The stone temple was damp. It smelled of death. But to Aria, it was the most intoxicating perfume imaginable — the scent of rare herbs.
She stepped inside. Her white silk gown swept across the filthy floor without leaving a single stain. Around her body, a dome of green light pulsed softly, turning away the toxic air of the Skull Swamp before it could touch her porcelain skin.
Aria's gaze shot straight to the stone wall in the far corner of the temple.
Empty.
Where Death Mushrooms should have been growing — Tier-4 ingredients for the Elixir of Resurrection — there was nothing left but black smears.
Ash.
Someone had just burned something worth a full set of Legendary Armor into garbage.
"Who in their right mind would do this?" Aria murmured.
The tip of her staff scraped through the blackened residue. Still warm.
"Come out." Her voice was flat, but the wave of Mana carried the words into every corner of the temple. "I know you're there. Low-level Stealth doesn't work on me."
Silence.
Then, from behind a cracked stone pillar, a shadow stepped forward.
[NPC: VILLAGE RESIDENT]
"Did you burn this?" Aria's staff rose an inch. The gem at its tip flared green — a Magic Missile, ready to fire.
"My mother needs medicine," said Li Wei. His voice was hoarse. "It was the only way to slow the poison."
Aria let out a humorless laugh. "You burned materials that could have saved hundreds of Players... for one worthless NPC?"
Terrible math. Ten bottles of Revive Potion traded for a single NPC life that held no value in the server's economy.
"Move," Aria said coldly. "Don't make me kill you just for standing in my way."
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The light from her staff was blinding. Pure killing intent.
Li Wei didn't budge. His dark eyes stared straight into those brilliant blue ones.
"I know where the nest is."
The green glow dimmed by an inch. "What?"
"That mushroom." Li Wei's tone was steady. "What was on that wall — that was just a sprout. The mother colony grows in an underground cave, behind the roots of a giant tree. You'll never find it without a guide."
Aria went quiet. Her eyes swept across his face, his breathing pattern, the rhythm of his heartbeat.
Honest. This NPC wasn't lying.
"Interesting." The staff lowered. "You're negotiating with me?"
"An exchange," Li Wei corrected. His hand pointed toward Madam Mei, collapsed weakly on the stone floor. "Heal her. Until she wakes up. After that, I'll take you to the mushroom's nest."
Aria crossed the room at a leisurely pace. A transparent UI window materialized as she ran a quick Scan on the old woman.
Aria's eyes went wide.
[QUEST ITEM: JADE OF THE LOST DYNASTY]
[STATUS: SOUL BOUND]
[HOST CONDITION: CRITICAL (HP 2%)]
A thin smile spread across Aria's lips.
"Ah... so that's what this is all about."
The entire server had been scrambling to hunt down this item. If the NPC died, it would drop. Those battle-crazed brutes would get their hands on it — and throw the server's balance even further into chaos.
But if the woman lived...
They'd spend forever searching for something that would never hit the ground. An incredibly tempting idea.
"Fine," Aria decided, fixing her gaze on Li Wei. "I accept your offer, Clever NPC."
"My name is Li Wei."
"Whatever."
Aria raised her staff. The green gem detonated in a burst of radiance that swallowed the temple's gloom whole.
[SKILL: DIVINE TRANSFUSION]
The light descended, wrapping around Madam Mei like a silk shroud.
Li Wei held his breath. The blue tinge slowly faded from his mother's lips. Her sallow, dried-out skin filled back in. The raw scrapes along her aged arms knit themselves closed.
[HP: 5%... 10%... 15%...]
A miracle. Or at least, that was what Li Wei thought.
Until he looked around.
The green moss blanketing the temple walls shriveled in seconds. Gray. Then crumbling into dust. The stone earth beneath Aria's feet cracked apart like the aftermath of a year-long drought. Wildflowers wedged between the tiles wilted, their petals blackening and disintegrating.
Li Wei's eyes stretched wide with horror.
Aria wasn't conjuring life from nothing. She was stealing it.
Siphoning vitality from the earth, from every microscopic organism floating in the air, then forcing it all into Madam Mei's body.
Not an angel. A massive white-winged leech — feeding on the world to keep one "patient" alive.
[SYSTEM WARNING]
[WARNING: Your action is disrupting the Main Quest 'The Fall of Jade Dynasty'.]
[PENALTY: -500 Reputation Points if continued.]
Aria scoffed, waving her hand at the empty air as if swatting away a fly. "Noisy. I'm a doctor, not a system admin."
[MOTHER'S HP: 30% (STABLE)]
The green light extinguished.
Madam Mei drew a long, deep breath. Her eyelids trembled before slowly opening. "Wei...?"
Li Wei dropped to his knees instantly, pulling his mother into a tight embrace. Warmth. That heartbeat, pounding strong against his chest again.
Aria stood frozen a few steps behind. The color had drained slightly from her face — she was fighting the weight of a massive Mana drain. Her eyes, cold as ice, watched the small reunion unfold.
Transaction complete.
"She's alive," Aria cut in flatly. "Now it's your turn. Where's the nest?"
Li Wei loosened his embrace, slowly. He propped his mother upright against the pillar — the pillar that was now brittle, its life force freshly drained.
Li Wei stood up. He pulled off his worn-out shirt, about to drape it over his mother's shoulders.
"Hey!" The color flooded back into Aria's alabaster face in an instant.
Her hand shot out, dug into her spatial ring, and yanked out a thick cloth robe. She hurled it straight at Li Wei's face.
"Put that on."
"...Okay."
Li Wei slipped on the gray robe. His gaze lingered on Aria. A flicker of gratitude was there — but it was swallowed whole by something far darker.
A cold, quiet wariness. The wariness of a native who had just witnessed the true face of Player Kindness up close.
Kindness that burns the world to save one life.
"Follow me," Li Wei said, absolute.
He walked away from the temple — a temple now entirely, irreversibly dead — with Aria at his back.
Two entities, each using the other. One leech who saves lives. One rat who sells away the secrets of his own world.
Outside that stone doorway, the Skull Swamp waited, hungry.
