Adam's fingers twitched.
One second, his hand was normal. The next, black lines crawled up his skin like bugs, breaking it apart into code.
His stomach turned.
"The hell—?"
He clenched his fist. The black lines shattered, his skin stitching back together. But the fear stayed.
This wasn't right.
Adam exhaled, trembling. He pressed his forehead against the alley wall, the rough stone digging into his skin. "Real. This is real."
But the fear didn't leave. It coiled in his gut, cold and alive.
"What am I?"
He remembered the dagger in his back. Janna's empty eyes. The way Lucas hadn't hesitated. That was real.
The rest?
Fractured.
"Janna," he whispered. Her name tasted like poison. He tried to picture her face dark hair, sharp smile but the image shattered like broken glass. A sharp pain stabbed behind his eyes.
**ERROR.**
The word burned through his skull.
{{SYSTEM NOTIFICATION}}
ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.
USER CORRUPTION: 19%
Adam snarled. "Shut up."
The system didn't listen.
A flash of steel snapped him out of it. A dagger.
{Item: Dagger | Level Requirement: 20}
Adam grabbed it.
Pain. Fire shot up his arm as the blade burst into black flames. The System's warning flashed:
{User level is ????? Cannot equip the item.}
Adam grinned. "Try and stop me."
The dagger worked anyway.
Then, movement.
The girl. Small. Fast. Her left eye glitched, the pupil splitting like cracked glass.
Adam ran at her.
She tried to run. He slammed her into the wall, his hand crushing her shoulder.
"Talk," he growled. "What is this place?"
Her good eye went wide. "They'll kill you. Like the others"
A shadow dropped from the sky.
Adam spun around.
The drone dropped from the sky, its white shell cracking open to reveal spinning metal teeth.
[ERROR HUNTER: ELITE-CLASS]
[PURGE PROTOCOL ENGAGED]
Adam moved first.
He threw the dagger bullseye. The blade buried deep in the drone's core.
BOOM
Black lightning exploded out, wires snapping.
The drone screeched like nails on glass.
Adam jumped, fingers digging into the crack in its shell.
"DIE."
He ripped it apart.
Flesh exploded out.
The drone's metal shell melted, reforming into pulsing red muscle. Flesh snapped into place. A human face pushed through the meat—mouth open in a silent scream.
His own face.
Adam froze.
The flesh-drone punched through his stomach, lifting him off the ground. Blood poured down its arm.
The girl screamed.
Adam roared, grabbing its wrist. His fingers burned, skin peeling off to show black bone.
"Not. Happening."
He twisted hard.
The drone's arm snapped, bones crunching.
Adam dropped, landing on his knees. His guts glitched, flickering between bloody wound and unbroken skin.
The drone regrew its arm, meat squirming like live worms.
Round two.
Adam spat blood and charged again.
This time, he jumped onto its back, fingers clawing at its face.
"SHOW ME WHAT YOU ARE!"
His thumbs dug into its eyes.
The drone burst like a rotten fruit, spraying black liquid.
Its body collapsed, twitching.
Adam breathed hard, standing over it.
Then, the pieces started moving again.
The girl grabbed his arm. "Run! It won't stay dead!"
Adam kicked its head across the alley.
"Then I'll kill it a hundred times."
The flesh-drone stood back up, its broken body stitching together with squirming veins.
Adam's fist connected with the drone's face. Then his arm exploded.
CRACK.
Bones shattered. Skin peeled back. His entire right arm burst into swirling black code, numbers and symbols twisting in the air where flesh should be.
The drone staggered back, its half-metal, half-flesh face twitching violently. White liquid dripped from its eyes as its body glitched, flickering between forms.
Adam didn't stop.
With his remaining arm, he grabbed the drone's throat and slammed it into the ground. The concrete cracked like glass.
"DIE ALREADY!"
His broken arm reformed—fingers first, then muscle, then skin stitching itself back together wrong, the veins glowing black beneath.
The drone screeched, its body locking up.
Then.
GLITCH.
One second it was there, a twitching mass of metal and meat.
The next, gone.
No explosion. No smoke. Just empty air where the monster had been.
Adam panted, staring at the spot. His new arm itched, the black veins slowly fading.
The girl stumbled forward, her good eye wide. "You... you deleted it."
Adam flexed his fingers. The System's voice whispered
[WARNING: ERROR PROTOCOL OVERRIDE]
[USER CORRUPTION: 27%]