Mike Winters's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Mike Winters pushed open the heavy wooden door of the recruitment office and stepped inside. He had three ways into the Evergreen ruins mapped, two ways out, and zero people willing to follow him through any of them. The treasure waited, buried deep in the forbidden wilds, but a solo run meant no rope to pull him back if he fell. He scanned the wanted posters tacked to the frame, hunting for a name desperate enough to say yes. A clerk slid a thin ledger across the counter and shook his head. Every name on the list had already turned Mike down, crossed off in faded ink. He stared at the last empty line, then signed his own name beside a single word: alone. The door swung shut behind him. He would walk into the wilds with no one watching his back.