The rain in the lower district sat in the air like spit someone refused to swallow. Thick. Sour. The only real light came from a twenty-four-hour unmanned convenience store, its pale glow leaking onto the street like it regretted the effort.
"Welcome. Federal Chain Mart at your service."
The electronic greeter's voice droned on, soulless. Lu Jin pushed the door open and let in a gust of rain-cooled air that smelled faintly of blood and sewer mold.
He didn't spare the security bot in the corner a glance. It swept an infrared beam over his clothes, logged his existence, and quietly filed him away as "low-value target, probable debt risk."
He walked straight to the oden counter.
Steam rolled up from the metal trays. Broth gurgled.
Lu Jin grabbed a paper cup, scooped a ladle of soup, and added two sticks of the cheapest radish and konjac. When his fingertips pressed against the warm paper, the cold that had seeped into his bones finally loosened, just a little.
He took a high stool by the window.
Good angle. The glass reflected the alley behind him. If anyone came up from there, he'd see them twice—once in the reflection, once in the dark.
"Cough…" He swallowed the itch in his throat and looked down at his cracked phone screen.
The threat message from that unknown number still floated at the top.
[Good luck, D-class trash.]
Lu Jin flicked the notification away with his thumb, lips quirking in a dry half-smile.
The big corps really did have shark noses. Rat sold that chip intel what—an hour ago? Maybe less? Of course the original owners already had his profile, address, blood type, and favorite discount aisle.
If Rat had handed over his name, the Federal Bank's account freeze order was probably halfway to his balance right now.
For a dead man, money was useless.
For a broke man about to have his account locked, spending was just the fastest way to launder what little he had left.
Fine, he thought. Let's burn it.
"System," he called silently, eyes dropping to the Deep Space Echo icon. "I'm going to that No. 7 resource point. Thirty-two point five kilometers out, full of mutated beasts and radiation pits on the way. Give me the best plan you've got."
The phone buzzed in his hand.
The app snapped open like it had been sitting there waiting for him to finally give in.
The usual dark, cold interface blew apart into fireworks. Confetti animation splashed across the screen.
[Congratulations, Host! Your death wish—oops, exploration enthusiasm—is off the charts!]
[Matching 'Live a Little Longer' bundle for you…]
[Match complete!]
A big, gaudy promo window filled the whole display, complete with a ticking countdown and that kind of fake-urgent beep that made blood pressure rise on reflex.
[Wasteland Expedition Family Bucket (Season S1 Limited Edition)]
Want treasure but worried about dying halfway there?Want to be a hero but afraid of arrows to the knee?
Deep Space Echo is here to keep you alive…ish!
Bundle Includes:
["Wasteland Wolf" Light Exoskeleton (Civilian Modded)] x1Description: Born civilian, raised illegal. Some lunatic tech chopped it up and rebuilt it. Carrying capacity +50 kg. Hydraulic assist +300%. Built-in "Kick the Door In" support mode. Put it on and you're the flashiest beast on the wasteland.
["Thunderstorm" Electromagnetic Nail Gun] x1Description: Quiet. Hits hard. Fires special alloy nails, fully recyclable. Ideal for poor bastards. Won't pierce tanks, but more than enough to pin most mutated critters to a wall like decorative art. (Friendly reminder: if the target doesn't fit any "normal biological profile," please first confirm whether your health insurance covers "concept-level damage.")
[Tactical Compressed Rations (One-Week Pack)] x1Description: Chews like candle wax. Keeps you alive seven more days when the food runs out. Yum.
Slasher Price: ¥18,888.00(Original Price ¥99,999! Only 00:59 left before full price returns!)
"Eighteen thousand…" Lu Jin stared at the number, eyelid twitching.
He'd just traded his life for that ¥25,000. He'd paid off the loan, wrung three thousand out of the landlady, barely had time to warm the rest, and this damned app already had a pot boiling for it.
"You ever thought about robbing the Federal gold vault instead?" he muttered, jaw tight. His finger still hovered near the Pay button.
A new line popped out at the bottom of the promo, like the system had been waiting for that exact complaint.
[Dear user, robbing the gold vault is illegal ^_^ Also, your account status is currently flagged as "High Risk." Estimated freeze: 10 minutes. Are you sure you want to leave this money to the people trying to kill you?]
"…Screw you," Lu Jin said softly.
The curse wasn't just for the app. It was for the bank, the corp, the city, the whole stacked mess.
He slammed his thumb down.
[Payment successful! Remaining Balance: ¥2,971.00]
[Thank you for your generous sacrifice! Supplies have been dispatched. May Holy Echo watch over you and your wallet.]
He snorted.
Too late for the wallet.
On the wasteland side, snow and crystal dust gnawed at the world outside Blackstone Shelter.
A muffled crash cut through the storm.
Li Xing was on her knees in the entryway, scrubbing the floor so hard her knuckles had gone raw. At the sound, she jumped like a startled rabbit, fingers closing around the nutrient bar she'd been pretending was a scepter.
"The Listener said… there would be a delivery," she whispered to herself.
She swallowed, puffed out her cheeks once in an attempt at courage, and pressed the door control.
The pressure door slid open with a hiss. Freezing air knifed into the warm vestibule, carrying needles of snow.
A massive supply crate sat in the snow outside, still steaming where it had punched down. Black and yellow hazard stripes wrapped its edges. The side panel carried the familiar silhouette—the girl standing under a sky of stars, looking up.
Li Xing dug her heels into the floor and hauled.
It was like dragging a dead beast. Her arms burned by the time she'd scraped the crate inside.
The lid popped with a hydraulic sigh.
For a second, the wasteland's permanently dull sky felt like it brightened.
Cold metal gleamed inside—an exoskeleton frame laid out like the bones of some steel animal, hydraulic lines running through the limbs in thick cords. Next to it lay a brutal, blocky black nail gun, magazine packed full of steel nails as thick as her finger.
Little Rock peeked from the corner, eyes bugging.
"Th-that's Ark Enforcer gear!" he blurted, voice cracking. His legs folded and he hit his knees again. "Saintess… are you going to war?"
Li Xing didn't answer.
She reached out with her scarred hand and let her fingertips skim the exoskeleton's surface. The metal felt brutally cold even in the heated air.
Armor. Weapons.
But to her, it was also something else: the clothes her Listener picked for her.
She ducked her head and climbed into the frame.
"Click—whirr—"
Servos hummed as the exoskeleton tightened, locking around her thin body. The weight spread out along the support struts, flooding into the floor. What should've dragged her down suddenly felt almost weightless.
Li Xing raised her arm experimentally.
The hydraulics answered with a faint, eager sound. Her motion came out sharp, clean, like someone else had reached through her muscles and fixed every hesitation.
She gripped the Thunderstorm nail gun with one hand. The heavy weapon came up smooth, muzzle sweeping across the room. A red dot slid along the wall—then wandered, purely by accident, down to point at Little Rock's crotch.
"Waaah! Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
He rolled sideways, both hands between his legs, panic scrambling his thoughts. The sharp tang of urine spread through the entrance hall.
"Bzzzt—!"
The "Holy Spirit" cleaning robot, still on its self-imposed patrol, lit up bright red and shot forward in offense at the new stain. It smacked directly into Li Xing's armored boot instead of the puddle.
"Dong!"
The little white disc bounced off the alloy plating, wobbled, then stubbornly turned and tried to attack the offending boot again, brushes spinning like furious teeth.
Li Xing stared down at it, then raised her eyes to the polished surface nearby.
The reflection staring back at her made her freeze.
Steel wrapped her from neck to toe. The exoskeleton's contours gave her a strange, fierce silhouette—too wide at the shoulders, too heavy at the legs, too sharp around the hands. She looked like someone's messy sketch of a war goddess brought to life at the wrong scale.
Heat crept up her neck.
She turned toward the invisible "eye" she knew was watching, fumbling the visor with both hands, trying to angle it in some way that seemed… cooler.
Then she planted her feet, tilted the nail gun, and struck a pose she remembered from an old magazine ad—a hero in armor, mid-stride, backlit.
On her, it looked more like a penguin in a metal jacket.
"Listener…" Li Xing's voice came out barely louder than the cleaning bot's motor, soft and breathy.
"This outfit… does it look good?"
Deep Space Echo answered before Lu Jin could.
[Detected: Observed Target "Li Xing" has acquired high-value combat equipment and, in a zero-danger environment, is experiencing combined emotions of "self-recognition" and "trying to impress deity."]
[Emotion Profile: Confidence B+ · Drive to Conquer B · Shyness A–]
[Holy Resonance EXP: +134]
[Observed Target: Li Xing]
[Holy Echo Realm: Mortal Echo · Faint Light Stage]
[Level: LV2]
[EXP: 0 / 500 → 134 / 500]
[Progress: Faint Light LV2 (134 / 500)]
Back in the convenience store, Lu Jin watched the armored girl on his screen ask if her "clothes" were pretty and had to lift his hand to half-cover his mouth.
His shoulders shook once.
That was a laugh. A real one, sharp and messy and alive.
In this city where a wrong debt could put a bullet in your skull by morning, he was sitting in a cheap plastic stool, laughing at a girl playing dress-up at the end of the world.
The moment didn't last.
Heat punched through the hand gripping his phone, racing up his veins.
[Detected: Observed Target "Li Xing" has obtained superior combat gear!]
[Emotion State: Absolute Confidence, Conquest Drive, Shyness (fermenting nicely).]
[Triggering Special Feedback: War Fever (Tier I)!]
[War Fever (Tier I)]
Effect: Forced adrenaline surge. Pain perception –30%. Strength temporarily boosted to a healthy adult male baseline (Duration: 10 minutes).Side Effect: Once effect ends, fatigue doubles.Note: At this moment, a man does not get to say "I can't."
Liquid fire roared through his blood.
Lu Jin's pupils tightened. The store snapped into sharp relief—the flicker of the fridge light, the pricing tags on the noodle rack, the condensation trails on the glass door.
Beyond that, the pale reflection in the window showed movement.
Outside, just past the reach of the store's light, three figures in gray raincoats closed in on the entrance in a loose fan.
Their steps matched. They avoided the shallow puddles without looking down. Their right hands stayed tucked under their coats, close to where a gun would sit.
Not loan sharks. Not cops.
Cleaners.
"Fast," Lu Jin murmured.
He tipped back the cup and drank down the last of the soup. Heat slid into his stomach and burst there like a small explosion, blending with the War Fever burn.
No panic. No shaking.
The "conquest" edge in Li Xing's emotions bled through the system, bit into his own nerves. His thoughts slipped into a mood he didn't often let himself have—something cruel, reckless, almost eager.
He stood up from the stool.
His hand drifted down, grabbed the spent skewer from his finished oden. Dry bamboo clicked softly between his fingers.
Under the borrowed strength, the thin stick flexed with a sharp sound, more like metal under stress than cheap wood.
"Perfect timing," Lu Jin said.
He pushed the convenience store door open. Cold wind slapped into his face, tugging at his hood and hair. His eyes, lit by the store's fluorescent glow, looked far too bright for a man with his medical record.
"I just dropped eighteen grand," he added, voice low. "I'm in a really bad mood."
Rain waited outside. So did the killers.
The glass door hissed shut behind him.
His bamboo skewer caught a stray beam of light and flashed.
Far away, on a ruined world, Li Xing put one metal boot into the snow, the heavy door of Blackstone Shelter yawning open behind her. Wind howled, trying to shove her back.
Here, in the lower district, Lu Jin stepped off the curb and into the tight, grim alley, where the rain blurred edges and hid guns.
Two worlds.
Two hunts.
And both of them were his.