Now the question remained—what to do next? He sat down at the computer and began studying the city map. Large grocery stores, warehouses, and gas stations stood out to him. All of these could potentially be useful, but above all, David wanted to verify his calculations about the size of the dome.
“Better to check it personally,” he thought, entering the route into the navigation system. A perimeter sweep might yield valuable information about the borders of his new world, possible anomalies, or even weaknesses in the dome.
David began preparing for the journey ahead. After the incident with the overturned car, he hesitated for a long time about whether to use Kevin’s electric car again. However, the autopilot was too useful to give up—especially for a potentially dangerous route. He sighed heavily and, gritting his teeth, made the decision to use the vehicle once more.
First, he took care of provisions. He gathered a few bottles of water, some granola bars, packed everything into a backpack, and placed it beside the driver’s seat.
Next, he worked on the map. Although he already had an offline version of the city map, he double-checked that it was downloaded to both his laptop and smartphone. He reviewed the saved routes, marked the presumed edges of the dome, and noted potential escape paths.
The most difficult part of the preparation was arming himself. David pondered how to increase his firepower without sacrificing mobility.
He selected four robots and attached them around the car’s sunroof, securing them with cables. The setup looked pretty flimsy, but in theory, it should work. The robots were equipped with pistols and, theoretically, would shoot at dogs. David double-checked the “friendly targets” list to make sure he had added himself.
Looking at his improvised defense system, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, it looks like crap, but it should work,” he muttered, patting the nearest robot on its chassis. He got behind the wheel and started the car. Time to hit the road.
Once all preparations were complete, David headed out on his road trip. He decided to start by going to the spot where he had first crashed into the dome—it was the closest, which would save him time and energy.
The car rolled smoothly down the empty streets, while his mechanical guards fired at any monsters.
“Bon appétit!”
“Bon appétit!”
“Bon appétit!”
David just sighed, remembering that he still hadn’t disabled that voice line. Then again, there was a certain charm to it.
Abandoned stores and office buildings flashed past the windows.
As he passed the gas station where he had stopped during the first iteration, David immediately sensed that something was wrong… He focused on the spot where the dome should have ended—but it wasn’t there. The dome's boundary was now closer to the gas station! Luckily, he knew what to look for and was alert—otherwise, he might have crashed into the invisible wall again.
“Hm… That’s really bad news,” he muttered, stepping out of the car and approaching the barrier. He cautiously reached out, and his fingers bumped into an invisible yet completely impenetrable wall. David tapped it a few times with his knuckles.
Parking the car a little distance away from the dome’s edge (he still remembered that monsters spawned directly from the walls), David sat on the hood and began analyzing the situation.
What could have caused the dome to shrink? He came up with several theories:
- Time-based compression – Maybe the dome shrinks by itself over time. David marked where the dome started and waited for 15 minutes, during which the robots killed another dog, but the dome didn’t budge a millimeter.
- Death count – This would mean that every failed loop brought him closer to the end.
- Monster kills – Perhaps the dome shrinks in response to a certain number of creatures being eliminated. If that’s the case, his combat robots—constantly shooting at dogs—were only hastening his doom.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The more he thought about it, the more he leaned toward the second option. It seemed the most practical for whoever had orchestrated all this. Most likely, they needed warriors, and this was how they filtered and trained candidates… for something. He’d have to test this in future iterations, but for now, he’d proceed under the assumption that his theory was correct.
“If this really is caused by dying… then I don’t have infinite tries. I need to… die less,” David muttered, getting off the hood and heading back to the car, grimacing at the memory of his last—and very stupid—death.
Now he had a new goal: test his theory and figure out how to stop the dome from shrinking before it was too late.
David sat down in the driver’s seat, took one last look at the dome, and started the car. He decided to stick to his original plan: circle the perimeter and study its borders. Despite the recent discovery that the dome was shrinking, he knew it was all still speculation—new information could change everything.
After driving about a quarter of the perimeter, he noticed movement near the very edge of the dome. A new creature seemed to flow out of the invisible wall. At first glance, it resembled the mutant dogs, but its movements were smoother, more graceful—almost feline. A panther-like creature, like the dogs, lacked skin. But most importantly—it had a dark, pulsing orb in the middle of its forehead, resembling an eye.
When it lunged at him, David instinctively threw the car into reverse and floored the accelerator. The robots mounted on the roof reacted instantly—“Bon appétit!”—and opened chaotic fire. However, the bullets didn’t land. A shimmering, translucent field flared up in front of the creature, catching every projectile.
David quickly assessed the situation. The shield clearly originated from the creature’s third eye. The panther-like monster kept closing in, unfazed by his attempts to stop it—as if mocking him.
But, like everything in this world, the barrier had its limits. A loud crack rang out a few seconds later. The shield fractured, flashed, and vanished. The very next shot struck the panther square in the head, knocking it over. It collapsed onto the road, twitched a few times, then went still.
David cautiously approached the creature’s body, weapon at the ready. He examined it carefully. Though it was skinless, its body was darker than the others. Bullet wounds covered its form, and the strange eye still sat on its forehead. Thick, dark liquid oozed slowly from its wounds, making a quiet sizzling sound as it touched the ground.
“Great, acid blood too. Perfect organism?” David muttered, frowning. Maybe I can learn something new by studying it…?
He removed all valuable items from the trunk and carefully, without touching the blood, loaded the panther’s body into it. It felt like it was made of metal, but apparently, his levels weren’t just cosmetic—though he was breathing a little hard, he managed to shut the trunk.
David wiped sweat from his forehead and looked around. Everything was quiet.
He set off again, continuing to patrol the dome's perimeter and carefully scanning his surroundings.
The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful: a couple of large and several small demonic dogs, but nothing the automated—ahem—“turrets” couldn’t handle.
Once back at the office base, the first thing David did was close the gates, blocking them with a truck. Then he put on gloves and began unloading the panther’s corpse. Its blood had already started to corrode the trunk’s metal, leaving dents and dark corrosion marks. He laid down a tarp, dragged the body onto it, and hauled it into the building.
He brought it to the cafeteria (which had the most knives) and laid out his "tools" to begin the dissection. The creature’s internals were surprisingly similar to a regular panther's—at least, as far as David could tell (he had never dissected a panther before—yes, a major gap in his resume). But one thing clearly stood out (besides the fact that the tools and gloves were quickly deteriorating from the blood)—the strange third eye in its forehead.
He carefully cut it out. The eye was as hard as stone. After washing it clean, David found it was about the size of a grape, a bit smaller than the panther’s other eyes. It had a cloudy, milky-gray hue, like a fortune teller’s glass orb. David turned it over thoughtfully in his hands, wondering if this organ was indeed the source of the barrier that had appeared during the attack. The only way to know was through trial and error.
First, he tested its durability. A needle wouldn’t pierce it. A gentle hammer tap—nothing.
He hooked it up to a multimeter—no results. Then he passed a mild electrical current through it—still nothing.
Next experiment: heat. He tried to roast the eye on a stove—it only blackened slightly, with no interesting effects. In boiling water, it held its shape, though it did grow warm.
Trying to freeze it in liquid nitrogen also produced no significant results.
Running out of ideas, David even tried dripping the panther’s acid blood onto the eye—but it simply rolled off, causing no damage. He was beginning to feel disappointed when a new idea struck him: What if I swallowed it? Maybe it activates inside a living organism?
David closed his eyes, steeled his nerves, and swallowed it whole. Almost immediately, a wave of heat surged through his body, and strange numbers flickered in his mind:
Mana 20%
Mana 40%
Mana 80%
Mana 160%
Overload. Warning: Overload may cause mana poisoning.
The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was the sound of his own body hitting the floor.