The forest greeted him like a throat swallowing.
Trees leaned close, bark blistered and black. No birds. No wind. Only the crunch of wet leaves beneath his boots and the low hum of Parasight threading behind his thoughts.
> [Subsystem Unlock: Stealth – Initializing…]
[Replay Log: Active]
[Inventory: Empty]
[Kill Points: 15]
[Entropy: 3.7%]
His name was Asher Vail. The system told him so.
But everything before the ritual was missing—like someone had redacted the entire first chapter of his life. He knew language, how to fight, how to move. He could name what he saw: birch, fog, blade.
But not where he'd learned it.
> [Memory Integrity: Corrupted]
[Priority Alert: Recovery Requires Entropy Threshold – 15% Minimum]
He paused beneath a slanted birch, breath misting in the cold.
Who had he been before all this?
A soldier? A killer?
Or worse—something made to be used.
The helmet's HUD flickered with faint static. Not malfunctioning. Reacting. He turned his head just enough to catch it—movement at the edge of perception.
Not an animal.
Not human.
A tall, pale silhouette.
Unmoving.
Faceless.
Watching.
And then it was gone.
> [Unknown Entity Detected – Replay Log Marked: "Redacted Observer"]
He didn't chase it. Just marked the location mentally and moved on.
There were worse things than being hunted.
He'd killed twelve cultists during the ritual—if Parasight was right. Zalgo-worshipers. Deranged enough to try binding a god.
But instead of Zalgo answering, Parasight had hijacked the summoning. And he… he must've woken in the middle of the slaughter. Or finished it while something else wore his hands.
The system never said how they died.
That silence said enough.
He dropped low as a drone of insects passed overhead—a surveillance bug, bulbous and twitching with rust-colored tech. Asher watched it blink away, then checked the map etched in his HUD.
A small town lay ahead. Condemned. Lost in the bureaucratic cracks. The kind of place where people disappeared and no one asked why.
Perfect.
He tapped into the Stealth Subsystem.
> [Stealth XP: 0%]
[Skill Locked – "Shadow Flicker"]
[Requirements: 50% Subsystem XP + 100 KP]
The system wanted evolution through action.
So be it.
He melted into the trees, body low, heartbeat calm.
Whatever he had once been, whoever he had lost—
He'd earn the answers in blood and silence.
And somewhere far behind him…
The tall thing watched.