This Game Actually Lets You Eat!

Active Matter Extractor User Manual:

1. Active matter is the primary raw material for synthesizing clones. It includes, but is not limited to, the minerals required by the human body, twenty common amino acids, two rare amino acids, and so on.

2. The Active Matter Extractor uses animal carcasses as raw material. Chordate mammals of the primate order are optimal, with extraction efficiency as high as 90%. Non-primate animals come next, while invertebrates have the lowest extraction efficiency, below 10%.

3. Extraction efficiency is also related to the degree of decay.

As the player recruitment mission was completed, the reward and manual arrived together.

Inside Vault 404.

As Chu Guang read the manual projected onto his retina by the system, he examined the iron lump beside the conveyor belt that looked like a coffin.

According to the manual, this thing was a device used to produce the "raw materials for synthetic clones"—namely, "active matter."

Simply put, its function was similar to corpse recycling?

But judging from the manual, mutant carcasses also seemed to fall within its recycling range.

Having roughly understood how the thing worked, Chu Guang used a handcart he had picked up outside to drag it onto the elevator, then rode back to the surface with it.

He had no intention of bringing corpses into the vault.

As for electricity...

He would find a way somehow.

The elevator rose slowly, came to a stop, and opened.

Just as he dragged the handcart out of the elevator, Xiao Qi's voice came from upstairs almost at the same time.

"Master!"

"What is it?"

"Something seems to have happened with your players... A large black bird is attacking them! On the north side of the sanatorium!"

A large black bird?

Chu Guang froze for a moment, then his expression changed. He immediately dropped the handcart and hurried toward the outside of the sanatorium.

"Holy shit? Ye Shi, you're awesome."

"That forward roll just now was something else!"

"Fuck off, I was scared out of my mind! Quit standing there like idiots, hurry up and give me a hand!"

In the woods north of the sanatorium.

A black bird stood on a branch ten meters above the ground, its sharp gaze locked tightly onto the players below.

Its legs were slightly bent, its kite-sized wings folded back, ready to launch at any moment.

Hearing the commotion from Ye Shi's side, the other three players immediately set down what they were doing and rushed over with axes in hand.

Perhaps seeing that there were too many people on the ground, the black bird did not immediately begin a second dive. Instead, it waited beyond their reach, watching for an opportunity.

Gale bent down, picked up a black feather from the ground, and studied it for a moment.

"It kind of looks like a crow."

"Crows get this big?!" Glancing at the claw marks on the nearby log, Ye Shi backed away with lingering fear.

"This thing should be a mutant... Some kind of mutation caused by gamma rays or something else. I read the setting on the official site." Fang Chang stared at it warily, not daring to relax for even a second.

Ye Shi said, "The official site has lore?! Wasn't it just a pre-registration page?"

Gale said, "That was a few days ago... The official site added new features yesterday. Didn't you look?"

"Quit bullshitting. What are we supposed to do now? Just keep wasting time here?" Ye Shi nervously took another step back.

That made Gale the closest one to the bird.

The four people and one bird fell into a standoff.

Just then, a sharp whoosh cut over the four players' heads, flying straight toward the large bird.

"Caw!"

The stone missed, but it startled the bird. Flapping its wings, it flew to another branch.

Once it had finally steadied itself on the branch, it saw that the person below had picked up another stone and thrown it at it.

The bird was completely enraged.

It was the first time it had encountered someone who dared to act so arrogantly in territory that belonged to it.

Its bent legs suddenly exerted force. Leaping from the branch like a cannonball fired from a barrel, it dove headfirst at Chu Guang.

Its sharp claws stretched forward like opened grappling hooks.

But a beast was still a beast. Even if it grew another head, it could never understand the trace of mockery curling at the corner of Chu Guang's lips.

Tossing aside the stone in his hand, Chu Guang skillfully grabbed the steel pipe stuck in the ground and viciously thrust its sharpened end forward.

It happened in a flash. There was no time to dodge.

The instant the bird saw Chu Guang pick up something it had never seen before, it flapped its wings in alarm and tried to pull away. But under the force of inertia, it was basically impossible for it to react in time.

The pipe pierced into its chest like a javelin.

"Caw—!"

A miserable cry echoed through the forest.

Bloodied feathers scattered through the air.

Watching the struggling bird fly away, Chu Guang silently stepped forward and picked up the blood-drenched pipe from the ground.

"That wasn't a crow."

"Its scientific name was a falcon... about two hundred years ago."

The four players stared at him in stunned silence, frozen by that smooth series of movements.

Holy shit!

So strong!!

But they did not know that for the vast majority of survivors who could travel the wasteland alone, this level of skill was merely basic competence.

Over the past five months, if Chu Guang had learned anything, it was how to throw a javelin. Within ten meters, he could hit wherever he aimed.

Otherwise, he would not have had the chance to stand here showing off.

"A falcon?! They get this big?" Gale said in shock, his understanding of birds completely overturned.

Fang Chang swallowed.

"Because of gamma rays?"

"Not just gamma rays. Viruses, bacteria, genetic weapons... all kinds of factors created everything we see today. Of course, mutants are only one of the threats we face. In some circumstances, people are more dangerous than they are."

Chu Guang looked up at the pine tree in front of the four players and continued.

"That falcon must have built a nest in this tree. No wonder it didn't leave even with so many of you here."

Generally speaking, birds rarely took the initiative to provoke larger ground creatures. Their diet mainly consisted of mutant cockroaches, rats, and squirrels.

That beast had flown away, but it could not have gone far. It was probably waiting to die in some nearby tree.

Although this kind of pointed pipe did not have great penetrating power, its hollow interior made for a natural bleeding channel. Once it punched a hole in something, death was almost guaranteed.

Forget birds—even if a person got hit by one, it would be hard to stitch the wound back together properly.

Ye Shi lowered his head in shame.

"Sorry... I was too focused on chopping wood. I didn't notice."

"No need to apologize." Chu Guang looked up. "Bird eggs are good stuff."

They were in for a treat soon.

Chu Guang's judgment was quickly proven correct.

Under a crooked tree, he found the black bird dead.

After bleeding it with a knife and plucking it clean, Chu Guang tossed it into an iron pot set on a stove made of stacked bricks. He stuffed dry branches and dead leaves beneath it, then lit them with the matches he had bought earlier.

Smoke rose from the stove.

Before the water came to a boil, Chu Guang took the blanched bird from the pot, skewered it on a steel rod, and roasted it directly over the fire.

He roasted the bird eggs alongside it.

There was no salt, nor were there any spices.

But even so, it was far better than half-cooked green wheat porridge.

"Can this thing... be eaten?"

Looking at the "mutant" on the grill, Ye Shi instinctively felt repulsed. But the aroma kept teasing his senses, and he could not help swallowing.

You could actually eat in this game!

For foodies, that was absolutely an unexpected surprise.

It also instantly made him feel that all the hard work from the morning had been worth it.

"If it's cooked, you can eat it. I'll tell you what you can't eat." Chu Guang slowly turned the grill, making sure every side of the food was thoroughly heated.

Opportunities to eat game meat in the wasteland were rare.

Even when they occasionally caught edible game like this, it would quickly spoil due to a lack of preservation methods.

Here, salt was an even scarcer resource than electricity.

Especially for survivors living in an inland city like Clear Spring City, using large amounts of salt to preserve food was not very realistic.

As for things like refrigerators, he had heard that the mayor's castle had one, but Chu Guang had only heard of it and never actually seen it.

Of course, the survivors were not completely without options.

For example, the neighboring survivor settlement—Mr. Brown's Farm—produced a kind of tobacco leaf rich in aromatic compounds such as tar and alcohol-aldehyde ketones. Even without salt, smoking food with it could extend its shelf life by several months.

"Administrator, exactly how much wood do we need?"

Waiting for food to cook was torture.

To distract himself from the food, Fang Chang took the initiative to start a conversation.

Hearing the question, Chu Guang casually replied.

"As much as you can chop."

The players looked at one another, seeming rather unmotivated.

Chu Guang did not think much of it at first, but then something suddenly occurred to him.

They were "players," which meant they were outsiders.

Unlike him, who had already crossed over into this world, they could leave at any time. They did not face the same urgency of survival.

Even if he told them how important it was to stockpile wood, they would not truly understand what that meant.

Their identities as players determined that they viewed problems from a different angle than he did. Even if they did not mind grinding, it would be hard for them to keep putting effort into something with no reward.

There were missions.

Naturally, there had to be rewards too.

"Let me think..."

Chu Guang rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

Then, an idea suddenly came to him.

"At four in the afternoon, we'll tally today's results."

"For trees as thick as an arm, each meter earns 1 contribution point. For trees as thick as a thigh, each meter earns 2 contribution points—"

But to Chu Guang's surprise, the moment his words fell, the four salted fish holding bowls sprang to their feet.

"Administrator, I suddenly don't feel that hungry."

"Me neither."

"There's still a while before the meal. I'm going to go chop down two more trees!"

"I suddenly feel like chopping something!"

Chu Guang said, "...?"

He had not even said what contribution points could be used for yet...