Chapter 2

Time seemed to freeze. Lin Mo could clearly hear his heartbeat like a drumbeat and the hum of blood rushing to his head. Fear coiled around his limbs like icy vines, but the instinct to survive burned like a faint flame, stubbornly blazing on the ice plains of despair.

The mutated radiation wolf was smaller than he’d imagined, roughly the size of a medium dog, but emaciated to skin and bone, its exposed skin covered in grotesque tumors and ulcerated scars, its spine bones jutting out menacingly. Its eyes were pure, mindless emerald green, drool mixed with dark red blood dripping from its split jaws, reeking of decay. It crouched low, hind legs taut—its prelude to attack!

“Don’t panic… don’t panic…” Lin Mo forced himself to recall the manual’s sparse advice on dealing with beasts: maintain distance, create obstacles, strike weak points… eyes, throat, belly! He pressed his back against cold metal debris, ensuring he wouldn’t be attacked from behind. He gripped the rusted cleaver’s hilt with both hands, the blade trembling as it pointed at the advancing monster.

“Woo-ah!” A sharp, brief howl erupted—the radiation wolf’s hind legs exploded off the ground, becoming a gray blur, lunging at Lin Mo’s throat with a stench of blood! Its speed far exceeded his expectations!

Adrenaline surged to its peak! Lin Mo barely reacted on instinct, flinging himself sideways! The motion was clumsy—he even swallowed a mouthful of sand—but he narrowly avoided the lethal lunge. Razor-sharp claws grazed his scalp, tearing loose strands of hair.

“Thud!” The radiation wolf missed, slamming into the metal debris with a dull thump. It spun around instantly, its emerald eyes blazing with even fiercer fury—clearly enraged.

Lin Mo scrambled to his feet, rolling and crawling, his lungs burning, his mouth full of rust. He saw the wolf charging again—this time from a more treacherous angle!

No time to dodge! Lin Mo’s eyes flashed with ruthlessness. He stopped retreating and instead charged toward the attack, pouring every ounce of strength into thrusting his rusted blade upward! Target—the wolf’s relatively soft belly!

“Squelch!” A sickening, meat-cutting sensation surged through his hands! Simultaneously, a massive impact slammed into Lin Mo’s chest, hurling him violently to the ground!

“Ugh!” Agony plunged his vision black; his chest felt crushed by a sledgehammer, ribs groaning under unbearable pressure. Hot, foul fluid splattered his face—blood! Wolf’s blood!

“Awooo!” A piercing, agonized scream exploded beside his ear! The wolf’s belly gaped open with a deep wound, dark red organs and filthy blood oozing out. It thrashed wildly, twisting its claws across Lin Mo’s arms and chest, carving bloody gashes—the pain nearly knocked him unconscious.

“Get off! Die!” The will to survive overrode everything. Lin Mo became a feral beast, ignoring his agony, pinning the wolf down, yanking out the cleaver, and swinging with his last strength at the wolf’s neck—down! Down! Down!

The rusted blade was dull, cutting with excruciating effort; each strike echoed with the crunch of breaking bone and the dying wolf’s whimpers. Hot wolf blood splattered his entire body, the thick stench nearly suffocating him. He mechanically repeated the chopping motion until the wolf beneath him fell utterly still, its emerald eyes dimmed into two cloudy glass orbs.

The world fell silent, save for Lin Mo’s ragged, bellows-like breaths and the thundering beat of his heart. He slumped beside the corpse, drenched in blood, his arms and chest burning with pain, total exhaustion sweeping over him, his grip on the hilt trembling like a sieve. Staring at the bloody, stinking carcass, his stomach churned—he collapsed onto the ground and vomited, but nothing came up, only the bitter taste of bile.

His first act of killing brought not only physical discomfort but a profound psychological shock. The first lesson of the wasteland was seared into his soul with blood and death.

【Ding! Successfully slain ‘Mutated Radiation Wolf (Juvenile)’! Gained Weiliang Survival Points!】

【Warning! Host wounds exposed—risk of radiation contamination sharply increased! Treat immediately!】

The system’s alert pulled him back to reality. Contamination? Radiation poisoning? Lin Mo looked down at his bleeding wounds, caked with wolf blood and dust—a chill rose from his core. In the wasteland, infection and radiation sickness could be deadlier than beasts.

He struggled to his feet, tore a relatively clean corner from his inner shirt, gritted his teeth against the pain, and used the last half-bottle of drinking water he still carried (thankfully not lost) to rinse his wounds, then tightly bandaged them with cloth. The pain made him grimace, but his movements were resolute. He couldn’t die here!

After treating his wounds, he stared at the wolf carcass, his expression conflicted. Food? The manual warned that the meat of mutated creatures might be toxic or radiologically excessive... but... hunger burned like fire. In the end, he cut off a few pieces of relatively "clean" leg meat and wrapped them in cloth. Better than nothing.

Dragging his exhausted, wounded body, he finally reached the massive subway car. It had overturned, its entrance twisted and deformed. He found a shattered window and crawled inside with effort.

Inside, the car was dim, thick with dust and unidentifiable grime, reeking of mildew and rusted metal. Seats lay overturned, scattered with long-rotted debris. But at least it blocked wind and rain, offering a temporary, relatively enclosed shelter.

Lin Mo slid down against the cold car wall, overwhelming fatigue and wound pain threatening to drag him into unconsciousness. But he forced himself awake, pulling the *Basic Survival Manual* from his system space, and under the faint light seeping through a crack in the car, frantically flipped to the section on water purification.

“Primary Water Purifier Blueprint…” His gaze locked onto the schematic. Materials required: plastic tubing (available), activated charcoal (available), rags (available), a relatively sealed container… container!

His eyes scanned the car interior, finally settling on a dusty metal canteen wedged under a seat! The body was dented, but the lid was still there!

Hope! Light flared in Lin Mo’s eyes. He crawled over, heaved the canteen free, wiped off the thick dust, checked it—old, yes, but no leaks, and the lid screwed tight!

“Container found!” He hissed in triumph, jarring his wounds and gasping in pain. Immediately, he retrieved the simple purifier components from his system space—several plastic tubes, a small bag of activated charcoal, and rags to serve as filter cotton. He recalled the manual’s diagrams, assembling clumsily but with intense focus.

Time passed. The wind outside grew louder, the sky darker. Sweat beaded on Lin Mo’s forehead, mixing with blood and dust, making him look utterly disheveled. Finally, a crude, almost laughable device was complete: an inlet tube at one end, a filtration layer packed with charcoal and rags in the middle, an outlet tube at the other.

“Done!” He exhaled deeply, as if he’d completed some great feat. Now, he only needed the most critical thing—dirty water to purify!

He carefully cradled the canteen in his arms, as if holding a priceless treasure. This was his hope for survival. Leaning against the car wall, the flood of mental tension and post-trauma exhaustion washed over him, his eyelids heavy as lead.

Just as his consciousness teetered on the edge of darkness, a louder, more furious chorus of howls approached from outside—not one, but many! Filled with savagery… and vengeance!

Lin Mo snapped awake, his heart stopping. He lunged to the broken window, peering out.

In the dim light, eight or nine pairs of emerald eyes glowed like ghostly flames, flickering through swirling dust, slowly encircling the car where he hid. One was clearly larger, fangs bared, its neck mane bristling like steel needles, radiating greater menace!

A wolf pack! The bloody scent of the juvenile had drawn far deadlier hunters!

Cold sweat instantly soaked his freshly bandaged wounds. The flicker of hope he’d just kindled was brutally snuffed out by this new, greater despair. He gripped his rusted cleaver, knuckles white with strain—but against a pack, how long could this blade and this broken car hold?