[You feel hungry and think that it is due to having practiced martial arts for so long. You decide that today, instead of eating a petal from the spiritual lily, you will eat from Master Brightflame’s containers. Before you do, you check the lily to make sure it has not started to wilted…

You feel reassured after seeing that it looks just as fresh as it did the moment it was gifted to you…

You open the container that you ate from before. You study the meat and cannot find any sign that it is spoiling. You come to the conclusion that it is better preserved than it should be…]

Lem agreed with the assessment of his simulated self.

The meat, which was presumably part of the liver of either the tyrant sloth or the wolf king, was already several days old, and yet there was no discoloration or slimy texture.

Lem suspected that one or both of two possibilities was occurring.

Either the containers were capable of preserving freshness on their own, or it was the natural spirituality within the meat itself that slowed down the rate of spoiling.

[You open the other containers of meat, one by one, and determine that none of them show signs of spoiling. To be on the safe side, you resolve to continue with your decision from the previous day to cook and dry out all of the meat…

You take out the spiritual lamp. You hesitate for a moment, not wanting to waste the spiritual crystals, before begrudgingly lighting the wick.

You cut off a piece of meat and hold it over the flame, letting it cook until nearly all of the moisture has evaporated…

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You cut off another piece of meat…]

Lem watched while his simulated self slowly cooked all of the reserves of meat from the containers.

There was an old technique he had seen used in Willow Tree Village after the hunting parties made a kill where they dried out the meat and wrapped it in special herbs for preservation.

He did not have any of the necessary herbs, nor could he even identify them, but he thought that drying the meat was sufficient, particularly since the meat had already proved to be slow to spoil even without taking additional measures.

[After you cook all of the meat, you repackage them in the containers, leaving a few dried cuts out for your dinner.

You prepare to eat, but you hesitate, as you think that there is a chance that you are about to consume wolf meat. You remember seeing the wolves a couple nights prior, and you feel empathy for the wolf race…]

Lem could see what his simulated self was thinking from the simulation screen.

It was easy to draw comparisons between himself and the race, and to empathize with them, particularly after seeing that they were both beneficiaries of the harvest tree.

However, it was much harder to act against his own interests.

Lem was in no position to take the burden of an entire race. His survival was at stake, so he had to think practically.

If this was the case for him, then it could only be more true for his simulated self, who was in far worse straits.

To forgo food just because he felt bad for a wolf was idiotic and bordering on insane.

[A moment later, you push your thoughts aside and bite into the dried meat. You devour the strip, and you move on to the next one…

You quickly finish eating the meat that you have set aside, and you notice that you are running out of daylight. You judge that you still have an hour left and you close your eyes, as you begin to cultivate…

You sense that your surroundings have gone dark, so you stop cultivating…

You fall asleep…]