The world started to look wrong. The further Peters drove, the more the rules of nature seemed to be bending. The trees lining the road to Portalis Park were no longer just trees; they were titans, their trunks impossibly thick, their canopy a dense, pulsating emerald that blotted out the sun.

  The air grew thick and humid, filled with a scent so overpowering it was almost dizzying. It was the smell of life, a rich, loamy perfume of rampant growth so intense it felt like a physical presence. It was In the air itself, a charge that made my lungs tingle, like breathing pure oxygen. The exhaustion that had been clinging to me like a wet coat began to evaporate, replaced by a strange, humming alertness.

  Something is infecting this area, I thought, my hand resting on the grip of my holstered pistol. But it seems to be boosting the vitality of whatever it touches, enhancing it to an almost… tangible level.

  As we crested a hill, I saw it. “Peters, slow down,” I said, leaning forward. A hand, reaching for the sky. Just a hand at first, silhouetted against the canopy. Looked almost peaceful. Then we got closer.

  The hand was attached to an arm, which was attached to the shoulder of a guy in tactical gear. The rest of him was… redecorated. Torn open. A giant lizard lay next to him, riddled with bullet holes. The scent of death finally broke through the wall of perfume. The sharp, coppery tang of blood and the pungent rot of the lizard’s guts. But it was muted, a discordant note in a symphony of life, quickly swallowed by the overwhelming scent of the forest.

  And then my vision filled with blue. Another goddamn pop-up window, right in the middle of a fresh crime scene.

  Urgent quest creation. Dungeon gate clear.

  “Holy shit…” I muttered, the words barely escaping my lips.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “What? What is it?” Peters’ voice was a mix of alarm and a kid’s breathless excitement. “Is that the blue screen? What does it say?”

  I didn’t answer right away, my eyes still scanning the clinical text.

  ?A gate has opened in your vicinity. Monsters contained within those gates are trying to invade your world.

  ?No shit, Sherlock, I thought, my eyes flicking to the mangled corpse.

  ?Defeat the monsters and clear the gate to end their invasion. If the gate is not cleared within 7 days, the gate will stabilize and all the monsters will be released at once.

  A quest. The system was calling this a fucking quest, like we were knights in shining armor and not two cops in a cruiser heading towards god knows what.

  “It’s a… a mission brief,” I finally said, the word ‘quest’ feeling too stupid to say out loud. “Tells us there’s a ‘gate’ nearby and we have seven days to ‘clear’ it before all hell really breaks loose.”

  “A gate? Like a dungeon gate?” Peters leaned over, trying to see the screen that wasn’t there for him. “That is so cool!”

  Cool wasn’t the word I would have used. ‘Apocalyptic’ felt a little closer to the mark.

  A second notification pinged, a little exclamation mark reminding me of the level-up I’d earned at the ambulance. Five stat points waited to be spent. I’d also earned a new title, ‘First to Level Up!,’ which had already juiced all my stats by another five points. So that's what the level-up gave me. A new title and five points to spend. Not a bad trade for almost dying.

  I didn’t have to think about it. Every failure today, every person I couldn’t save, came down to a fraction of a second. Faster.

  ?I dumped all five points into Agility without hesitation. The System confirmed the change, my full status flashing in my vision.

  Level: 2

  Agility: 34 → 39 ?

  Available Stat Points: 5 → 0

  ?A familiar, electric hum washed through me, tightening my muscles, sharpening my nerves. It felt good. And that scared the hell out of me.

  I saw the numbers change and immediately dismissed the windows. “Peters, keep moving,” I said, my voice grim. “Slowly.”

  The road ahead was a war zone. Wrecked tactical vehicles from the North District PD were scattered like toys. More bodies, both human and lizard, littered the asphalt.

  Whoever these guys were, they’d put up one hell of a fight. And they’d lost.

  Then we heard it. Not a single shot, but a continuous, rolling thunder. A wall of gunfire, just over the next rise.

  We had found the front line.