Shaw ran down the street, dodging abandoned cars and trucks alike in the process. Falling not far behind was the Shadow Spider. Its appendages cut into the ground with every step. The black and blue patterns shone under the lowering sun.

The spider considered itself as the predator. It had no idea how wrong it was.

The spider would occasionally try to catch up to Shaw and impale her with its appendages or melt her alive with its acid, but Shaw had been keeping a close eye on what was behind her, and her reflexes made it very difficult for the spider to take her by surprise.

In front of Shaw was a residential apartment complex, and Shaw was heading for one of the apartments. Even as she ran, she could distinctly see several figures peeking out of the windows. There were a lot of rooms in the apartment, and there were a lot of survivors within those rooms who had managed to evade the NPCs. For now.

These survivors clearly didn't enjoy the idea of being charged at by a giant spider. Many of them opened the windows and screamed at Shaw to lead this monster somewhere else. A bad idea on their part, as their voices would inevitably attract the attention of the monsters within the building.

Shaw didn't care about these survivors. She kept on heading for that apartment with the Shadow Spider right beside her. Finally, with one leap, she charged through the glass door and got into the lobby.

The Shadow Spider was a little...confused. As Shaw disappeared from its vision, it wasn't too sure what to do next. Charge into that giant building? Its size meant that it wouldn’t be the most effective within tight space. In fact, it wouldn’t be effective at all. Perhaps it should just return to its spawn point?

The spider’s thoughts quickly became meaningless when Shaw peeked her head out of the lobby and waved at it. Its animal instincts took over again, and the Shadow Spider smashed its massive body right through the entrance and into the lobby.

Shaw chuckled as her figure disappeared into one of the hallways.

The spider was far from the wisest. As it shoved its giant form into the lobby, the arachnid inevitably ran into more than a handful of the support beams within the space. It was also so large that its back was pressed against the ceiling. The Shadow Spider, feeling trapped and restrained, struggled even harder. That was disastrous as, within seconds, the entire apartment started shaking.

“Oh...something tells me this building is not constructed according to the regulations.” Shaw scoffed as she felt the ground shake. Of course, she knew this wouldn’t be enough. If the spider tried to flee now, it still had a chance of getting out. As such, she decided to add a little more...fire.

Once again, she popped her head out of the corner, and she made sure the spider saw it.

The spider screeched into the air once again. Its appendages pressed against the ground once again as it tried to break free and charge into Shaw. Unfortunately for the arachnid, that only dealt another blow to the building itself. This time, pieces of the ceiling were starting to fall down. Shaw personally watched as more than a handful of bricks came down on the spider’s head and back. The bricks alone didn't achieve much, but if it was the entire building coming down...that would be another story.

The arachnid was still struggling, but its fury was futile as more and more of the ceiling collapsed onto its head. Even if it tried to back out now, the exit was already mostly covered by debris. In one final act of desperation, it aimed its mouth at Shaw’s direction and sent another acidic vomit her way.

“How unsurprising!” Shaw smirked and went back over the corner. She knew she no longer needed to occupy the spider’s attention. All she had to worry about now was getting herself out of this doomed apartment building.

Without wasting another second, the young woman turned and ran down the hallway. Within a few steps, she had reached a staircase, which she proceeded to climb up. Soon, she was on the third floor.

An entity that was clearly an NPC launched itself at her. She cut it into two with one swift stroke without even seeing what it was.

Not bothering with something as trivial as knocking, Shaw shoved her way through the wooden door to one of the rooms. She had no idea if the tenants here were still alive, not that it mattered given what she just did. She ran to the window and looked down.

Even now, the building was still shaking, and Shaw knew it would just be a matter of time before the entire building fell. Perhaps the construction company that built the apartment did a fine job, but it clearly didn't prepare for the possibility of a giant spider rampaging through its foundations.

Shaw could see now that she was gone, the spider was trying to retreat, but the debris at the entrance made it nearly impossible. Two of its appendages were all that was outside the looby as far as she could see. Good. With one giant leap, she threw herself out of the window.

For most people, throwing themselves out of the third floor would result in a nasty ‘splat’. For Shaw, the result was a simple ‘stomp’. Her legs were planted into the concrete ground, and she did feel some pain from her legs, but aside from that, she was perfectly fine.

As the lobby was still filled with chaos, Shaw turned around and simply enjoyed the view.

Shaw’s assessment of the structural integrity of the apartment building was correct. In less than a minute, the entire apartment had fully collapsed. Countless tons of bricks, debris, and random objects came down on the spider’s head and back. The initial blow was bad, but what was worth it was the weight. Most of the objects that hit the spider did little damage, but as these things piled on the spider's body and quickly added up, the spider's situation became a lot more deadly.

As always, there was plenty of collateral damage. Shaw could see figures jumping out of the windows. Survivors who were desperate to escape the doomed building, only to meet an equally doomed fate. It was a pity, really. If they kept an eye on the surroundings...perhaps they could’ve made it out. Perhaps. Somehow. Either way, that was the consequence of being powerless in a brutal world. One could’ve done nothing wrong, and still become collateral damage in someone else’s fight. And in the end, there was nothing the victims could do.

If Shaw had the opportunity, she probably could've chosen another building with fewer survivors inside to lead the spider into, but most smaller buildings wouldn't do as much damage to the spider. She also didn't have too much time to pick and choose with a furious spider on her back.

Finally, as the dust settled, Shaw flipped her Silver Sword in her hand and slowly approached what was left of the structure. A bloodthirsty smirk was on her face. The spider was finished. High-level players could practically ignore a few hundred tons of debris, but the spider wasn’t at that level yet, and its size meant it took the full brunt of the hit, unlike Shaw. It likely survived, but it should be in no position to put up a fight. Now, she just had to worry about getting the final kill and, in doing that, the exp.

“Ok...let’s see how our little NPC is doing.”

Shaw whispered to herself. As she made her way over the debris, her leg suddenly hit something. She looked down and found this something to be a body. More specifically, the body of a little child.

Shaw bit her lips and let out a small sigh. Once again, this child was never going to survive the apocalypse, not that anyone did in the end. She was never going to be a player, and her existence was worthless. It was unfortunate that she had become collateral damage during the fight between Shaw and the Shadow Spider, but if Shaw had to do this again, she wouldn’t change a thing.

Like what she said to the store owner earlier this day, in this world, the strong had everything while the weak had nothing. In this context, she was powerful, so she decided who could live and who could die. The residents across these buildings were weak, so they had no voice. All they could do was cower in their homes and pray that nothing bad would come to them. And the unlucky ones whose prayers weren't answered? They suffered and died. Simple as that.

This was the reality of this world, and Shaw accepted it. When she had to play god and choose who lived and who died, she accepted it. And if one day, someone stronger than her brutalizes and kills her, she would accept that as well. She would still resist and fight, but in the end, she knew this was just how things were.

She couldn’t change this world. All she could do was empower herself...no matter the price.

“Rest in peace, little one.”

Shaw whispered before continuing her path. Soon, after searching in the debris for a while, she found her way to the Shadow Spider.

The NPC was still alive, but it was crippled and essentially defenseless. Most of its body was still buried under all the stones, metal, and concrete. Countless tons of construction material came down on its back carapace and almost crushed it like a bug. Its corrosive blood kept on floating out of its multitude of injuries, only to futilely burn away against the lifeless concrete. Only two of its legs were free. The rest were crushed under the bricks.

It looked like after the building itself collapsed, the spider was still able to drag its crippled body through the metals and pull its head out of the wreckage. Considering the amount of material dropped onto its body, that alone was a testament to its strength and resilience.

With her sword in hand, Shaw slowly walked over the wreckage and approached the head of the spider. She could see the dark eyes of the beast, as well as the hatred and fury within. The beast stared back at her and formed a strange hissing sound in an attempt to intimidate her. All it did was bring a bloodthirsty smirk onto Shaw’s cheeks.

“You know...compared to the low-level pawns, I’d rather face NPCs level 5 and above. Do you know why?” Shaw said slowly. She didn't seem to be in a hurry. Instead, she stayed a distance away from the Shadow Spider and slowly toyed with it. “Killing the low-level NPCs is like killing robots. There is no joy in it. No fear. No despair. It’s...mechanical.”

She took a step forward and stared into the dark gaze of the Shadow Spider.

“But killing NPCs like you...NPCs that are starting to feel fear and pain and anger and despair...now that’s a lot more fun.”

The Shadow Spider’s hissing sound never stopped. It opened its mouth and tried to spew more acid at Shaw, but no acid came out. As far as Shaw could see, the spider was too injured to put up any form of effective resistance. The young woman took a step forward, and suddenly, the spider acted. With the last strength it had left, the Shadow Spider activated an ability it had been hiding all along.

A flash of white suddenly appeared from the spider’s mouth and darted in Shaw’s direction. It was much faster than the spider’s acid, and its area of effect was much smaller. While the acid felt more like a ranged weapon good in all scenarios, this ability was only able to take down one enemy at most. Still, against an unprepared foe, it could be deadly.

But Shaw was ready. She was always ready.

The flash was fast, but Shaw was even faster. As soon as she saw the projectile, she quickly jumped to the side. The flash of white hit the ground she was standing at. It was a web. A spider web, except that it was just shot out as a projectile. Judging from the way the ground was starting to fall apart, the web was acidic as well. Unlike the liquid acid, this web seemed to be able to latch onto its target and constantly pull it apart.

If Shaw was caught in the web, half of her body would’ve been melted within seconds. There was only so much Fortify could do. Even with 20% of the damage reduced, the other 80% could still cripple or kill her.

Having literally just had a brush with death, Shaw turned back to the spider, who was truly desperate after exhausting its last trick.

“Another thing about high-level NPCs that makes them interesting foes.” The young woman said to herself quietly. “They start to know how to use deception in combat.”

In reality, the spider had been saving this web the entire time. Level 5 NPCs have two abilities. The acid was its first ability, and the web was its second. It could've used the web on Shaw when she was first engaging it or when she was fleeing, but the spider distinctly knew that Shaw would be keeping a close eye on her, and once it used the ability on her once, it would become impossible to catch her by surprise. So instead, the Shadow Spider kept it hidden until the very end. It even went as far as pretending to be fully defeated to lure Shaw closer and lower her caution. Its plan was to shoot its unsuspecting enemy in the face at close proximity, and it almost succeeded.

Unfortunately for the Shadow Spider, almost didn't mean anything, and at the end of the day, it was Shaw who dug her sword into the spider’s skull.