The Esperança didn't die with a cough or a sputter; it simply ceased to exist as a vehicle.
The high-pitched whine of the electric propulsion drive cut out instantly, leaving only the sound of water slapping against the fiberglass hull.
The silence was sudden and absolute.
Leon didn't bother turning the key or mashing the throttle. He just stared at the digital readout on the control panel.
[BATTERY LEVEL: CRITICAL]
"Well," Leon sighed, leaning back in the captain's chair. "That's it. We're drifting."
"What do you mean?" Briana asked, looking from the dead console to the distant, hazy outline of the mainland. "Can't we... I don't know, jump-start it?"
"It's an electric drive, Briana. It runs on high-density battery cells" Leon explained, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Thiago never maintained the cells. We burned almost everything just by accelerating at max potency when escaping the island."
The sun was high now, hammering down on the open deck. Without the wind from their movement, the heat became physical, a heavy blanket pressing them down.
"So we just wait?" Briana asked.
"No. We find the backup," Leon said. "Thiago told me once that this boat was self sufficient. He mentioned a solar array, but I've never seen panels on the deck."
He raised his right hand. The cable surged from his palm, slithering over the sun-bleached plastic of the dashboard. It didn't look for an ignition spark; it looked for a data stream.
"Layla, find me the charging circuit. Scan the circuitry, please."
"Scanning…" Layla's voice was cool in his overheated mind. "The main port is dead. However, there is a dormant subsystem connected to a hydraulic release mechanism in the cabin roof. It's completely separate from the main drive."
"How do I trigger it?"
"The interface is worn off. But comparing the main board design with the buttons' position it may be the third toggle from the left. The one that looks stuck."
Leon found the switch. It was encrusted with salt and grime. He jammed his thumb against it, forcing it upward.
CLUNK.
A heavy mechanical latch released above them.
WHIRRRRRR.
From the center of the cabin roof, a metallic spine telescoped upward, rising three meters into the air. At the apex, it didn't just unfold stiff panels; it exploded outward. A shimmering, black hexagonal mesh unfurled like a high-tech umbrella, stretching wide enough to cover the entire boat.
Shadow fell over them instantly.
"Whoa," Briana breathed, stepping under the mesh.
"Solar Charging Urgency Protocol engaged," Layla noted. "This is a flexible graphene-lattice. It captures UV and Infrared. Efficiency is not great, but better than nothing. It also provides excellent thermal shielding."
The temperature on the deck felt like it dropped by ten degrees. A faint, rhythmic humming began deep inside the boat's hull as the batteries began to drink the sun.
"It's charging," Leon said, watching the gauge flicker to 1%. "But it's going to take hours to get enough juice to reach Mangaratiba. We have time."
He reached into his pack and pulled out the two Special Gift Boxes. In the shade of the solar mesh, they glowed with an inviting, unnatural light.
"Might as well see if we got lucky," Leon said, sliding the silver-wrapped box toward Briana. "Ladies first."
Briana hesitated, her hand hovering over the ribbon. "The System says it is 'Special'. Does that mean...?"
As her finger brushed the ribbon, the air shimmered. A window popped up, but it wasn't the flashing neon of the roulette. It was a dull, beige rectangle.
"Ugh, finally," the bored, nasal voice of the secretary—the one Briana had yelled at in the cave—echoed around them. She sounded like she was leaning back in a chair, filing her nails. "Okay, look. 'Special' just means I filtered out the garbage. You won't get any Common tier items. You might get Uncommon, you might get something decent. Just open it so I can go back to standby."
The window vanished.
"No Common items," Briana's eyes widened. "That increases the odds for the good stuff drastically."
She pulled the ribbon.
The silver paper didn't tear; it dissolved into white light. Hovering in the air was a small, heavy object. It looked like a Zippo lighter, but the casing was transparent, revealing a complex, churning chamber inside.
[EXTRAORDINARY]
The text flashed in a prismatic, blinding font.
"Extraordinary?!" Leon choked on his water. "That's... that's a very low probability! You have got to be kidding me."
Briana grabbed the item. It felt cold and heavy.
"Let me see that," Layla demanded.
Leon extended his hand, letting the cable brush against the device.
[ITEM: Biomass Conversion Lighter][RANK: Extraordinary]
"Simple description," Layla scoffed. "Let me look deeper."
The blue schematic window overlaid the item in Leon's vision.
[LAYLA'S ANALYSIS][MECHANISM: Cellular breakdown reactor][INPUT: Organic Matter (Wood, leaves, cloth, flesh)][PROCESS: Converts and compresses carbon-based organic matter into a hyper-dense biofuel gel stored in the internal reservoir.][OUTPUT: Upon ignition, it ejects the gel. The flame does not flicker or blow out; it is a semi-solid, sticky plasma that adheres to the target. Burns at 1,500°C. There's also a side button to use it as a common lighter]
"It's a pocket flamethrower," Leon translated, staring at the innocent-looking lighter. "You feed it anything organic—a twig, a bug—and it turns it into napalm jelly. It sticks to whatever you want to burn."
Briana flicked the lid open. Click. She stared at the empty nozzle.
"But..." she frowned. "How would I know that? If you didn't have your cable to read the schematics... how would I know to feed it a bug? It doesn't come with instructions, or even a name like the coupon had..."
"That's the point," Leon said, looking at the device. "The Trade Posts give you the appraisal value, but they also give you information. Or you experiment. The System wants us to explore, to figure things out. If you sit still with a powerful item you don't understand, you're useless."
"Or you blow yourself up trying," Briana whispered, closing the lighter with a snap.
"Exactly." Leon rubbed his hands together. "Okay. My turn. Come on, big money..."
He grabbed his gold-wrapped box. He shook it. It rattled heavily.
"No Common trash. Give me a weapon. Give me a railgun."
He ripped the ribbon.
[RARE]
The text was purple. Respectable, but after Briana's win, it felt underwhelming.
Leon grabbed the item. It wasn't a gun.
It was a fleshy, synthetic lump, about the size of a grenade, covered in pores. It looked like a gland torn out of a giant animal.
"Gross," Briana said.
Leon held it by the pin. "It's... squishy."
"Analyze."
[ITEM: Mimetic Polygland][RANK: Rare][TYPE: Consumable (Single Use)]
"A consumable?" Leon groaned, his head hitting the wall of the cabin. "I got a one-time-use tumor? Layla, please tell me this thing is amazing."
[LAYLA'S ANALYSIS][TARGET: Mimetic Polygland][FUNCTION: Pheromone Decoy][DETAILS: This is a biochemical weapon. Once activated, the gland hyper-accelerates, replicating the full spectrum of human physiological distress markers. It synthesizes blood analogues, cortisol, adrenaline metabolites, and fear-pheromones.][EFFECT: It creates a dense, persistent aerosol cloud. For six hours, this object will smell exactly like a group of wounded, terrified humans. It is irresistible to predatory mutations. Note: Cannot be deactivated once triggered.]
Leon stared at the lump. "It's bait," he muttered. "It's a grenade that explodes into 'smell'."
"What does it do?"
"It mimics us," Leon said, carefully putting the pin back in place. "But worse. If I pull this, every Beast within miles will think there's a buffet of dying humans right here. It draws them in."
"Why would you ever use that?" Briana asked, horrified.
"To lead them away from us," Leon said, stowing it deep in his pack. "Or to lead them into a trap. It's dangerous. But... tactical."
He sighed, looking at the battery gauge. 15%. Still a long wait.
The silence stretched between them, filled only by the hum of the solar mesh.
"Leon…" Briana said softly. "... back in the ambulance you said you know a lot of people in Mangaratiba. You always talk like you've been everywhere."
"I move around," Leon shrugged. "Scavenging isn't a job for people who like to sit still. Why? You lived in Angra. That's a big city. Didn't you have a crew?"
Briana hugged her knees, looking at the glowing Burst-Step Greaves. "I wasn't a scavenger. I was a student. My parents died years ago, during the first collapse. It was just me and my brother, Caio."
Leon stopped watching the gauge. He looked at her.
"He took me to Ilha Grande," she continued, her voice trembling. "When the news started talking about the 'New Sickness'—before the System, before the sky broke—Caio got scared. He said the city was a powder keg. He said the islands were empty enough, isolated. He thought we could hide there until things blew over."
She wiped her eyes, smearing dirt on her cheek.
"He didn't know," Leon said quietly. "Nobody knew the island was going to..."
"He changed right in front of me," Briana whispered. "We were in a scavenger shelter lobby. The sky glitched... and he fell down. He started screaming that his blood was boiling. And then..." She made a splitting motion with her hands near her jaw.
"He was the first Beast I saw," she said, her voice hollow. "He looked at me, and there was nothing behind his eyes. Just hunger. That's when the System gave me the boots. I didn't fight. I just ran. I ran all the way to the tree."
Leon nodded slowly. "And you survived."
"But I'm alone."
"Not anymore," Leon said firmly. "We're going to Mangaratiba because I know the roofs. I know the alleys. And I know people who might still be sane if we get lucky. If there's a place to rest, it's there."
3 hours passed in the blink of an eye.
"Battery at 45%", Layla interrupted their nap. "Sufficient for propulsion to the mainland."
Leon stretched his body and slowly stood up. He hit the retraction button. The solar mesh folded back into the roof with a groan, and the sun hit the deck again.
"Let's go," Leon said.
He pushed the throttle. The electric engine hummed to life, smooth and silent, pushing the Esperança toward the coast.
————
Mangaratiba was a ghost town.
That was the first thing Leon noticed as the coastline solidified.
Usually, the port was a chaotic hive of noise—generators running, people shouting, cranes moving scrap. Now, it was eerily still.
There were no fires, which was good. But there was no movement, which was bad.
"It's too quiet," Leon muttered, steering the boat toward a small, private maintenance deck he used for smuggling runs.
He guided the boat alongside the tire-lined concrete and killed the engine. Silence rushed back in.
"Grab your gear," Leon whispered. "We move fast and find cover."
They hopped onto the concrete. The smell here was different—stagnant water, rotting fish, and dust. But the metallic taste of the Island's radiation was gone.
"Leon," Briana grabbed his arm, her grip tight. "Look."
She pointed down the shoreline, toward the main public beach. Standing at the edge of the water, facing the ocean, was a shape. It was massive—bulbous and wet, looking like a giant sloth made of kelp and driftwood. It stood perfectly still, letting the waves wash over its feet.
"It's not moving," Leon whispered.
"It's a Sentinel Beast," Layla analyzed. "It looks like it is in a dormant state but I'm detecting a low-frequency broadcast. It's pinging the area like a sonar. Do not make loud noises."
"We need to get off the street," Leon hissed.
He turned back to the boat. He knelt by the captain's chair, running his fingers along the rusted bolts at the base.
"What are you doing?" Briana hissed. "We have to go!"
"Thiago was paranoid," Leon muttered. "He didn't trust the glove box."
His finger found the hidden latch. A panel popped open near the floor. Inside, wrapped in an oil-stained rag, was heavy, cold steel.
Leon pulled it out. An old relic. The 2133 version of the 500 Magnum revolver. The finish was not shiny silver anymore, but the cylinder was full.
"Old school," Leon said, checking the action. It clicked softly.
He shoved the gun into his belt, right next to the high-tech filter straw.
"Okay," Leon said, looking at the silent city. "Welcome to Mangaratiba. Keep your hand on that lighter."
He stepped into the shadows of the alley, the gun cold against his side, and led them into the maze.