Lin Qiao's eyes flickered with a golden glow, faint ripples of energy tracing across her irises.
"Be careful?" She mused, tilting her head at Zhang Rui's caution. "It's a shame you think so little of us, isn't it, Zhao Ren?"
Zhao Ren smiled, swinging his wooden sword effortlessly. He raised a hand slightly. "I can see where he's coming from," he said smoothly, stopping in his tracks to face Zhang Rui. His raised fingers began to crackle with electricity. "After all, our friend Zhang Rui hasn't seen what we're capable of yet."
Lin Qiao's lips pressed into a thin curl as her gaze swept across the shattered glass and warped metal doors. Then she turned back, her eyes gleaming. "Then why don't we show him what we can do~?"
A playful smile spread across her face as she summoned a set of golden shields from thin air.
Trait: Gold Cover; Grade: Heroic
With an initial intake of 50 pure essence, you can summon half a dozen floating shields that grow stronger over time, absorbing incoming damage until their absorption limit is exceeded.
That was Lin Qiao's trait.
But next to it was her brother's:
Trait: Thunderbird's Call; Grade: Rare
By channeling your innate essence into your weapon, you can summon bursts of lightning along its surface, creating arcing bolts that strike targets within range. The intensity of the lightning grows with focus, and each strike can chain to multiple enemies, leaving behind a lingering electrical resonance that disrupts their movements.
Zhang Rui had assumed at first that these two were just background characters—forgettable side figures with no real significance. But after seeing their traits, that assumption shattered.
These abilities… impossible.
His expression shifted, eyes narrowing. Gold Cover and Thunderbird's Call—he knew these traits. He had written about them.
Back when he was drafting his story, he had outlined a powerful figure: Li Teng, the head of Pegasus Corporation—a glamorous empire disguised as a network of elite model agencies. In truth, Pegasus was a covert branch of the Liang family's criminal syndicate, later transformed into a guild after Li Teng received a mysterious quest from the Otherworldly Tower: a directive to gather the strongest potential Returners and establish a foundation of power in the real world.
Zhang Rui remembered writing the early recruitment arcs vividly. Li Teng had gone hunting for candidates—monsters among men and women who would shape the future of the tower. Among that list were his own daughter, the protagonist Liang Xiu, and a handful of terrifying talents who were flagged as priority recruits.
Among them… was a pair. A dangerous duo known for their perfect teamwork and overwhelming combat synergy.
And they possessed these exact traits.
His heartbeat slowed. His thoughts sharpened.
These two… shouldn't be here this early.
Zhang Rui forced a smile, lips curling with a hint of nervous tension.
"It seems I really underestimated you two," he said. His gaze shifted past them, eyes sharpening. In one smooth motion, he drew an arrow and fired.
Swish!
The bolt flashed between the siblings, slicing past their shoulders.
A shrill cry erupted.
A small creature—nearly invisible under a tattered camouflaging cloak—stumbled into view, clutching its grazed shoulder. The arrow had torn straight through its concealment.
[Kill] [Kill] [Kill] [Kill]
More than a dozen shellouts burst from cover, surging up with murderous intent. Their weak orange aura flared violently, staining crimson as they locked onto new prey.
"But that doesn't mean I'm a slouch," Zhang Rui muttered.
His pupils rippled.
Fifteen more shellouts were crawling up the stairwell, trying to sneak onto them from the entrance.
He didn't reach back for another arrow from his quiver. Instead, he raised the bamboo-slip-wrapped arrow already orbiting him.
"Zhao Ren left. Lin Qiao—right."
It wasn't a request. It was a command.
He fired again. The bamboo slip arrow hooked another camouflaged goblin by its cloak, ripping it off cleanly. Zhang Rui yanked the line back and caught the torn cloth, pulling it over himself in one motion. Despite only covering him down to the waist, the artifact shimmered—activating instantly. His body faded into partial invisibility.
Lin Qiao's amused voice floated out.
"Interesting," she said, her eyes tracking his fading outline. She summoned three golden shields and set them spinning around her like orbiting suns, while the other two flattened out and shot forward—slamming into two exposed goblins.
[Congratulations!]
You have slain a Camouflage Goblin—a stealth-class variant known for ambush tactics.
This achievement has been recorded by the system. Future encounters may adjust difficulty accordingly.
"?!"
Zhao Ren swung his wooden sword backward without looking. The blade cracked against something.
"That would've hurt, you little shit!" he snarled.
He twisted, knocking aside a jagged bone dagger. His hand flashed out, seizing the weapon from the goblin—then he brought his lightning-coated sword down in a clean, brutal arc toward where its skull should have been.
The wooden blade should never have been able to cut through bone—but under the influence of his trait, it gained the razor edge of a thunder-forged weapon.
Riiip! HSSSS!
The goblin's head tore apart as its cloaking failed, its death cry cut short by a burst of static.
"GRRAAA!!"
Another one lunged from the side. Zhao Ren didn't even flinch—he turned and slashed horizontally, cutting it down mid-charge.
Hissssss—
"Ren, two more coming from your right," Zhang Rui called out, already nocking a normal arrow. His bow bent smoothly as he drew it to full tension, aiming coldly at another goblin.
This time, he went for the kill.
Twi—
!!!
Another arrow sliced through the air and intercepted his shot mid-flight, deflecting it with a sharp metallic clang.
What—!?
Zhang Rui's eyes snapped upward.
More of them. On top!
He drew another arrow immediately, muscles tense. Above the shattered mall entrance sign, a second group of goblins had revealed themselves—archers, perched along the rooftop, bows drawn and aiming straight at him.
"Lin Qiao—cover your brother!" Zhang Rui shouted.
Even as he spoke, a rain of crude goblin arrows fell toward Zhao Ren.
Golden light flared.
Three shields spun outward in a flash, locking into a triangular barrier in front of Zhao Ren just in time. The goblin arrows clattered uselessly against the radiant gold plates, sparks bouncing off their surfaces.
Zhang Rui's bow thrummed again.
He released three arrows at once.
Thwip-thwip-thwip!
One arrow pierced a goblin archer through the eye, sending it tumbling off the roof. The second buried itself in another's throat. The third struck a bow mid-draw, shattering it and taking the goblin's fingers with it.
[Congratulations!] You have slain a Camouflage Goblin—a stealth-class variant known for ambush tactics. This achievement has been recorded by the system. Future encounters may adjust difficulty accordingly.
Zhao Ren didn't waste the opening.
"Much appreciated!" he smirked, lightning crackling around his blade as he charged ahead. He became a blur of motion—slicing through two more goblins before they could reach him off of sound alone.
[Congratulations!] You have slain a Camouflage Goblin—a stealth-class variant known for ambush tactics. This achievement has been recorded by the system. Future encounters may adjust difficulty accordingly.
Lin Qiao's last two shields launched forward again, smashing into another pair of green-skinned ambushers trying to flank them. Bones cracked under the impact; blood splattered across the tile floor.
[Congratulations!] You have slain a Camouflage Goblin—a stealth-class variant known for ambush tactics. This achievement has been recorded by the system. Future encounters may adjust difficulty accordingly.
The entrance was finally clear.
"Move!" Zhang Rui called, watching those on top retreat after having their numbers cut in half. He went to a few corpses of the archers he had shot down and took a quiver and two invisibility cloaks.
Zhao Ren leaped over a corpse and sprinted inside the mall. Lin Qiao followed, her shields hovering close as she ran. Zhang Rui stayed behind for half a breath—bow raised, watching the roof—before rushing in and vanishing, entering with them unseen.
The massive glass doors of the mall hung shattered and crooked. Hallway lights flickered eerily inside. Somewhere deeper in the shadows, faint guttural growls echoed—more goblins.
"Wait up, put these on," he said, throwing two cloaks at them. "Even though these look like they only work on counseling things a few feet around you, it's still better than walking in with your vitals completely visible."
They turned to him and nodded, "You're right, and I've seen how dangerous those things were with these on, and you having to tell us where they were to have a chance. I might really be considering that yoga date because of how useful you were."
Lin Qiao smiled as she disappeared, yet her shields still floated a meter around her unconcealed. "God, this isn't the time for you to be flirting," Zhao Ren spoke. "By the way, Zhang Rui, how did you find all those goblins?" He was asked to continue his march, and then a store window broke open as a display manikin was attacked.
"I used my Voyeur trait—it lets me vaguely sense hidden enemies," Zhang Rui said.
"But it looks like we won't be needing it for the ones here," he muttered, eyes narrowing.
A goblin had uncloaked itself, hunched over and snarling as it pawed aggressively at a store mannequin, mistaking it for a human. Zhang Rui drew, released—
Thwip!
The arrow punched cleanly into its skull before it even realized it had been spotted.
More goblins turned at the sound. They screeched and charged in a frenzy.
Zhang Rui's gaze swept across the looted clothing store ahead. Inside were bodies—fresh ones. Human corpses slumped over display tables and racks. Faces frozen in terror. Skin shredded. Tears still wet on cold cheeks.
He ignored the stench and ignored the blood-smeared walls and torn clothes. He moved forward, loosing arrow after arrow with mechanical efficiency.
This is too real, he thought coldly as he stepped into the store.
Lin Qiao's shields pushed forward, crushing goblins as they poured out of the aisles. Zhao Ren followed, lightning flashing around him as he cut them down one after another.
Then Zhang Rui saw her.
A woman lay on her back near a toppled shelf, pants torn away—still surrounded by three goblins despite the chaos around them. One held her pinned by the arms while another slobbered over her face, licking her desperately as she trembled in shock.
Her eyes were wide and empty—but her thoughts surfaced to him like a whisper.
Surface Thoughts: Someone—please—save me. I don't want this. I don't want this—
Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.
Three clean headshots.
The goblins collapsed around her, twitching as life drained from their bodies.
"It's okay, ma'am," Zhang Rui said calmly, lowering his bow. "You're safe now. Help has arrived."
The woman stared up at him, trembling. Tears welled in her eyes—not from relief, but from disbelief. When she finally spoke, her voice cracked.
"Y-you… You're real? Are you—are you really human?"