Reincarnated in the Royal Family with a Plunder System-Chapter 43: The Nuclear Poison

Ryan slumped into his chair, eyes half-lidded and bloodshot. The bullseye egg stared back at him from the white plate—golden yolk perfectly centered, the edges crisped just right. Normally, he’d have devoured it in two bites.

But today, it looked like slime.

The scent of sizzling butter, once mouthwatering, now made his stomach churn. Toasted bread, creamy sausage gravy, even his favorite jam—it all blurred into a nauseating parade of excess.

His body ached for fuel—shoulders heavy, arms sore from last night’s training—but just the thought of chewing felt like lifting weights all over again.

He had no appetite for breakfast, even though his body craved sustenance.

He pushed the plate away.

"Eat, Ryan, mom personally cooked that." Seraphina pushed the plates back to him. "And that egg looks delicious."

"Aren’t you usually the one who steals it all?" He yawned, saying sleepily. "You can have it."

Lysandra frowned and touched his hand.

"Is something wrong with him, mom?"

Lysandra nodded.

"His body is in incredible stress," she said. "His heart rate is abnormal. Almost as if he is releasing adrenaline even though he is in a safe place. Almost as if he is in battle mode."

Ryan’s eyes cleared slightly. "I am that stressed? Why?"

"You are training him too hard, Sera. His mind is not taking it well, his body even less."

Lysandra glared at Seraphina.

"I trained even harder than him while i was younger, mom!" Seraphina frowned. "He can handle this much!"

"He is not you Sera! This is his first experience with training—going too intense at the start is burning him out. You should start slow, get him into the flow steadily. This is unhealthy."

"Mom," Ryan took his hand away. "I don’t want you to coddle me. I can handle this much. It’s just stress, right?"

"Well, if you don’t maintain your stress levels, you will end up hating everything in life. Things will become black and white. Even this food looks like nothing special today, right? Everything will become that way!"

Ryan became silent.

Unlike what he believed, stress was not some vague form of debuff ability. It was not some sort of mystical curse. Stress was hundred percent real—it was a hormone that, when running throughout the body, had an influence on all parts of a person’s life.

Lysandra took his hand back into hers, then began doing something.

Ryan felt a weight leaving his body and into Lysandra.

He felt his breath become clearer.

In the end, stress was also just a disease and Lysandra was the best of healers.

His stress was leaving him as if it never was there.

"Now," she said, "it’s all good."

"Ah, your healing is the best..."

Ryan sighed.

"Now I am hungry."

Seraphina stole his egg before Ryan had the chance to eat it.

"You b—"

"You said I could take it."

"There is plenty where that came from, don’t worry."

"Mom, she ate all the pudding!"

Seraphina sneered. "There wasn’t much to begin with."

"Shut up you whale, there was a whole giant bowl full of that—I saw it"

"Cry about it."

Ryan growled and held Seraphina’s hand under the table. Immediately, he began to experience the same feelings that she did—the taste of wonderful pudding. If she ate, it was the same as him eating the same thing.

’I never knew you could use this skill like that,’ she said.

’Smart use, kek.’

’Dumb luck.’

’I can’t really sense the taste, but I can feel the same feelings you get by drinking it. Hm, it’s like I can feel the after taste. Try drinking that milkshake’

’Which one, this?’

’Yeah.’

Seraphina drank a sweet milkshake, letting Ryan experience the feelings she felt while drinking it. It was a very mystical sensation.

’My Plunder Sucker is back to being active again, did you prepare any new Skills for me?’

’Yeah, something good this time, but I have some other plans as well.’

Ryan couldn’t wait.

But for now, he had other questions in his heart.

"Mom, I have a question."

"Hm, ask away."

"You said you used a powerful poison called the Shard of Infinity on the experiment, right?"

"...yes. It is the world’s most deadly poison."

"Is there any way to get more of it?"

Lysandra’s expression became stern. "Why?"

"I am just curious about it."

After all, his system was created due to the Shard of Infinity fusing with his soul. The system WAS that poison, which had now become his greatest medicine. And what would happen if he had more of the Shards?

He still remembered that old message from the system. In fact, that notification was still there in the system.

[Note: The Shard of Infinity is just a shard of the True Infinity and you need to find the other 8 Shards scattered across the world to complete it.]

His mother shook her head. "I will not entertain this curiosity of yours if you are planning something with those shards. The Shards of Infinity are all incredibly poisonous things. Do not even think of getting close to them."

"Just tell me about it mother, where are the other Shards?"

"Just curiosity?"

"Yeah, just curiosity."

"Then, I will tell you. Nobody really knows who has the other Shards of Infinity, but there is one in the Human Kingdom and then there is one in the Mystical Garden."

Seraphina, who had been silent all this time, asked: "Mystical Garden, the territory of the Moon Eaters?"

"Yes. The Moon Eater race’s emperor is said to have a Shard just like our Human King. Both of them use these shards as deterrant against stronger enemies."

Ryan frowned. "Deterrent?"

"Yes, why do you think the giant races in our neighbouring territories don’t dare to hunt in the Human Kingdom? Are they truly afraid of a measly level 80 King? Of course not. But they are afraid of the Shard he has."

Ryan nodded after some thought.

It was like the nuclear bombs on Earth.

Why didn’t anyone dare to attack powerful nations?

Because those nations had nuclear weapons—doomsday tools they could unleash if things got too bad or if their survival was threatened. Nuclear bombs were both a shield and a sword: a final, terrifying resort that could cause massive destruction with a single command.

Everyone knew that pushing too far could lead to mutual annihilation. That fear kept the peace. No one wanted to be the one who forced a superpower to press the button.

Some nations might be stronger financially or in military prowess, but if they don’t have nuclear power, they would never even dare to stand up to super nations that did have nuclear power.

During the ages of Cold War, this was the exact logic that prevented full-scale war on Earth. Each side had enough nuclear firepower to destroy the other even after a first strike. So, paradoxically, having these devastating weapons created a tense kind of stability—because no one wanted to risk triggering total annihilation.

A nuclear war could potentially destroy Earth itself, after all.

Even though Mugen was a different world, such logic still held firm here. That was nearly how the giant races surrounding the human race and humans themselves were at the moment as well.

They were in a tense form of stability.

Anyone who was above level 80 was someone who valued their own life. No one with that sort of power would want to wreck havoc in the human kingdom only to get blasted with a Shard of Infinity. Thus, no one above level 80 came to mess with the Human Kingdom. And if they send people below Level 80, humans were strong enough to handle them.

That was why, in a world of strong beings, the Human Kingdom lived with relative peace.

Ryan’s mind drifted.

One day, he will be strong enough on his own. He will become the Human Race’s nuclear bomb. He will be the deterrent. Every other race would have to think about his reaction before daring to enter the Kingdom!

Ryan was not patriotic or anything, but he wouldn’t mind gloriously being the best.

Nuclear Ryan.

That had quite the sound to it—

Seraphina gave him a soft smack in the head. "Don’t day dream and eat, we have training to do."

"...yeah."