Evelyn was a kindergarten teacher who always appeared bright and lively, but was destined to go missing soon.

So he needed to act fast.

Pulling out his phone, he opened the community group chat and scrolled through the members list until he found the ID he was looking for.

[Sunshine].

It’s her.

For a moment, his fingers halted.

What should he say? For anyone else, that question would matter a lot — but not for him.

With a single command, more than twelve cooked chicken portions materialized on his dining table, with an equal number of water bottles placed right beside them.

"Still not enough..."

Tilting his head slightly, he thought for a moment before turning to his refrigerator and pulling out what little food he had left, the four eggs and half a pound of meat.

He placed them at the corner, just enough to be visible at a glance but not obvious.

Satisfied, he snapped a picture and sent it to her along with a message.

---

[Dead_Weight]: I have enough food supplies to last for months. I am willing to share, but in exchange, we can live together.

---

In a dimly lit room eight floors below Lucien.

A girl whose charm remained, despite her unwashed clothes on her figure. She clutched a phone tightly in her hands as she bit her lip.

"Is this the only way?"

She muttered, her eyes losing the last bit of hope she had gained after checking the picture.

She was a teacher, one who taught the children to always be of help to others without expecting anything in return.

"And this is what I got in return?"

Tears welled up in her eyes, but the rumbling of her stomach was loud enough to silence the quiet drip of her tears hitting the floor.

She also had another option, Aiden.

But she knew his nature all too well; he might even discard her after he was satisfied with her, which was why she had spent days curled up on her bed, despite having starved for two days straight.

The last thing she had was a sip of water.

Yet she knew she needed to choose fast, as messaging in the group chat could bring disaster to her door.

No one could be trusted in times like these.

Hours passed as she wavered on whether she should just die rather than trade herself for food.

---

Having nothing to do, Lucien waited for her response but seeing not even a single reply even after a couple of hours, he focused his attention elsewhere and began switching on the old appliances while sealing off every possible entry point through which his house could be breached.

"Due to the Black Water, we will be trapped here for a long time." So having a safe house to live in was necessary.

Then he also proceeded to take a bath, something he hadn’t done in over half a month.

Checking his phone briefly, he found no new messages.

The exhaustion and tension that had kept him on the edge started to slip away and a few minutes later, he fell asleep.

When his eyes fluttered open, he checked the time only to realise he had slept for more than ten hours.

His whole body felt sore, but when the thought of pulling another gacha came to his mind, all the stiffness vanished as if it had never existed.

At once, he spun the roulette.

The wheel gradually came to a stop and fireworks popped before his eyes.

But this time, there was a difference that he noticed easily.

The fireworks were all violet in color, signifying something that he hadn’t even thought about at the moment.

"A Rare-pull." Lucien jumped up from his bed in excitement and unable to control himself, quickly checked the rewards.

---

[Congratulations! You have obtained a rare-tier reward—

●Awakening Fruit(mid-grade) x3.]

---

"I got it!" He clenched his fists as a surge of relief passed through him.

Now he can awaken too.

Though the mid-grade description made him realize that what he received wasn’t a top-tier, game-breaking awakening fruit.

But despite that, he was content with it.

In one swift motion, he conjured an awakening fruit, and what he saw made his eyes widen in disbelief.

"...A golden fruit?" This was unlike anything he had ever seen or heard about.

And just touching it with his hands gave him the feeling that he was holding something far more valuable than any awakening crystal that formed inside the mutated creatures.

He gulped, and acting as if possessed by someone who wanted to eat the fruit immediately, he devoured it in a couple of bites.

The moment the fruit entered his stomach, it dissolved into thin strands of pure spiritual energy and spread through all of his blood vessels, organs, and bones alike.

"What’s happening?" The words left his mouth as he felt the unprecedented change happening inside his body.

Suddenly, his eyes turned a shade darker and he dropped to the ground.

A splitting headache struck as pain tore through his entire body, but he let out nothing more than a groan due to his sheer willpower.

Sweat beaded at his temples, his whole body twitching uncontrollably as he felt his consciousness begin to slip.

But the thought of what would happen if he fell unconscious made him grit his teeth and bear through the pain.

The transformation started to become more visible on the outside as well.

His black hair shed as dead weight, and new silver sleek strands of hair extended just long enough to reach his nape.

The facial bones aligned, sharpening his features in a balanced symmetry. At the same time, his frame stretched up by a few inches, increasing his height to more than a hundred and eighty centimeters.

The transformation had finished, both inward and outward.

The clothes clung more tightly to his newer physique as Lucien gasped for air.

"I am never doing this again..." mumbling the words weakly, he fell unconscious on the floor.

[DING!]

[HOST HAS AWAKENED!]