The night ends with the last of Yin’s friends. Bodies litter the river, the shore, and the town, but for now, it is over. Yin collapses after that last kill. I catch her as she goes down and gently take back my cleaver.

Finally, it should be over.

Even though in this timeline she barely knows me, Yin risks it all by falling asleep in my arms.

She’s still too trusting. It’s unfortunate that she couldn’t learn the truth about her friends, but perhaps it’s better that she didn’t have to experience the pain of betrayal.

Feeling a little lonely, I feed wood into the fire, watching it crackle and spark as the moon sets and the sun begins to rise. As the first rays tickle my face, I let myself drift off a bit, dozing lightly. During the day it is safe, at least from undead that is. Eventually, I am awoken to something shifting in my arms.

“Who are you?” Yin struggles to wakefulness. When she sees the bodies of her friends she gasps and breaks free from my hold. Tripping on the ground, she falls to her hands and knees. “Oh my god, oh my god! What’s happening? It wasn’t a dream?!” The sight of my cleaver on the ground next to me frightens her. She scoots away, her oval face tightening with terror. “Y-You made me kill them!”

“Would you preferred I do everything for you?” I say wryly, still somewhat tired. Fortunately, as a Lvl. 1 Hunter again, my stamina is a little better than the average human’s. Pushing to my hands and feet, I stretch. Yin stares at me, watching closely as I put my cleaver into my coat. “I helped you become a Hunter. They were already dead. Come, there should be a settlement not too far from here.”

“I…you…what’s a Hunter?” Yin’s expression reminds me very much of the last time I explained the rules to her. Despite the differences in how things turned out, she’s still the same person inside. It’s too bad she doesn’t remember who I am. I suspect the knowledge of what happened might break her though. “I’m…Lvl. 2. What does that mean?”

“Think of life as a game now. One where dying means you’ll become one of them.” I turn to the headless corpses on the ground. “Succeeding in killing zombies or other Hunters will help you become stronger.” Cracking my back, I walk over to her. She flinches, but when I offer her my hand, she accepts it. “My name is Hei. I’ll help you become strong enough to survive. But I won’t hunt myself.”

“I…let’s say I believe you. Why didn’t you just kill my friends…the zombies yourself if that’s how this works?” Yin catches on quickly now that the situation isn’t so stressful. It’s not surprising. It might seem ridiculous to those before the Calamity, but after seeing so much of the world fallen to undead, your sense of reality starts to get…loose. I shrug, starting to search the bodies of her friends for anything that isn’t spoiled by the water. A couple energy bars, some cooking utensils, I grab a still damp backpack from Donovan’s back. The food inside is dry, some instant noodles and spare water bottles.

“I don’t want to become a Hunter.” I answer her question as I rummage through her friend’s things. She looks away as I go through each corpse. “Listen, either accept my help or don’t. I don’t care, there’s a settlement coming up and I can drop you off there if you want. Just remember, a lot of people are going to become Hunters soon. This world is going to change, and in the beginning, everyone is going to be searching for weak zombies to kill. Some people will grow desperate and try to hunt other Hunters when they can’t find enough prey. If you’re weak…then this will be your fate.”

“I…” Yin’s beautiful face grows cold as she realizes what I’m trying to tell her.

The savagery of human nature will only grow worse from here on out. Until people get high enough level that killing others stops being worth it, this world is going to become a battlefield.

“You were trying to get me to kill them so I would level up?”

“Yes.” I straighten from the last body and wash my hands in the cold river water. She looks at me suspiciously.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick? What if you’re just going to kill me one day? Like fattening a pig before you slaughter it.” Yin eyes the spot in my coat where she knows my cleaver is hidden. Once again, I can only shrug.

“Like I said, believe what you want. But I could have just killed those zombies. And if you kill another Hunter, you’ll only gain half their experience. So, it would be pretty stupid of me to let you kill them. Especially, her.” I point at the corpse of Crassia. “She was Lvl. 5. Killing her actually leveled you directly to Lvl. 2. If I kill you right now, I’ll only be halfway to Lvl. 2.”

“Oh…” Yin frowns, scratching her head. She thinks it over for a while, her wariness slowly easing. “I guess I really have to trust you then. And it’s not like you did anything to me while I was sleeping…right?” She suddenly looks herself over as if scared she’s missed something and I have to hide the beginnings of a real smile. Not the fake, vengeful kind. An honest to god, genuine one. Wow, I can still smile? In a slightly better mood, I walk past her and begin to leave town.

“We’re going?”

“Yup. You coming?” I call over my shoulder. She hesitates a moment, but then quickly follows. Listening to her timid footsteps behind me, I take advantage of the noonday sun to lead us to a settlement that I remember being nearby in the early stages of the Calamity. The trees have a different atmosphere during the day, less sinister. Bright light streams down in-between the leaves and paints everything a beautiful golden color. The yellows and greens are a stark contrast with the terrifying, blank gray which covered my vision last night.

Back…I came back. I’m here now. Yin killed me before I could get too strong. It’s okay.

I have to shake my head to clear away the dark thoughts. Though my body comes back when it dies, the memories remain. I can still taste the foul blood in my mouth, a sweet sickly flavor like rusted metal. My hands tremble imperceptibly and I shove them into my coat pockets.

“Are you okay?” Yin walks beside me with concern. Somehow, despite the fact that we barely know each other, she’s managed to pick up on my discomfort. I straighten my features, doing my best to put on an impenetrable mask to hide the feelings. “I uhh, never got the chance to thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Hey, let me finish! I meant to say I never got the chance to say thank you for saving me. And teaching me to fight. It’s weird, I don’t know why, but it feels like we’ve met before.” She says earnestly and bows her head. I look away with a nervous cough.

There’s no way she remembers the past? That timeline never happened in this world! It must just be a coincidence.