Ch19 Hunger

For several seconds, Ryan simply stood there.

Blood dripped from his face.

His sword hung loosely in one hand.

Behind him lay the corpse of a Rank-One predator that had nearly killed all five of them.

His heart was still hammering hard enough to hurt.

His hands were shaking.

Then Ryan looked toward the hovering silver drone.

[ CURRENT VIEWERS: 78 ]

Something in his brain switched tracks.

Ryan flicked his sword downward, sending a line of dark blood across the grass, then carefully slid the blade into its scabbard.

He inhaled.

Exhaled.

Straightened his jacket.

And looked directly into the camera.

"Hey, what's up, chat?"

Jessica slowly raised her head.

Ryan gave the drone a casual wave.

"For anybody who just joined, I'm Ryan. Welcome to the stream."

Jessica stared at him.

Ryan could practically hear the question forming in her head.

Are you insane?

Ben, sitting several paces away with one hand pressed against his ribs, made a strangled sound that might have been a laugh or might have been internal bleeding.

Ryan continued anyway.

"Sorry about the lack of commentary during the fight. Things got a little..."

He glanced toward the dead Umbral Ravager.

"...busy."

The viewer count changed.

[ CURRENT VIEWERS: 91 ]

Then—

Comments began racing through his peripheral vision.

Apex_Chaser: HE'S DOING AN INTRO NOW???

GamerX_Zorvak: sniper girl is currently meeting her ancestors and this human is welcoming chat

Kael_9: man switched from survival mode to creator mode instantly

Void_Surfer99: streamer instincts are undefeated

Nebula_Drifter: bro is COVERED IN BLOOD 😭

Ryan tried not to laugh.

Failed.

"Anyway, as you can see, the Earth squad gets it done."

Jessica's eyes narrowed.

"Ryan."

He ignored her.

"First Rank-One kill—"

"Ryan."

"—not exactly how we planned today's hunt—"

"Ryan!"

He looked over.

Jessica sat in the dirt, pale-faced and soaked with sweat, one arm hanging limply across her knee.

"What?"

She pointed toward the corpse.

"If you have enough energy to talk to strangers..."

She took a breath.

"...you have enough energy to cut the damn core out."

Ryan paused.

Chat exploded.

[ CURRENT VIEWERS: 112 ]

Apex_Chaser: LMAOOOO

Vortex_4: she is DONE with him

Kael_9: listen to the sniper

GamerX_Zorvak: squad leader status revoked

Ryan looked back toward the drone.

"She's usually nicer than this."

Jessica reached for her sidearm.

Ryan immediately turned away.

"Harvesting."

Ben wheezed.

"Smart."

Up close, the Umbral Ravager looked even worse.

Ryan crouched beside the carcass.

Black fur concealed layers of dense muscle underneath, and Jessica's overcharged shot had destroyed a large portion of the shoulder. The wound still smoked faintly.

Ryan drew his knife rather than his sword.

No sense ruining a fifteen-crystal blade digging through a corpse.

"Skynet. Core location."

A scanning line passed over the body.

[ ESTIMATED NUCLEUS LOCATION IDENTIFIED ]

A marker appeared over the upper thoracic cavity.

Ryan began cutting.

It wasn't easy.

The creature's hide was considerably tougher than anything they'd harvested yesterday. Even around damaged tissue, his knife struggled through layers of muscle and connective material.

Dezzy eventually crouched beside him.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Angle downward."

Ryan adjusted.

"There?"

"Two centimeters left."

"You can see through it?"

"No. Your incision is following the sternum incorrectly."

"Oh."

Dezzy took the knife.

"Move."

Ryan moved.

She found the cavity in less than a minute.

Ben watched from the ground.

"That was humiliating."

Ryan frowned.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Whoever knows how to butcher the monster."

Dezzy opened the cavity.

Blue light spilled out.

Everyone went quiet.

Nestled between dense organs sat a crystal unlike the fragments they'd harvested from Rank-Zero beasts.

Larger.

Brighter.

More complete.

Its multifaceted surface glowed with deep azure light, and the surrounding tissue pulsed faintly from residual energy.

Ryan reached in.

"Careful," Dezzy said.

He stopped.

"Why?"

"I do not know."

Ryan stared at her.

"Then why'd you say careful?"

"Because we do not know."

"...Fair."

He wrapped his hand around the crystal.

Warmth surged into his palm.

Ryan's eyes widened.

Not heat.

Energy.

Dense.

Heavy.

Even without actively absorbing it, he could feel the pressure inside.

He pulled.

The surrounding tissue resisted.

Then released.

Ryan lifted the crystal into the morning light.

The drone immediately moved closer.

Chat reacted.

Vortex_4: THERE IT IS

IronJaw: clean rank-one nucleus

Kael_9: don't consume that without processing data human

MarketMaw: sell it whole

Ryan read the last comment.

"Anybody know what this is worth?"

Answers flooded in immediately.

Numbers varied wildly.

Ten crystals.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Fifty.

One person claimed two hundred.

Another offered to buy it for three.

Ryan smiled.

"Chat is completely useless."

MarketMaw: welcome to commerce

Dezzy studied the core.

"Do not trust unverified valuations."

"I gathered that."

"The energy density is substantially higher than the Rank-Zero fragments."

Jessica had managed to stand.

She approached slowly.

"How much higher?"

"Unknown."

Dezzy tilted her head.

"But significant."

Ryan held the crystal toward Jessica.

"You've got loot duty."

Jessica stared.

"Why me?"

"Because Ben stores corpses, Dezzy dissects them, Raven looks intimidating, and I'm busy being famous."

Raven looked over.

"You have eleven subscribers."

"Twelve now."

Ryan checked.

"Thirteen."

Jessica took the crystal.

"Unbearable."

But she was smiling faintly.

She secured it in one of their hardened field pouches.

Ryan looked toward the drone.

"All right, chat. We're taking a recovery break."

He paused.

"Try not to miss me too much."

Jessica groaned.

Ryan ended the stream.

[ BROADCAST ENDED ]

Peak Concurrent Viewers: 112

Subscribers Gained: 17

Total Subscribers: 17 / 10,000

Ryan stared at the number.

Seventeen.

Still nowhere near ten thousand.

But six more people had subscribed while they harvested the corpse.

Interesting.

He dismissed the interface.

The moment the stream disappeared, so did some of his energy.

Ryan's shoulders sagged.

The performance was over.

Now everything hurt.

"We need twenty minutes."

Ben sat with his back against a tree.

"Minimum."

Ryan looked at him.

"You okay?"

"No."

Ben inhaled carefully.

"Which is better than dead."

Ryan crouched beside him.

"Ribs?"

"Bruised."

"Broken?"

"I don't think so."

"Skynet?"

"Biometric scan says no obvious fracture."

Good.

Ryan checked everyone else.

Jessica was X Energy depleted.

Raven had burned through a substantial portion of her reserves using repeated Pushes.

Ryan's Mental Energy was almost empty.

Dezzy had taken a direct hit and had a swollen bruise developing across her side, though Body Control appeared to have protected her from the worst of it.

Nobody was fine.

But nobody was dying.

That counted as a victory.

Dezzy drew her sword.

"I consumed the least energy."

Ryan nodded.

"Watch perimeter."

She moved toward the edge of the clearing.

The others sat.

Ryan crossed his legs.

Closed his eyes.

Breathed.

Ambient Esoteric Energy entered his lungs.

His core refined it.

X Energy circulated.

The process felt easier with two Qi Points open.

Not fast.

Not magical.

His bruises didn't disappear.

The ache in his muscles remained.

But his breathing stabilized.

His heartbeat slowed.

His depleted reserves began recovering.

More importantly, sitting still gave his body time to come down from the fight.

Twenty minutes passed.

Nobody spoke much.

Eventually, Ryan opened his eyes.

Mental Energy: 4 / 9

Better.

Not full.

Enough.

Jessica flexed her hand.

"Three X Energy."

Raven checked hers.

"Enough for one strong Push. Maybe two smaller ones."

Ben stood carefully.

His face tightened.

"Ow."

Ryan watched him.

"You don't have to store the Ravager."

Ben looked at the corpse.

Then at Ryan.

"Do you have any idea what that thing might be worth?"

"No."

"Exactly."

He walked toward it.

Dezzy returned from the perimeter.

"Your current storage already contains the supply load."

"And the centipede."

"You removed the centipede during the fight."

Ben paused.

"Oh."

Ryan laughed.

"You forgot?"

"I was being attacked by nightmare Garfield."

Jessica snorted.

Raven actually laughed.

Ben placed his palm against the Ravager.

"Let's see."

His Talent activated.

Blue spatial distortion crawled across the enormous corpse.

The effect was slower this time.

Ben frowned.

The body began disappearing.

Legs.

Torso.

Head.

Then—

Pop.

Gone.

Ben staggered.

"Whoa."

Ryan immediately stepped closer.

"What?"

Ben opened his status.

His expression fell.

"That's expensive."

"How expensive?"

Ben shared the relevant field.

His normal maximum X Energy was seven.

With their supplies stored, it had already been reduced.

The Ravager pushed it lower.

Much lower.

Ben whistled.

"This thing takes up way more storage pressure than the Rank-Zero carcass."

Dezzy nodded.

"Expected."

"Expected by you."

Ben rubbed his forehead.

"Apparently storing something that weighs several hundred kilograms and contains a Rank-One energy signature isn't cheap."

Ryan looked at him.

"Can you maintain it?"

"Yes."

"Can you still use your Talent?"

Ben hesitated.

"For small things."

"Then we go back."

Ben looked surprised.

Ryan nodded toward the city.

"We sell it before doing anything else."

Nobody argued.

Then Ryan looked down the trail.

His expression changed.

The body was still there.

The human cadet.

For several minutes, Ryan had managed not to look.

Now he couldn't avoid it.

The young man lay where the Umbral Ravager had landed.

His armor had collapsed inward.

One arm rested at an angle no arm should ever rest.

Blood darkened the soil beneath him.

Ryan's stomach tightened.

The victory disappeared.

Just like that.

Jessica saw him looking.

Her face changed.

"God."

Nobody moved.

The dead cadet looked young.

Of course he did.

They all were.

Fifteen.

Sixteen.

Seventeen, maybe.

Ryan didn't know.

Yesterday that person had probably stood inside Elpida wondering what food he could afford.

Maybe he'd bought a weapon.

Maybe he'd messaged somebody back on Earth before leaving.

Maybe he had a little sister too.

Ryan's chest tightened.

Jessica slowly sat again.

"That could've been us."

Nobody contradicted her.

"If Dezzy had been a little slower..."

Her voice shook.

"If Ben hadn't used the carcass..."

Ben looked at his hands.

"I saw him."

Ryan looked over.

Ben's normal humor was gone.

"The guy."

His voice had become quiet.

"He was running."

Ben swallowed.

"Then that thing landed on him."

Silence.

"One second he was alive."

He looked toward the body.

"Then he wasn't."

Raven leaned against her weapon.

"This isn't training."

Nobody answered.

"We keep treating it like training."

She stared toward the forest.

"Assignments. Rewards. Stats. Talents. Crystals."

Her jaw tightened.

"But there's no instructor stopping the exercise if we screw up."

Ryan remembered Unkud.

The aura.

The Awakening chamber.

The people who had died before they even reached the planet.

Raven continued.

"Out here, we make one mistake and that's it."

Dezzy looked toward the corpse.

Usually she would have produced numbers.

Probabilities.

Something clinical.

She didn't.

"The statistics were easier."

Jessica looked at her.

"What?"

"Mortality projections."

Dezzy's voice remained controlled, but quieter than usual.

"I read several before deployment."

She looked toward the dead cadet.

"Percentages are abstract."

A pause.

"That isn't."

Ryan said nothing.

There was nothing useful to say.

No speech could make the body disappear.

No joke could change what had happened.

And seventeen subscribers suddenly felt incredibly small.

Ryan crouched beside the cadet.

He didn't know his name.

"Skynet. Identify him."

A pause.

[ ACCESSING EXCLIPSE PERSONNEL REGISTRY... ]

The answer appeared.

Ryan read it silently.

Then looked at the others.

"We should report him when we get back."

Jessica nodded.

Ryan stood.

He didn't know whether the city collected bodies.

Whether Exclipse notified families.

Whether anyone cared.

But somebody should know he died.

Somebody should remember that the thing lying in the dirt had been a person.

Ryan looked at his squad.

"We got lucky."

Ben started to respond.

Ryan shook his head.

"We fought well."

He looked at Jessica.

"Your shot crippled it."

Raven.

"You kept it controlled."

Dezzy.

"You stayed in the fight after getting hit."

Ben.

"You should be dead."

Ben nodded.

"Agreed."

Ryan looked toward the forest.

"And we still got lucky."

Nobody argued.

"We don't let this make us stupid."

Ryan rested his hand on his sword.

"One Rank-One kill doesn't mean we're ready for Rank One."

Jessica nodded.

"Definitely not."

"We survive because we work together. We get stronger because we survive."

Ryan looked at each of them.

"Nobody gets left behind."

Ben's expression became serious.

"Nobody."

Raven nodded.

Jessica followed.

Dezzy last.

"Agreed."

Ryan exhaled.

"Good."

He looked toward the city.

"Then we're heading back."

Ben blinked.

"What about breakfast?"

Ryan stared at him.

Ben's stomach growled.

Loudly.

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Jessica started laughing.

It came out weak and breathless.

But real.

Ben looked offended.

"What?"

Raven's stomach answered his.

Ryan smiled despite himself.

Then his own growled.

Dezzy looked between them.

"Energy expenditure substantially increases metabolic demand."

Ben pointed.

"Thank you."

"However, impaired judgment caused by hunger is an additional reason to return."

Ben lowered his finger.

"I liked the first half better."

Ryan looked toward the route back.

The city wasn't terribly far.

Not compared with yesterday's hunt.

They had a Rank-One corpse in storage.

A complete core.

Fragments from the earlier pack.

And seventeen subscribers.

More importantly, everyone was alive.

That was enough for one morning.

"We eat inside the walls."

Ben sighed.

"Gray paste?"

"No."

Ryan started walking.

"I nearly got eaten by a flower-faced panther. I'm buying real food."

Jessica followed.

"Best decision you've made all day."

Ryan glanced over his shoulder.

"Better than fighting?"

"Yes."

"Better than the stream?"

"Much better."

Ben retrieved his axe.

Raven and Dezzy fell into formation.

Nobody wandered.

Nobody joked about splitting up.

Nobody complained about retreating.

The forest felt different now.

Not because it had changed.

Because they had.

Every shadow mattered.

Every broken branch drew attention.

Every stretch of silence felt suspicious.

Ryan kept one hand near his sword.

Jessica scanned the canopy.

Raven watched their rear.

Dezzy studied the ground.

Ben stayed near the center, protecting the valuable cargo locked inside his Talent.

They had entered the wilderness that morning thinking about crystals, equipment, cultivation, and subscriber counts.

They were leaving with all of those things.

But Ryan understood something now that he hadn't truly understood when they passed through the gate.

Getting stronger wasn't the objective.

Getting rich wasn't the objective.

Even becoming famous wasn't the objective.

Those were tools.

The objective was simpler.

Survive long enough to come back tomorrow.

Ryan glanced once toward the silver drone hovering silently over his shoulder.

Seventeen subscribers.

A beginning.

Then he looked toward the distant city walls rising beyond the alien forest.

"Stay tight."

The squad closed ranks.

And together, they headed home.