A Glimmer in the Ashes

Lin Su and Xiao Ai were sheltering in a shabby apartment building on the edge of an abandoned city. Their last can of food was gone, and Xiao Ai’s “Dustfall disease” was worsening from a lack of nutrition and medicine. Her life hung by a thread. While searching for food one day, Lin Su was chased by mutant dogs and stumbled into a partially collapsed basement. By chance, his blood dripped onto an unremarkable metal plate, activating the “Gourmet Space.” It was a strange, pure-white realm containing a small plot of land, a spring that produced clean water, and a console that could conjure recipes and cooking utensils. For his first trial, he received a recipe for the simplest dish of all: plain noodles. Back at the apartment, he used the pure flour and spring water from the space to make the first real meal they had eaten since the apocalypse began. After Xiao Ai ate, her cough eased noticeably and she seemed much better. The aroma of the noodles also drew an unwelcome guest: Shen Xi, a powerful awakened being wandering nearby. He was drawn to the “clean” scent, so out of place in this bleak world. Meanwhile, the other hungry survivors in the building smelled the food too, and danger quietly closed in. A neighbor driven mad by hunger broke in to steal it, but the wary Lin Su cleverly subdued him using cooking utensils and the terrain. The commotion, however, had already attracted attention. At the critical moment, Shen Xi, who had been hiding in the shadows, stepped in and cowed everyone with a show of overwhelming force. Looking at Lin Su, he proposed a deal: he would provide shelter and supplies, and in return, she would make that “special food” for him.