The plaza was a slaughterhouse disguised as a battlefield.
The Void Crawler was not just big; it was fast. It moved like a centipede made of obsidian knives, skittering across the cobblestones with a sound like shattering glass. It had too many legs, and each one ended in a point sharp enough to puncture plate armor.
CRACK.
The massive Guard, the one who had mocked Ren, flew backward. His heavy shield was dented inward, crumpled like a tin can. He slammed into a stone fountain, coughing blood.
"FLANK IT!" a mage screamed, firing a bolt of fire.
The fire hit the Crawler's shell. It washed over the black chitin harmlessly, leaving only a faint scorch mark.
Ren watched from the alley mouth, his eyes narrowing.
[Entity: Void Crawler (Tier 2)] [Property: Spell Resistance (High)] [Property: Kinetic Deflection (Medium)]
The Hunters were fighting it wrong. They were trying to overpower a tank. You don't punch a tank. You dismantle it.
Ren's gaze locked onto the creature's legs. The joints.
Every time the Crawler moved, the heavy armor plates shifted, revealing a fraction of an inch of soft, gray flesh underneath. It was a render gap. A hitbox issue.
"Target identified," Ren whispered.
He checked his Pneumatic Spike. The pressure gauge was in the red. Fully primed. He checked his Exo-Arm. The servo whined softly, hungry for torque.
The Crawler reared up, screeching, a sound that made Ren's teeth ache. It was preparing to finish off the downed Guard. The Guard raised his broken shield, his face pale with the realization of death.
Ren moved.
He didn't charge with a war cry. He moved like a shadow in the chaos.
He sprinted across the plaza, his boots slamming against the stone. The Hunters were too busy panic-firing arrows to notice the ragged boy in the wolf coat cutting through their formation.
The Crawler lunged.
Ren didn't intercept the attack. He slid.
He dropped to his knees, the momentum carrying him across the smooth cobblestones right under the monster's raised thorax.
The smell was awful, like burning tires and rotted fish.
Ren looked up. The creature's underbelly was exposed.
He saw the joint of the main leg. The armor plate was lifted.
Ren reached out with his left hand, his "Editor" hand. He touched the gray flesh of the joint.
[Material: Void Muscle] [Property: Elasticity]
"Edit," Ren hissed.
He couldn't delete the muscle. He couldn't kill it instantly. But he could change the physics.
He imagined a value. Elasticity: 0.
[Corruption: 2.8%]
The muscle fibers instantly seized. They turned from rubber bands into rigid, brittle stone.
The Crawler tried to bring its leg down to crush the Guard.
SNAP.
The sound was like a gunshot. The creature's own muscle, now unable to stretch, snapped under the force of the movement. The leg didn't just stop; it sheared off at the joint, dangling by a thread of skin.
SCREEEEECH!
The monster collapsed to one side, its balance destroyed. It thrashed, its remaining legs scraping sparks off the ground.
It fell right next to Ren.
Ren stood up. He planted his boots. He gripped the Pneumatic Spike with both hands, his human hand and his steel servo-hand.
The monster's head, a cluster of red eyes and mandibles, swung toward him, confused and enraged.
Ren stared into the eyes.
"Frame advantage," Ren said.
He thrust the Spike forward.
He didn't aim for the armor. He aimed for the eye cluster.
THOOM.
The recoil was massive. Even with the Exo-Arm, Ren felt his boots slide backward two inches.
The piston fired. The steel dagger, propelled by twenty tons of hydraulic hate, vanished into the creature's skull.
It didn't just pierce. The kinetic shockwave liquefied the brain matter inside the shell.
The Crawler went rigid. Its legs twitched once, rattling against the stones. Then, it slumped, dead weight hitting the plaza floor.
[Target Eliminated.] [Experience Gain: ERROR (System Locked)] [Loot Detected: Void Core (Tier 2)]
Silence fell over the plaza.
The mages lowered their staffs. The archers lowered their bows. The downed Guard lowered his broken shield, staring with wide, disbelief-filled eyes at the skinny boy standing over the carcass.
Ren didn't pose. He didn't wait for applause.
He knew how MMORPGs worked. The loot belonged to whoever grabbed it first.
He jammed his mechanical fingers into the shattered skull of the beast. The servo whined as he tore the chitin apart.
He pulled out a pulsing, purple crystal the size of a grapefruit.
[Item: Void Core (Tier 2)] [Energy Density: High] [Market Value: 50 Silver]
50 Silver. That was five thousand coppers. That was a house in the Slums. That was enough materials to build a god.
Ren shoved the core into his coat pocket.
"HEY!"
The spell broke. The Iron Vanguard captain, a man with a red cape, marched forward, his face flushed with anger.
"You!" The captain pointed his sword at Ren. "That kill belongs to the Guild! That is Guild property!"
Ren turned slowly. He looked at the captain. Then he looked at the Guard he had just saved.
"Your man was dead," Ren said, his voice flat. "I saved him. Consider the Core my consultation fee."
"Seize him!" the captain barked.
Two guards stepped forward.
Ren's hand dropped to his pocket. He touched the [Logic Drive].
"Roach," he mentally commanded. "Flashbang."
He hadn't left the drone in the alley. It was clinging to the back of his coat.
The drone crawled up to his shoulder. The magnet inside it spun up, dumping its remaining charge into the capacitor Ren had rigged.
ZZZT-POP.
A blinding flash of white light and a deafening acoustic pop exploded in the plaza.
It was not a grenade. It was just a capacitor overload. But to eyes adjusted to the dim evening light, it was blinding.
The guards shouted, covering their eyes.
When the spots cleared from their vision three seconds later...
The monster was there. The broken shield was there.
But the boy in the wolf coat was gone.
Ren didn't stop running until he was back in the maze of Sector 4.
He ducked into Sara's shop, locking the heavy iron door behind him. He slid down against the metal, chest heaving, sweat stinging his eyes.
He pulled the purple crystal out of his pocket. It illuminated the dark workshop with a sinister, violet glow.
Sara looked up from her workbench. She saw the boy, sweaty, shaking, and holding a Tier 2 Core.
She slowly lowered her hammer.
"You didn't," she whispered. "You robbed the Iron Vanguard?"
Ren looked up, a manic grin spreading across his dirty face.
"I didn't rob them," Ren panted. "I just outplayed them."
He placed the core on the table.
"I have fifty silver worth of energy," Ren said, staring at the crystal. "And I have a blueprint for a suit that needs a power source."
He looked at Sara.
"Get the forge ready. We're working the night shift."