The click of the reinforced iron lock on the computer lab door echoed like a gunshot in the stifling room. Designed with thick window bars and a dual-locking mechanism to deter equipment theft, the structure offered the security the group so desperately needed.
Immediately following the lock's engagement, the noise of approaching monsters crested in a deafening wave. The vibrated concrete floor trembled and the walls shook as dozens of creatures marched and sprinted down the desolate hallway.
"Absolute silence," Allisson whispered, his palm raised flat in the air as he pulled his body flat against the wall.
Peering through the iron grate and the frosted gap of the upper window, Allisson narrowed his eyes. Barely feet from the door, the food chain was unfolding in blood-soaked fashion. Suddenly, a five-foot-long Mutant Lizard—its gray hide covered in keratinized scales and retractable claws—shot down the corridor. It fired its muscular tongue like a high-precision whip, snagging a Mana Cat off the floor and swallowing the feline whole in a single contraction of its throat.
CHOMP!
Without breaking stride, the reptile bolted after another Mana Cat, scaling the masonry wall with terrifying agility and sinking its jaws into its prey. As the horde of other monsters continued their mad dash, the lizard pressed on right behind them, devouring whatever it could catch until the trail of footsteps and roars dissolved into the shadows.
After a full minute of dead silence, the corridor froze. Only the stench of ozone and rust persisted. The group finally relaxed their muscles inside the computer lab.
Allisson rushed immediately to his food reserves, retrieved from the teachers' lounge during his previous raid alongside Paulo. He grabbed his backpack, pulled out packages of filled sandwich cookies and cream crackers, and devoured the portions ravenously, tipping back a plastic bottle to gulp down nearly a liter of water to rehydrate his dry throat.
Turning around, he faced Ângela. With the bird's dark skull fitted over her head, the doctor cut the sinister figure of a Plague Doctor. Allisson triggered [Structural Analysis] to inspect the piece of equipment:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[EQUIPMENT IDENTIFICATION: CARCARÁ HELM]
Rarity: Rare
Description: The skull of a corrupted Carcará, condensed and purified via Mana.
Stat Bonuses: +2.0 Perception, +1.0 Constitution
[SKILLS]
[Raptor Vision - Lv. 1]: Increases visual tracking precision and threat assessment within the perimeter. Allows the user to instantly identify the frailest or most wounded target in a group (the "prey") and map high-risk targets ("threats"), bypassing low-level camouflage or dim lighting.
[The Predator's Hour - Lv. 1]: Emits a constant intimidating aura. Causes the user to appear far more threatening to those around them. If an enemy or ally uses an identification skill on the user, the interface will register their Level indicator as +1 Level higher than actual.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
At the same time, Allisson looked at Ângela’s status panel: the interface now registered her as Level ???, proving the practical effect of the helm’s passive. Allisson evaluated the item internally with fascination; it was an incredible piece of gear both for identifying biological threats along the perimeter and for masking one's true strength to intimidate adversaries.
Allisson approached Ângela and asked her to heal him a bit more, at least enough to fully close the lacerations on his left arm caused by the Carcará.
Ângela nodded and activated [Metabolic Stimulation]. Under tiny electrical surges, the raw edges of the wounds on his arm stitched together completely. The metabolic reaction, however, was instantaneous: Allisson felt a terrible, devastating hunger rip through his stomach. Left with no choice, he consumed the remainder of the food he had set aside for himself and passed around the extra water. Paulo, who also had his own stash in the second backpack, shared his supplies with Abner and Jade. Solid food was scarce, but there was enough water for everyone.
Taking advantage of the lull, Allisson executed a status read on his allies:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[STATUS PANEL: ADSON]
Name: Adson (Human)
Level: 3 (35 / 50 XP)
Class: None
[STATS]
Strength: 11.0
Dexterity: 9.0
Constitution: 12.0
Intelligence: 7.0
Perception: 9.0
Mana: 4.0
Unassigned Points: 0
[ACTIVE SKILL]
[Textural Mimicry - Lv. 1]: Upon direct physical contact, the user absorbs the physical properties, density, and rigidity of the material touched (steel, wood, ceramic, or concrete), altering their epidermal structure. Grants structural resistance equal to the material, but inherits its physical drawbacks (e.g., the weight of metal drastically reduces Dexterity).
Cost: 1.0 Mana per minute.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Allisson analyzed Adson’s skill as an excellent tool for a Tank role. Depending on the material he absorbed—such as reinforced steel or even extremely dense substances like diamond—he could become an unshakeable wall in critical moments.
Next, he checked the data for his other two companions:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[STATUS PANEL: JADE]
Name: Jade (Human)
Level: 2 (10 / 25 XP)
Class: None
[STATS]
Strength: 4.5
Dexterity: 5.5
Constitution: 5.5
Intelligence: 9.5
Perception: 8.5
Mana: 5.0
Unassigned Points: 2
[ACTIVE SKILL]
[Blinding Light - Lv. 1]: Emission of a high-intensity beam of light. Inflicts temporary blindness and disorientation on light-sensitive targets.
Cost: 1.0 Mana.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[STATUS PANEL: PIERRE]
Name: Pierre (Human)
Level: 3 (10 / 50 XP)
Class: None
[STATS]
Strength: 9.0
Dexterity: 10.0
Constitution: 9.0
Intelligence: 13.0
Perception: 11.0
Mana: 6.0
Unassigned Points: 3
[ACTIVE SKILL]
[Spatial Teleportation - Lv. 1]: Folds the fabric of space to instantly shift the user's mass an initial distance of 10 cm per activation. Maximum range scales directly with Mana.
Lethal Risk (Matter Overwrite): If the destination overlaps with solid matter, molecular fusion (overwrite) occurs, resulting in immediate amputation or instant death.
Cost: 1.0 Mana.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Allisson looked down at Pierre, who remained unconscious on the floor, and asked Ângela if she could apply [Metabolic Stimulation] to wake him up.
"He is likely deaf and has suffered severe acoustic trauma from the Carcará’s skill," Ângela explained, her cold voice coming from behind the bone helm. "If I use my skill on him right now, I will kill him via nutritional depletion. [Metabolic Stimulation] doesn't create healing out of thin air; it accelerates cellular mitosis by violently consuming the patient's own biological reserves."
She adjusted her surgical glove and continued:
"Although I managed to grab some vitamins and basic medication from the infirmary, I don't have the equipment for parenteral nutrition or IV fluids. He will have to wake up on his own. But even if he does, we need real nutrients to survive and rebuild his body. We need to head to the cafeteria."
Allisson cut her off immediately, his brow furrowing:
"Going to the cafeteria is suicide, Ângela. When the Event started, most students were in class, but dozens were already in the cafeteria, and scores of others ran there in a panic. That concentration of bodies drew the vast majority of the horrors. The creatures lurking down there are at a much higher level and far stronger than the corrupted Carcará we just fought!"
Ângela stared back at Allisson through the hollow eye sockets of her Carcará mask.
"I’m not giving options, Allisson. I’m stating a reality. We need actual food. If we want to save Pierre and keep this group alive, we go to the cafeteria and we secure those supplies."