100 years left: The Unseen Executioner

The next day felt no different on the surface.

Same drills. Same rotations. Same empty silence from those who had already learned not to notice him.

But the system had already shifted.

> [Target Upload Complete.]

Target: Garel Myne – Logistics Specialist, Division 4

Status: Asset Interference – Unauthorized trace of classified target movement logs.

Reward: +1 Perception

Unlock Progress: Shadow Step (20%)

Mission Type: Kill Confirmed – No Recovery

This time, the target wasn't corrupt. Just curious.

Garel had been tracking inconsistencies in patrol data—specifically ones tied to quiet deaths that didn't trigger alerts. The man didn't know who was moving, but he'd gotten too close.

The system didn't wait for accidents.

—

Night fell, and Garel remained in the logistics bay, eyeing security files with a stylus and one too many open tabs.

The janitor walked in behind a broken drone cart.

The lights flickered. Not because of a glitch—but because they were asked to.

The Stealth Veil wrapped around the MC like air itself, and his body slipped into the shadows cast between racks of spare limbs and neural implants.

Garel's head twitched. A warning in his nerves, but it came too late.

He moved. The MC was already behind him.

A quiet motion—barely a flick of the wrist. A small injection knife slipped into the target's side. The paralytic worked fast.

Garel's eyes widened, but no scream followed. No breath left.

He collapsed, fully conscious but unable to move.

> [Execution Confirmed.]

[Reward Granted: +1 Perception]

[Progress: Shadow Step (40%)]

[Remaining Targets to Path Unlock: 1]

[Optional: Extract Target Memory Logs?]

The MC paused.

That was new.

He selected "Yes."

> Memory logs retrieved. Syncing now…

Fragment 1: "There's a cleaner who never reports. Three targets vanish after he logs in."

Fragment 2: "This isn't coincidence. I think someone's running a test."

Fragment 3: "If I disappear, check Terminal-9. Someone's watching the janitor sector."

He burned the data node clean, left no body, and returned with a replacement mop.

By dawn, a missing person alert was filed. But his division quietly deleted it before midday.

They knew.

Not who—but they knew.

Which meant someone in the system was watching.

—

> [Silent Fang Path Update: Kill Count 4/5]

[Branch Growth Detected – Shadow Step (40%), Disruption Blink (25%), Silent Weapon Forging (5%)]

[Perk Activated: Adaptive Kill Memory – Future kills of similar targets increase reward bonus.]

He stared at his hands for a moment.

Steady. Human.

But each motion now carried something... extra.

> "Terminal-9," he whispered.

Someone had flagged him. That changed everything.

The next target might not just be prey.

They might be bait.

> [Next Target Loading...]