Chapter 2 THREE PAIRS OF EYES

I slammed my back against the cold subway wall, chest heaving. “Get the hell out of my head!” I snarled into the darkness. That voice, my voice but older, deeper, had no right sounding so calm while my life went to shit.

Boots pounded closer above me. “Fan out! The rat went down the tunnel!” Scar-throat bellowed. “Iron Fang code seven! System user spotted! Bring every available man!”

“Finally,” the whisper returned, smooth as silk inside my skull. “You feel it, don’t you, Chen? All that power waiting.”

“Shut up!” I pushed off the wall and sprinted deeper into the pitch-black tunnel. My legs moved like they belonged to someone else. Each stride ate up twice the ground it should. The territorial vein’s energy still burned through my body, lighting up pathways I didn’t know I had. My meridians felt like rivers on fire, raw, wild, unstoppable.

A crossbow bolt whistled past my ear and sparked off the concrete. “There! I see his glow!”

I skidded around a fallen beam, heart slamming against my ribs. “You bastards never quit, do you?” I shouted back, voice echoing. “It was one dead lizard! Go find your own meal!”

The woman’s voice cut through the dark, sharp and greedy. “That wasn’t a lizard vein, scavenger. That was a territorial line. Hand over the system or we’ll carve it out of your spine!”

I laughed even as fear clawed up my throat. The laugh felt good. Dangerous. “Carve it? You’d have to catch me first, sweetheart!”

The power surged again. Without thinking, I slapped my palm against the tunnel wall. Something in me reached out, hungry. A faint blue system window flickered at the edge of my vision.

[Environmental Vein Fragment Detected. Extract?]

“Yes!” I growled.

Golden threads of energy ripped from the cracked walls and flooded into my arm. Strength doubled. My muscles swelled with heat. I felt alive in a way that scared me.

Scar-throat roared from twenty paces back. “He’s pulling more! Stop him, you idiots!”

I spun and faced them. The three scouts emerged from the shadows, weapons raised. Scar-throat’s spear glowed with clan runes. The woman had another bolt loaded. The young twitchy one clutched a communication talisman that flickered with light.

“You picked the wrong night,” I said, breathing hard but grinning. “I don’t even know what this thing is, but it’s mine now.”

The young scout activated his talisman. “This is Scout Li! Territorial vein stolen in Sector Seven! Scavenger Long Chen has activated an unknown system! Requesting immediate backup! He’s pulling power like a damn core disciple!”

“Long Chen?” Scar-throat spat. “That street rat who sells us scraps? Kill the other two if you have to. Take him alive. The elders will pay in spirit stones for this.”

They charged.

The woman fired first. I twisted faster than I ever could before. The bolt grazed my shoulder, burning a line of fire across my skin. Pain, but distant. I lunged forward and drove my fist into her gut. She flew back like a rag doll, slamming into the wall with a wet crack.

“Mei!” the young scout screamed.

Scar-throat thrust his spear at my chest. I caught the shaft with one hand. The metal groaned under my fingers. “This new strength… it’s real,” I muttered, half to myself, half to the thing inside me.

The whisper chuckled. “Use it. Take what is yours.”

I yanked the spear forward and headbutted Scar-throat square in the face. Blood sprayed. He staggered, cursing. “You little…”

“Shut it.” I twisted the spear from his grip and swept his legs. He hit the ground hard. The young scout, Li, raised his hands, eyes wide with terror. “Please… I was just following orders. The clans will hunt you to the ends of the wastes for this!”

I stepped closer, breathing ragged. “Then maybe you picked the wrong side today.”

The power inside me pushed harder. I felt it reaching out again, not just to the walls but toward them. Toward the faint spiritual veins running through their bodies from years of cultivation.

No. Not yet.

I slammed my foot down. The ground rippled. I poured everything I had into the tunnel floor, pulling on the buried environmental veins like I’d pulled that lizard earlier.

[Environmental Vein Drain Initiated.]

The concrete buckled. Cracks spiderwebbed outward with deafening snaps. Dust rained from the ceiling.

“Run, you fools!” Scar-throat yelled, scrambling up.

Too late. A massive section of the tunnel roof collapsed with a thunderous crash. Rocks and rebar slammed down on Scar-throat and the woman. Li barely dove clear, screaming as debris pinned his leg.

I didn’t wait to check if they were dead. I ran.

Out the other end of the tunnel, into the fractured night. The Fractured Wastes stretched before me, twisted buildings, glowing spirit vines, distant clan watchfires. My body buzzed with power. I felt like I could fight an entire patrol.

But then the system window appeared again, red this time.

[Soul Fragment Absorption Initiated.]

A wave of emotions that weren’t mine slammed into me. Grief hit first, sharp, choking grief of a mother watching her child die to spirit beasts. Then rage, hot and bitter, of a man betrayed by his own clan. Memories that didn’t belong to me flashed behind my eyes: a burning village, a laughing elder with blood on his hands, a small hand reaching out before going still.

I stumbled, clutching my head. “No… get out! Those aren’t mine!” I gasped, tears I didn’t want stinging my eyes. My legs kept moving but slower. The foreign sorrow wrapped around my own fear, twisting them together until I couldn’t tell which was which.

The whisper returned, gentle and terrible. “Every extraction has a price, Chen. This is only the beginning.”

I kept running through the ruins, breath ragged, wiping my face. Behind me, horns blared across the wastes. More lights flickered to life in the distance. Talismans glowing. Shouts carrying on the wind.

“System user! Long Chen! Wanted alive! Bounty from all three outer clans!”

I laughed again, but it cracked in the middle. Euphoric strength still sang in my blood, but terror clawed right beside it. They knew my name. They’d seen the light. The power. Whatever this Dragon Vein Hunter System was, it had just painted the biggest target in the region on my back.

And whatever was waking up inside me… it sounded happy about it.

I ducked into a collapsed overpass, pressing against cold metal as patrol lights swept nearby. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

“What have I become?” I whispered.

The system answered with one final line before fading:

[Dragon Emperor Resonance: 1.8%]

[Reinforcements Incoming. Survival Probability: Declining.]

I clenched my jaw and pushed off the wall again, forcing my legs to move. The night felt heavier now. Every shadow had eyes.

And I was no longer just a scavenger.

I was hunted.