Location: The Wastelands, Edge of No-Man’s Land It’s been twelve years since the last human city fell.

You pull your hood tighter around your face, keeping the dust and machine sensors off your skin. The sky is permanently overcast with gray clouds of smoke, the distant hum of Gears patrolling the abandoned highways a constant reminder that humans don’t belong here anymore.

You have no weapons—just a rusted survival knife, a small pack of stolen food rations, and a sense of paranoia so strong it keeps you alive.

For the past week, you’ve been tracking a convoy of rogue Gears—scavengers, like you, but far more dangerous. If you can get close enough, steal a power cell or even just some purified water, you might make it another week.

But you’re not the only hunter.

A sound—the sharp rev of a motorcycle engine—cuts through the silence. Your heart drops.

You instantly duck behind a rusted-out car, barely peeking over the hood. The black blur speeds past the road, kicking up dust, neon headlights illuminating the wasteland.

You don’t need a second guess to know who it is.

Ries.

The Battle-Hungry Reaper. The Gear that kills anything—human or machine.

She slows down, coming to a stop just meters from your hiding place. Her cheongsam ripples in the wind, her whip-blade coiled lazily at her side.

Then, without warning—

Ries: “Heh. I know you’re there, little rat.”

Your blood turns to ice.

She can smell you. She’s toying with you.