The engine had rules. Rules meant loopholes.
But sometimes, the engine just wanted to crush you.
"Physics check," I whispered, my voice trembling.
The Acid Toad reached the apex of its leap. Behind me, the hydraulic hiss of the Piston Fist peaked.
I dropped. I triggered Crouch, shrinking my hitbox into the floor mesh.
WHOOSH.
The massive, rusted metal fist sailed over my hood.
CRUNCH.
It didn't hit me. It met the descending Acid Toad mid-air.
The impact was absolute.
[-180 HP] (Critical Strike)
The Acid Toad was launched backward, ragdolling into the far wall. The War Golem stumbled, its AI confused by the obstruction, but its target priority shifted instantly.
> AGGRO SWAP: HOSTILE FAUNA.
"Let them fight," I gasped, scrambling backward into the deepest shadow of the pipe.
My HP was critical: 66 / 375.
My XP was stuck: 220 / 380.
If I engaged, I died. One stray hitbox, one splash of acid, and I was deleted.
I had to wait.
The tunnel turned into a kill box.
The Acid Toad spat acid, melting the brass plating off the War Golem's chest. The War Golem hammered the toad with mechanical, rhythmic brutality.
War Golem HP: 850... 600... 400...
Acid Toad HP: 300... 150... 50...
The Acid Toad was losing.
I gripped my staff, waiting for the last hit window. I needed that XP. I needed the level-up heal.
The War Golem raised his fist. Hydraulic fluid sprayed. [E] Pile Driver.
He struck too fast.
BAM.
The Acid Toad's head caved in. The massive toad convulsed once and dissolved into blue binary dust.
TARGET DESTROYED.
I watched, frozen.
I waited for the golden light. I waited for the XP bar to tick up.
Nothing.
XP: 220 / 380
Gold: 0
"No..." I hissed.
I didn't tag it. I didn't deal damage in the last 10 seconds. The kill credit—and all the XP—went to the NPC.
"Kill stolen," I whispered, panic rising in my throat like bile. "Wasted."
I was still Level 2. I was still at 66 HP.
And now I was locked in a room with the winner.
"THREAT... ELIMINATED," the Warden Golem buzzed.
He turned.
He was a wreck. The Acid Toad's acid had eaten through his chest, exposing the glowing, unstable Core Node. His right leg servo was sparking, dragging uselessly.
Warden Golem [Prototype] HP: 125 / 1200 (CRITICAL)
He was one hit from death. But so was I.
His red sensors swept the room. They locked onto me.
"ANOMALY... DETECTED."
He couldn't run. He could barely walk. But he raised his right arm. The hook.
If he grabbed me, I was dead.
If I ran, the Rats at the entrance would kill me.
I looked at the [Corrupted Data Stick] in my hand.
"High risk," I muttered. "All or nothing."
The War Golem's chest glowed. He was charging [R] Core Cascade. An AoE burst.
If that went off, it would wipe the whole room. Including me.
I didn't have time to stealth.
I sprinted.
"Execution Protocol!" I screamed, forcing my minion legs to move faster than their base stats allowed.
The Golem saw me.
"PURGE..."
The power built up. 0.5 seconds to detonation.
I slid.
The floor was slick with toad-slime. I turned the friction failure into a mechanic, drifting under his raised arm.
I slammed the Data Stick upward, straight into the acid-burned hole in his chest chassis.
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Into the Core.
> INJECTION: CORRUPTION.
[-45 HP] (Direct Damage)
The stick sank deep. I twisted it.
"Blue screen of death, asshole!"
[-45 HP] (Direct Damage)
The War Golem seized. The Shockwave Burst collapsed.
[SYSTEM ERROR]
The Scrapped Sentinel froze, its frame seizing as the corruption took hold. The field faltered, the electricity arcing backward into its own frame.
[-55 HP] (Self-Destruct Damage)
CRACK.
The massive machine went rigid. The red lights in his eyes flashed once. Then died.
White, then dead black.
The sound of a powering-down turbine filled the room.
He toppled.
I rolled away just as 900 pounds of scrap metal slammed into the concrete.
TARGET DESTROYED.
[+450 XP]
[+100 G]
Now it hit.
A pillar of golden light exploded around me.
Max HP Increased: 375 -> 500
Current HP: 500 / 500 (FULL RESTORE)
Mana Capped: 150 / 150
+4 AD
+6 AP
The pain vanished. My wireframe knit together. The Data Leak debuff cleared.
I lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling textures, laughing. A glitchy, distorted laugh.
I had survived.
I stood up and walked over to the wreck.
The Construct was dissolving. The torso, the legs, the head—all turning into grey pixels.
But the Right Arm remained.
It thumped onto the floor—heavy, rusted, and venting steam.
[LOOT: Prototype Chain-Winch Mount]
Class: Heavy Weapon / Component
Passive: Cable Drag
"Inventory full," I said to the empty room. "But I have a slot open right here."
I touched my own shoulder.
"Hardware integration."
I dragged the massive arm over. It was heavier than my entire body.
I didn't have tools. I had Source Drain.
I pressed the rocket arm against my shoulder socket and reversed the flow.
"Pair," I commanded.
The magic welded us together. Pain flared—hot and sharp—but my HP bar barely moved. I was Level 3 now. I could take it.
CLUNK.
The connection sealed.
+35 AD (Heavy Arm)
+15 Armor (Plating)
-15 Move Speed
I stood up. Sort of.
I had to lean left to counterbalance the massive limb.
I flexed the fingers.
The stone talons scraped together—like boulders dragged across concrete.
"Check hitbox," I muttered.
I swung the arm.
The momentum spun me like a discount top.
Whiff.
The backwash kicked up dust.
"Okay. High input latency. Big damage. Glass-cannon build is officially dead. Hello, Bruiser meta."
I needed to test the active.
I looked at a rusted pipe protruding from the wall, ten units away.
I locked onto the `Tether Grapple` function.
The mana cost was absurd—half my bar—but the tooltip was bugged, promising 100% AP scaling that shouldn’t exist.
`> CAST: Tether Grapple`
[-75 MP]
My shoulder lit up with pain.
The arm didn’t extend. It fired.
The hydraulics detonated.
A rusted hook launched from the housing on a braided steel cable, cracking like a gunshot in the tight tunnel.
CLANG.
It smashed the pipe, chewed through the brickwork behind it, and—crucially—didn’t retract.
I stood there, wire trailing from my shoulder to the wall.
"Retract. `return_to_sender`. Don’t you dare."
I yanked. The winch groaned.
Slow and brutal, the cable winched back, dragging the hook and debris with it.
"Cooldown’s disgusting," I muttered.
"Utility: questionable. Cool factor: S-tier."
A screech knifed down the corridor.
Not mechanical. Biological.
The noise of the grab had traveled.
I turned—slowly, dragging the arm—to face the tunnel entrance.
Red eyes.
The fog tore open and coughed up the `Sink Scavengers`.
These weren’t just rats. Level 3 mobs—bloated on chemical runoff, teeth glowing toxic green.
They blocked the exit. Behind me: Sector D, dead end.
The System pinged a warning.
`> COMBAT DETECTED. ENEMY THREAT: LETHAL.`
The Scavengers chittered, their claws clicking on the wet floor.
They knew I was cornered. They knew I couldn’t kite anymore.
I looked at my mana bar.
75/150.
Enough for one more shot.
I planted my feet and dug into the grime, braced for the recoil.
I raised the massive, mismatched arm and clenched my new fist.
The vents hissed, expelling hot steam.
"Alright," I
said, servos whining as I lined up the nearest scavenger’s chest.
"Let’s test collision."
My HUD is a mess of red warning boxes.
The "new" arm—a rusted pneumatic piston I ripped off a defunct mining bot—is throwing driver errors faster than I can dismiss them.
`[WARNING] Unverified Hardware Detected.`
`[ERROR] Driver incompatibility. Calibrating...`
Three Dregs Scavengers block the corridor.
They're jittery, twitching from tox-withdrawals, wielding jagged scrap metal.
They haven't spotted me yet.
I crouch behind a rusted pipe and do the math.
My base AD (Attack Damage) is 62.
Their estimated HP is 120 each.
If I stand there trading autos, I lose.
The math says I can delete squishy Ranged Minions.
I look at the heavy metal claw fused to my shoulder.
It’s twitching.
"Time to test the new API," I mutter, popping open the arm’s janky command line.
I don't have the mana for a prolonged fight.
I need the kind of bug that makes the engine flinch.
A collision freakout.
I target the center Scavenger.
He’s the biggest one—the anchor.
`EXECUTE: Claw_Tether_Override.bat`
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