Rain began to fall.

  Not gentle rain. But acidic, sticky rainfall that hissed when it touched the street lamps. The sky was cracked with veins of violet lightning like the heavens themselves were breaking open. The rift was bleeding reality.

  Zero stood at the doorway of his shattered condo unit. Rubble around him. Microwave guts strewn across the floor. The Proto-Ghoul’s body was gone disintegrated into gray ash, as if the world refused to remember it.

  But the stench remained.

  He stared down at the dark corridor of the condo hallway. Echoes of distant screaming. Gunshots had grown fewer now. Fewer people left to shoot.

  “Map scan initializing…”

  “Coordinates confirmed: V. Mapa Complex, Sta. Mesa, Manila.”

  “Safe zones: 0%.”

  “Hostile threat density: 68%.”

  “Available components within 30m: Elevator motor, CCTV camera, Solar inverter (damaged).”

  Zero moved slowly. Stepping over broken floor tiles, ducking beneath a snapped power line. The elevator shaft was open cables swaying loosely. The CCTV camera sparked above the hallway.

  “Blueprint available: Perimeter Sentry v0.3.”

  “Crafting materials found nearby.”

  “Permission to convert?”

  “Convert,” he muttered again, still not used to giving orders to air.

  The elevator motor shuddered lifted floated into the air. Wires twisted. Metal cracked and bent. Sparks gathered.

  A small mechanical turret landed softly beside his foot. It blinked red once. Then turned blue. Active.

  He was building. Slowly. Awkwardly. But building.

  Just then footsteps.

  Fast. Wet. Uneven.

  He ducked. The turret rotated.

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  A young woman burst from the stairwell, soaked in blood none of it hers. Short hair, tied back. Backpack with tools. She carried a tire iron in one hand and an electrical meter in the other.

  She skidded to a stop and raised her weapon. “Don't move!”

  Zero raised both hands. “Hey, I ”

  The sentry locked onto her instantly with a sharp whirr.

  “No, no, no, wait! Friendly!” she yelled.

  “Override!” Zero snapped.

  The turret spun down. She looked at him like he was some kind of cyberpunk warlord.

  “…You’re one of them,” she muttered. “The awakened.”

  Zero lowered his hands. “Just a guy who used to write inspection reports and eat too much Jollibee.”

  She laughed just a bit. Then her face darkened. “I saw what you did to that thing. From the stairs. It was… amazing.”

  Zero nodded. “You alone?”

  A pause. She glanced over her shoulder. “I was with two. One’s gone. One’s… still in Unit 404. Injured. I needed something to break the lock, but there’s ”

  SCREEEECH.

  A groaning howl echoed through the building. Heavy, wet footsteps. Two. No four. More incoming.

  The woman’s voice dropped to a whisper. “They're circling.”

  Zero’s eyes locked with hers. “Name?”

  “Arra.”

  “I’m Zero. Stick close.”

  “Pulsefield capacitor: 85%.”

  “Skill unlocked: Short-range EMP Burst.”

  “Crafting opportunity detected: Emergency Gate Lockdown System.”

  Zero raised his hand. The walls flickered blue. An interface appeared three glowing nodes forming on the door frames.

  He focused, concentrating hard still getting used to the neural interface in his mind.

  Convert.

  Metal screeched. Lights buzzed. A makeshift barricade formed behind them shaped from desk legs, refrigerator motors, and the remains of a dining table.

  The creatures approached. Human-like but hunched, walking backwards with their heads twisted unnaturally. Skin cracked like pottery. Their moans weren’t from hunger but memory.

  Arra gripped her tire iron tighter. “Any more microwave bombs?”

  “Working on it,” Zero said.

  The sentry locked on.

  BZZZT ZAP!

  The first one dropped. Screaming. Then silence.

  Then hell broke loose.

  Two rushed in. Zero activated EMP burst WHOMP! and the ceiling lights exploded. Arra leaped forward, smashing one across the jaw. Zero finished it with a pipe from the barricade stabbed deep into its exposed spine.

  One tried to climb the walls until the turret sliced its head off cleanly.

  Three minutes later, they stood in silence.

  Panting.

  Alive.

  Covered in black rot and broken tiles.

  Arra dropped to her knees beside the door. “I can get the other one now. Help me.”

  Zero nodded. “Let’s move quick.”

  The barricade held.

  The turret recharged.

  The sentry hummed silently.

  V. Mapa was not safe but it was defended.

  Zero looked down the hallway.

  Not just a survivor now.

  A builder. A fighter. A protector.

  And for the first time… he wasn’t alone.