No Safe Place
Seo Hae-jin returned to the ridge at sunset.
He moved without noise. Each step placed carefully, exactly where the system guided him.
Below, the village was changing.
Lanterns glowed in every window. Shadows moved behind thin curtains.
Voices rose in frantic arguments.
He crouched behind a cluster of rocks and watched.
---
Near the well, a group had gathered.
A man held something in his hands—a wooden bucket. Water sloshed over the rim, dark and cloudy.
"What is this?" he demanded.
No one answered.
A woman leaned closer. She touched the surface, then sniffed her fingers. Her face went pale.
"It's foul," she whispered. "Rotten."
Someone retched behind her.
Seo Hae-jin saw every detail. The way their eyes shifted to the darkness. The way they pulled back, as if afraid the shadows would reach for them.
Fear made people predictable.
---
He felt a flicker in the Hive Link.
The larva in the well waited at the bottom, hidden under the muck.
He didn't need to give it any more commands. It would remain there until nothing drinkable remained.
---
At the square, the old leader tried to calm them.
"Stay inside," he shouted. "Bar the doors. Keep watch!"
A man grabbed his arm.
"My boy is sick," he said. His voice broke. "He drank from the bucket—"
"I can't help him."
"You have to—"
Seo Hae-jin watched the leader shove the man back.
Panic cracked the village's order.
He rested one hand on the rock in front of him, feeling the cold grit under his palm.
---
He could end them all tonight.
Release everything he had.
But this was better.
Watching them struggle. Watching them waste their strength trying to find hope.
When the last hope died, the rest would fall with it.
---
In the alley behind the granary, a different group worked with torches.
They were pulling barrels outside, smashing them open. Grain spilled across the dirt.
"Check everything," a woman ordered. "If it smells wrong, burn it."
Flames caught the spilled grain. Orange light washed over their faces.
Seo Hae-jin tilted his head, studying them.
They were trying to destroy contamination. Trying to save what little remained.
He almost admired it.
But it wouldn't matter.
The larvae were in their homes. Their wells. Their food stores.
He reached into the Hive Link.
Report.
He felt a rush of impressions.
Movement. Warmth. Voices.
More than a dozen larvae, scattered across the village, each marking new prey.
---
One had crawled under a child's blanket.
Another clung to the rafters over the main hall.
Two more slipped into barrels they hadn't checked yet.
Good.
He opened his eyes. The night felt very still.
---
A scream rose from the far side of the square.
People ran toward the sound, torches bobbing in the dark.
He could see them crowding into a doorway.
A woman stumbled out. Her hands were covered in blood.
"It bit him!" she shrieked. "It crawled on his face—"
No one knew what to do.
No one knew how to fight something they couldn't see.
Seo Hae-jin watched the crowd split apart.
A man retched against the wall. Another collapsed to his knees, mumbling prayers.
He saw the old leader raise his head and look around, as if hoping for guidance.
There was none coming.
---
He could have felt pity, but nothing stirred inside him.
Only the cold satisfaction of progress.
---
He reached into the Symbol again.
> > [Deploy Twenty Larvae.]
A shimmering tide of black insects spread across the dirt behind him.
They moved as one, silent and purposeful.
He pointed toward the village.
"Go."
The larvae disappeared into the tall grass.
---
The sky was bright with stars.
He stood and brushed the dust from his palms.
In a few hours, there would be nowhere left
to hide.
No safe house. No safe meal.
He turned away, walking into the darkness.
Each step carried the certainty of what was coming.
Not hope. Not chance.
Just extinction.