An Eye for Value
Mark smiled, a rare, genuine expression that softened the harsh lines around his eyes. "Don’t worry. I’ll make sure this extra trip of yours is worth your time. Risking your life like this means you’re getting paid properly under emergency contractor provisions."
Ruyi lowered her head slightly, keeping her expression hidden. Financial compensation was fine, but her true priority was time. Every minute spent lingering in this blood-soaked garden was another minute Rion sat on that medical bus under the watchful eyes of guild clerks—and another minute her mother sat at home, wringing her hands in frantic anticipation. She needed to conclude this quickly.
She knew there were likely more survivors pinned down deeper in the botanical complex, waiting for a rescue team that might arrive too late. It was a cold thought, but she firmly walled it off. Their rescue was the Guild's burden, not hers. She was here for Rion, and Rion alone.
"Who else is coming?" Ruyi asked, looking past Mark at the small tactical squad assembling near the secondary rig. She crossed her arms, her voice dropping into an absolute, unyielding pitch. "If you aren't going in with us, Mark, I'm walking back to the bus right now."
A few of the surrounding strike team members went silent, casting wary glances at the unawakened civilian dictating terms to a former vanguard captain.
The field officer on official command for the sector hesitated, looking between Mark and Ruyi. After a long moment of evaluating the ticking clock and the swelling mana signatures on his tactical monitor, the officer relented with a sigh. He gestured for Mark to take the point. It was glaringly obvious to everyone present that Ruyi wouldn't cooperate with a group of strangers; Mark was her only anchor of trust in this chaotic setup.
Darren stepped forward, adjusting his tactical belt. "I'm coming too."
"No," Mark cut in immediately, raising a hand to block him. "You stay sharp right here at the perimeter transport, Darren. Hold the line and make sure those boys stay on that bus until we get back."
Darren’s jaw tightened, but he conceded with a stiff nod. Watching the subtle exchange between the two men, Ruyi realized Darren wasn't just a simple, well-meaning responder either. The quiet discipline in his stance and the unspoken understanding he shared with Mark hinted at a shared past—he was likely another high-ranking veteran relegated to minor logistics following the same bureaucratic fallout.
"Let's move," Ruyi said, taking the lead without waiting for an official order.
What followed deeply unsettled the tactical squad accompanying them. Ruyi moved through the shattered glasshouse corridors with astonishing fluid efficiency. She didn't rely on noisy tracking equipment or map displays; she simply navigated the dark, winding maintenance tunnels by instinct, stepping over twisted iron rebar and poolings of toxic sap with ghost-like silence. To the soldiers behind her, it looked as though she had memorized the layout of an underground facility she claimed to have stumbled into by accident.
Along the way, they encountered several roaming beasts—mostly low-tier Iron-Claw Jackals and stray Razor-Hide Hounds lured by the Core's pulse.
Ruyi didn't lift a finger. She stepped smoothly into the shadows behind Mark, watching with keen, analytical eyes as the strike team executed clean, methodical suppressive fire and elemental strikes to clear the path. She memorized their movements, their spacing, and the precise angles they used to breach monster defenses, filing the knowledge away for future reference.
Within seven minutes, they reached the lowest sub-level beneath the central exhibit.
The air here was thick, suffocating, and heavy with the scent of raw ether. Embedded within the shattered concrete foundation was the Spawn Core—a pulsating, jagged crystal of deep violet energy wrapped in thick, fleshy tendrils that tapped directly into the city's underground power grid. Dozens of newly birthed, embryonic beasts wriggled in the surrounding organic matter.
Fortunately, they were all weak, fresh spawns. The strike team moved in rapidly, securing the perimeter with heavy suppression shields while two engineers set high-yield mana-disruption charges directly against the Core's crystal lattice.
Ruyi stood near the entrance archway, her amethyst eyes locked onto the pulsating crystal. She wasn't just watching the engineers; she was studying the precise frequency at which the Core drew in ambient energy, comparing it to the cold vacuum inside her own chest. She noted how the crystal’s outer shell began to hairline-fracture under localized pressure, instinctively calculating how many micro-seconds it would take her void to swallow the entire core whole.
Mark stepped up beside her, his sharp eyes catching her intense, unblinking focus.
"Don't get any wild ideas, kid," Mark murmured under his breath, leaning against the doorframe. "I know a raw Core crystal looks like a small fortune—and it is—but there's no way you could harvest or sell a high-grade spatial material like that without being a registered guild contractor. Black-market brokers would track you down in a heart-beat, and the Guild logs every fragment."
Ruyi didn't turn her head, her face remaining a cool, impenetrable mask. "I am not thinking of anything."
"Right," Mark said dryly, though a faint, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You just happen to stare at a hundred-thousand-dollar energy core the same way a butcher looks at a prime cut of meat."
Before Ruyi could respond, the lead engineer raised a hand. "Charges set! Clearing the sub-level in three, two, one—"
THUMP.
There was no loud, fiery explosion. Instead, a dense, localized shockwave of white light imploded around the crystal. The violet glow shattered into thousands of harmless, inert dust particles. The fleshy tendrils instantly withered, turning to gray ash as the oppressive, suffocating pressure in the room vanished completely.
SPAWN CORE NEUTRALIZED chimed the comms unit on Mark's shoulder.
Ruyi let out a quiet, imperceptible breath. The threat was gone. The district was safe, the gate would stabilize, and most importantly, her obligation to Mark was officially fulfilled.
She turned on her heel toward the exit stairs. "We're done here. I'm going back to my brother."