With the mutant hounds dealt with, the air grew thick with the heavy, metallic stench of blood. Thien Anh patted Ki's neck, signaling him to move toward the mysterious pillar of light.
The source of that brilliant radiance, coincidentally, was the exact epicenter of last night's meteorite impact.
"What the hell is this?" Thien Anh muttered, his blade-like brows furrowing.
As they arrived, a yawning crater ten meters wide opened before them. The surrounding earth and stone had been flash-melted into glistening glass. Lying solitary at the bottom was a pearl the size of a fist, emitting a shifting, mesmerizing nine-colored light.
Thien Anh's first thought wasn't "invaluable treasure," but rather: "This would make a hell of a night light. Save a lot on electricity."
Observing closer, he saw several moths drawn to the light. They fluttered around the gem, unharmed—neither incinerated nor dropping dead.
"Safe," Thien Anh concluded curtly. He and Ki vaulted down to the crater's floor.
As his fingers brushed the pearl, a sensation of refreshing coldness traveled up his arm. He turned it over, tapped it a few times, and found no buttons or switches. Bored, he tossed it into his backpack.
"Let's go." But as Thien Anh reached for the rim of the crater to climb out, the roar of high-displacement engines tore through the night.
Vroom... Vroom... Screeech!
A convoy of over twenty motorcycles slammed their brakes at the crater's edge, kicking up a blinding cloud of dust. Tattooed men brandishing machetes, chains, and handguns leaped off their bikes, surrounding the pit.
The leader—a bald man with a jagged scar bisecting his face—jerked his chin toward Thien Anh, a pistol tucked loosely into his waistband. In a typical "lord of the world" rasp, he barked:
"Hey, brat! What'd you fish up down there? Be smart and cough it up for daddy!"
Thien Anh, only half-emerged from the pit, gripped the edge with his right hand while his left remained hidden behind his back. He looked up at the thugs, his face instantly contorting into a mask of pathetic terror.
"Sirs... sirs, please stay calm... I'll give it to you! Just don't shoot!"
The bald leader let out a raucous laugh, turning to his underlings with a boastful grin. "See? I told you—" The words died in his throat, his smile frozen forever.
Using his momentum, Thien Anh vaulted out of the pit, his left hand whipping out the Uzi submachine gun.
"Die, you morons."
The facade of fear vanished, replaced by the frozen gaze of a reaper.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT...
The spray of lead swept across them like a scythe. Heads detonated like rotten melons. Blood and brain matter splattered across the polished motorcycles.
The bald leader was the first to fall, a bullet hole punched squarely between his eyes. The rest didn't even have time to register the carnage before they too collapsed. A few tried to flee, but they were cut down by Thien Anh's precision bursts, accurate to the millimeter.
In ten seconds, the crater's edge had become a graveyard. Thien Anh stood amidst the corpses, calmly swapping magazines. He shook his head in weary disgust.
"Are your eyes just for decoration? You didn't see the pile of giant mutant dog carcasses right over there before you decided to play tough?"
But at the mention of the "mutant dog carcasses," a cold shiver raced down Thien Anh's spine. He spun around, looking back toward the previous battlefield.
Empty. Dozens of lion-sized mutant hound corpses had vanished without a trace. Only long, smeared trails of blood led into the dense thicket.
"Not good."
Thien Anh's eyes narrowed, his muscles coiling for combat. A thick, suffocating killing intent saturated the air.
CRACK!
A massive ancient tree by the road snapped in half like a dry straw. From the shadows, a gargantuan monster emerged.
It had once been a tiger. Now, it was as large as a full-grown elephant. Its fur was gone, replaced by cracked, obsidian skin veined with glowing crimson—like flowing magma trapped beneath the surface. Two-meter-long fangs curved upward like elephant tusks, and its eyes burned with a literal, hellish fire.
The Magma Tiger.
It growled, prowling toward the pile of dead thugs.
CRUNCH!
It unhinged its massive maw, biting a corpse in half and chewing with savage hunger. The sound of bones shattering like dry wood was sickening. In just a few gulps, half a corpse vanished down its throat.
Thien Anh broke into a cold sweat. This beast was on an entirely different level than the hounds from before.
"Stay calm... find the weak point..."
He whispered, lowering himself to a prone position and raising his sniper rifle. He regulated his breathing, slowing it to a crawl.
The eyes. The only exposed vulnerability. Thien Anh held his breath, finger resting on the trigger. But the Magma Tiger's predatory instincts were too sharp. The moment the muzzle locked on, it snapped its head up, staring directly at Thien Anh's hiding spot.
"Crap!"
BANG!
The Armor-Piercing round shrieked through the air.
SQUELCH!
"ROAAAAAAR!"
The bullet slammed into the beast's right eye socket, spraying black gore. But it didn't die. The overwhelming vitality of a high-tier mutant beast only drove it into a deeper frenzy.
It roared, shaking the very earth, and charged at Thien Anh like a massive fireball.
"Woof!" Ki barked a warning, but Thien Anh didn't retreat. He knew outrunning this monster was suicide.
He flipped the toggle on his weapon to grenade-launcher mode.
"Eat this!"
THUMP!
The grenade flew in a lethal arc, plunging directly into the beast's wide-open maw.
The Magma Tiger, in its fury, snapped its jaws shut on the incoming projectile.
KABOOM!
An explosion like a peal of thunder followed. Half of the gargantuan head disintegrated. The lower jaw vanished; shredded flesh and bone sprayed in every direction.
Its massive frame staggered for a few steps before toppling with a deafening THUD, causing a minor tremor.
Thien Anh exhaled, wiping sweat from his brow. He approached the carcass, raising his rifle to deliver a finishing shot just to be certain.
BANG! CLINK!
The AP round struck the gnarled skin on its back and ricocheted away, sparking as if hitting cold steel.
"What the hell?" Thien Anh's eyes widened in shock. Flesh harder than tank armor?
He observed more cautiously. Beneath the blackened skin of the beast's chest, a radiant crimson light flickered, pulsing through the thick layers of muscle.
"Treasure?"
Thien Anh drew a dagger forged from a super-hard alloy, trying to dissect the body. But the hide was too leathery, too tough.
"Ki, give me a hand!"
Ki understood. Using his enhanced, razor-sharp claws combined with his immense strength, he shredded the already-damaged belly of the beast.
Thien Anh reached inside and pulled out a heart.
It wasn't a normal heart. It was a searing mass of muscle, emitting a brilliant ruby glow, pulsing steadily in his palm. Though it glowed like a hot coal, it felt comfortably warm to the touch.
The Mutated Core.
"Woof! Woof!" Ki salivated, staring intently at the heart.
"No," Thien Anh said sternly, stowing the heart in his backpack. "Eating random things will get you killed. We'll study it back home."
Ki flattened his ears in disappointment.
Thien Anh vaulted onto Ki's back. "Let's head back. We've harvested enough for one night."
They departed, leaving behind a chaotic pile of corpses and a terrifying truth: the world was changing faster and more brutally than he could have ever imagined.