Chapter 3: Defending the Carriage and an Unexpected Ally

The howls of wolves echoed like a death knell across the lifeless wasteland, hammering against Lin Mo’s taut nerves. Seven or eight mutated radiation wolves gradually emerged from the dust, spreading in a fan formation, their emerald-green eyes locked fixedly on the dilapidated subway car, low growls rumbling from deep within their throats, drool sizzling as it hit the scorched earth. The lead wolf, massive as a young calf, had a sickly gray-blue pelt covered in grotesque scars and bony protrusions, radiating a ferocity far beyond that of the pups.

No retreat left! Lin Mo’s heart sank to the bottom. The car’s only entrance and several larger broken windows had all become fatal gaps!

“Stay calm, Lin Mo! Think!” He dug his nails hard into his thigh, using pain to dispel fear. His gaze swept rapidly across the cramped interior—upside-down metal seats, scattered debris. The manual said narrow spaces could be used to restrict large beasts’ movement with obstacles!

The will to survive overcame despair. He unleashed astonishing strength, ignoring the tearing pain in his wounds, hauling up heavy metal seats to block the largest window breach. He jammed broken steel pipes and rusted metal sheets into every smaller gap he could find. The entire car interior was now a mess, but every major entrance was barricaded solid with whatever heavy objects he could find, leaving only narrow slits for observation.

No sooner had he finished than—“CRASH!”—the whole car shuddered violently! The massive lead wolf had smashed its body directly into the window Lin Mo had just blocked! The metal seat groaned under the strain, buckling inward in a deep dent!

“Awooo!” The lead wolf howled in pain. The other wolves surged forward, claws scraping furiously against the car’s outer walls, earsplitting screeches echoing, or slamming their heads against the blocked gaps. The entire car rocked like a tiny boat in a storm, on the verge of collapse under the wolves’ frenzied assault.

“Hold on! Hold on at all costs!” Lin Mo pressed his back against the barricade, both hands bracing the warped seat, feet planted firmly on the floor, using every ounce of strength to resist the massive impacts from outside. Each blow sent his blood surging; his arm wounds split open again, blood soaking through the bandages. Sweat mixed with blood trickled down his forehead, blurring his vision.

The wolf pack, enraged by their leader’s injury, attacked with even greater frenzy. One wolf shoved a claw through a narrow slit, scrabbling wildly! Lin Mo reacted instantly, snatching up a broken steel pipe with a sharp jagged end and driving it straight into the claw!

“Plop!”

“Aiiii—!” A piercing shriek accompanied the claw’s rapid withdrawal. But soon, another claw slipped through a different gap!

Lin Mo moved like a cornered beast, twisting and dodging within the cramped car, using terrain and anything at hand—broken steel pipes, rusted metal sheets, even handfuls of dirt scooped from the floor—to fight desperately. He stabbed with pipes, slashed with metal shards, flung dirt into the eyes of wolves peering through the slits. Every counterattack came with ragged gasps and searing pain from his wounds.

The car’s outer walls began to warp under the wolves’ biting and ramming; the barricades loosened with each impact. Lin Mo’s strength drained rapidly, his movements slowed, and despair, cold as tide, began rising again. Was he to die in wolf jaws mere moments after crossing over? He refused!

Just as he neared collapse, one wolf had already forced half its grotesque head through a newly cracked gap, its foul fangs mere inches from his face—

“Shiiii—!”

A sharp whistle tore through the wolves’ howls!

A shaft of cold metallic gleam, like a venomous snake, pierced precisely into the eye socket of the wolf trying to squeeze in, the arrowhead bursting through its skull, spraying foul blood. The wolf didn’t even cry out—it dropped dead instantly.

The sudden strike halted the pack’s frenzy. Even the ferocious lead wolf froze, its emerald-green eyes snapping toward the direction the arrow came from.

Lin Mo froze too, stunned by survival’s sudden twist, too dazed to react.

Then—“Shii! Shii!”—two more whistles!

Two arrows, as if guided by sight, one pierced the throat of another wolf gnawing at the car wall, the other grazed the lead wolf’s neck before embedding deep into the scorched earth beneath its paw. Precise. Lethal. Coldly efficient.

The lead wolf let out a frustrated low growl, its emerald-green eyes fixed on a hazy spot in the dust, filled with wariness. After a moment’s calculation, it let out a short howl. The remaining radiation wolves immediately abandoned the car, tails tucked, fleeing swiftly as they had come, vanishing soundlessly into the yellowish dust.

Silence fell instantly inside and out—only Lin Mo’s heavy breathing and the wind whistling through the metal gaps remained.

Saved? By whom?

Lin Mo’s heart still pounded. He struggled to crawl to an unblocked slit and peered out cautiously.

The dust had settled somewhat. On the crumbling edge of a half-collapsed concrete ruin, thirty meters away, stood a solitary figure.

The figure was short, even gaunt, wrapped in a filthy, tattered gray-brown cloak, face covered by a cloth, leaving only a pair of eyes visible. Those eyes… sharp as a hawk’s, cold, wary, utterly emotionless, locked unblinkingly on Lin Mo’s hiding car. In its hand was a peculiar metal crossbow, its arms glowing with a faint blue light—clearly no ordinary weapon. The lifesaving arrows had come from this.

The cloaked figure did not approach, did not speak—only stood still, like a lifeless statue, its grip on the crossbow unnervingly steady.

Lin Mo’s alarm bells rang loud! On the wasteland, no aid came without cause! Was this person more dangerous than the wolves? Why save him?

He licked his cracked, bleeding lips, gathered courage, and shouted toward the slit: “Hey! Thank you! I—I’m Lin Mo! Who… who are you?”

The figure on the ruin gave no response. Those cold eyes remained fixed on the car, as if inspecting an object—or evaluating the worth of prey.

Silence, thick as pressure, settled between them. More suffocating than the wolves’ howls.