Chapter 79: Food Was No Longer the Problem
Chapter 79: Food Was No Longer the Problem
The first trouble came at the resource counter.
A combat-track student stood ahead of Jin in line. He had good equipment, an easy confidence, and a sleek Silver-quality beast sitting neatly beside him. He looked exactly like the sort of student Meridian expected to see there.
His eyes moved to Jin, then to Glitch on his shoulder, and he reached the obvious conclusion.
"Support intake is at the other counter," he said. There was no real cruelty in it. He was simply sure. "The one near the far wall."
"I’m combat," Jin replied. "This is my counter."
The student frowned.
He studied Glitch again: one small, ordinary Grey Rock Lizard perched on the shoulder of a scholarship student. Then the counter loaded Jin’s file, and the provisional-combat designation appeared.
"They accepted a combat petition for an Iron-quality Rock Lizard?"
He did not sound mocking. Mostly, he seemed confused, as though Jin’s record had been sorted into the wrong pile.
"Seven days won’t make that a combat beast."
Arthur’s warning came back to Jin at once.
An insult isn’t worth your place there.
So Jin let it pass.
"Then you won’t be waiting long to find out you were right," he said.
His voice stayed calm and flat, with no anger in it.
The student blinked. Apparently satisfied that Jin had given up, he left with his Silver beast.
Glitch had understood the insult perfectly.
Heat rushed through the bond. His body lowered on Jin’s shoulder, and all his attention fixed on the departing student.
A bite. A charge. Hardened claws.
Any of those would end with a scholarship beast attacking a paying student on the first day.
No, Jin sent through the bond, sharp and final. Not him. Not now. He isn’t worth your assessment.
Glitch obeyed.
Barely.
His tail whipped once, then again. Pride and fury poured off him, the anger of a creature forced to accept an insult he believed deserved blood.
Jin allowed him to be angry. The anger was justified.
Acting on it was not.
"We’ll answer him," Jin murmured, keeping his voice low enough that only Glitch could hear. "Just not through a disciplinary hearing. Later. Our way."
Glitch settled, though he clearly disagreed.
He also seemed to store the student’s face for future use.
Quietly, Jin did the same.
At the allowance station, Jin received Glitch’s first month of feed.
Several sealed bags were placed on the counter, enough to keep one ordinary Iron-quality beast healthy for a month.
They were not intended to support accelerated growth.
The moment Jin picked them up, he started calculating.
That was simply what he did.
He considered Glitch’s normal food intake, how much the previous Sync had consumed, and how much needed to remain for the rest of the month. Then he tried to estimate whether adding Corrosion Resistance and Acid Breath would make the next Sync more demanding than any before it.
The Engine had never provided an exact cost.
Jin only had experience and Appraisal to work with, which gave him a rough estimate at best.
Back in Shelter 7, the answer to Can I Sync? had always been no.
Here, he had both food and privacy.
The restriction was still there, but it had loosened enough that the question was finally worth asking.
Glitch saw the bags and immediately changed his opinion of Meridian.
Meridian provided food.
Whole bags of it.
Regularly.
He planted himself beside the feed and informed Jin through the bond that the monthly supply looked like a small snack.
"That’s meant to last a month," Jin told him. "It isn’t one meal. We’re going to discuss what you think a portion is."
Glitch’s expression made it clear that the discussion would accomplish nothing.
Jin’s dorm room was near the top of a residential tower.
When he opened the door, he remained in the entrance for a moment without moving.
By Meridian’s standards, the room was basic scholarship housing.
By Jin’s standards, it was ridiculous.
It had a real door. The lock worked when he tested it.
There was a proper bed, already made, along with a desk, shelves, and drawers. An attached washroom had running water, with no queue and no ration notice. The lights stayed steady. There was even enough clear floor for Glitch to circle the room without crashing into anything.
His future roommate had not arrived.
For the moment, Jin had the room to himself.
He placed the feed beside the desk, closed the curtain, and checked the lock once more.
Sixteen years spent sharing two rooms separated by a curtain.
Now he had a room of his own and a door he could lock.
He sent a message to his family.
Registered. Room secured. I still have my documents.
Elsa: Send proof.
Jin took a picture of the room and sent it.
Elena: A real bed!!
Arthur: Check the lock.
Already did, Jin replied.
Once he was alone, with the curtain shut and the door locked, Jin arranged the beast feed where Glitch could see it.
Then he sat on the edge of his own real bed and opened the Engine.
[Real Beast Combat Level: 2-Star]
[Unsynchronized Growth: Stored]
[Pending Skill: Corrosion Resistance]
[Pending Skill: Acid Breath]
[Digital Combat Experience: Stored]
[Sync Available]
Everything from Rustwater Drain was still there.
The raw growth Glitch had earned but never received.
Two skills he should not have been capable of possessing.
Weeks of stored combat experience.
All of it waited behind a single press.
Jin thought about the medical station below.
Less than an hour earlier, Meridian had officially verified Glitch as 2-Star, Iron-quality, and healthy.
That result was recorded and timestamped.
If Jin pressed Sync, Glitch might become much stronger. Jin had no idea by how much.
Corrosion Resistance would be added to his real body. Acid Breath would reveal itself the first time Glitch used it. The stored combat experience would affect the way he moved.
The hunger might consume a large part of the feed meant to last the month.
And trained instructors would be watching Glitch tomorrow.
If Jin chose not to press the button, Glitch would begin the seven-day assessment as an ordinary 2-Star beast.
Weeks of earned progress would remain unused.
They might lose the placement they had bled for simply because Jin had been too cautious to use what they had.
There was no clean solution yet.
Only a glowing button, an assessment beginning the next day, and no reliable way to know how visible the change would be.
For weeks, food had been the only barrier.
Now sealed bags of feed sat beside the desk. The door was locked. Every reward Glitch had earned waited inside the Engine.
Jin opened the school’s verification result, still sitting among his messages.
[Grey Rock Lizard — 2-Star]
Then he looked back at the Engine.
[Sync Available]
For the first time, food was not what stopped him.
The real problem was what Meridian would find after he pressed the button.