The night in the Loess Plateau was not dark; it was an oppressive, velvet weight. Above, the stars were filtered through the thin, irradiated atmosphere, twinkling with a cold, sickly light. In the distance, the Dragon's Tooth Arcology stood like a pillar of ivory, its thousand windows glowing with a soft, neon blue—a reminder that while the world starved, the High-Bloods lived in an eternal, synthetic noon.
Jia-Hao stood at the edge of the village, his silhouette sharpened by the dying embers of the communal fire. Before him stood five men and one woman: Lin-Na. They were the only ones brave enough—or desperate enough—to follow a fifteen-year-old into the "Old World Graveyard."
"Listen well," Jia-Hao said, his voice cutting through the dry wind. "The Forbidden Zone is not haunted by ghosts, but by the machines of the Ancestors. They do not sleep, they do not pity, and they do not miss. But they are blind to those who do not carry the 'Scent of War.' We go there not as soldiers, but as scavengers. Keep your heads low, and your hearts quiet."
"Jia-Hao," one of the men, a thick-set farmer named Da-Wei, whispered. "They say the metal-dogs there can smell a man's fear from a mile away. Is it true?"
Jia-Hao looked at Da-Wei. He saw the man's pulse thrumming in his neck. Through the Academic Pillar, he could see the biological readouts of his team.
[TEAM STATUS: MORALE 42% (ANXIETY)][ACADEMIC PASSIVE: 'LEADERSHIP FREQUENCY' INITIALIZING...]
"Fear is just a vibration," Jia-Hao replied, his voice taking on a strange, rhythmic quality. "If you breathe together, you vibrate together. If you vibrate together, the machines see only the wind."
[MUSIC PILLAR (EMOTIONAL REFINEMENT): 'SONG OF THE HIDDEN REED' ACTIVATED.]
As they began their trek, Jia-Hao felt the System humming at the base of his spine. The path toward the Forbidden Zone was a graveyard of 21st-century infrastructure. Rusted skeletons of high-speed rail tracks hung from crumbling concrete pylons like the ribs of a prehistoric beast. Shards of glass from ancient skyscrapers crunched under their boots—remnants of a time when humanity thought it had conquered nature.
They reached the perimeter of the Tech-Dump. It was a valley filled with the twisted metal of the year 2025. Thousands of rusted shipping containers were stacked in chaotic mountains, their once-bright colors faded to the shade of dried blood.
"There," Jia-Hao pointed. At the center of the valley sat a white, dome-shaped structure, partially buried under the silt. It was a Bunker-Class Logistics Hub.
[SYSTEM ALERT: ACTIVE DEFENSE GRID DETECTED.][UNIT IDENTIFIED: SENTRY-PUP (MK. IV DRONE).][THREAT LEVEL: DEADLY FOR MORTALS.]
"Drop!" Jia-Hao commanded.
The team hit the dust instantly. Two hundred meters away, a metallic clicking sound echoed through the valley. A four-legged machine, the size of a large wolf but made of matte-black composite and gleaming sensors, stepped out from behind a container. Its "eye" was a glowing red laser that swept across the landscape with mechanical precision.
"It's a metal-dog," Lin-Na breathed, her face pressed into the dirt. "We are dead. It's going to turn us into ash."
"Quiet," Jia-Hao hissed.
He closed his eyes. In his mind, the Academic Pillar began to overlay the physical world with a digital grid. He wasn't seeing the drone; he was seeing its "Detection Cone."
[ACADEMIC REFINEMENT (LOGIC): Analyzing Sentry-Pup OS 9.2...][VULNERABILITY FOUND: BLIND SPOT IN THE REFRESH RATE (0.003 SECONDS).]
"Lin-Na, take this," Jia-Hao whispered, handing her a small, polished shard of ancient mirror-glass he had found. "When I give the signal, angle it toward the Spire. The moonlight reflecting off the Arcology will create a 'Lux-Spike.' It will confuse the drone's optics for exactly one second."
"One second? Jia-Hao, that's not enough—"
"It is enough for me."
Jia-Hao stood up. He didn't run. He didn't hide. He began to walk toward the drone in a strange, zigzag pattern. His movements were fluid, almost like a slow-motion dance. Every step was timed to the millisecond of the drone's sensor sweep.
[MARTIAL REFINEMENT: 'GHOST-STEP' INITIALIZING...]
To the villagers watching from the ridge, it looked like Jia-Hao was moving through raindrops without getting wet. The red laser swept over his position, but every time it passed, he was in the "Inter-Sweep Shadow."
The drone paused. Its head tilted, sensors clicking as it processed a "Minor Variance" in the wind. It began to turn its head toward Jia-Hao's exact coordinates.
"Now!" Jia-Hao shouted.
Lin-Na tilted the glass. A brilliant, silver flash of moonlight hit the drone's sensor eye.
The machine let out a high-pitched digital screech, its processors reeling from the sudden light-overload. In that one second, Jia-Hao didn't just move—he exploded.
He covered thirty meters in a blur of motion. He didn't use a rod or a club. He used his bare hand, fingers stiffened into a spear. He struck the drone at the base of its neck—the "Nexus Point" where the processor met the battery.
[MARTIAL PILLAR: 90/100 EXPERIENCE.][CRITICAL HIT: KINETIC ENERGY DISRUPTION.]
The drone shuddered. Sparks showered Jia-Hao's face, burning his skin, but he didn't flinch. The red light in the machine's eye flickered, turned green, and then went dark. The wolf-like machine collapsed into a heap of dead metal.
[LEVEL UP! CURRENT LEVEL: 3 (ASPIRANT).][MARTIAL REFINEMENT INCREASED TO 4.][ACADEMIC REFINEMENT INCREASED TO 5.]
Jia-Hao stood over the dead machine, his chest heaving. He felt a strange sensation in his fingers—a tingling warmth that felt like needles of ice.
"Move! To the hub!" he called out.
The team scrambled down the ridge, their eyes wide as they passed the dead drone. Da-Wei reached out to touch the metal, then pulled back as if it were cursed.
They reached the door of the dome. It was sealed with a biometric lock from 2025. To the villagers, it was an unbreakable wall of white steel. To Jia-Hao, it was a puzzle he had already solved.
"Lin-Na, Da-Wei, stand back," Jia-Hao said. He placed his palm on the cold surface of the door.
[ACADEMIC REFINEMENT: 'LEGACY OVERRIDE' INITIATED.][Scanning Host Bio-Signature... Lineage Confirmed: Han Descendant.][Accessing CCP-Era Emergency Protocols...]
The door let out a deep, hydraulic hiss. Stagnant, chilled air from a thousand years ago rushed out, smelling of ozone and sterile plastic. Inside, the hub was a cathedral of forgotten power. Rows upon rows of "Micro-Fusion Cells"—small, glowing blue cylinders—sat in charging racks, still humming with a faint, ghostly energy.
"These," Jia-Hao whispered, his voice filled with an uncharacteristic awe. "These are the hearts of the Old World. One of these can power the village kiln for a century. Three of these... and we can start the Arcology-Link."
"It's like looking at the sun," Da-Wei whispered, his face illuminated by the blue glow. "Jia-Hao, why did the Ancestors leave this? Why did they let the world burn if they had this power?"
Jia-Hao looked at the rows of cells. Through the Music Pillar, he could feel the "Emotional Residue" of the hub. He felt the panic of the technicians in 2025, the desperate rush to seal the doors as the floods rose.
"Because they thought they could wait it out," Jia-Hao said, his voice heavy with the weight of the Mandate. "They thought they could hide in their bunkers and wait for the world to fix itself. But the Earth does not forgive those who abandon her."
He reached out to grab the first cell.
[WARNING: REMOVAL OF CELL WILL TRIGGER SEISMIC ALARM.][ARCOLOGY OVERSEER WILL BE NOTIFIED.]
"Do it," Jia-Hao commanded the System.
As he pulled the three cells from their racks, the ground beneath them began to groan. A siren, dormant for a millennium, let out a low, mournful wail that shook the very foundations of the valley.
"Run! Back to the village!" Jia-Hao roared.
They burst out of the hub just as the valley floor began to shift. From the distant Dragon's Tooth Spire, a beam of light shot into the sky—a searchlight of terrible power. It began to sweep the wasteland, searching for the "Thief of Fire."
As they climbed back up the ridge, Lin-Na tripped. Jia-Hao caught her, the blue glow of the fusion cells in his pack casting his face in a ghostly light.
"Why are you doing this, Jia-Hao?" she gasped, her eyes filled with tears. "We were safe in our misery. Now, the High-Bloods will hunt us. The Iron-Wolves will hunt us. You have put a target on our heads."
Jia-Hao looked at her. He looked at the village in the distance—the cluster of mud and despair. Then he looked at the fusion cell in his hand.
"Safety is a lie the dying tell themselves," Jia-Hao said, his voice resonant with the power of the Mandate. "I did not come to keep you safe in the mud. I came to lead you to the stars. If they want to hunt us, let them. We will give them a chase that will last a thousand years."
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: THE 'DUAL-CORE' STRATEGY PHASE 2 INITIALIZED.][Objective: Build the 'Meritocratic Forge'.][Reward: Cuisine Refinement Level 5, Unlock 'The Sovereign's Feast'.]
As they vanished into the darkness of the plateau, the blue light of the fusion cells flickered like a new heartbeat for the world. The Graveyard of the Gods was silent no more. The Mandate had taken its first breath of fire.