For Kain, one of the strongest urges he enjoyed indulging these days was simple—eating.
Back in that world, it was hard to get a single decent meal.
Most of the time, you either ate compressed rations with no flavor at all, or some kind of paste-like sludge that tasted, frankly, indescribable.
The nutrition was fine, but eating that for a long time was genuinely miserable.
After all, he was not born in that world, raised on it from childhood.
He had grown up with all the food of the 21st century. Then suddenly switching to that stuff was like falling from heaven straight into hell.
In that world, there was also something people jokingly called "corpse-starch food," and yes—he had eaten it.
And since the word "corpse" was in the name, the source of the raw materials was, obviously, a bit… delicate.
If it was just ordinary animal carcasses, that was one thing.
But what if human bodies were being used to make it, too?
The answer was: yes, there really was starch made from human corpses.
That kind was usually rarer. Under normal circumstances, unless things got extremely dire, people would not go so far as to process human bodies into food.
Still, the term "corpse-starch" was, in practice, more of a catch-all insult for any synthetic food or synthetic ingredients.
As for the ingredients, while human material was rarely used, all kinds of bizarre biological remains absolutely were.
In short, because of how that world was, enjoying good food was a luxury.
So now that Kain was back in a "normal" world, he was finally eating familiar food again.
"Is your stomach a black hole?" Oriha said, acting completely at ease as she reached out and poked his belly with her small hand.
Honestly, she had never seen anyone eat like this. He could go compete in one of those world eating contests.
But it did not feel like a simple "he can't get full" problem. It was more like he had spent ages surviving in the wild, and the second he returned to civilization, he started making up for lost time—going all-in on modern "food."
And even after eating that much, his stomach barely looked any bigger. That was why she called it a black hole.
"What did you used to eat?" she asked, still clearly interested when he did not respond.
This time, he reacted.
He did not answer, but he pulled a few items from his clothing and handed them to her.
"What is this? Food?" Oriha stared curiously at the small packets in her hand.
The packaging looked like those little cracker packs—almost like Cheez-It-style biscuits—but smaller. Each piece was about the size of her thumb.
She opened one.
Inside was a dry, yellow-brown block that looked like a tiny biscuit.
Probably some kind of compressed ration.
She brought it to her mouth and took a bite.
Huh?
She had expected it to be hard as a rock, but it was not. It was closer to candy-hard, crunchy when you bit down.
The problem was that it had no taste. None.
Still, Oriha—somehow completely fearless about this—swallowed the whole piece.
"It's made from corpses," Kain said.
"Huh?"
Had she misheard? Or heard wrong?
After a brief silence, Oriha's expression finally cracked. Her face flushed hot.
"Y-You're kidding, right?"
"I'm not kidding. It's corpses."
Then why emphasize the word "corpses" on purpose?
Why not just say it was made from animal meat, or something like that?
Because "corpse" immediately made people think of… their own kind.
"If you don't believe me, take it to be tested," Kain added, his tone faintly amused. "You'll find the types of corpses in it are extremely… diverse."
That single line made Oriha's face go even paler.
"Diverse…?"
"Maybe you'll even find—your own kind."
That was it.
The moment the words "your own kind" landed, Oriha's face went bone-white.
She could not take it anymore. She bolted on the spot—she really was going to get it tested.
"Was it really made from corpses?" one of the two girls asked, stepping closer.
Kain answered her without looking up.
"Yes."
The two girls had very similar faces—close enough that you could call them sisters at a glance. They had probably approached because they saw Oriha here, and it looked like they were circling in with the intention of picking a fight.
With their outfits—fashionable, flashy, more like idol costumes for a concert—it reminded him of the idol sisters who had shown up in Triage X.
As for the compressed blocks he had handed Oriha, he had not lied. They really were processed from corpses.
Back in A2's world, she had made him some emergency food and stored it in his powered armor.
Those compressed food blocks were made by processing wild animals caught on Earth, plus some crops.
Once an animal was killed, the body was, by definition, a corpse.
So saying it was processed from corpses was not wrong.
And aside from being tasteless, this stuff was still far better than the Imperium's so-called corpse-starch.
Sometimes it was not even about flavor. The texture alone could make you want to throw up.
"I'm telling you, you're Oriha Nashida, aren't you—"
"...Hey? Can you at least listen when someone's talking to you?"
Kain ignored them outright.
As long as the formulas were still being finalized—and before production was complete—he planned to use his free time to indulge his appetite properly.
Next up, fried chicken and burgers sounded good.
Hmm?
Kain noticed something and raised an eyebrow.
"I'm telling you, you—"
She could not stand it anymore.
As an idol, Mikazuki Haron was furious. She had started out speaking politely, and he had not acknowledged her once. The way he dismissed her so completely made her blood boil.
But her angry voice stopped dead in her throat—because Kain suddenly pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her.
What the hell?
Was this guy sick in the head?
He was annoyed, so he just pointed a gun at her face?
Wait, was it even real?
And even if it was real—would he actually fire?
She was not—
Bang!
At that distance, the shot was deafening. The sound felt like it rattled her eardrums.
For a full three seconds, Haron froze like she had been turned to stone.
Then her body went limp, and she collapsed to the floor like her legs had been cut out from under her.
Something warm seemed to spill out.
"S-Sis! Are you okay?" her younger sister cried, panicking as she lunged down to her, frantically checking her over.
"What's wrong with you? Why would you fire—huh? That's…!"
Oriha came rushing back after hearing the gunshot—and saw the Mikazuki sisters like this.
Haron could be sharp-tongued and arrogant sometimes, but she was actually kind-hearted. The type who sounded mean but meant well.
This time, though, she had picked the wrong person to provoke.
But still—Kain was not really going to kill someone, was he?
As Oriha ran up, she noticed something else, and her expression snapped tight.
About three meters behind the sisters, a body lay collapsed.
A corpse.
Had the base been breached?
Probably not.
More likely, the person had already been infected—and had transformed right here in the dining area.
That was a disaster.
If someone had been bitten, then fled into the base and turned afterward, that was bad enough.
But if it happened because someone "got hungry" and did something stupid, that was truly lethal.
(End of Chapter)
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