Six in the morning. The light over A-11 looked like it had been sifted through ash before it hit the ground.
Li Xing woke from hunger.
She pushed herself up from the camping pod's mat, still half in a dream. The pad under her palms was soft, springy, the kind of softness she'd only ever had in fever dreams. Warm air flowed past her cheek; the pod's climate system was still purring along, holding a perfect little bubble of 24℃ behind a few millimeters of alloy while the wasteland outside sat below freezing.
Her fingers brushed the clean white surface. Real. Not something her mind had invented on the way out.
Her stomach answered first.
Gurgle.
—
In the rental unit, Lu Jin had a toothbrush hanging from his mouth and foam at the corner of his lips when his phone pinged.
On-screen, Li Xing was curled up in the pod, arms around her belly, an embarrassed look on her face.
The blood-pressure-boosting chime rang right on cue.
[Good morning, great Savior.][Detected: Your cloud-adopted girl's blood sugar has dropped below safe level.][Low blood sugar may cause dizziness, weakness, or failure to escape when danger arrives.]
A pink heart bubble burst across the screen, then flipped over into a glossy menu card.
[Premium Energy Breakfast Pack (Wasteland Edition)]
Includes:[Self-Heating Braised Beef Ration (Big Chunks)] x1[High-Purity Filtered Water (500 ml)] x1[Sterile Wet Wipes (Mint Scent)] x1
Original Price: ¥128.00Current Price: ¥68.00
[Newbie Achievement Reward: First breakfast purchased for cloud-adopted target. Cost covered by system this time.](Note: This benefit is one-time. Future meals will be billed at full price.)
Lu Jin spat toothpaste into the stained sink and looked at himself in the mirror—sallow face, hollowed eyes.
"Sixty-eight for breakfast," he said around the taste of mint and metal. "Downstairs, I argue with myself for three minutes over adding a chicken leg. You just casually price two days of food as a 'morning special'."
The words came out flat, edged. His hand still hit Confirm.
[Achievement Unlocked: "A Day She Won't Go Hungry."][Breakfast Pack covered by system. Actual charge: ¥0.00.]
He checked his balance. Still ¥7,489.
"Great timing to play saint," he muttered.
—
Over A-11, the air stirred.
A heavy can and a bottle dropped out of nowhere into Li Xing's arms. The heating layer on the ration had already started working; hot vapor hissed around the seal, carrying a thick meat smell through the cramped pod.
She clutched the warm metal, throat moving hard.
The pull-tab peeled back with a sharp click. Steam, fat, salt—real food—hit her nose and punched straight through her control. Her eyes stung.
She didn't dive in.
She picked up the wet wipe first and scrubbed at her hands again and again, between fingers, under nails, until the thin sheet came away brown and gray. Only then did she pinch up one piece of beef and slip it into her mouth.
Soft. Juicy. Actually hot.
The best thing she'd ever tasted, by about ten universes.
On the toilet in the D-class apartment, Lu Jin sat with his pants around his ankles and a two-yuan-fifty piece of dry bread in his hand, chewing as he watched her eat.
She closed her eyes with every bite.
Somehow, the stiff mouthful in his own teeth didn't feel quite so grim anymore.
The peaceful stream lasted about three minutes.
A metallic clang crashed through the pod like someone had taken a crowbar to his nerves.
The whole shell shook. Li Xing almost dropped the can. She snapped her head up and peered through the translucent wall.
Three faces stared back.
Three scavengers in mismatched armor crouched around the pod, tools in hand—crowbar, pipe wrench, jagged lengths of scrap welded into clubs. Their eyes drank in the glow from the pod like they'd just tripped over a vault.
"Boss! We hit the jackpot!" The skinny one with the yellow teeth smacked the hatch with his crowbar again, savoring the sound. "Feel that? That's pre-war premium. There's gotta be a fat little refugee hiding inside."
"Crack it." The one in front, an older man with a ruined eye and a scar up his cheek, licked his lips. "If it's a guy, gut him. Girl, keep. And this shell? Drag it back and we can trade for half a ton of water."
They laid into the pod.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Heavy blows hammered the alloy. Dents popped up on the surface that had been flawless a day ago.
Li Xing didn't scream.
She folded her arms over the half-eaten can like a shield. In her eyes, the softness from a minute earlier burned off.
This was her home.
The only shelter she'd ever had that didn't come with restraints.
It had been handed to her. It belonged to the "listener."
And these things were dirtying it.
—
On the city side, Lu Jin watched those dents bloom across the pod's icon and felt his mood drop through the floor.
Those weren't just marks. They were invoices waiting to happen.
[Asset Damage Warning.][Camping Pod Durability: 82%… 75%…][Alert: Hull breach will result in direct radiation exposure.]
"System," he said, voice going flat. "Give me weapons. I want those three dead."
Deep Space Echo perked up like it had been waiting for that line.
[Hostile units detected. Defense Store unlocked.]
Recommended Option A: Auto Sentry Turret (500 rounds included) – ¥4,500.00(Fully automatic target tracking. Elegant and efficient. Unfortunately, your current balance is… modest.)
A muscle in Lu Jin's cheek twitched. Four and a half thousand would wipe him out.
He scrolled.
Recommended Option B: Slum War God Bundle
Includes:[Adrenaline Rush Injector (Military Grade III)] x1 – instantly boosts reflexes and strength, blocks pain signals.[Monomolecular Combat Knife (Short)] x1 – cuts through steel. Silent and practical.
Original Price: ¥3,500.00Fight-for-your-life Discount: ¥3,200.00
(Can't afford a turret? Then turn her into one. Only ¥3,200 for a one-way road through the crowd.)
"Three thousand two…" Half a year of meds, one tap away.
On the feed, the pod's hatch had been pried just far enough open for a grimy hand to push inside, fingers reaching for bare skin.
"Buy it," Lu Jin said through his teeth.
His finger hit the purchase button like he was trying to go through the glass.
[Payment successful. Balance: ¥4,289.00.][Items deployed. Happy hunting.]
—
The one-eyed leader finally got the hatch to budge. He grinned and shoved his hand in, fingers groping for an ankle.
He didn't get the reaction he'd rehearsed in his mind.
No crying. No begging.
Just a pair of clear eyes looking right at him. Calm in a way that set his instincts on edge.
And a red injector already pressed against the side of her neck.
The hiss was softer than the rain.
The liquid burned down her veins like fire. Li Xing's pupils snapped thin. Her bones sang as something forced them to work harder, faster. The world clicked into a different gear—air currents, the arc of falling dust, the way every joint moved on the bodies outside. All of it slowed, clear enough to count.
A knife dropped into her hand.
Short, black, matte, with no reflection at all, like it ate the light that touched it.
"Out," she rasped.
Her voice cracked, so the word came out rough, like it had been dragged over gravel.
She didn't retreat. She drove forward.
The moment that arm pushed further into the pod, she smashed her palm down on the emergency lock.
The hatch slammed shut like a jaw.
Bone crunched.
The leader's scream ripped across the ruins. His arm was stuck in the gap up to the forearm, skin and muscle crushed between metal jaws.
Li Xing's knife moved.
She didn't go for the shoulder. She went lower, where the skin was thin and throbbing with pulse. Steel kissed flesh, found a line, and opened it.
Hot red poured over the pod's threshold.
He howled, yanked, kicked, tried to pull free, but the pod wasn't letting go and his strength was bleeding out onto the ground.
"Monster! She's an ability user—shoot her! Shoot!" one of the others yelled.
The two still-standing scavengers fumbled their cobbled-together guns into place.
The first shot went wide, pellets sparking off the pod's armor. By the time the second man steadied his aim, Li Xing had already slipped away from the hatch.
She was small. It made her terrifying.
She shot forward low, body close to the ground, and slid into the skinny scavenger's reach before he could adjust.
At that distance, his long gun might as well have been a flagpole.
The knife went up. The angle was ugly—straight through under the jaw. His shout cut off mid-word. His eyes blanked. She twisted her wrist and ripped the blade free, using the falling body as cover as the last man swung his pipe wrench.
He hit meat. Not hers.
She rolled, came up on one knee, and sprinted.
The last scavenger broke. He dropped his tool and bolted, panic turning his steps clumsy.
Li Xing hit his back like a thrown trap, arms locking around his neck. The knife's edge drew a dark arc under his chin.
The sound his throat made when it opened was ugly, wet, short.
Silence followed. Not the peaceful kind—the kind that comes when all the noise has burned itself out.
Thirty seconds. Three bodies on the ground.
Li Xing stood in the mess they'd left, chest heaving. The adrenaline started to let go. Pain crowded back in, slow and heavy. Her bad leg throbbed. She swayed and stopped herself with the knife point, driving it into the dirt.
She never looked at the corpses.
She turned instead.
One step. Another. Dragging the leg that wanted to quit. Back to the pod.
Her fingers left streaks as she ran them over the dents in the metal.
No matter how she rubbed, the grooves stayed.
Gift from the "listener." Damaged.
Her vision blurred. When she'd been fighting, her face had been stone; now, for a few scratches, tears tracked down both cheeks.
Li Xing turned toward the invisible eye she felt on her.
She sank down in front of the sensor built into the shell and pressed her bloody face to the cold spot where she imagined the lens was.
"Sorry…" Her voice scraped out raw. "I… messed up our home…"
—
In the rental unit, Lu Jin watched that close-up fill his entire screen—blood, dirt, tears, all mixed together on a girl's face that still hadn't grown out of its baby fat.
His heart hammered hard enough that he could hear it.
Not from fear. From something else he didn't want to name.
Deep Space Echo didn't miss it.
[Detected: "Fight to the Death for Home" intent.][Detected: Mixed emotions – Guilt / Attachment.][Holy Resonance Surge! Conversion rate: 800%.][Holy Resonance Energy +15.]
[Observed Target: Li Xing][Holy Song Realm: Mortal Echo · Afterglow → Mortal Echo · Microglow][Level: LV1][Growth: 92 / 100 → 30 / 200][Holy Song Efficiency: 0.8 → 1.0][Tags updated: Guardian / Bloodied Battle / Sense of Home +++]
The flood hit like someone had uncorked a reservoir.
Gold slammed out of the phone and into Lu Jin, no gentle drift this time, just raw force.
He doubled over and coughed up something thick and dark onto the floor.
It hurt.
Inside his chest, it felt like blades scraping old scars clean. Like hands digging out rot.
Then the hurt snapped, and something opened.
He pulled air in. Deep.
For the first time in years, his lungs expanded without that horrible crackle, without the grinding drag, without the feeling that each breath might be the last one that worked. Air stung, but in a fresh way, the way it does after crying too hard.
He straightened slowly and tested his arm, then his shoulder, then his back. Nothing felt good, exactly—but the constant threat of collapse had loosened.
[Body Function Repair: 15%.][Pulmonary fibrosis reversal: mild.][Current state: D-Class (capable of normal activity).]
He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and looked back at the screen.
Li Xing had collapsed in front of the pod, unconscious, cheek pressed to the scarred metal.
Three thousand two hundred yuan.
Three lives saved. His own body partially patched. And a believer who would bleed for him without being asked.
"Silly girl," he murmured, fingertips brushing the glass over her face. His hand wasn't entirely steady. "This deal… is pure profit."
He lifted his head and looked out at the city.
Skyscrapers, holo-ads, gene clinics with their smug blue logos crowning the towers. Names he knew all too well.
[Balance: ¥4,289.00.][Gene Collapse Countdown: 60 hours.][S-Class Repair Fluid: ¥500,000.00.]
Whatever warmth had crept into his gaze iced back over.
Four thousand and change meant nothing here. Pocket change. Enough for a few days of pretending not to be poor.
He wanted to save her. He wanted to fix himself. That meant more than pinching pennies.
It meant hunting.
Lu Jin grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and swung it on, thumb swiping his door lock.
If the wasteland wanted Li Xing to carve her way through scavengers, then this city could deal with him doing the same to its wallets.
He stepped out into the corridor.
His eyes held the same look he'd just seen on her face—a predator's focus, sharpened by hunger.