The cave pulsed with a low, rhythmic hum, like the heartbeat of something ancient waking beneath the earth.
Kael lay sprawled on the smooth stone, one arm draped over his eyes, breathing slow and deep.
The air shimmered faintly around him—warm, heavy with unseen energy.
A soft chime echoed in his mind.
[+100 顿悟值]
[累计:1,247 / 2,000 — 突破临界接近]
He didn't move.
Didn't open his eyes.
Just exhaled through his nose, a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips.
Power.
Real power.
Not earned through cracked knuckles and aching bones.
Not stolen from backbreaking labor under a blood-red sky.
No.
This came from stillness.
From doing nothing.
And it felt divine.
Outside, the world screamed.
But here, in this little pocket of silence, Kael was king.
He sat up slowly, joints popping like dry twigs.
His body felt… different.
Lighter.
Stronger.
Like his blood had been replaced with liquid fire.
He glanced at the glowing crystal embedded in the cave wall—the core of a mutated sand-wyrm he'd found near the mine's collapsed shaft.
He'd shoved it into the pulsing node the system called the Sanctum Core, and the cave had grown.
Walls expanded.
Air thickened.
The invisible boundary now stretched ten meters beyond the entrance, curling around the rocky overhang like a protective bubble.
And within that bubble?
He didn't have to do anything to grow.
He stood, stretched, yawned.
Then closed his eyes again, just for a moment—just to test it.
Sure enough, the numbers ticked up.
[+5 顿悟值]
Even standing still.
Even thinking about relaxing.
So he did the logical thing.
He walked back to his crude stone bed, flopped down, and fell asleep.
Two hours passed.
The red sun hung low over the Blackspine Wastes, casting long, jagged shadows across the broken earth.
Somewhere in the distance, a mutant howled—short, then silenced.
Gunfire cracked.
A woman's voice, cold and sharp as shattered glass, cut through the dusk.
"You're already dead. You just don't know it yet."
Kael stirred.
His eyes fluttered open.
Above him, the system chimed—a deep, resonant tone that vibrated in his bones.
[灵光一闪!]
[领悟天赋:气血感知]
[可在百米内感知生命波动,无视遮蔽与伪装]
He blinked.
And suddenly, the world filled in.
Like static resolving into clarity, he could feel them—three hostile presences just beyond the rocks, pulsing with adrenaline and malice.
And one more.
Flickering.
Wounded.
But burning with a fierce, unbroken will.
A woman.
He sat up, rubbing his temples.
The ability settled into his mind like a forgotten memory, natural, instinctive.
He could see their positions now, not with his eyes, but with something deeper.
A sixth sense, born from doing absolutely nothing.
Curious, he stepped toward the cave mouth.
Peered through a narrow crack in the stone.
And saw her.
Silver hair, matted with dust and blood, clinging to a pale, sharp face.
A tattered cloak wrapped around her shoulders.
She stood in a loose combat stance, one hand braced against a broken pillar, the other gripping a snapped blade slick with gore.
Two dead raiders lay at her feet—throats slit, eyes wide in final shock.
The third man circled her.
Tall.
Scarred.
A crude rifle slung over his shoulder, a jagged machete in hand.
Vex.
His grin was all teeth, all cruelty.
"Not bad, princess," he sneered, voice dripping with mockery.
"For a dying breed. But you're bleeding. You're tired. And you're alone." He kicked the broken sword from her hand.
It skittered across the stone.
"The Bloodskull King'll pay a fortune for the last heir of the Silver Throne. Might even make me a warlord."
Elara spat blood at his boots.
"You're a maggot. And you'll die like one."
Vex laughed.
Then raised his pistol, slow and deliberate, aiming right between her eyes.
Kael sighed.
He'd been hoping to avoid this.
The world was loud, messy, full of people who insisted on doing things.
Fighting.
Running.
Screaming.
He'd just gotten comfortable.
Just started to feel the rhythm of his power.
And now this.
He stepped out of the cave.
Stretched his arms over his head with a long, exaggerated yawn.
"Man," he said, voice thick with sleep, "you guys are really loud. Can't a guy nap in peace?"
Vex froze.
Turned.
Eyes narrowed.
"The hell? Another miner? Look, trash, walk away. Or you'll join the corpse collection."
Elara twisted her head toward Kael, face pale but eyes blazing.
"Idiot!" she snapped.
"Run! He'll kill you!"
Kael ignored her.
He looked at Vex.
Then at the gun.
Then at the blood on the stones.
And he smiled.
Not a threatening smile.
Not a heroic one.
Just a lazy, sleepy, done-with-this-shit kind of grin.
Vex sneered.
"You deaf? I said move."
Kael didn't answer.
Instead, he turned around.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
And walked back toward the cave.
"Wait," Vex growled.
"I'm talking to you—"
Kael flopped onto the stone bed again.
Closed his eyes.
And from within the shadows, his voice came, calm, drowsy, utterly unconcerned.
The air in the slum camp of Hollow's End hung thick with ash and fear.
Once a mining outpost, now a rotting scar on the earth, it was home to the last dregs of humanity—starving, desperate, and too broken to run.
Kael had dragged himself here after escaping the Blackspine Mine, his body still humming from the surge of power that had awakened in the cavern.
The Lazy Temple System whispered in the back of his mind like a lullaby, its voice calm, absurd, and utterly real.
[Lazy Temple Active]
Status: Tier I – Hidden Cave
Range: 15 meters (radius)
Current Activity: Idle (Resting)
Passive Gain: +0.
5 DP/hour (Drowsy Pace)
Bonus if Asleep: +3.0 DP/hour
He didn't understand the acronyms yet.
But he understood the feeling—a slow, deep current of energy pooling beneath his skin, like warm oil spreading through his bones.
All from doing nothing.
From resting.
And then the screams came.
"KAEL! KAEL, HELP ME!"
The voice—small, terrified—cut through the fog of his half-sleep.
His eyes snapped open.
Lira.
His little sister.
He shot up, heart hammering, but the camp was already chaos.
Torches flared.
Tents exploded into flame.
Men in jagged armor—raiders—raced through the alleys, dragging people, smashing skulls with spiked clubs.
A woman was thrown into a fire.
A child vanished into a sack.
At the edge of the raid, a girl with tangled dark hair fought like a cornered wolf, biting a raider's hand before being yanked back by her hair.
"Lira!" Kael roared, surging forward.
But a figure stepped into his path—tall, armored in scavenged plating, a curved blade gleaming in the firelight.
Vex.
The raider captain grinned, teeth stained red.
"You're fast. But you're still in my hunt."
Behind him, Tarn cracked his knuckles, saliva dripping from a fang implanted in his mouth.
"Found the brat first. She's ours."
Kael's fists clenched.
He wanted to charge.
To fight.
To swing that damn pickaxe again.
But the System pulsed.
[Alert: Hostile Encroachment Detected]
[Lazy Temple Integrity Compromised – 8 meters from boundary]
[Recommendation: Expand Temple Range to Secure Area]
[Cost to Expand: 1x Mino