The core dissolved into light and vanished. To anyone watching, it would look like he'd just pocketed it. But the cache was far more useful than pockets. Invisible. Instantaneous. And the crew had no idea it existed.
Finn moved to the next body. Another C-rank core. He made a show of pulling it out, examining it, then let it vanish into the cache.
[ITEM STORED: BEAST CORE (C-RANK)]
[CACHE: 5/10 ITEMS, 10KG/50KG]
"Got something!" one of the crew members shouted from across the depression. He was holding up a core that caught the light. C-rank by the size.
"Here too," another called.
Perfect. They were distracted, focused on their own finds and calling out to each other. No one was paying attention to what Finn was doing.
He moved to a third body. Made the cut. Found another C-rank core. Into the cache.
[ITEM STORED: BEAST CORE (C-RANK)]
[CACHE: 6/10 ITEMS, 12KG/50KG]
A fourth body. Another core. Gone.
[ITEM STORED: BEAST CORE (C-RANK)]
[CACHE: 7/10 ITEMS, 14KG/50KG]
The crew was still working on their own specimens, arguing about which bodies looked most promising and who should get credit for which kills. Finn kept moving methodically, checking bodies they'd passed over and collecting cores while staying just visible enough that no one questioned what he was doing.
Fifth body. C-rank. Cache.
[ITEM STORED: BEAST CORE (C-RANK)]
[CACHE: 8/10 ITEMS, 16KG/50KG]
Then he reached a larger specimen near the back of the depression. The boar was bigger than the others, its chitinous plating darker and denser. The kind of visual difference that marked it as something special.
Finn made the cut and reached inside.
The core was immediately different. Heavier. When he pulled it out, the color was wrong. Not the typical brown of C-rank cores but a deep red that seemed to pulse with barely contained energy.
B-rank. High B-rank by the weight and color saturation.
Finn's heart rate picked up but he kept his expression neutral. He glanced around to make sure no one was looking his way. The crew was still spread out, still focused on their own searches.
He activated the cache.
[ITEM STORED: BEAST CORE (B-RANK)]
[CACHE: 9/10 ITEMS, 24KG/50KG]
The red core vanished. Finn pulled out one of his older Razorwolf cores from the cache to have something physical to show if anyone looked his way.
[ITEM RETRIEVED: BEAST CORE (D-RANK)]
He held up the brown Razorwolf core. "Got one," he called out, making sure his voice carried.
"Good," Garrett said from where he was working on his own specimen. "Let's collect them all and get out of here. I don't want to be near this nest when night falls."
Finn moved to another body while the crew continued working. Found two more C-rank cores in quick succession. Both went into the cache.
[ITEM STORED: BEAST CORE (C-RANK)]
[CACHE: 10/10 ITEMS, 26KG/50KG]
[STORAGE CAPACITY REACHED]
The system notification appeared in his peripheral vision. Ten items. He'd hit the maximum capacity.
Finn did a quick mental count of what he had. One B-rank core worth seven to eight thousand credits. Six new C-rank cores at roughly twelve hundred each. Plus his original Razorwolf loot that he could sell separately. Total value well over fifteen thousand credits.
More than enough for both academy enrollments with money left over for equipment and supplies.
He was about to move away from the bodies when he heard it.
A sound deeper than the boars' grunts. Coming from the largest burrow at the back of the depression.
Finn knew that sound. Had written the encounter that produced it.
The alpha. The nest guardian. A-rank threat.
Right on schedule.
The burrow entrance exploded outward as something massive emerged. A Razorback Boar three times the size of the others. Its chitinous plating covered nearly its entire body in overlapping layers that looked thick enough to stop small arms fire. The tusks were as long as Finn's arm and wickedly curved. Steam rose from its nostrils with each breath.
The crew froze.
"Oh shit," Hendricks breathed.
"Run!" Garrett shouted. "Everyone scatter!"
They bolted in different directions. The alpha focused on the closest target, the stocky crew member who'd been working on a body near the center of the depression. It charged with terrifying speed for something so massive. The ground shook with each step.
The alpha caught the stocky man before he'd made it ten feet. One tusk caught him in the midsection and lifted him off the ground like he weighed nothing. The man's scream was cut short when the alpha slammed him back down with enough force to make the ground crack.
"Porter!" Garrett shouted from somewhere behind Finn. "Help us!"
Finn looked down at the chaos below and could see the alpha was already moving toward its next target.
Hendricks was trying to circle around with his spear raised. The thin man was scrambling backward, tripping over debris. The others were running for their lives.
Garrett made eye contact with Finn from across the depression. His expression shifted from panic to confusion as he registered where Finn was standing and what he was clearly about to do.
"Porter, what are you doing?"
Finn didn't answer. Just looked at him. At the man who'd screamed for everyone to run four weeks ago and left Finn Porter to die without looking back. Who'd shown no remorse when Finn had walked into the Lodge alive. Who'd offered him five percent like it was generous.
Then Finn activated Anchor Point.
[ANCHOR POINT ACTIVATED]
[TELEPORTING TO: HOME]
The world dissolved. Space compressed and twisted around him. For half a second Finn existed nowhere, suspended between two points in reality.
Then everything snapped back and he was standing in his apartment.
The sudden silence was jarring after the chaos of the nest. No screaming. No sounds of combat. Just the ambient noise of the outer districts filtering through his window.
Finn stood there for a moment and let the reality of what he'd just done settle over him.
He'd known the alpha was there. Had known it from the moment he'd decided to lead Garrett's crew to this specific nest. That was the whole point of choosing this location.
The alpha only emerged when the nest was seriously threatened. When enough of the family group had been killed to trigger its defensive instincts. Finn had written that behavior specifically to make the encounter challenging for players who tried to clear the entire nest for maximum loot.
He'd needed Garrett and his crew to kill enough boars to trigger the alpha. Needed them to do the heavy lifting and provide cover while he collected cores using his Spatial Cache. And once they'd served their purpose, once he had what he came for, the alpha would ensure they couldn't follow him back or ask questions about why he'd led them into a death trap.
The Anchor Point placement hadn't been a precaution. It had been his exit strategy from the start.
He'd used them, deliberately. Knowingly led them to their deaths because he needed their muscle and because some cold part of him had decided they deserved it for abandoning the original Finn Porter to die in the Outlands.
Was that justice? Revenge? Or just cold pragmatism wrapped in a thin veneer of righteousness?
Finn pulled up his Spatial Cache interface.
[SPATIAL CACHE CONTENTS:]
- Razorwolf Pelt x4
- Razorwolf Claws x4
- Razorwolf Beast Core (D-Rank) x4
- Razorback Boar Beast Core (C-Rank) x6
- Razorback Boar Beast Core (B-Rank) x1
[CACHE: 10/10 ITEMS, 26KG/50KG]
He dismissed the interface and sat down on his bed.
The B-rank core alone was worth seven to eight thousand credits on the open market. The six C-rank cores would fetch around twelve hundred each, maybe more with the right buyer. Total value somewhere between fourteen and sixteen thousand credits.
More than enough for both him and Peter to enroll in the academy. Enough left over for equipment, supplies, bribes if necessary.
One trip. One calculated risk. And he'd solved his current biggest problem.
Somewhere fifteen miles away, men were probably dead or dying. Torn apart by a beast they'd never had a chance against. Men who'd shown Finn Porter no mercy or consideration when they'd abandoned him.
Finn waited for guilt to arrive. For remorse or second thoughts or some feeling that what he'd done was wrong.
Nothing came.
Just cold satisfaction that the plan had worked. That he now had the resources he needed. That the people who'd wronged Finn Porter had received exactly what they deserved.
'This is what happens,' Finn thought. 'This is what happens when you treat people as disposable. When you leave someone to die and don't even have the decency to feel bad about it.'
Marcus, Vanessa, and Joel had done worse. Had held him prisoner for four weeks. Had tortured him while smiling and calling it help. Had forced him to destroy his own story while withholding his medication.
If he could lead five men to their deaths without feeling guilt, then eventually facing his real tormentors would be easy.
This was just practice. Just proving to himself that he could do what needed to be done when the time came.
The cores sat in his Spatial Cache, worth more money than Finn Porter had probably ever seen in his entire life.
Tomorrow he'd find a buyer. Someone who dealt in cores and didn't ask too many questions about provenance. Convert them to credits. Then tell Peter about the academy plan again with actual money backing up his words.
Everything was falling into place.
Somewhere out there, Marcus and Vanessa and Joel were living their comfortable hero lives, completely unaware that the author who'd created their world was planning their destruction.
That would change soon.
And when that day came, they'd learn the same lesson Garrett and his crew had just learned.
That underestimating the nobody in the corner was a fatal mistake.
Finn closed his eyes with a smile.
The screaming had stopped by now.
It always did eventually.