Eunice closed her eyes against the wind. She could smell the smoke for the past three miles, but now the scent was getting stronger. It was a mixture of burning concrete and machine oil.

“Keep your head down and move quickly,” she whispered.

Heejin tried to listen to whatever had set Eunice off, but he heard nothing. Just the empty whistle of the wind. The terrain here was icy and uneven. Hills rose up out of nowhere and the rocky terrain was just as difficult to cross as the mountains to the west.

Instinctively, he looked to those same giant formations of rock and shivered. Four other scouts had been ordered out east and west, but none who had ventured west had returned.

Heejin had only returned so quickly because he saw the army of players at a distance a day earlier. He followed them for hours until he had ventured further than his orders allowed.

When he reported back, the commander tasked him with an escort mission: the technomancer wanted to see the army for herself. He had expected the assignment to be a chore, but was surprised to find that the VIP not only kept up with his pace, she took the lead.

“Excuse me, ma’am. If you don’t mind me asking,” he whispered. “What is the class-line for a technomancer?”

For a moment, he wasn’t sure she’d heard him. She kept moving and didn’t turn around, acknowledge him, or his question in any way. When he’d all but given up, she turned around and looked him right in the eye.

“That’s classified.”

There was no humor in her voice and no kindness in her eyes. She said it as a matter of fact.

They moved for hours in silence until they finally saw it. Eunice was grateful that there were no questions because she, in fact, had no answers she was at liberty to share.

Instead, she focused her attention on the environment.

The system fed her a constant feed of information. From the temperature to the atmospheric pressure, but the only information she actually cared about was absent.

System access, she whispered.

Access granted.

Command?

Run scan.

Scanning…

Activity detected.

Eunice’s eyes widened and she held up a hand before kneeling down. She turned back to her guide.

“Scout ahead and see how much further we need to move.”

Heejin nodded vigorously and quickly moved forward. Eunice waited until he disappeared over a rocky outcropping before continuing.

Details, she commanded.

Hostile entities… detected.

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Active players… detected.

[Unknown]... detected.

“Unknown?” she wondered aloud.

It didn’t make sense. Everything she had encountered in the world could be categorized as either a hostile or a player. But according to the system, she’d come across something that couldn’t be categorized as either.

[Warmth] kept the chill out, but she shivered nonetheless. As the country’s only technomancer, she was privy to intel that others weren’t. Director Seah made certain that Eunice had unprecedented access to most, if not all, the information that came into the Player Society. But this was the first time she came up against something that felt wrong.

The scout’s voice interrupted her thoughts and shook her from her trance. “We’re here, ma’am.”

Heejin led her ahead another 50 feet until they reached a rocky outcropping. He held out a hand, but Eunice brushed it aside making her way nimbly up on her own.

Eunice had seen destruction before, but it was another thing to see it in such a wanton state. The city was less a metropolis and more a loosely packed set of structures, but none of the structures were intact. Most had fallen over or partially collapsed giving plenty of fuel for fires to rage. Some embers still fumed, but anything that could burn had finished hours ago leaving behind the remnants of a city.

“What do you think caused all this, ma’am?”

There was no use in answering him. “Report back to the Director. Tell her things are bad and we’re going to need a cleanup team right away.”

Tell her?

The scout looked at Eunice with wide eyes. “And you, ma’am?”

***

Without a fire stone or anything to enhance her spells, the effects of [ember] were short lived. The jet of flame sputtered and flew out 10 feet before dissipating in the air. It was just too cold and the creature she was aiming at was too fast.

“I don’t think it’s helping much!”

“No, keep it up!” Jinyoung shouted.

Every time Willow shot a burst of flame at their opponent, it stepped back. Once or twice, it punched through the flames an armored fist, but it never blocked with its spear. And every time it did so, it left itself open to one of Jinyoung or Youngho’s attacks.

By all rights, the creature should’ve been able to wipe the floor with them, but they were pushing it back. Each burst of flame was followed by a [charged strike] from Youngho or a cut from Jinyoung. Bit by bit, they were able to land significant strikes.

“Move it, boy!” Youngho growled. “We’ve got this!”

The burning sensation in his hand had spread to his arm, but rather than pain it felt invigorating. At first, he thought he had simply grown numb to the cold, but now he actually felt warmth. For the first time since he arrived in the north, Youngho felt a burning heat in his whole body. Almost like a fever.

The spear swung in quickly, but his hands were there to meet it. He could’ve easily parried it and made use of his monk skills, but instead he struck the spear shaft. The force of it knocked the armored creature back and stunned it long enough that Youngho could follow it up with a brutal strike to its midsection.

The bandage around his right hand was loosening, but the bleeding had staunched and he felt stronger than ever.

“Take this you bastard!”

Youngho stepped forward and punched with all his might. His joints no longer felt heavy and his form was perfect, much like it was when he first became a fighter. The strike was a powerful one and sounded a loud clang that echoed in the lab.

The armored figure was thrown back and momentarily stunned by the force of the blow. Slowly, it stood up and lifted its hand. But instead of reforming its spear, it simply pointed at the monk. Youngho moved to press his advantage when a hand caught his shoulder and stopped him.

“What was that?” Jinyoung asked. Youngho whirled on him and for a moment, Jinyoung thought the old man might hit him.

“When you hit them, your fist glowed,” he continued. “I’ve never seen you do that.”

Youngho was about to tell him off when he saw Willow’s face. The young girl’s face was creased with concern and worry. She pointed down at his right hand.

“Sir, take off the bandage.”

Instinctively, Youngho flexed his hand. He couldn’t feel the pain from the dagger earlier, but the burning remained. Slowly, he undid the bandages and looked down at his hand.

“Jinyoung?” he murmured.

[SIN detected.]