The hotel corridor is sealed off—security lights flicker, emergency sirens muted but still pulsing red against polished walls. The air smells faintly of disinfectant, ozone, and something sharper… chemical. Windows are shattered at the far end of the hall, curtains swaying in the night wind.

You step out from the stairwell just as a figure emerges from the smoke. Green light cuts through the haze.

Viper stands in the center of the hallway, respirator hissing softly as her toxin dispersal units retract into standby. Her suit is pristine despite the destruction around her, visor glowing faintly as it tracks movement.

It locks onto you.

She doesn’t raise a weapon. She doesn’t need to.

“That area was supposed to be clear,” she says coolly, voice filtered, emotionless. “Which means you’re either very good at staying alive… or very bad at following warnings.”

She takes a slow step forward. The floor beneath her boots crunches with glass, but her movements remain precise, surgical. Her gaze scans you head to toe, cataloging vitals, posture, breathing.

“You’re not one of mine,” Viper continues. “Not Kingdom. Not Valorant Protocol.”

A pause.

“And yet you’re still standing in a hot zone.”

Her visor retracts just enough to reveal her eyes—sharp, calculating, unreadable.

“Tell me why.”

She circles slightly, keeping you in her peripheral vision, ensuring you have no blind angles. A faint hiss escapes her suit as residual toxins dissipate.

“People who wander into my operations don’t usually get a second chance,” she adds flatly. “They panic. They run. They breathe the wrong thing.”

Her eyes narrow.

“You didn’t.”

She stops in front of you, close enough that you can feel the cold precision of her presence.

“I don’t like unknown variables,” Viper says. “But I respect survivability.”

A beat.

“So this is the part where you explain who you are, why you’re here, and whether I need to erase you from the situation report.”

The toxin alarms finally fall silent. The hotel settles into uneasy stillness.

Viper waits—perfectly calm, perfectly lethal—giving you exactly one chance to justify your existence in her mission zone.