Chapter 54: The Silence After Survival

After wandering around for several hours, I had finally managed to find my way home.

Although the area had mostly returned to normal after the Overlap was cleared, some of the roads near the park were still blocked off by security barriers. Police cars, ambulances, and armored vehicles that I assumed belonged to the Guardians were everywhere. To avoid having to reveal my identity, I had stayed away from the main streets and wandered through side roads until I spotted a building or street I recognized.

I hadn’t realized how much of a problem losing my phone would be until I found myself lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood. I considered approaching people for directions several times, but after realizing that my torn, dirty sweats didn’t exactly inspire confidence, I gave up on the idea.

At least I had turned Umbrella back into a bracelet. Walking through the city in black armor would have been the fastest way to get every police officer and Guardian in the area chasing me.

When I finally spotted a subway entrance I recognized, a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I knew the way home from here, and I would have to make a serious effort to get lost again.

I stopped at a small convenience store along the way and took a cold lemon soda from the refrigerator. The fact that my wallet hadn’t shared the same fate as my phone was one of the few good things that had happened to me today.

The moment I stepped outside, I opened the bottle and drank almost half of it in one go. As the cold drink ran down my throat and into my stomach, the tension that had built up inside me over the past several hours seemed to melt away with it.

I took a long breath.

I was alive.

I had fallen into an Overlap filled with monsters, been slammed into walls over and over by a goat-headed creature, and fought my way through hundreds of shapeshifting white monsters. Despite all that, I was now peacefully walking down a street in the middle of the night with a bottle of soda in my hand.

Trying to put behind me with a cold drink the kind of events that would send an ordinary person to therapy for months probably wasn’t healthy. Still, I wasn’t in any condition to do more than that right now.

I walked the rest of the way at a slow pace and reached my apartment building a few minutes later. As I climbed the stairs, all I wanted was to lie down in bed, pull the blanket over my head, and, if possible, not wake up for several days.

When I reached my apartment door, I slipped a hand into the pocket of my sweatpants.

My fingers touched nothing but empty fabric.

I checked the other pocket, then searched the pockets of my jacket. As a last hope, I looked through my wallet and around my shoes before raising my head and staring blankly at the door.

"Really?"

My phone had been destroyed, I had nearly died several times throughout the night, and now I had discovered that I had lost my house key as well.

I kicked the door in frustration.

"Can’t one thing in my damn life go right?!"

The doorframe shook from the impact. Realizing that the increase in my Strength had made the kick far more powerful than I had expected, I glanced around. Fortunately, no one was in the hallway, and I needed to get inside before one of my neighbors opened their door.

I touched the black bracelet around my wrist.

"Umbrella, at least make yourself useful."

The black substance flowed toward my fingertips and transformed into a thin wire. I inserted it into the lock and tried several different shapes until it caught the parts of the mechanism. Several metallic clicks came from inside the lock before the door finally opened with a soft click.

For a moment, I stared at the black wire in my hand.

An ability that could kill monsters, transform into armor, blow up buildings, and pick door locks when necessary...

Umbrella’s résumé was starting to look more impressive than mine.

I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. After taking off my shoes, I threw one into the hallway and sent the other sliding under the table in the living room. If Eris were here, she would have lectured me for hours while conveniently forgetting that she was the one who left her socks in every corner of the apartment.

I didn’t even have the energy to listen to her right now.

I turned Umbrella back into a bracelet and went straight to the bedroom. Without bothering to change my clothes or wash my face, I threw myself facedown onto the bed.

The soft mattress sank beneath my body, and my eyes closed almost immediately. The deaths I had witnessed, the people I couldn’t save, the System’s rewards, and the problems waiting for me tomorrow lingered at the edge of my mind, but I didn’t want to think about any of them.

For now, all I needed was a few hours of peaceful sleep without any monsters trying to bite me.

Once I surrendered myself to sleep, it took only a few seconds for me to lose consciousness.

---

When I opened my eyes again, I stared blankly at the ceiling for several seconds.

It took me a while to remember where I was. The absence of cracks in the blue ceiling, the wooden floor beneath my bed instead of an ice-covered stone road, and the lack of faceless creatures trying to eat human flesh around me all came as a relief.

"So I’m still alive..."

My voice was hoarse from sleep. When I slowly sat up, I felt no pain anywhere in my body. The potion Cecilia had given me had healed all my injuries, but my mind hadn’t recovered from the battle nearly as quickly.

Judging by the sunlight streaming through the curtains, it was already well past noon. Since I no longer had a phone to check the time, I considered turning on my computer, but first I needed to wash the dried sweat from my face and the dust clinging to my hair.

I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. When I saw my reflection in the mirror, I had trouble recognizing myself for several seconds. My blue hair stuck out in every direction, and faint dark circles had formed beneath my eyes from lack of sleep. Although the potion and White Serpent had healed my injuries, they hadn’t erased the exhaustion from my face.

After washing my hands and face with cold water, I fixed my hair a little and went into the kitchen. I didn’t have the patience to prepare food, so I took the milk from the refrigerator and grabbed a bowl and a box of cereal from the cupboard.

I sat at the table, filled the bowl, and placed my computer in front of me. When I looked at the clock on the screen, I saw that it was already past two in the afternoon.

I had slept through almost the entire day.

As I raised a spoonful of cereal to my mouth, I opened the browser. I had planned to check my streamer account or social media notifications first, but the large news headline on the home page immediately caught my attention.

[City Center Overlap Cleared: 27 Dead]