The Last Bit of Food

Adonis furrowed his brow.

"What do you mean there's something more? Is it not just food?"

Damien sighed.

"Just take a look at what the personal shop offers right now."

He pulled it up himself and read through it.

[Personal Shop

Level 1 -

Basic Ration - 1 Personal credit

Bars (3) - 2 Personal credits

Waters (3) - 2 personal credits

Medical Kit - 2 Personal credits

Full Suit Repair - 3 Personal credits

Assault Rifle magazine (30) - 2 Personal credits

Pistol magazine (15) - 1 Personal credit]

Damien cleared his throat.

"For whatever reason, the bars are priced at two points for three, while the basic ration is only one point. I could be wrong, but just looking at these things they don't seem very large. I'm pretty sure the amount is a significant amount lower for the credits that they are worth."

Zenos raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe they are more nutrient-dense, or instead taste better. We already have some and should probably eat, so we can test it, no?"

Killian scratched the side of his head.

"So should we all do it?"

Zenos thought for a moment.

"Mm... under normal circumstances, only one person should do it, but it isn't like we can just stop eating. Especially considering our lives are anything but sedentary."

Damien shrugged his shoulders.

"Then I'll just do it first, and you guys can try it after I suppose."

He took out one of the bars and inspected it for a few moments. It was only slightly larger than the average granola bar, wrapped in a shiny thin foil. After giving it a once-over, he opened up the foil to reveal what was inside.

It simply looked like a normal granola bar, though it definitely looked quite off. The actual parts that should be considered granola all looked the same size and shape and looked too symmetrical to be natural. The other things inside resemble other things that might be in granola bars like raisins, but upon closer inspection, it looked far too smooth to actually be such a thing.

"...It's almost like they made a plastic toy version of a granola bar."

Zenos slowly nodded, while Adonis and Killian needed a few seconds to understand, but got it after looking a little closer.

Damien felt a little apprehensive about eating something that looked so artificial, as the general consensus among people was that those kinds of foods were quite hard to get down, even for those that were desperate. His opinion was no different when seeing things like this.

However, it wasn't as though he had much of a choice in this matter.

With a sigh, he took a medium-sized bite out of it. It didn't have an overbearingly strong taste of silicone, which was quite surprising to him. In fact, there wasn't much of a taste at all, similar to the basic ration.

After eating it, he slowly came to realize that it wasn't some sort of super-compressed food that would fill him up. From what he could tell, the basic rations were far better. Right as he was thinking that there was literally no reason they should ever buy these things, he felt a strange tingling sensation in his arms.

Damien furrowed his brows intensely, which caught the attention of the others.

Adonis seemed quite frustrated that he was just keeping quiet.

"What is it? Is that not even food in the first place?"

Killian raised an eyebrow.

"That would be quite the strange thing to do when most foods are packaged that way..."

Zenos narrowed his eyes.

"Can you feel it harming your body?"

Damien slowly shook his head. The tingling sensation he felt earlier had disappeared.

"Hold on, let me make sure I wasn't imagining it."

This time, he took a much larger bite out of it. How bland it was didn't make it all that much of a pleasant experience, but he could feel a stronger tingling sensation in both his arm and even his entire body. He could feel a decent amount of heat radiating from him.

And by the end, he slowly opened and closed his hands.

"It appears to relieve physical fatigue. All the soreness I felt is now gone."

Zenos raised an eyebrow and shot him a sidelong look.

"Physical fatigue?"

Damien took a deep breath.

"As you know, my physical strength is 0.5, only half compared to the two of you, and simply a third of Adonis' strength. As such, keeping up with everyone else is actually quite exhausting for me."

Adonis smirked, despite the fact Damien stated it as a fact more than any sort of compliment. Damien then shrugged his shoulders.

"And now, most of it was relieved."

He took a deep breath as a fairly pleased expression was on his face. In reality, after doing all of that, he could feel his body straining intensely. He wasn't used to doing this kind of movement, and frankly, he was somewhat depending on whatever this physical strength increase was.

From what he could tell, his body would collapse after a few more labs. He didn't bring this up, because he would be sure that the others would think he was exaggerating.

Because they didn't know how much he was actually pushing himself.

However, he could feel most of the strain had washed away. If he had these bars, then he would probably be able to continue. His eyes narrowed slightly, as he wondered how different his life would be if he just had these before.

His breathing got a little heavy as he got lost in his thoughts before Zenos cleared his throat.

"You okay there?"

Damien rapidly blinked before breaking out of his stupor.

"Ah, yeah. If I had to say, the effects of these bars are similar to resting our bodies."

After that, he finished the rest of it, making sure that not even a crumb had spilled out onto the floor. A relieved expression gradually formed on his face as the effects continued to do their work. Out of curiosity, he peeled back his bandage a little to inspect his wound, but it was still more or less in the same condition, injured. He sighed.

"It doesn't seem to heal us though."

Zenos shrugged.

"If that was the case, then why would we even need to buy the med-kits?"

Killian rubbed his chin with interest.

"Then the bottles of water have something special to them as well."

Damien cracked his neck.

"There better be. After all, we can just fill up random containers with water and bring them to the lab if we really wanted to."

Killian pulled out one bottle of water before staring at it intensely.

"Hm... but there's no way that these are actually worth getting, right? I mean, at least we can fill ourselves up with the bars and get a little bonus. The actual water itself isn't all that useful to us."

Adonis clicked his tongue.

"Just drink it then and see."

Killian rolled his eyes.

"Ah, alright."

He opened up the cap with a clear crack before drinking some. After taking a swig, he raised an eyebrow.

"...Huh."

Damien looked over.

"Does it have a similar effect?"

Killian slowly shook his head.

"No... it's just my mind feels so clear right now. It's kinda like cool water somehow splashed right onto my brain."

Damien narrowed his eyes.

"It appears that these items are similar to normal foods, but instead act similar to consumables. We should probably use them carefully, as they might help us by quite a bit."

Killian took another swig, prompting Zenos to furrow his brows.

"Hey, didn't you hear what he just said? We are supposed to save it."

The corner of Killian's lip twitched.

"Ah... right."

He reluctantly screwed the cap back over, but from how he looked, it was fairly clear that he really wanted to drink more. The way he stared at it was almost like an alcoholic staring at a bottle of wine as withdrawal was beginning to kick in.

Killian grabbed onto the side of his head and shook it, before tucking the bottle back into his backpack securely.

Damien blinked a few times.

"Is everything alright?"

Killian nodded.

"Yeah, it's just... my mind normally feels like a block of ice instead of flesh, but this water makes it feel like that ice is melting."

Damien slowly nodded.

"I see. Then you should focus on using it to survive, as that's the only way you'll be able to drink more."

Killian blinked a few times.

"Huh. I guess when you put it that way..."

He let out an annoyed sigh before resting his head on the floor once more.

"Anyway, I have nothing else to pass the time with. Is there anything else to talk about?"

Silence fell in the room right after that. It was almost like when someone went too far with a joke, causing everyone else to stare at that person with judging eyes. Killian's face twitched when he felt those gazes.

"Hey! I already said everything I had to! Are we really going to stay here the entire time like this?"

Damien blinked a few times.

"...Since we really have nothing else to do, then how about I tell you about one of those bedtime stories that I liked. The Red Wolf."