Kiana pretended to brush the dirt off her clothes, ignoring the ache in her arms from the climb out of the crevice. Inside her mind, she was staring at a glowing, translucent blue interface.
The system's mechanical voice spoke directly into her consciousness.
[Host current permission is Lv.1. Basic Radar Scan and one cubic meter of Spatial Storage unlocked. ]
Kiana's heart leaped. Spatial storage. In the apocalypse, or in this brutal wasteland, carrying capacity was the difference between life and death. This was a god-tier ability.
Then, a flashing red warning box popped up on the blue screen.
[WARNING: System upgrades require the collection of 'Emotional Thresholds' from your Consorts. Sustained physical contact and intimate interaction are mandatory. ]
Kiana's brow furrowed deeply. A wave of intense disgust washed over her. She hated the idea of being forced into physical intimacy by a piece of software.
I don't need an upgrade right now, Kiana thought coldly, projecting her voice at the system. Turn off the notifications.
The blue interface flickered once, then obediently vanished into the back of her mind.
Kiana refocused on the real world.
Gunner was crouching next to the dead mutated lynx. He was using his bone knife to saw at the thick muscle of the beast's hind leg. In the Wilderlands, meat was meat. You didn't waste a kill.
Kiana walked over and looked down at the exposed flesh.
The muscle fibers weren't red. They were a sickly, dark purple. A sharp, chemical smell of rot drifted up from the blood.
"Stop cutting," Kiana ordered sharply. "We can't eat that."
Gunner paused. He looked up at her, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Everyone in the tribe eats this. It keeps us alive."
Kiana crouched down. She picked up a small twig and poked the purple meat.
"The flesh of this beast is saturated with an invisible, chronic poison-I call it corruption rot," Kiana said, her tone clinical and absolute. "Eating this over time will cause your Aetheric energy to violently twist and mutate. It rots your body from the very roots of your bloodline. It's probably what made the original owner of my body go completely insane."
Gunner stared at her. He didn't understand the words "corruption rot" or "bloodline," but the absolute certainty in her voice sent a chill down his spine. His gut told him she was right.
He looked down at the meat, letting out a heavy, frustrated sigh. "If we leave this, we starve tonight."
Kiana stood up and dusted off her hands. A confident smirk touched her lips. "Don't worry. I won't let you starve."
She silently activated the Lv.1 Basic Radar Scan in her mind.
An invisible blue pulse shot out from her body, scanning the earth in a fifty-meter radius.
Three seconds later, a cluster of bright green dots lit up on her mental map, located slightly northeast of their position. The system tagged them as: [Edible High-Carb Plant Life. ]
Kiana's eyes brightened. She pointed toward the northeast. "Follow me. There's something good over there."
Gunner didn't ask questions. He gripped his bone knife and followed her lead.
They pushed through a thick wall of thorny bushes and stepped into a small, sunlit clearing on a gentle slope.
The ground was covered in broad, green leaves and thick vines that hugged the dirt.
Gunner looked around the empty clearing. He frowned. "There's nothing here. Just weeds."
Kiana walked right into the center of the vines. She crouched down and grabbed a thick green stem.
She looked back at Gunner over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "The good stuff is underground."
