Chapter 136: I Completed Evelise’s First Dead Chapter.

[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT]

[Congratulations, Sid! You have successfully completed Evelise’s first Dead Chapter]

[To unlock and view the next Dead Chapter, you must once again achieve "Night Time" status with your companion.]

Sid scoffed, throwing his hands up in frustrated disbelief.

"Are you kidding me? Another night of forced intimacy and being drugged just to see the next horror show?"

He ran a weary hand through his hair. He looked around the small cabin and realized the lighting had changed; the pale afternoon light filtered through the cracks in the walls.

"It’s afternoon already... damn, that thing knocked me out for way too long... My head still hurts."

The dull ache behind his eyes matched the dizziness he’d felt after the sleeping item took hold. His face went cold as Evelise’s last words snapped back into his mind her voice trembling:

" I’m sorry... I have to do this... for your sake."

His stomach flipped. He bolted upright, eyes wide.

"Oh, fuck— she drugged me."

He shouted, leaping out of the bed.

"Evelise, what did you put in my water?!"

He pushed himself up, bracing on the support around his injured knee— the makeshift brace Evelise had crafted. He checked the little room with sudden, sharp focus. The spoon and cup where he’d eaten last night were clean but set back where Evelise always left them.

Sid’s chest tightened as a sharp, ugly thought slipped in— her sleep had been too heavy, the herbs too easy. He called out, voice rough with worry,

"Evelise? You awake?! Don’t you dare be dead, all right? Where are you?!"

No answer.

Sid rushed out of bed, nearly tripping over. He stormed out of the room, shouting her name again.

"Evelise! Where the hell are you?!"

There was still no answer. Sid immediately tore through the cabin, his previous anger transforming into cold fear. He searched every corner of the main room, checked the small, dark basement, and frantically looked behind the makeshift curtains. She was gone. He rushed back to the main area, his eyes scanning her usual spots.

Her survival supplies were still there, but her forage satchel and her shotgun were missing. The realization hit him with a sickening thud: she hadn’t just stepped out; she had departed with a purpose. Sid’s mind raced, his imagination filling the void with terrible possibilities.

"No, no, no... She took everything. She definitely went somewhere. Why didn’t she wait for me to wake up? What the hell is she up to?"

He ran a hand through his hair, pacing back and forth.

"Where the hell would she go? Why would she just leave me here after that?!"

His thoughts spiraled. He remembered her eyes before she left— determined, guilty, like someone walking toward a decision she’d already made. Then, it clicked.

The mansion.

The place from her memory. Sid’s pulse spiked.

"The mayor’s mansion... That’s where she’d go."

He grabbed his gear in a frenzy, stuffing his supplies into his pack.

"Of course—where else would she go? That’s where it all started. That’s where Henry was. That’s where her past is. She’s gone to settle a score... or face whatever demon chased her."

He slung the belt bag around his waist and hoisted the backpack over his shoulders, hands moving quick but unsteady."Damn it, Evelise..."

He opened his quick menu, pulled items from storage, and shoved them into the pack. He checked the straps once, then nodded to himself.

"Better be ready."

Then another memory surfaced— a small detail from that night when he was sneaking through the halls. The view from the balcony. Beyond the iron gates, in the distance, he had seen it. Massive, glowing faintly green, its leaves pulsing like veins of light. The Nexus Tree. His eyes widened.

"That’s it... the mansion was near the Nexus Tree."

He stepped outside the cabin, the warm afternoon air sizzling at his skin. The horizon was lined with distant mist, and far off, faint but unmistakable, was that same green shimmer. He adjusted the strap on his pack, gripping it tight.

"Hang on, Evelise. Whatever you’re planning, whatever you’re doing— I’m coming after you."

And with that, Sid set off toward the north of the overgrown wilderness, the faint glow of the Nexus Tree guiding him through the ruins of the world.

He pushed deeper into the dense forest surrounding the cabin, limping without hesitation. His mind replayed the scene from the Dead Chapter—the entitled malice of Henry, the Mayor’s cold complicity, and Evelise’s utterly broken despair. That memory was no longer abstract; it was a powerful motivator, driving him faster through the oppressive green maze.

Sid followed faint animal trails, barely visible beneath layers of vines and roots. Every so often, he glanced up at the Nexus Tree’s distant light, using it as his only guide. The journey was brutal. He had to climb over collapsed ruins and force his way through thorn-covered bushes that tore at his clothes and skin.

"Argh, this knee is slowing me down... I can’t waste time. She’s still in that nightmare mansion."

He muttered the words under his breath, his voice rough and uneven.

"She went back to face the monsters... didn’t even wait for me. Damn it, Evelise... you’re too stubborn. I know you’re strong, but—"

Sid stopped himself, his breath heavy. Evelise was strong more than anyone he knew. A zombie girl capable of terrifying strength and brutal violence. But the vision he’d seen showed something else beneath all that... the fragile, broken human who still lived behind the mask.

As the hours dragged on, the afternoon slowly bled into night. Sid kept moving, forcing one step after another through the thick undergrowth. His limp had grown worse, but he didn’t stop. The pain in his knee was nothing compared to the dread clawing at his chest.

The faint glow of the Nexus Tree loomed behind him now, fading as he passed beyond its reach. The forest grew quieter the deeper he went. The only sounds were the whisper of leaves brushing against each other and the distant cry of the Haribon— the ancient guardian whose voice echoed faintly through the night. Each call felt like a warning, a reminder that he was walking toward something he might not survive.