The day of the collapse was the exact day Zeon became aware that he would die young.
It was not even a prediction or self pity. It was more like self awareness.
Life was already hard enough but Earth had gone right ahead to change overnight and Zeon was not only a useless Tier, he was stuck in a zone all by himself because he had been too stubborn to go with his mother and sister on that vacation.
At least, if he had...he would have ceased to exist already, along with the dozen other cities that were erased from existence after the collapse, with all the people in them, including his family.
Now, because he still existed, every day was spent waiting for the moment his end would come.
"If we keep going North, we should find the abandoned highway. A train station won't be far from there." Lilith said, glancing down at her compass.
"You said that six hours ago." Zeon pointed out.
"We took a detour to throw off the ravers that trailed us." She reminded.
The desire addicts had gotten too much of a high, they had suddenly seemed unwilling to let Zeon and Lilith leave their town.
Thankfully, they had not lingered around long enough to be hindered.
"Yes. And we're lost, Lilith." Zeon added with a sigh. "And even if we decide to turn back now, we won't ever find our way back to the outskirts of Zone 12."
He wasn't even trying to be a spoil-sport. But if he was going to die of starvation roaming through these forsaken outlands, then he might as well say all he had to.
The moment Zeon finished speaking, a chime echoed faintly in the back of his mind.
[System Notification: Zone Abandonment - Reward Assessment Complete.]
He blinked. He had forgotten about that.
Lilith looked up sharply. "What now?"
Zeon hesitated, then pulled up the translucent blue panel only he could see.
[Reward: Irregular Artifact - Seeker's Compass.]
[Description: Points to the user's greatest desired outcome, recalibrates once daily.]
A second later, something heavy dropped to the ground at his feet with a thunk. It looked like a compass, but the casing was blackened, battered, and cracked around the edges like it had been pulled from a wreck.
The arrow inside spun twice before settling with an odd shiver.
"You've got to be kidding me." Zeon murmured as he bent down and picked it up. The metal was strangely warm against his palm. "We nearly died for six hours when I had a magical lost-and-found sitting in my system?"
Lilith leaned in. "What does it point to?"
Zeon stared at the trembling arrow. "Supposedly...where I want to be most."
Lilith snorted. "Hopefully, it doesn't just drag us back to that raver town for more hallucinogenic duels."
Zeon muttered a half-hearted curse, adjusted his pack, and started moving in the direction the compass indicated.
Lilith followed, grumbling under her breath about something Zeon didn't quite catch.
---
The land around them subtly changed the farther they walked. The rough debris fields gave way to long stretches of broken asphalt, the remnants of a ruined highway.
Zeon did not even remember what it could have looked like, before the collapse. Earth had not just caved in on itself, it mixed and matched cities, roads, streets and houses,
Those that somehow escaped being ruined and wiped from existence still met the common fate of being relocated to a completely different place from where they had originally been.
He had met quite a few people in Zone 12 who didn't even speak English. And had seen streets dangling off wrecked buildings.
There indeed was no longer anything new under the sun. Even the sun itself had a huge chunk of it bitten off by something and now had a weird looking shape.
Hours passed as they walked. The sun dipped lower, bleeding red across the cracked horizon.
And then they saw it.
A single, bent metal pole rising from a small hill in the distance, tangled with vines. Beneath it, half-buried under dirt and collapse, was the skeletal remains of a Train Station.
Lilith exhaled sharply. "You actually did it."
"I wish I could agree it was me." Zeon murmured.
"Now what?" Zeon asked, passing Lilith a look.
"Now, we book a ticket to Zone 9." Lilith said, leading the way to the train station.
"Why Zone 9?" Zeon asked, jogging to catch up with Lilith.
"I mean if we're going anyway. Why not any of the top 5 zones?" He asked her.
"Because..." Lilith trailed off. "Because border passes from Zone 12 won't get you far. We can get better ones in Zone 9."
And then she was gone.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Subject: Lilith
— Withholding Information.
— Ulterior Motive Detected: Unknown.
— Loyalty status: Highly Questionably.
Recommendation: Restrict bondmate 1 from desire feeding.
"Hold that thought." Zeon murmured, eyes gleaming.
---
The station looked worse from up close. A broken sign dangled from the archway, the first few letters were gone. The rest were almost illegible.
A part of the ceiling had crumbled and the walls leaned like they were too tired to stand straight. Zeon wasn't certain how a train station in this state could still be functional.
But he had never been outside Zone 12 in three years. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be.
The air suddenly felt chilly and he tugged his jacket tighter around himself. The Seeker's Compass shook once in his hand before going still again. He frowned down at it.
The arrow inside spun in wild little circles.
Lilith noticed. "It's probably just reacting to the transit energy."
Zeon didn't respond. They headed to the archway and the moment they stepped through it, everything changed.
Beyond the archway was like a completely different world. It opened up into a huge hall with a mesh of overly bright colors and dozens of platforms stretching into the distance.
Signs hung overhead, but the words kept changing too fast to read properly. One second it was "Boarding for New Dawn", the next it was "Now Leaving Memory Lane"
"Departure to New Genesis." "Arrival from Forget-Me-Not Plains." "Boarding for Horizons Unseen" scrolled and stuttered across the screens.
None of it stayed the same for more than a second. Like the station couldn't make up its mind.
The air got warmer, then heavier, then sweeter. Zeon smelled mint...then metal...then something he couldn't even name. The constant change made his head swim.
The station was crowded. And the people...they were even more strange.
There were a lot of them, but their faces...didn't look right. They blurred at the edges. Their clothes were ridiculous, like they couldn't decide what outfit and had thrown everything over the other. Some of them just stood there, staring at nothing. Some laughed and cried at the same time.
A woman nearby clutched a bouquet of paper flowers. The petals crumbled into dust between her fingers. She didn't seem to notice.
Lilith reached for Zeon's arm.
"This place isn't right," she said quietly.
A train screeched into the station so loud, Zeon flinched. It didn't even look like a real train. Different cars were mashed together to form the train, like someone stitched pieces from different worlds. Smoke hissed out from the cracks where the metal was poorly joined.
Nobody seemed to find it strange. The crowd rushed toward the train like kids at a candy store. Then stopped right at the entrance and rushed back to the waiting booth.
And then the train was on its way, as empty as it came.
And while everything constantly changed, nothing really changed.
A certain neon sign caught Zeon's attention. It read "Welcome to Novelty Terminal."
The words flipped upside down.
"Zeon... this isn't how I remember this place to be." Lilith whispered.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
WARNING: You have entered a Desire-Saturated Area.
Location: Novelty Terminal
Stability: Highly Unstable
CAUTION: Reality shifts detected. Prolonged exposure may alter memory, perception, and desire thresholds.
> Recommendation: Minimize stay time. Locate stable exit point.