Can Corpses Be Harvested?

The woman in the tree was frozen in place, her face pale with horror. After all, the shock of witnessing someone kill a human being was far different from watching them kill the undead.

Lucas Kane stood over Victor Cross's body. The man's corpse was sprawled at his feet, and to Lucas's surprise, a faint shimmering prompt appeared above it—

[Harvestable]

"Wait... I can harvest survivors too?"

Without hesitation, Lucas activated the command.

[You have harvested a survivor's corpse. Rewards acquired: Energy Cores ×35, Pure Water ×166, Partially Drunk Water ×1, Sausages ×84, Instant Noodles ×60, Kitchen Knife ×2, Fruit Knife ×1, Storage Ring Fragments ×5, Blueprint: Sharpened Tang Sword, Map Integrator, Erotic Video ×7.]

Lucas squinted. "Damn… I expected a lot, but this is wild."

Not only had Victor stockpiled food and water, but also blueprints and exploration tech? He'd definitely traded for all this—using food as currency. As for the last item...

"Seriously? He traded food for this?" Lucas muttered, opening one of the videos.

He spent a minute skimming through the content, sighed, then selected "Delete All." The system wouldn't let him extract videos into real space—they simply took up storage slots.

He turned his attention to the other treasures:

Sharpened Tang Sword Blueprint: Requires 10x Metal Weapons and 10x Energy Cores. Produces a legendary alloyed Tang Sword with unmatched sharpness. Never dulls.

Map Integrator: Uploads scanned maps. Creates a fog-of-war style world map, revealing explored zones and concealing unexplored ones.

When Lucas opened the Map Integrator, it only showed about a 100-meter radius. The rest was cloaked in black—true to its fog-of-war mechanic.

"So I'll need to explore and scan areas manually, unless I find more maps," he murmured.

His storage ring, already tight with two guns and some ammo, had only one free slot. He holstered a pistol at his waist to make room.

Even after excluding the useless video files and the half-drunk water bottle, Victor's loot required nine slots.

"Perfect fit," Lucas said, stashing the items.

He looked around. The corpses of over twenty zombies lay scattered across the ground.

"All this... is resource gold. Shame my storage's full."

He frowned. Running back to Building 3 to unload and returning would take too long. If someone else stumbled across this place… the losses would be huge.

Then he remembered—

"Leveling up the ring needs 10 ring fragments. I just got 5 from Victor. If those two dead guys also drop some..."

Lucas cleared away the zombie remains piled on the two bodies. First, the tall, thin man.

[You have harvested a survivor's corpse. Rewards: Storage Ring Fragments ×3.]

"Seriously? That's it? Cheap bastard."

Then he moved to the pudgy man.

[You have harvested a survivor's corpse. Rewards: Lace Women's Lingerie ×1, Storage Ring Fragments ×2.]

Lucas blinked.

"This guy collected... lingerie? What a perv."

He dropped the item to the ground without a second glance, completely missing the fact that it was exactly the right size for the woman still perched in the tree.

Her cheeks flamed red. She stared at the ground, mortified.

Lucas dropped the fragments into his inventory. The system pinged:

[Your Storage Ring meets the upgrade requirements. Upgrade now?]

"Yes."

[Consumed: Storage Ring Fragments ×10, Energy Cores ×5. Storage Ring upgraded to Level 2.]

Capacity: 12 → 24 Slots

Upgrade to Level 3 Requires: Fragments ×100, Energy Cores ×50

New Feature at Level 3: Vehicle Compartment (store one drivable vehicle)

With double the space unlocked, Lucas got to work.

He harvested the nearby zombie corpses, one by one—22 in total.

Loot Gained:

Energy Cores ×14

Keyring ×1

Access Card ×1

Mutant Fertilizer ×70

Clean Cloth ×30

Chain Lock ×1

Solar Flashlight ×1

Kitchen Knives ×2

Meat Yam Seeds ×5

Six more slots used. He had six remaining.

Lucas pulled up the details on the Meat Yam Seeds:

[Meat Yam Seeds]: A unique crop native to Aquaria. Resembles potatoes, tastes like meat, rich in protein, vitamins, and trace nutrients. Extremely resilient. Maturity: 4 months.]

"Farming, huh..."

Lucas's eyes narrowed in thought. Most food in the city was finite. The more survivors scavenged, the less remained.

Farming was sustainable. It could be the difference between life and starvation.

He checked his progress.

[Upgrade to Peak Human Limit: 57/100 Energy Cores.]

Energy Cores stored in his inventory were safe—they wouldn't be auto-used.

He did the math:

10 Cores → Strong Tier

50 Cores → Exceptionally Strong

So Victor must've consumed around 60 Energy Cores to get there.

Lucas only got 35 cores from him—confirming a theory:

Only unconsumed cores in a survivor's inventory can be harvested. Used cores are gone for good.

"If I need 43 more to upgrade... that's around 70 more zombies."

He stared across the clearing.

No more undead.

No sound.

Just the woman still hugging the tree trunk, trembling.

And in that moment, an idea sparked in Lucas's mind.

Slowly, he turned his gaze to her.