Iron Haven - Where the Strong Devour the Weak

MC's POV

The scent of rusted metal and rotting flesh clung to Iron Haven like a sickness. It was a place where humanity had abandoned morality, where survival meant stepping on the weak and gutting the desperate.

I stood in the middle of the bloodstained pit, the corpse of my opponent still warm at my feet. The crowd's cheers still echoed in my ears, but I felt nothing. This wasn't victory. This was just the price of entry.

A cold voice rang in my head.

[System Notification: Combat proficiency increased.]

[System Farm Level Up: Level 2 Achieved.]

[Rewards Unlocked – Lesser Corpse Harvesting, Auto-Processing, and Increased Yield.]

My system pulsed within me. I had gained something more than just access to this wretched city. The System Farm had leveled up. The rewards flooded my mind in an instant.

Lesser Corpse Harvesting—a passive ability that extracted useful materials from the dead, converting them into energy, weapons, or even rations.

Auto-Processing—it streamlined the loot collection process, breaking down unnecessary junk and refining what I truly needed.

Increased Yield—whatever I took from my enemies, I would now get more of it. More weapons, more resources, more power.

I exhaled. The system was evolving. And with it, so was I.

Iron Haven – A City of Rotten Deals

We moved through the streets, careful, silent. Every alleyway stank of betrayal, every shadow carried the weight of eyes watching for weakness.

Zhao Yue walked beside me, her fingers twitching slightly, as if still feeling the recoil from her newfound power. She had killed last night—killed well—and it had left something inside her unsettled.

"Iron Haven's a pit," Yusheng muttered, scanning the area like a soldier on enemy ground. "No way we stay long."

"We stay as long as we need," I said. "The Divine Crystal's resonance is strong here."

He grunted but didn't argue.

Nearby, Mei clutched her bag, her face pale. She had already started tending to the wounded we passed, unable to ignore their suffering. Lin Hua was watching her carefully, not saying much, but his gaze lingered on every merchant, every thug sizing us up. Chen Rui stuck close to the walls, his instincts sharp, his unease palpable.

The people here weren't just desperate.

They were hunting.

The Cost of Power

A woman sat on the steps of a ruined pharmacy, cradling a child's body. Her face was hollow, devoid of tears. The guards had tossed her aside, her plea for medicine met with nothing but laughter.

The child had been dead for hours.

I kept walking.

Zhao stopped. I turned to her, expecting her to move forward, but she didn't.

"They just left her like that?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.

"That's how this world is now."

Her jaw tightened. "It doesn't have to be."

She was still clinging to something—hope, maybe. The idea that there was still humanity left in this hellscape.

I wasn't going to take it from her.

But I wasn't going to lie to her either.

A New Hunt Begins

We reached the center of Iron Haven—a trading hub where stolen goods, scavenged rations, and bloodstained weapons changed hands.

A merchant with rotting teeth waved us over. "Fresh stock, best in the city. Ammo, blades, even food if you've got something worth trading."

My system pulsed again. A new feature unlocked.

[System Scan Activated – Hidden Value Detected.]

I glanced at the merchant's table. Most of it was junk, but my system highlighted something—a rusted knife with faint engravings. A relic from before the fall. More than it seemed.

I grabbed it. "This. What's the price?"

The merchant sneered. "You got fresh water? Meat? Medicine?"

I smirked. "How about something better?"

I reached into my inventory—a recently harvested monster core from one of last night's kills. The merchant's eyes widened. This wasn't just a trade item. It was power.

He nodded quickly, his greed overriding caution. "Deal."

I took the knife, and as soon as it touched my palm—

[Hidden Effect Unlocked – Blood Engraving: Absorbs life essence upon kills.]

A new weapon. A cursed one. Perfect.

The Rot at Iron Haven's Core

That night, we found a place to rest—an abandoned building with only two corpses inside. Better than most options.

As we set up camp, Zhao sat beside me, watching the flickering remnants of an old lamp we found. Her expression was distant.

"You used your power today," I said.

She nodded. "It felt… different."

"Better?"

She exhaled. "Like I lost a piece of myself."

I looked at her hands, the same ones that had burned through monsters with pinpoint accuracy. She had been resisting it before, but now, she was embracing it.

"We all lose pieces," I said. "The only thing that matters is what's left."

She didn't answer.

A scream cut through the streets outside. Distant, but close enough.

None of us moved.

Because in Iron Haven, screaming was normal.

And tonight, we weren't the ones being hunted.

The Next Step

By morning, we would find out who had the Divine Crystal's resonance. We would find out who in this city held the power we needed.

And then?

We would take it.

One way or another.