Black Lychee, Ability Fruit!

Jake walked into the master bedroom. This was a three-bedroom apartment he shared with two women. Jake rented the smallest and cheapest bedroom. His two female roommates usually worked during the day, and when the red fog descended during the daytime, they were trapped at their company. Jake didn't hesitate to take possession of his two roommates' belongings.

This was the room of a female roommate named Chloe. Chloe was average-looking, but she was skilled at makeup. After she put on makeup, it was like she got a head transplant. From a 5-point girl, she instantly became a 9-point beauty. Chloe often brought men back, her private life was very chaotic, and it was never peaceful at night. Because of this, Chloe often had conflicts with the other female roommate, a cold and aloof woman named Skylar. Jake didn't care anyway, as he had night shifts and wasn't usually home.

Jake indeed found emergency contraceptive pills in Chloe's bedside cabinet. He took out two pills and handed them to Olivia:

"Eat these."

Olivia asked fearfully: "What are these?"

Jake said calmly: "Birth control pills. You don't want to get pregnant in this environment, do you?"

Olivia felt ashamed but obediently swallowed them with bottled water.

[Ding! Olivia consumed 2 emergency contraceptive pills from the host, returned 400! Already placed in Portable Space.]

Pills work too.

As long as it's something consumed?

Jake took out a new bag of laundry detergent and commanded: "Go wash my dirty clothes."

Olivia didn't dare refuse and could only carry the laundry detergent into the bathroom. Jake watched her without showing his emotions.

Olivia tore open the laundry detergent and began washing clothes. He still didn't hear a prompt for returning the laundry detergent. Moreover, Olivia washing clothes would consume tap water, and there was no prompt for returning that either.

Could it only return things that are eaten?

But the system's description is "Materials consumed by the host's women will be returned to the host." Why didn't it just say "Food consumed"?

Jake speculated inwardly for a while but had no clues. The system's details still needed to be slowly uncovered.

He lay down on the sofa, opened his phone, and scrolled through videos. Olivia naturally had to continue washing clothes. Even if she was a beauty, she couldn't just be kept for free. If you want to eat, you have to work.

There was still no good news online. More and more people uploaded ground exploration videos. Plants everywhere in the world had become incredibly giant. What were originally ordinary lawns grew higher and higher. In some cities, the grass was even taller than people. Stadium lawns had turned into something like corn fields. Countless giant insects were hidden among them, extremely dangerous!

Suddenly, Jake scrolled to a video by an ability user. An honest-looking middle-aged man was demonstrating a lightning ability in front of the camera. When the middle-aged man brought his two fingers close, electric sparks instantly shot out in the air between them! Jake watched, extremely envious.

Finally, the middle-aged man said: "A black fruit, very much like a lychee, grew on a wild grass next to my house. Yesterday, I was really too hungry to bear it, so I ate it, and then I gained the lightning ability. I think, if everyone discovers black lychees, you can also try them."

The video had only a few hundred views, but there were many bullet comments:

"Really?" "This guy has bad intentions!" "Black lychees? Doesn't sound like something edible." "Plants are mutating now, growing wildly everywhere, who the hell would dare to eat that?"

...

Black lychees growing on wild grass? Jake turned his head to the potted plant on the windowsill. Two black lychees were hanging on that potted succulent plant! Eating this stuff could grant a lightning ability? Jake didn't dare try it easily. Who the hell knew what that man's purpose was? The apocalypse had arrived, human hearts are unpredictable, and rumors were flying everywhere. Anyway, even if he was lying, no one could go catch him.

Moreover, Jake wasn't sure if it was that kind of black lychee the man mentioned.

Just then, his phone suddenly prompted: "System message: This video is suspected of violating regulations and has been taken down!"

Huh? Jake felt a little more inclined to believe it now. This reaction speed was clearly abnormal. It shouldn't have been taken down by the platform. Could it be... was the nation really hiding something?!!

Jake narrowed his eyes. After thinking for a moment, he put on rubber gloves and carefully plucked one of the black lychees from the potted plant. Jake placed the black lychee in a bowl and cautiously took off the rubber gloves, throwing them out the window. Only then did he carry the bowl into the bathroom.

Olivia was strenuously washing clothes.

Jake placed the bowl in front of her: "Eat this."

If it's poisonous, Olivia dies. There were plenty of beauties in the apocalypse; Jake wouldn't feel a second of heartache.

Olivia looked at the black fruit in the bowl in terror: "What, what is this?"

"Eat it," Jake said, not explaining, and continued.

Olivia shook her head and stepped back, saying fearfully: "I won't eat it!"

Jake pulled out his dagger and said coldly:

"I said, eat it!"

Olivia's face turned pale, and she could only pick it up tremblingly. A black lychee, it looked strange no matter how she saw it. Olivia didn't want to eat it at all, but looking at the glittering dagger before her, she could only resign herself and eat it.

[Ding! Olivia consumed 1 Enlightenment Fruit - Perception, returned 200! Already placed in Portable Space.]

[Enlightenment Fruit (Perception): 1 Star. Grants perception ability upon consumption. Repeated consumption of the same type of fruit has a chance to increase its star level.]

Jake was overjoyed. Ability Fruit! It really is an ability fruit! That guy wasn't lying! Except the ability seemed different from the Lightning Man's fruit. His fruit granted perception.

Looks like... the ability from each fruit is random.

Jake asked: "How do you feel?"

Olivia was stunned for a moment before saying blankly: "I, I think I can see you glowing? A light yellow color. What is this?"

Sure enough, it works! Jake smiled. "It's an ability fruit. Eating it grants you an ability."

"Ah?" Olivia was shocked. "Abilities are gained by eating fruits?" The matter of abilities was spreading wildly online. So it was by eating fruits? This thing must be very precious. Why did he give it to me? Olivia couldn't help but feel a little touched. She thought that although Jake had been a bit rough just now, he wasn't so bad after all.

"Thank you!"

Jake reached out, and another black lychee appeared in his hand out of nowhere:

"I have plenty of this stuff. If you work hard from now on, I can reward you with a few more. Right, do you feel anything else?"

Olivia nodded gratefully: "Opening this ability is tiring to keep on. I can't maintain it for too long. I need to turn it off." After saying that, Olivia let out a sigh of relief, seeming to turn off the perception ability, but there were no external changes.

It consumes stamina? Jake thought to himself. He peeled the black lychee and ate the pulp. The pulp was sweet and sour, very delicious.

Boom!

Jake's brain seemed to break some kind of shackles. The world changed! Greens were greener, reds were redder. He looked out the window and seemed to "see" more details, like upgrading from 480p to 4K resolution.

Jake looked at Olivia again. Her body emitted a faint red light. Jake looked at his own body, which emitted a green light. However, the brightness was slightly brighter than Olivia's.

What do the colors represent? Jake was curious.

Just then the system prompted:

[Perception: 1 Star. You can see the target's level of friendliness towards you. Yellow represents neutral, red represents hostility, green represents friendliness; the brightness of the light indicates the target's life strength; Perception range: 2 meters (approx. 6.6 feet).]

Jake was secretly delighted. This is a good skill! I can see if the other party is hostile!

Looks like Olivia isn't giving up yet!

Jake also felt his stamina was rapidly being consumed, like running at top speed. He could only last a few minutes at most.

Jake immediately turned off his perception and took out another black lychee, eating it. The system had prompted that repeated consumption of the same type of fruit has a chance to increase its star level!

After eating, there was no reaction. Jake took out another one. Soon, he continuously ate seven or eight more. Olivia watched, dumbfounded. How does he have so many? Is this ability fruit so cheap?

When Jake ate the 12th one, a change finally occurred. His field of vision seemed to sharpen considerably!

[Ding! Perception upgraded to 2 Stars! Perception range increased to 5 meters (approx. 16.4 feet).]