Yao was a product of a stable, middle-class upbringing—a good student under the red scarf, athletic, sharp, and raised by open-minded parents who'd encouraged her in everything from basketball to coding to martial arts. She'd sparred with boys, held her own, and built a thriving business from scratch. That world felt like a distant, shimmering mirage now.
In this brutal new reality, her guard had been down. The ambush was so sudden, so primal. But the muscle memory from years of combat training kicked in a split-second after the impact. As she hit the wet cave floor, her left arm came up in a frantic block.
SCRREEE-CHUNK!
Metallic claws, honed on ore and bone, tore across the vambrace she'd looted. The metal shrieked, leaving deep, parallel gouges. The beast's hot, rancid breath washed over her face as its massive head lunged, jaws gaping for her throat.
BANG!
The gunshot was deafening in the confined space. She'd wrenched the pistol from her belt—a cheap, brutal weapon taken from a bandit. The chemically-propelled round, trailing a blue-white phosphorescent flare, punched into the wolf's midsection at point-blank range. The smell of cordite and seared flesh filled the air. The wolf was flung sideways with a yelp of pain, landing heavily and scrabbling on the stone. Its metallic-reinforced hide had saved it from being disemboweled, but a grievous, smoking wound now bloomed on its flank, leaking dark blood. It tried to rise, failed, and could only snarl impotently from the ground.
Yao scrambled to her feet, her heart hammering against her ribs. The helmet lamp's beam swung wildly. In the chaotic light, she saw the reflection in the wounded wolf's eyes—a flicker of movement behind her.
She threw herself to the side just as a second shadow lunged from a crevice. This time, she was ready. Gun in her right hand, she fired while backpedaling, the shots sparking off the cave walls, sending chips of rock flying. The wolf was faster, more agile than the first, a true predator. It zigzagged with terrifying speed, closing the distance in two fluid bounds.
As it gathered its hindquarters for a final, killing pounce, Yao's left hand was already moving. Her fingers traced a hurried pattern in the air, her voice a rushed, guttural whisper as she channeled the arcane formula freshly burned into her mind.
Gather. Compress. Release.
The wolf launched itself, a blur of matted fur and gleaming claws. At the same moment, Yao flung her left hand forward. A swirling orb of compressed air, pale blue and humming with violent energy, shot from her palm.
FWUMP!
It wasn't a clean hit. She'd aimed for the head, but it struck the beast's muscular shoulder instead. The impact wasn't fatal, but it was like a giant, invisible fist. The wolf was knocked off its trajectory in mid-air, crashing into the cave wall with a sickening thud. It shook its head, dazed but furious, and began to rise.
Yao didn't give it the chance. Her second missile was already forming. This one flew truer, striking the wolf square in the side of its skull. There was no satisfying crack of bone—its cranium was too heavily reinforced—but one of its glowing yellow eyes burst in a wet, dark spray. The creature howled, a sound of pure agony and rage, blinded on one side.
Panic and training warred within her. Keep your distance. Kite it.She fell back on gaming instincts, retreating, putting precious meters between them, launching a third, then a fourth Arcane Missile. Each one slammed into the disoriented beast, tearing fur and flesh, weakening its movements. When it stumbled, slowed by blood loss and trauma, she raised the pistol again. This time, she took a breath, steadying her shaking hands. She aimed not for the armored head or body, but for the pulsing, ragged wound her first shot had opened.
BANG.
The bullet found its mark. The wolf's final howl was cut short as it collapsed, twitching, then still.
[Level 1 Iron-spine Wasteland Wolf eliminated. Experience +20.]
[Level 1 Iron-spine Wasteland Wolf eliminated. Experience +20.]
The messages appeared, cold and clinical. Yao stood trembling, drenched in a cold sweat that had nothing to do with the cave's chill. Her fingers felt numb, icy. Her left palm stung and throbbed—the uncontrolled wind energy she'd channeled had abraded the skin, leaving it raw and sensitive. Every nerve was screaming.
She didn't have time for a breakdown. Survival was a series of tasks. Gritting her teeth, she moved to the bodies, her movements efficient and grimly practiced.
[Loot acquired: 'Savory Wolf Meat' x1 – Consumable. Restores stamina. Effect: Rapid stamina regeneration for 5 minutes.]
[Loot acquired: 'Iron Essence Stone' x1 – Crafting material.]
[Loot acquired: 'Left Vambrace (Wolf-hide)' – Armor. +2 Constitution, +1 Agility.]
The meat was a dense, dark red chunk, still warm. Useful, but it reeked of blood and couldn't be eaten raw. The vambrace was an upgrade. She swiftly swapped out her damaged, stinking guard for the new one. I need a proper inventory system,she thought with a flicker of frustration. A spatial bag. A player's backpack.
Hunger gnawed at her stomach, but there was no time. These two wolves had come from deeper in the cave. That meant the pack had found the other entrance. She had to move, now.
She bolted for the sliver of daylight, bursting out of the cave mouth—and straight into the glowing eyes of three more wolves that had just skidded to a halt outside.
Her blood ran cold. She ducked behind a rock outcrop, her mind racing. Gun in one hand, she began the chant for another Arcane Missile with the other. She fired, dodged, fired again, using the terrain to keep them at bay. It was a desperate dance of attrition. Her Spirit pool plummeted: 50… 40… 30. She couldn't keep this up.
With a grimace, she fumbled the small blue vial from her pouch and downed it in one gulp. A cool, refreshing wave spread through her mind, her focus sharpening. Her Spirit ticked back up to 80.
It wasn't enough. One wolf fell to a lucky shot between the eyes, but the remaining two let out synchronized, piercing howls.
The answer came from not one direction, but many. Howls echoed back, a chorus of hunger from the plains, growing rapidly closer.
They've called the pack.
Desperation offered a brutal solution. She reached into her pack, grabbed the still-warm chunk of wolf meat, and hurled it as far as she could into a thicket. The scent of fresh blood was irresistible. One wolf broke off, snarling, to chase it.
The gap was tiny, but it was all she had. She sprinted for it, legs pumping. The remaining wolf gave chase instantly. From both sides of the cave entrance, a dozen more shadows erupted, closing in with terrifying speed. The thunder of their paws vibrated through the ground.
She heard the rush of air behind her, felt the heat of a predator at her heels. With a final, adrenaline-fueled leap, she launched herself at the trunk of a gnarled, ancient tree, her enhanced Agility carrying her two meters up to a low-hanging branch. She scrambled higher just as the lead wolf slammed into the trunk below. The impact shook the entire tree, sending a shower of leaves and twigs down.
They can't climb. Thank every god that ever was, they can't climb.
But her relief was short-lived. The wolves surrounded the base, a seething, snapping circle of fur and fangs. They began to gnaw and claw at the trunk, their metallic teeth biting deep into the wood. The tree shuddered with each assault.
Why?The thought screamed in her mind. I'm one person, not enough meat for a hundred wolves! They found the back entrance too fast… it's like they're tracking me specifically.
A cold realization dawned. Scent. They're following a scent.Someone had gotten ahold of something of hers—a piece of clothing from the tavern, perhaps—and used it to cast a Tracking Beacon, a Tier 2 auxiliary spell. Or worse, used a Bloodhound Key, a pricier but more potent consumable item. The latter was unlikely; she wasn't worth that kind of investment. But a Tracking Beacon… who among the people she'd crossed had that kind of skill and malice?
The tree groaned ominously. A large chunk of bark and wood was torn away. She was running out of time and altitude.
Making a split-second decision, she didn't wait for the tree to fall. She jumped.
Not towards the snarling maws below, but into open air. As she fell, she triggered a command on her wrist unit.
With a whirring of powerful hydraulics, one of the mechanical steeds—the one she'd ridden here—burst from behind a rocky outcrop where she'd hidden it. It leaped, its metallic frame catching the fading sunlight. Yao landed hard but squarely in its saddle, the impact driving the air from her lungs. The horse's hooves slammed into the earth, kicking up dirt and stone.
"Go! Maximum speed! Pattern Zeta—herd and harass!" she yelled, though the machine needed no vocal command. It understood the pre-programmed directive. Across the plain, the other eight mechanical horses she'd sent on diversionary paths now turned, their internal navigation systems syncing. They converged, not on her, but on the edges of the wolf pack, charging, veering, using their bulk and speed to disrupt the pursuit, to funnel the predators away from her direct path.
It was a chaotic, desperate gambit. The wind whipped her hair, drying the cold sweat on her forehead as she leaned low over the mechanical steed's neck. Behind her, the symphony of snarls and howls was joined by the clash of metal on tooth and claw. Her steed was fast, but the Iron-spine Wolves were endurance hunters, bred for the long chase across the wastes. One by one, her robotic decoys were overwhelmed, dragged down by sheer numbers, their metallic shrieks adding to the cacophony.
The gap was closing. The lead wolves, leaner and faster, were within ten meters, then eight. Their panting breaths seemed to ghost against the back of her neck. Once they got within five meters, a single coordinated leap would end her.
The Li Conglomerate… they're not coming.The call for help had been a shot in the dark. She was on her own.
A plan, born of equal parts desperation and a familiar, cold cunning, crystallized in her mind. It reminded her of her first business venture back on Earth, when a wealthy classmate had tried a hostile takeover, poaching her entire team. She'd sold high, played nice, found a more powerful backer, and methodically dismantled his empire from the outside. It was a dirty game, but she'd won.
Now, the stakes were her life.
As her mechanical mount galloped, she yanked a communicator from her pack—one taken from a bandit. Her fingers flew over the interface, bypassing basic security with practiced ease (a useful skill for a resource merchant who often dealt in… less than legal acquisitions). She searched for active signals, for a fixed IP strong enough to broadcast in this wilderness. There. A cluster of signals, emanating from a location not far ahead, nestled in the rocky foothills. A base. A hideout.
The bandits' den.
High above, a plains eagle circled on a thermal, its sharp eyes observing the strange chase below. It didn't understand why the foolish wolves expended so much energy on one scrawny biped when the plains teemed with easier prey. Nor did it understand why that biped was now steering the entire snarling river of teeth and fur directly toward the most dangerous part of its territory—the place even the eagle avoided. With a dismissive cry, it banked away, seeking quieter hunting grounds.
In a large, rough-hewn cavern hidden within those foothills, a man with a face like weathered leather and a body corded with muscle was pacing. He took a long drag from a hand-rolled cigarette, the smoke curling around a crude wooden staff leaned against a crate.
"Zhang San and the others still not back? No word on what they were scavenging?" His voice was a gravelly rumble.
"Nothing, Boss Li," a younger man replied, fiddling with a scanner. "Can't raise them on any channel. With the Li Conglomerate cracking down, you told them to lay low. If the inspectors caught them…"
"I know what I damn well told them!" Boss Li Chengkai snarled, exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Find them! If they've screwed us, deal with them. Useless bastards, always making trouble."
He was about to throw the communicator down in disgust when another man burst into the cavern, breathless with excitement.
"Boss! Jackpot! Scout just reported—a fat rabbit on the run, heading straight for us! Got a whole pack of Iron-spines on its tail!"
Li Chengkai's scowl vanished, replaced by a predator's keen interest. "Just one?"
"One person, yeah! But get this—they've got a whole string of mechanical horses with 'em! Nine of 'em! That's a million copper right there! And with the wolves all bunched up chasing 'em…" The man grinned, a gap-toothed expression of pure avarice. "We can mow 'em all down. Clean sweep. Meat, hides, andthe hardware."
Li Chengkai was already on his feet, snatching up his staff. A slow, calculating smile spread across his face. "Now that's what I call a delivery. Get the heavy repeater online. Move!"
Yao's lungs burned. Every muscle screamed in protest. Her Spirit was a drained well, her body pushed to its absolute limit. But her mind was a cold, sharp crystal of fear and strategy. She was driving a horde of monsters straight into a den of thieves. It was the kind of move she'd read about in trashy web novels and scoffed at. Suicidal. Reckless.
It was also her only play.
As her mechanical horse thundered towards a line of scrub that marked the beginning of the bandits' territory, she spotted a lookout perched in a tree, a rifle already tracking her. Time for the performance of her life.
Before the man could fire, she threw her hands up in a universal gesture of surrender, her voice cracking with what sounded like pure, undiluted terror. It wasn't hard to muster.
"Brother! Big brother, please! Help me! For pity's sake! I'm the illegitimate son of the Xie family of Jingyang! These beasts killed my escort! Save me, and my father—he adored my mother, he'll pay! He'll pay anything! A hundred Blue Crests! I swear it! PLEASE!"
The number was absurd. A hundred Blue Crests was a fortune that would make a minor noble blanch. The "father" who'd schemed over a few thousand Green Notes would never pay it. But the bandit in the tree hesitated, his finger easing off the trigger. The shout was relayed via comms.
Back in the cavern, Li Chengkai paused, the cigarette dangling from his lips. A hundred Blue Crests? That was… significantly more interesting than just selling some stolen mechanical horses for copper.
"Check the chatter," he ordered, his mind whirring. "See if there's any buzz about a Xie family bastard gone missing." He took a long drag, his eyes narrowing to slits. "Guide her towards the kill zone trap. If she brings the wolves into the funnel… keep her alive. For now. We'll have a… chat about this ransom. If she's lying…" He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.
The meaning was clear. If she had no value, she'd just be more meat for the grinder. Yao had traded one pack of predators for another. Now she had to convince the more cunning ones that she was worth more alive than dead, all while staying ahead of the jaws literally at her heels. The cliff's edge had never felt narrower.