She pointed toward the south. "I know a place where they sell android parts closer to CSDS. Why waste time going all the way to SAI? It's just a little farther across the swamp. Half a day's walk. Pretty safe route too — lots of scavengers and mechanics go there for parts. It's basically an android and implant scrapyard. And I know a guy who knows a guy, who learned from another guy, that there's another guy who can get you anything — brand-new android cores, special-grade augment implants, you name it."
Kaodin frowned. "I might be small, but I'm not stupid. That doesn't sound safe at all — more like a place full of Korren's people. I'm still going to SAI. I made up my mind."
He stopped walking and faced her. Wawa padded in a circle around them, tail flicking as if reading the tension.
"I need you to come with me," Kaodin said firmly. "To help me find Dr. Dr.Sarinee — and fix my friend. You'll have a chance to make up for what happened. And if everything goes well, I'm sure Mr. Zhang will welcome you at CSDS with open arms."
Nyla's lips parted slightly. For a moment, she said nothing — just looked at him. The boy's face, still young but hardened by loss, and the flickering creature at his feet, staring up at her with glowing eyes that reflected both warning and trust.
A small, almost pained smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
"I can't undo what I did," she said finally. "But if going with you is the least I can do to fix some of the damage… then so be it."
She clenched her fist, forcing away the last hesitation, then turned back to Kaodin with a faint smile — one that didn't quite hide the sadness in her eyes.
Wawa stepped closer to her, its fur shifting from wary red to a faint, calm blue.
She looked down, blinking in surprise.
"…Did it just forgive me?"
Kaodin smiled slightly.
"No. But maybe… maybe he believes you'll try."
They continued walking toward the place Wawa had sensed earlier. In the distance stood a collapsed building. Once inside the compound, Wawa darted through the unblocked road toward what used to be the lobby of a former luxury apartment. Kaodin followed him.
Nyla blurted, "Hey — aren't you supposed to be cautious around this former residential area? It's usually swarming with CCs."
…but the silence between them felt lighter — not quite friendship yet, but no longer weighed down by yesterday.
They eventually reached an open space that seemed like a good resting spot — a garden area of the old apartment complex. Some seats remained under the large trees. The grass had died long ago, yet the place was quiet, with no CCs or ruffians in sight. Enough for Kaodin to pull out his packed sandwich.
He noticed Nyla staring at it — wide-eyed, mouth practically watering, nearly lunging for a bite.
"So… you wanna share?" Kaodin asked. "Didn't you pack any emergency rations before traveling?"
"Why would I? I didn't even plan that we'd end up on a long trip, did I?"
"And you got a knife?" Kaodin asked, looking around her waist, trying to guess where she'd keep one. "I don't have anything to cut it."
"I do," she sighed, "but I don't think it's… okay. It's been used for cutting everything, you know… everything."
"Wawa, can you help a bit?" Kaodin said, taking the knife from Nyla and handing it to Wawa.
Wawa floated over, his fur glowing orange fiery aura as he gently smeared and nudged around Kaodin's hand and the small knife and then return to the calm blue stable Qi again, coating the cutting area on both sides with a shimmering purified aura.
Kaodin told her everything — about Rogan crying over soup, and how Mr. Zhang declaring that peace needed seasoning, the laughter that echoed through the CSDS after the chaos.
By the time he finished, evening had fallen. Nyla's eyes softened and a cracked laugh escaped.
"So Talgat ran around the settlement with ruffians looking for ingredients to cook Thai soup?" she snorted. "The world burns, and someone saves it with Thai spicy soup contest. And Talgat didn't even bother trying to reach me? Ugh — I'm going to smack him when I see him."
Kaodin grinned faintly. "Though no one won, and Mr. Zhang had the best Thai chef in the 2,000 Km radius from CSDS—Chef Somchai, who was also the referee of the contest—personally demonstrated each menu. For Tom-Yum-Gai, Talgat's team, he made a 'Soup of the Death'—a sip from the soup can send you towards a stairway to heaven—the stop sent Chef Somchai coma from a sip, how Talgat grounded and mixed chili with all the ingredients which resulting in an abnormally condensed spice.
"And the other group?", Nyla asked, folding her arms as they walked.
"They had to make Tom-Kha-Gai — spicy coconut soup with chicken. Rogan bought a legendary herb and used it in his soup, despite the soup tasted extremely good, but Mr.Zhang Bo and Chef Somchai deemed unfair and made Rogan's foul."
Nyla covered her laugh, "Soup of Death, and a legendary herb", trying to suppress her laugh — trying not to attract any hostiles from nearby; noise meant danger.
When she isn't hostile, she's just a regular girl with big-sister vibes. I wonder how old she is… but Mom always said never ask a girl that. Better keep quiet.
She nudged him, "Tell Mr. Zhang he just recruited another idiot on your way to SAI."
"You're joining CSDS?"
"I came with Talgat as a pair. If he goes, I go." Her half-smile softened. "But you have to teach me how to cook Tom-Yum-Gai and Tom-Kha-Gai properly, okay?"
Kaodin blinked. "Then I know exactly who I should introduce you to…."
--------------------------
A strange hush draped itself across the dead district long before anything appeared.
The kind of hush that didn't belong to weather or terrain —
but to attention.
As if something unseen listened.
Wawa was the first to feel it.
He froze mid-step, spectral paws hovering just above the cracked concrete, fur shimmering faintly — not from danger detection, but from a tight, instinctive tension, the way a small animal senses the tremor of something vast moving underground. His ears flicked toward a direction Kaodin could not yet know.
Kaodin's breath hitched a little.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
A strange stillness pressed against his lungs, thin as a whisper right behind the ear.
Then—
CRACK.
A thunderclap tore the quiet like a blade.
The dim orange light inside Kaodin's backpack flickered as if afraid.
Then came the gnarling.
Low, overlapping, wet — dozens of throats grinding like rusted hinges.
It grew louder… then closer.
The sound did not travel through air so much as crawl through the marrow.
Kaodin turned east.
Across the half-collapsed skyline, bluish streaks split the horizon like thin slashes through the sky itself — silent lightning carving the night. Too wide for storms. Too deliberate for nature.
Wawa pressed himself to Kaodin's leg — not panicked, but braced, small body coiled with primal readiness.
Kaodin steadied his breath.
"Someone… no — a group. Following us."
The smell arrived next —
a foul, chemical stench of burning plastic and rot.
It crawled up the nose before the eyes caught up.
Shapes moved between ruined rocks and melted metal.
Then two armored figures stumbled into view —
SAI knights, plates scorched, edges glowing faintly white, medieval silhouettes framed in ruin-light.
Behind them, more shadows lurched.
Shadows that only became creatures once the moon revealed them:
Hair melted off their skulls.
Skin cracked and scarred like burnt clay.
Bodies swollen to two meters tall, hissing green saliva dripping from jaws and metal-twisted weapons.
Kaodin whispered, "What the hell…"
Nyla didn't flinch. Her voice was low, almost reverent with disgust.
"The Oborot Communion."
Kaodin blinked. "The what?"
"These demon lord's scum — they've been secretly experimenting with CCs. They're extremely hostile, be careful— urgh, my arms…"
The fatally injured male knight warned them before stumbling again, body burning from acid damage.
"Albert, I'm so sorry… because I wasn't quick enough, you got badly injured," Han-Xiao said, breathless.
Albert grit his teeth. "Thank you… ugh… for saving us, Miss—"
"I'm Nyla. And the boy who ran off before asking anything — that's Kaodin. Quickly, let me treat your injury first, then we follow up with him."
"We are—"
"It's okay. You're Albert and Han-Xiao, right?" Nyla cut in, already assessing the battlefield.
"If you can still stand, move over that side. I'll support the boy, and you can go help your commander. Did you already send the distress signal?"
Albert nodded faintly.
Kaodin, meanwhile, had already engaged two grotesque altered CCs — their faces warped, skin blotched green and stretched unevenly across their swollen bodies. Their necks bulged like skin balloons inflating too fast, then collapsing flat as they expelled the acidic gland inside with a sickening slap.
The boy and Wawa had already familiarized themselves with the altered CCs' movement.
Instead of brute force, he leapt and slipped past them with nimble precision, testing reactions through quick jabs.
A shout came from behind —
Sir Arika, still holding back a large cluster of monsters with several subordinates, even while injured. They fought efficiently — eight still standing on her side, all battered but unbroken.
Nyla, wanting to assist, took aim at one bloated-neck CC. She noticed an attack gap — when the neck fully inflated with air, there was a half-second window before the CC expelled its acidic gland. During the moment the air got sucked back in, the CC was vulnerable.
Her finger tapped the trigger.
One single silenced shot —
two bloated CCs burst and collapsed in the same instant.
Nearby soldiers stared, shocked.
Even Sir Arika spared a glance of impressed approval.
"Kid," Nyla called out, "I know you're good enough to figure this out. I'll give you a hint: watch how it inflates the neck. Catch the tiny gap. If you get it on the first try, I'll give you a snack."
Kaodin grinned.
"All right. Game on."
Wawa, beside him, made a small roaring as if he's follow along with Kaodin's unnerving action — noticing the remaining five altered CCs moving in. They would swarm soon if Kaodin didn't hurry.
One puff —
then a soooob sound, and a quick swift moment that the air was swooped back and bursting out, perhaps this is what Nyla was mentioning, it's just as if how to blow a bubble gum balloon. I think that's it.
".… bubble gum trick," Kaodin muttered, Kaodin with a strong glance quickly grasp on the action of the bloating CCs in front of him.
He and Wawa moved together — pendulum steps disrupting the incoming enemies. And at the exact fraction of a second before the bloated CC released its acidic gland—
Kaodin unleashed his fiery-Qi imbued strike:
'Ta-Tain-Kum-Fuk' — the double uppercut strike
At point-blank range, Kaodin drove both fists upward, fiery Qi blasting from his palms.
The strike hit the Variant's jaw with perfect precision — the head snapped back, burst apart, and the excess energy burned through the skull, triggering a chain reaction that ripped into the tightly packed CCs nearby.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM
Five CCs burst in quick succession, their own acidic glands reacting in a domino effect.
Kaodin wiped dust off his cheek.
"Sis, you sure you brought enough snacks for my reward?"
Nyla barked a laugh. "You little show-off— That was awesome."
And not just her.
Every SAI soldier froze in awe —
not just at the boy's calculated movement,
but the strange aura flickering off him
and the appearance of the spectral tiger cub beside him.
A sight none of them had ever seen before.