The ancient bell on Old Man Feng's door jingled, a sharp, cheerful sound in the cold, dead-of-night air.
The sound was instantly swallowed by the silence of the empty street.
Lin Hao stood on the cracked pavement, the small, wooden box with the "Qi-Guiding Blade" held loosely in his left hand.
The $15 million, a number so large it was still abstract, sat in his anonymous bank account.
He was free. He was rich. He was powerful.
He took his first step toward the main road.
And he froze.
It was exactly as his outline had predicted, exactly as the old man had warned.
A cold, sharp, prickling sensation, like a thousand icy needles, ran up the back of his neck.
It was his [Level 5: Blood Vitality] senses, his new internal Qi, screaming at him. It was a proximity alarm, a biological radar.
He wasn't alone. He was being watched.
The "wolves" were already here.
The 'old' Lin Hao, the one from just 48 hours ago, would have been terrified.
He would have fumbled for his phone, his heart hammering, his mind flashing with images of being stabbed for the money he didn't even have.
He would have run, blindly, desperately.
The new Lin Hao felt his heart give one, single, powerful beat. THUMP.
His new, superhuman circulatory system flooded his brain with oxygen-rich, Qi-infused blood. Panic didn't have time to form.
It was instantly replaced by a cold, sharp, clinical focus.
He did not look back. He did not turn his head.
He just began to walk.
His footsteps were calm, measured, and rhythmic, echoing slightly in the empty street. Click... clack... click... clack.
His new senses, no longer focused on meditation or shopkeepers, fanned out into the darkness, painting a vivid picture of the world around him.
His hearing, now at [Level 4: Grandmaster] and boosted by [Level 5: Blood Vitality], was incredible. He wasn't just hearing the city; he was analyzing it.
He could hear a loose shutter banging on a third-story window two blocks away.
He could hear the distant, electrical hum of the BSA floodlights back on campus, three miles away. And he could hear, with absolute, perfect clarity, the footsteps behind him.
Scuff... shuffle... scrape...
They were trying to be quiet, staying on the balls of their feet, but to Lin Hao's ears, they were stomping like elephants.
He counted them. One set of footsteps, heavy, a slight drag in the left foot. A second set, lighter, quicker. A third, slightly hesitant, but definitely there.
Three of them.
He triangulated the sound.
They were keeping their distance. About thirty meters back. Walking when he walked.
He kept his pace steady, his hands in his jacket pockets, his posture relaxed. He was just a college kid, walking home late.
He passed a dark, closed-down bakery.
The large, plate-glass window was a perfect, dark mirror in the moonlight.
He didn't stop. He didn't turn his head. He just... glanced.
His [Level 4: Grandmaster] senses, his 'Bone Forged' perception, took in the reflection in a single, photographic instant.
Three men. All wearing dark hoodies and baggy jeans.
They looked rough, the kind of low-level street thugs who would rob a student for their phone.
One of them, the heavy one, was holding a phone to his ear, his head down, talking quietly.
They were a team. And they were getting orders.
Lin Hao's mind flashed to Old Man Feng.
Had the Old Fox betrayed him? Set him up? Or had these "wolves" simply been watching the shop, waiting for someone just like him? It didn't matter.
He extended his primary, most powerful sense: his Qi-sense.
The 'sparks' of the Awakened were visible to his mind's eye.
He could feel the faint, Level 2 'firecracker' of Old Man Feng, now fading as he walked away from the shop.
He could feel, in the far distance, other, smaller Level 1 'sparks', other newly Awakened people, still probably marveling at their new strength.
From the three men behind him, he sensed... nothing.
Not a spark. Not a glimmer. Not a single trace of Reiki.
They were cold. They were empty.
They were mortals.
A flicker of... disappointment? No, just... clinical detachment.
Old Man Feng had warned him of "wolves."
These weren't wolves. They weren't even from the new, Awakened world.
They were relics from the old one. Common, mundane, criminal trash.
The 'old' Lin Hao would have been terrified of these men.
The 'new' Lin Hao was almost insulted.
This wasn't a threat. This was a nuisance.
This was a perfect, controlled, first test.
A chance to see what his new body could do, to see what [Level 5: Blood Vitality] really meant against a real-world, albeit primitive, threat.
He was done playing games.
He was hungry, he was rich, and he had a long night of planning ahead of him.
These three were a loose end, and he was a man who now loathed loose ends.
He reached the end of the street.
To his right was the main, better-lit road, which led back toward the campus.
To his left was a narrow, dark, service alley.
He looked left.
It was perfect. It was a narrow canyon of dark brick. A few overflowing dumpsters.
A single, flickering yellow security light at the far end, which revealed, with perfect clarity, a solid twenty-foot brick wall.
A dead end.
A perfect, private, little testing ground.
Lin Hao, without the slightest hesitation, turned left.
He left the "safety" of the main street and walked directly into the shadows of the alley.
He heard the footsteps behind him stop.
He heard a low, muffled "He's in the alley! Go!"
The scuff-shuffle of their stealthy pursuit vanished.
It was replaced by the slap-slap-slap of running shoes on concrete.
They thought their prey was trapped.
They thought the young, stupid kid had cornered himself.
Lin Hao walked deeper into the shadows, his back to the running men. A cold, clinical smile touched his lips.
He was the trap. This was the bait.
And the rats were running right into it.