The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill-Chapter 36: The Territory That Breathes

The plaza came into view — a sprawl of cracked pavement and shattered storefronts, stretching out beneath the dim morning sky.

The streetlights were dead.

The windows hollowed out.

Yet, somehow, the place felt... alive.

Jin walked at the front of the group, his footsteps crunching softly against broken glass. His fingers twitched by his side, brushing against his thigh, restless and empty. He didn't summon his new weapon. Not yet.

Seul walked beside him, her gaze sharp, head on a constant swivel. She didn't speak, but her eyes swept every rooftop, every alley, every darkened corner. Watching. Calculating.

Joon trailed behind them, hands in his pockets, lazily kicking a piece of rubble down the street.

"Feels dead," Joon muttered, voice breaking the silence like a gunshot.

Seul didn't look at him. "Yeah like no one has been here for a while."

Jin didn't say anything.

Because he agreed with both of them.

He swiped his hand through the air, opening his territory map. The school plaza glowed faintly on the screen, outlined in dim white lines — and above it, a single message hovered.

[Territory Status: Unoccupied]

The same message that had been there since they'd first set out.

Jin's eyes flicked over the interface, watching the glowing text as they walked.

He couldn't shake the feeling it was too easy.

An untouched, intact plaza? No survivors, no monsters? It felt like a trap — like the system was holding its breath, waiting for them to step too close but then again he had the same feeling at the school and nothing was there.

Jin exhaled slowly, shutting the screen.

"How far?" Seul asked, voice low.

"Another block."

Joon sighed, stretching his arms over his head. "Man, I hope they've got vending machines or supermarkets. We could stock up."

Seul glanced over. "You're thinking about snacks at a time like this?"

Joon shrugged. "What else would I be thinking about?"

Seul rolled her eyes, muttering something under her breath.

They kept walking.

Then —

Ding.

The sound echoed in Jin's ears, sharp and sudden. He froze mid-step, fingers clenching reflexively.

A notification flickered into view.

[Territory Status: Occupied]

Seul stopped immediately, her posture snapping rigid.

Joon stumbled over his own foot, blinking. "Wait. What?"

Jin stared at the screen, heart pounding.

It didn't make sense.

The status had been unoccupied this whole time — and now, right as they approached, it shifted?

Jin's jaw tightened. "People are here."

Seul slowly turned, eyes narrowing as she scanned the area.

The street was dead empty.

No movement.

No sound.

Just the wind, curling through broken glass and twisted metal.

Joon's voice dropped. "You think they might be dangerous?"

Jin shut the screen, his fingers flexing. "Maybe."

Seul tilted her head, her brow furrowing. "Or maybe it's not people."

The words settled over them like a weight.

The thought that something could just... exist here, hidden, without a sound, without a trace — enough to trigger the system into marking the territory as occupied — made Jin's skin crawl.

He started walking again.

"Let's check it out," he muttered, voice low.

Seul followed without question.

Joon hesitated for half a second, then sighed and dragged his feet after them. "Man, we really gotta stop walking into obvious horror movie setups."

The closer they got, the worse it felt.

The street leading to the plaza was lined with abandoned cars — doors hanging open, windows smashed in. Rotted trash bags spilled across the sidewalk, and the distant remains of a collapsed building loomed over the road like a crumbling skeleton.

It smelled like rust and mildew.

Like decay.

But the closer they got to the plaza itself, the less destruction there was.

The concrete here was cleaner. The buildings less ruined. Like the destruction couldn't touch this place — like it had been pushed back by something.

Jin's gut twisted.

They stepped onto the plaza's main lot.

Nothing moved.

Nothing breathed.

Jin's hand twitched toward his inventory, almost pulling the weapon out. But he held himself back, forcing his body to stay still.

Wait. Watch.

Seul bent down, rubbing her fingers over a dark stain on the pavement.

"...Blood," she muttered.

Jin's pulse slowed.

Joon grimaced. "Fresh?"

Seul shook her head. "Dried."

Joon kicked a rock, sending it skittering across the pavement. "Okay, so either people died here, or someone started a barbecue."

Seul ignored him, wiping her hand on her pants as she stood. "What do you think?"

Jin's voice came out flat. "I think we shouldn't stay out in the open."

He pulled the map back up, watching the glowing lines of the plaza.

The status still said occupied.

Jin stared at it, eyes narrowing.

And then —

Ding.

The screen glitched.

The status flickered.

[Territory Status: Unoccupied]

It shifted again.

What the hell was happening with the system, was it a glitch?

Jin's mouth went dry.

Seul's body stiffened, her fingers curling into fists. "That's definitely not normal."

Joon took a step back. "Okay. Cool. So we're officially in a haunted plaza."

Jin lowered the screen, scanning the area. "Let's circle the lot. Check the buildings."

Seul nodded.

Joon groaned but followed.

They started walking. Slow. Careful.

And that's when they heard it.

The distant, sharp echo of screaming — a voice cracking with terror, so raw it cut through the quiet like a blade.

Jin's body snapped taut.

Seul turned toward the sound.

Joon's eyes widened. "Was that...?"

The scream came closer.

Fast.

Then, out of the main entrance of the plaza —

A group of people came sprinting out of the shadows, stumbling and bloody, eyes wide with panic.

One of them locked onto Jin's group and screamed louder.

"RUN!"

They crashed into them, barely stopping, grabbing Jin's arm and yanking.

The man's fingers dug into Jin's shirt, chest heaving like he'd just sprinted through hell.

His face was streaked with sweat and blood, eyes wide, unfocused — wild.

"You have to get out of here," he gasped, voice cracked and raw. "If you stay, if you even get near it —"

He coughed violently, almost doubling over, but still clinging to Jin like letting go would get him killed.

"It's gonna kill all of you."

The rest of the survivor group stumbled in behind him, their bodies battered and bruised — three men, one woman, all of them shaking and filthy, barely able to stand.

One of them — a younger guy with a split lip — immediately collapsed onto the sidewalk, gasping for breath like he couldn't get enough air.

The woman clutched her bleeding shoulder, her hands stained dark red, muttering something under her breath.

Another man, older, balding, with a bite wound festering black, kept glancing over his shoulder like he expected something to crawl out of the shadows at any second.

Seul stepped forward, positioning herself between the survivors and the plaza, her posture tense.

Joon lifted his hand, crackling faint arcs of energy, his eyes scanning the area.

But the street was empty.

Nothing followed them.

Just the echo of screaming, still ringing in the air.

Jin grabbed the man's wrists, prying his fingers free. "What happened?"

The man shook his head, still panting. "We — we tried to clear it. The plaza — we thought it was safe, but —"

He sucked in a ragged breath, body shaking.

"They started coming out of the walls."

Jin's stomach tightened.

"What did?"

The man whipped his head around, scanning every direction, pupils blown wide with panic.

"The people who died."

Seul shifted, her brow furrowing. "What do you mean?"

The man swallowed hard, chest still heaving.

"The ones we lost," he rasped. "The people who didn't make it out."

He clutched his head, fingers digging into his scalp.

"They... came back. But not like before. Not like normal monsters. It was like the system — twisted them."

Joon lowered his hand, the energy flickering out. "Twisted how?"

The woman with the bleeding shoulder finally looked up, her face pale and streaked with tears.

"They didn't look human anymore," she whispered. "They looked... wrong."

Her voice cracked.

"But we knew them."

Jin felt something cold settle in his chest.

"They talked," she choked, voice trembling. "They said our names."

Seul's hands clenched into fists.

Joon blinked, stepping back. "Okay. That's officially the worst thing I've heard this week."

Jin didn't move.

Didn't even breathe.

Because in the back of his mind, the system message flickered again.

[Territory Status: Unoccupied]

[Territory Status: Occupied]

[Territory Status: Unoccupied]

Like the territory itself couldn't decide if it still belonged to the living or the dead.

The woman wiped her face, her shoulders shaking.

"We can't go back," she whispered, voice hollow. "Not without the points."

She pressed her forehead against her knees, voice muffled.

"It's a graveyard."

Jin exhaled slowly, crouching down to meet the survivor leader's eyes.

"You said you tried to clear it," he said, voice low. "What are your skills? Did they do anything against the monsters?"

The man flinched like the question physically hurt him.

He didn't answer.

Jin's gaze sharpened. "You guys have skills, right?"

The guy with the split lip finally lifted his head, wiping blood off his mouth with the back of his hand.

"We... we didn't use them," he muttered.

Jin's brow furrowed. "Why not?"

The man looked down, ashamed, shoulders curling in like he wanted to disappear into himself.

The woman spoke up instead, voice brittle as glass.

"Using our skills means admitting the system won," she said.

Jin stilled.

She lifted her head, eyes red and swollen.

"If we use what the system gave us... we're just playing by its rules," she whispered. "We'd rather die as people than live as pawns."

Joon stared at her, mouth half-open. "Are you — you serious?"

The older man with the bite wound nodded stiffly.

"The system took everything from us," he muttered. "We won't give it anything else."

Jin's fingers curled into a fist.

"You lost people because you didn't use your skills," he said slowly, voice controlled. "If you'd fought with everything you had, maybe they'd still be alive."

The leader's head snapped up, eyes blazing.

"We fought," he rasped. "With our bare hands. Because we're not like you. We're not willing to turn into monsters just to live another day."

Jin clenched his jaw, forcing what he wanted to say down.

Seul finally spoke, her voice quiet but sharp.

"Then you're already dead," she said, gaze cutting through them like a blade.

The woman's breath caught.

The leader flinched like she'd hit him.

Seul wiped the dried blood from her gloves, her voice flat.

"The system isn't your enemy," she said. "It's your lifeline. And you're too proud to grab it."

Her words hung in the air, sharp and cold.

The survivors stiffened — but none of them argued.

Because they couldn't.

They just sat there.

Silent. Shaking.

The man with the bite wound just stared at the ground, his jaw clenched so tight his teeth looked like they might shatter.

The woman with the bleeding shoulder bit her lip, chest heaving with each shallow breath.

The guy with the split lip rubbed his face, voice barely a whisper.

"We just... we didn't want to lose ourselves," he mumbled. "If we use the skills, if we let the system change us... what's left?"

He swallowed hard, voice breaking.

"What if we turn into monsters anyway?"

Joon let out a sharp breath, dragging a hand through his hair.

"Man, you're already monsters," he muttered. "Not the fun kind, either. Just the useless kind."

Seul shot him a look, but she didn't correct him.

Because he wasn't wrong.

And Jin...

Jin just watched them.

Watched the way they crumbled.

Watched the way they clung to nothing.

It wasn't just fear.

It was refusal.

A refusal to accept that the world they knew was gone.

A refusal to change, even when it meant they'd die as they were.

He'd seen it at the station.

He'd seen it in the office.

People who couldn't adapt.

People who didn't make it.

Jin closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath.

Then he stood up.

He dusted off his jeans, voice quiet.

"You don't want to lose yourselves?"

The survivors flinched.

Jin tilted his head.

"Then why are you already gone?"

The words hit like a hammer.

The survivor leader finally snapped his head up, eyes burning.

"We're still alive," he spat. "We made it this far without turning into killers —"

"And how many people died because of it?" Jin's voice cut through his like a blade.

The man froze.

Jin stepped forward, voice low, steady, and cold as ice.

"You watched people get torn apart," he said, "and did nothing. You let them die with skills in your hands you refused to use."

The woman with the bleeding shoulder started crying again.

The guy with the split lip looked like he wanted to vomit.

But Jin didn't stop.

"The system already won," he said, voice rough. "The world's broken. You don't get to decide whether or not you want to play by its rules. You're already playing."

His fingers twitched.

"I only hope you live long enough to understand that."

Jin stared down at them, chest tight.

He didn't feel angry.

Just tired.

Because he understood it.

He really did.

He hadn't wanted to fight, either.

Hadn't wanted to kill anything.

But he'd seen what happened when people hesitated.

He'd seen people die.

And now he was here, standing over people who still didn't get it.

People who would rather die as victims than live as fighters.

His voice dropped, low and dead quiet.

"If you want to die, that's your choice."

They stared at him, eyes wide, faces pale.

Jin turned away, shoulders stiff.

"But don't pretend it's noble."

"Don't act like dying with your pride makes you any less dead."

He took a step back.

"We're going in," he muttered.

"And we're taking the points."

He lifted his gaze to Seul and Joon, voice sharp.

"If they want to sit here and wait to rot, let them."

The survivors didn't move.

Didn't say anything.

They just sat there, crumbling under the weight of Jin's words, too broken to argue.

But as Jin started walking away —

The woman with the bleeding shoulder lifted her head.

Her voice was soft, barely a breath.

"...What if we can't?"

Jin stopped.

He didn't look back.

"Can't what?"

She wiped her face, shoulders shaking.

"What if we can't fight like you?"

Jin's jaw tightened.

He closed his eyes for a second, then turned around, staring her down with a gaze that pierced through her like a blade.

"Then you learn," he said "Or you die trying."