Chapter Five: Greed

The hunger struck with such suddenness, so violently, that it left Katherine completely unprepared. She had never felt anything like it before—her stomach seemed to be burning as if seared by live coals, sending out relentless waves of longing and desire. Her throat was parched, her mouth and even her esophagus filled with an unspeakable emptiness that drove her to an urgent, almost desperate need to stuff something—anything—into her mouth.

At some point, her eyes had turned a bloodshot crimson, sweeping greedily around her surroundings in search of even the slightest morsel. Suddenly, her gaze lit upon a low tree, where clusters of pale orange wild fruit hung. Enhanced as her body now was, she could smell the sweet fragrance of the fruit from over ten meters away. With a light push of her foot, she shot forward; in two bounds, she’d crossed the distance and was beneath the tree. Without even slowing, she placed her left foot against the trunk, kicked off with her right, and sprang upward a full five or six meters.

Her hands flashed, plucking four or five fruits at a speed too fast for the eye to follow. Before she even landed, she began cramming the fruit into her mouth midair. The unique sweetness of the wild fruit, mingled with a hint of tartness, flooded her mouth. Katherine realized that her sense of taste had also been heightened—during those brief chews, she could clearly distinguish six or seven flavors. Normally, such a discovery would have delighted her, since it meant she could enjoy her favorite fruits even more, but now she was wholly at the mercy of her instincts. She devoured them one after another—before she even touched the ground, the wild fruits in her hands were gone.

The few wild fruits offered slight relief, relaxing her knotted stomach a little and taking the edge off her hunger, but it was nowhere near enough! Katherine was keenly aware that the food she’d just swallowed was being broken down at an astonishing rate—what would once have sustained her for half a day would now be digested in barely a few minutes. Food! I need more food!

While these thoughts raced through her mind, her body, still falling from the tree, adjusted itself effortlessly—like a graceful wildcat, she landed perfectly on all fours. Half-crouched, her blood-red eyes swept her surroundings, everything tinged with a faint red haze in her vision. Food! Where is the food?!

A gray-feathered wild bird was tossed at her feet, its neck already twisted at an unnatural angle, wings and body soiled with mud. At the sight of it, Katherine felt no disgust or revulsion; instead, her throat rumbled and she pounced like a beast, snatching the bird in her hands. With a twist she snapped off the head, held the carcass aloft, and brought her mouth to it, drinking greedily.

Gulp, gulp, gulp!

The sound of swallowing was clear and vivid. The bird’s body shriveled visibly as the rank blood rushed into her mouth and down her throat. Her ravenous stomach was at last appeased—if only a little. But a bird scarcely half a foot long held little blood. When she had sucked it dry, Katherine yanked away a clump of feathers, didn’t even bother to clean it, and bit fiercely into the flesh. She growled animalistically, head shaking as she tore and chewed, devouring most of the carcass in just a few blinks of an eye.

Suddenly, all her movements ceased. Slowly, she lowered the ruined bird from her face and stared in disbelief at the writhing viscera inside. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, then, as if burned, she hurled the bird aside. With bloodied hands pressed to her face, she squatted and burst into tears.

Ling Mo stood silently nearby, offering no words of comfort. At times like this, comfort was pointless. He too had once experienced this, and knew all too well how terrifying it felt.

Katherine cried for a long while before finally staggering to her feet. Even after such a harrowing ordeal, she didn’t wail or throw a tantrum like an ordinary girl. Instead, she quietly took stock of her body, her brows furrowed, and in a hoarse voice asked, “What just happened to me?”

“It’s nothing,” Ling Mo replied. “That pill you took forced most of the impurities and toxins out of your body. Then your body was strengthened.”

“I know! I’m asking—”

“You want to know why you were so hungry, right?” Ling Mo interrupted her. “When the body is enhanced, it’s strengthened in every respect. Your legs, which could barely leap a meter before, can now jump four or five meters with ease. Did you think your old digestive system could support such strength? Naturally, your internal organs, especially those related to eating, have been greatly improved as well.”

“But—but that hunger was far too intense!” Even after consuming most of the bird, Katherine was only now regaining control from her instincts. Recalling that wild hunger still made her shiver.

“Don’t worry. The hunger was so overpowering this time only because purging your body left you completely empty inside. As long as you don’t let your body reach that state again, you won’t experience such intense hunger.”

Hearing this, Katherine finally relaxed a little. Her expression softened, and Ling Mo seized the opportunity to continue, “Setting aside the hunger, the benefits you’ve gained are immeasurable! Not to mention your body’s newfound strength—touch your skin, your face. Haven’t you noticed how incredibly smooth it’s become? My dear apprentice, this is the effect of cleansing the body of impurities! Not only will your appearance revert to that of a young girl, but you’ll also delay aging. Even in your fifties or sixties, you’ll look like a maiden!”

At his words, Katherine hesitantly touched her cheek. Sure enough, her skin was as smooth as it had been at fifteen or sixteen—soft as a peach, with extraordinary elasticity. She looked more closely at her exposed forearm: the skin was delicate, with a glossy sheen, the pores so tiny they were almost invisible. She couldn’t help but beam with delight.

With such miraculous effects on her beauty, she instantly dismissed all thoughts of hunger. She admired her skin for a long time, then suddenly exclaimed, “Oh no! I forgot to turn off the livestream! Everyone must have seen me eating like a savage!”

“It’s all right,” Ling Mo pointed to a patch of disturbed earth nearby. “That thing flying around earlier was the camera, right? When you collapsed after taking the pill, I buried it. I wasn’t sure how much blood and gore your platform allowed.”

“There aren’t really any restrictions,” Katherine waved her hand. “There’s a rating system—only adults can enter my channel, so blood doesn’t matter. But I probably scared everyone away with the way I just ate. Thank you, Master.”

“Oh? The livestreaming rules here are quite lenient. Want me to dig your camera back up?”

“It’s called a Magic Eye Sprite, Master,” Katherine replied, then finally noticed the barrage of comments in her left-eye interface:

“What the heck happened? Why did the screen go black?”

“It’s not just the screen—there’s no sound. Am I deaf?”

“I’m deaf too.”

“Damn! I thought my Magic Audio Generator broke, but we’re all deaf, huh!”

“Desperate to know what happened! Host, answer us!”

“Host, answer us!”

“Viewer ‘I Like Miss’ sent the host a Chaos Meteor! Also left a message: Can the host see these regular comments? Host, answer us!”

“Everyone chill out, maybe the Strongman is teaching the host some secret art?”

“Yeah, settle down—some patience, please!”

Seeing this, Katherine breathed a sigh of relief. Her viewers were more tolerant than she’d feared. “All right, Master, dig it up. I’ll continue the stream.”

She wrinkled her nose at the bloody stench on herself and muttered, “But first, I should clean up a bit.”

With a confident flourish of her left hand, she recited, “Drip by drop, cool and clean, gentle breeze and soft rain heed my call—Cleansing Spell!”

A chilly breeze stirred, but nothing else happened.

Katherine forced a sheepish smile. She’d forgotten that her magical foundation was destroyed—she couldn’t summon even a trace of mana now. Sticking out her tongue, she rummaged in her space pouch for a fresh set of clothes, then turned to Ling Mo and asked:

“Master, is there a clean stream nearby?”

Ling Mo: “…”

(Gift tiers for the livestream: Little Fireball, Big Fireball, Explosive Flame, Hellfire, Chaos Meteor, Meteor Shower, Cataclysm)