Daniel had managed to find an overturned car to hide in and rest for the night.
However, he made sure not to fall into a deep sleep—just light enough to stay aware of his surroundings.
If a monster happened to wander by, he didn't want to wake up at the gates of heaven the next morning.
...
He woke before dawn, feeling stiff—but at least still breathing.
For a moment, he pulled up the status screen again, simply by thinking about it:
---
Status:
Health: ████████□□ (80%)
Sanity: █████□□□□□ (50%) — Slightly Insane
Corruption: ███□□□□□□□ (30%)
---
He scratched the back of his head and sighed.
"No changes. Well, what did I expect? It's not like my health recharges like a phone..." He paused, then frowned.
"Although, why isn't my health bar full anyway?"
Suddenly, his stomach growled loudly.
He glanced down, placing a hand on it and grimacing.
'You motherfucker, you're still crying for food? What a pain... but I should probably feed you before you start a riot.'
Daniel slowly rationed what little remained of the food and water he had scavenged yesterday—half a stale protein bar and the bottom of a warm water bottle.
It wouldn't last long, though.
He tucked them into a cloth wrap tied to his belt, then opened the overturned car door and stepped into the muted dawn.
The cold morning air hit his face.
His eyes instinctively drifted to where his mother's body lay. Or what remained of it.
Her mutated form had already begun to rot, the flesh discolouring with a sickly green hue and limbs twisted grotesquely.
Daniel stood still for a moment.
"You bought me time, mother. I won't waste it," he whispered.
Then he turned away.
He left the ruined road behind and headed deeper into the city.
Before moving far, he scavenged two jagged iron pipes from the wreckage.
He wrapped one end of each with cloth for grip.
The landscape had devolved into a graveyard of twisted metal and collapsed buildings.
Vehicles lay stacked like toys, and broken power lines sparked occasionally.
Daniel kept to the shadows, alert and silent.
Grade V monsters roamed the outskirts—the weakest class of the new world's mutated horrors, often mindless and animalistic, but deadly in numbers.
Most looked half-formed, with exposed muscle and too many eyes.
He kept his distance, gathering scrap cloth, plastic sheeting, and broken wood for future bandages or shelter.
As he neared a partially destroyed hospital, a faint notification flickered before him:
[Side Quest: Scout the Building — Reward: 1 Basic Loot]
Daniel blinked once. Then scoffed.
"A quest now?"
He stared at the screen for a moment. He could walk away, save energy, and avoid trouble.
Or he could check it out—maybe find something useful, maybe not.
But ignoring a clear opportunity, in this kind of world?
Stupid.
With a low breath through his teeth, he muttered:
"Fine. Let's see what's inside."
In the fields near the hospital, Daniel spotted a Grade V Lurker hunched over a corpse.
The creature had long arms, a hunchbacked frame, and oily black skin. It gnawed at the remains, distracted.
Daniel crouched low, observing.
'If I move in loud, it kills me. If I sneak, spine's exposed... motherfucker!'
He crept in, careful not to make a sound.
Holding his breath, he jammed the iron pipe into the Lurker's spine. The creature shrieked but fell limp quickly.
"Well, that was too easy..." Daniel said, patting himself on the head.
Then, a screen appeared:
[You have Slaughtered a Grade V Lurker]
[No basic reward was allocated]
Following up, an icon blinked faintly:
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"Is this because of my class? Sin-Eater... feeds on wrath, maybe? Not enough corruption or kill value to trigger anything, I guess."
He scouted the hospital.
Blood-smeared walls, broken beds, crushed terminals.
There was nothing of use. Just silence and decay.
The moment Daniel stepped back into the open, the screen reappeared with a muted flicker:
> [Quest Complete: 1 Basic Loot Acquired]
[Loot: Tattered Resistance Cloak — (+5 Stealth in Low-Light Zones)]
He narrowed his eyes, tilting his head slightly.
"A cloak?" he muttered, squinting at the information.
It didn't look impressive or useful for combat.
But then again, what the hell did "+5 stealth" even mean in real life?
Would he become invisible?
Soundless?
Or was it just system gibberish slapped on a rag?
Still, something was better than nothing.
He focused on the word "cloak" in his mind, hoping the system had some way of summoning it.
Sure enough, a faint swirl of black light shimmered beside him, like smoke curling in reverse.
The cloak materialised slowly, unraveling itself out of the air like it had always existed in another layer of space.
It looked exactly as its name suggested: worn, dusty, torn near the edges.
It had that uneven, rugged texture of something once used by resistance fighters in a war long forgotten—frayed seams, faded colours, and a rough, soot-stained inner lining.
Still, despite how it looked, there was something oddly firm about it in his hands.
It was light but not cheap, like it had survived more than a few brutal nights.
He threw it over his shoulders without much thought.
The fabric settled softly, but aside from the slight warmth, he noticed no changes.
No wave of energy. No sound distortion.
He didn't suddenly blend into shadows or feel like a ghost.
"...Feels the same,"
Daniel scowled, tugging at the hem, half-expecting the system to chime in again. It didn't.
"Wow, truly useful for surviving in a wasteland teeming with monsters. Just look at what the entire city became in less than a day—and this ended up being my ticket to survival... I should be praising you, O'Great system of trash."
Still, something told him it wasn't useless.
Maybe its value would show when night fell… or when something worse than hunger was hunting him.
He kept it on, pulled the hood halfway up, and tightened the strap near his chest.
"Let's hope you're worth more than just looking cool," he whispered, before glancing around and continuing down the rubble-strewn path ahead.
Daniel arrived at a ruined bridge—partially collapsed, black smoke curling from below.
The air smelled of burnt rubber and blood.
Bodies littered the path.
Daniel crouched beside the body, the stench hitting him like a slap.
He grimaced, pinched his nose, and rifled through the pockets anyway.
His fingers brushed over loose cash—crumpled bills, damp and half-torn.
"Not worth shit anymore," he muttered. "But at least you burn."
He stuffed the money into his pocket without a second thought.
If it couldn't buy food, it could at least start a fire.
'Theft is surely legal now. Heh-heh-heh.'
He crossed the bridge into another part of the city. It was desolate—cracked roads, shattered windows, overgrowth already creeping in.
Monster screeches echoed faintly.
Daniel spotted the shattered sign of a supermarket up ahead, half-buried behind a collapsed billboard and broken glass doors.
It looked abandoned… and more importantly, quiet.
He didn't rush.
Gripping the rusted iron pipes tighter in both hands, he stepped cautiously through the doorway, each footfall was slow and deliberate.