Bamboo Pole said he was treating him to a meal, then took Ronan to a hole-in-the-wall place not far from Shang Ding Building. Naturally, it was in the Recycling Layer.
According to Bamboo Pole, this place's stir-fried pig kidneys had authentic ingredients, knife work, and flavor—perfect for hardworking men who needed a little replenishing.
While they waited for the dishes, Ronan looked outside and found the area somewhat familiar. It seemed to be near the street where he had taken an evening walk and chatted with He Yueyin last time. He remembered a middle-aged corporate slave who had brought Aberration Blood Food home for his child, apparently paired with an Evolution Formula from the game Wilderness Ten Days.
Now, that family was presumably at work or school. He had no idea what had become of them... It probably would not flare up within the next few years.
Still, the price to be paid later was most likely unavoidable.
At its root, "aberration" counted as a genetic disease. Once infected, a person's Form and Spirit Framework would be distorted to nourish the powerful foreign genes that had parasitized them, helping those genes return to their original "order."
A considerable number of people had both their life instincts and self-awareness warped by parasitic infection, becoming nothing but "nourishers"—the state of most Aberrant Species. But some were affected less severely. Their self-awareness remained dominant, and they could instead borrow that power to push their own Form and Spirit Framework beyond its limits—this was the case for the vast majority of Talent Stream Ability Users, as well as quite a few Extraordinary Species.
But that meant deviating from the main evolutionary path of their genetic population. They could only keep walking that narrow, unfathomable road, and no one could pull them back. Perhaps many