Chapter 243: The System is Back!!
Liora hadn’t planned to drag Xu Kai away from the hut, but once the quiet surrounded them and the wind carried only the rustle of trees, she couldn’t help it. It was the first time since arriving here that she truly felt free—not leading, not managing, not bearing the weight of responsibilities. Just her. Just him. Just the forest.
"Let’s go farther," she said, reaching out without thinking, grabbing his wrist with a light tug. "Just for a while... I want to look around."
He raised a brow, not saying anything, but didn’t pull away. Instead, he crouched down and opened his personal space, pulling out a pair of brand-new black slippers. He held them out to her without a word. His eyes softened as he looked at her dirt-covered feet.
"They’re big," she said with a small laugh, taking them.
"They’re mine," he replied plainly, then added with a quiet smirk, "but you can borrow them."
They were definitely too large for her. Her feet sunk in, barely filling half the space, but she smiled as she slipped them on anyway. "Better than walking barefoot."
He nodded, but didn’t ask why she wasn’t using anything from her own inventory. Maybe he noticed the avoidance in her eyes. Maybe he understood. Sometimes it wasn’t about what she had—it was about what she wanted. And right now, she wanted to walk in his shoes, in the simplest way. And he was more than happy to provide for it.
They stepped into the woods, away from the noise and construction sounds of the base. The forest was quiet but alive in a different way—muted rustlings, birds that hadn’t fully mutated, and trees still holding onto their wildness. The canopy overhead shifted with soft green light as they walked, and Liora felt like a child discovering the world again.
"Over there!" she pointed suddenly at a cluster of trees that had something hanging—bright orange fruit, oddly shaped like peaches but speckled with deep violet lines.
Xu Kai followed her line of sight, then walked ahead and grabbed a few, sniffing one. "Low radiation. Should be safe after boiling. Sweet scent too."
"Let’s take them for dinner," she grinned, tossing one into her small satchel. "Maybe you can make something nice."
They continued deeper, and the forest slowly revealed itself in ways she hadn’t expected. Strange vines curled down like ropes, and mutated butterflies with crystalline wings fluttered around wildflowers that glowed faintly. Liora spun under one of the hanging vines and glanced back to see him just watching her.