Yet another target from the underworld.

The three of them exchanged glances, the atmosphere thick as a powder magazine reeking of gasoline, just waiting for a single spark to set off an explosion—literally. The pair of ears atop the white fox’s head twitched slightly, her dagger glinting with a chilling light.

“How do you know where I live?” came the muffled female voice from beneath her gas mask, her tone irritable as she threw out her question: “Did the platform sell my information?”

Chen Shang shrugged, resting the crowbar on the ground.
“No, I never bought your information. I just happen to know you live here. I’ve come to bring you a commission—and a reward you would never expect.”

The explosive maniac assassin was utterly taken aback by Chen Shang’s words. After a brief moment of thought, she asked, “So what’s your commission? And what’s the reward?”

“You’ll team up with me to participate in the Grand Arena three months from now—and win the championship,” Chen Shang replied with a smile. “As for the reward… According to some inside information, this season’s champion will receive a box of ‘Gene Repair Serum.’ That’s something you want, isn’t it?”

“Wait! Wait…”
Chen Shang’s words had left the assassin completely bewildered. She clawed at her hair, her fox ears twitching frantically, and only after a long pause did she manage to collect her thoughts:
“You’re saying you want me to join you in the tournament… The reward is the champion’s prize, which is the ‘Gene Repair Serum’?”

“That’s right. Is there a problem?” Chen Shang tilted his head in return.

“Ugh, this is such a mess! Of course there’s a problem!” The white fox, apparently the type whose mind overheats when she tries to think, grew even more irritable.
“If I could get the ‘Gene Repair Serum,’ I’d join that deathtrap of a tournament for sure! But how do you know what the champion’s prize is? Isn’t the official announcement only made at the finals? And—how do you know I need that stuff?”

Faced with this barrage of questions, Chen Shang pinched his chin and smiled with a leisurely air. “Of course I know everything. I know your body can’t hold out much longer, and if you don’t get treatment soon, you’ll lose your mind completely.”

The old hunter beside them watched the riddle-monger and the manic woman squabble, his expression asking, “What am I even doing here?”

“Ah, you strange brat!” Suddenly, a puff of white smoke burst from the white fox’s head as she snapped, nearly losing control.
“How can you know where I live and so casually reveal my personal secrets?!… You must be from the Factory! You’re here to drag me back, aren’t you? Maybe I should just blow you up to be safe!”

Seeing her mental overload, Chen Shang frowned and retreated behind the old hunter. “Her brain’s fried. Looks like we’ll have to fight.”

The old hunter looked at Chen Shang with exasperation and whispered, “Why did you even come here?”

“To recruit her for the Grand Arena, of course!” Chen Shang slapped his knee as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Then why are you suddenly about to fight her?” the old hunter asked.

“Then let’s just fight! This is the underground district—there’s nothing that can’t be solved with a brawl.” Chen Shang nodded solemnly, as if his logic was irrefutable.

“You little—” The old hunter was at a loss for words.

When it came to the demolitionist known as “White Fox,” Chen Shang’s memory was particularly vivid. In the original game, she appeared midway as a boss in a certain subjugation quest. This nearly insane woman would throw bombs at every living thing she encountered, becoming a nightmare-level, chain-exploding lunatic.

Players could complete the bounty mission issued by the police by defeating or capturing her.

But perhaps few knew that, despite her notorious reputation, White Fox’s life was nothing short of tragic.

If Chu Jianlai’s tragedy was like someone setting his family’s outhouse aflame, resulting in a methane blast that killed them all, then White Fox’s suffering was more like being thrown into a cesspit and left to soak—tortured endlessly, like a frog being slowly boiled alive.

Well, if you’re eating right now, my apologies. I sincerely hope you can enjoy your meals in peace in the future, rather than reading this during lunch.

Back to the story—according to the lore, “White Fox” was originally a mildly mutated individual affected by radiation, her animal ears the most obvious sign. But for the poor living in the slums, it was all too easy to be tricked by plutocrats or research organizations into becoming guinea pigs for human experimentation.

The plutocrats might promise them a fortune, or perhaps just a hearty meal. These destitute souls, battered by hardship, would gratefully follow their benefactors to some unlicensed private factory, only to be subjected to inhuman biochemical weapon experiments.

In the experiment codenamed “Bombman Operative,” White Fox survived as the sole remaining subject. She didn’t remember how she was tortured, nor how she escaped the factory in her delirium. All she knew was that she gained two abilities: immortality, and the power to make her body explode.

Like Chu Jianlai, her wounds would rapidly regenerate. But at the same time, her body was in a constant state of explosion.
Every single cell in her body was perpetually alternating between destruction and repair, annihilating everything around her—and herself.

Such agony defied description, a despair akin to the torments of hell.
For three years after her escape, she could only writhe and struggle in the desert, barely able to keep her sanity.

Her flesh would burst and heal, the sand pitted with craters wherever she passed, like a human timebomb that would never stop detonating.

In the fourth year, she finally managed to endure the pain and stand upright. Every nerve in her body screamed with agony, but her mind had grown numb. She couldn’t kill herself, so all she could do was seek ways to ease her suffering.

By her sixth year of wandering the desert, she gradually adapted to the pain. Years of constant tension had rendered her muscles denser and her reflexes sharper than any ordinary person.

It was then that she met an armorer. Threatened by her, the armorer had no choice but to tailor a combat suit from soft, explosion-resistant fibers to suit her condition.

Once she donned this suit, White Fox no longer had to worry about accidentally detonating everything she touched; the explosions erupting from within her body would be fully absorbed by the fibers clinging to her skin. As long as she kept the suit on, she wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Thanks to this gear, she could finally enter Night Pivot City as a normal person. But for her, the relentless, shattering pain never faded, and her mind was constantly tormented.

She found it hard to think straight, quickly growing agitated, and always wanted to blow something up at the slightest provocation.

Though she became a professional assassin through recommendation, she never managed to control her violent temper—when angered, she’d blow up her clients too.

This year, she happened to hear that the Radiobird Company had produced a drug called “Gene Repair Serum,” said to cure all gene-related diseases, including cancer and severe radiation mutations. Rumor had it that this serum could cure her, but even a single vial cost more than she could earn in decades.

To make matters worse, as her reputation as an explosive maniac spread, she received fewer and fewer jobs, barely able to pay rent, and ended up squatting in an abandoned factory in the underground district.

And now, out of nowhere, a kid barely old enough to be called a brat showed up, swearing he could get her the Gene Repair Serum she’d dreamed of for so long?

For a moment, White Fox didn’t know whether to trust this smooth-talking child. All she knew was that her brain was close to overheating again, as if the very act of thinking would make her head explode like a bomb.

If that’s the case, then let’s fight! Blow everything up and clear her head!

A muffled, manic laugh echoed from beneath her mask as White Fox, dagger in hand, charged at her two unexpected guests with lightning speed.

“Here she comes! Let’s knock her down first, then talk business,” Chen Shang said, pulling a collapsible light crossbow from his pack and giving instructions to the old hunter.

The old hunter gripped his dagger in silence, looking at her as one might at a wild beast prowling the wasteland.