Chapter 519.2: Advancement

"...By the way, my friend, why do you look so down? Something bothering you?" Sun Shiqi cast a concerned look at the gloomy Zhou Nan.

Zhou Nan hesitated, sighed, and put down his beer. "Yeah, something’s up back home. I might have to head back in a bit."

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Sun Shiqi remembered he was from the Brocade River Province, from a place called Hope Town.

"What happened?"

"Na Fruit."

"What?"

Seeing Sun Shiqi’s confusion, Zhou Nan explained.

"It’s something even stronger than Psychoid Leaves. It’s like the hallucinogenic mushroom and it lets you see strange and colorful worlds. But instead of making you weak, it helps you adapt to weakness."

"What does that mean?"

"Say you fall ill and should be bedridden. But after eating Na Fruit, the virus doesn’t go away, it merges with you. It fuses with your body, making you stronger. From then on, fevers and pain won’t make you suffer. They’ll bring you pleasure, and in that process, you get stronger."

"Pleas-ure?!"

"Twisted, right?" Zhou Nan sighed at his astonished friend. "Only equally twisted Mutant Humans can resist the side effects. Those green-skinned freaks not only love the stuff, but it also excites them, heightening both their urge to kill and their reproductive drive."

"Why not just not eat the damn thing?"

Suddenly, Sun Shiqi seemed to realize something. "Wait a second..."

"Yes, it’s addictive." Seeing his expression, Zhou Nan nodded. "And not like tobacco or Psychoid Leaves. This is full-on physical dependence. The moment you stop, the virus you made peace with turns on you. It devours you with unbearable pain. But even that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that land where it’s grown turns green, and animals that eat it, well, their feces turn green too."

"Green..." Sun Shiqi gulped and took a swig of beer. "Like overgrown weeds?"

"Not that kind," Zhou Nan lowered his voice. "It’s a visible, sickly green, like a plague. Once it touches soil, the land can only grow Na Fruit. People and animals become dependent on it. No one knows why, only that it came from the south, from the Death Coast. Some say it’s from even farther south, from the southern islands."

Sun Shiqi was in disbelief. "Why the hell would anyone plant that stuff? Are the farmers insane?"

Zhou Nan shook his head with a bitter smile. "They don’t really have a choice... You’ve noticed it, haven’t you? Ever since Falling Leaf City got rail access, grain isn’t worth as much anymore."

...

Dawn City First Hospital.

Ample Time paced anxiously outside the operating room, heart racing with tension and worry.

Suddenly, the door beside him opened.

He rushed forward and came face-to-face with a masked doctor walking out. "Doctor..."

Guessing what he was about to ask, the doctor responded calmly, "The operation was a success. But avoid any intense movement over the next few days to aid recovery. As for diet, stay away from spicy and greasy food. If possible, eat more meat..."

As the doctor rattled on, Ample Time activated his voice recorder and diligently took notes. "I got it."

The doctor shot him a second look.

There were quite a few shelter residents coming here for surgery, especially those from Shelter 404. Some were even regulars. Many never took the doctor’s advice seriously, some unlucky ones even ended up bleeding out and carried back on the same day.

Thinking about it, he suddenly understood... The guy before him was probably so anxious because he wasn’t the one undergoing surgery.

Patting Ample Time on the shoulder, the doctor hurried off for his next shift. Ample Time walked quickly into the operating room, where Dori sat dazed on the surgical bed.

She wore a thin shirt and had just awoken from anesthesia. Not yet fully conscious, she stared blankly at the mirror the nurse held.

Looking at the smooth, porcelain-like left arm, she reached out cautiously, as if afraid it might shatter, and gently pinched it.

It felt just like real flesh, soft, warm, indistinguishable from natural skin. There wasn’t even a seam at the shoulder.

It was practically real!

Even her left eye...

Tears welled up in her eyes. She sniffled softly, covering her mouth and nose with her right hand, unable to hold back her sobs.

Ever since she failed to gain anything from the Dragonblood Serum, she had never imagined she could live like a normal person, without bearing the weight of cold, heavy metal, or feeling ashamed of her body and others’ stares.

"It’s really beautiful," the nurse holding the mirror said with envy.

Occasionally, someone would come to install a bio-prosthetic from Ideal City, but most shelter residents prioritized functionality, strength, or uniqueness.

Very few ever put comfort and aesthetics first.

"Feels like it was made just for you."

"

Mhm

..."

Blushing, Dori wiped away her tears with her arm.

With help from the nurse, she got out of bed and put on her shoes. Just then, she saw Ample Time standing at the door.

He had been silent the whole time, but the moment he was spotted, he asked with concern, "Don’t want to lie down a bit longer?"

Seeing her eager boyfriend, the nurse smiled and answered on Dori’s behalf. "It was just a minor procedure. If she wants to rest, she can go to the adjacent ward. But her recovery’s going well and she can go straight home."

It was typical for the wasteland. Even replacing an arm was just a minor procedure. Ample Time thought of how, in the real world, pulling a tooth would keep him at the hospital half a day, and broke into a cold sweat.

Still, he wasn’t entirely reassured. He looked worriedly at her.

Seeing the concern in his eyes, Dori blushed, nodded, and mumbled softly, "I’m fine. Let’s go home."

"If you feel anything wrong, you must tell me," Ample Time said seriously. "By the way, does it feel like a good fit?"

"

Mhm...

It’s like it grew out of my own body." She then gave him a puzzled look. "Hey, how did you know the exact size of my arm?"

Her old mechanical arm hadn’t even matched. It had been slightly longer than her right arm. The new one was perfectly matched, down to skin tone.

Not to mention the fact that... He never measured it.

Did he sneak a peek while I was sleeping?

"You don’t always need a ruler," Ample Time said with a grin. "You forgot, we compared hand sizes once."

Dori’s eyes widened. "That works too?"

"Looks like I didn’t forget."

"But we didn’t compare arms..."

Seeing those eyes still clouded with confusion, Ample Time gave a light cough. “Do we really have to talk about this here?”

Dori was slightly taken aback.

At first, she didn’t understand, but when she noticed the mischievous glint in his eyes, she immediately caught on, and her cheeks flushed red like an apple.

Furious, she bumped her forehead against the scoundrel, then leaned in and gave his shoulder a bite.

“Oi! Are you half cat or something? Why are you always biting me?!”

Even though she hadn’t bitten hard, Ample Time still exaggerated a grimace to help her vent her frustrations.

Not intending to actually hurt him, Dori quickly let go, grunted twice, then turned her blushing face to the side. “You deserve it... you bad man.”

Ample Time put on an innocent look. “I didn’t even say anything. Why’d you suddenly bite me?”

“You... you know why!” Lowering her head in embarrassment, she stayed silent for a moment before mumbling softly, “Thank you...”

Ample Time smiled in response. “No need to thank me.”

Seeing Dori accept the gift so openly actually brought him a sense of relief.

He didn’t tell her how nervous he had been outside the operating room.

Aside from the one-in-ten-thousand chance that something might go wrong with the surgery, he was also afraid she might overthink the meaning behind the gift.

Like assuming he found the smell of machine oil on her body unpleasant.

He had never cared about something so trivial. He just felt that the mechanical arm was too heavy.

A grown ass man like Gale could manage, but her small frame wearing it every day was simply unfair. If not for the fact that a proper replacement took time to customize, he would’ve swapped it out long ago.

“I want to know...” Dori looked at him seriously and asked softly, “Be honest with me... How much did it cost?”

Ample Time looked at her helplessly. “What’s the point of asking? Don’t tell me you’re planning to pay me back.”

“Yes!” Dori nodded earnestly, “I have a job too. Even if I don’t make much, I’ll work hard!”

Seeing that sincere gaze, Ample Time knew she wasn’t joking or just being polite, and he couldn’t help feeling a headache coming.

To be honest, her question was more troublesome than the misunderstanding he had feared earlier.

No matter how casually he tried to describe the process, it didn’t change the fact that the gift was far too valuable.

It wasn’t just a scarf or a meal. This was something even 1,000,000 chips couldn’t buy.

Maybe it didn’t mean much to some people. But to Dori, it was completely different.

What kept her going the whole time wasn’t a family she never had, it was pride. That might’ve been the only thing she had left.

She would accept payment for information gathering without hesitation, even squeeze her clients hard for it. That was how she made a living and earned her keep. Even after joining the newspaper, she never held back when asking Hal for bonuses and compensation.

But if something was given out of pity... Even if she accepted it calmly, she would always find a way to return it.

He could sense the sensitivity and conflict within her, especially after learning who he really was.

What he feared most was exactly that, she might interpret this overly generous gift as pity or charity.