Chapter 122 - 120: Difficult Awakening Process

At the same time, Hayden Hanson, who had polished off the entire plate of diced meat and carrots delivered by Zephyr, felt his life was complete. Even if he were to die right now, he could rest in peace. He had only enjoyed such a delicacy in his childhood memories; ever since that apocalyptic disaster struck, he had never tasted a stir-fry like this again.

He lay quietly on the bed, feeling a long-lost comfort and a slight, pleasant dizziness as drowsiness washed over him. Ever since he had mistakenly wandered into a highly radioactive zone and suffered a genetic collapse, a piercing pain would shoot through every inch of his body whenever he tried to gather his Ability. He had witnessed firsthand how an Ability user with genetic collapse tried to forcefully mobilize their Ability, only to have their body blow into pieces on the spot—a truly gruesome sight.

During these days of slowly waiting for death, the daytimes were bearable. Aside from a dull ache in his body, he could still move around like a normal person. But at night, he would be tormented by pulmonary fibrosis, which made breathing incredibly difficult. Every inhalation and exhalation triggered a stabbing pain in his lungs, and every time he rolled over, his bones would ache so intensely that he couldn’t help but convulse.

Insomnia had become the norm for him. Even after taking sleeping medicine, it was hard to fall asleep quickly. Yet today, despite not taking any medicine, his entire body felt completely at ease as waves of sleepiness washed over him. He closed his eyes and quickly fell into a deep sleep, completely unaware that the damage in every part of his body was slowly repairing itself. For once, he finally got a good night’s sleep.

**

When Sev Steele returned home after visiting her second son, the yard was completely silent. For once, the children hadn’t heard her coming and didn’t run to the front door to greet her. She checked the time. It was exactly two-thirty in the afternoon. She wondered if they had all gone to take a nap, though they didn’t usually have the habit of resting at noon.

Sev Steele lightened her footsteps and walked into the kitchen. At a glance, she saw Rick Kaye sprawled across the dining table, sound asleep.

Sitting next to him was a distressed-looking Rose. Seeing her walk in, the little girl puffed out her cheeks and said, "Mom, everyone turned into lazybones today. They didn’t even know to go to bed when they got tired; they all just fell asleep right on the table.

"I had Curly help me move Rusty and Zephyr to their beds, but Mr. Quinn is so heavy. Curly couldn’t move him."

Hearing this, Sev Steele immediately knew something was wrong. She quickly pulled Rose into her arms and checked her over carefully, only to find that the girl was actually quite energetic.

"Rose, do you feel sleepy?" Sev Steele asked.

"No, I’m super hardworking! It’s not even dark yet, so I definitely won’t sleep," Rose said with a proud look on her face.

"Good, our Rose is the best! Then, could my hardworking little darling tell Mom what they all ate after I left?" Sev Steele asked.

"After you left, Mr. Quinn asked Rusty to scoop out a huge plate of the yummy diced meat and carrots from the pot.

"He said Rusty and Zephyr could only have two pieces of the diced meat each, but I could eat four.

"Oh, right! He also gave Silvy two pieces, and he ate all the rest himself.

"Zephyr secretly counted and said Mr. Quinn ate six pieces in total. He whispered that to me!"

When she said the last sentence, the little girl deliberately lowered her voice, putting on a secretive expression that made Sev Steele want to laugh.

"Mr. Quinn also said we could eat as many carrots as we wanted, and we could fill up on the carrot greens.

"So after we finished the first plate, we had a second one. But the second plate didn’t have any diced meat, only carrots and greens.

"At first, Rusty and Zephyr didn’t eat anything because they wanted to wait for you to come back so we could all eat together.

"But Mr. Quinn said that by the time you got back, the food would get cold, and it would waste firewood to heat it up again. He said it was better to just eat it early.

"Today’s food smelled way too good, so we couldn’t resist and ate first. But there’s really still a lot left in the pot! Mom, if you want to eat, I’ll heat it up for you right now."

As Rose recounted all this, she actually felt a bit guilty. After all, she had been the first one to give in to the temptation of the aroma and take the first bite. Seeing her eat, her older brothers were afraid their mother would be angry with her when she returned, so they joined in. That way, even if their mom got mad, she would definitely scold them first.

Rose’s explanation was a bit disorganized, but Sev Steele managed to piece together the truth from her words. In short, after she left, the one adult and three children had polished off a massive plate of diced meat and carrots, followed by a second plate of carrots and greens.

Although Rick Kaye hadn’t let them overeat the diced meat, he hadn’t restricted their intake of the carrots and greens. These two ingredients had absorbed plenty of the fat rendered from the diced meat, containing Energy far beyond what an ordinary person could withstand. As a result, Rusty and Zephyr both entered a drunken state and passed out.

As for Rose, she was now a Second Tier Ability User. She also had her Contracted Plant, Curly, to help share the Energy load. Combined with the fact that she was small and had a small appetite, preventing her from eating too many carrots and greens, she ended up being the only normal one.

What puzzled Sev Steele was that even though Rick Kaye was severely injured, he was still a Seventh Tier Ability User. Why couldn’t he withstand the Energy of a First Tier mutated fat bug and just fall asleep like that?

Just as she was trying to figure out how to wake Rick Kaye, she heard Silvy’s urgent squeaks coming from the second bedroom. "SQUEAK SQUEAK—SQUEAK SQUEAK!" Sev Steele hurriedly ran into the room, only to see Rusty surrounded by a soft, golden halo. It looked as if he were sleeping right in the core of a miniature sun.

Even if Sev Steele were foolish, she would know that her eldest son was about to awaken his Ability, and a Gold Ability at that! She immediately paled in shock! The last time her daughter awakened her Ability, Sev Steele had to bring out a Third Tier Wood Element Crystal Core to provide enough Energy to support the awakening process. But now, Rusty possessed the Gold attribute. What could she possibly use to replenish his Energy?

At this moment, Rusty felt countless metallic particles emerging from deep within his bone marrow and blood. They weren’t physical metal, yet they carried the sharp, icy texture unique to metal as they surged and collided throughout his entire body. It felt as though every single bone was being pierced by these metallic particles. The sheer agony made it difficult to breathe. He wanted to scream, but his throat couldn’t produce a single sound.

Gradually, these metallic particles converged into a torrent, washing over his body like scorching molten steel from a furnace. The icy cold seeping from his bones clashed with the blistering molten steel, pushing his pain to the absolute limit. As the boy’s consciousness blurred, a bizarre sensation was born within him. He could seemingly "see" the alloy interlayer hidden inside the bedroom walls.

An intense, instinctual desire swelled in his heart—he wanted to control this alloy interlayer. With a shift of his will, the metallic particles inside his body condensed into a pair of hands. When these hands touched the alloy layer, it felt just like reaching into soft mud.

Using his mind to control the hands, he visualized the shape of a Mutated Lemon Fruit and began to mold the metal. Very quickly, he shaped a Mutated Lemon Fruit that glinted with a metallic sheen. He tried to peel the lemon fruit away from the alloy layer, but it felt as if it was stuck in a mire. No matter how hard he pulled, he couldn’t extract it. The hands formed from the metallic particles also started to slowly turn ethereal, eventually dissipating back into specks of metal.

Watching from the side, Sev Steele was nearly frightened to death. The cement on the second bedroom’s wall cracked and began to FLAKE off. At first, she thought an earthquake was happening. But soon, a metal sphere the size of a ping-pong ball bulged out from the wall. Looking back at Rusty’s face, which had gone from flushed to deathly pale with cold sweat dotting his forehead, she finally realized this wasn’t an earthquake. Her eldest son was unconsciously using his Ability to manipulate metal.

Seeing his pale little face, Sev Steele guessed that he was running out of Energy mid-awakening. She wanted to help replenish his Energy, but she didn’t have a Metal Attribute Crystal Core on hand at all. She rushed into the kitchen and vigorously patted Rick Kaye’s cheeks, trying to forcefully wake him up to help think of a solution. But Rick Kaye was like a dead log, completely unresponsive.

She then dialed Doctor Jenkins’s communication number, only for it to show that he was busy. She recalled him once mentioning that he muted his device during experiments, refusing any and all disturbances. She wanted to go to the trading hall to post a request to buy a Metal Attribute Crystal Core. However, Crystal Cores weren’t like wild vegetables that could be found everywhere. By the time she managed to buy one, Rusty would likely be long gone.

Sev Steele was going crazy with anxiety. In her desperation, she suddenly thought of the battered box in the woodshed—there was definitely some incredible entity hiding inside it. Since that picky foodie had the ability to absorb Energy, then perhaps it could help Rusty survive this most crucial ordeal of his life?