# CHAPTER 24: THE REBIRTH DINNER
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Sitting on the ground, looking up at the sky, a new emotion he had never felt before stirred within him. In his past life, Subject 198 had been born without emotions, but fortunately, unlike other clones—who could do nothing beyond their missions and a few tasks like eating to survive—Subject 198 was luckier. He not only possessed the desire to survive, but also the ability to develop the thing protecting his existence. Subject 198 had simulated the existence of emotions through biological chemicals, creating artificial emotions, and from there, thought was born.
But ultimately, it was fake. He felt nothing at all. The personality he displayed was merely reconstructed from the data of his past existence. He had no real emotions. Empty.
Now, with a true emotion in his chest, he didn't know what to call it.
It took Subject 198 a while before he stood up and continued his work. Rising, he glanced beside him at the drag sled he had built during his delirium. Now, the neural influence had faded, and he had returned to his original nature. He stood up and pulled the final load back to the new camp. Step by step, dragged by the thing behind him—40 kilograms of blood-glass moss.
At the same time, Noci in his head seemed to have finished digesting the memory information and began transmitting memories back to Subject 198.
These were the characteristics of blood-moss. First was its taste—instead of the glass-powder taste with a slight bitter fiber flavor of glass-moss, the blood-moss tasted far worse. It carried a strong, pungent iron flavor, along with a hint of crude oil, and an intensely bitter taste like bitter melon, overwhelming. It was not tasty at all. Although it grew faster, its energy content was also lower than glass-moss—only about half. But compared in terms of energy yield, it was still better.
Next were a few tools he had left behind at the old camp. Because Noci had eaten the memories, he didn't remember, but he had crafted a shovel-sled from a glass-tree branch, with the handle made from a large piece of the old shell. There were also several bowls carved from flexible wood from the stunted trees on the plains—since the glass trees in the forest were too hard to carve into bowls. The last item was a water bottle, crafted like the containers for blood-grass liquid. This was based on his speculation—the reason his energy ran out so quickly might be because his body wasn't being replenished with enough substances like fluids or components for body structure such as lipids, proteins, or collagen. The process of regeneration and sustaining life always consumed that illogical energy to keep his body alive. He remembered his first excretion—the amount of water he vomited was more than the water he absorbed. Since then, there was a possibility that his Outcast body used that illogical energy to supplement water. So to reduce the pressure on that energy source, he decided to replenish the necessary things to survive beyond food like meat and glass-moss.
And it truly worked—the energy in his body was under less pressure, used less, so now it took a full seven days before he crossed the threshold and the monstrous hunger struck along with bodily exhaustion. According to Subject 198's calculations, but this wasn't entirely accurate—if he needed to replenish fully, he'd need to eat meat or glass-moss, which just meant replenishing illogical energy anyway. So these things only reduced food consumption.
He took the final steps toward the new camp. Using three hands—his body still in pain—he carried the supplies. Unlike when he was in madness—where pain was pushed into a corner and trapped in his mind—the pain was still there, but the chemicals in his head were so abundant that the pain all over his body was nothing compared to it.
Subject 198's body still hadn't recovered. The illogical energy inside him was still hiding, almost imperceptible—as if weakened, extremely weak from overwork. His body, instead of being fully regenerated, seemed to be pieced together from shattered bone fragments, forced together like assembling Lego blocks. The muscles were connected but incredibly fragile—though still stronger than when he was first reborn into this world.
After carrying the last of the supplies, he began to look toward the traces of the final battle—he remembered nothing. Now that the delirium had passed, the filter that only saw positive things disappeared, and Subject 198 saw:
Hundreds of fragments of Subject 198's limbs scattered around this place—mostly arms and legs, and a few human eyes. They were probably his, since they weren't as large as the monster's eyes, both before and after evolution. Impressively, there were no mouths or internal organs anywhere around—it seemed only limbs had been smashed or torn from the body without touching the internal organs.
Looking at the pile of his own limbs, Subject 198 partly deduced the reason the illogical energy in his body had weakened—probably because he had to regenerate too many new limbs, essentially creating a source of replacement matter for the limbs being destroyed continuously. He understood the situation, though it was just a guess, but he was fairly certain. The nutrients from the dry ration bars were mostly energy—there was nothing to extract from them. Perhaps they were compressed so tightly that their structure had changed. But even if compressed to such an illogical degree, there should still be matter inside, right? There was another question: why, after these limbs regrew, should they have been weak like at the beginning, yet they were still as strong as before?
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
*Hmm... think for a moment.*
Then he gave up, knowing that once Noci finished digesting, the answer would come.
He stood up with a body that wasn't just awkwardly pieced together, and walked toward the limbs. He began collecting them—of course, to recycle resources. These limbs also contained energy like the monsters he had killed, and waste not, want not.
It was late afternoon by the time he finished collecting the scattered body parts.
Seeing that night was approaching, he decided to cook a meal.
**The ingredients this time were:**
- Subject 198's limbs
- A pile of blood-glass moss
- A portion of an energy bar
- Blood from the crustacean-tentacle monster
- And a bit of blood grass
He went to the pile of discarded limbs and took out an arm and a leg. Then he went to the blood-glass moss and took about 2 kg. For regular glass-moss, he only took 500 grams—this type was much tastier than blood grass, so he had to save it. He also grabbed a handful of blood grass. He began cooking.
First was preparing the ingredients.
He started with the arm and leg. He found an old shell fragment from before the second evolution and began chopping. But because it was too dull or had no handle, it was very difficult. Even striking at one spot, he had to hit over a dozen times just to cut off a slice the size of a tomahawk. He did the same with the leg, but it was harder and tougher. He struggled until his hand was injured before finishing.
Next, the blood-glass moss and regular glass-moss were simple. He smashed them with the mallet, separated them into two types, and placed them in two bowls. Later, he would add blood grass to make a dough for food.
Finally, the soup—the main liquid dish. He took out an energy bar and smashed it with the mallet.
*Thump! Thump! Thump!*
Every blow was swung with full force, but only left a small crack. He continued striking until, after a while, he broke off a piece. Then he continued the crushing journey. It took nearly an hour, and the results were just a bit of dust and mostly tiny chunks. He put them into a bowl.
He walked to the monster, took the shell fragment, and slashed at one spot repeatedly to let blood flow into the bowl filled with energy bar fragments. Curious, he mixed it into a thick, greenish porridge that looked disgusting.
Curious about the taste of its blood, he used Silas to sip some—only sucking blood, not taking meat. As the liquid spread into Silas's throat, a numb and prickling sensation spread throughout the throat—like carbonated water. And the taste was like grape Fanta.
*What the hell?*
*What law dictates that a creature's blood has gas and tastes sweet like grape Fanta?*
*(Author's note: I hate grape Fanta, so I gave the monster blood exactly like that.)*
The sensation spread throughout his throat with the sweet, light flavor of grapes, bringing Subject 198 a refreshing feeling. He drank to his heart's content for a while, even filling a bowl before stopping, ignoring the sound in his ears that wasn't from gas.
Then, preparation was done—time to cook.
His own meat was simple—just eat it raw as is.
The energy bar soup was mixed into a thick, porridge-like consistency.
For the blood-moss, he didn't like the taste, so the 2 kg was used as a side dish. After mixing it into a paste, he cut it into small pieces and set it aside.
As for the glass-moss paste? Of course, it was used to wrap the crustacean monster meat—making a bun with a very thin glass-moss crust outside, and full of meat inside. Finally, the blood grass—it tasted like rust—was added to the monster's green blood that tasted like grape Fanta to enhance the flavor.
After preparing the meal, just as he was about to devour it, he heard the monster's cries growing weaker—it seemed close to death. He looked at it—he couldn't let it die now. So he threw one of his own legs to it. It moved its mouth weakly, trying to eat. Ignoring it, he returned to his meal.
First, he ate a piece of meat from his own arm. How did it feel? The texture was like pork, but without fat, mixed with a bit of chicken texture. But the flavor was like pigeon meat. He chewed his own arm contentedly.
*Nom nom...*
He moved on to his leg. He took a bite—the flavor was still like pigeon, but the texture was different—a bit chewy, like undercooked beef stew. Perhaps because this was the part of his body he used the most. He continued chewing; the sensation of chewing something so chewy was interesting—like bubble gum.
*Nom nom...*
He swallowed again. His third hand reached for the bowl full of monster blood and took a sip. A refreshing sensation spread through his body.
*Slurp... sip...*
Compared to the hand-monster meat, it was worse because there was too little fat. He looked down at his round, fat belly, and a stupid thought popped up but was stopped by reason. He continued eating.
He picked up one of the monster-meat buns and bit into it. Perhaps because the filling was minced from a mixture of crustacean monster meat and hand-monster meat, it had a perfectly balanced fatty flavor—not too much—with a hint of crab.
He took a piece of blood-grass paste and put it in his mouth. A bitter sensation spread throughout Silas, with a pungent oily smell. It was like eating pickled radish or pickled vegetables to cut through the grease.
*Nom nom...*
The last was the thing he hated most—the energy bar soup. He put down his own leg and began eating it with his tentacle. A chilling sensation spread through his body—it tasted like cement. But mixed with the monster blood, the Fanta flavor made it a little better. Still, he had to eat it—this was the main source of energy.
*Sip sip... slurp slurp...*
Sitting on the grass, eating while watching the sunset, random thoughts drifting through his head. Perhaps tomorrow Noci would finish digesting the memories. The memories would return.
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