The first thing Silver became aware of was pain. Not the overwhelming agony from before but just enough pain to remind him he was still alive.

Which honestly felt surprising. With how much pain he had been through before passing out.

Who knew healing could be more painful than having your lungs pierced?

His eyes opened slowly.

Darkness greeted him. For a few seconds, he simply stared upward in a daze.

The ravine walls rose high above him, jagged silhouettes cutting across the evening sky. The sun was still sinking beyond the horizon, leaving only fading orange light spilling through the gap overhead.

It was almost night. He didn’t know how long he had been out but he was sure it wasn’t too long.

Silver blinked. Then, he immediately regretted it as a dull ache spread through his skull.

’...Alive.’

Barely.

The memory returned gradually. Fighting the Tier Five ape, then falling, and the bone-covered elbow that nearly turned him into paste.

Then nothing.

Silver forced himself upright carefully. Every muscle protested. The system medicine had done its work, but it hadn’t performed miracles.

His body was still experiencing the trauma of what had happened. His ribs still hurt. His left shoulder felt stiff. And half his body looked like it had personally lost an argument with gravity.

The first thing he did was listen and what greeted him was absolute silence. There wasn’t the expected shouting, distant voices, or Shawn for that matter.

Silver remained still for several moments, waiting for maybe just an echo to prove to him that he wasn’t alone in these wild lands.

The older Contractor had been calling him earlier. He remembered hearing it faintly before passing out. But now, nothing.

The realization settled heavily. Either Shawn had moved or the ravine was deeper than he thought. Neither option helped him at the moment.

Silver slowly stood. And the world tilted briefly before stabilising.

’Great, I’m alone’

A cool wind drifted through the ravine. Somewhere in the distance a beast cried out. The sound echoed strangely between the stone walls.

He immediately reached for his sword and found it by his side. The ape had elbowed him while he was holding the sword pulling it out in the process.

Silver could only thank his lucky stars. He didn’t want to go back to using daggers especially in the yellow zones.

He touched his strapped handgun too and a small sigh left him. Checking the ammunition, he frowned. It was less than he had expected.

He touched the holster and found the extra magazine missing, probably fallen off during the fight or the fall. But it was still enough for now.

He checked his module and it lit up showing him the beast movements dots but before he could celebrate it blinked once and went off. He tried to turn it on again but it didn’t work.

’I thought they were indestructible. I don’t even know which part of the zones I’m in’

A blue screen appeared suddenly.

[Host Condition Stabilized.]

Estimated Recovery:

74%

"Only seventy-four?"

He didn’t get a response since the screen vanished immediately after. He didn’t have the luxury to form theories at the moment.

Silver sighed, then started walking in a random direction.

The ravine floor stretched far in both directions, filled with broken stone, patches of dry vegetation, and occasional skeletal remains of creatures unfortunate enough to end up trapped here.

It was not an encouraging sight. Still, remaining in one place sounded worse. He needed to get to higher ground. To find a path upward. Just anything that could lead him out of the ravine.

The sky darkened further as he moved and the shadows lengthened.

Silver maintained a cautious pace while constantly scanning his surroundings. This wasn’t the green zone or even the safer sections of the yellow zone.

For all he knew the cliff had dumped him directly into red-zone territory. The thought wasn’t comforting at all.

Several times he stopped entirely to avoid passing beasts.

A horned bull-like creature larger than a truck wandered through the ravine an hour later, eating little shrubs as it continued forward.

Silver hid beneath an overhang while it passed.

Another beast resembling a six-legged lizard crawled along the rocks nearby. He avoided that too.

Fighting unnecessarily sounded incredibly stupid after almost dying.

Which brought his thoughts somewhere unexpected.

Ravenna.

Silver frowned slightly. The reward notification appeared in his memory again. It still felt unreal even at the moment.

Two hundred affection points, just for a single smile. At least he assumed it was a single smile.

The system hadn’t clarified.

Silver stepped carefully across a cluster of loose stones.

’...How much was she smiling exactly?’

Two hundred points.

That wasn’t a small reward. His earlier quest had given him half of that after embarrassing himself and almost failing.

Had she been thinking about him all day?

That sounded ridiculous and slightly concerning. Then again Ravenna smiling wasn’t exactly difficult to imagine. Actually...

’No. That’s a lie.’

Silver realized he had only seen her guarded expressions so far. She had mainly been suspicious, wary, confused, and occasionally threatening throughout their whole five-minute conversation.

The memory of her turning around in the restaurant returned briefly, when she went up to her room. The look she gave him then. Like she expected him to suddenly attempt something strange.

Reasonable expectation honestly. He had basically stalked her, in his opinion, although she didn’t know that part. He couldn’t believe that up to now he had gone into different hotels and named himself her boyfriend just to get her information.

He had even bribed some of the staff. He also thanked his good looks for it.

Silver rubbed his forehead.

’Maybe she smiled because she spent the points’

That sounded more likely. People tended to smile around food. Especially after being poor.

He paused that train of thought.

’...Actually, that sounds worse’

The system offered no opinion to suit his wandering thoughts.

The ravine gradually narrowed as Silver continued moving. The stone walls became steeper and higher the further he moved. Darkness settled fully now and only moonlight illuminated the landscape.

Silver eventually stopped near a rocky outcropping. Something felt wrong. The sensation arrived suddenly.

It was subtle but his soldier’s instinct caught it. The feeling of being watched.

His grip tightened around the sword automatically. Only silence surrounded him and there was no movement. It just felt, still.

The ravine remained empty. Then suddenly, pain exploded across his side.

Silver stumbled instantly.

A deep cut appeared across his jacket. Blood followed immediately afterward.

His eyes widened.

’What...’

There wasn’t any sound or a forewarning and the attack hadn’t been visible at all. The wound looked like something invisible had sliced him. The fact that it was dark didn’t help his case.

Silver spun sharply, but found nothing. The ravine remained empty.

Then another attack came.

Silver barely reacted. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

A second invisible strike slammed against the stone beside him. The rock split apart cleanly like cut by an unseen blade.