The figure that stood before her was small. Its coat, while the same earthy hue as the adult Mud Wolves, wasn't matted with rough clay and dirt. It was smooth, almost soft-looking, catching the low light with a subtle radiance. Its tail, far from held high in aggression, wagged in a slow, uncertain, yet hopeful rhythm. A purple tongue lolled from its mouth as it panted lightly.

  The most striking feature was its eyes. They glowed the same dull yellow as its kin, but the savage, calculating gleam was absent. In its place was a wide, open curiosity, tinged with a puppy's inherent confusion.

  It was a Mud Wolf pup.

  The last thing Jessica ever expected to be stalked by in a death-cave.

  ‘What in the flaming hell!!’ Her internal scream held no terror. It was pure, undiluted bewilderment, quickly melting into another, entirely different emotion as she took in the big eyes, the wagging tail, the clumsy, oversized paws.

  ‘Why is it so cuuteeee!!’ The shriek was one of utter, helpless adoration. She stared, her flaming locust form seeming to burn a little brighter, a little softer.

  The system, for once, did not insult her. It simply observed, its text clinical yet oddly aligned with her own thoughts.

  << Unlike the adult specimens, whose fur are matted with rough clay and dirt, this pup displays a smoother texture and reflects ambient luminescence more efficiently, creating a visual profile commonly associated with non-threatening aesthetics. >>

  ‘Right on point,’ Jessica admitted, her mental voice dreamy. The pup, encouraged by her lack of movement, lowered its front half in a classic play-bow, its rear wiggling, a soft, playful whine escaping its throat. It wanted to play with the strange, fiery, buzzing thing.

  The gesture was so innocent it physically hurt her non-existent heart.

  ‘Hey! No touching!!’

  Instinct, the old human one, not the new Spark Instinct, screamed a warning. Her current body was a ceramic vase balanced on a high shelf; one clumsy paw-swipe from an excited puppy, no matter how gentle its intent, would shatter it into flaming chitin.

  Before the pup could bounce closer, Jessica’s locust legs coiled and she

  leaped!, a frantic arc of fire that landed her on a tall, solitary rock jutting from the cavern floor. It was a pedestal just out of the puppy’s reach.

  The pup gave a joyful yip and tried to follow, scrambling at the base of the rock. It jumped, its small claws scraping against stone, falling back with a comical whump. It tried again, and again, each attempt more determined, each failure more pathetic. Finally, it sat back on its haunches, panting, a soft, defeated whimper escaping it. It looked up at her with those big, luminous eyes, its head tilted in pure, unadulterated sadness.

  Jessica, standing on her rock, looked down. A profound, imaginary ache spread through her core.

  ‘Sigh… Being a weak, fragile, highly combustible prey item is not easy,’ She mumbled, the cuteness warring violently with the primal need for self-preservation. One playful chomp by mistake, and it was game over.

  To distract herself, she focused on the pup. As she did, the familiar blue screen superimposed itself over the small, forlorn creature.

  [STATUS]

  +

  Level: 2 [Infant Rank]

  Specie: Mud Wolf

  Magic Cores: [1/1]

  Innate Abilities: [Primal Instinct]

  Abilities: Unique Skill [Mud Camouflage]

  +

  Beneath the status, another, more tempting window appeared.

  << SKILL – POSSESS ACTIVE >>

  << 1 COMPATIBILITY FOUND >>

  << DO YOU WANT TO POSSESS? >>

  << YES / NO >>

  The options glowed, a simple binary choice hovering over the puppy’s head. Jessica stared at the [YES] button. A Mud Wolf body. Legs to run. Jaws to bite. Fur to… feel? It was a massive upgrade. The pup was her level. The system gave her permission.

  She stared for a long, silent moment. The pup stared back, whimpering softly.

  Then, internally, she shook her head. Her will touched the [NO] option, and the screen vanished.

  ‘That… wouldn’t be beneficial for me.’ The thought was a deep, weary sigh.

  She could feel the system’s curiosity, its impending judgmental insults. She cut it off before it could speak.

  ‘And don’t think it’s because I’m a pup-lover or because it’s too cute. It’s not because of that.’ She lifted her gaze from the puppy, looking down the dark tunnel. Then her gaze drifted back to the lonely creature sitting, waiting for her. ‘It just… offers no strategic advantage. A pup is weak. Vulnerable. It would attract attention from the adults or any other creatures. It’s a liability.’ Her internal voice took on a grim, resolute tone, the kind she imagined a hardened survivor from the novels she'd read, someone with a cold, ruthless heart forged by years of merciless hardship.. ‘And if it did offer a benefit… no matter how cute or innocent, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. The world isn’t righteous or kind. I can testify to that.’

  She let the statement hang, feeling a strange, cold solemnity settle over her. It was a mature thought. A ruthless one. The thought of someone who understood the rules of this new, brutal game.

  The system’s reply came out calm, but the words inscribed shattered the solemn mood like a rock through stained glass.

  << Sigh... I see. Not only do you demonstrably lack a brain, but you also appear to be lacking a heart. >>

  ‘Oof!’ The imaginary, grim survivor persona evaporated. A very real, very sharp pang of emotional hurt lanced through her. It was one thing to be called stupid. It was another to be called heartless by the universe’s snarkiest clipboard.

  ‘That hurts, you bastard!!’ Righteous fury, hot and bright, flooded back in. She geared up for a monumental counter-argument, a diatribe about necessary pragmatism, about survival versus sentimentality. The words piled up behind her mental teeth, ready to be fired.

  But in the end, she didn’t say any of them.

  The fury cooled, fizzled, and drained away as quickly as it had come. A heavy, quiet silence filled the space between her and the system. A few moments passed, marked only by the pup’s quiet whines and the ever-present drip of water.

  Slowly, Jessica looked back down at the Mud Wolf pup. It hadn’t moved. It just sat there, watching her, its yellow eyes holding a hope that refused to be completely extinguished. She stared, her flaming form flickering gently, saying nothing at all.

  ‘Hey, system,’ Jessica finally said, her internal voice quieter than usual, stripped of its usual defiant energy. ‘You know I’m right… right?’

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

  The system didn’t answer immediately. The pause was unusual, not a dismissive silence, but a considering one. When the text finally appeared, it was measured, devoid of its typical snark.

  << While my operational duration has been limited, an analysis of accessible world-data supports your conclusion. The parameters of survival in this world doesn't give way for those with a kind or emotionally vulnerable heart, who can't make a rational decision for their own survival.. >>

  It was an agreement. A cold, logical validation of her cold, logical decision.

  Another calm, hollow silence settled between them.

  ‘Heh…’ Jessica’s mental laugh was dry, a brittle sound in the quiet of her mind. ‘It’s as it seems, then.’

  << ...what do you mean? >>

  ‘Nothing much,’ She thought, her gaze still fixed on the lonely pup. ‘It just seems the rule here isn’t any different from the world I left behind.’ The memory of her old life, of office politics and quiet disappointments, felt very close in that moment. ‘In that world, life wasn’t a kind thing either. If you’re pushed far enough, anyone will do anything for a benefit. A kind heart is a luxury. And luxuries get used up. People will drain every last drop of your kindness, and when you’re empty, they toss you aside like garbage. They ignore what you feel. They just see a fool.’

  Awoool!...

  The mud wolf pup let out a small, plaintive howl, staring up at her, its entire body a question. 'Why won’t you come play?' Unaware of the heavy thoughts swirling above it.

  ‘You know…’ Jessica’s focus turned inward, to the memory that was always there, just beneath the panic and the snark. ‘I actually died in my previous life because of a kind heart. Or… because I saw one.’

  She pictured the busy street, the blur of the truck, Mark’s face shifting from recognition to horror as his body tensed to leap.

  ‘A friend of mine was about to rush into the street. To save a little girl from a truck. And at that moment, I stopped him. I had this thought… what if he got hit instead? What would happen to everyone who cared about him? His parents, his siblings, his fiancée… his friends. His whole, good life. Why would he risk all of that? For one stranger? It seemed… foolish.’

  She paused, the memory crystal clear and yet distant, like watching a scene from someone else’s life.

  << ...Did the little girl ended up dying >> The system’s tone was oddly calm, purely inquisitive.

  ‘Kukuku…’ A small, humorless mental chuckle escaped her. ‘Well, no. Another fool took his place. And that fool… ended up here.’ She laughed again, the sound echoing bitterly in the confines of her own consciousness. It was the ultimate punchline to her own tragic joke.

  The laughter faded. ‘But you know…’ She hesitated, searching for the truth in the messy tangle of her past actions. ‘…I just couldn’t stand his foolishness. That’s why I took his place. Because, unlike him… I had no one holding onto me. I had friends, sure. But no parents. No siblings. No fiancée. No… good life to lose.’

  The admission hung in the air, stark and simple. It wasn’t heroism. It was a trade, made from a position of having nothing to trade with.

  Below, the Mud Wolf pup’s ear suddenly twitched. It perked up, its head swiveling to stare back into the deep darkness of the tunnel from which it had come. Its tail, which had been drooping, began to wag, a slow, then fervent rhythm. It had heard something. A silent call only it could perceive.

  The pup looked up at Jessica, then back into the darkness. Back to Jessica. Its intelligent yellow eyes seemed to weigh a decision.

  Then, it leaned forward in one last, deep play-bow, its front legs stretched out, its rear in the air. It wasn’t an invitation to play this time. It was a farewell.

  With a final, almost apologetic glance, the pup turned and bounded away, its small form disappearing swiftly and silently into the shadows, answering the call of its pack.

  Jessica watched the spot where it vanished. If she’d had a face, she might have worn a calm, wistful smile. A smile that wouldn't quite reach the eyes.

  ‘You know, actually…’ She mused, her thoughts turning back to her own harsh logic. ‘If that pup had been with me for a month… or even a week… I wouldn’t have said what I said earlier. I wouldn’t have used it, even if it was beneficial. Not after that.’ She gave a dejected, internal shake of her head. A heavy, imaginary sigh filled her mind. ‘Sigh… In the end, I’m still just a fool. A weak-hearted fool.’

  The system’s response was instantaneous, its timing impeccable, its tone perfectly flat.

  << Clarification: you do not possess a heart, nor do you currently have the capacity to gain one. But, yes... You're a fool ^^. >>

  The solemn mood, the poignant self-reflection, the bittersweet farewell, all of it evaporated in a geyser of pure, indignant outrage.

  ‘WHY IN THE FLAMING HELL ARE YOU ALWAYS RUBBING IT IN MY FACE, YOU BASTARD!!’

  Her mental scream shattered the cave’s quiet. Without another look back, her flaming locust body coiled and launched itself with a furious Leap-boing!! deeper into the dark tunnel, the echoes of her one-sided argument with the universe’s most pedantic conscience fading behind her.

  ***

  The deeper Jessica plunged, the more the world changed. The reliable glow of the phosphorescent fungi began to thin, then fade, swallowed by a thicker, more oppressive darkness. Her own fiery aura became the sole source of light, painting the rough cave walls in shifting orange and blue. The stone gave way in patches to damp, spongy earth and clusters of rotten wood. From this decaying matter grew mushrooms, some emitting a faint, sickly luminescence, others just dark caps in the shadows.

  It was a place of slow rot, not the violent hunger of the wolf cavern.

  Her jerky leap-boing! progress finally halted at another junction. The tunnel forked again. Left, or right. Two identical mouths of impenetrable black.

  A deep, weary mental sigh escaped her. 'Again?' The choice felt heavier this time. The three-way fork had led to wolves. This binary decision felt like it could be the pivot, the turn that led upward toward light and air, or downward into something worse. She had no map, no clue, only the stubborn need to move forward.

  ‘Well,’ she reasoned, trying to muster optimism, ‘it’s not like a great danger is just going to be waiting right at the start of a new tunnel.’

  Famous last words had been uttered with less conviction.

  Drawing on the only precedent she had, the bold, ultimately wrong guess from days ago she made her choice. If right had led to chaos, maybe left would lead to calm.

  She picked the left-hand tunnel.

  With a decisive, if slightly desperate, Leap-boing!! she launched herself into the gloom.

  She managed three such leaps before her entire being seized up.

  It wasn’t a sound or a sight. It was a primal shriek from her newly acquired [Spark Instinct], a sensation of invisible tripwires snapping all around her. DANGER.

  Her locust body froze in mid-scuttle, legs splayed. Instinctively, a hot, acidic pressure built at the back of her throat, a tiny, volatile sphere of flame and venom, her [Flame Acid Ball], primed and ready to fire.

  Her wide-angle vision scanned the darkness ahead. What emerged from the shadows made her tense posture slacken for a fraction of a second in sheer disbelief.

  It was… harmless. Comical, even.

  A small, bulbous mushroom cap, pale and spotted, tottered toward her on two impossibly thin, needle-like legs. It moved with a slow, dreamy shuffle, like a sleepwalker lost in a fungal dream. It seemed utterly unaware of her fiery presence.

  But Jessica knows. Appearances sometimes were lethal liars.

  She focused, and the blue status screen materialized over the shuffling thing.

  [STATUS]

  +

  Level: 2 [Infant Rank]

  Specie: Mushrooper

  Magic Cores: [1/1]

  Innate Abilities: [Self-Detonation]

  Abilities: Unique Skill [Burst Speed]

  +

  ‘Self-Detonation.’ The words cut through any trace of amusement. The harmless walker was a mobile bomb.

  Her instinct had been right. There would be no observation, no careful study. Her throat glowed as she prepared to release the charged attack, to erase the threat before it could get close.

  Just as she began to open her locust maw, her [Spark Instinct] screamed again, not a general warning, but a specific, urgent command: MOVE! NOW!

  She didn’t think. She threw her body to the side in a frantic, tumbling leap.

  In the space she had occupied a microsecond before, the Mushrooper appeared. Its slow shuffle was a lie. With [Burst Speed], it had crossed the gap in a blur too fast to see. Its pale cap swelled grotesquely, inflating like a overfilled bladder.

  Jessica, sprawled on the stone, didn’t wait for the expansion to complete. Her head swiveled, and she spat.

  The [Flame Acid Ball], a compact sphere of sizzling green-and-orange, shot through the damp air and struck the swelling Mushrooper dead center.

  For a heartbeat, there was only the sizzle-crackle of acid eating into fungus.

  BOOOM!

  The sound was surprisingly loud in the confined space, a wet, concussive thump that rattled Jessica’s chitin. The Mushrooper vanished in a puff of glowing spores and fragments of smoldering cap. The explosion left a small, scorched dent in the cave floor.

  Silence rushed back in, thicker than before, now ringing with the echo of the blast.

  Jessica slowly picked herself up, her fiery antennae twitching. She stared at the scorch mark, then down the dark tunnel ahead.

  ‘Glad it was just one,’ she murmured inwardly, the thought laced with a tremor of relief. She took a hesitant step forward, then paused, re-evaluating her choice. 'Left tunnel. Great danger right at the start. Maybe… maybe I should go back? Try the right'

  Her [Spark Instinct] didn’t sparkle this time. It erupted.

  It was a violent, sensory overload, a fireworks display of pure, undiluted panic that screamed through every fiber of her borrowed being. She physically shuddered, her flame guttering low.

  Her gaze, compelled by dread, lifted from the scorch mark and traveled down the length of the left-hand tunnel, into the deep darkness beyond the reach of her light.

  The darkness began to move.

  Not with a single, sleepy shuffle. But with a slow, then quickening, tide.

  From behind rocky outcroppings, from within crevices in the rotten wood, from the shadows of larger mushrooms, they emerged. Not one. Not two.

  Dozens. Then hundreds.

  A silent, shuffling, pale-capped army of Mushroopers. Their needle legs tick-tick-ticked against the stone in a rising, horrifying chorus. As one, their bulbous bodies began to orient toward her, the lone source of heat and light in their dark realm.

  Jessica’s mental voice was very small, very quiet, and filled with the purest form of self-recrimination.

  ‘Shit… me and my god-damned mouth.’