The university quad looked like a war memorial carved into the center of a dying world—cracked pavement, overturned benches, the smell of gasoline lingering in the air. Smoke drifted through the ruined courtyard like a veil.
And then the ground trembled.
VREEE—CHUNK.
The Magitek Armor crashed down like a steel titan descending from heaven. Ten meters tall, rust-yellow plating, pistons hissing steam, the harsh glow of mana conduits flickering beneath its armor. A bipedal war machine pulled straight out of a nightmare.
The drill arm spun up, shrieking against the concrete as it carved out chunks of broken stone.
A voice boomed across the quad, distorted by the mech's loudspeaker—raw, violent, unstable:
"Meat! I smell fresh… meat!"
Through the armored glass of the cockpit, Su Chen saw what used to be a man. Cables burrowed into his skull like mechanical parasites. His skin had fused to the pilot seat. Half-flesh, half-machine—nothing human left except the hatred in his eyes.
A Techno-Mutant Raider.
The apocalypse never picked a genre and stuck to it.
Su Chen hovered above, wings spread wide, dark-purple energy shimmering along the edges.
"Great," he muttered. "A cyborg driving a mech. At this point I'm expecting Pokémon to drop from the sky."
Below him, Xiao Yi Xian stared at the monster like a deer staring down a locomotive. Her world had beasts, venom, poisons—but not iron giants breathing steam and fire.
Her breath hitched. Su Chen saw the fear tighten her shoulders.
"Xiao Yi Xian!" he called down sharply.
She jerked, eyes snapping to him instead of the towering mech.
"It's just metal," Su Chen said. Calm. Unshaken. Commanding.
"Metal rusts. Metal breaks. Use the Sutra."
Something settled in her. His voice always did that—cut through panic like a blade.
Her pupils glowed purple.
She exhaled.
The mist spilled out from her hands, her sleeves, her skin. Not thrown—released. Like the world itself exhaled poison through her.
A violet cloud rolled across the courtyard toward the mech's legs.
The pilot laughed, deranged and confident.
"Poison? You idiot—this unit is airtight! Air filters sealed!"
Then the mech stepped forward.
And everything changed.
HISSSSS.
The alloy where the foot touched the mist bubbled. The paint sloughed off as if dipped in acid. The metal softened, sagged, warped.
Alarms screamed inside the cockpit.
"What—WHAT?! Hull integrity failing?! This shouldn't be possible!"
"It's corruption Qi," Su Chen said from above. "It doesn't care about your filters. It eats structure. Have fun."
The mech staggered, its knee joint dissolving into black sludge.
The pilot panicked and aimed the Magitek Laser at Xiao Yi Xian.
Big mistake.
Su Chen folded his wings and dove.
Wind howled around him. Muscles coiled and hardened under his skin as he activated everything at once—Diamond Body, Flesh Manipulation, Bone Manipulation. His right arm thickened, spikes pushing through his knuckles.
He hit the cockpit like a golden meteor.
BOOM.
Reinforced plexiglass—designed to tank artillery fire—exploded inward.
The pilot froze as Su Chen hovered inches from his face, shards of glass raining around them.
"Hi."
Before the cyborg could scream, Su Chen grabbed his head.
Knowledge surged into him—blueprints, interface protocols, weapons layouts, mana circuitry. A lifetime of engineering compressed into a heartbeat.
"Thanks for the tutorial," Su Chen said.
Then he tossed the pilot out of the broken window.
"Xiao Yi Xian! Catch!"
The techno-maniac tumbled toward the poisonous mist, flailing.
Her fingers tightened. Her own memories—the mercenaries, the fear, the powerlessness—flashed behind her eyes.
Not this time.
The purple cloud thickened into a spectral hand and slammed upward.
POISON CLOUD PALM.
The pilot didn't even hit the ground.
He dissolved midair—skin, bones, metal implants—reduced to a pool of bubbling sludge.
XP chimed in Su Chen's mind.
The mech's legs melted completely, collapsing the machine to one side.
Su Chen placed his hand on the dashboard.
"Copy."
A damaged, melted Magitek Armor blueprint—and its physical wreck—slid into his Infinite Storage.
He grimaced. "Copied the damage too? Annoying. Whatever. With the engineering talent, Saya can rebuild it. Maybe even improve it."
He jumped out of the cockpit just as the mech slumped into a steaming pile of scrap.
---
Aftermath
Su Chen touched down on the grass. His wings folded in, fading into the tattoo on his back.
Saya didn't even look at him—she sprinted straight to the mech like a starved hyena discovering a steak.
"This alloy… this core… this is insane!" She pressed her face to the ruined plating. "Do you even understand what this is worth? If I salvage this power core, the truck's generator output will spike fivefold!"
Su Chen tossed her a copied datapad.
"Operating manual. Knock yourself out."
Then he walked toward Xiao Yi Xian.
She stood alone, hands lowered, staring at the dead grass around her. Her lips trembled.
"I… I didn't mean to hurt the ground," she whispered. "Everything around me dies so easily…"
Su Chen stepped into the poison cloud without hesitation. It curled back as if afraid of him.
He placed his hand on her head.
"You saved everyone. This wasn't destruction. It was protection."
Saeko approached, wiping her blade clean.
She studied the corroded metal legs and whistled.
"That's a terrifying ability," she said. "If I cut someone, they bleed. If you touch them, they melt." She grinned. "We're a good team."
Xiao Yi Xian blinked. "…You're not afraid of me?"
"Why would I be afraid?" Saeko replied. "You're lethal. That's a compliment."
Ye Qingyu stayed a step back, jaw tight.
Great, she thought. First a sword demon, now a poison calamity. If I don't train harder, I'll be dead weight.
---
The Dungeon Gate
"Boss!" Jiang Rou shouted from the truck. "Signal interference is gone. But… you should look up."
Su Chen lifted his gaze.
A tear in the sky had stabilized above the library. Red energy swirled like a storm of blood and lightning.
A dungeon gate.
The first stable one.
Right here.
[Dungeon Type: Undead – Hell Difficulty.]
Su Chen's heartbeat quickened—not with fear, but with hunger.
A dungeon core.
A permanent resource generator.
A power multiplier.
They needed it.
"We're not leaving," Su Chen said. "We're going in."
Saya looked horrified.
"That gate is suicidal!"
"High risk," Su Chen said, walking toward the truck, "means high reward."
He pointed orders like a general:
"Saeko, Qingyu—secure the perimeter.
Saya—strip the mech.
Xiao Yi Xian—"
He held out his hand.
"Come with me. I need an alchemist."
---
Inside the Truck — Improvised Alchemy Lab
Su Chen shoved supplies aside and cleared a table.
Then he dumped what looked like a mountain of rare herbs from another world.
Blue Spirit Grass.
Fire Spirit Fruit.
Wisteria Poison.
Xiao Yi Xian froze. These herbs would bankrupt kingdoms. And he had brought them out like snacks.
"You want potions?" she asked quietly.
"I want something that kills undead," Su Chen said. "And something that keeps my team alive."
She nodded slowly.
"I… can make a Yang Recovery Pill. Fire Spirit + Blue Grass. Burns undead. Heals humans."
"Perfect."
She began working.
Mortar grinding.
Colors swirling.
Purple and blue qi dancing around her fingertips.
Su Chen silently watched—then began copying her alchemy technique in real time. Piece by piece. Stroke by stroke.
After a while, she whispered, breaking the silence:
"Why do you trust me so much…? I could poison everything on this table."
"Because you're the only one here who understands what it means to be a walking disaster," Su Chen said casually. "And disasters stick together."
Her hands paused.
A small, genuine smile broke through.
She held out a glowing red pill.
"The first Sunfire Pill."
Su Chen popped it into his mouth without hesitation.
Warmth spread through his chest.
Fire resistance rose.
Healing factor ticked upward.
"Good," he said. "Now make a thousand."
She choked.
"A—A thousand?!"
Su Chen leaned back, eyes gleaming.
"I told you. I don't do small scale."