The system had jokes now. That was new. Three days of radio silence and it came back with a quest called THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST and a time limit of "until it kills you."
Hilarious.
I was going to die laughing. Or just die. One of the two.
The entity took another step forward. Another circle of brown grass spread beneath its foot like a stain. The hum intensified. Not louder exactly but deeper. It had settled into my bones and started vibrating at a frequency that made my teeth ache.
"We need to move." Cheon's voice cut through the noise. She'd already pulled up something on her phone. Floor plans or evacuation routes or a list of her final regrets. Hard to tell from the angle. "Campus emergency protocols put the nearest fortified position at the athletic complex. Reinforced walls. Essentia dampening built into the foundation for training exercises. If we can get there before—"
"It's not going to let us run."
