The Lin family was quiet, but it was a different kind of quiet. The fear was gone, replaced by a nervous buzz of hope. Lin Xiao sat in his simple room, a faint smile on his face. His plan had worked. Wang Jian had left looking like a fool, and the family was safe for now.
In front of his eyes, the blue System screen glowed softly.
[Current Karma Points: 510]
It was a good haul. But he knew it wouldn't last. Wang Jian would be back, angrier and with more men next time. He couldn't just wait. He had to strike next. And his target was the Wang family's money source: their spirit stone mine.
The System had found a secret in that mine. A patch of "Fever Moss." It was useless to most people, but it had one special property. Its smoke made a certain type of spirit beast—the big, dumb Iron-Hide Bulls the Wangs used for labor—go completely crazy.
His new plan was simple: get the moss, make it smoke near the bulls, and watch the chaos.
"System," he thought. "I need a way to get the moss out of that sealed tunnel and over to the bull pens. Something no one will see."
The screen flashed.
[New Skill Available: 'Vermin Link']
[Lets you see through the eyes of small animals and give them simple commands. Range: 1 kilometer. Cost: 120 KP.]
Rats. Perfect. The mine was full of them. No one would notice a rat.
"Buy it," Xiao said.
A weird feeling spread behind his eyes, like a hundred tiny ants were crawling around. Suddenly, he could feel them—the rats in the walls, the fields, and far away, in the Wang family's mine. He focused his mind on one.
His vision doubled. He was still himself, in his room, but he was also looking through the dim, blurry eyes of a large, dirty rat deep inside the Blackridge Mine. The world smelled of dirt and damp stone.
Go to the sealed tunnel, he commanded the rat.
The rat obeyed, scurrying through the dark. It squeezed through a gap in the old wooden planks the Wangs used to seal the tunnel. Inside, the air was different, spicy and sharp. This was the Fever Moss.
"Good. Now, take a piece," Xiao muttered.
The rat gnawed off a chunk of the bright orange moss.
"Now, how do we make it smoke?" he asked the System.
[Item Available: 'Spark-Berry' Pouch]
[A small bag that makes a hot ember when broken. Lasts 30 seconds. Cost: 5 KP.]
Perfect. He bought one. Through the rat's eyes, he made it drag the pouch into the tunnel and roll the moss on top.
The trap was set. Now, he needed the mine workers to be somewhere else when it went off.
He remembered the mine's head overseer, a man named Bo, was famously superstitious and scared of ghosts.
"System, I want Bo to hear ghost sounds—like children crying—right before the work shift ends."
[Skill: 'Minor Auditory Illusion' Activated. Cost: 30 KP.]
He listened with his enhanced hearing. A few minutes later, he heard Bo's panicked voice echo from the mine. "Do you hear that? The crying! The mountain spirits are angry! Everyone out! Now!"
Perfect.
Back in the rat's mind, Xiao gave the final command. Bite the pouch.
In the dark, sealed tunnel, the Spark-Berry pouch was pierced. A tiny, hot ember glowed to life, right under the chunk of Fever Moss. A thin, orange-tinted smoke began to rise. It drifted through the mine's air vents, creeping silently toward the pens where the powerful Iron-Hide Bulls were kept.
About an hour later, the shouts began.
Xiao heard it all from his hut. It wasn't the sound of fighting. It was the sound of everything falling apart. The terrified roars of the bulls, the crash of wood as they smashed their pens, the desperate yells of men who had lost all control.
The Wang family's mine was in chaos. No work would get done today. Or for many days after. The cost to them would be huge.
The System screen lit up, looking almost pleased.
[Karma Points Earned: 700]
[For: Shutting down the enemy's mine. Wrecking their money flow. Doing it all without a fight.]
[Total Karma Points: 1,190]
Lin Xiao leaned back, a real, tired smile on his face. He had won a major battle without leaving his room, without throwing a single punch. He had used his brain, a few rats, and his strange System to beat a powerful enemy.
This was his kind of power.
But as he relaxed, a new message popped up, its letters outlined in ominous red.
[Warning: Your actions are making waves in fate itself. A 'Karma Weeper' has noticed you. Be careful.]
The easy part was over. Now, the real challenges were beginning.