Lin Shengsheng’s pupils instantly contracted to pinpoints.
It was a freshly killed antelope, larger than her entire body. Its throat had been precisely bitten through, its beautiful eyes still wide open, retaining the terror of its final moments. Its body was even twitching slightly from nerve reflexes.
Thick, dark blood gushed from the wound on its neck, pooling into a small puddle on the cold ground.
“…”
Lin Shengsheng’s brain short-circuited.
“Grrr.”
Yuan let out another urging growl, even nudging the antelope’s carcass gently with his massive nose, signaling her.
Eat.
This is for you.
My finest prey.
Eat now.
“Ugh—”
Lin Shengsheng could no longer hold back.
She abruptly turned away, leaning against the cold cave wall beside her, and retched violently.
In the apocalypse, she had witnessed countless deaths more gruesome than this and dissected the corpses of countless mutated creatures. But those were all on workbenches, under cold lighting, for research, for data.
She had never imagined that one day, a bloody, still-twitching corpse would be thrown before her as “food.”
This most primitive, most savage method of feeding instantly shattered the nerve within her called “civilization.”
Her stomach was empty, and nothing came up, only bitter bile surging up in waves, burning her throat with a searing pain.
Her reaction clearly caught Yuan off guard.
The air in the cave instantly froze.
The urging, almost expectant growl vanished.
In its place was a cold, scrutinizing silence.
Lin Shengsheng could feel those two piercing golden gazes firmly fixed on her trembling back.
He was displeased.
This realization, like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguished Lin Shengsheng’s physical discomfort and jolted her awake.
Right now, she was his “possession,” his “antidote.”
She had rejected the “offering” of food he had given her.
In the eyes of this massive beast, who followed only primal instincts, was this… defiance? Or pickiness?
Whichever it was, the consequences could be fatal.
A layer of fine, cold sweat broke out on Lin Shengsheng’s back.
She couldn’t die here.
Suppressing the churning in her stomach, she slowly, gradually turned around.
She didn’t dare look at the antelope, only raising her head to meet those golden vertical pupils with her most innocent, least threatening gaze.
She extended her still-trembling hand, gently and tentatively shaking her head.
Then, she pointed to her mouth and shook her head again.
She wanted to convey: It’s not that I won’t eat, it’s… I can’t eat it like this.
However, in Yuan’s understanding, a female rejecting a male’s prey had only two reasons.
First, she already had a mate and would not accept food from another male.
Second, she found the prey insufficiently plump or strong.
This tiny creature before him was so weak and carried no scent of another male, clearly not the first case.
Then… it must be the second.
“Grrr…”
A deeply suppressed, frustrated growl rumbled from the depths of Yuan’s throat.
The temperature inside the cave seemed to drop several degrees in an instant.
His massive body leaned forward slightly, and a terrifying pressure instantly enveloped Lin Shengsheng.
He thought this female was too troublesome.
Too picky.
Lin Shengsheng’s heart felt like it was about to leap out of her throat!
She had gambled wrong! He simply couldn’t understand!
What should she do? What should she do!
At this critical moment, an idea flashed through her mind like lightning.
Fire!
Cooked food!
She had to show him through action that she wasn’t refusing to eat—she just ate differently!
She would teach this beast, who only knew how to devour raw flesh, what “human warmth” meant!
This thought gave her boundless courage.
Ignoring the overwhelming pressure that threatened to crush her, Lin Shengsheng gritted her teeth and scrambled up from the ground.
Staggering, she skirted around the pool of blood and began groping around in the dimly lit cave.
Her actions caused Yuan’s simmering rage to falter slightly.
A flicker of confusion passed through his golden pupils.
What was this little thing doing?
She was searching for something.
The cave was in disarray, with scattered bones, stones, and some unknown dried plants littering the ground.
Relying on her instincts as a botanist, Lin Shengsheng knelt on the ground, sniffing carefully.
There!
In a corner, she found a small pile of dry, fragrant withered grass. This was a type of “Firestarter Grass” in the Beast World, rich in oil and highly flammable.
Next, firewood.
She picked up a few wind-dried, unidentified animal leg bones and dragged over some relatively dry, rotten wood from the corner of the wall.
Finally, flint.
This was the most crucial part.
Lin Shengsheng practically turned the entire cave upside down.
She gathered all the stones that looked like flint, then knelt in the small clearing she had painstakingly cleared, trying them one by one.
Clang!
Clang! Clang!
With all her strength, she struck two stones together violently.
No sparks.
She tried another pair.
Crack!
The stone shattered, its sharp edge slicing her finger.
Blood instantly welled up.
Lin Shengsheng didn’t even glance at it, numbly sucking the injured finger before continuing.
Another pair.
Clang!
Still nothing.
Time passed slowly.
The light outside the cave grew dimmer.
Inside, only the monotonous and desperate sound of stones clashing against each other remained.
Lin Shengsheng’s strength was rapidly draining.
Her arms grew weak and sore, each strike feeling like the last of her energy.
Hope, too, dwindled with each failed attempt.
Why…
Why wasn’t it working…
During the apocalypse, she could have done this easily…
Was this body too weak? Or were the stones in this world different?
The cold ground, the damp air, the heavy scent of blood, and the icy, surveillance-like gaze of the giant beast behind her…
All of it steadily eroded the psychological defenses she had barely managed to build.
Despair, grievance, helplessness…
A flood of negative emotions overwhelmed her. Plop.
A warm drop of liquid fell onto her scarred hand.
Then came the second drop, the third drop…
Lin Shengsheng’s vision instantly blurred.
She was crying.
Not out of fear, nor from pain.
But because of a kind of… helpless, profound sense of defeat.
She, the chief geneticist of the apocalypse, a formidable figure who could cut through hordes of zombies seven times over, was actually stumped by a primitive skill like “drilling wood to make fire”!