Villainous

Half the sky was dominated by an enormous ringed planet. The planet itself was a lovely mix of blues and purples in various shades, while the wide rings seemed to contain every color of the rainbow. Two of the three moons had already set, the third seemingly suspended between Elysium and the ringed planet - it wouldn"t set until well into the afternoon.

Bao held a purple apple between his claws, stripping the outside with his tongue before taking small savory bites. Half his eyes were closed in delight, while the other half kept a careful watch of their surroundings.

They sat on a hill overlooking their forest destination, enormous trees reaching countless branches toward the sky. White, brown, and black trunks supported a rainbow canopy and network of looping vines covered in flowers, roots hidden by a carpet of ferns and bushes. Behind them, gra.s.sy plains dotted with wildflowers stretched back towards a series of farms and orchards already being tended to by farmers. The distance was too great for anyone to notice the small girl and her horse having a quick meal on a hillside.

Li Mei allowed herself to enjoy the moment. She wondered what kind of low-rank monsters filled the forest - the Quest said they"d be within her capabilities, but considering her low physical stats the only thing she thought herself capable of beating in a fight would be slimes or something.

"A rainbow forest filled with slimes. Yeah, that sure sounds like a newbie area." She grinned at Bao, who was too occupied with his meal to bother sharing an opinion. "We"ll find a nice place to set up a camp. Maybe a cave or something? A defensible position where we"ll be safe. Once we have a permanent camp I can start cooking up some meals. I"m an excellent chef, you"ll love what I make!"

Li Mei lost herself in daydreams of comfort food. She didn"t know if simple things like soy sauce, tofu, or even bean sauce existed in Elysium. There were a lot of produce equivalents like fuzzy blue potatoes, rainbow rice, or purple apples. Maybe there were condiment and spice equivalents too? Sesame oil, garlic sauce, chili paste, ginger and rice wine and peppercorns and fennel...

Elysium seemed similar to Earth in many ways. Perhaps in the cities or bigger towns they even had fast food! Street vendors selling meat noodles or buns, coffee shops, bakeries. The estate didn"t have access to such familiar luxuries but that didn"t mean nowhere in the world did. She tried not to hold out hope for anything like WcDonalds, even though the existence of rice vinegar in the manor kitchens already raised her expectations a bit regarding available cuisines.

None of the books she translated in the Archive so far were cookbooks. Li Mei pilfered plenty of leftovers from the manor, but she didn"t know anything about how dishes were traditionally prepared or presented on Elysium. The expected flavors how to make them, she didn"t know anything. 44 basically existed on nearly-rotten sc.r.a.ps and bowls of gruel, her knowledge of fine dining was nonexistent.

Maybe the next time she snuck around the farms for more food she"d be able to find a cookbook? Surely some housewife had a box of family recipes she could pirate. Just because the blue fuzzy thing was called a potato by Scan didn"t mean it could be prepared or eaten the same way.

Was the fuzz supposed to be eaten or removed? How? Was there a special method or tool? Maybe the fuzz was nutritious! Or maybe it was toxic. Li Mei didn"t know, and what she didn"t know had the potential to be dangerous.

More importantly, enjoying great food was one of the best things about living! Of course she longed to learn more about Elysium cuisine. And to try every last possible dish. Several times over if they proved delicious!

"Food can be worried about after we have a safe place to sleep though," she sighed, propping her chin in her palm. "We have canvas to make a tent, and plenty of blankets. Lighters for campfires, rope for whatever, cooking utensils, a weapon for defense... Wish I had a way to test water for impurities in case we run across any rivers or what have you, but I can sneak back to the farms for refills when needed. And I have medicine, thanks to Vigen for his generosity. Those serums will help me get stronger, along with killing slimes or maybe rats or whatever weak monsters are apparently in my capabilities? Giant spiders might be neat, but if there"s toothy worms I"m running no matter how low level they are."

Plans upon plans unfolded in her head. Li Mei absently handed another apple to Bao, shivering at the raspy feel of his tongue plucking the fruit from her grip. "Yuck, horse drool. I don"t know if you have any special needs either, pal. Do I have to trim your nails? Brush your teeth? Do you need weekly baths? And I still don"t know anything about my own dietary needs, much less yours! Maybe kids on Elysium need different kinds of vitamins than the ones on Earth. I"ve been doing alright so far but that could be short-term, I don"t know about long-term effects. Not having information is so frustrating..."

Bao rolled his eyes, nudging the girl"s elbow until she fed him a third apple with an amused smirk on her face. "Last one, you greedy little horse."

Once the pair finished eating, Li Mei did some warm-up stretches before sliding down the hill. The trees seemed to stretch infinitely upward, growing larger and larger with each step she took toward them. A strangely beautiful forest of myriad colors turned intimidating in just a few short breaths. Li Mei tangled her fingers in the ruff around Bao"s neck, squared her shoulders, and took the first steps forward into the forest.

She failed to notice a spark of red light beneath the forest loam at the tree line when her toes brushed past a hidden array, sending countless threads of mana upward that weaved into a wall of light shimmering like a soap bubble.

Every last plant suddenly twisted in her vision, expanding, enlarging, contorting into unreal shapes. Sky and ground swapped places continuously, her stomach plummeting to rest somewhere between her ankles as the world spun faster and faster. Bushes, ferns, trees charged past in a blur of odd motion giving the feeling that she and Bao were dragged for countless kilometers rather than standing motionless in place.

Li Mei nearly lost her breakfast, clinging to Bao"s ruff for dear life. The hand clutching the digging bar turned white from the force of her grip. If she were any stronger it probably would have dented.

Her Interface flickered. The minimap went blank and the clock disappeared entirely. Bright red exclamation points contained within triangles flooded her field of view, shimmering and pixelating until she could barely understand what they were. A holoscreen popped up, contents too distorted to read and her eyes refused to focus.

Li Mei fell to her knees, valiantly fighting against waves of nausea. Bao whimpered, head lowering until his nose was between his clawed feet. Whatever the girl was feeling, the horse seemed to be experiencing to some extent.

After what seemed like hours the forest eventually calmed down, ceasing its crazy dance and settling back into normalcy. The sky went back to being up and the ground resumed being down. Li Mei untangled her hand from Bao"s ruff to press it against her unsettled stomach. It felt like an entire nest of worms was squirming around her insides!

The holoscreen notice was bright red instead of the soothing cyan she was accustomed to, and the edges of her interface were blocky and mosaic. Triangle exclamation points hovered in the air around the notice, blinking to get her attention. Only a single word occupied the blurry holoscreen, a word she never thought would make her experience so much dread.

-----

Run!

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Bao let out a shrill, harsh scream at the same moment a hoa.r.s.e roar shook the trees behind them.

Li Mei didn"t stop to think. She scrambled to her feet and sprinted as fast as she could away from the roar.