The sky had shifted again. Not just the color—but the air itself. Thick, dense, filled with static like the pause before lightning struck. It hung over Ruin District 6 like a warning no one wanted to believe.
Kaito stood on the rooftop of his shop, arms crossed, coat fluttering in the wind. The clouds above boiled in silence, tinted with sickly purple veins.
Ayame climbed up beside him, carrying a rusted pair of binoculars. "Something's off. You feel that?"
Kaito didn't answer. He already knew.
[Meri: Warning. Dimensional flux spike detected. Zone anomaly approaching.]
The alert hovered over his vision like blood on glass.
"Portal storm?" he asked aloud.
[Meri: No. Something worse.]
Below, the street looked deceptively calm. Echo and Lio had left hours ago. Hana's crew hadn't returned. The city was holding its breath.
Ayame sat beside him, placing the binoculars to her eyes. "There's movement in the southern lot."
"Monsters?"
"No. People. Three of them. Moving fast. Carrying something heavy."
Kaito looked toward the horizon. The sky tore open—not like a door, but like a wound.
[Meri: Dimensional Scar Detected. Category: Black Rain Event]
"Explain."
[Meri: The zone's barrier is thinning. Reality is breaking. Infected monsters from a collapsed dimension will breach shortly. Rainfall may trigger mutations in humans and wildlife.]
Ayame blinked. "Rain?"
Dark droplets began to fall—silent, oily, black. Each hit left a hiss against the ground. Smoke curled up from the impact points.
"Get inside," Kaito said.
They moved fast. The shop sealed its doors behind them with a metallic hum. Ayame wiped one of the black spots off her sleeve. The fabric sizzled faintly.
[Meri: Beginning zone scan. Threat Level Escalating. Core value adjustments in effect.]
[Core Tier Multiplier: x2.0 (Rain Mutation Bonus)]
Ayame paced. "We're trapped in here?"
"No. We're protected in here."
Kaito sat at the console and opened the system shop. Items flickered faster than normal. Daily refresh had just completed—and the stock had mutated too.
[New Item Added: Anti-Rain Cloak (400 Coins)] [New Item Added: Zone Beacon Blueprint (800 Coins)] [New Item Added: Monster Bait Orb – Tier II (300 Coins)]
He eyed the Anti-Rain Cloak.
Ayame leaned over. "Can we afford it?"
Kaito nodded. "Barely."
He bought two.
[Meri: Item delivered to storage rack. Be advised: beacon placement near active scarring may attract high-value targets.]
Ayame turned toward the sound of boots. A loud knock echoed from the front gate.
Someone was outside.
Another knock. Urgent.
Ayame pulled out her broken blade. Kaito walked over and flipped the manual override.
The metal door creaked open just wide enough.
A face appeared—drenched, panicked, blood on their cheek.
"Help—please—we've got wounded!"
Behind them, a second figure limped forward. A third crouched beside a body, trying to apply pressure to a mangled leg.
Kaito recognized none of them.
"Trade zone," he said evenly. "No fighting, no stealing. Agree or stay out."
"We agree. We'll trade whatever you want—just let us in!"
Ayame gave him a look.
He opened the gate.
Inside, the newcomers stumbled in. All wore makeshift gear. Two were armed—one with a pipe rifle, the other with a spiked bat. The injured one was young, barely fifteen.
Ayame handed over a towel. The youngest girl nodded weakly, trying not to cry.
Kaito pointed to the corner. "Set him down. I've got a medkit. But you'll pay."
The leader—a woman with a scar over her lip—nodded. "Got cores. Took out two mutants on the way here. Rainborn."
He raised an eyebrow. "Rainborn?"
She held up the cores. They shimmered dark green, almost toxic in color.
[Meri: Detected: Rain-Mutated Core. Value: 420 Coins.]
[Meri: Mutation Unstable. Risk of delayed burst contamination: 11%.]
"Keep it sealed. I'll take one. That buys one kit."
The trade was fast. Kaito tossed the kit to Ayame, who knelt beside the boy and started patching his leg. Clean break. Ugly, but fixable.
[Meri: Reputation increased.]
[Zone Reputation: +5 | Ruin District 6]
The scarred woman exhaled. "We saw something in the rain. Not just monsters. Structures. Like broken temples. Floating."
Kaito looked at her, eyes narrowing. "Where?"
"South ridge. Over the canal. They vanished when the lightning hit."
Ayame looked up. "Portals are changing."
[Meri: Dimensional signature expanding. A secondary layer may be forming—a collapsed world folding into this one. Predicting high-value salvage.]
Kaito closed his eyes. "That's why the rain burns. It's not just poison. It's inheritance."
The woman stared. "You're not like the others."
"I'm not."
"But you help."
"I trade."
She nodded. "Name's Ruka. If we survive this, I'll bring others."
That night, Kaito sat alone beside the core storage unit.
Cores glowed like embers in glass. Each one a life, a kill, a trade. Outside, the rain kept falling. Slowly. Relentlessly.
[Meri: You're building something. You know that, right?]
"Not a kingdom. Not yet."
[Meri: Not with bricks. But with trust. That's harder.]
He couldn't sleep. Not with his thoughts circling like wolves.
How long before people started asking questions he couldn't answer?
How long before they realized he couldn't die?
Outside the shop, one of the newcomers, a boy named Daiki, stared at a glowing core through the window. Ruka had told him to stay inside, but curiosity burned.
"They say he trades for these," he muttered.
"Why?" asked a girl beside him.
"I dunno. They shine. Maybe he eats them?"
She laughed. "Don't be stupid. They're like batteries. Maybe his machines need them."
"No, it's more than that. Didn't you see what he gave Ruka? Actual food. Clean water."
They pressed closer to the glass.
Another survivor walked by and whispered, "Those things... I heard if you hold one too long, it messes with your mind."
Back inside, Kaito added another storage capsule to the rack. He paused, thinking.
"People are starting to ask," Ayame said.
"They always do."
"You gonna tell them?"
"No."
"But they'll guess. You've never bled. Never flinched. That girl—what was her name—Hana? She told someone you walked through acid rain like it was nothing."
Kaito stayed quiet.
Ayame folded her arms. "You're not human, are you?"
"I am. I just have a system."
"Same difference."
Kaito looked out the window at the black rain.
"Let them guess," he said. "As long as they bring cores, they can think whatever they want."