Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging

Moira checked the warehouse next. Most of the goods she’d brought back from the farm and ranch had been sold, but there were still some leftovers. Powdered milk and cheese were the most plentiful, especially the cheese, as it wasn’t to everyone’s taste.

After checking the warehouse, Moira continued walking in another direction.

As she walked, a thunderous snore suddenly echoed, startling her.

She followed the sound and found the little creature she’d picked up in Mocha Forest. It had now grown to the size of a small mountain. Curled into a ball, it was fast asleep.

Not far from it, a lush tree was growing strong and healthy. A faint, refreshing fragrance filled the air.

A closer look revealed it was the very same tree she’d found in Mocha Forest—the one that had been stripped bare. ’And now it looks like this?’

Small, beautiful lavender flowers had even started to bloom on its branches.

"Patience, pull up the data on this tree." Moira’s intuition told her this was no ordinary tree.

’Otherwise, why would this White Lion’ (she was just calling it a lion for now) ’be staying here of all places?’

What’s more, she spotted Snowy on the White Lion’s body.

Snowy was curled up in a ball on the White Lion, sleeping soundly.

As its master, Moira could clearly sense Snowy’s current state. It was undergoing a metamorphosis.

Its tail, once a fluffy pom-pom like a rabbit’s, now looked as if it were about to burst open.

A moment later, Patience returned with the results.

[Undying Tree: A divine tree that exists only in legends. It has a miraculous effect on the growth of a Spiritual Body and can feed power back to the main body through it. Legend has it that if a Spiritual Body is placed near the Undying Tree, it can heal from any injury to its spiritual power, no matter how severe, so long as death is not instantaneous.]

After reading the description, Moira glanced at the White Lion again. ’So, the reason it survived was because of the Undying Tree.’

’Wait a second... this White Lion is someone’s Spiritual Body!’

’I’ve had a Spiritual Body in my space for this long? How is that any different from keeping the actual person in here?’

"Wait, I remember the connection between a main body and its Spiritual Body isn’t immune to distance."

The farther apart they are, the weaker the connection becomes. If the distance is great enough, the connection might be lost entirely.

Moira looked at the White Lion with a conflicted expression. After a fierce internal debate, she abandoned the thought of kicking it out.

’Oh well. Our meeting must have been fate.’

’Besides, it’s been here for so long without causing any trouble. It even lets Snowy sleep on it, which means it must have a good temperament.’

’A Spiritual Body is a person’s truest reflection, so its owner must be an easy-going person, too.’

After walking a loop around her space and making a few adjustments, Moira finally left. She checked the time—it was already eight o’clock.

Fortunately, Moira had a habit of sleeping in on the first day after the game ended, so no one disturbed her.

After changing, she prepared to head downstairs. Today, she planned to wash the clothes she’d worn in the game, along with the other laundry she’d let pile up.

In times like these, washing clothes daily as they did in the past was impossible, so most people saved up their laundry and washed it all in one go.

Before going downstairs, Moira opened the game panel and accessed her shop.

As the owner, her view of the shop was naturally different from her customers’.

She skillfully composed a message and hit send.

The message announced the time for the upcoming auction.

Moira set the date for half a month from now.

After heading downstairs, she saw Shane Rhodes and the other two had already started their daily training.

A quick glance showed that only one combat station was still available.

Moira shivered involuntarily at the sight.

In the past, every single time she or Shane Rhodes’s group entered combat mode, they were mercilessly thrashed. This was true even on the lowest difficulty, and it had been demoralizing enough to make them want to give up entirely.

What made it worse was that the mode adapted. A move that worked once wasn’t guaranteed to work a second time.

Moira hesitated. ’I should probably eat breakfast first,’ she decided.

She’d already eaten once, but that was two hours ago, and she had long since digested it.

After breakfast, Moira procrastinated, stalling for a while to see if Shane Rhodes or the others would finish early. She really didn’t want to jump into combat mode just to get tortured so soon.

But after staring for a full half hour, none of them had.

Resigned to her fate, Moira picked up the gear and put it on. A mechanical voice chimed in her ear.

[You have entered combat mode. Enemy forces will arrive on the battlefield in five seconds. Please prepare.]

It said five seconds, but the instant the voice faded, a black figure plummeted from above toward Moira. The impact was so powerful it blasted a circular crater in the ground.

As if she had anticipated it, Moira dodged the attack in a flash.

"Not a bad reaction this time," the opponent complimented.

’Sometimes, I even suspect it’s not an AI I’m fighting, but a real person.’

"It’s not every day I get a compliment out of you," Moira said, forcing a relaxed smile.

After all, in the beginning, all four of them had taken turns getting beaten to a pulp. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the crushing blow to their morale.

The combat AI’s taunts were truly venomous, like a machine gun spitting arsenic-laced bullets.

The opponent shifted its stance, and Moira’s expression turned serious.

Just as Shane Rhodes and the others had said, Moira’s fighting style was something she’d cobbled together herself from watching videos. It was all about lethality, completely without form—just fierce, savage attacks.

But it had one fatal flaw: she lacked stamina.

She would overwhelm her opponent at the start of a fight, but her power would wane in the later stages. When she got worked up, she’d even become reckless, leaving her defenses wide open.

And so, in the initial phase, the figure in black simply defended, looking completely at ease.

This sight only made Moira angrier.

The result was, without exception, Moira being finished off by her opponent in a single strike.

"Fighting like that, you wouldn’t even qualify as cannon fodder on a real battlefield."

Moira lay on the ground, her hair soaked in sweat. "I’m not going to a battlefield anyway," she retorted. "And my talent isn’t even combat-related."

With her talents, she’d at least be a commander on the battlefield. And if not a commander, then an intelligence officer. In any case, charging the front lines would never be her job.

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