System: There's Something Wrong With My System.-Chapter 28 - Trait

The world pulsed.

Not around me, but inside me.

A surge of static ripped through my spine, and the System's voice echoed in my skull like a church bell in a hurricane.

[System Alert!]

New Quest Unlocked: [Proof of Will]

...

...

...

[Quest Timer: 00:00:01 / 05:00:00 - Begin]

I didn't have time to read everything. I caught fragments. Protect. Fight. Resist.

Failure meant... Something worse than death.

I didn't even question it. I couldn't.

An Echo lunged. I moved.

I ducked beneath its claw, planted my foot, and launched upward, fist-first. My knuckles connected with its jaw, no, through its jaw, and the thing spiraled back into the trees with a sound like wet paper tearing.

The timer was ticking.

I couldn't stop.

I wouldn't stop.

Another shadow rushed me from the side, I felt it before I saw it, like a needle pricking my skin. My body twisted on instinct.

Enhance.

My muscles roared. My elbow cracked the thing across the head. It didn't fall, but it staggered long enough for me to grab its arm and rip it from the socket.

Screams... Behind me?

No, Moona.

She was holding her own, barely. Spells crackled, but her eyes were wide. She was getting overwhelmed.

"MOVE, damn it!"

I shouted, more to myself than her.

I kicked off the ground. My body obeyed like it was no longer mine, but something greater. I crossed the gap in seconds and slammed into the nearest Echo reaching for her. It exploded against the ground, bone-cracking, limbs twitching.

Another Echo. I turned, grabbed its throat before it could strike, and squeezed.

"They were people once..."

I hesitated.

Its hands gripped my wrist. Its face...

Human. Or used to be.

It looked like someone's mother. Or teacher. Or neighbor. Its mouth opened. A word tried to form. Maybe a plea.

My grip tightened anyway.

"Not everything that stays... Stays dead..."

I threw it to the ground and stomped, hard.

No time to feel bad.

No time to feel anything.

I could feel the pressure rising. Not just the fight, the Zone. It was whispering now. Subtle. Faint.

"Mikail"

No one had said it aloud.

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Not Melisa. Not Moona.

But I heard it. Inside my head. My name is soft and cruel.

"Stay. Become. Forget."

I grit my teeth.

"Not now"

The shadows thickened.

More Echoes spilled from the trees like spilled ink.

3 minutes left.

I roared and surged forward. Twelve. I needed twelve kills. I didn't know if I was at six or ten or twenty.

My hands were slick, arms burning. Blood... Mine, theirs, who knew...

Dripped from my elbows.

An Echo leaped at me from above.

I jumped to meet it.

Time stopped.

At that moment, I saw everything.

The stars that didn't exist, the trees bending like ribs around us, the Core itself. The System burned in my mind.

And something opened.

[Bonus Objective Triggered]

[Trait Awakening Detected...]

Yes.

I could feel it.

This wasn't just survival anymore.

It was proof.

Of me.

My will.

My voice joined the echo of systems and shadows alike:

"I'm not afraid of being lost anymore"

--------

Moona staggered backward, sweat dripping down her temple as she barely deflected another Echo with a wide-flare glyph.

The trees pulsed around them like a heartbeat. Her wand was dimming, she was running low on Mana. There are too many spells and not enough recharge time.

She risked a glance toward Mikail.

And froze.

"Lisa," she whispered, her voice small. "Look at him"

Melisa didn't respond immediately, her gun barked another shot, and an Echo's skull vaporized in a burst of red-glowing shards. But then she turned. Her breath caught.

Mikail wasn't just fighting anymore.

He was unleashed.

The man who had hesitated, who stammered a while ago, was gone.

In his place, something burned.

A shape of motion and raw purpose. Echoes lunged, but he moved through them, not around them.

He broke one's legs with a low sweep and crushed another with a single palm to the chest that caved in its ribcage.

His face was a mask of resolve, no fury, no fear, just focus.

And something else.

The shadows parted around him, not because they feared him, but because they recognized him.

The Zone had tried to claim him.

And he refused.

"I'll be damned," Melisa muttered, her voice caught somewhere between admiration and grim understanding.

Moona gripped her wand tighter. "That's... Not what we taught him, right? That's something else"

Melisa didn't answer. Her eyes narrowed.

She'd seen it before.

The moment a person made the jump, from being a survivor to a force.

Not everyone made it. Most broke. Some bent. But Mikail...

He'd burned through that threshold like it wasn't even there.

More Echoes rushed. Moona started casting, but Melisa held out a hand.

"At this point, Mikhail has pulled all the aggro. Let's just wait and watch"

Mikail didn't flinch as five of them surrounded him. He ducked, slid, spun, struck with mechanical precision.

No wasted movements. No hesitation.

Moona's lips trembled. "He's not afraid of them anymore"

Melisa holstered her gun slowly, just for a moment.

"He's not afraid of himself anymore"

--------

The last Echo fell.

Not with a roar. Not even a scream.

Just a thud.

And silence.

Not real silence, his breath still thundered in his ears, his pulse a war drum echoing through cracked ribs and bruised muscle, but around him, the Zone stilled. The air trembled like it wasn't sure if it was allowed to settle yet.

Then-

[DING]

[System Timer: 00:05:00 / 05:00:00 - COMPLETE]

[Quest Completed: Proof of Will]

Mikail stood in the middle of the clearing, chest rising and falling. Blood dripped from his fingertips. His knuckles ached. His legs wobbled, not from weakness, but because the tension that had gripped him like a vice was finally, finally gone.

He didn't fall.

He didn't need to.

He'd already won.

[Processing Kill Count... 36 Confirmed]

[Eliminations] [Required: 12]

[Mental Stability: 89% - Remarkable]

Another tone echoed... Clear, crystalline.

Like a heartbeat made of glass.

[Evaluation Complete: S+]

[REWARDS GRANTED:]

-Trait Slot Unlocked

- Item Received: [Rare Skill Imbue Scroll]

- Trait Unlocked: [Unyielding Spark]

[Description:

There are moments when survival is no longer enough. When instinct evolves into intent, and hesitation is burned away by the fire of will. You reached that moment and passed through it unbroken.

The Unyielding Spark is not strength.

It is the refusal to fall.

It is the ember of defiance, ignited in the shadow of annihilation.

You did not bend. You did not break. You burned.

Effects:

Resilience Surge: While under extreme pressure (low health, overwhelming odds, critical environments), gain a temporary boost to endurance, pain resistance, and reaction speed.

Focus Override: When severely injured, mental clarity increases instead of faltering. Negative status effects related to fear or confusion are suppressed for a short duration]

[DING!]

[Hidden Reward Unlocked: (Soul Resonance)]

[The Core watches]

[The Shadows remember]

[The System acknowledges]

A wind stirred the tree. If it was a wind.

It moved without direction, curling around Mikail's shoulders like the Zone itself was brushing off dust, or maybe... Bowing.

Moona and Melisa approached from behind, cautiously, as if unsure if he was still entirely himself.

But Mikail wasn't looking at them. Not yet.

He was staring at the last line that appeared, slow, deliberate, as if the System itself was speaking to him.

"... You okay, Mikail?"

Mikail didn't answer right away.

The line still floated in the air, just above the ground, etched in cold System blue:

[The Core watches]

[The Shadows remember]

[The System acknowledges]

He felt it in his bones. Not just as a message, but as truth.

Like something ancient had seen him. And didn't look away.

He blinked, the haze slowly lifting from his eyes. The sounds around him started to creep back in, Moona's cautious footsteps, Melisa's quiet exhale, the faint crackle of a burnt glyph still humming in the dirt.

His throat worked before his voice did.

"I'm..."

He paused. Not because he was unsure, but because he was sure. More than he'd ever been.

"I'm still here..."

Melisa stepped into his peripheral, lowering her weapon fully now.

"You don't look like you just 'survived,' honey"

He turned his head, slowly. His neck popped.

"Didn't?"

She gave a slow nod, almost a smile... Almost.

"No. You didn't"

Moona finally reached them, her wand flickering weakly in her grasp. She looked like she wanted to say something, ask something, check if he was still... Him.

But Mikail beat her to it.

"I heard the Zone," he said quietly. "It... whispered to me"

Moona flinched. Melisa's eyes narrowed.

"What did it say?" Melisa asked, voice low.

Mikail turned toward them fully now. His clothes were torn, soaked in a mixture of blood and shadow mist. His stance wasn't aggressive, but it was... solid. Grounded.

"It knew my name," he said. "Tried to make me forget it"

Moona's lips parted, horrified.

Melisa, though, looked thoughtful.

"And?"

He looked back to the trees, the dark. The quiet where monsters used to be.

"I-"

*Crack!*

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...

..

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