No other players were found in the immediate area. In case of refusal, the task will be assigned to the nearest available agent. The Order of the Jaegers strongly discourages you from abandoning the proposed assignments. Your negligence can lead to significant destruction, injury, and casualties.

[These messages are provided by the Order of Jaegers and intended for awakened agents. Upon completion of the first task, the cognitive hint system will deactivate. We wish you good luck!]

I was staring at the ceiling. The madness didn’t plan to stop any time soon. The marker moved slowly, crawling over the wall. At first thought, those new messages were some delirium created by my inflamed mind. It was knee jerkingly frightening but I felt like it’s still worth checking out.

Well, obviously, I was crazy. But in case all of that was actually real, I didn’t want to risk finding out what kind of severe punishment they meant. You can be crazy, but it’s better to be crazy and on the move. No idea what other people would do in my place.

The whole situation was surreal.

As far as I knew, the Digital Complex was nothing more than a mental illness. And nothing like this ever happened. Either I was the first known case of such progression, or this was exactly the thing they didn’t want to tell me. Good job, Kim! Maybe you are finally first at something! That’s a success, but it tastes weird. You should be proud! But, it’s too early to be proud. I still needed to see what was the deal with this anomaly.

I put my pants on, grabbed the phone, then sneaked into the apartment hall, closing the door behind me. It was summer and I could get away like that. What’s the big deal? I couldn’t sleep, went for some fresh air.

Sounds like a good cover story.

Honestly, it’s not her business what I’m doing in my free time, but it’s her flat, and I didn’t want to weird Alice out. Not on the first night at least. What would I do if she kicks me out?

The marker kept moving before it went all the way down. I guessed that if the marker turns into a circle, sometimes it means you are at the same level as the target.

Adventure road led me past a rickety streetball court into the old storage area. Not the most pleasant place to hang out at night. I didn’t see the text again, but it was there, right in my brain. The system added a couple of new lines.

You’ll need to eliminate all the Atma creatures in the area and then close the breach they came from.

Difficulty: trivial (levels 1-5).

Reward: standard.

Could it be because I returned home? Nerves, nostalgia, repressed memories – this can mess with your brain. Especially, if it’s already kind of scrambled. What if there’s nothing, and I’m wandering at night, like some kind of eerily alert sleepwalker? Then I’m in the deep shit, that’s all.

I’ve heard a blood-curdling scream.

Several windows in our building lit up and immediately went out. "Will you shut yer caves, you bloody wankers?!” yelled somebody from the top floor. I see, my new neighbors are kind, helpful, and dependable people. Good to know.

For one, I was a bit bothered that the screams came exactly from the direction my marker pointed too. I checked the surroundings, looking for anything that could help me in fight. Nothing good is happening behind that building. R-word, at least. Maybe even M-word.

A sledgehammer was sticking out of the wooden planks pile. I ate enough porridge as a child, but I can't say I lifted it without a little struggle. The hammerhead was kind of loose. It dangled back and forth from the slightest movement. Probably that’s why they threw it out.

There were also were heavy-looking wooden sticks, fragments of pipes, bricks. Something that a normal person would take to a fight. Although a normal person would call the police, that was the last thing I wanted to do in my situation. I was too emotionally vulnerable, agitated, and frightened. So, holding onto that ancient hammer as if my life depended on it, which it probably did.

I took a deep breath, put on the most terrifying face I could muster, and then took a look around the corner. "Whatever it is, Kim, you will take it calmly and rationally. You won’t get into other people’s business unless it’s necessary and will act according to the situation." I muttered to myself. Deep down, I still hoped there was nothing weird there. Just some girl, which got into conflict with her boyfriend or something. Bad, but not as bad as I imagined.

I was right. In a way.

There was a girl about my age, and she was in trouble. She climbed onto a large garbage container. Trying to fend off attackers, she kicked them with bare feet. The discarded shoes were lying on the ground. Shouldn’t have done that. With stilettos like this, she could’ve easily stabbed her opponents. Which were absolutely not human, by the way. There was no doubt - a bright marker hung above them. My clients. No amount of meth and bath salts can turn a person into something like this. Two hunched-over bastards. They were something between an especially ugly frog and a dried fish. Being about four feet tall, the freaks could not get their victim and jumped around the tank like mad dogs. With spears.

They had actual primitive, cavemen tier spears. Who takes a spear on a stroll these days, even in the area like this?

Right. The anomaly.

The had information plaques too. Up until this moment, I’ve only seen those attached to humans. Not a single animal got those things.

Toad Face Ghoul - Level 1

Toad ghouls it is, then. Okay. New life, new meetings.

The girl finally noticed me, and silently asked for help. All that screaming left her speechless. And not a single moron around, who would help the person in need! Well, there was one right there, but I had my reasons. People are so cold and indifferent these days.

Yelling like a madman, I jumped out from around the corner and ran towards them. I brought down the sledgehammer on the flat, scaly head with every bit of strength I could muster.

That was a bit of an overkill. Either I was too strong, or a hammer was too heavy. Or both.

The ugly and stinky monster exploded like a bag of shit, splashing us all with sticky, light green blood.

The remains fell at my feet, before turning into lumps of gray ash, immediately blown away by the wind. At the moment of impact, something ephemeral came out of him. Barely perceptible golden glow separated from the creature and flowed into my hands.

Atma received: 10%. Experience is calculated from the amount required to advance to the next level. Also, from Atma received over a certain period, and proximity to the individual peak of power.

New messages did not block the view. They seemed to pop up in my head by themselves. I didn't even need to read them.

The second ghoul stared at me with a dumb face. The writing above his head has changed.

Prehistoric Kelp - Level 1 - Seal of Waves

Small tribes of these primitive creatures inhabit shallow waters and swampy areas of many worlds. They have a low potential for the development and absorption of Atma, which is why they rarely reach even the second level.

For some reason, the system gave me a brief biography of these scoundrels. Thanks for this useful information, I guess. It was very relevant.

The freak began to back away, while I prepared for a fight. With the surprise effect already lost, there was no time for another epic swing. But he didn't even try to attack us. Toadface took the spear of his fallen comrade and tried to run away, making weird gurgling sounds. What a cowardly little bastard!

I glanced at the girl. She was still sitting on the garbage container. The victim of the fucking murlocs was pale as the faded paint. Some tiny spark was spinning near her information plaque. This has never happened before. Damn, what are you talking about, Kim? None of this has happened to you before!

“Do you live here?” I asked. “I mean, the area, of course. Not this… You know.”

She nodded.

“Then why are you still here? Go home! It’s dangerous at night. Even without those little fucks running around, whatever they were. What are you even doing here at this hour? Go, I’m going after that ghoul!”

Maybe this should teach her to stay clear from the storage area. It was always a shady place.

The girl got down clumsily, and began to put her shoes on with shaking hands. I ran after the marker, holding onto the sledgehammer covered with green blood.

Then stopped for a moment.

“You saw them too, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Well, that’s just awesome.”

If there was at least some tiny chance that I had dreamed it all, it was gone. Flew into the night sky like a paper crane.

I kept chasing the monster, but my mind was also racing like crazy. What does this all mean? Am I not insane? Was the world insane this whole time and no one bothered to tell me? How will I live with these revelations?

Before this, I was an anxious child with parents who were amazingly bad at parenting. Also, I blame uncle Alex, who loves to touch other people’s wives. And the president, who appeared in my visions in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What now though? Everything is real. The numbers, the plaques, the stats. How many pills I have eaten in my life, to feel like a normal person? Too many to care. In the end, it was so I could save the girl from a couple of stinky fishmen.

You know that joke, where a man asks God what was his purpose in life was. And then God says:

”Do you remember ’87? You were at dinner, and some guy asked you to pass on the salt shaker. That was pretty much it.”

Unlike that man, my misadventures were far from over. I don’t regret saving her, of course. It adds to the absurdity of the situation.

Toadface galloped along the gullies. I located him by his disgusting squeals when the marker got obscured by a large container. We went down the big stairs, ran around some building with cylindrical antennae. Fortunately, the bastard did not run into the guarded area. I can only imagine how would I explain what exactly was I doing there with a hammer at 3АМ. Instead, he leaped down into the courtyard of the nine-story apartment building.

There was a wall in the way, and I had to climb down a narrow, loose path. Now, the "kelp" darted into the entrance of the building. I went after it.

The interior was a wild mess. There was blood on the walls and vomit on the floor. Well, of course, it was Friday night yesterday. It’s not the monsters’ fault, olny locals living their colorful life.

Wet three-toed footprints led to the third floor. I followed them like a real monster hunter. Seems like I got into character. The marker was still there, revealing the fishman’s exact location.

It stood almost at the very end of the narrow corridor. The monster didn't notice me. Kelp peered intently at the doors and sniffed the air. Does that bastard want to get into someone's apartment? Tomorrow is a day off, but I don't think there is a person who'd be delighted to see such a guest. I had to get rid of it fast so that the monster does not start squealing. After all, the system warned me about the masquerade or something like that.

Toadface walked to the red iron door and disappeared. It didn’t open the door, didn’t demolish it, but seeped through the metal like a very unpleasant ghost. The concentration of miracles per square inch grew, and I did not like it at all.

I came closer and heard another nasty squeak. Somewhere in the center, a glowing blot appeared, about two feet high.

The breach is found. Stability: low.

Added app: [Strings stitcher 1]. Allows the player to use a weak Atma momentum to collapse small rifts and breaches.

You can close this breach and neutralize the anomaly. In the future, you’ll have the opportunity to adjust the anomaly indicators and create a stable portal for personal use.

Stable? Portal? What? I still couldn’t wrap my head around this. One thing was clear. The freaks came from the other side of this hole. I needed to make sure that nothing gets through from here anymore. I put my hand into the boiling spot of light and it went right through.

This is what I call “dangerous curiosity”.

Just in case, I looked around and despite my better judgment dipped my head in the hole. It was a bright afternoon out there. A pleasant breeze ruffled my hair. The breach was located not far from the edge of the cliff with lush tropical forest beneath it.

World analysis is not available. Buy the corresponding app from the store.

“Everything that the light of the sun touches is our kingdom, Simba.” I said to myself. And then returned to the stuffy darkness of the apartment building. No matter how much I wanted to walk in the wild, it wasn’t worth the risk. What if this thing closes by itself? Nah, too dangerous. Finally, a message appeared.

Do you want to close the breach?

Yes, I do. That's why I’m here.

A faint electrical discharge passed through my arm. The breach collapsed, leaving a tiny oval gem on the palm.

The Breach Essenсe (1)

You can restore it into a stable portal matrix.

I put that in my pocket. Then left the scene ASAP, before tenants noticed something is wrong.