Chapter 2: Rusty Blade and Blood: The Wasteland's First Lesson

Time seemed to freeze. Lin Mo could clearly hear his own drum-like heartbeat and the buzzing of blood rushing to his head. Fear coiled around his limbs like cold vines, but the instinct to survive burned stubbornly on the icy plain of despair like a faint flame.

That mutant radiation wolf was smaller than he had imagined—about the size of a medium dog—but so thin it was all skin and bones. Its exposed skin was covered in disgusting tumors and ulcerated scars, and the joints of its spine jutted out grotesquely. Its eyes were a pure, mindless ghostly green. Saliva mixed with dark-red threads of blood dripped from its cracked mouth corners, giving off the stench of rot. It lowered its body slightly, hind-leg muscles taut—the prelude to an attack!

"Don't panic… don't panic…" Lin Mo forced himself to recall the few words in the manual about dealing with wild beasts: keep your distance, create obstacles, strike the weak points… eyes, throat, belly! He leaned his back against the cold metal wreckage, which at least guaranteed he wouldn't be attacked from behind. He gripped the handle of his rusted machete with both hands, the blade trembling as it pointed at the monster closing in step by step.

"Wooo-ow!" A short, sharp howl. The radiation wolf's hind legs kicked off the ground violently, turning into a grey shadow that lunged straight at Lin Mo's throat, carrying a gust of foul wind! Its speed far exceeded Lin Mo's expectations!

Adrenaline instantly spiked to the peak! Lin Mo almost purely on instinct threw himself sideways! The move was utterly graceless—he even got a mouthful of sand—but it just barely dodged the lethal bite. Sharp claws swept past his scalp, snipping off a few strands of hair.

"Thud!" The radiation wolf missed its pounce and slammed into the metal wreckage with a dull thud. It spun around quickly, the murderous glint in its ghostly-green eyes growing fiercer—it was clearly enraged.

Lin Mo scrambled to his feet, his lungs burning painfully, his mouth full of the taste of rust. He saw the radiation wolf lunging again, this time from a trickier angle!

He couldn't dodge! A flash of vicious resolve crossed Lin Mo's eyes. Instead of retreating, he charged toward the lunging beast and, with every ounce of strength in his body, drove his rusty blade viciously upward! The target—the wolf's relatively soft belly!

"Psssh!" A sensation that set his teeth on edge, like a blade sinking into rotting flesh, traveled up the blade! At the same time, a tremendous impact force slammed into Lin Mo's chest, slamming him hard onto the ground!

"Ugh!" The searing pain made his vision go black. His chest felt like it had been smashed by a heavy hammer, and his ribs groaned under the strain. Scalding, foul-smelling liquid splashed across his face—blood! Wolf blood!

"Awooo!" A shrill, agonized howl exploded beside his ears! The radiation wolf's belly had been split open by a deep gash, dark-red entrails and filthy blood pouring out. It thrashed and twisted wildly, its sharp claws tearing several bloody gashes across Lin Mo's arm and chest. The pain nearly made him pass out.

"Get off me! Die!" The will to survive overwhelmed everything. Lin Mo, looking like a mad tiger, ignored the searing pain on his body, pinned the wolf down hard, wrenched out his machete, and with the last of his strength hacked furiously at the wolf's neck! Once! Twice! Three times!

The rusted blade was far from sharp, and cutting was brutally hard work. Every chop came with the dull crack of shattering bone and the death-rattle of the dying wolf. Scalding wolf blood splashed all over his body, the thick stench of blood and rot nearly suffocating him. He repeated the chopping motion mechanically until the wolf beneath him was utterly silent, its ghostly-green eyes losing their gleam and turning into two murky glass marbles.

The world went quiet, leaving only Lin Mo's Rough and Heavy bellows-like panting and the frantic pounding of his heart. He slumped beside the wolf's corpse, drenched in blood, his arms and chest burning with pain. A wave of utter exhaustion swept through his whole body, and the hand gripping the knife handle shook like a sieve. Looking at the bloody, foul-smelling wolf carcass before him, his stomach churned. He dropped to the ground and dry-heaved, but nothing came up—only the bitterness of bile.

The first time killing with his own hands brought not only physical discomfort, but a massive psychological shock. The first lesson of the wasteland was brutally seared into his soul with fresh blood and death.

【Ding! Successfully killed 'Mutant Radiation Wolf (Juvenile)'! Gained a small amount of Survival Points!】

【Warning! The host's wounds are exposed; the risk of radiation contamination infection is rising sharply! Please treat them as soon as possible!】

The system's prompt dragged him back to reality. Infection? Radiation contamination? Lin Mo looked down at the bleeding wounds on his arms and chest, smeared with wolf blood and dust, and a chill rose from the bottom of his heart. In the wasteland, wound infection and radiation sickness might be deadlier than wild beasts!

He struggled to his feet, tore off a relatively clean strip from his undershirt, and, enduring the searing pain, used the last half-bottle of drinking water he carried (thankfully he hadn't lost it) to rinse his wounds roughly, then wrapped them tightly with the cloth. The pain made him grimace, but his movements were unusually resolute. He could not die here!

After treating his wounds, he looked at the wolf's corpse on the ground, his gaze complicated. Food? The manual said the meat of mutant creatures might be toxic or exceed radiation limits… but… the hunger burned like fire. In the end, he still cut off a few relatively "clean" pieces of leg meat and wrapped them in cloth. Better than nothing.

Dragging his exhausted, wounded body, he finally made it to that massive subway car. The car lay on its side, its entrance twisted and deformed. He found a broken window and, with great effort, climbed inside.

The interior of the car was dim, thickly coated in dust and unknown filth, giving off the smell of mildew and rusting metal. The seats were askew, and some long-decayed debris was scattered across the floor. But at least, this place could block the wind and rain, temporarily providing a relatively enclosed shelter.

Lin Mo slid down against the cold wall of the car, the crushing exhaustion and the pain of his wounds nearly knocking him out. But he forced himself to stay awake, took the "Basic Survival Manual" out of the system space, and, by the faint daylight filtering through a hole in the car, frantically flipped through the section on water purification.

"Beginner Water Purifier blueprint…" His gaze locked onto the blueprint's description. Material requirements: plastic tubing (available), activated charcoal (available), rags (available), a relatively airtight container… a container!

His eyes swept the interior of the car and finally settled on a metal canteen wedged under a seat, coated in dust! The body was a little dented, but the cap was still there!

Hope! A spark of light burst in Lin Mo's eyes. He almost crawled over and, with great effort, dragged the canteen out. He wiped off the thick dust and inspected it. Although old, the body had no leaks, and the cap could still be screwed tight!

"Got a container!" he growled excitedly, which tugged at his wounds and made him hiss in pain. He immediately followed the blueprint's instructions, taking out the crude water-purifier components from the system space—a few plastic tubes, a small bag of activated charcoal, and some rags serving as filter cotton. He carefully recalled the diagrams in the manual and, clumsily but intently, began assembling it.

Time passed bit by bit. The wind outside the car seemed to be picking up, and the sky grew ever more overcast. Lin Mo's forehead was beaded with sweat, mixed with the blood and dust on his face, making him look especially wretched. Finally, an extremely crude, even somewhat laughable device was assembled: one end was the intake tube, the middle was a filter layer packed with activated charcoal and rags, and the other end was the outlet tube.

"Done!" He let out a long breath, as if he had completed a great engineering feat. Now, all that was missing was the most crucial thing—dirty water to purify!

He cradled the canteen carefully in his arms, as if holding a priceless treasure. This was the hope of staying alive. He leaned against the car wall, and a wave of intense mental tension followed by the slackening of his body's pain crashed over him like a tide. His eyelids grew as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

Just as his consciousness was about to sink into darkness, from outside the car, from far to near, came a burst of denser, fiercer wolf howls! Not one, but a pack! The sound was filled with brutality and… the scent of vengeance!

Lin Mo jolted awake instantly, his heart stopping! He lunged to the broken window and looked out.

In the dim light, seven or eight pairs of ghostly-green eyes, like soul-snatching will-o'-the-wisps, flickered in and out of view within the swirling dust, slowly encircling the car where he was hiding! Among them, one was clearly larger, its fangs bared, the mane on its neck bristling like steel needles, radiating an even stronger oppressive aura!

It was a wolf pack! The bloody scent of that juvenile wolf had drawn even more terrifying hunters!

Cold sweat instantly soaked through the bandages he had just wrapped. The spark of hope that had just ignited was brutally snuffed out by this sudden, greater despair. He tightened his grip on the rusty blade, his knuckles white from the force, but facing a wolf pack, how long could this blade and this broken car hold out?