[Time: 11:35 PM]
[Location: Narrow Alley, Backside of Sector-4 Police Station]
The alley drowned in pitch-black darkness, broken only by a lone streetlight at the far corner that flickered like a dying heartbeat. Zzzzt... Zzzzt...
The street was a graveyard of filth—crumpled plastic bags, shattered bottles, and the discarded remnants of a society that turned its face away.
I stood pressed against the damp wall, motionless.
My new Shadow Hood swallowed me whole, weaving me into the fabric of the night itself.
A stray dog rooted through a heap of garbage, snout buried deep.
Then, abruptly, it froze. Its head snapped up. Nostrils flared.
Its eyes found me in the void.
No bark. No growl.
Only a low, trembling whimper as it tucked its tail between its legs, backed away, and vanished into the shadows.
Animals... sense danger before humans.
I raised my eyes.
Across the narrow street loomed the
Sector-4 Police Station.
Sickly yellow lights bled from its windows, khaki sentries paced lazily beneath them, and the once-white facade now stood stained and weary under the night sky.
To the world, this was a fortress of law.
To my System, it was a Dungeon.
A translucent blue screen hovered silently in front of me, glowing faintly.
[TARGET ANALYSIS]
LOCATION: Police Station (Sector-4)
SECURITY: Low (Night Shift)
THREATS: 15 Armed Personnel
BOSS: Inspector Rathi (Level 5)
[STRATEGY REQUIRED]
Direct Assault: Risk 85% (Gunfire will alert backup)
Stealth Raid: Risk 10% (Optimal)
My fingers brushed the pocket of my jeans.
"Inventory."
Invisible grids shimmered into existence before my eyes.
[SLOT 1]: Rusty Knife
[SLOT 3]: Void Water x5
A cold thought slid through my mind:
I have no gun. Walk through the front gate and they'll shoot. Noise. Chaos. Crowds.
I don't want any of that.*
I want silence. Perfect, absolute silence.
My gaze drifted to the electric transformer
bolted to the side of the building.
Old. Rusted. Bare wires danced with faint sparks in the humid air.
One touch... and every camera, every computer, every light inside would die.
Men strut like lions under bright lights.
Strip the light away, and they crumble into frightened children.
"First the darkness..." I breathed, the words barely disturbing the air.
"...then the hunt."
I pulled the hood lower over my face.
No flicker of emotion. No tremor in my chest.
My heartbeat was steady, cold, silent.
The System whispered in my mind:
[RAID INITIATED]
I peeled away from the wall and glided forward, melting deeper into the black.
Behind me, the last struggling streetlight gave one final sputter...
and died.
As if the darkness itself had opened its arms to welcome me home.
...
[Time: 11:45 PM]
[Location: Sector-4 Police Station — Inside]
The atmosphere inside the station was a strange mix of a fish market and a slaughterhouse.
The old fan on the ceiling creaked and rattled as it turned—khat-khat-khat—but it wasn't enough to dry the sweat on the officers sitting below.
The room reeked of cheap cigarette smoke and the sharp stench of phenyl—the kind used to mask the smell of blood and urine.
In the corner of the lockup, a man lay curled up on the floor.
Raju (the rickshaw puller).
His shirt was torn, and fresh bruises bloomed purple on his back.
Constable Patil swung a thick baton through the air and brought it down hard on Raju's soles.
THAK!
"Aaaah! I didn't see anything!" Raju screamed.
Inspector Rathi sat in his chair, feet propped on the table, exhaling cigarette smoke. He didn't even look up.
"Patil, give him some water. Then ask him again what he was doing outside the 'Old Office' last
night."
"Sir, I wasn't even there! I was..."
"Shut up!" Patil slammed the baton against the bars. CLANG!
"The Minister's men have been killed. We need a 'witness' and a 'culprit.' You decide what you want to be."
On the other side, a tech constable sat glued to the computer screen.
"Sir... this footage still doesn't make sense."
Rathi crushed his cigarette into the ashtray with irritation. "Now what? Isn't the face clear?"
"The face is clear, Sir—it's that same boy," the constable said, pointing at the screen.
"But the problem is the timestamp. Look..."
He played the video.
The street was empty on the screen.
Then suddenly... GLITCH.
A faint static flicker, and in the next frame, the boy (Sunny) stood right in the middle of the road.
As if he hadn't walked there... but just appeared.
"Must be a frame drop," Rathi said dismissively. "Cheap Chinese camera—probably malfunctioned."
"But Sir, the way he leaves is weird too," the constable whispered. "He walks to the end of the alley... and then vanishes. No one climbed the wall. Did he fly away or what?"
Rathi stood up, walked over, and slapped the constable hard on the back of the head.
SMACK!
"Flying happens in movies! He's hiding somewhere around here. This was reconnaissance. The real job is some big gang's work. This boy is just their 'scout.'"
Rathi raised a finger. "Take his printout and send it to every beat officer. I want this boy by tomorrow morning—dead or alive."
Just then, Rathi's phone rang.
The display read: PA to Minister.
Rathi's face changed instantly. The anger vanished, replaced by sycophancy.
"...Yes Sir, it's almost done."
Rathi glanced at the whimpering Raju in the lockup.
"Yes Sir, we've picked up an associate of the 'main suspect.' Interrogation is underway. We'll soon expose the entire conspiracy."
From the other end (not on speaker, but clear from Rathi's fear):
*"Are the files ready? The post-mortem report shouldn't say 'drunk.' They were 'social workers.'"*
"Absolutely, Sir!" Rathi laughed falsely. "It's written that they were distributing blankets to the poor when the attack happened."
The call ended.
Rathi took a deep breath and wiped his sweat.
He sat back in his chair and said to the constable, "Patil, that woman... what was her name?"
"Who, Sir? Priya's mother?"
"Yes, her. Did she come back?"
"No, Sir. We shooed her away this morning. Hasn't shown up again."
Rathi sighed in relief. "Good. If she comes back by tomorrow, book her for 'obstructing government work' and lock her up. That'll strengthen the case."
"Yes, Sir."
Everything inside was 'set.'
The fake report was ready.
A false witness was being prepared.
There was a plan to turn the real victim's mother into a criminal.
Rathi lit another cigarette and smiled.
"It's so easy to run this city."
Then...
Outside, the main transformer let out a loud buzz.
BZZEEET!
The station lights dimmed for a second.
The fan slowed down.
Rathi looked up. "Damn, voltage drop again? Start the generator!"
They had no idea...
This wasn't a voltage drop.
The darkness was coming.