The Rogues Of: No Man's Land

Tao Dagger had stolen a lot of things in his life. Wallets, watches, the occasional rare gemstone, nothing too grand, nothing that would put an entire city on high alert. But this time? This time, he was about to steal something that could change everything.

And he wasn't even doing it for himself.

"You sure this thing is worth it?" Tao muttered, crouched behind a ventilation shaft in the museum's upper levels. His earpiece crackled, and a low voice responded-

"One hundred percent. That artifact's worth millions. If you get it, we're set for life."

Tao exhaled through his nose. That was the deal, one last heist. Then he were out. No more scraping by. No more hiding from debt collectors, cops, and worse.

Just a clean break.

He peered down at the museum's security vault, its reinforced glass casing bathed in red laser grids. Inside, resting on a pedestal, was the prize, a sleek obsidian stone, humming with a faint, unnatural glow.

It didn't look like much. But people had killed for less.

"Alright," he whispered. "I'm going in."

Tao moved fast, dropping into the room without a sound. He landed in a crouch, heart pounding. The security lasers wove an intricate pattern, shifting every few seconds.

But he had studied this. He knew the gaps, the timing.

One deep breath. Then he moved.

Slide. Pivot. Roll. Duck.

A bead of sweat traced down his temple as he maneuvered through the shifting red web. One misstep and the alarms would turn the place into a lockdown zone. But Tao was quick, precise-

Until he wasn't.

His fingertips brushed the pedestal. And the second he touched the stone, Everything went wrong.

A blinding light erupted from the artifact, crackling arcs of violet energy exploding outward. The security lasers fried instantly, plunging the vault into a deep, unnatural darkness.

Tao staggered back, shielding his face. "What the hell is happening!?"

But there was no response. Only a deafening roar, like the sky itself was tearing open.

A force stronger than gravity yanked Tao forward. His body lifted off the ground, pulled toward the pulsing stone. The air around him fractured, revealing glimpses of something else, a twisted, shifting world beyond comprehension.

"No, no, no, no!"

The last thing he saw was the museum vanishing.

Then, Tao fell. He woke up to a sky that shouldn't exist.

It churned with unnatural colors, warping and twisting as if reality itself was struggling to hold together. The horizon was a mess of contradictions, ancient ruins stood beside neon-lit skyscrapers, rivers flowed upward, and the air smelled of metal and fire.

His body ached. His clothes were still intact, dark coat, torn jeans, fingerless gloves, but the artifact? Gone. Or maybe it had never really been an artifact at all.

Tao forced himself to his feet, ignoring the splitting headache. His brain screamed at him to make sense of things, but there was no logic here.

One thing was certain.

This wasn't Earth.

Hearing a low chuckle made him turn. A figure leaned against a jagged rock formation, arms crossed, staring at him.

"Oi. You lost or something?"

Tao's instincts flared, but the stranger wasn't reaching for a weapon. Just… staring. Too long.

"Yeah, I actually am.'' Tao responded.

Here it comes.

"Why do you look like a girl, but sound like a whole-ass war general?" The stranger questioned.

Tao exhaled sharply. Not this shit again.

"I dunno," he muttered. "Why do you sound like an idiot?"

The stranger snorted. "Fair enough."

Tao wasn't in the mood for jokes. He needed answers, where he was, what this place was, and more importantly, how the hell to get out.

The stranger must've seen the tension in his stance because they grinned, tilting their head toward the horizon. "You really don't know, do you?"

Tao's patience thinned. "Know what?"

The grin widened.

"See, if you wanna survive here, you need to know the rules. And the biggest one?" The Stranger jabbed a thumb outward. ''Out there, past the warlords, the dungeon bosses, and all the poor bastards who'll try to kill you first chance they get, there's a place called the Vault of Eternity."

Tao raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"And," the stranger smirked, "it holds the key to getting the hell out of this place. Not to mention a casual 3 million gold for whoever cracks it open."

Tao's heart skipped a beat.

Escape and a fortune?

Now that sounded like his kind of job. It almost sounded too perfect.

His deep voice cut through the dry, cracked air. "And I'm just supposed to believe that?"

The stranger smirked. "Believe what you want. But if you think you're getting outta here without knowing the rules, you're already dead."

Tao exhaled sharply, scanning his surroundings. The more he took in, the worse this place seemed. The sky still churned like a broken screen.

The ground beneath him wasn't natural, it was like the ruins of a thousand different places had been smashed together, forming a chaotic graveyard of civilizations.

A rusted highway sign lay half-buried nearby, unreadable. Further ahead, the twisted remains of a gothic cathedral stretched toward the sky, broken spires like jagged teeth. Everything clashed, as if time and space had been thrown in a blender.

Nothing made sense.

The stranger pushed off the rock formation and stretched, rolling their shoulders. Now that Tao got a better look, they weren't dressed for survival, ripped leather jacket, patched-up jeans, boots that had seen better days. A survivor, but not some warlord or monster.

That was good news. Maybe.

Tao crossed his arms. "Start talking. Who are you?"

"Name's Knox." The smirk never faded. "I'm what you'd call an Outlaw around here. And you…" Their gaze ran over him, lingering for a second longer than Tao liked."…You're fresh meat."

Tao clicked his tongue. "I'll pass on the nickname."

Knox laughed, a short, sharp sound. "Doesn't matter what you want. Out here, you either figure out how to survive, or someone else decides what you are."

That wasn't the first time Tao had heard something like that. Earth might've had laws, but power had always been the real currency. The strong did what they wanted. The weak got crushed.

"Let's go back to this Vault of Eternity thing," Tao said. "You're telling me it's got enough gold to turn someone into a damn king, plus a way out of this place?"

Knox's expression turned serious, just for a moment. "Yeah. But nobody's cracked it yet. Plenty have tried. None of 'em made it back."

That sent a flicker of unease down Tao's spine.

"So what's the catch?" Tao Questioned.

Knox leaned against a jagged rock, tapping a finger against their temple. "The catch is, No-Man's Land isn't just lawless. It's got its own system. The strong rule. The weak obey. And the ones who think they're smart enough to cheat the game?" A grin. "They die first."

Tao's lips curled slightly. "Sounds familiar."

Knox raised an eyebrow. "That so?"

"I grew up in a place where people liked to think they had control. They didn't. Only the ones who took what they wanted survived." Tao adjusted his gloves. "And I survived."

Knox gave him an amused look. "Then maybe you've got a shot."

Silence stretched between them. In the distance, something screeched, a high-pitched, bone-rattling noise that didn't belong to anything Tao had ever heard before.

Knox didn't even flinch.

Tao took that as a bad sign.

"You should move," Knox said, already turning. "Unless you wanna find out what hunts in this part of the wasteland."

Tao didn't argue.

He had a feeling he'd be learning soon enough.