Lawson leaned against a shattered counter, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. He scanned the deathly silence until his heightened senses confirmed the mall was cleared.
A notification chimed from his left forearm. He slid back a hidden panel in the armor to reveal his phone screen, which now displayed a glowing blue window:
[Mission Complete. Threat Eliminated. Disengage Armor? YES / NO]
With a trembling hand, Lawson tapped [YES].
Vrrrm—!
With a hiss of hydraulic release, the heavy metallic components dissolved into countless motes of light, vanishing into the void. The crushing weight vanished, replaced by a wave of soul-deep exhaustion. Lawson was just a sweaty shop clerk in a rumpled uniform again. He slumped onto the cold floor, staring at the carnage around him and the now-silent phone.
"Lawson!"
Katie and Dodge ran toward him, their faces a mask of disbelief. The nightmare had paused, but Lawson knew his mediocre life had been shattered and reforged the moment he yelled "Armor Link."
But reality was about to deliver a brutal blow. As the survivors approached, Lawson didn't see gratitude. Instead, the crowd gathered like a storm cloud, radiating a suffocating hostility.
"Who are you? What were those things?" A middle-aged man, eyes bloodshot, pointed a shaking finger at Lawson. "Did you cause this?!"
The question ignited the crowd's suppressed terror.
"Tell us! Why did this mall become hell? What was that suit you were wearing?!"
"You know something, don't you? Or are you the source of all this?!"
The accusations bit into him. Lawson raised his hands, trying to defend himself. "I... I don't know! I just came out of the restroom and it was like this! I'm as terrified as you are!"
But his voice was drowned out by the roar of the mob. They closed in, dozens of eyes filled with suspicion and hatred. Lawson backed against a cold wall, feeling a shiver of isolation far worse than the fear of the monsters.
"ENOUGH! SHUT UP!"
A sharp scream tore through the mob. Katie stepped in front of Lawson like an enraged lioness. "Are you all insane? If it wasn't for Lawson risking his life, you'd all be dead right now!"
"Yeah! You ungrateful bastards!" Dodge stepped up beside her, his massive frame forming a wall. "If my bud was the killer, he would've watched you get eaten! Why bother saving a bunch of backstabbers?"
Their words were like cold water, dousing the flames of the mob's irrational trial. The crowd faltered. After a long silence, a woman collapsed, sobbing. "We... we didn't want this... but look at the bodies... who knows if we're next?"
Fear remained, but it turned from aggression into hollow despair.
"Well done, Armored Warrior."
A crisp, emotionless voice rang out. The crowd turned to see a girl with long pink hair walking toward them. Her pink eyes were vacant, like a porcelain doll. She wore an intricate, gothic black dress that contrasted sharply with the ruins.
Lawson's eyes widened. "That's... Kamuli, the game guide? What is she doing here?"
"Everyone," Kamuli said, her calm voice chilling. "Due to an external force, your world has overlapped with Armor Link. Now, your hearts can hatch monsters called 'Shadow-Mimics' at any moment, consuming your original selves."
"Nonsense!" "Is this a joke?!" The crowd erupted in denial.
"Bro, this is literally a post-apocalyptic manga plot," Dodge whispered to Lawson.
"It's real. I just linked armor, Dodge. Don't you recognize her? She's Kamuli!"
"Oh! No wonder she looked familiar!" Katie's eyes sparkled. "So, Lawson, are you about to be announced as the chosen hero?" As a manga fan, her excitement was briefly winning over her fear.
But not everyone was convinced. "Enough! I'm leaving!" a man yelled, pushing through the broken doors. A large group followed him.
Among those who stayed, a nervous man in glasses asked, "Those monsters... they were humans?"
"I saw it..." A woman named Lainie whispered, trembling. "A customer... he just split open right in front of me."
"Lainie, you saw it too?" a male fast-food worker in a cap asked. He was another witness.
"Then what do we do? Just wait to die?" the man in glasses cried.
"Precisely," Kamuli smiled thinly, holding up a tablet. "The world outside is already in chaos."
She turned the screen to a live news broadcast. The anchor's makeup was smeared with sweat; her eyes were wide with terror.
"Below is... footage from... our field reporter..."
The screen cut to a scene from hell. Skyscrapers were riddled with holes; the sky was choked with grey smoke. Monsters—white-skinned spiders crawling on walls, bloated horrors with bone spikes—were massacring people in the streets. Then, the camera caught civilians clutching their heads, their bodies twisting and snapping as they turned into monsters in seconds. Suddenly, a black-scaled beast lunged at the camera.
Squelch!
Dark blood covered the lens. The last things heard were the drip-drip of gore and the crunch of bone. The signal cut to static.
"AAAH! Is the world ending?!" The mall fell into a panic.
"Don't worry, everyone here..." Kamuli locked eyes with Lawson and walked toward him with elegant steps.
"Here it comes! The Hero's Proclamation!" Katie whispered frantically into Lawson's ear. "Strike your coolest pose, Senior. According to the tropes, you're the chosen one!"
Lawson's heart raced. A decade of gaming knowledge, that surging power... was he truly the center of this new world?
But reality didn't follow Katie's script. Before Lawson could speak, Kamuli reached out and, with lightning speed, snatched the phone from his hand!
She turned the screen toward the confused crowd. "Everyone, just download the latest version of Armor Link. Veterans with save files can inherit data. Install it now to fight the Shadow-Mimics!"
The crowd instantly pulled out their phones. Lawson was left standing there, his hand still shaped as if holding a phone, his expression incredibly awkward. Kamuli tossed the phone back into his chest and walked away.
"Also," she added coldly, "choose [YES] to fight. Choose [NO] to live as a civilian. There are no second chances. Choose wrong, and suffer the consequences."
Many chose [NO] and fled. Soon, the hall was nearly empty, leaving only nine people with very different personalities:
The nervous man in glasses; the fast-food worker; the witness, Lainie; Lawson, Katie, and Dodge; and three newcomers—a girl in a black high school uniform with a cold gaze; a handsome man in a jacket with a chilling silver-haired look; and a college girl with red twin-tails in a blue hoodie.
"Only nine? It seems peace has made people soft," Kamuli mocked.
BOOM—!
An eardrum-shattering explosion rocked the mall entrance. The people who had just chosen "NO" were being slaughtered by a fresh wave of Shadow-Mimics.
"Emergency Quest triggered!" Kamuli checked her tablet. "Warriors, LINK ARMOR!"
"ARMOR LINK!!!"
A chorus of electronic voices filled the hall. Space warped. Metal parts swarmed like bees, snapping onto everyone. When the light faded, the civilians were gone. The men were encased in the same [Red Vortex] armor Lawson had used, while the women wore a sleeker, more agile version.
"Wait... why isn't my phone reacting?"
Amidst the gleaming army of warriors, Lawson stood out like a sore thumb. He tapped his screen frantically, but there was no dialogue box. No [YES]. No [NO]. Just his static wallpaper.