhaustion. My muscles ached, and the scratches left by the rabbit's claws burned with a steady sting. My mind was like a beehive; the image of Matt, that giant-eyed creature, the crushed looters, and the rules of this new world were all tangled together.
I stayed like that for a few minutes, or perhaps only seconds. I just listened to my own breathing.
Then I opened my eyes and slowly turned my head to look at Elara. She was still standing, clutching her phone tightly, but she had stopped calling. She was staring into space.
"Main quest," I said, cutting through the silence like a knife.
Elara startled and turned to me. "Main quest?"
"Focus your mind," I said, without moving from my spot. "Just like how you opened the status window. Think 'Main Quest'."
Elara frowned. She narrowed her eyes and focused on the void. Seconds later, her expression changed. She turned pale, her lips parted. She was looking at that red window hanging in the air that I couldn't see.
[MAIN QUEST #1: BREAKING THE ICE] [OBJECTIVE: REACH LEVEL 5 WITHIN 48 HOURS.] [PROGRESS: LEVEL 1 (CURRENT)] [FAILURE PENALTY: DEATH.]
"This..." Her voice was trembling. She reached out to feel the air, but her fingers passed through the image. "Is this real? It says 'Penalty: Death'... If we don't level up... will we really die? Will our hearts just stop where we stand?"
"You'd better stop being surprised by now," I said in a calm voice. "Yes, it's real. Every word written is as real as those monsters outside."
Elara took a step back, her back hitting the wall. "But... but why?" Her eyes filled with tears. "And why am I only learning about this quest now? It's been hours since the apocalypse started. Don't these quests appear clearly at the beginning in games? Isn't there a guide, a warning?"
I sat up and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
"That's exactly what you need to understand, Elara," I said, looking into her eyes. "Even though I gave you an example from a game, what we're in right now isn't a game. This is reality."
I put my hand to my chest. "There's no 'Load' button here. When you die, no 'Retry' screen will pop up. When your health gets low, you won't heal by stepping aside and waiting five seconds. This is a brutal reality with only one life, one that doesn't forgive mistakes. The system isn't obligated to give us information. We are just test subjects trying to survive."
Elara swallowed. I could see the lump in her throat. She looked away, then turned back to me.
"Then you..." she said in a low voice. "How did you find out about this quest? Why did you tell me to ask for it?"
I paused for a moment. The lab came to mind. Matt's transformation. His hideous purple skin, him attacking me, crushing his head with the fire extinguisher... And then the "Level Up" notification that followed. I had spilled the first blood. The blood of my best friend.
I couldn't tell her that. At least not now.
"I killed a monster and leveled up," I said, trying to keep my voice expressionless. "Then a notification appeared saying I had progressed in the quest. That's when I learned the details."
It wasn't a lie. It was just a censored version of the truth.
Elara nodded. Silence dominated the room again. This time the silence was heavier, filled with acceptance. After a while, Elara took a deep breath and took a step toward me.
"Alex," she said. Her voice was still fragile, but there was a sense of gratitude in it. "Thank you for saving me. In that classroom... if you hadn't come, I probably would have frozen in front of that rabbit and died."
She lowered her eyes, fidgeting with her hands. "I don't know anything. I don't know how to fight. But... but I'll try not to be a burden to you. So..."
She swallowed and looked up at me. There was pure fear and pleading in her eyes.
"Please keep being with me. Don't leave me."
I looked at her. Before me was a girl who was scared, didn't know what to do, and would probably trip and fall at the first sign of danger. Under normal circumstances, she was a factor that lowered my chances of survival.
But... Light Priestess.
The strategist in my mind smiled. I'd never leave a healer. You're worth your weight in gold in this world, girl, you just don't realize it yet.
A resource that could heal me when I'm wounded, save me when I'm poisoned, and maybe even give me buffs in the future. Leaving her would be idiocy.
"Don't worry," I thought to myself. "I wouldn't leave you even if you wanted me to."
But outwardly, I put a reassuring, slight smile on my face.
"Let's keep protecting each other," I said.
Elara's shoulders relaxed, and a bit of color returned to her face.
"Now," I said, leaning back in the chair. "One hour. Let's rest for just one hour. You'd better sleep, Elara. Fighting monsters while exhausted and with a clouded mind would be suicide. We'll plan our next step when we wake up."
Elara nodded. "Okay... You're right."
She curled up on the three-seater sofa opposite. Her exhaustion was so great that, despite her fear, her eyes closed within seconds.
I, however, didn't sleep right away. I watched the ceiling for a while longer, thinking about the remaining 46 hours and that silent apocalypse outside. Then, I placed the knife where I could reach it and surrendered my eyes to the darkness.