The moment the city gate groaned shut behind him, the world changed. The sound was stark and final. The manicured, sterile world of Mo City was gone, replaced by a raw, untamed landscape that smelled of wild, damp earth and the faint, metallic tang of strange minerals. The warm, humid air of the Jamaican evening, which had been a comfort in the city, felt heavy and threatening out here.
This was the Blackstone Wilderness. The name was fitting. The ground was a jagged carpet of black, volcanic rock and tough, stubborn little plants that grew in the cracks. The sky seemed too vast, and the silence… the silence was a physical weight, broken only by the whisper of the wind through the strange rock formations. This was a world without rules, without referees. Survival was the only law.
"Alright, little guy," Lin Ke whispered, his voice sounding small and thin in the vast emptiness. "Stay sharp. We're off the grid now."
"Ji!" The Rock Vole on his shoulder gave a low chirp, its small body a coiled spring of alertness.
Lin Ke didn't charge forward. He was a researcher in a new, undocumented laboratory. He activated the Gene Editor, his eyes beginning their ceaseless, silent scan of this new world. He saw the flora—Black-Vein Moss, high in iron, non-toxic. He saw the fauna—the trace DNA of Rock-Skitter Lizards, non-hostile, and the more alarming signature of Wind-Scorpions, venomous. Noted. His energy scan revealed low ambient levels, but confirmed pockets of chaotic energy deeper in. Probability of corrupted lifeforms: High.
He moved methodically for the first hour, a ghost in the landscape, observing, analyzing. He noted the choke points in the canyons, the small caves that could serve as shelters, the natural lines of sight. He was building a map in his head, one far more detailed than the one on his terminal.
It was in the second hour that his routine was shattered.
A flash from the Editor, a sharp spike of chaotic energy on his mental radar. There. He flattened himself behind a large, black boulder, his heart giving a sudden, hard lurch. He peered around the edge. In a small clearing ahead, a creature was basking on a sun-warmed rock. It looked like a large lizard, maybe a meter long, with skin the color and texture of cracked stone. But the dark, pulsating purple veins crisscrossing its body and the sick, malevolent glow in its eyes told a different story.
His mind instantly processed its data. It was a Corrupted Stone-Lizard, E+ rank. Its hide was tough, and it could spit a weak corrosive acid. The corruption had amplified its aggression but had also introduced a critical flaw: a genetic instability in its neck region.
A perfect first test, he thought. A little thrill, cold and sharp as a scalpel, cut through his caution.
"Stay low," he whispered to his Rock Vole. "We start. Go for the legs. Cripple it."
The Rock Vole slid silently from his shoulder, a trained operative on a mission. On Lin Ke's signal, it burst from cover, flinging a sharp rock not at the creature's tough body, but at its feet. A sharp clink. The lizard hissed, annoyed, and turned, its purple eyes locking onto the small aggressor. The hunt was on.
The thing was fast, faster than its bulky frame suggested. It charged, spitting a glob of hissing, purple acid.
"Evade, circle right," Lin Ke commanded calmly. The Rock Vole, after their endless drills, moved beautifully, sidestepping the acid as it sizzled harmlessly on the ground. It became a tense, ugly dance. The lizard lunged and spat; the Rock Vole, guided by Lin Ke's clipped, precise commands, weaved and dodged, always just out of reach. He was making it angry. Making it sloppy. He saw the pattern emerge—a slight lowering of its head 0.6 seconds before each spit. That was the window.
After one more dodge that sent the lizard stumbling, he hissed the command. "NOW! THE OPENING! HIT THE NECK!"
The Rock Vole didn't hesitate. As the lizard lowered its head for another acid spit, it shot forward, leaped, and slammed its hardened body into the genetically unstable neck region the Editor had highlighted.
CRACK.
The sickeningly final sound echoed in the quiet wilderness. The corrupted creature convulsed and fell, its unnatural life extinguished. Its body immediately began to dissolve into a black sludge, and from the dissolving mess, a small, pulsating orb of purple energy emerged.
Lin Ke was ready this time. He calmly activated the 'Purify and Absorb' function. A silent, blue pulse of energy from his mind, and the orb was consumed, filtered, and added to his inventory. Raw Corrupted Gene Essence (15 units) acquired.
He let out a slow, controlled breath. It worked. The plan worked. A feeling of grim, cold satisfaction washed over him. He had a proven method.
But as he scanned the area, his satisfaction evaporated, replaced by a splash of ice water. The Gene Editor pinged again. He focused on the ground near the clearing. Faint tracks. Lizard-like, but much, much bigger. And the residual energy signature left within them… it was significantly more potent than the creature he'd just killed.
He'd found his hunting ground, all right. But he wasn't the only hunter here. Something bigger, and far more dangerous, was nearby. The Blackstone Wilderness had welcomed him with its first, simple test. And now, it was showing him the shadow of its next.