Chapter 5: System Warning

Brown

The salty, bitter air of Pier 44 hit my nose the second I killed the truck’s engine. Heavy rain pounded the dark shipping crates lined up along the water.

It was an off-the-grid black market hidden inside an abandoned harbor warehouse. Gangs, illegal weapons dealers, and underground fixers gathered here under dim yellow spotlights, trading things that money couldn’t buy in open daylight.

I stepped out of the cab into the pouring rain. I adjusted my heavy leather jacket over my black top and leather pants, feeling the solid weight of my thighs as my boots hit the wet concrete. I walked right through the creaking metal doors with my head held high. My full frame carried a clear sense of power.

Several rough-looking men standing around rusted oil-drum fires turned to stare as I walked past. I met their glares with a cold, steady gaze, my hand resting casually near the steel blade tucked into my belt. They quickly looked away.

I headed straight towards the back of the warehouse where heavy structural equipment was auctioned off.

A large seller with scar tissue across his forehead stood on a wooden crate next to a massive, reinforced steel-and-tungsten bunker blast door. It was six inches thick and equipped with hydraulic locking pins—built to withstand a missile strike or a horde of mutated monsters.

“Next lot!” the seller barked. “Military-grade blast doors! Double-sealed, heat-resistant, automatic hydraulic deadbolts! Cash or high-grade tech only! Starting bid at fifty grand!”

Bids rose quickly to seventy thousand dollars. I stepped up to the front of the crowd. My broad figure claimed the space. I pulled my final prototype clean-energy fuel cell out of my bag and set the glowing silver cylinder down on the auction table with a heavy metallic thud.

The soft blue plasma humming inside lit up the seller’s greedy eyes instantly. The whole room went dead silent.

“A clean-energy plasma core,” I said. My voice was smooth, calm, and carried easily across the room. “Unlimited off-grid power for five years. Straight from Crown Holdings’ locked research vault. I’ll trade this core directly for the blast doors, including immediate transport to Mount Ironwood.”

The seller swallowed hard. “A plasma core…? Done! Sold to the lady in leather!”

Before he could hit the gavel, a heavy, freezing chill ran down my spine.

It was a sharp static charge in the air—like the sky right before a lightning bolt tears through it. Every hair on my arms stood on end.

Slowly, I turned around.

Standing just ten feet away, towering over the crowd, was a massive stranger in a long dark coat. He was huge—broad-shouldered, thick-chested, standing well over six-foot-four with rugged, sharp facial features and eyes as cold and dark as black stone. He filled the space easily, carrying himself with the quiet, dangerous grace of a top predator.

His sharp eyes locked onto mine, tracking my face, my lips, and then sweeping down over my full, powerful figure with intense focus. A slow, dangerous smirk stretched across his broad face.

“That’s a high-grade core for a set of blast doors,” the giant stranger said. His deep voice was a low rumble that vibrated straight through the concrete under my boots. “Heavy steel for someone buying up hardware five days before the sky falls.”

My heart hammered against my ribs. Five days before the sky falls? He knew about Day Zero.

I kept my chin up. My voice stayed smooth and laced with quiet steel. “I don’t owe you an explanation for what I buy.”

The giant chuckled and stepped closer until his broad frame blocked out the dim warehouse lights above us. I could smell rain, gunpowder, and cold iron on him. His dark eyes flicked over my full hips and solid posture, filled with raw, genuine admiration.

“Fair enough,” he rumbled. His gaze locked onto mine with an electric pull that made my skin prickle. “It’s rare to see someone who actually knows how to take up space and hold real ground.”

He reached out a heavy, gloved hand. His fingers brushed against the dark leather of my jacket sleeve.

The moment his skin made contact near mine, a blinding spike of crimson light flashed across my field of vision. A deep mechanical warning hummed violently inside my skull, shaking my inner ear:

[ALERT! STRONG SYSTEM REACTION DETECTED!]

[SCAN COMPLETE: TARGET HAS A ‘COUNTER-MEASURE CORE’]

[WARNING: TWO CORES ARE LINKED!]

[THREAT LEVEL: UNKNOWN]

My breath locked in my throat. My eyes widened slightly as the giant’s own gaze narrowed, as if he felt that exact same shockwave pass between us. His smirk shifted into a look of deep, calculating curiosity.

“You’ve got a lot of fire in you,” he murmured. His deep voice resonated in my chest as he slowly pulled his hand back. “The name’s Razor. Something tells me we’re going to cross paths again real soon, Brown.”

My pulse spiked. How does he know my name?!

Before I could ask him who he was or how he knew who I was, Razor turned his massive frame with surprising speed and melted back into the shadows of the warehouse, vanishing into the rain without a trace.

I stood frozen for a beat, staring at the empty space where he had stood.

Who is he? I thought, my chest rising and falling quickly. How does he know about the apocalypse in five days? How does he know my name? And why did my System react to him like that?

My System barely gave a second thought to Mavel and Ginger—it treated them like small bugs to squash for stat points. But this man, Razor… the moment he touched me, the System went wild. What did a “Counter-Measure Core” mean? Was he another rebirth survivor fighting a system of his own, or something far worse?

I took a deep, steady breath and settled my hands onto my hips as the seller’s crew loaded the blast door and was ready to send it out to mount ironwood. My heart was pounding, but my focus returned.

Mavel and Ginger were already crushed. But Razor was a complete mystery—a massive, electric shadow who knew about Doomsday, knew my name, and was wired to clash directly with my survival.

Day Zero was five days away and I needed to be even more prepared.