Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Nest-Building

“How much is it?” Huang Fu Miao Miao demanded, panic sharpening her voice. “Your Corruption—how much?”

Feng Ling didn’t look smug anymore. She looked… irritated at herself.

Eight straight 1% digestions had dulled her caution. The gambler’s brain had whispered, [Just one more.]

And now she was paying for it.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “It went over a bit.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao retreated like Feng Ling had sprouted fangs. She put distance between them fast, eyes wide, body tight. “Over? Over twenty?”

She kept going like the questions were bullets she could fire to stay alive. “How do you feel? Any rage? Agitation? Anxiety? Anything abnormal? Heart rate? Blood pressure? Any hallucinations—seeing or hearing things?”

Feng Ling forced herself to check, honestly. To listen to her body instead of her pride.

“Nothing special,” she said after a moment. Then she added, dryly, “Maybe because I’m in a decent mood. Don’t provoke me later.”

Huang Fu Miao Miao looked like she might cry. [Provoke you? I’m trying to survive you.]

Feng Ling wasn’t comfortable either. She remembered the thresholds Huang Fu Miao Miao had recited earlier like doctrine:

Over 20%—risk of losing control.

Over 30%—hard to stay rational. Hallucinations possible.

Over 50%—a Madman. No communication. No negotiation.

60%, 70%—either you rot, or you drop dead.

Feng Ling swallowed, told herself she wasn’t at 30% yet.

Still, there was no room to be casual now. She needed to find that Maze. That idol.

Her thoughts were cut off as the text in her mind shifted again:

[You are the Source of Life. You are the World Mother. You possess a strong body and endless power. As long as you retain a sliver of life, it is almost impossible to be killed.]

[You can bring new life, and you can bring destruction. Life is your authority.]

Feng Ling froze.

The description was longer than before. One line had been added.

“You can bring new life, and you can bring destruction… Life is your authority…” she murmured, unsettled. The words felt like a hand closing around something she couldn’t see.

Life is authority.

What did that even mean?

Then her gaze landed on the hovering Ability Cards, and understanding struck so clean it felt instinctive.

This wasn’t a new card effect.

This was Mother Nest advancing.

An inherent trait waking up—like a spider knowing how to weave, like a swallow knowing how to carry mud, like something built for one purpose recognizing its own shape.

Feng Ling reached for a card, mind narrowing to one thought:

Nest-building.

Huang Fu Miao Miao’s voice cracked. “You’re over twenty and you’re still taking cards?!”

Feng Ling’s fingers closed around the Ability Card.

It didn’t dissolve. It didn’t melt into her body.

It flowed—liquid silver sliding between her knuckles—changing shape until it became a ring.

Huang Fu Miao Miao’s face went blank. “What…?”

Feng Ling didn’t explain. She gripped the ring with absolute focus, holding it as if she were forcing something into existence.

Slowly, an eye-shaped mark appeared on the metal—as if branded by invisible heat.

Only then did Feng Ling exhale and slide the ring onto her wrist.

She took a second Ability Card and did it again.

Another ring.

Another eye.

Two simple actions, and yet Feng Ling’s face paled. Sweat broke across her forehead. The effort drained her in a way killing hadn’t.

Huang Fu Miao Miao stood frozen, questions piling up behind her teeth—what is that, what are you doing, what did you just become—

Before she could speak, her virtual screen flared with a system announcement:

[Announcement: Hidden Boss Mother Nest has advanced to subadult form. Danger level unknown. Players, locate Mother Nest! Eliminate it as soon as possible!]

Huang Fu Miao Miao went silent.

The first time she’d seen an announcement like that, it had felt distant—something that happened in the world while she tried not to die.

Now it was in front of her.

Now she was standing next to the newly advanced Boss.

And the Boss’s Corruption was over the limit.

That thought alone was enough to make her stomach twist.

Feng Ling let out a slow breath, arms dropping loosely at her sides. She turned and started walking out of the cave.

The two rings with eye marks sat on her wrists, catching the dim light and flashing silver as she moved.

Feng Ling felt like she hadn’t eaten in days.

[Only twice,] she thought bitterly. [I only used Nest-building twice and it already feels like this. The result better be worth it.]

Huang Fu Miao Miao followed at a distance at first, terrified of getting too close. After a while—after Feng Ling showed no signs of snapping—she dared to catch up.

They left the cave through the parking-lot passage and emerged back onto the surface.

Zhou Zhou and the Special Assault Team members were already gone—sent to the hospital for treatment.

Su Yu Qing remained on site, directing staff with clipped efficiency.

When he saw Feng Ling and Huang Fu Miao Miao, surprise cracked through his composure.

The team members had been hyping Feng Ling up earlier—how she’d cut through Polluted Entities like peeling potatoes, how she’d turned the whole situation around with brutal ease.

So why did she look like she was about to fold in half?

Su Yu Qing strode over in his crisp uniform, brows drawn tight. “Are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Feng Ling shook her head weakly. Even her voice sounded thin. “I know what you want. You want me to cooperate so you can write your report.”

He didn’t deny it.

“But can it wait until after I eat?” Feng Ling said, and the hunger in her tone was almost feral. “I’m starving.”

Su Yu Qing stared at her, questions crowding behind his eyes, then forced them back. “There’s a good private kitchen nearby. I’ll drive you.”

Feng Ling’s lips parted. She forced out two words, stripped down to pure need: “Hurry up.”

She honestly felt like she might die on the way there—not from wounds, but from hunger.

How “private” that private kitchen was, Feng Ling never learned.

Because she ate in Su Yu Qing’s car.

Jiang Kou City’s emergency evacuation had drawn reporters like flies. The area was packed, messy, volatile. Su Yu Qing didn’t want the attention. He told Feng Ling to stay in the vehicle, went inside, and brought back takeout—bags of steaming food and sharp smells.

Feng Ling ate seven or eight dishes without stopping. Partway through, she even took two pouches of little jelly from Huang Fu Miao Miao.

Only then did the world stop tilting.

Nest-building’s backlash was worse than she’d expected. She ate, and as she ate, exhaustion rolled in like tidewater.

Eventually her head tipped back against the seat, and she fell asleep right there, food-stained fingers slackening, breath evening out.

In the front, Su Yu Qing and Huang Fu Miao Miao sat in thick, awkward silence, staring at each other like they’d been stranded in the same disaster for different reasons.

After a long moment, Su Yu Qing rubbed at his brow, tired and frustrated in a way that had nothing to do with paperwork. “What exactly is going on with you two?”

Huang Fu Miao Miao was on the verge of a breakdown.