The purple icon pulsed on Leon's mini-map, standing out against the black void of the unexplored territory like a bruised star.
"There," Layla's voice echoed, sharp with focus. "A System encounter. And It's stationary."
Leon squinted through the suffocating darkness. It was already around 10 PM, and the sun had long since abandoned them. They had been walking for hours, dragging their exhausted bodies through the maze of scrap, but every crevice looked like a trap and every hollow smelled of wet fur—they had found nowhere safe to camp.
The mission timer in his vision glowed with mocking brightness against the black sky:
[ 13:47:22 ]
They had been walking for almost ten hours, navigating the treacherous maze of Ilha Grande's interior. The mini-map had filled in considerably—a growing web of wireframe terrain that marked their path like breadcrumbs through hell.
"Another fruit tree?" Briana asked, wiping sweat from her forehead.
"Unknown," Leon replied.
Layla analyzed. "The signature is different. Larger. But it's definitely a System manifestation."
They changed course. The terrain here flattened out, the chaotic piles of loose scrap giving way to compacted earth and broken concrete slabs.
It felt exposed, vulnerable.
The purple icon grew brighter as they approached, and then Leon saw it.
"What the hell?" he whispered.
Sitting in the middle of a small clearing, pristine and utterly impossible, was an ambulance.
It was ancient, pre-collapse era, painted white with faded red crosses on its flanks. But unlike everything else on this cursed island, it looked... intact. The doors hung properly on their hinges. The windows, though cracked, weren't shattered. And most impossibly of all, it sat level on the ground—no tires, no rims, no engine block visible beneath the hood—just a hollow chassis that somehow refused to sink into the soft earth.
"This is wrong," Briana said, stopping several meters away. "This thing screams that it shouldn't be here. I'm not a scavenger, Leon, but even I know that's outrageous just by looking at it."
"Agreed," Layla said in Leon's head. "But the System signature is unmistakable. It is a Safe Zone, just like the verdant oasis we met before, a place that doesn't seem to connect with the rest of the environment."
Leon approached slowly, his right hand ready, the cable pulsing beneath his skin. He circled the vehicle once, checking for threats. Nothing attacked. Nothing moved.
He pulled open the rear doors.
Inside, the ambulance was a time capsule.
Three patient gurneys lined the walls, their thin mattresses surprisingly intact, protected from the elements by the sealed interior. Medical cabinets hung above them.
"It's... clean," Briana said, her voice carrying disbelief as she climbed inside. She ran her hand along one of the mattresses. No dampness. No decay. "Real beds."
"The insulation is perfect," Layla muttered.
Leon didn't argue. He methodically checked the cabinets. Most were empty or held rusted tools. But in the bottom drawer, tucked behind a box of decayed gloves, he found it.
A small cylindrical container. It was matte black, made of the same synthetic material as the System items, with no visible seams or labels. It pulsed faintly with internal light.
Leon reached out, his cable surging instinctively from his palm.
[ ITEM: Med-Grade Antibiotic Pack ]
[ RANK: Uncommon ]
[ EFFECT: High-potency broad-spectrum treatment. ]
Let me see, Layla said. The amber text dissolved, replaced by her electric blue interface.
[ LAYLA'S ANALYSIS ]
[ CONTENT: 30x Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Tablets ]
[ PRESERVATION: Vacuum-Insulation]
[ Broad-coverage against all of known bacterial and fungal strains catalogued in Earth's biosphere as of 2207. Take up to one pill per day over a cycle of 3 days. ]
"This is not primitive pharmacology. The molecular structure bypasses standard bacterial and fungi resistance mechanisms. It's overkill for most infections, but in an environment like this... it's survival insurance. Or at least a gold mine in the near future."
Leon slipped the cylinder into his pack. "We definitely have to keep it safe" "We should sleep now."
The night passed without danger. The insulation of the ambulance held, hiding their heat signatures and scent from the prowling Beasts. However, the silence inside was broken by a different kind of monster.
ZZZZZ-GHKKK-ZZZZZ.
Briana stared at the ceiling, wide awake. Leon was snoring with the force of a diesel generator. She kicked the side of his gurney, but he just grunted and rolled over, continuing the cacophony. It was annoying, but in a strange way… comforting. It was a human sound in a world of monsters.
They woke with the sun.
They had managed about six hours of sleep. Leon sat up, checking the timer immediately. It glowed in a warning orange hue.
[ 06:48:12 ]
"Less than seven hours," Briana said, rubbing her eyes.
They moved out quickly. The sun was still rising on the horizon, casting long shadows.
They walked for almost an hour, the terrain sloping downward until the mountains of trash finally gave way to the coast.
Abraão Beach lay before them.
It was a graveyard. The tide washed over a shoreline littered not with seashells, but with the bloated, half-eaten remains of the "Spared" who had tried to flee. Bodies were spread on the beach like a terrible nightmare.
"Beasts," Layla warned. "Four signatures."
Leon scanned the beach. Huge shapes moved among the wreckage.
"We need to reach the pier," Leon pointed to the rotting wooden structure. At the end of it bobbed a converted trawler. The faded paint on the hull still held the name, barely legible but defiant: ESPERANÇA.
"Thiago's boat," Leon whispered.
They moved low, using the wreckage for cover. They reached the pier unnoticed, sprinting down the wooden planks. Leon vaulted onto the deck first, rushing to the wheelhouse.
He lifted the rubber mat. Nothing.
He checked the dashboard. The glove box. Under the seat.
"No," Leon hissed, tearing a cushion off the captain's chair. "No! He always kept the key here!"
"It's not here?" Briana asked, panic rising.
"Layla?" Leon asked, desperate. "Can you hotwire this?"
"You know I can't interact physically with it", she replied. "But the cable can mimic the key shape. Insert it into the ignition."
Leon jammed his palm against the ignition. The black cable surged out, filling the metal slot.
"Now I have a physical connection", Layla said. "But it requires a code. Only the original key has the chip."
"So we're stuck"
"No. The System hardware hosting my core gives me heat-free processing power. I will brute-force the code. Trial and error. Keep the cable steady."
HOOOOOOOOWL!
Leon froze. On the beach, a massive, wolf-like Beast had stopped eating. It was looking directly at the boat.
"It saw us, hurry up Leon! I don't know what you are doing, but hurry up!" Briana screamed.
The wolf-thing charged. But before it reached the pier, another roar cut through the air. A second Beast—territorial and hungry—intercepted the wolf, tackling it into the surf.
"They're fighting each other!" Leon shouted. "Layla, hurry up!"
[Processing... Combination 7,812,405 failed...]
"We have a problem," Briana whispered.
A third creature had emerged from under the pier.
It was different. Smaller, humanoid, with slick, pale skin. But it was its face that froze Leon's blood. It didn't look mindless. Its eyes were sharp, calculating. It wasn't drooling or roaring. It looked... rational.
It leaped onto the pier deck with a fluid, silent grace. It looked at the fighting beasts, then at Leon and Briana. It decided they were the easier meal.
"Keep working on the key!" Briana yelled.
She stepped forward, her Greaves flaring to life. She launched a roundhouse kick at the creature's head.
The creature didn't block. It ducked.
It moved with frightening intelligence, sliding under her leg. Briana stumbled, her momentum carrying her forward. The creature hissed, grabbing her ankle and slamming her onto the deck.
Briana gasped, the air leaving her lungs. The creature loomed over her, raising a clawed hand to end it.
"Think" Briana's mind raced. "School. Angra Militiamen Defense Class. Ground Game."
She didn't try to get up. She coiled her legs against her chest, planting her feet against the creature's torso.
Leverage.
"DIE!" she screamed.
She triggered the Greaves. Both legs kicked upward simultaneously, dumping the kinetic energy of a hydraulic press directly into the creature's chin.
CRUNCH.
The sound was wet and final. The creature's head snapped back, obliterating under the force. The monster was launched backward off the boat, dead before it hit the water.
"Got it!" Layla shouted.
The engine of the Esperança sputtered and roared to life.
"Briana! Get up!" Leon yelled, slamming the throttle forward.
The boat lurched, tearing away from the pier.
On the beach, the wolf-Beast had won its fight. It saw its other prey escaping. With a roar, it sprinted into the water, swimming with terrifying speed.
"It's faster than the boat! Hurry up Briana!"
Leon yelled, looking back.
Briana was still on the deck, clutching her bruised arms. The boat was moving, but the Beast was gaining. It leaped from the water, claws scrabbling at the stern railing, pulling its massive bulk onto the wood.
"Run to the front!" Leon screamed.
Briana scrambled up. She looked at the cabin roof. She looked at the Beast climbing the rail. She looked at her boots.
One last breath.
She didn't run away. She ran toward the stern, feinting a charge, then turned and sprinted toward the cabin.
The Beast lunged.
Briana hit the edge of the deck and jumped. She poured the last drop of power into the Greaves.
BOOM.
She soared through the air, clearing the gap to the cabin roof. But the Beast was mid-air too, swiping desperately with its massive paw.
CLANG.
The blow didn't hit her back. The Beast's claws slammed into her right shin—directly onto the armor of the Burst-Step Greaves.
Briana cried out as the force of the blow spun her mid-air like a top. She crashed onto the cabin roof, rolling violently before slamming into the antenna mast.
The Beast, missing its grip, fell into the churning wake of the propeller. The blades caught it, and the water turned red.
"Briana!"
Leon locked the wheel and scrambled up to her. She was clutching her right leg, face pale.
"It hit me," she gasped. "It hit the boot."
Leon looked at the leg. The jeans were torn away, revealing the dark, metallic surface of the Greaves. There were three deep gouges in the material, sparks flying from the damaged tech.
"It's broken," Briana whispered, terrified. "My item is broken."
"Wait," Leon said, leaning closer. "Look."
The damage wasn't permanent. As they watched, the black material of the Greaves began to bubble. It looked like boiling tar or living mercury. The edges of the gouges softened, flowing toward each other, knitting together strand by strand.
Leon instinctively raised his hand, his own cable surging out to hover over the repair process.
[ ITEM STATUS: Self-Repair Protocol Active ]
"Fascinating", Layla's voice whispered in Leon's mind. But she didn't sound detached this time. She sounded awestruck.
"What is it?" Leon asked.
"I see it," Layla murmured. "The heat from the damage... the way the material repurposes energy to reconstitute its lattice structure…"
A stream of complex data flooded Leon's mind, too fast for him to read, but Layla was drinking it in.
"This black material... it isn't just hardware, Leon. It's programmable matter operating on a biological logic substrate. It heals like skin but calculates like a quantum processor."
The gouges on Briana's leg vanished, leaving the Greaves smooth and pristine once more.
"Things are beginning to connect in my head", Layla said, her voice dropping to a whisper."I am beginning to understand the primal logic of this System. It doesn't build tools. It builds extensions of the self, modifying form and repurposing its functions like a metamorphic device."
The Esperança cut through the waves, leaving the nightmare of Ilha Grande behind in the fading light.
PING!
The air shimmered, and the familiar, chaotic window popped up, marking the end of their first assignment.
[ MISSION COMPLETE: ESCAPE FROM ILHA GRANDE ]