A Dead World

The woman's words echoed in my mind. "That depends on you."

I stood there, my body still, but my thoughts wouldn't stop racing. She had just told me that the System—this thing that had dictated every part of my survival since I arrived—wasn't just some game-like mechanic. It wasn't just an overseer. It was a machine trying to rebuild a world that had already died.

And I was supposed to decide what happened next?

That was insane.

I clenched my fists, exhaling slowly. "You're going to have to explain that."

The woman tilted her head slightly, studying me the same way she had since we met. Like she was evaluating me. Judging.

Finally, she nodded. "Come with me."

She turned and walked toward the chamber doors. This time, there were no restraints, no warriors watching my every move. She expected me to follow.

And I did.

The doors slid open, revealing the corridors of the underground city once more. The clean, smooth surfaces pulsed faintly with energy, the same kind that flowed through the walls of the chamber, the same kind that powered the System. I glanced around as we walked, trying to take in every detail.

People moved through the halls with purpose, disciplined, focused. Some wore armor like the warriors who had taken me. Others wore sleek, close-fitting uniforms, moving in and out of rooms that hummed with quiet energy. Not just a city. A base. A stronghold.

The deeper we walked, the more the atmosphere changed. It wasn't just organized. It was controlled.

The people here weren't struggling to survive like the scavengers in the desert. They weren't hiding in the shadows, waiting for something to kill them. They had already survived.

And that meant they had been here longer than me.

I had thought the hooded figure's words were just a warning. You're not the first.

But now, I was starting to believe it.

The woman led me down a long, spiraling corridor, deeper into the structure. The air grew cooler, the faint hum of energy stronger. Finally, we stopped in front of another set of doors, taller than the last.

She pressed a hand against a panel on the wall. A pulse of light, a quiet chime. The doors slid open.

Inside, the room was unlike anything I had seen in this place.

It was massive, stretching high above us, lined with towering columns of light. They pulsed with energy, gold and blue, shifting in waves that flowed through the floor, through the walls—through the entire city.

And in the center of the room, suspended inside a column of shifting energy, was a figure.

A person.

I stopped dead. My pulse spiked.

The woman kept walking, her pace steady. "You need to see this."

I didn't move at first. My body refused.

The figure inside the column wasn't struggling. Wasn't moving at all. They were held there, weightless, motionless, their body frozen in perfect stillness.

Their face was young.

Maybe my age. Maybe a little older. Their clothes were different—not armor, not the sleek uniforms of the city's people. They were wearing something old. Worn. Like they had come from the outside.

Like they had been pulled straight from the wasteland.

I forced myself to take a step closer. "Who is this?"

The woman didn't answer right away. She stopped a few feet from the column, gazing up at the figure with the same unreadable expression.

Then she said, "The last one."

I felt my stomach drop.

I turned to her, my throat dry. "The last what?"

She glanced at me. "Before you."

The words slammed into me like a punch. I swallowed, looking back at the suspended figure, my mind working too fast, trying to make sense of what she was saying.

This wasn't just some prisoner.

This was someone like me.

Someone who had been chosen by the System. Someone who had come before me.

And now?

They were trapped here.

I took another step forward, my hands balling into fists. "What happened to them?"

The woman watched me carefully. "They reached the same point you have."

I shook my head. "That's not an answer."

Her voice remained calm. "They made a choice."

I turned to face her fully now, my jaw tight. "And what choice was that?"

She exhaled through her nose, like she had expected this reaction. "To fight."

The word hung in the air between us.

I stared at her, my mind racing. "Fight what?"

She tilted her head slightly. "The System."

My breath caught in my throat.

I looked back at the suspended figure, at the stillness in their body, the way the energy held them like a cage of light. My pulse hammered.

The woman stepped closer. Her voice was softer now, but it didn't lose its edge.

"This world is broken, Josh. You've seen it. You've felt it. The System was meant to rebuild it, but it doesn't know how. It only repeats its cycle, over and over again, pulling people into its game, testing them, shaping them." She gestured toward the column. "And when someone gets too close to the truth, when they begin to push against its control…"

She didn't finish the sentence.

She didn't have to.

I felt something cold settle in my chest. I looked back at the figure in the energy, at their motionless body.

The System had done this.

I stepped back. My head was pounding. This was real. This was real.

The woman watched me, her expression unreadable. Then she said something that made my blood turn to ice.

"You've already activated it."

I froze.

She took a slow step forward. "The System knows you now. It's watching you. Measuring you. Deciding what to do with you."

The memory of the sphere's words came rushing back.

"Subject identified."

I swallowed, my hands clenched so tight my nails dug into my palms. "Why are you telling me this?"

The woman met my eyes. And for the first time, her expression changed.

It wasn't cold. It wasn't distant.

It was something else.

Something like hope.

"Because you're different."

The words sent a shiver through me.

She turned slightly, glancing toward the column of light, her gaze hardening. "The last one fought the System." She looked back at me. "And failed."

I felt my heartbeat in my throat. "And me?"

She didn't hesitate.

"You might not."

Silence.

The pulsing light around us seemed too loud, too sharp. My skin felt electric, my mind still struggling to keep up.

The System wasn't just guiding me. It was watching me. Testing me.

And whatever was happening here…

It wasn't over.

It was only beginning.

I exhaled slowly. I looked at the figure trapped in the energy, at their stillness, at the fate that had already claimed the one before me.

Then I turned back to the woman.

And I made a choice.

"What do I have to do?"