The service door buckled inward.
Once.
Twice.
A third impact bent the upper hinge so badly that the metal screamed.
Xu Ren backed away so fast he nearly tripped over the water crate. Chen Yu clutched the medicine bag to her chest, face pale but focused. Liu Ming's eyes moved once down the corridor, once to the pipes overhead, once to the stacked bottles and chemical containers along the wall.
Zhao Quan said, "If that thing gets through here, we're dead."
Lin Hao didn't answer immediately.
He was staring at the corridor.
The pipes above.
The spilled cleaning fluid.
The steel emergency cabinet at the far end.
The narrowness of the space.
The spider had the advantage in open angles.
Not here.
Not if he turned the corridor itself against it.
Another slam.
The frame warped.
White silk pushed through the edges like pale veins.
Lin Hao pointed sharply. "Xu Ren."
The boy jerked. "W-what?"
"Sparks. Can you ignite fumes?"
Xu Ren swallowed hard. "If there's enough in the air… maybe."
"Maybe isn't good enough," Zhao Quan snapped.
Liu Ming spoke before Xu Ren could panic further. "The cleaning solvent is industrial. Strong enough smell. If we spread enough of it and force the spider through a narrow point, sparks should be enough."
Chen Yu looked between them. "You want to burn it?"
"I want to kill it," Lin Hao said.
That ended the discussion.
"Pour everything from the left shelf," Lin Hao ordered. "Floor first. Then wall level. Leave a dry path behind us."
This time, no one hesitated.
Fear had already sorted command from noise.
Liu Ming and Zhao Quan grabbed the chemical containers first, slashing some open and hurling others across the corridor floor. The sharp, bitter stench spread at once. Xu Ren coughed. Chen Yu dragged the water crate farther back to keep it from being ruined.
Lin Hao moved to the broken doorway.
The spider slammed into it again.
A foreleg punched through the gap.
Sharp. Black. Wet with silk.
Lin Hao brought the fire extinguisher down hard on the exposed joint.
The creature shrieked and jerked back.
Good.
Angry was useful.
Angry beasts made mistakes.
"More," Lin Hao said.
Zhao Quan emptied the last bottle across the warped threshold. Liquid spread fast over the concrete and splashed halfway up the lower wall.
The door hit inward again.
This time the top hinge tore free.
The metal slab crashed sideways.
The spider came through.
Half-climbing, half-crawling, silk hanging from its abdomen in thick white cords. Its damaged front leg clicked wrong against the ground, but its speed was still monstrous.
Xu Ren froze.
Lin Hao barked, "Now!"
The boy snapped his fingers.
A bright, unstable burst of sparks shot forward.
For one terrible instant, nothing happened.
Then the fumes caught.
Flame rushed down the corridor floor in a roaring wave.
The spider screamed.
The fire climbed its silk instantly.
White thread became orange.
Then black.
The corridor filled with heat, smoke, and the stink of burning chemical fibers.
"It's working!" Chen Yu shouted.
Not enough.
The spider did not die.
It thrashed wildly, smashing one burning leg into the wall, then launched itself forward through the flames in blind fury.
Too fast.
Much too fast.
Lin Hao shoved Xu Ren aside and raised the extinguisher just in time.
The spider hit him like a falling machine.
One of its burning legs scraped across his right forearm and hand.
Agony exploded through him.
The smell of scorched skin hit a second later.
His grip almost broke.
His vision flashed white.
Chen Yu screamed his name.
But Cold Heart forced the pain back from the edge of panic.
Not gone.
Never gone.
Just buried deeply enough for him to move.
The spider was burning.
Its abdomen was split from the earlier strike.
Its silk was igniting as it fired.
Its injured leg was failing.
And now it was close enough.
Perfect.
"Hold it!" Lin Hao roared.
Zhao Quan moved first, slamming his transformed blade into the creature's damaged leg joint. Liu Ming kicked a fallen metal shelf into its side, wedging two of its legs awkwardly against the corridor wall. Xu Ren, face white with terror, threw another burst of sparks—not at the beast, but at the burning silk above it, making fresh flame rain down.
The spider convulsed and shrieked.
Lin Hao used Blood Rush.
The burst of speed hit harder this time because of the pain, like driving a blade through his own nerves. He stepped inside the reach of the snapping forelegs and drove the metal body of the extinguisher upward into the torn underside of its abdomen.
Once.
The soft seam split wider.
Black-green fluid sprayed across the wall.
Twice.
The creature slammed him backward, and his burned arm nearly gave out.
Three times.
The abdomen ruptured.
The spider let out a sound that no natural animal should have been able to make.
Then Zhao Quan's blade plunged into the exposed cavity from the side.
Liu Ming kicked its damaged leg again.
Xu Ren's sparks hit the silk clinging to its lower body.
And the entire rear half of the creature ignited.
The spider collapsed.
Still twitching.
Still scraping.
Still trying to drag itself forward on broken legs and burning silk.
Lin Hao stepped in, teeth clenched against the agony in his arm. His burned hand barely obeyed him now, the flesh along his forearm throbbing like molten metal beneath the skin.
He raised the fire extinguisher with both hands—
and brought it down on the spider's head.
Once.
The outer shell cracked.
Again.
Black-green fluid splattered across the wall.
A third time—
and the monster stopped moving.
Silence flooded the corridor.
Only their breathing remained.
Then silver text appeared before Lin Hao's eyes.
Target Eliminated
Type: Beast
Rank: Primitive
Level: 15
Primitive Power Absorbed
Source: Primitive Spider Lv.15
Bonus Attributes Gained:
Agility +3
Magic +4
Endurance +2
Large Level Difference Detected
Absorption Efficiency Increased
Experience Gained
Level Up
Current Level: 3 → 4
+2 Unassigned Attribute Points
Level Up
Current Level: 4 → 5
+2 Unassigned Attribute Points
Level Up
Current Level: 5 → 6
+2 Unassigned Attribute Points
Level Up
Current Level: 6 → 7
+2 Unassigned Attribute Points
Warmth did not merely enter Lin Hao's body.
It crashed through it.
A violent tide of primitive power surged from his chest into every limb, flooding his veins, sinking into muscle, nerve, and bone. His legs suddenly felt lighter. His breathing deepened. His balance sharpened so abruptly it almost made him stumble.
Then the second wave hit.
Not experience.
Absorption.
Something of the spider remained in the power he took from it.
Its speed.
Its strange affinity with silk and predatory instinct.
Its unnatural sense of movement.
Lin Hao's skin tightened. The world around him seemed sharper, the space between objects more precise, as though his body had become more aware of distance, motion, and tension.
At the same time, a colder current settled deeper inside him.
Magic.
Primitive.
Thin, but real.
His burned arm still screamed with pain, but the rest of his body felt terrifyingly alive.
Xu Ren stared at him, face pale with disbelief. "Four levels…"
Liu Ming's eyes remained fixed on Lin Hao. "The level gap."
Chen Yu was already moving toward his arm. "Don't touch anything," she said sharply. "Sit down. Now."
But Lin Hao still opened his status window first.
Primitive Record
User: Lin Hao
Race: Human (Restricted)
Level: 7
Strength: 9
Agility: 13
Endurance: 13
Intelligence: 8
Magic: 19
Mana: 5
Health: 105/105
Active Skills:
• Strong Spirit (Primitive)
• Blood Rush (Primitive)
Passive Skills:
• Cold Heart (Primitive)
Occupied Territories: —
Unassigned Attribute Points: 8
Level 7.
Agility 13.
Endurance 13.
Magic 19.
The jump was enormous.
Not because the system was generous.
Because that thing had been far above him.
Because he had nearly died killing it.
Because survival at that gap had earned a brutal reward.
Near the spider's corpse, half-buried in burned silk and black fluid, something gleamed.
A ring.
Plain.
Silver-gray.
Set with a tiny dark-green stone.
No message appeared.
Lin Hao crouched carefully and picked it up with his uninjured hand.
Pale text rose before his eyes.
Item Identified
Name: Spider-Step Ring
Grade: Common
Effect: Agility +5
Not a skill.
Equipment.
Still valuable.
Very valuable.
Lin Hao slid the ring onto his finger.
The change was immediate.
His body felt even lighter, his footing more exact, as if the pressure around his legs had shifted. It did not erase the pain in his arm.
But it made him faster.
Sharper.
More dangerous.
Chen Yu saw the ring, but did not comment. Her full attention had already shifted to the burn.
The flesh across Lin Hao's hand and forearm was ugly—red in some places, blackened in others, with blisters rising along the skin where the burning leg had scraped him.
Xu Ren looked sick. "That burn is bad…"
"It's worse than bad," Chen Yu said. "It's dangerous."
She tore open the medicine bag, pulling out saline, gauze, antiseptic, and burn cream with quick, controlled hands. "If we don't treat it immediately, it'll get infected. If it gets infected badly enough, he could lose the hand."
Zhao Quan looked at Lin Hao's arm.
Then at the dead spider.
Then at the ring.
Then at the status change he could not see—but clearly sensed from the atmosphere alone.
Something unreadable passed through his eyes.
Liu Ming noticed it too.
Good.
Let him.
The silence that followed was not relief.
It was a shift.
Lin Hao had killed the strongest creature any of them had seen so far.
He had also been badly injured doing it.
Both truths mattered.
And both would matter even more when they returned.
"We take everything we already packed," Lin Hao said.
Chen Yu looked like she wanted to argue.
He cut her off.
"We leave now. Treat it inside."
Zhao Quan asked, "Can you still fight?"
Lin Hao looked at him.
His voice was flat.
"If I have to."
Not a lie.
Not the full truth either.
That seemed to satisfy Zhao Quan.
For now.
Liu Ming lifted the food sacks again. Xu Ren, still shaken, grabbed the water crate. Chen Yu wrapped Lin Hao's forearm in the quickest temporary dressing she could manage.
Then they moved.
Past the burning corpse.
Past the shattered door.
Back through the ruined store.
The city outside remained gray and dead.
But the balance had changed.
They had food.
They had water.
They had survived a boss-tier beast.
And Lin Hao—
Lin Hao had returned stronger.
And wounded.
When the cafeteria saw both at once…
everything would change.