They crawled out of the narrow ventilation shaft like two moles that had barely survived a flash flood.

  The sharp sulfur bite of the Skull Swamp Forest's night air hit them at once — and somehow, measured against The Rotten Gardener's rotten breath at the bottom of that hell, it felt almost refreshing.

  Li Wei collapsed across a tangle of massive tree roots. His chest heaved up and down, drinking oxygen in greedy pulls. Every muscle fiber in his body screamed for rest.

  But Aria?

  The woman seemed entirely indifferent to her still-burning lungs. The first thing she did after escaping death wasn't reaching for water or wiping the grime off her porcelain face.

  She opened her velvet wooden case.

  Aria's blue eyes lit up with a feverish gleam as she surveyed the purple mushrooms arranged safely inside. Her slender fingers stroked the poisonous stems with a tenderness usually reserved for a mother cradling her newborn.

  "Perfect..." Aria breathed with deep satisfaction. "S-Rank quality. Toxin potential completely pure. If I extract these into Neurotoxin, a single drop would be sufficient to fully paralyze a mid-tier Guild."

  Li Wei stared at her with an expression caught equally between horror and involuntary admiration.

  Down there, they had nearly been crushed flat by an ancient giant. And the first thing running through this woman's skull was pure profit and killing poison.

  "You are genuinely unwell," Li Wei muttered, draining the last of the water from his bamboo tube.

  "I'm a visionary," Aria corrected immediately, not bothering to look up. She sealed the velvet case shut and slipped it into her Inventory Ring with a possessive motion. "You don't understand, Mr. Guide. In this world, whoever monopolizes the Potion market controls lives."

  Li Wei went quiet. The words struck his cold logic somewhere uncomfortably accurate. He turned his head slowly.

  His mother was still sleeping soundly, wrapped tight in an oversized hand-me-down armored robe. Her HP bar had stabilized at 30%, but the old face was still as pale as raw cotton.

  Li Wei recognized one bitter truth: he could never keep carrying his mother through endless running.

  This forest was too lethal. Hundreds of hungry Players out there were hunting them like dogs tracking a bone. If he kept forcing his way through danger with his mother on his back, sooner or later one of them would die pointlessly. Or worse — both of them.

  Li Wei drew a long breath. He had already reached an absolute decision.

  "Take her," Li Wei said, breaking the silence without warning.

  Aria, in the middle of brushing stains from her gown, stopped instantly. She turned, fixing Li Wei with one perfectly arched eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

  "My mother." Li Wei gestured toward Madam Mei with his chin. "Take her with you. To wherever your safe base is. Care for her until she's fully recovered."

  Aria let out a short, extremely dry laugh. "Hold on. I am a Saintess, not a charity foundation. I already saved her life once at the temple. Now you're asking me to become her personal caretaker? What exactly is in this for me?"

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  "You need rare materials," Li Wei cut in, sharp and straight to the point.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rough map he had drawn himself on a piece of dried bark.

  "You think that mushroom was the only rare thing I know about on this continent?"

  Aria's eyes narrowed. Genuine interest ignited there.

  Li Wei tossed the bark map directly into Aria's lap.

  "That's the exact location of an Iron Bee nest in a crack along the Western Cliff. The pure honey permanently increases Vitality Stats without a cap. No other Player has found it because the cliff entrance is sealed by a natural fog illusion. I know precisely how to get inside."

  Li Wei looked straight into the depth of Aria's blue eyes. There was no hesitation there.

  "I'm not just some backwater NPC, Miss. I am a living map. I know exactly where Moon Flowers bloom on a full moon. I know the nests where Crystal Lizards hide. I know every secret rat-path in this server that will never appear on your precious Wiki."

  Aria unrolled the bark map. Her trained eyes swept across every coordinate and small annotation Li Wei had written. Accurate. Meticulous. Coherent.

  A lethally precise business smile spread slowly across her red lips.

  "So..." Aria folded the map neatly. "You're offering yourself as an Exclusive Supplier?"

  "I supply the locations. You go and harvest. My payment is one thing only: keep my mother alive and untouched by any other Player."

  "And if you die along the way?" Aria asked coldly, testing her prospective partner's conviction. "My exclusive investment in your mother immediately becomes a total loss, doesn't it?"

  "I won't die." Li Wei stood upright. He wiped the remaining mud from his dagger blade with calm, unhurried strokes. "In fact, precisely because my mother is safe now... I'll become something a thousand times harder to kill."

  Aria studied the lean young man standing before her for a long, measured moment.

  She saw something unfamiliar radiating from Li Wei's eyes. Not the fear of prey anymore. Not the desperation of an orphan either.

  It was the gaze of a starving wolf that had just managed to break its own chains.

  "Agreed," Aria said, final and absolute.

  She snapped her fingers at the air. A golden parchment scroll materialized and floated into being between them.

  [SYSTEM CONTRACT: SOUL PACT]

  [PARTY 1: ARIA (PLAYER)]

  [PARTY 2: LI WEI (NPC)]

  [TERMS: ABSOLUTE PROTECTION OF MADAM MEI]

  [COMPENSATION: EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION ACCESS]

  [PENALTY FOR BREACH: DEATH]

  "Sign it," Aria commanded.

  Li Wei pressed his still-bloodied thumb to the contract paper without hesitation.

  The parchment ignited immediately into flakes of golden light, then streaked inward through both their chests. The soul pact had bound absolutely.

  Aria produced a blue Scroll from her bag. [MASS TELEPORT].

  "My main base is in Sky City. It's a pure Neutral Zone. PK Players cannot set foot inside without being slaughtered by the guards. Your mother is one hundred percent safe in my hands."

  Aria guided Madam Mei's limp body into her arms.

  Li Wei stepped close for a moment. His dirty hands reached out, gently smoothing the tangled white strands of his mother's hair.

  "You'll go with this grumpy Miss for now, Mother," Li Wei murmured, his voice rough. "She's an insufferable doctor, but her medicine actually works."

  Madam Mei opened her eyes a fraction. Her gaze was still clouded by the poison's effects. "Wei... where are you going, son? It's already so late..."

  "I'm going to work, Mother. There's a field that needs clearing of pests." Li Wei forced a smile — bitter, but steady enough to be reassuring. "Sleep well."

  The blue pillar of the Teleport Scroll's light began wrapping around Aria and Madam Mei.

  Just before they disappeared, Aria tossed something small toward Li Wei.

  He caught it on reflex. A small, cold jade earring.

  "That's a Whisper Jade," Aria said, her voice already muffled by the hum of the teleportation spell. "Long-distance communication tool. If you find something good again, call me. And don't you dare die pointlessly, Partner."

  "Go," Li Wei said flatly.

  WHOOSH.

  The blue pillar of light shot through the night sky, carrying Aria and Madam Mei out of the Skull Swamp completely and entirely.

  The forest fell silent again. Dark. Deeply cold.

  Li Wei stood alone in the middle of the poisonous swamp.

  He looked down at both his hands. Empty.

  He glanced at his back. No weight left to carry.

  He patted his pockets and his belt. A bloodied dagger. Smoke bombs to steal visibility at range. The remaining residue of Phantom Mushroom poison.

  Slowly, the shoulders that had been rigid for so long dropped. Every form of mental tension that had been strangling his throat for the past two days evaporated at once, like morning steam burning off in sunlight.

  No more whispered "Stay quiet, they'll find Mother."

  No more panicked thought of "Slow down, she'll fall."

  Li Wei opened his System UI window.

  The Global Chat screen was still scrolling fast, relentless as a waterfall that never ran dry.

  [Xing]: "That Elite Boss dog vanished!"

  [BloodMoon]: "Keep searching! He's hiding in a cave somewhere!"

  [Player99]: "I'm posting a 1000 Gold Bounty on whoever delivers her head!"

  Li Wei read through the cascade of threats one line at a time without blinking.

  Once, those brightly colored words had made his hands shake with fear.

  Now?

  Li Wei laughed.

  It started as a quiet rumble low in his throat. Then it grew. Louder. A hollow, unhinged laugh that echoed wildly between the dead tree trunks.

  He clipped the Whisper Jade into his left ear. His fingers spun the hilt of his dagger with complete, unhurried ease.

  'You're all looking for me?' he thought.

  Li Wei stared into the forest's darkness with eyes that had gone wild and bright. The name bar above his head still glowed its steady, unwavering YELLOW. Neutral Status. The most perfect disguise in this entire world.

  "Let's play hide-and-seek."

  That night, Li Wei stopped running away from Players.

  That night, he turned around exactly one hundred and eighty degrees.

  He walked with an easy stride, back into the depths of the black bamboo forest, moving in a straight line toward the source of the loudest Player shouting he could hear.

  The Executioner had officially clocked in for his shift.