Two seconds.
That was all the time Rex had to decide.
Let Mina in, and risk the monster squeezing through behind her?
Or leave her outside, for bait to buy him a few more minutes?
"Rex… please…"
Her voice cracked, barely audible through the mic. Desperation. Hunger. Fear. All real.
But so was the thing right behind her.
The door sensors blinked in warning red.
[Warning: Structural integrity at 6%. Breach in T-minus 00:01.]
[Initiate override seal protocol? Y/N]
"Shit on a rusted rail…"
Rex slammed the Y key.
The magnetic door hissed open, just wide enough for Mina to tumble through.
She hit the floor hard, gasping, raincoat shredded.
Then— slam.
The auto-seal reengaged.
BOOM.
A fist, no, a claw, slammed into the other side, leaving a fist-sized dent in the reinforced alloy.
Mina scrambled backward, soaked and shaking. Her green eyes were wild, darting from the sealed door to Rex.
"Y-You actually opened it," she gasped.
He didn't answer.
Instead, he activated the shock grid.
With a metallic shriek, thousands of volts surged through the outer layer of the door. The thing on the other side let out a distorted, bubbling scream, like a drowning man gargling glass, and finally retreated.
The drone beeped. Heat signatures pulled back, scattering across the floor below.
For Temporarily.
Rex turned to Mina, sword still in his hand. "You've got 30 seconds to explain."
She blinked, still breathing heavily. Her rain-soaked top clung to her like second skin, but Rex wasn't distracted. His eyes were cold, calculating.
"I didn't know it followed me," she said quickly. "It killed Erik. We were scouting Sector Twelve and thought it was abandoned. But that thing—" she stopped, swallowed hard. "It mimics and Uses faces and Sounds. We thought it was a survivor."
"A mimic?" Rex muttered. "Shit."
He scanned her again. No strange vitals. No system corruption.
He tossed her a towel from his pack. "Dry off. Don't bleed, don't break anything, and don't touch my tech."
Mina caught it, nodded, and curled up near the bonfire, a compact generator-heater hybrid he'd salvaged weeks ago. She watched it like a starving wolf eyeing fire for the first time.
Rex locked the system again, then walked to the control panel by the window.
Rain kept falling unrelenting.
A normal day
[Inventory: 1x Shockblade | 2x Ration Packs | 1x Thermal Sensor Drone | 1x Portable Bio-Filter | 1x Fortress Tower Blueprint (Undeployed)...]
His eyes paused on the Fortress Blueprint.
His third Genesis Draw. He hadn't activated it yet. Needed materials. Space. Time. All of which were damn near impossible to come by.
But after tonight, he might not have a choice.
That thing was organized. It didn't just stumble here, it tracked Mina.
And it hunted her.
And now, it knew where Rex lived.
---
One hour later
Mina was asleep on the makeshift couch, towel wrapped around her, breathing steady.
Rex sat cross-legged beside the bonfire, sharpening his blade.
The city groaned outside, distant crashes, mutant cries, wind howling like banshees.
Suddenly, his system pinged.
[Genesis System Sync Update Complete. Daily Quest Unlocked.]
[New Feature Available: Trial Mode - Dungeon Instance: Sector Twelve Ruins]
[Quest Objective: Investigate origin of Mimic-Type Mutants. Complete Instance Solo.]
[Reward: 1x Guaranteed Epic Draw]
He frowned.
Solo Instance? Trial Mode?
He hadn't seen that before. The system… was evolving?
Of course it was. And Everything else was also.
He tapped the screen, letting it hover open. A 3D wireframe appeared, showing Sector Twelve, a once financial district, now a flooded graveyard. Below the street grid, a large pulsating red zone marked something deep underground.
The origin? Or a hive?
Whatever it was, the system wanted him to go alone.
"Figures," Rex muttered. "No rest for the SSS-tier."
---
He left at dawn.
He didn't say a word to Mina. Just left her a ration pack and locked the systems. No offense, but trust was a luxury these days.
Sector Twelve was about fifteen blocks away, across broken rooftops, submerged highways, and collapsed towers now overgrown with mutant moss and glowing fungal veins.
Rain still fell, but lighter now. Like the sky was whispering instead of screaming.
Rex moved fast, blade on his back, thermal drone scouting ahead. No time to waste.
By mid-morning, he reached it.
Sector Twelve.
The streets were gone, submerged under ten feet of black water. Only rooftops and balconies remained.
And beneath them?
Death awaited!
Rex climbed down an exposed maintenance shaft into the ruins of a submerged metro line. Walls dripped with moisture. The air smelled of wet rust and rotting meat.
[Dungeon Entry Detected. Initiating Trial Mode.]
[Welcome to Instance: "Crawl of the Forgotten."]
[Level Requirement: None. Risk Level: Severe. Completion Reward: Epic Genesis Draw]
His blade flickered in anticipation.
He activated his stealth field, another Gacha pull from week two. A ring that cloaked his thermal signature for 60 seconds.
Useful in ambush zones.
He moved forward, crouching low, steps silent.
Then, he heard it.
Click...Click...Click...
Not footsteps or claws.
But the sounds of Teeth.
Grating together in Rhythm
He slid behind an old ticket booth, peeking around the corner.
What he saw made his blood run cold.
A dozen mimic-beasts.
They stood in a circle, hunched and twitching, arms trembling like broken marionettes. Each of them had a face embedded in their chests, some male, some female, all screaming silently.
And in the center was something larger.
It turned slowly, almost human in shape, but with too-long limbs and no eyes. Its chest split open like wet paper, revealing—
His face.
Rex's own face.
[Warning: Mutant Entity "Echo Spawn" has registered your identity. Passive Ability: Mirror Touch.]
[Engaging combat mode will trigger imprint. Proceed with caution.]
Rex's eyes widened.
It had copied him?
Or tried to?
This wasn't just a mimic. This was something worse. Something evolving off survivors, stealing not just faces, but abilities.
He reached for his blade.
But paused in middle...
There were too many.
He had to retreat and rethink.
But the moment he moved, his drone screeched.
Too late now
The Echo Spawn turned fully toward him.
Its head twisted, bones cracking.
Then —
"Rex…" it whispered. Not through the mouth but through the face on its chest.
A perfect copy.
And then the mimic army charged.