"Phew, finally finished."
Having just completed another lap around the scavenger settlement, Gavo wiped the sweat from her forehead and waited for the system notification to appear.
[Objective complete: Travel 5 kilometers. Physical attributes comprehensively improved.]
[Reward granted: Tactical Retreat. Running speed greatly increased. Your running posture is extremely unique, and when under attack, there is a chance that someone else will block it for you.]
Gavo's mouth twitched slightly.
Judging by the description, this talent was definitely strong.
But why did it feel like something was very wrong with the style?
"Then next, I'll just keep scavenging and training on a regular schedule while waiting for a new system objective to appear."
The current Gavo was extremely self-disciplined. She practically wished she could train thirty Terran hours a day, even though Autanta's time cycle was similar to Terra's, with only twenty-four Terran hours in a day.
These days, she was even doing push-ups beside Old Bill while listening to his stories.
Gavo looked up at the yellow-green smog hanging over the underhive.
At this moment, only scattered remnants of the setting sun could pierce the thick haze, spilling weakly over this filth-covered land.
"I should go home, or Father will start worrying again."
Thinking that, Gavo took a step forward.
And then she was stunned by her own speed.
The current Gavo's average running speed was now more than triple what it had been before.
That sudden increase in speed nearly threw her body out of balance.
Fortunately, thanks to Infinite Growth, her excellent physical coordination allowed her to adapt to the change almost immediately.
[You are running. Leg muscles strengthened. Endurance and explosive power increased.]
As the fierce wind rushed past her body, Gavo unexpectedly felt the thrill of speeding along in a racing machine.
Just as she was enjoying the pleasure of running and chasing the light of home beneath the dim sky, an inexplicable sense of danger rose in her heart.
At a corner formed by a collapsed concrete wall, her left hand suddenly shot out and dug hard into the wall's surface. At the same time, her core tightened and her right foot stomped forward, forcing her body into an extreme emergency stop.
The instant she stopped, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound through the air, a thick steel rebar came spinning at high speed and slammed into the space right in front of her, embedding itself deep into the concrete wall.
In an instant, debris flew everywhere, and vicious cracks spread across the once smooth surface of the collapsed wall.
Gavo's heartbeat gradually began to accelerate. Lowering her center of gravity, she leaned forward and turned her gaze toward the upper-right corner of the bend.
On a platform formed by broken walls and rubble, a figure slowly stepped out from a blind spot that had hidden him a moment ago.
It was a boy around twelve years old, with hard facial lines and a sturdy build. At roughly one meter seventy, he would already count as tall among children his age.
When Gavo's eyes landed on his face, her pupils contracted slightly.
He had no nose and no lips. His wax-yellow teeth and two black empty holes were exposed openly to the air, making him look like some bloodthirsty ghoul.
"That's him, the mask freak!"
The rabbit-lipped boy, supported by the fish-eyed one, also stepped out from that same blind spot and glared at Gavo with a vicious stare.
The tall boy looked at Gavo with both arms crossed over his chest, making no move at all.
But under Gavo's combat instincts, his threat level was rising rapidly.
The fact that he had become the leader among those naturally brutal feral children, combined with the fact that he had managed to grow this sturdy in the underhive garbage pit, was more than enough to prove that he was a true monster.
And judging from the steel bar deeply embedded in the concrete wall, he was absolutely some kind of freak with terrifying strength.
After a long pause, his horrifying tooth-bared mouth moved, and a hoarse, low voice emerged from it.
"Rabbit-Mouth, this little shrimp is the one who put you down?"
Rabbit-Mouth quickly explained with his toothless split lips,
"Mir, he's really fast, and really strong too. I couldn't react at all."
A gleam of interest appeared in Mir's eyes when he heard that.
Then he jumped down in a single leap, his powerful body sending up a huge cloud of dust.
Gavo's alertness rose to its maximum at once, fully prepared for him to launch an attack from within the dust.
But even after the dust settled and Mir's full figure was revealed, she still saw no sign that he intended to strike.
"You hit one of my brothers, so of course I need to get our face back."
"But you look way too... small. If word gets out, people will say I bullied someone weaker than me."
"How about this. I'll give you a chance. Hit me three times. If you can make me take even one step back, then we'll call this entir..."
Before he could finish speaking, his vision blurred. In the next instant, a tiny fist smashed brutally into his face.
That seemingly delicate, childish fist carried astonishing kinetic force under the acceleration of speed, and Mir's exposed teeth and nasal cavity took the full impact head-on.
"So annoying. Father is still waiting for me at home."
Gavo was getting irritated. Why did these people just keep coming one after another?
Might as well beat the leader badly enough this time.
One punch to stop a hundred more from coming later.
"Hm?"
As Gavo's body hung in midair after leaping up to throw the punch, a thread of danger crawled through her instincts.
This punch had felt wrong.
Subconsciously, she looked toward Mir's face, only to see, through the gaps between her fingers, a pair of bloodthirsty eyes burning with excitement.
Those pale green pupils held astonishing combat lust. His fighting spirit was so intense it seemed like real flames were blazing in his eyes.
Gavo's hair stood on end instantly. Her right leg snapped up toward her abdomen, while her left arm braced behind it.
A powerful sweeping kick then slammed into the guard she had managed to put up in advance, blasting the still-airborne Gavo away like a sack.
Gavo spun twice through the air following the force, landed steadily, then sprang back up with a kip-up, successfully shedding most of the impact.
But her right leg, which had taken the blow head-on, sent waves of numbness and stabbing pain through her, and her abdomen, shaken by the force, began to churn violently as well.
Mir looked even worse.
Broken and loosened teeth fell from his exposed gums, while bloody mucus mixed with snot streamed nonstop from his two nasal holes.
"That was the first punch. Come on, again!"
The fire of battle in his eyes seemed to burn even more fiercely than before.
Mir's legs were as steady as forged steel. Aside from the kick he had just launched, he had not moved even half a step from where he stood.
Looking at the monster in front of her, Gavo's heartbeat began pounding violently in her chest.
She knew that this might be her chance to test the full extent of her strength.
The blood of battle flowing through her veins had been stirred awake. Intense excitement stimulated her cerebral cortex, driving a wild surge of endorphins and dopamine.
The joy and exhilaration rising from the depths of her heart twisted the originally delicate face beneath her gas mask into something like a frightening smile.
(End of Chapter)
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