Ingrid stared at the panel for several seconds, processing what Lorna had just said before slowly pushing herself upright. The movement made her vision blur for a moment, but she forced herself to remain seated and studied the system with renewed interest. Apparently, Lorna had limits after all, and apparently, those limits were just flexible enough to be negotiated when the host was threatening to die out of spite.
Ingrid rubbed her forehead and frowned at the interface. "Well, why didn’t you say that before?"
{ Because you were not listening to me before. }
"I was listening." Ingrid gave the interface an unimpressed look, "Now that we’ve established whatever it is that we’re trying to establish, can we get to the part where you actually save my life?"
The gift interface appeared immediately, and Ingrid’s expression changed as a golden glow spread across the transparent screen. A chest showed on the interface, and the lid slowly opened, releasing several glowing icons that floated across the interface. Ingrid leaned closer despite the dizziness still clouding her vision, genuine excitement replacing some of the anger in her eyes. Whatever Lorna had been hiding inside those gift packs had better be worth all this drama.
{ SPECIAL SURVIVAL GIFT PACK ACTIVATED. }
The first item appeared with a bright flash, followed by the next, and then another until the entire interface was filled with glowing symbols. Ingrid’s eyes widened as she read through the list, because these were not the useless rewards she had half expected to receive.
{ SKILL UPGRADE TOKEN ×1. }
{ BASIC HEALING PILL ×3. }
{ INFECTION PURIFICATION PILL ×1. }
{ ENERGY RECOVERY PILL ×3. }
{ BODY REINFORCEMENT PILL ×2. }
{ SYSTEM POINTS: +1,500. }
Ingrid’s eyes widened even further when she reached the final reward, and she immediately forgot about the pain for a moment. "One thousand five hundred points?" she asked, staring at the number. Her mind instantly began adding the numbers together, remembering the one thousand points she had earned after beating Falcon and the seventy points that had come from the original Startup Pack Lorna had conveniently forgotten to mention until much later.
The new reward pushed her total far beyond anything she had expected to have at this stage. "That means I now have two thousand five hundred and seventy points altogether, right?"
{ Correct. }
A grin slowly spread across Ingrid’s face. The situation was still terrible, the countdown was still running, and the infection was still inside her body, but now she had resources that could potentially change all three problems.
"This is really good." Ingrid muttered under her breath, her eyes glancing through the skill and pill.
Another interface suddenly appeared before she could celebrate too much, and Ingrid’s grin faded into confusion as she read the new information.
{ SYSTEM POINTS MAY ALSO BE USED TO UPGRADE HOST PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES LIKE SPEED, STRENGTH, INVISIBILITY, ETC. }
"I can also use the points to increase my body attributes?!" Ingrid exclaimed and blinked several times before looking down at herself, the possibility of improving how her body actually functioned immediately caught her attention, sincephysical strength was currently one of her biggest disadvantages.
If the system could make her faster, lighter, stronger, or more agile without requiring months of training, then she would be an idiot not to take advantage of it.
"Okay, how much does Speed cost?" Ingrid asked, her eyes narrowing as she waited for the answer. She was already considering which attributes would be most useful, because she knew brute strength wasn’t necessarily going to save her from every dangerous situation. Speed could help her escape, while Lightness could make movement easier for her current body, especially if she needed to run across difficult terrain.
{ One hundred points for basic enhancement. One hundred points also let you jump levels, depending on the particular skill.}
"One hundred points?" Ingrid’s eyebrows rose as she looked between the two attributes. That was far cheaper than she had expected, especially considering that she now had more than two thousand points available. She didn’t need to think for long before making her decision, because spending two hundred points to improve her mobility was obviously worth it. "Buy both Speed and Lightness."
{ Confirmed. }
The system points dropped immediately, and the numbers shifted across the transparent interface. Ingrid watched them carefully as the total decreased, making certain that Lorna wasn’t somehow charging her more than it had promised.
The change was exactly what she expected, leaving her with two thousand three hundred and seventy points, and then warmth suddenly spread through her legs. A strange tingling sensation travelled through her joints and muscles as though something inside her body was being adjusted piece by piece, and Ingrid instinctively gripped the tree beside her when the sensation intensified. It wasn’t painful, but it was so strange that she had no idea whether she was supposed to laugh, scream, or simply wait for it to finish.
{ SYSTEM POINTS: 2,570 → 2,370. }
{ SPEED: LEVEL 1 → LEVEL 3. }
{ LIGHTNESS: LEVEL 1 → LEVEL 2. }
{ BASIC PHYSICAL LEVEL: LEVEL 1 → LEVEL 3. }
When the sensation finally faded, Ingrid cautiously shifted her weight and immediately noticed the difference. The movement required less effort than before, and when she pushed herself upright, her limbs didn’t feel quite as cumbersome as they had moments earlier.
She was still far from strong enough to fight a Beast Zombie head-on, and the system hadn’t magically transformed her into some unstoppable warrior, but even a small improvement felt enormous to someone who had spent so much of her life struggling with her own physical limitations.
Ingrid flexed her fingers, rolled one shoulder, and took a careful step before another grin slowly spread across her face.
"Okay, I actually like this." She looked at the interface with genuine approval, then glanced down at her hands as though expecting another improvement to appear. "This is probably the first thing you’ve given me that doesn’t immediately come with a terrifying warning or nearly get me killed." Her smile widened slightly as she added, "If you’d started with this instead of throwing me into zombie-infested territory, perhaps I wouldn’t be so suspicious of everything you do." She paused and looked at the system again before warning, "But don’t get too smug, Lorna, I haven’t forgotten the part where you nearly got me killed."
{ Is Host still angry? } Lorna asked but before I could say anything, a loud beep beep sound echoed through my ears, making me stumble slightly.
{ EMERGENCY HEALTH ALERT. }