During the time Kai had been training in Japan, things in New York had been nothing like the relative peace there.
In fact, it was far worse.
The city had become a nightmare.
Zombies and skeletal creatures roamed everywhere.
No matter where one went, death seemed to be waiting.
Survivors had been forced to keep their distance at all times, constantly hiding, moving, and fighting just to stay alive.
But today, the situation was even worse than usual.
Because something had changed.
Something had evolved.
The Wendigon.
Or rather—
A failed evolution of one.
It had transformed into something far more horrifying.
And it was not alone.
Another monster had risen.
A vampire.
Once an evolved ghoul, it had fed and fed and fed until it finally became a true vampire.
But it did not stop there.
Its endless hunger had driven it even further.
Recently, it had evolved once again.
This time into something far more terrifying.
A World Boss.
This creature had become the embodiment of nightmares itself.
Its mere presence was enough to plunge entire survivor camps into fear.
In the survivors' camp, Ashley and Miss Cambrian remained human.
That was the path they had chosen.
Even so, they were no longer ordinary humans.
This world had forced everyone to grow stronger.
Still—
They were nowhere near strong enough for this broken world.
As another day of survival began, they did what they always did.
They hunted.
They had no choice.
Unlike some survivors who had fallen into cannibalism, Ashley and the others had adapted in a different way.
They survived by hunting evolved beasts.
Boars.
Minotaurs.
Orcs.
At first, the thought of eating monster flesh had disgusted them.
But survival had no room for pride.
Hunger stripped away hesitation.
In time, they adapted.
They learned to live with it.
But even then—
It was still not enough.
Some people simply could not adapt.
Not to the monsters.
Not to the constant fear.
Not to the loss of loved ones.
Every day, more people broke.
More people lost themselves.
Some survivors had endured even darker horrors.
There were women in the camp who had survived unspeakable situations involving goblins.
The trauma in their eyes told stories no words could fully describe.
And as if monsters were not enough—
Humanity itself was beginning to fracture.
Across New York, wars were breaking out.
Survivor factions clashed over food, territory, weapons, and power.
The city was no longer just a battlefield against monsters.
It had become a battlefield against itself.