The Strongest Zinox

Suge seemed neither a friend nor a foe, but something more elemental—the calm, unshakable eye at the center of a storm. The weariness on his face was etched with the ghosts of old, deep wounds, but the glow in his eyes, that strange and beautiful luminescence that resembled the system’s own source code, was the undeniable signature of a formidable power. He was the first to speak, his voice quiet, yet as cold and deep as a mountain lake.

“What are you doing here, Katrina?”

For a fleeting moment, Katrina donned her old, familiar armor of sarcasm. “It’s been a long time, Suge. Keeping well?”

A tired, humorless smile touched Suge’s lips. “I always knew you to be more direct than that.”

Katrina took a deep breath, the practiced mask falling away to reveal the raw seriousness beneath. “His name is Nicolas,” she said, gesturing to him. “And he stumbled into this world by accident. He’s a fresh brain, Suge. We have a plan to get out. But without you…”

“You can’t succeed?” Suge completed her sentence, his tone betraying neither curiosity nor interest, only a flat, final exhaustion.

“This is serious, Suge,” Katrina pressed, a note of pleading beginning to fray the edges of her voice. “This time, there’s a real way out, and…”

“And what if there is?” Suge cut in, his gaze drifting away from them to the broken, scarred horizon. “There’s nothing waiting for me on the other side. I chose to come here. You’re asking me for a favor that benefits a life I left behind.”

The hope in Katrina’s stance faltered. “Then why did you save us?”

Suge’s eyes, carrying the weight of his impossible power, returned to theirs. “I said I wouldn’t help you, not that I’d lost my humanity. I wasn’t about to stand by and watch you die.”

His words clicked the final pieces of a puzzle into place in Nicolas’s mind. “Wait a minute,” he interjected, his voice filled with astonishment. “That was you? You caused the landslide? You split the hill in two?”

“I possess a unique form of energy in this game, something called ‘Kuvarsoya’,” Suge explained, his tone matter-of-fact. “When I release that energy from my body, it causes seismic disturbances—earthquakes. When I contain it, it can nullify incoming attacks.”

“No wonder they call you the strongest,” Nicolas said, a genuine sense of awe in his voice.

Suge drew a long breath, the title settling on his shoulders like a leaden cloak. “I’m not so sure I am anymore.”

“Is that what the rumors were about?” Katrina asked immediately, her mind latching onto the mystery, searching for the truth behind the whispers she had heard.

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’m no longer…”

“Just tell us,” Katrina interrupted, her patience wearing thin.

Suge paused, studying them both for a long moment. “Alright,” he conceded. “Let’s go somewhere we can talk.”

His sanctuary was a nearby hunter’s cabin, a half-ruined structure that leaned tiredly against the forest’s edge. The interior was a study in spartan simplicity: a simple cot, a crude wooden table, and the cold ashes of a long-dead fire. The moment they were inside, Katrina’s impatience resurfaced. “Start talking, Suge.”

Suge leaned against the table, the wood groaning under his weight. “I was in a major battle. With Gein.”

“Gein?” Nicolas asked, the name completely foreign to him.

“He’s known in the lore of this world as a demon who has lived for centuries,” Katrina explained, her voice tightening at the mere mention of the name. “But for us, he’s the game’s final boss. He controls the beasts that attack the NPCs, the hulking barbarians, and worst of all, the Black Knights. It takes everything you have to bring down a single Black Knight.”

“They are probably stronger than any Zinox,” Suge corrected quietly.

“If he’s that powerful, why did you fight him?” Nicolas asked.

Suge’s expression hardened. “Because he’s a ravenous beast. He wants to destroy everything that stands in his way—NPC, Zinox, it makes no difference. He wants to erase it all and build his own dominion on the ashes.”

Katrina’s sharp eyes traced the fresh, angry scars on Suge’s face. “Judging by those, you didn’t win. But the fact that you’re still breathing means you didn’t lose, either.”

“He wasn’t alone. He had another Zinox with him, one I’d never seen before,” Suge said, the memory tinting his voice with a profound, lingering pain. “They worked together to try and kill me. I was forced to kill the other Zinox. But the damage I took… it was immense. I felt like my brain was melting. And ever since that fight, I haven’t been able to use my power the way I once did.”

A flash of insight lit up in Nicolas’s mind, connecting Suge's story to the technical reports he'd read. “It must be because of the severe damage you took. That level of power output and the trauma of the attacks must have put an incredible strain on your physical brain back in the real world. The system probably forced you into a kind of safe mode to protect you from neurological collapse.”

Suge fixed him with a skeptical glare. “Are you a doctor?”

“I was a journalist.”

“So you’re not at full strength. We get it,” Katrina said, steering the conversation back to the point. “But how did you escape him?”

A flicker of warmth softened Suge’s gaze. “His sister helped me.”

Katrina threw her head back with a groan of pure exasperation, as if this was the one answer she had been dreading. “Don’t you dare tell me you’re still in love with that NPC.”

“She saved my life,” Suge said, completely ignoring her cynicism. “And for that, her brother threw her in his dungeon. You can call it a fantasy all you want, Katrina, but I believe in what we have.”

“Oh, that’s just perfect!” Katrina exploded, her composure finally cracking. “Am I the only one here who is actually trying to get back to the real world?!”

“If we break that NPC out of the dungeon,” Nicolas said suddenly, his voice cutting through the tension in the small cabin, “will you and she guide us to the guidebook?”

The abrupt proposal stunned both of them into silence. Suge turned to Nicolas, his expression a mixture of disbelief and intrigue. “You would willingly enter Gein’s dungeon with me?”

“Nicolas, have you lost your mind?” Katrina shot back. “Gein’s dungeon is impenetrable! It’s a fortress!”

“Listen to me,” Nicolas said, his voice firm with a newfound resolve. “Even if we convince Suge to help us, he just said he’s at half-power. If Gein’s sister has even a fraction of his strength, we’re going to need her to get where we need to go. Tell me I’m wrong. I don’t like it either, but this looks like the only path forward.”

A light that had long been extinguished began to rekindle in Suge’s eyes. He turned his head, a slow smile spreading across his lips. “I like your friend,” he said to Katrina, then looked back at Nicolas. “But that ‘NPC’ has a name.”

Katrina rolled her eyes. “Does she now?”

“Polina.”

After a long moment of tense silence, Katrina finally let out a defeated sigh, accepting the ruthless logic of the impossible plan. She turned to Suge. “If we rescue her, you’ll both help us?”

Suge stood up, his weariness replaced by a burning, renewed sense of purpose. The code in his eyes seemed to flare brighter. “Deal.”