Herald of death

A SCAR-H easily accessible through the opened window of his car, Ethan watches over Russ, who asked for a bathroom break. The rising sun hurts Ethan's tired eyes as he drove the entire night.

The car radio is relaying a talk show. The hosts discuss endlessly, with little to no new information. But it reveals the main areas where monsters are still active. It seems that no new incursions are happening at the moment.

Only glancing from time to time, Ethan scrolls through posts of people discussing their new powers. Many of the survivors were forced into the Villager class, the second major class being Warrior.

A title attracts his attention: 'I killed a Villager and became a Wolf'. The anonymous original poster claims that a giant spider poisoned his friend, turning him into a frenzied beast. He defended himself with a broken pipe, but in doing so, he killed his friend. The system changed his class to Wolf, and since then he has been experiencing impulses of violence he's scared of.

'This feels fake. But I saw spiders that were able to enrage humans,' Ethan thinks.

Russ returns to the back of the car, and Ethan enters the driver's seat. According to Tombstone, who helped him avoid major blocking crash sites, he's not far away from the objective.

He stops his car in the parking lot of a forest hiking path. Five other cars are present. The layer of leaves on the hoods shows that they have been here since yesterday. The complex is located downhill on the other side of the forest.

Ethan opens his haversack, reviewing his equipment as he places it on his car. He changed his camouflage for a US Woodland. His silenced SCAR-H comes with both subsonic and armor-piercing M993 ammunition. And he prepared a KS23 shotgun with slugs.

With his gear equipped, he jogs into the forest with Russ by his side. Birds and rodents awaken on their path, startled by their presence. A shiver passes over Ethan's skin as they pass a darker part of the forest.

Russ spins, walking backward to face the source of Ethan's shivers. Predator's sight reveals a host of small creatures hiding in the trees and bushes.

'Leveling up would be useful,' Ethan thinks. "Russ, down," he orders before opening fire with subsonic rounds. Five of the creatures fall from the trees before their group reacts.

Arrows whistle towards Ethan, and he dodges them between shots. Five green creatures rush out of the forest with salvaged weapons in their hands. Their green skin, poorly shaped body, flat nose, pointy ears, and yellowed teeth project the memories of goblins into Ethan's mind.

'Kill!' Ethan thinks. Russ snaps the first goblin's throat in an instant. The four others circle him, scared to approach, as Russ plans his next attack.

"Russ leveled up."

Ethan focuses on gunning down the archers and runaways. He keeps an eye on Russ, but the dog handles his enemies with concerning ease.

"You leveled up. Russ leveled up," the voice announces.

As all the goblins lie dead, Ethan joins Russ. "You decapitated this one in a single bite. Those two points of strength really make a difference," Ethan praises.

He opens a goblin with his combat knife. "All is the same, except for their digestive track, which is oversized for their height. And they have pretty weak limbs," Ethan explains to Russ.

"You obtained the Goblin hunter title. One characteristic point has been granted."

Ethan scans the goblins' remains for anything of value, but nothing appears to have any. Checking one last time for any life signs, Ethan resumes his path to the complex.

Nearing the edge of the tree line Ethan, sees his goal. No living being appears to be near his hiding spot. Surrounded by metallic fences, the place is only accessible through a dirt path, leaving the public road kilometers away. No one is working in the fields, and the place is devoid of activity.

Ethan scans the objective through his scope, catching glimpses of armed soldiers at the windows. He calls tombstone.

"Welcome back, Reaper five."

"I'm near the target location. Have you reestablished communications with Specter nine?" Ethan asks.

"We are still unable to join him. But his GPS gives us his approximated position," Tombstone answers. Ethan's phone displays the map once again, with a dot on one of the warehouses. Tombstone says, "The signal is weak; he could be underground."

Away from the buildings, near the fence, Ethan notices a man dragging a corpse into a vast burning pit. The creature he holds is a gray bird with claws at the joints of his wings and a humanoid face. The man carries an AKM, a keffiyeh is loosely placed around his neck, and he wears aviator glasses.

As the man tosses the creature into the pit, Ethan shoots him in the face. He falls into the pit along with the creature.

Ethan waits a few long minutes, checking for any kind of reaction. "Hide," he orders Russ. Convinced he's still undetected, he exits the forest and climbs the fence. In a few seconds, he dives into the pit.

He checks the man for any form of ID. Finding only his phone, he unlocks it using the dead's fingerprint. Incoming messages call him 'Nadir'.

Stashing his own equipment into his haversack, Ethan switches clothes and gear, hiding his face under the keffiyeh and his new glasses.

"Adding the Disguise skill. Based on your previous experience a level of 47 has been applied."

Exiting the pit, Ethan pours a good quantity of gasoline from a nearby canister and sets the two corpses ablaze.

As he walks into the complex, a man sheltered under the shade of a porch yells, "There's one in there." He points at the door behind him. He's better equipped than Ethan, with a bulletproof vest and additional magazines.

"Language (Arabic) leveled up."

Without a word, Ethan follows the man inside. The barn shelters three tractors and various farming tools. Ethan's guide keeps glancing back with a questioning look on his face.

"You reek, you fell in or something?" the man asks as he guides Ethan. As Ethan's response does not come, the man slows down to a stop. He spins around, bashing the air with his rifle's stock. He's stunned by the sudden disappearance of Ethan.

Ethan, who circled a tractor using silent steps, pierces the man's skull at the root of the spine, stabbing his brain. He catches him in his fall and drags him next to a tool cabinet.

Searching his belongings, Ethan finds a keychain with four keys on it. He takes the bullet-proof vest and the extra magazines before hiding the body.

Ethan half-opens the door. He surveys the area for a long minute. He moves to the building where Specter nine's phone is located.

As Ethan opens the door, four men lift their heads, acknowledging his presence before returning to their occupations. Ethan quickly looks around. They converted the warehouse into a bastion. The once vast storage space has been enclosed by plywood walls. Sandbags form fortifications at the end of main corridors, mounted with RPKMs.

"Open your status!" A man yells from underground, his voice echoing through a corridor.