Night fell heavy on the trader camp.
Lanterns burned low, casting shaky halos of light across the packed dirt paths. Ji-hoon slipped between shadows, hood up, boots soft. Most campers were asleep—or pretending to be. Ada had given him one task: find the source.
He headed toward the back quarter of the camp—the storage yards. It was marked restricted, guarded during the day and padlocked at night. But he'd timed it right. One of the guards had gone Hollow earlier. They pulled him quietly from his post before the others noticed. Now there was a hole in the fence.
Ji-hoon slipped through.
The air back here felt colder. Still. Like it had been waiting.
Rows of wooden sheds stood in silence, their doors chained or nailed shut. He walked slowly, scanning the ground. Something shimmered faintly beneath his feet—like broken glass or dried-up slime.
It led toward a back shed.
The lock was broken.
He pushed the door open.
Inside was dark. Dust floated in the air like ash. Crates were stacked to the roof, but one had been pulled aside—creating a path toward a trapdoor in the floor.
Ji-hoon crouched. The trapdoor creaked slightly as he lifted it.
A stale smell hit him. Damp. Mold. Blood.
He climbed down.
The space below was narrow, stone-walled, lit faintly by glowing fungi growing along the cracks. It wasn't part of the base map. Not in the files. He knew. He'd checked every inch of the Gunslinger Graveyard forums.
And yet… here it was.
He followed the tunnel.
It twisted like a root underground, branching in odd directions, until it opened into a small chamber.
A shrine stood in the center.
Made from broken guns, bones, twisted metal—and in the center, a black mirror. It didn't reflect him. It reflected… something else. Something shifting. Moving.
He stepped closer.
Suddenly—
A voice.
"You shouldn't be here."
Ji-hoon spun, knife ready.
The merchant—the big guy from earlier—stood in the entrance.
But it wasn't him anymore.
His eyes were black. No pupils. His body twitched slightly, like his skin was too loose, not made for him. A thick black vein pulsed along his neck, and his mouth smiled—too wide.
"You're… one of them now," Ji-hoon said.
The thing smiled wider. "We were always here. You just didn't look deep enough."
Ji-hoon backed toward the shrine.
"What is this? A bug? A virus?"
"No. A door."
The Hollowed lunged.
Ji-hoon rolled left, slicing upward. The blade hit—but instead of blood, a thick, black vapor hissed out.
The Hollowed didn't scream. It just kept moving.
Ji-hoon dodged again, kicking a crate into its path. The thing stumbled. He grabbed a piece of metal from the floor—sharp, jagged—and drove it into its chest.
This time, it shrieked.
The sound wasn't human. It echoed in his ears, in his skull.
The body collapsed, melting into thick sludge that sizzled and sank into the stone.
Ji-hoon panted, heart racing. He looked back at the shrine.
The mirror pulsed.
[New Entry Unlocked: Root Node – System Infection Detected]
He opened his menu. The infection had a digital presence now. Something was rewriting core game files—through the NPCs. Through the world itself.
He couldn't destroy it yet.
But he could get out. Warn Ada. Start a plan.
Ji-hoon turned and ran.
Back through the tunnel.
Back through the dark.
Back into a camp that might already be too far gone.