Dawn at the settlement was a quiet, grim ritual.
People stirred in the cold. They queued for a cup of thin grain porridge. They checked their weapons, sharpened the rebar, nailed boards, and had a few proper knives. No one spoke much.
Lin Feng stood in the latrine-cleaning line. He held a crude wooden scraper and a bucket of ash. It was the lowest duty. He kept his head down.
He watched Team Two assemble.
Zhang Wei was easy to spot. He wore a scavenged motorcycle jacket over his clothes. He had a real weapon; a steel pry bar with a sharpened end. He moved with a fighter's confidence. Three other men and a woman gathered around him. They were the Dragon Tiger Union. They looked better fed. Better armed. They laughed at a private joke.
Captain Luo addressed them. "The machinery depot. Intel says moderate hostilities. Your priority is industrial tools, bearings and any sealed lubricants. Raw metal is secondary. We need things that function."
Zhang Wei gave a lazy salute. "We'll get your tools, Captain. And our fair finder's share."
The "finder's share" was an extra 20% of any loot, for the team that secured it. It made the dangerous jobs desirable. It also bred resentment.
Lin Feng felt a knot in his stomach. The machinery depot. His farming zone.
He finished his demeaning work quickly. He found a quiet spot near the wall, pretending to sort a pile of useless plastic fragments. He closed his eyes and focused inward.
His system map was clear. Z-002, his farming zombie, was still in the industrial park alley. Its stealth farming was slow but steady. The log showed it had gathered more components overnight.
But on the edge of the map, new dots appeared. Five white dots. [Neutral - Survivors].
Zhang Wei's team.
They were moving fast. They would reach the park in less than thirty minutes.
Lin Feng had to choose.
Option one: Recall Z-002. Play it safe. Lose farming time.
Option two: Risk it. Hope the zombie's "maximum stealth" was enough.
He thought of Mei's watchful eyes. Of the settlement's desperate need. Of Zhang Wei's arrogance.
He chose a third option.
He opened Z-002's command menu. He could not give it complex instructions. But he could set a patrol path.
He zoomed in on the map of the industrial park. He knew the layout from his zombie's exploration. He drew a new patrol route. It looped through the interior of a large, collapsed factory building. The building was a maze of broken floors and dense shadows. It was also marked with several red dots [Hostile - Corroded Slime].
It was a dangerous place for humans. A perfect hiding spot for an undead worker.
He set the route and activated it.
[Z-002: New Task - Patrol Designated Area (Stealth Mode)]
[Primary Objective: Avoid detection.]
[Secondary Objective: Farm resources within patrol zone if safe.]
The green dot on the map began to move. It shambled away from the alley and into the gaping maw of the factory.
Lin Feng opened his eyes. The plastic shards in his hands were slick with sweat.
"Not fond of the work?"
He jumped. Mei was there again. She was tightening a strap on her pack. Her team, with Lao Chen, was leaving soon for the residential blocks.
"It's... necessary," Lin Feng said.
"Most necessary things are unpleasant," Mei replied. Her eyes weren't on him, but on the departing back of Zhang Wei. "Like dealing with certain people. You saw Team Two leave?"
"Yes."
"They're good at what they do," she said, her tone flat. "They find things. They keep more than their share. They act like they own this place. Be careful around them."
"Why are you telling me this?" Lin Feng asked.
Mei finally looked at him. "Because you're new. And weak. People like that prey on the weak. Consider it your first useful lesson."
She shouldered her pack and walked toward Lao Chen without another word.
Lin Feng was left alone with his thoughts and his fear. The warning was about more than bullying. It was about power dynamics. Zhang Wei had power. Lin Feng was supposed to have none.
He spent the morning in a state of tense distraction. He hauled ash. He sorted scrap. He listened for any news from the scavenging teams.
At noon, a commotion erupted at the gate.
Team Two was back. Early.
They were not triumphant. They were angry. Zhang Wei stormed in first, his face dark. He threw a single, grease-stained gear onto the ground in front of Captain Luo.
"This is it?" Captain Luo asked, her voice dangerously calm.
"The place was picked clean!" Zhang Wei spat. "Not by monsters. By _scavengers_. Someone got there before us. Took all the easy metal, the good components. Left the trash and the slimes."
Murmurs spread through the settlement. A rival group? Another settlement?
"Are you sure?" Captain Luo pressed.
"Positive," said one of Zhang Wei's men, a wiry man with a scar. "We found a spot in an alley. Piles of metal dust. Scrape marks. Something was methodically stripping the place. But no footprints. No sign of who."
No footprints. Because his zombie didn't leave clear ones. Just shallow, dragged grooves in the dust.
Lin Feng kept his head down, sorting plastic.
"Could it have been automated?" Lao Chen asked. He and Mei's team had just returned, empty-handed from their own fruitless search.
"Automated?" Zhang Wei scoffed. "In this hellscape? Don't be stupid."
"Then explain the lack of tracks," Mei said quietly. All eyes turned to her. "You said methodical stripping. No footprints. That doesn't sound like desperate survivors. It sounds like something else."
An uneasy silence fell. The idea of an unknown, inhuman force operating in their territory was worse than a rival gang.
"It was probably just rats. Or some mutant creature that eats metal," Zhang Wei said, dismissing the theory but looking unsettled. "The point is, our haul is garbage. The depot is tapped out. We risked our necks for nothing."
He turned his glare across the settlement. His eyes, full of frustrated rage, swept over the faces of the weak and the useless. They passed over Lin Feng, the latrine cleaner, and moved on without a pause.
Lin Feng felt no triumph. Only a cold, sharp fear.
He had succeeded. His zombie had farmed undetected. He had stolen resources from under a powerful man's nose.
He had also created a mystery. And mysteries attracted attention. The wrong kind of attention.
That night, as the settlement slept, Lin Feng checked his logs.
Z-002 was safe, still patrolling the dark factory interior. It had engaged and defeated a single Corroded Slime that wandered into its path. The loot was mediocre.
But the total in his hidden cache was not mediocre.
[Low-Grade Metal: 89/100]
He was almost there. Almost at the 100 metals needed for his next big step.
He looked at the sleeping forms around him. At Zhang Wei, sleeping near the Union's small private stash. At Mei, who slept lightly, one hand always on her knife.
He had drawn a line in the dust today. An invisible one. A line between his powerless public self and his growing hidden strength.
Zhang Wei had crossed that line without knowing it. And he was not a man who liked to lose.
The line would not stay invisible for long.