Chapter 10

The act of taking another human's life carried a weight in the world Kyle had left behind. It was a threshold, a permanent stain that society labeled with words like murderer, monster, or criminal. Kyle looked down at his hands, then at the three bodies cooling in the dirt of the clearing. One had been shot through the throat; another's chest was a ruin of splintered ribs and torn muscle; the third lay sprawled where Kyle's knife had found its mark. The brutality of it was undeniable. He had moved with a fluid, predatory grace that didn't feel like his own, yet he couldn't distance himself from the results. The blood soaking into the forest floor was real. The smell—ironic and heavy—clung to the back of his throat. He waited for the wave of nausea or the crushing weight of guilt he'd seen in a hundred movies, but the air remained still. His pulse was steady. He wasn't horrified. He was merely observant. He realized then that he hadn't enjoyed the act of killing. There was no sadistic thrill in watching the light leave their eyes. Instead, he had enjoyed the hunt. He had relished the tactical puzzle of three-on-one, the surge of [Ancestral Hunter's Lineage] as it guided his limbs, and the absolute clarity of victory. The deaths were simply the conclusion of the equation. They had been unavoidable the moment they drew steel on him. He turned his gaze toward the tent where Olivia lay. If he felt any flicker of remorse, it was for her, though even that was tainted by a cold logic. Her injury was the result of her own panic, her inability to grasp the stakes of this new reality. She had been dead weight since the moment the world shifted, and her incompetence had nearly cost more than just a leg. Kyle looked at the others—Noah, Sophia, Arthur—standing in the flickering firelight like ghosts. They were soft. They were civilians clinging to the rules of a corporate office in a world that had become a predatory ecosystem. He didn't fit with them anymore. The [Lineage Elder] title felt like a physical weight on his brow, a reminder that his blood demanded more than huddling in a circle waiting for the end. If they were going to survive the tutorial, someone had to be the predator. He would hunt, and he would grow stronger, even if he had to drag them behind him. He glanced at his notifications again, considering the flaws in his newly awakened ability. [Ancestral Hunter's Lineage] was powerful, but it wasn't a god-mode cheat. It had reacted to the physical threat, the intent to kill, but it hadn't warned him of the complexity of the ambush until it was already in motion. It provided instinct, but it required logic to steer it. If he relied solely on the hum in his blood, he'd eventually run into a trap that instinct couldn't see. Kyle walked back toward the center of the camp. The grass crunched under his boots, a loud, deliberate sound in the oppressive silence. Noah stepped forward, his face pale and drawn. He looked at Kyle, then at the bodies in the shadows, then back to Kyle. His usual confident, departmental-chief persona was nowhere to be found. "Kyle," Noah said, his voice straining for a level of concern that felt thin. "Can you tell us what happened? We heard... we heard everything. We need to understand what this was." Kyle stopped a few paces away. He didn't put his bow away. "It was an ambush. Three of them. They weren't beasts. They were players, or whatever the system calls us." Arthur remained silent, his massive frame motionless, his eyes fixed on Kyle with an unreadable intensity. "They were higher level than us," Kyle continued, his voice flat. "I gained [Initiate Points] and levels from the kills. They came here specifically to hunt other people. They thought we were easy prey." The group recoiled as if he'd struck them. Sophia's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes darting toward the corpses. "You... you killed them," Sophia mumbled, her voice trembling. "It's murder, Kyle. We're just... we're supposed to be waiting for help. We can't just kill people." Noah shook his head, looking at Sophia before turning his gaze back to Kyle. "It was self-defense, Sophia. They attacked first. If Kyle hadn't done what he did, we'd all be dead or worse. We have to reconsider everything. Our strategy... it isn't working." Kyle felt a surge of irritation. The morality of the old world was a lead weight they were all too happy to drown with. "Reconsider?" Kyle snapped. The volume of his voice made Sophia flinch. "You're still talking like we're in a boardroom meeting. Look around! There is no help coming. There is no HR department to complain to. You want to hide? You want to wait for the next group of hunters to find us and slit our throats while we sleep?" He stepped closer, looming into the firelight. "Adapt or die. That's the only rule left. If you don't start hunting, if you don't start leveling up, you're just meat waiting for a butcher. I'm not going to sit here and watch you all get slaughtered because you're too afraid to get your hands dirty." Arthur finally moved, shifting his weight. "What's your suggestion then, Kyle?" he asked. The question was genuine, devoid of the condescension Noah usually carried. "We stop being the prey," Kyle said. "We go out. We hunt the beasts in this area. We level up until we aren't the weakest things in this forest." James stepped forward from the shadows near the edge of the camp. He gripped his bow, his knuckles white. "He's right. We can't defend ourselves like this. I saw what they did to Kyle's gear. If he hadn't been faster... we need to be able to fight back." Ethan stayed silent, his eyes downcast, but he didn't voice an objection. Kyle turned away from them, walking toward the gear the attackers had dropped. He knelt by their discarded satchels, his fingers moving efficiently through the leather pouches. He didn't care about their names or their stories. He cared about what they carried. He pulled out small glass vials filled with shimmering liquids. He counted them aloud, the clinking of glass the only sound in the clearing. "Fourteen health potions," Kyle said, lining them up on the dirt. "Eight stamina potions. Five mana." He looked up at the group, who were staring at the haul of resources. It was more than they had seen since arriving. "Rest," Kyle commanded, his voice leaving no room for debate. "We move at dawn. We're going to hunt, and we're going to find more of these." He didn't wait for a response. He sat down, leaning against a tree with his new bow across his lap, knowing full well that none of them would sleep a wink tonight. ════════════════════════════════════════