Chapter 82: Return to Blackpine

A little over an hour later, two delivery workers brought an equipment case into the apartment.

Lin Yan opened the lid. A complete suit of black scale armor was secured in the lining: helmet, breastplate, pauldrons, bracers, and leg armor.

While he’d been waiting for his fingers to grow back, Claire had contacted him to confirm that the dragon scales could be made into armor. He’d exchanged for another seven scales to supply the remaining materials, leaving him with only twenty-five hundred Contribution Points. Part of the dragon blood covered the fabrication fee. When the designer contacted him about the appearance, Lin Yan had only one request: make it terrifying enough to unnerve people on sight.

"The full set weighs eleven point four kilograms. Made to your measurements."

The delivery worker handed him the fitting instructions. Lin Yan picked up the breastplate. Even with several layers of scales overlapping, it felt light.

"What about the dragon blood? Found anything yet?"

"It’s still being studied. Ms. Claire said she’ll contact you when there are results."

"Okay. How much protection does this armor offer?"

"The plates have a surface Vickers hardness of nine hundred HV, along with high fracture toughness. The layered structure also distributes impact loads effectively."

"Can you put that in plain English?"

"It easily stopped standard 7.62-millimeter full-power rifle rounds in testing."

Lin Yan hefted the breastplate. The finished plates were smooth to the touch, and even several overlapping scales lacked the weight of ordinary metal armor.

"Help me try it on."

The delivery workers adjusted the straps for him. Lin Yan threw a few punches, then bent at the waist. The plates around his shoulders and elbows shifted with his movements, letting him move freely.

Once he’d confirmed the fit, Lin Yan signed for the equipment and saw them out.

He walked over to the mirror. The black scale armor followed his broad chest and back, tapering toward his waist, while the pauldrons made him look even more imposing. He stood the nodachi beside him and grinned at his reflection.

"Damn, I look good."

But when his gaze reached the helmet’s faceplate, he froze for a moment.

The face had regular features, a smooth forehead, a straight nose, and lips held in a flat line, like a statue gazing down at worshippers in a temple. Deep-set eye sockets hid his eyes in shadow. The expression was solemn and cold, concealing even the grin he was wearing beneath it.

That’s me?

Lin Yan tilted his head, and the face in the mirror moved with him. Such a natural movement paired with that frozen expression made him uneasy. It was as though the thing standing there merely wore a human face; what lay beneath the armor was suddenly harder to say.

After staring at it for a few seconds, he lifted the faceplate. His own face reappeared, and the sense of strangeness faded.

"...They really did make it how I asked."

Lin Yan took off the helmet, set it aside, and picked up his phone.

The Wendigo commission was still listed.

A week had passed, and several new operation logs had appeared beneath the bounty pool. The latest had been uploaded yesterday evening. Its result was still: target not found.

The truth was, he’d gotten a little rattled after that first trip. He wasn’t going to underestimate it again, so he’d waited for his fingers to recover and his armor to arrive.

He sent Luke a message.

"Been back to the forest lately?"

While he waited for a reply, the morning news on the television moved to the next story.

On-screen, a stretch of desert highway had collapsed down the middle. The guardrail had snapped in two, and several trucks stood farther away. The aerial camera followed a ridge of sand moving across the desert. When it passed beneath an abandoned toll station, the entire building sank into the sand.

"Local authorities have closed the surrounding roads. Based on available footage, the unidentified creature is estimated to be over eighty meters long. Tracking efforts are ongoing..."

Eighty meters.

The things on the news were getting more ridiculous by the day.

The next clip had been filmed aboard a fishing boat.

The camera shook violently. A shrimp the size of a pig was waving its pincers on the deck while several fishermen surrounded it with long poles. One tried to get a landing net over it. The shrimp snapped its tail and knocked him into a fish box behind him. The person filming swore, and the camera swung toward the sky.

"Holy shit. Are they going to need warships to go fishing now?"

"Still, shrimp lovers are in luck. Plenty of meat, less peeling. One of those would be a hell of a meal."

The footage cut back to the anchor.

"All fishermen are advised to keep a safe distance from any anomalous creatures they catch and contact maritime authorities immediately. Please do not attempt to handle them yourselves. Prioritize your own safety..."

His phone vibrated.

Luke had sent several messages.

"Went three times. Came up empty every time."

"We tried those methods online for luring it out, too. Threw several buckets of meat in there."

"Something happened at the northern cordon today. A patrol vehicle got attacked, and they just updated the location. We’re on our way."

Lin Yan opened the commission.

A red marker had appeared on the northern side of the map. The attached photograph showed a patrol vehicle overturned beside the road. Its door had been torn open, and the claw marks on the frame matched those he’d seen on the trees near the campsite.

"I’m coming too."

"See you there."

Lin Yan closed the commission page and headed out with his helmet and nodachi.

A little over an hour later, the car reached the outskirts of Blackpine Forest.

But before they reached the marked location, Lin Yan heard a burst of gunfire from the woods, followed immediately by another.

Shit. Something’s wrong.

"Stop here."

He immediately called the support number he’d saved earlier.

"There’s gunfire near the northern cordon. Send support."

He got out before the car had fully stopped and charged into the woods toward the gunfire. Dead branches snapped beneath his feet, and the brush bent aside as he forced his way through. A stretch of road came into view ahead.