“Phew…”
Yu buried the axe in the stump with one final swing before releasing the handle.
Thud!
The heavy Logging Axe fell forward, its blade sinking deep into the muddy ground beneath his feet.
He shook out his numb arms.
Raising his Constitution to forty had greatly accelerated his recovery, but hours of intense labor still left his muscles genuinely exhausted.
Yu bent down and laboriously stacked several thick Wooden Planks scattered across the ground.
Gritting his teeth, he hoisted the stack onto his shoulder.
The rough edges dug into him, and their combined weight was considerable.
However, after shifting his points back into Strength and raising it to thirty-one, the load remained manageable.
“Heave-ho!”
Marin copied him and tried to balance a Wooden Plank on her shoulder.
Unfortunately, her shoulders were nowhere near as broad as Yu’s.
The plank wobbled wildly, then slipped off after only a few steps.
Clatter!
It nearly crushed her foot.
“Ah!”
Marin cried out and hurriedly grabbed the plank.
After several failed attempts to carry it properly, she gave up.
Instead, she gripped it with both hands and dragged it like a sled, struggling after Yu as they headed back toward the cabin.
The two returned to Yu’s drafty Starter Cabin with their first batch of spoils.
The glass sphere filled with flowing starlight still hovered silently at the center of the room.
Yu approached the Starter Core and brought the Wooden Planks on his shoulder closer to it.
Just before the stack touched the sphere’s faint glow, every plank suddenly transformed into streaming light and was absorbed into the glass.
A new tab appeared beside the cabin status and crafting interfaces projected by the Starter Core.
[Storage]
Yu opened it.
Inside was a neatly arranged grid resembling a storage chest from Minecraft.
The first slot displayed their gathered materials.
[Wooden Plank ×8]
“It can store them directly?
That’s convenient.”
Yu immediately understood the function.
At least they would not need to worry about their supplies being damaged by wind and rain—or stolen by an unexpected visitor.
Marin finally dragged her plank into the cabin, panting heavily.
“H-Here you go…”
She pushed it toward Yu’s feet.
Yu nodded, bent down, and placed it inside the Starter Core as well.
[Wooden Plank ×9]
He silently calculated what they needed.
Repairing each wall required five planks, so all four walls would cost twenty.
The roof needed another eight, bringing the total to twenty-eight.
They had only nine.
It was nowhere near enough.
“Let’s keep going.”
Yu turned to leave without wasting another word.
Repairing the cabin was essential, but gathering as much Wood as possible before dark was the immediate priority.
They could handle the repairs at night, when poor visibility made it too dangerous to venture outside.
“O-Okay!”
Marin followed him while holding her stomach, which had begun growling softly again.
Although she had eaten an apple, it was nowhere near enough to satisfy an adult’s caloric needs.
Just as they stepped outside, Marin caught sight of something from the corner of her eye.
She abruptly turned toward Sakiko’s cabin and grabbed Yu’s arm.
“Yu-kun!
Look over there!”
Yu followed the direction of her finger.
Togawa Sakiko stood outside her dilapidated cabin, holding a dark loaf of bread and taking small, careful bites.
She ate slowly, as though savoring some priceless delicacy.
“Bread?
Where did she get that?”
Marin touched her chin.
Her large red eyes were filled with confusion and longing as she stared at the food, nearly drooling.
“I saw her go inside just now…
Do you think it was already in the cabin?”
The more Marin considered it, the more likely it seemed.
She immediately pulled Yu back toward the cabin.
“Come on!
Let’s check ours!
Maybe we have some too!”
Their voices drifted faintly toward Sakiko on the wind.
She stopped chewing, and the corner of her lips curved upward. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Without looking back, Sakiko continued eating her bread at a leisurely pace.
‘So they finally noticed.
But even if they find the starter food, what then?
Six loaves and six bottles of water won’t last more than a few days, even if I ration them.’
‘I can wait until they’re struggling for food and overwhelmed by that broken cabin.
Then they’ll understand whose decision was wiser.’
‘Once that happens, I can bring up cooperation again…
Hmph.’
Sakiko had decided to let Yu and Marin suffer for a while and face reality before trying to take control of their cooperation again.
For now, she needed to continue chopping trees.
It had taken her nearly an hour of exhausting work to fell a single tree, which dropped three Wooden Planks.
She had tested using a Wooden Plank to repay her Debt, only to find that it advanced her Debt Points by a mere two points.
By her estimate, meeting today’s quota would require twenty Wooden Planks, on top of those needed to repair her cabin…
Sakiko decisively abandoned the idea.
She would accept today’s punishment instead.
The first day should be spent accumulating resources.
She could begin submitting them to repay the appropriate Debt starting tomorrow.
Otherwise, all her other work would be delayed.
Survival required knowing when to make sacrifices.
She could only hope the punishment would not be too severe.
Then again, Sakiko doubted the first day’s penalty would be that bad.
Could it possibly be worse than 16.8 billion?
Meanwhile, Marin pulled Yu back inside his cabin and stopped before the Starter Core.
This time, he carefully examined every corner of its translucent screen.
Sure enough, a tiny icon was tucked away in the lower-right corner.
It resembled a gift box wrapped in ribbon.
The cabin’s damage warnings and resource requirements had distracted him earlier, causing him to overlook it.
Yu focused his thoughts and selected the icon.
A faint light flashed, and a simple collection window appeared.
[Starter Survival Supplies (Issued)]
[Rye Bread ×6]
[Purified Water (500 ml) ×6]
[Select Claim to collect the supplies.]
Yu selected [Claim].
Six loaves of Rye Bread wrapped in wax paper and six standard 500-milliliter plastic bottles of water appeared beneath the Starter Core.
“There really is food!”
Marin exclaimed in delight.
Her eyes lit up, and her stomach growled again in perfect agreement.
Yu bent down and picked up a loaf of bread and a bottle of water.
Under the Eye of Omniscience, their information appeared.
[Rye Bread (Common)]
[Description: Hard bread baked from coarse rye flour.
Dense and filling, but only moderately nutritious.]
[Use: Consume to restore a small amount of Stamina and Satiety.]
[Warning: Eating it as your sole long-term food source may cause nutritional deficiencies.]
[Purified Water (500 ml)]
[Description: Drinking water that has undergone basic filtration.
Safe for consumption.]
[Use: Drink directly or use for cooking, crafting, and other purposes.]
[Note: The plastic bottle is disposable and will automatically disappear after the water is consumed.]
“Only enough for two days…”
Yu quickly calculated their supplies.
Even if each of them ate only half a loaf per meal, six loaves would last just two days.
The water would barely be enough.
Of course, Marin’s own cabin should contain another set of supplies.
Even so, they would need to find a stable food source for the remaining five days before the Beast Tide arrived.
Relying on the five-percent chance of apples dropping from Oak Trees was clearly unrealistic.
Temporarily setting aside his concerns about the future, Yu handed Marin a loaf and a bottle of water.
He took another set for himself, tore open the wax paper, and bit into the bread.
It was extremely hard, with a noticeable coarse texture from the rye bran.
The taste was bland, but it provided genuine Satiety.
After washing it down with water, his hunger eased considerably.
The two stood inside the broken cabin, silently eating dry, hard bread and drinking cold water.
For a while, the only sounds were their quiet chewing and the wind moaning through the holes in the walls.
“By the way, Yu-kun…”
After swallowing a bite, Marin seemed to remember something.
Her large eyes looked at him curiously.
“What’s your talent?
You know, that special ability we drew?
Mine is apparently called [Cosplay].
Yu looked at her but did not answer immediately.
“Shouldn’t you properly explain your own talent before asking about someone else’s?”
“Huh?
Mine?
But I just told you—it’s [Cosplay]!”
Without the slightest caution, Marin repeated herself and even added more details.
“It says I need to complete Character Missions to increase my Compatibility.
Then I’ll receive bonuses.”
“But my Compatibility is still at zero percent.
It says I need to complete missions to fill the Progress Bar, um…”
The moment she mentioned the missions required to fill that bar, Marin became visibly embarrassed and covered her mouth with the back of her hand.
Looking into her clear, innocent eyes, Yu silently sighed.
‘I can’t believe how trusting she is.
She revealed her entire trump card so easily in a place like this…
Still, that might not necessarily be a bad thing.’
“My talent is [Eye of Omniscience].”
Yu revealed one of his own trump cards in return.
However, he told her only about the Eye of Omniscience.
He decided to keep the Cheat Engine secret for now.
“Eye of Omniscience?
What’s that?
It sounds amazing!”
Marin blinked rapidly.
“It lets me see information about almost anything.”
Seeing that she still wore an expression that said it sounded incredible without understanding why, Yu gave her an example.
“Your basic attributes are around seven Strength, eight Dexterity, eight Constitution, and ten Intelligence.
Right?”
Marin’s eyes widened so much that she forgot to chew the bread in her mouth.
“R-Really?!
You can actually see them?
Even the exact numbers?!”
Yu nodded.
“More or less.
As long as I focus, a lot of information becomes visible.”
“Whoa!
That’s incredibly convenient!
It’s just like an Appraisal skill in a game!”
Marin stared at him in amazement.
Then she seemed to think of something terrifying.
Her expression instantly froze, and a soft gasp escaped her lips.
She crossed her arms over her chest, curled inward, and crouched with her face burning red.
“Y-Y-Y-You…
You can’t see…
that too, can you?!”
Yu stared at her reaction in confusion before quickly understanding what she meant.
He explained helplessly, “I don’t have X-ray vision.
I can only see information revealed by the world’s rules or the object itself, such as attributes, materials, uses, and conditions.”
“R-Really?”
Still crouching with her arms protecting her chest, Marin looked up at him suspiciously.
However, Yu appeared perfectly calm and did not seem to be lying, so the blush on her face gradually faded.
Her eyes suddenly shifted as another thought occurred to her.
A mischievous smile appeared on her lips.
Remaining in a crouch, Marin tilted her head and asked teasingly, “You really can’t see anything else?
Then…
Yu-kun, can you see my measurements?”
“…”
The corner of Yu’s mouth visibly twitched.
He was utterly speechless.
A moment ago, this unpredictable girl had been terrified that he could see through her clothes.
Now she had turned around and started joking about her measurements.
Yu could not be bothered to respond.
He stuffed the last bite of bread into his mouth, turned around, and walked out of the cabin.
“Huh?!
Wait for me, Yu-kun!”
Marin hurriedly jumped to her feet.
Forgetting her joke, she grabbed her unfinished bread and water bottle before chasing after him.
“I was only kidding!
Don’t be mad!”
…