Above

Climbing out of the lab wasn't easy.

The emergency stairwell had collapsed halfway through, and the water chased me upward like a living thing. I was soaked to the bone, covered in mud and concrete dust, fingers scraped raw from scaling torn metal beams and shattered rebar.

But finally, finally—

I pushed aside a rusted access panel and hauled myself into the open air.

And stopped.

The world was… wrong.

All around me, nature had reclaimed the Earth — or at least, something pretending to be nature. The land was broken. Cracks split through the pavement like scars, and thick foliage sprouted between them: jagged shrubs, curling vines, and flowers that glowed faintly at the edges. Bushes twitched when I stepped too close. Trees towered above me like skeletal hands, their bark coiled and warped, spiraling instead of growing straight. Their leaves shimmered faint yellow and green, some glowing ever so slightly with wisps of mana.

Giant grasshoppers—giant, the size of my hand—leapt from twisted blades of grass and landed with heavy thuds. One stared at me for a second with bulbous, glassy eyes before darting off into the woods.

The air was thick, fragrant, too full of life. Too heavy.

And above me, the sky…

It wasn't just dark—it was empty.

There were no stars. No moon. No sun. Just a sprawling, swirling expanse of shadow. Dark clouds moved unnaturally, sluggish and layered with something I couldn't quite name. But nestled in that sky, like wounds cut into it, were vast rivers of floating light—great arcs of mana, drifting like an aurora on slow rewind.

My enhanced vision made everything glow faintly, outlining the forest in shades of blue and violet. But I could tell—without the NeoLink's vision boost, this place would be pitch black. Eternal night.

I turned behind me.

Where the lab's blast doors should have been was nothing but ruins. Slabs of concrete lay scattered across the ground, some twisted like taffy, others scorched black and clawed apart. Gnarled strips of torn metal stuck out of the ground like bones.

"What the hell did that?"

I'd survived a black hole detonation. I'd survived mutant roaches. But this? This was something else.

The air around me shimmered.

System Notification

Would you like to analyze your surroundings?

I blinked and muttered, "Yes."

System Notification

Would you like to enable Auto-Analysis?

"…Yeah. Might as well."

A transparent HUD snapped into place in the corner of my eye. Sleek. Blue-tinted. Clear.

Environmental Scan Complete

Biome: Mutated Temperate Forest

Temperature: 68°F (Fluctuating)

Danger Level: 1 (Low)

Mana Density: Medium

Known Inhabitants:

— Giant Grasshoppers

— Kudzu Vines (Invasive)

— Mutated Flora (Active)

— Ambient Mana Entities (Passive)

— Spider Variant 3A (Fleeing Behavior Detected)

A blinking "X" hovered near the edge of the box. I tapped it mentally.

The HUD vanished with a soft tone, and a smaller note popped into place:

Auto-HUD enabled. Display will return when significant change is detected.

I stared at where the door used to be. At the wreckage. The collapsed world behind me. Everything I'd left.

And then turned forward, toward the spiraling trees and half-lit wild.

"What now?" I muttered.

And like an answer, a memory surfaced—Elon Dusk's voice, smug and digital, talking about underground bunkers, sanctuaries lined with food, water, weapons, and tech.

"…The bunkers," I breathed.

They were built for the elite. For "survival," if you could call it that.

But if even one of them was still intact… if someone had made it…

I might not be alone.

I straightened, brushing mud from my hands.

Time to find out