The wild nanite zone began to thin, the surreal alien beauty of the twisted cityscape giving way to patches of untouched wilderness and remnants of the pre-cultivation era. The towering, melted ruins of skyscrapers transitioned to crumbling highways, their surfaces cracked and veined with vibrant green moss. Rusting streetlights leaned at odd angles, their once-proud frames now twisted and draped with vines that glowed faintly in the dim light. Broken fences jutted out of overgrown fields, and the remains of old-world cars lay scattered like forgotten toys, their metal husks half-swallowed by the earth.
TASK COMPLETED: +20 XP
I sighed again as I dismissed the SYSTEM message. That leveling SYSTEM really needs to die a quick death. Another message popped up.
NEW TASK UNLOCKED: Consume adequate amounts of food and water.
I sighed. What would I do without you, SYSTEM?
I followed the SYSTEM’s glowing map, my senses remained on high alert. Here, at the edge of the wild zone, the terrain shifted again. The trees slowly reclaimed their health green foliage and the plants soon started resembling the greenery that I was accustomed to. The air smelled different here, fresher ... no longer tinged with a metallic tang. A breeze rustled through the trees, carrying the faint sound of water trickling somewhere nearby.
As I crested the next hill, a flash of silver in the little valley bellow alerted me to the possibility that I had just found water. Picking up my pace, I half quickly walked and half stumbled down the far slope of the hill.
If that was water, I’m saved, I thought.
The trees at the bottom of the hill were thicker and a stout undergrowth had grown between them. Gingerly I wiggled my way through the bushes and as I emerged on the other side, I nearly fell down the short bank to the small stream that flowed from right to left.
Water! Thank God!
I fell to my knees and scooped up a mouthful of water with my hands. I raised it to my parched lips and greedily drank that titbit of water. At least half either dribbled between my fingers or down my chin, but I didn’t care. It tasted amazing.
I spent the next few minutes doing nothing but rhythmically scooping up water and drinking.
As my thirst faded, I started to actually pay attention to my surroundings. A fast-running stream flowed in this little valley between the hills. A small vertical dirt bank on both sides enclosed the stream. The water was clear, about a foot deep and the bottom was lined with rocks worn round by the constant water flow. And just like all the creeks in Iowa around the farm where I grew up, in between the bank and the water’s edge was a small strip of muddy dirt on which grass and reeds were growing.
If I remembered correctly (and 10th grade biology was a LONG time ago) this is the perfect place to find frogs! In my mind that equaled something else as well … food!
So, I started walking upstream and sure enough; after only walking a few feet, my presence had the expected results. Frogs started to jump from their places of hiding in the grass. They made funny splashing noises as they plopped into the water.
I thought, Now, if my fifteen-year-old self could catch these for biology class, I should be able to as well, so I set myself the task of catching dinner.
What seemed like about ten minutes later, I was covered in mud as well as the proud owner of four frogs. I didn’t have a knife or anything that I could use to humanly put the amphibians out of their misery.
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Needs must when the devil drives, I mused as I held the poor creatures by their back legs and bashed them against the trunk of a tree.
With a semi-sharp rock I found at the edge of the stream, I hacked at the hip joint and removed the back legs from the four frogs. I had initially planned on eating them raw, but a thought entered my mind and I opened up the SYSTEM menu.
Mentally I selected Structural Alteration (Low-Grade). The SYSTEM responded with what looked like a 3d grid overlay. As I focused on various things in my vicinity, the grid wrapped around that item and would glow a brighter green. I focused on a frog leg and mentally selected it.
A new menu popped up in my vision. It was a LARGE menu and It included just about every kind of minor alteration you could think to do to an item; from enlarging, shrinking, elongating to changing its color. I could even strengthen or weaken the frog leg, but the alteration that I was hoping was there: Alter Temperature.
Now I had a plan.
Closing the SYSTEM, I started looking for I rather large and flat rock I could you as my “pan”. Eventually I found a good candidate and started to pry it out of the floor of the stream. I wormed my fingers under the edge of the rock and I slowly rocked it back and forth until mud underneath gave way and the rock came up from the streambed. I tossed it up the embankment onto the grass. I seemed much easier than it should have been.
Remember to check my stats screen when I am done, I thought.
I quickly picked up my soon-to-be lunch and climbed back up the bank of the stream. Squatting besides the rock I quickly noticed that the bottom was uneven and just setting on the grass, the flat top was tilted to one side. I looked around and quickly grabbed a few small stones lying around and jammed them under the drooping corner bring it flat.
I arranged the frog legs on the stone and quickly jumped back into the SYSTEM. After picking Structural Alteration (Low-Grade), I selected the frog legs and then the alteration type: Alter Temperature.
Please select desired temperature in Celsius.
Oh, crap. Get this wrong and I either have still raw meat or extra crispy. What is the formula to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius again? I wondered. I know it is was times 9 and divide by 5 or the reverse to go from Fahrenheit to Celsius and you need to subtract 32. I started working through the problem to figure out the correct formula and … wait, I must really be loopy. Why don’t I just let the AI do it?
I opened up the SYSTEM AI prompt and asked, “Please increase the temperature of the selected frog legs to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and keep it there for 20 minutes.”
The AI responded with a “Affirmative” and the frog legs started to sizzle.
Twenty minutes later, I was munching on some of the best tasting bad, dry chewy food I had ever had. I think QI cooking may not be the best way to prepare frog legs but at least they were not raw.
TASK COMPLETED: +20 XP
It had been late in the afternoon when I first stumbled upon the little stream but buy the time I had finally figured out how to catch and cook my meal, it was getting toward twilight. Remembering Shaun the sheep, I decided that it would been much safer if I would climb a tree and sleep in the crook of a large branch. Mutant squirrels seemed to me much easier to deal with than Shaun.
As I settled into my makeshift uncomfortable elevated bed, I brought up my stat screen.
Name: Lucas McLaughlin
Level: 1
Cultivation Rank: Initiate
Health: 27/100
Energy (QI): 12/100
Strength: 7 (Currently: 3 Due to Low Health)
Agility: 7 (Currently: 3 Due to Low Health)
Intelligence: 10
Experience: 75
QI Control Level: Initiate
I was right, my strength had risen. So had a number of other things. I guess that food and water really did help, in more ways than one!
Now, for the first time, I had some time where nothing else was pressing. Well, that was not strictly true, I was bone tired and need my rest, but I had some time before I needed to sleep. So, I switched to the AI prompt and entered: What pre-collapse information sources are available to you?
The AI quickly responded with: The entire nanite network contains multiple complete copies of the internet. 38.7 percent of the internet has been archived in the local nanite network, the download prioritized English and formal works.
Wow! The entire internet has been archived! Great! Then a stray thought entered my mind, do you think I can find the web novels I’d been reading off-and-on? I didn’t want to imagine a future where I couldn’t read about Jason Asano. Since I doubted even Shirtaloon could publish during an apocalypse, I could at least reread the novels. I stopped my runaway thoughts and entered, Please find news related to nanites starting the day I had my procedure.
The AI responded by filling my vision with links to various news articles and I started to read.