In Star Child, the most commonly available food was obviously mushrooms, which were scattered all over the ground.
“Then let’s just pick some mushrooms and eat them.”
I decided to casually walk around the villa complex and check if there were any mushrooms worth eating.
Then, among the smaller ones, I spotted a mushroom that suddenly popped up by itself.
I picked up a brown mushroom, one that seemed like it might make for a good match with my precious one, and started inspecting it.
“Hmm… Is this a poisonous mushroom? Or just a regular one…?”
“Chanwoo, if you give it to me, I can taste it and check it for you.”
“No way! You’re not some kind of royal cook. What if something goes wrong?!”
“Royal… cook?”
Mushrooms were the first food that new players tasted during the food tutorial in Star Child when they first started the game.
At the same time, it was famous for being a food that would poison you, giving you a deadly introduction to the game within just one minute of playing.
It was easy to find, but there was a considerable risk with it.
They say that if you grill or cook it, the poison is somewhat neutralized, but that only works for androids.
For a human like me, even neutralized poisonous mushrooms would still likely be deadly.
It wouldn’t just result in a combat penalty like for androids.
“It has no colorful patterns, and the smell is just a bit musty. Plus, it doesn’t have any spikes or bubbles when touched… So!”
“So?”
“This mushroom has about an 80% chance of being edible.”
“80%?!”
Survival games and soul-based genres had that trait.
Nothing you find and eat is ever 100% safe.
At least, through my own experience, I could determine the rough safety of this mushroom.
As a result, I figured that there was an 80% chance this mushroom was edible.
And 80% seemed like a high enough chance to take the risk.
“No! You can’t eat it. Chanwoo, no!”
But even though I was okay with it, Levi snatched the mushroom from my hands as if it was forbidden for me.
“What if the 20% chance ends up being a big problem?!”
“What do you mean, ‘what if’? I’ll just think about that if it happens, right?”
“No! I won’t let you eat it! Even if dirt gets in my eyes, I can’t stand seeing that happen!”
Anyone who saw us would think we’re mother and son.
She would do anything to keep me from taking a risk, even if it was just a 1% chance of danger.
Crunch crunch crunch crunch.
“Ah, my mushroom…”
“Munch munch… I’ll eat this, so… munch munch munch… you eat something better, Chanwoo… munch munch munch.”
So, Levi ate the mushroom that I had deemed 80% edible.
She swallowed it without issue, then grabbed my hand as if to say, “Follow me,” and started walking ahead.
‘Wait, weren’t we supposed to be looking for solar panels in the villa complex?’
‘How did we end up like this?’
Levi and I hid behind a big rock in the middle of the street.
In front of us, about 10 meters away, we saw a deer grazing on the grass.
“Chanwoo, do you like venison?”
“Well, I don’t know… if it were pig or chicken, maybe, but I’ve never tried deer.”
“I see.”
After all, venison wasn’t a common food in Korea.
I had never eaten it, to begin with.
At that, Levi’s eyes burned with more excitement than ever.
“Then I’ll let you eat it.”
“Ah, okay…”
Well, I preferred real meat over mushrooms anyway.
Since it had come to this, I decided to help Levi and get some protein for breakfast and lunch today.
But then…
***
Thud.
“…?”
The basics of hunting were ambush.
The most important thing was the unexpected surprise shot from that spot.
That’s why hunters’ weapons were generally bows, which could be used to shoot from a distance.
Of course, nowadays, more people hunted with guns, but those who used guns typically did it for fun.
It was more about killing for sport than for survival food.
For them, the quality of the meat didn’t matter, and they used firearms that would “explode” the game when hit.
In contrast, our goal was to gather high-quality meat, so we would probably use a bow that would kill with minimal damage.
‘I was sure we’d use a bow for a clean, quick kill, but what was this?’
“Code name – P927JSO261PA, Squad 4 member Levi, initiating operation.”
‘Wait, why is she initiating an operation?’
No, no, Levi.
‘Didn’t we hide here to ambush?’
Levi, a combat-type android, jumped up from her crouch and summoned a plasma-charged blade in one hand.
At this point, I still couldn’t believe it.
I thought, ‘No way…’
Even though she’s an android, her base design is based on “humans,” right?
The average running speed of an adult human is around 20 to 25 km/h.
The speed of an enhanced human android, which was based on human design, averaged about 35 to 40 km/h, which was slightly faster.
Of course, there was an overwhelming difference in stamina.
While a human would tire quickly, an android could run almost indefinitely.
In fact, <Star Child> was also an open-world game with a vast, expansive world.
Unless encountering a bird or a monster, stamina wasn’t depleted while running during exploration.
But even with such an android…
Tada-da-da-dak!
Tudu-du-du-du-du-du!
‘How could a bipedal animal possibly defeat a quadrupedal one?’
Among them, the deer was a very agile animal, running at speeds of over 50 kilometers per hour.
In other words, though the hunt started by rushing out of the rocks, Levi couldn’t catch the deer, barely managing to follow it slowly.
“Levi! Don’t you even have a bow? At least a bow?”
“A bow… You mean?”
“Yes! Normally, the rule for this kind of thing is to hunt with a bow!”
“Even if you say that, I don’t know how to make a bow!”
Ugh.
A battle assistant who knows nothing but battle!
Levi knew how to use a bow, but she didn’t know how to make one.
At this point, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of school life Levi had at R.P.M.
She just kept chasing after the deer’s tail, running relentlessly.
“Chanwoo-nim. If we run like this for about an hour, the deer’s speed will start to decrease.”
“Ah… I guess.”
Well, after all, the deer was a living creature that breathes through its lungs.
Eventually, it would tire and fall down.
“Yeah. Then, when it gets tired, I’ll be able to slay its neck with my blade!”
…Really?
What a feast of inefficiency.
Of course, that method was actually possible in the game, as I mentioned earlier, since the android’s stamina wouldn’t decrease unless it was during combat.
But think about it.
“If you shot an arrow at its head, it would fall in one shot.”
“If you aimed for its body, it would take two shots, and the deer would fall.”
But here Levi was, chasing after the deer for hours with the directional keys, holding it in place.
‘Who would do something so crazy?’
“By the way, I’ve already hunted two deer like this right after we arrived on Earth!”
‘Who would do it, you ask?’
My precious android girl.
They say that if you’re not smart, your body will suffer.
I feel bad saying this to Levi, but she is the true example of that saying.
She was truly a representative of bodily suffering.
‘Maybe it’s better if I just quickly make a bow and arrows for her.’
The good news here is that in survival games, a bow is one of the first weapons you can make.
The crafting method is also very simple.
With just some scattered twigs and string around, I could somehow make a basic bow.
While I was rummaging around an abandoned vehicle and its surrounding area, leaving Levi chasing the deer until it tired…
“Uh?!”
“!!”
“…Huh?”
From behind, I heard the sound of a deer being… no, it sounded like a deer’s neck was being snapped.
‘I don’t think we’ve even been running for five minutes yet?’
‘Or maybe Levi’s running speed had surpassed the average for androids.’
As various thoughts crossed my mind, I turned my head to follow the sound of the deer dying.
Then, I saw Levi, whose expression mirrored my own disbelief, and the deer that was impaled by a long tentacle, hanging in the air.
The deer’s body was being drained of blood, turning into a mummified state.
“Chanwoo…”
“Shh.”
I immediately made a gesture to Levi to be quiet, placing a finger over my lips.
Seemingly understanding my intention, she covered her mouth with both hands.
…That was a relief.
If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known what to expect next from the window of a shabby building, where a tentacle had just appeared.
Being nocturnal isn’t just a trait given because of nighttime activity.
Humans, as diurnal creatures, don’t necessarily fall asleep at night just because they are day creatures.
If we put our minds to it, humans can be nocturnal and work in the early hours too, just like any other creature.
So, there was no guarantee that those strange beings couldn’t be nocturnal either.
I had already encountered such a rare type just a few days ago.
‘This is bad.’
The building with the tentacles was about seven stories high.
Moreover, beyond the window, I could see a thick tentacle wriggling endlessly after having just hunted the deer.
If these were ‘multiple entities’ working together, at least there was hope.
If I took out a few low-level creatures as examples, I could escape while their kind panicked over their fallen comrades.
But…
In the worst-case scenario…
‘If all the tentacles in that building belonged to one single entity?’
If that’s the case, we were most certainly in the boss room.
In other words, this was the stage where I’d most easily encounter Yu Dahee.