The forest around us was dense, alive with sounds, leaves rustling, alien birds calling, and the low hum of the Peregrine powering down. Sunlight filtered through the trees, casting these weird, shifting shadows on the ground, lighting up patches of glowing fungi.


    My focus was elsewhere. I swiped through my interface, reviewing my latest System updates.


    It still felt unreal. The moment we activated the first portal, the System had unblocked our progress.


    First things first, attributes.


    Attribute Points Available: [10]


    Charisma: 22 → 25 (+3)


    Intelligence: 66


    Memory: 45 → 50 (+5)


    Perception: 66


    Willpower: 31 → 33 (+2)


    Memory had to hit 50. That was a milestone. The higher it got, the more I could juggle at once and the faster I got XP from using my passive skills, tactical awareness, all of it. Charisma? Eh. Couldn’t hurt, I didn’t want to leave it behind. Not that I was out here trying to sweet-talk the wildlife, but reading people, negotiating, getting under someone’s skin? That was worth the investment. Willpower was always useful. More mental endurance meant staying sharp longer, resisting mental effects, and keeping myself from spiraling when things got rough.


    Applied. Done. Now for the real prize. Skill XP.


    The Scenario Completion Bonus had left me sitting on 157,800 XP, unallocated and begging to be spent. I scrolled to my Skill Queue, smirking as I locked in my first choice.


    Inspect Proficiency. Sitting pretty at level 6 and not that useful with TL9 items, giving me no information. To hit level 10, I needed to apply the unallocated skill XP to my queue.


    [Skill Level up! Inspect Level 6 -> Level 10]


    [Ability Unlocked: Enhanced Inspect (Active) Gain a detailed analysis of an object, system, or enemy within 500 meters, revealing key details. Cooldown: 10 minutes. ]


    Finally. Inspect was one of those skills that never seemed to matter, until it did. Being able to scan something in-depth, pull up system details, know exactly what we were dealing with before it tried to eat us? That was priceless. In this new TL9 world we now had a tool to help us.


    And the best part? That was just the first skill in the queue.


    The leftover XP rolled down to the next in line: Tomahawk Throwing Proficiency. Already at Level 8, just shy of the next milestone. It needed about 30,000 XP to hit Level 10. Just a few lucky mobs in the next fight.


    Because at Level 10? That meant another Ability Unlock. This is what I had been missing in Sol, too many low level skills and no abilities.


    <hr>


    We moved through the clearing, packing up gear, securing crates, and loading samples into the cargo hold. The air smelled like damp earth, alien plants, sweat, and machine oil. A regular fucking picnic.


    I hefted a crate of dirt into the Peregrine, wiping a streak of grime from my visor. We''d been at this site for hours, cataloging plants, taking readings, running scans. Tedious, repetitive shit, but necessary if we were going to map out the viable zones of New Dawn.


    This place was teeming with life, rich and bio-compatible, whatever the fuck that meant. But every day out here felt like a goddamn marathon, a constant fight to stay ahead of whatever the hell we''d unleashed after that first dungeon run.


    "Careful with that one," Ryan called out, glancing over from where he was strapping down a crate of weird-looking roots. "We’ve got enough samples to last us a month. Last thing we need is to spill half of it on the way back." As if I didn''t know how to handle a fucking crate.


    "Don’t worry, I got it," I replied, securing the crate. "Make sure the scanners are packed. Abby’s not going to be happy if we leave anything behind."


    Nearby, Emily was folding up a portable antenna, all graceful and efficient. She glanced over and smirked, that teasing glint in her eyes. "You know, I’m starting to think I was right about that whole portal thing. Maybe we shouldn’t have gone in after all."


    I rolled my eyes. "Oh, here we go again."


    "I’m serious!" she said, walking over, helmet tucked under her arm. She looked good. Too good. "Since we stepped through that first portal, we’ve had creatures popping out of nowhere, harassing us every time we try to work. Not exactly the peaceful survey mission we signed up for, huh?"


    <hr>


    "You call this harassment?" Danny piped up from the other side of the clearing, dismantling a sensor array. "I call it target practice. Besides, it keeps things interesting."


    "Right, because getting ambushed by six-legged lizards is your idea of a good time," Joey said, shaking his head as he packed up his med kit. "I don’t care what you say, Danny, I’m keeping my shield on next time."


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Zoe hopped down from the roof of the Peregrine, where she’d been securing solar panels. "You love it, Joey. Admit it. A little danger never hurt anyone.”


    Joey shot her a deadpan look. "Tell that to Chris’s arm."


    There was a momentary pause, a flicker of tension, but then Ryan broke it with a laugh. "Hey, he’s healing up fine. The med pod’s working wonders, right? Besides, we’re learning. Every time something attacks, we figure out how to handle it better."


    Emily leaned in close, her voice lowering conspiratorially. "Yeah, but every time they attack, I get to remind you that you didn’t listen to me. So really, it’s a win-win."


    I huffed, shaking my head. "If you’re trying to make me feel guilty, it’s not going to work. I’ll just remind you how much new gear we’ve gotten since then." And how good you looked down on your knees that one time by the phallic smoothie fruit.


    She grinned, leaning in even closer, her lips barely a whisper away. "Touché, Luca... I miss the times we could, you know, walk down a ways and lose everyone for a moment alone." Oh, she was playing dirty now.


    I chuckled softly, my breath tickling her skin. "Yeah," I replied, my voice low and husky. "That was great..." Fuck, that had been amazing.


    We continued walking in silence for a few moments before Emily spoke again. "Do you think we''ll ever get that kind of privacy here again?"


    I draped my arm over her shoulders, pulling her closer. "To be honest, I doubt it," I said while kissing her cheek. "Things are becoming more dangerous." And it was a damn shame. A crying, fucking shame.


    The easy banter cut off as my wrist comm let out a sharp ping. I glanced down, a fresh data stream scrolling across the screen. The casual vibe around camp snapped like a wire under tension. My stomach tightened.


    "What the hell is this?" I muttered, tapping the notification to expand it.


    Emily leaned over my shoulder, her brow furrowing as she read along with me. The text was blunt, almost mocking in its simplicity.


    [Signal detected. Source located 439 kilometers north-northeast. Artificial patterns detected. Signal is stationary.]


    Ryan stepped closer, curiosity bleeding into his usual cocky tone. “What kind of signal?”


    I shook my head, scrolling for more details. “Artificial, but not portal-related.”


    My gut twisted. Portals were bad enough, at least we understood what they did, even if they tried to kill us. This? This was something new. Something different. And I wasn’t sure I liked it.


    Then the next update hit, and it was worse.


    New data logged: Over 54,300 active portals detected across New Dawn. Energy signatures consistent with System-generated activity. Activation times correlate to the first portal interaction.


    "Fifty-four thousand?" Emily’s voice spiked, sharp and breathless. "Since we activated the first one? That’s… that’s exponential."


    Ryan let out a low whistle, rocking back on his heels. "Looks like we kicked the damn hornet’s nest."


    "What the actual fuck?" I muttered, my thumb mindlessly scrolling through the flood of coordinates. They were everywhere, scattered across the planet like landmines. This was just like Sol. We fucked up.


    Ryan crossed his arms, shooting me a sideways glance. “So, what’s the plan, fearless leader? Besides dying horribly when this whole planet blows up.”


    Emily turned on me, and this time, she wasn’t just annoyed, she was furious.


    "No. Absolutely not."


    I blinked. "What?"


    She stabbed a finger at my wrist comm. "Portals are one thing. This? This is something else. You don’t even know what the hell that signal is, but you’re already looking at it like it’s our next mission."


    I opened my mouth to argue, but she wasn’t done.


    "We barely understand the fucking portals we activated and now you wanna chase after some mystery signal like we’re in a goddamn adventure movie?"


    "Em-"


    "No!" She folded her arms, jaw tight. "You dragged us into this mess already, Luca. And now Chris is in the med pod, we’re walking around armed just to take a piss, and this whole planet is a goddamn hazard zone! So forgive me if I don’t feel like running toward the next shiny disaster!"


    "We don’t have a choice," I cut her off, my voice firm but steady. "Our mission charter dictates the survey work. If there’s an artifact, we need to know what it is. Sitting back isn’t going to fix this."


    Her shoulders dropped slightly, but I caught the way her jaw remained tight. Stubborn. Always stubborn. "Then we do it carefully," she said, her voice softer now. "We can’t afford to screw this up, Luca. Not with everything we’ve already set in motion."


    That edge in her tone, the worry underneath the frustration, I felt it too. But this was bigger than fear. It was bigger than the risks. Every instinct I had screamed that this was important. And yet, under all the tension, under the responsibility, under the weight of what we had already done...


    There was excitement.


    This was why we were here. The kind of discovery that rewrote everything. We’d already kicked the hornet’s nest; might as well see what the sting felt like.


    I stepped in closer, placing my hands on her shoulders, grounding her. Her green eyes, sharp and wary, flicked up to meet mine.


    "It’s going to be okay." I meant it.


    Her lips parted slightly, her breath still a little uneven, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, her hands brushed against my waist.


    I tilted my head, leaning in, pressing a slow, steady kiss to her lips.


    Warm. Familiar. A moment of quiet in all this fucking chaos.


    When I pulled back, she sighed, eyes closing briefly before opening again. "I hate that you make me believe you when you say shit like that."


    I smirked. "Because you know I mean it."


    She rolled her eyes, but she wasn’t pulling away anymore. That edge of frustration was still there, but beneath it… something else.


    I brushed my thumb across her jaw, letting my voice drop just for her. "Look, I know things have been insane. I know we haven’t had a second to ourselves." I leaned in a little closer, just enough that she could feel the warmth of my breath against her skin. "But we will. I’ll make sure of it. Just us. No distractions."


    Emily’s lips pressed into a thin line, her fingers tightening briefly against my waist before she sighed, some of that tension finally melting away. "You better, Rossi."


    I grinned. "Scout’s honor."


    She snorted. "You were never a scout."


    "Yeah, but I am your captain." I winked, earning myself a reluctant smile.


    "Fine," she said. "Let’s go figure out what the hell this thing is."


    <hr>


    And then I finally saw it, movement on the edge of the clearing. I swear this happened.


    Danny and Zoe.


    Heads against each other, whispering like they were plotting something. Finally. My eyebrows shot up as Zoe grabbed Danny’s wrist, her fingers curling around it just enough to make my heart fucking soar. Was she…?


    Oh!


    She was!


    She was leading him toward the treeline. Victory.


    It’d taken her weeks, weeks of teasing, flirting, nudging, throwing herself at him on a silver platter, for this moment. Danny, bless his dense, lovable heart, was finally going along with it. Maybe he’d finally figured it out. Maybe she’d finally get what she wanted.


    I could already hear Emily’s told-you-so voice in my head. See, Luca? Patience pays off. She’s got this. And honestly? I was rooting for them. My girl deserved this win.


    But then-