SSS-Class Profession: The Path to Mastery-Chapter 217: Waking Hours

The sky hadn’t moved, but time had.

The stars above the lean-to flickered in slow pulses, like dying embers cast too far from the fire. I lay there, unmoving, eyes open to the black canopy of night, each breath a deliberate, even drag through my nose. I didn’t dare close my eyes. Not because I was afraid of what I’d see—nothing haunted me worse than what I saw while awake—but because I couldn’t afford to lose another minute.

Six hours. That’s all I had left before the System reactivated. Six waking hours. And I was burning them by the second.

Beside me, Sienna slept in fits. Her hand rested against my forearm, a reflexive contact she made without realizing. Every time I shifted, she’d stir, tighten her grip for just a moment, then fall still again.

The fire popped faintly in the center of the camp. A few embers kicked up and spun in the air like miniature red ghosts. Evelyn’s footsteps passed nearby—slow, deliberate pacing as she monitored the perimeter traps. She hadn’t spoken in over twenty minutes. She didn’t have to. We were all waiting for the same thing:

A sign.

A light.

A voice.

Something.

But it never came.

Camille and Alexis had said "two hours." It had been nearly four. No signal. No flash. No sound. And now that I had time to think—too much time—I couldn’t shake the image of that red light blinking between the trees, then vanishing like it had never existed.

I replayed the moment in my head for the hundredth time. The running figure. The snapped trap. And how it had ran towards north-east—toward where Camille and Alexis had gone.

I sat up.

The motion pulled fire through my ribs, and my body tried to betray me with a grunt. I swallowed it. No sound. Just breath. Just urgency.

Sienna stirred immediately. "Rey?"

I didn’t answer right away. She sat up beside me, sleepy concern overtaking the haze in her voice. "You’re supposed to be resting."

"They should be back by now," I said quietly.

She blinked. "We don’t know how far they went. It could just be—"

"No. Something happened."

Evelyn turned at the sound of our voices, already approaching. "You need to stay down," she said, no preamble. "You’re barely standing. If you get lost—"

"I’m not planning to get lost," I said, forcing my legs underneath me. I didn’t stand yet. Just let the pain settle where it would. "And I’m not planning to sit here while they’re in danger."

Sienna grabbed my arm. "You don’t know that. What if they found shelter? What if they’re just waiting for daylight?"

"And what if they’re trapped?" I snapped. "What if they’re inside somewhere—some bunker, or structure, or whatever the hell the human that was giving off that red light is—and they can’t get back to us? What if they’re hurt?"

"Then we wait until sunrise," Evelyn said. Calm. Steady. Always tactical. "We’ll be rested. Alert. You’ll be closer to your reset."

"I don’t have time to wait." I met her gaze. "I have six hours left before my system reactivates and sleeping doesn’t help—it just freezes the timer. If I wait, I lose time. If I lose time, I lose them."

Sienna’s face was drawn tight. "You said it yourself. You’re weak. You can’t access any skills, any jobs. If something happens, you won’t be able to defend yourself. And we can’t afford to lose you."

"And I can’t afford to do nothing," I said. "Not again."

She flinched.

It hung in my mind for a moment. The weight of all the times I hadn’t been fast enough. Me failing to realize the Mars Mission was sabotaged. Evelyn’s being turned into a Cain Protocol subject. The 2nd plane also being sabotaged. Every mistake stacked up like bricks on my back—and this time, I didn’t even have my System to carry the load.

Evelyn looked at me carefully, reading something in my posture. "What’s your plan?"

I exhaled. "I won’t go far. I’ll go in the same direction that they went. I know they likely went in a straight line. If they encountered someone out there, if they’re stuck, then it’s not about circling the shore anymore. They may not even be able to reach the water."

Sienna stared at me, eyes wet. "And what if they’re dead?"

The question felt like a slap.

I didn’t answer right away. I looked down at the dirt beneath my knees. Then, softly: "Then I’d rather be the one who finds them than wait here pretending everything’s fine."

Evelyn crossed her arms. "You know we could just stop you."

Sienna’s hand tightened on mine. "But we’d rather ask you not to."

I looked at her. The lines in her face. The ache behind her eyes. And I knew she meant it. But I also knew—

"If you were out there," I said, "you wouldn’t want me to wait."

Sienna’s voice cracked. "You better come back alive."

I nodded once.

Evelyn moved into action without another word. She began gathering supplies—marking rope lengths with reflective thread, prepping a small satchel with dried fruit, bandages, a rusted utility blade from the crash. I strapped it across my chest as Sienna packed a canteen, her hands moving fast to avoid shaking.

"Don’t go off trail," Evelyn warned. "If you find signs of them—campfires, markings, footprints—you mark it and come back. You’re not cleared to do anything else." freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

"I’ll bring back news. That’s it."

Sienna pulled a thin strip of cloth from her wrist—a ribbon, still faintly scented with whatever was left of her perfume—and tied it to my forearm. "So we don’t lose you," she whispered.

Then I turned toward the treeline.

And walked into the dark.

The jungle closed around me like a fist.

Every vine felt like a wire. Every shadow, a whisper. The moonlight didn’t reach far beneath the canopy, and the deeper I went, the more it felt like the island was folding itself around my footsteps, testing each one.

I kept close to the direction they had went—I also saw some stones laid with intent, twigs broken clean at specific angles. Even in the dark, I could see where she’d chosen her path. She was good at that. Quietly brilliant. Alexis too. They knew how to move together, even in unknown terrain.

Which is what made their silence now unbearable.

Ten minutes passed.

Then twenty.

The pain in my ribs stayed constant, but dull—like a scream buried under blankets. My left leg had started to seize, but I leaned more weight to the right. I didn’t need to run. I just needed to keep walking.

Then I saw it.

A footprint.

Not Camille’s. Not Alexis’s.

Barefoot.

Pressed deep into the moss. Heel down, toes curled like the runner had pivoted mid-step. A different direction than the path I followed—but intersecting.

I crouched low, touched the edge of the print. It was still damp. Still fresh.

Then—click.

A sound in the trees.

Subtle. Mechanical.

Not camp-made. Not Evelyn’s traps.

Different.

Faint.

It didn’t repeat. But my body went cold.

I rose slowly, adjusting the pack against my back, my breath a shallow thing caught between my teeth.

The wind stirred the branches above—and something red flickered between them.

Far. Too far to reach.

But visible.

A blink.

Then gone again.

I took a step forward, hand brushing against the trunk of a tree for balance.

"If something else is out here..." I muttered aloud, just to feel the weight of my voice in the air.

"...I’m not walking back alone."

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