*"This is it—I’m dead!"*
The thought screamed through Qin Hong’s mind as his pupils dited, his legs locked in pce like concrete. His heart hammered so violently he forgot to breathe. The enemy raised a single finger, and fire coalesced at its tip, glowing like an arrow nocked for execution. The fmes reflected in Qin Hong’s widening eyes as his vision dimmed.
*Is this really the end?*
**BOOM!**
The firebolt exploded in the cramped workshop, filling the air with acrid smoke. A figure emerged from the haze, scowling at the empty space where Qin Hong had stood.
"Tch. Escaped."
The man’s boot crunched over the shattered remains of a **Capsule Shield**—a palm-sized device that had unfurled into a life-saving barrier at the st second. His gaze snapped to the open hatch of a hidden passage. With a snarl, he stalked toward it.
---
**Moments Earlier**
Qin Hong barely registered the hand yanking him forward until cold air spped his face. Xiao Yu, her grip iron-tight, dragged him through the factory’s underbelly. The old man, Puliète, had pnned for this—escape routes woven into the walls like a spider’s web.
*She saved me.*
The memory repyed in slow motion: the firebolt, the metallic *snap* of the Capsule Shield activating, the heatwave blistering his back. Now, sprinting through rusted corridors, Qin Hong studied the girl ahead—her braid whipping like a warning fg, her breaths sharp with adrenaline.
They burst into the scrapyard behind the factory. Above them, Puliète’s boxy hover-truck idled midair. Before Qin Hong could process it, Xiao Yu hauled him behind a stack of wrecked cars.
The hiding spot forced them chest-to-chest. Qin Hong’s pulse steadied oddly in her proximity—until his gaze dropped.
"Hey, your foot’s on—"
**WHAM.**
Xiao Yu’s fist buried itself in his gut. Qin Hong wheezed, colpsing against her.
"Y-You—!" she hissed, ears crimson.
"*You* punched *me*!" he groaned into her shoulder.
"I thought you—!" Her voice hit a frequency only bats could hear. "Never mind!" She shoved him off, but not before Qin Hong spotted the flush creeping down her neck.
A deafening explosion cut the tension. The shockwave rocked Puliète’s hover-truck sideways as fire geysered from the factory.
**He was here.**
Fmeister "Bze" Bett strode through the inferno, his smirk a bde in the night. Puliète’s truck shot northward—a decoy. Bett’s ugh crackled like kindling as fmes encased his body.
Then he *unched* himself skyward, a meteor in pursuit.
---
**The Chase**
Xiao Yu didn’t wait. She tossed Qin Hong a silver case and bolted for his parked hover-car.
"Keys. *Now*," she demanded.
As they peeled toward the city, Qin Hong’s gut twisted. The desert highway offered no cover—just dunes swallowing their trail.
Too easy.
His spine straightened. "*Behind us!*"
Bett had fnked them. Xiao Yu smmed the thrusters—nothing.
"Sabotaged?" She flicked a yellow switch. Twin missiles deployed, but the radar showed empty air.
A shadow fell across the windshield.
Bett hovered *ahead*, arms crossed. The car phased *through* him like a ghost. Qin Hong’s brain short-circuited—until Bett *grabbed* the rear bumper and **spun**.
The world became a centrifuge. Metal shrieked as they cratered into the dunes.
---
**Aftermath**
Smoke curled from the wreck. Xiao Yu y unconscious, blood threading her brow. Qin Hong’s vision swam, each breath a knife twist.
*Ribs. Definitely broken.*
His fingers brushed the case wedged in the shattered windshield. With a grunt, he wrenched it free—and spat a mouthful of blood onto its surface.
*Let this be worth dying for.*
The tch clicked.
Qin Hong’s ugh bubbled with gore. Inside y a single, unremarkable **green apple**.
"All this… for *fruit*?" He bit into it—
—and froze.
No fvor. No texture. Just void.
The bite mark revealed not flesh, but a **microcosm of space**: infinite bck studded with shimmering, sand-like stars.
He devoured it.
Bett’s voice dripped with glee. "Oops. Now I’ll need your *heart* instead."
Fmes gathered in his palm. Qin Hong clutched Xiao Yu’s hand.
*Soft.*
He closed his eyes.
---
**Lightning Strikes**
A **white pilr** split the sky. Bett barely dodged as it vaporized the dunes, leaving a 10-meter crater.
Standing in the afterglow was a man in a bck trench coat, his smirk sharper than the electricity arcing around him.
"Flirting with death, Qin Hong?"
"Boss…" Qin Hong croaked. "*Help first, show off ter.*"
Guān Lán’s eyes never left Bett. "Healed since st time?"
Bett’s fmes sputtered. "I’ve reached **Phase Three**!"
"Adorable." Guān Lán’s grin turned feral. "I left Phase Three… *st year*."
Bett fled like a scorched comet.
---
**Epilogue**
Puliète’s truck arrived to extract them. As Guān Lán loaded Qin Hong’s limp body, his calm cracked.
"Where’s the cargo?"
"The apple? I *ate* it."
Guān Lán **dropped him**.
"*You*—" He inhaled sharply. "Get them to my safehouse. *Now.*"
As the truck vanished into the night, Guān Lán stared at the smoldering crater. Thunder rumbled in his clenched fist.
Somewhere, **the game had just changed**.
