Chapter 5 : Mechanical Exoskeleton

“Wha… whose twisted idea was this…”

Su Xinran muttered, her face full of black lines.

“Sa~ who knows~”

Raphael, having scored a win in their banter, replied in a smug, almost punchable tone.

Just as Su Xinran opened her mouth to snap back, a shadow loomed overhead, cutting her off mid-sentence.

A giant swung a furious straight punch toward her!

Boom!

This time, the force was even stronger.

The shattered glass of nearby ruined buildings scattered in all directions, and a flipped-over police car nearby was actually lifted into the air for several seconds from the impact.

Su Xinran’s skin prickled with danger.

She instinctively leaped backward with her eyes closed.

Somehow, that jump carried her a full 25 meters, landing her atop the roof of a five-story villa.

“Whoa! Did I awaken some kind of superpower?!”

Su Xinran stared at her own body in disbelief.

A jump like that—she’d only ever seen such things in novels.

“Idiot. That’s the mechanical exoskeleton’s doing!”

“Huh?”

Prompted by Raphael’s reminder, Su Xinran finally noticed the mechanical structure extending from the collar on her neck.

It looked like a spinal column of metal, attached to her limbs and torso.

Su Xinran squeezed her hand in disbelief.

She could feel the mechanical frame amplifying her strength—by tens of times, at least.

Her dainty pink fists might now carry unimaginable power.

“These are your three core starter items: the automatic reactive defense mesh, the magnetic storm nano-particle sword, and the mechanical exoskeleton.”

“You can earn points by killing demonic creatures or completing system-assigned missions.

Use those points to upgrade your three core gear items in the Valkyrie Points Store.

There are also all kinds of deadly goodies in the store, but I won’t spoil everything—explore it yourself later.”

“Ooooh~!”

Su Xinran was amazed.

With a cheat this powerful, she might actually be able to save humanity.

Although humanity seemed to be already extinct…

“So killing those monster things gives me points. How much do I get for taking down that one-eyed giant?”

Su Xinran asked, eyeing the furious cyclops charging at her.

“Hmm… a fully grown cyclops? That’d be 20 points.”

“Twenty points… and 0.5 points gets me a pair of luxury leather shoes. So one pair of shoes costs, what, 300 of these monsters… that means 20 points is worth…”

“Twelve thousand bucks!”

Su Xinran’s eyes sparkled.

This was like making ¥12,000 a day!

“Stop right there! This stuff isn’t meant to be used like that!!”

Raphael roared inside her head.

…

“Clang!”

With a deafening crash, the jammed door of the police car was violently kicked open.

Wang Ya crawled out of the wreckage.

“Awei… Afu… goddamn it…”

Seeing her two bloodied and unconscious subordinates, Wang Ya was consumed by rage and grief.

“Headquarters, this is Wang Ya! Requesting backup! Street C137 has a violent attack on law enforcement in progress—suspected retaliatory action by the Wild Faction! Repeat, requesting immediate support!”

Clutching the steel bar embedded in her abdomen with one hand, she used the other to call for help on the radio.

“Shit! The police department changed their transmission frequency—I didn’t intercept it!”

Not far away, in the top floor of a residential building, a one-eyed man suddenly opened his massive eye, full of fury.

Seated beside him was a man with demonic horns, manipulating a marionette.

Sweat streamed down his face as he shakily moved the strings, muttering curses:

“Where the hell did this little corpse-brat come from? Why’s she such a pain in the ass… damn it!”

“Henry, can you finish the job? If not, we better retreat—fast. That damn government hound in the police car woke up. She’s already called in reinforcements…”

“Tch… even if more government dogs show up, they’re just throwing their lives away!”

Henry pressed his palms together as a surge of immense energy began to swell.

The cyclops suddenly clutched its head and let out a pained, wailing roar.

The terrifying magical energy radiating from its body whipped Su Xinran’s clothes into a frenzy.

“Really? Going berserk because you’re losing? Could this trope be any more overused…”

Su Xinran muttered sarcastically.

“Hey! Xinran, are you still alive?”

Wang Ya’s voice suddenly called out from the distance.

She was scanning the area, looking for any sign of Su Xinran.

“Eh? I’m here!”

Su Xinran waved in response, trying to get her attention—but that moment of distraction was exactly what the now-berserk cyclops needed.

With greatly enhanced speed and strength, it lunged toward Wang Ya with a devastating punch!

“No!”

Just as Su Xinran feared she’d once again caused someone else to get hurt, what she saw left her completely stunned.

Wang Ya didn’t dodge at all—she punched straight back!

Crack!

The sound of bone breaking echoed out—Wang Ya’s arm snapped from the force—but she had successfully blocked the blow!

Despite the massive size difference, she had stopped the giant’s full-force punch with nothing but her body…

Su Xinran gasped.

“You’re twenty thousand years too early to trade punches with me, kid!”

With a snap crackle pop, Wang Ya’s shattered arm healed itself within seconds.

Despite her body being battered and her black stockings torn, she didn’t seem affected at all.

“Squelch!!”

Wang Ya yanked the steel rod from her abdomen and hurled it like a javelin straight at the giant’s eye!

Another wet squelch—the rod pierced deep into the cyclops’ eye, blood gushing out.

“Gotcha, sucker. Cyclops blood is highly corrosive!”

Henry, the horned man hiding in a nearby building, grinned wickedly.

“Oh no—Officer Wang Ya is in danger!”

Not daring to waste a second, Su Xinran lunged forward.

The mechanical exoskeleton gave her a terrifying boost, propelling her like a rocket.

She drew her lightsaber and, mid-air, performed a graceful spin—slicing the cyclops’ arm into spiral meat strips like she was carving a potato tornado.

“This… this little brat is that strong?!”

On the ground, Wang Ya ducked beneath the falling flesh and narrowly avoided the splashing blood.

Where the blood hit the ground, it hissed violently, releasing thick plumes of white smoke.

“Tch… that was close. Almost got melted into goo…”

Staring at the street, now scorched and corroded, Wang Ya muttered with lingering fear.

“Why the hell are you saving a monster, you idiot?! Wouldn’t it have been better to just let the cyclops and her kill each other?”

Raphael questioned her inside her head.

“I’m human, not a zombie. My humanity won’t let me just stand by and watch someone who isn’t fundamentally evil die in front of me!”

Su Xinran twirled her sword in a flourish, standing atop the giant’s shoulder as she walked toward its neck.

“Alright, enough torture. I’ll give you a clean death.”

Standing on the cyclops’ shoulder, Su Xinran stabbed the sword into its carotid artery.

The high temperature cauterized and sealed the wound instantly, cutting off blood flow to the brain.

The giant swayed for a moment, then crashed to the ground.

Wang Ya stared in stunned silence at Su Xinran, who stood calmly in the billowing dust cloud, as if this had all been a walk in the park.

This was a cyclops—a creature that could wipe out an entire fully-equipped human battalion.

And this little girl had just diced it up in a few blows…

There was no way this girl was just human.

Wang Ya stared intently at Su Xinran, who stood atop the cyclops’s corpse.

“Pffwah!”

From within the shadows, Henry—the horned man holding a straw doll—spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Impossible! My cyclops… ughhh!!”

He roared in fury.

The physical backlash on his body was minor, but the pain of losing his cyclops was overwhelming.

His kind were born warriors—taming one of these beasts was next to impossible!

He had imagined his cyclops shining brilliantly among the ranks of the Faction, pictured vividly how it would rampage through government forces at his command…

And yet… this little brat had just killed it.

Just like that.

“Enough, Henry. We have to go. Their reinforcements are here…”

The one-eyed man beside him said coldly.