The Depths Below

The moment the door slid shut, I knew I had made a mistake.

The last sliver of moonlight vanished, swallowed by the dark, and I was left alone in the silence. The air inside the tunnel was thick, pressing against my skin like the weight of an unseen force. The rot was stronger here, no longer just a lingering scent but something I could almost taste. It clung to my tongue, heavy and stale, like the remnants of something long buried.

I swallowed hard, blinking against the blackness. My body was still tense from the chase, my muscles aching from pulling the door open, but I couldn't afford to rest. If I stopped now, the doubt would creep in. I had come this far. I wasn't about to let a little darkness stop me.

I reached up instinctively, expecting to find the glowing System screen floating in front of me, but… nothing. No level-up notifications. No stat boosts. Not even a warning. The System had been in my face since the moment I arrived in Turgan, guiding me, rewarding me, even scolding me when I had touched the ruins above. But now? Now it was silent.

That was the worst part.

My heartbeat slowed, and I forced myself to breathe evenly. Think. Adapt. Survive.

The walls around me were metal, not stone, smooth beneath my fingertips. That confirmed it—this wasn't some ancient ruin from a forgotten age. It was something built. But built by who? The System? The people who had come before me? The ones the hooded figure had hinted at?

I pushed forward, each step careful, my senses stretched to their limits. The System had given me agility, stamina, awareness. Even without its guidance, I could feel the slight changes in the air, the faint vibrations in the floor beneath me. I wasn't just walking into the unknown—I was walking into something alive.

The tunnel stretched on, impossibly long. The deeper I went, the colder it became. The heat of the desert had vanished completely, replaced by a damp, stale chill that seeped into my bones. Every so often, I thought I heard something—a faint clicking noise, distant and rhythmic, like the sound of machinery trying to wake up after years of sleep.

Or something else.

I gritted my teeth. Keep moving. Don't stop.

The passage narrowed ahead, leading to a set of double doors, their surface coated in dust and grime. Unlike the entrance, these were clearly mechanical—seams running along the edges, faint indentations where panels had once lit up. But there was no power here. No sign of life. Just emptiness.

I pressed a hand against the door.

For a moment, nothing.

Then, a low vibration.

I stepped back, pulse spiking. The dust shifted, the grime cracking, and with a deep, groaning hiss, the doors began to slide open.

Cold air rushed past me, carrying something with it.

Not just the scent of decay. Something else.

I clenched my fists. The last time I had opened a door in this place, something had stirred beneath the surface. This time, I was walking straight in.

The room beyond was massive. The ceiling arched high above me, its metal surface covered in long-dead lights, some flickering faintly with the last remnants of energy. The walls were lined with machines, their screens cracked, their panels coated in dust. Some had shattered completely, their remains scattered across the floor like broken bones.

And in the center of it all—

A platform.

Circular, raised slightly from the ground, surrounded by wires and cables. Some were still attached, disappearing into the walls like veins leading to an unseen heart. Others lay severed, their ends frayed and useless. And above the platform, suspended in the air like it was waiting…

A sphere.

It was about the size of my head, floating motionless, its surface covered in the same glowing symbols I had seen on the ruins above. But these markings weren't faint. They were pulsing, shifting, alive.

I took a cautious step forward.

The moment I did, the System woke up.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: RESTRICTED DATA FOUND.

A shockwave of energy pulsed through the room, knocking me back a step. The air hummed, vibrating deep in my chest like a silent alarm. The floating sphere glowed brighter, its symbols rearranging, shifting—responding to me.

The System's voice was back. But it wasn't talking to me.

It was talking to itself.

ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.

The sphere flickered, its glow stuttering like a failing light. The machines lining the walls flickered with it, their dead screens flashing in and out of existence. I could hear the clicking again, growing louder, faster—a mechanical heartbeat racing toward something unknown.

REBOOTING…

I stepped back, every nerve screaming.

The System had called me unauthorized before. And now I knew why. I wasn't supposed to be here.

I turned to leave—

And the doors slammed shut.

The machines hummed louder. The sphere's glow pulsed faster, its symbols twisting, breaking apart, reforming into something else.

The air shifted.

And then I heard it.

A voice.

Not the System. Something else.

"Who… are you?"

The words didn't come from the walls. They came from inside my head.

I staggered back, my pulse hammering. The floating sphere wasn't just a machine. It was something alive.

It pulsed again, and this time, the energy hit me like a tidal wave. Memories. Flashes of things I didn't understand.

Cities built into mountains, reaching toward the sky. Towers of metal and glass, humming with unseen power. A people who once ruled, now reduced to whispers in the wind. A war that had no victor. A world that had been left behind.

And through it all, the System's presence—watching, controlling, deciding who lived and who didn't.

The sphere pulsed again, and I collapsed to my knees, my head splitting open with the weight of what it was trying to show me.

Turgan was never just a world. It was never just a place of survival.

It was a graveyard.

And I had just disturbed something that had been waiting in the dark.

The sphere pulsed one final time, and the System's voice returned—louder than ever.

SECURITY BREACH DETECTED.

My body locked up. The machines in the walls roared to life.

And then—

The ceiling opened.

Not slowly. Not with a groan. It was ripped apart.

A force slammed into me, knocking me sideways. Dust and debris rained down, metal shrieking as something massive tore through the chamber.

The sphere's glow flickered violently, its voice distorted.

"No—Not again—Not—"

And then, they came.

Not machines. Not scavengers. Not creatures from the sand.

Something worse.

Figures dropped from the open ceiling, landing with eerie silence. They were tall, wrapped in blackened armor, their faces hidden beneath smooth, featureless helmets.

And every single one of them was looking at me.

The System had gone silent. The sphere had stopped glowing.

And then the leader of the figures took a step forward, their voice cold and sharp as a blade.

"Target acquired."

I barely had time to react before everything exploded into chaos.