Infection. Dehydration. Hunger. Being eaten by a rat.

A handful of ways Pretty could die flashed in her head. It now dawned on her that she might die today. Like really dead this time.

But had she died before already? Would the black cables save her this time? If so, she hoped they would come as soon as possible.

But she had a feeling they would not. Because why would they drop her in this pit in the first place if they wanted her to survive? They could have just dropped her off at a hospital.

Also, despite how she wanted someone to help her, she still held on with her belief that it was not a smart behavior to rely on other people. She could ask for help without a problem, but she would not always expect them to help her. It was always better to rely on oneself. Relying on others was like a roll of dice, they might not come when you needed it to.

Just like with the other person with her. She could not even think of saving them or caring for them. She had to help herself first before she could contemplate whether to help someone. The only consolation they could give the both of them was the thought that they would not die alone in this pit.

She did not know how long she waited there, it could be minutes or an hour, but nothing happened to change her situation. Worse, she could feel herself being groggy.

The image in front of her was now wavering. Her eyelids becoming heavy, and without any resistance, she let herself be taken by the pull of sleep.

Just as she was about to pass out, the pleasant aromatic smell came back again, jolting her out of her stupor. This time it stayed too long for her to pinpoint a direction.

Without her realizing, she was now crawling towards the person behind the banana trunk. She heaved herself on the trunk and rolled on the person.

She passed the body of the person and continued crawling forward when she smelled the aroma again. She stopped and looked back. It was behind her.

She guessed it was with the unconscious person.

The person was lying on its side with the banana trunk burying half of its body. Disregarding morals and decorum, she loomed over the person and checked its exposed body to look for that aromatic smell.

She did not find anything so she pulled the person out of the trunk with a strength she did not know she still have and laid it flat on the floor of garbages.

She patted around its torso and pants to feel for something bulging or anything that might resemble food or something similar. It barely registered in her mind that the person was probably a man, evident from its chest, or the lack thereof. Instead of softness, it was hard flat muscles. She did not think much about it as she was more concerned about the whereabouts of that aroma.

She finished checking all over his body but she did not find anything. There was no food or even possessions. The man or boy, only had simple pants and a weird looking shirt that had no pockets in it. She checked for secret pockets but there were none. The man was probably robbed before being thrown here.

She did not give up and heaved the banana trunk with all of her strength to check if it was the banana itself that was making the smell. As the trunk rolled around a few centimeters away, the man’s right arm that was under the trunk was exposed and the alluring aroma wafted to her nose instantly.

She saw that the man was holding something in his hand. She pried it open but the person’s grip on it was strong. But after some tries, the fist finally opened and revealed a necklace inside with a small wooden cube attached to it.

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She took the necklace and immediately took a bite of the cube but her teeth buckled when it was apparently as hard as a stone. She spit it out and the pain from her teeth gave her some clarity. Somehow the aroma made her lose her rationality.

She examined it with a somewhat clear mind, holding herself at the same time from the aroma’s compulsion and found the necklace to be ordinary looking. It was made of a simple brown rope with a simple looking wooden cube attached to it that looked like a box.

It looked like a simple handcrafted necklace, too unassuming to look valuable.

She checked the box thoroughly and there seemed to be a seam in between it that could be an indication of an opening. She wedged her nails in the seams and the box opened easily revealing a white object inside.

Instead of what was inside, her attention was caught by the dense white renisas that suddenly came out when the box was opened. It was coming in and out of the white object inside that looked like a white lychee. It was silvery in color and around two inches in diameter and it was oddly releasing a white renisas so dense that she could even see it without her enhancing her eyes.

Without hesitation, she put the thing inside her mouth, but she stopped when she was about to take a bite in it.

She looked at the person still unconscious beside her and contemplated whether she had to do this. The person seemed to be keeping this thing safe with him.

But her self preservation gave in. The thing that looked like a fruit was giving off renisas. She had never seen a fruit do this before. Even plants that were still on soil did not give off renisas this dense.

She felt with certainty it was a special fruit. She did not know what its effects were but she was willing to risk it if somehow it would change her situation, and she had to change her situation somehow. It could be just a normal fruit or a useless one that would not do anything to her. But it could also be something that may help her climb the walls of this pit magically. It might gave her a pair of wings or summon a wishing fairy. She knew what she was dreaming was absurd and completely unrealistic but she didn’t have that much of a choice anyway. If the fruit was a bad thing for her, then that was just her fate.

Ultimately what compelled her to take a bite was the thought of her dying. If she had to die, at least she would die less hungry. So she took a bite from the fruit and for a second nothing happened. Then suddenly, she could feel something foreign inside her dissolve, she guessed it must be the fruit she ate, and then it burst inside her into a dense renisas that felt weird and invigorating.

She unconsciously closed her eyes when she felt a cold refreshing feeling washed all over her body.

Her vision cleared and her dizziness went away. She still felt tired but she could feel her body fully now. The exhaustion of her legs and hands vanished and she could feel the various sensation her whole body felt. She had never felt something like this before.

She took another bite and she could feel energy flowing inside her, rejuvenating her body. She felt she had just gone into a restful sleep and now she was full of energy.

She looked at the walls of the pit and she was optimistic that she could scale it, no matter how much her brain told her that she was not spiderman and she still needed a ladder to climb it.

A ladder. Her brain registered. She had a ladder in her storage. Elatedly, she willed her ability to summon a ladder fully expecting for it to appear in front of her. But when she opened her eyes, all she could see was the pit in front of her and not a ladder in sight.

She did not feel disappointed, as her attention went to the wonder fruit again. She had the urge to eat it completely but she held herself hard. She could eat it but she would not. Her hand shook as she fought the urge to put the remaining half of the fruit in her mouth. Fortunately, she was able to take control of her instincts and calmed down.

There was still a person with her who happened to be the owner of the fruit. She could not, in her conscience, take the rest of the fruit, no matter how much she wanted to.

So she moved closer towards the unconscious man’s head to feed the rest of the fruit to him. Just as she was about to open his mouth. A black renisas came out from below them without warning surprising her. It stayed unmoving in the air in front of her as if it was watching her. Then as suddenly as it came, it dissolved into thin air..

A bad feeling came over her and she instinctively shoved the fruit into the man's mouth.

She did not know what happened next to the man as the whole garbage pit shook again, and she found herself falling.

A giant hole suddenly appeared below her.

One second she was kneeling on the pit, the next she was falling mid air into a giant hole that suddenly sprouted below her.

She fell for a few seconds till she felt herself slamming into a hard surface and getting bounced off from it. She fell for another second till she felt a jarring impact on her body, then she passed out.