"…I knew things might get a little wild once we came down," Bai Ling rasped, "but I didn't expect this level of wild."
He stepped out of the drop pod on unsteady legs, trying to return every last bubble of air trapped in his throat back to the world.
In other words—he was about to throw up.
So it really was a forced descent? No gentle touchdown? Just straight up "brace for impact"?
"Senior Bai Ling, are you okay?" Eyjafjalla asked.
Compared to Bai Ling's misery, Eyjafjalla hopped out of the return capsule in a single light motion, nimble as a rabbit. The moment her feet touched down, she hurried to support him.
"I'm fine… I'm fine," Bai Ling wheezed. "Just a little…"
Eldera—who had landed first—looked over at the two of them beside the polyhedral drop pod. The staff in her hand glimmered faintly.
A subtle, ineffable breath of nature swept past like a soft gust. In that single instant, Bai Ling's complexion improved noticeably, as if the nausea had been pressed down by an invisible palm.
"…It seems Mr. Bai Ling isn't very used to this sort of thing," Eldera said gently.
"…Is this something you're supposed to get used to?" Bai Ling snapped his head up, eyes wide with genuine disbelief.
"You probably don't need to," Eyjafjalla said with an awkward sort of sympathy. "Once the teleport protocol in Area Four Valley is unlocked, you shouldn't have to 'adapt' to this anymore."
After a short moment to steady himself, Bai Ling finally had the spare attention to look around.
"This is our designated landing zone," Eldera said. "The Power-Supply Highlands."
As she spoke, she tapped her data bracelet. A holographic projection unfolded, updating into a detailed map.
Blocks upon blocks were stitched across the terrain. Elevated bridges linked every point of the highlands—and, more importantly, connected the key facilities at its center.
Unknown factories stood everywhere, along with sheet-metal housing that radiated a heavy industrial-wasteland vibe. Now and then, the roar of machinery drifted out from inside the plants.
It wasn't exactly idyllic green hills and clear rivers, but the heavy industry hadn't devastated the place either. It simply gave the land a weathered, aged look—as if it had been worked hard for a long time.
Still… compared to what Bai Ling had seen online?
This was very different.
Did I not trigger some major plotline yet?
Back when he'd watched those people playing the closed test, the land hadn't just been "rough." Even if it wasn't a total ruin, it was at least debris-strewn and shattered, like the world had been half-torn apart.
But honestly… this was nice too.
At least the roads were walkable.
With that thought, Bai Ling was just about to ask about the base when—instinctively—he dipped his head.
A sharp, blood-red surge of energy skimmed past the corner of his eye.
At the same time, a hoarse, indistinct snarl rose behind them.
"We've been spotted—clean them up!"
"…Kill them!"
"Riftbreakers! Senior, get to a safe position!"
Bai Ling moved without hesitation. He spun around and slammed his back against the side of the landing apparatus, then followed the energy trail with his eyes.
A heartbeat later, he pulled his gaze away again.
Because what he saw was… a lot.
A handful of skeleton-looking thugs—bare-chested, no shirts at all—waving oversized cleavers that were honestly pretty intimidating. Their faces had something like a mess of USB-port-looking sockets jammed over their eyes.
Could they even see properly?
He'd already seen what these things looked like in the game, but seeing them in real life was something else entirely.
What Bai Ling found hardest to describe was—
Damn. Being too poor to afford clothes was one thing, but some of them had little cards pasted all over their bodies.
And one of them literally had a SOLD OUT notice stuck to him.
Paired with that face…
Bai Ling had a feeling he wasn't sleeping tonight.
But the prerequisite to "going back to sleep" was obvious:
They had to deal with them first.
"…Eldera."
"…Senior?"
"The one with the black hat and a flag on his head—hit the gaps on his back as hard as you can. That's his Arts output port. The staff is a decoy."
He spoke quickly, keeping it as simple as possible.
"And the ones without shirts—aim for the abdomen. There's a concentrated energy fluctuation there. I don't know what it is, but if you hit it, it'll hurt."
Having delivered the weak points in the plainest terms, Bai Ling's mind kept turning over the bigger issue.
For safety reasons, this wasn't the very core of the Power-Supply Highlands… but it also wasn't some deserted wilderness.
Which meant—
There shouldn't be any "hostile forces" here.
So what were these things doing here?
Following Bai Ling's directions, Eldera slid into an attack stance almost reflexively. Elemental Arts spilled from her staff in a clean, controlled arc.
The Riftbreaker caster—who had been theatrically gripping his staff and "charging up"—didn't even get the chance to unleash his Arts. The strike landed, his motion broke, and flames surged back along his arm, turning his own power into a vicious backlash.
The pain tore a raw howl out of him.
"GRAAAH!"
But this squad clearly wasn't ordinary.
The moment their leader was hit, they scattered, fanning out so Eldera couldn't cover all of them with a single sweep.
"…They're not right!" Eldera snapped, voice tightening. "Careful, Senior Bai Ling!"
One of them had already looped around behind the three of them. Bai Ling could even see the cold glint on the black blade not far away.
If it were only Eldera here, this situation would be turning ugly fast.
But unfortunately for the Riftbreakers—
It wasn't only Eldera.
Eyjafjalla was here too.
Even if she could only catch the gist of what was happening through muffled sound, the little goat understood enough: she knew what needed to be done.
A massive cloud blossomed in the sky a few meters above the ground—expanding like a blooming storm.
Within it, countless red lights began to appear, slowly, ominously.
Where Eldera's Arts felt like a spring breeze—gentle, natural, soothing—
Eyjafjalla revealed the other face of the earth:
The violent, terrifying wrath of judgment.
"Volcano!"
Like heavenly fire crashing down, innumerable shattered crimson meteors fell in near-saturation, scouring the ground in a sweeping area strike—blanketing everything around them while leaving the trio's immediate position untouched.
Firelight exploded outward with screams threaded through it. For a moment, the world in view became an inferno.
At the sheer destructive force, Eldera's movements stalled almost completely. She stared at Eyjafjalla in disbelief, as if her brain had briefly refused to process reality.
Sensing Eldera's gaze, Eyjafjalla lowered her head, expression hidden—no one could tell what she was thinking.
As the sky gradually brightened again, the scorched earth was revealed in full.
A Riftbreaker caster—barely still breathing—forced his head up and stared at the two little goats with a hatred so heavy it seemed to scrape the air.
"…You… won't make it…"
The words fell, and then his breath stopped for good.
Right then, Eldera's bracelet lit up.
A holographic portrait appeared—an efficient-looking woman with dark red hair and engineering goggles perched on her head.
"We finally got through! Miss Eldera! We detected intense Originium energy fluctuations near the Power-Supply Highlands—are you alright over there?"
-------
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