Apocalypse Arrives: I Become a Powerhouse by Scavenging
Chapter 15: Awakening

Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Awakening

Moira Lynch’s current goal was to expand her spiritual power to envelop the entire villa.

That way, even if an outsider entered, she would know immediately and be able to prepare in advance.

As for why her Talent had mutated, Moira Lynch suspected it was likely related to her personal space.

’Otherwise, why would her spiritual power be mixed with the spatial attribute and not some other Attribute?’

As expected, Talents appeared in the news today.

On the television, she saw two young men standing tall. A ball of fire materialized in one’s hand, while purple lightning crackled in the other’s. Even Moira Lynch, a player herself, couldn’t help but think, ’So cool!’

Indeed, the combat prowess of both fire and lightning was beyond question.

The appearance of these two newly awakened players served to reassure the panicking public.

At the same time, people with family members who were players began to eagerly anticipate what kind of Talents their own relatives might awaken.

Next, the news anchor announced two new developments: one good, one bad.

The good news was that the temperature had stabilized and wasn’t expected to rise any further for the time being. The bad news was that the average daytime temperature now exceeded fifty degrees.

Therefore, experts were urging people to avoid going outside during the day.

The report continued, stating that due to the prolonged high temperatures, fires had broken out in many areas. It called on the public to cut down any dead trees in their vicinity to prevent further outbreaks.

Hearing this, Moira Lynch glanced outside. ’The neighborhood’s greenery was once a major selling point,’ she thought. ’Now it’s just a liability.’

She had originally planned to handle it herself, but after a moment’s thought, she decided to report the issue to property management instead.

Their response was positive. They promised to resolve the issue by tomorrow and even thanked her for bringing it to their attention.

As the temperature climbed, another serious problem emerged: the number of mosquitoes and other insects had grown exponentially.

With a quick, precise slap, Moira Lynch killed two mosquitoes that were trying to land on her for a meal. Her spiritual power allowed her to accurately sense their approach, but it couldn’t drive them away.

To ensure a good night’s sleep, Moira Lynch took out a mosquito coil and lit it.

Lying in bed, Moira Lynch petted her cat while holding a bottle of interstellar milk. Of course, a single day of studying wasn’t nearly enough for her to be able to read the interstellar language.

However, Moira Lynch had discovered a very useful function on the Learning Machine: translation.

This meant she could use the Learning Machine to scan and translate the interstellar language she couldn’t read into text she could understand.

Moira Lynch used the Learning Machine to scan the text on the milk bottle.

"From Serene Ranch, the number one choice for all Starfaring Peoples..."

Moira Lynch skipped past a long string of ad copy and went straight to the date.

Then, she ran into another problem: interstellar dates were different from dates on Caelus.

In other words, even though she now knew the date, she still couldn’t tell if the milk had expired.

Just then, as if sensing Moira Lynch’s despair, the Learning Machine flickered and a mechanical voice spoke:

"This milk from Serene Ranch has half a month of shelf life remaining. Please consume it soon to avoid waste."

Since it hadn’t expired, Moira Lynch opened the milk and took a drink. After just one sip, she was in love with the taste.

"No wonder it’s the first choice for Starfarers," she mused. "If this milk were on Caelus, it’d be my first choice, too."

After that, Moira Lynch scanned all the other Starfarer products she had. She kept what she could use and put everything else up for sale in her shop.

These were all Starfarer products. Even if they were slightly faulty, the technology they contained far surpassed that of Caelus.

After sorting through the items, Moira Lynch picked out ten of the most thoroughly broken machines.

According to the Learning Machine’s description, these were also farm machines, but they were so completely broken that repairing them would cost more than buying two new ones.

For the shop’s first listing, the system priced the machines at two silver coins, rating them as "somewhat useful junk."

Seeing this, Moira Lynch unceremoniously changed the price from two silver coins to twenty Gold Coins.

’This is alien technology, after all,’ she reasoned. ’And it’s one of a kind on Caelus. It’s definitely worth the price.’

Moira Lynch wasn’t worried about whether they would sell. Worst case, she could just lower the price or not sell them at all. This was just a test run, anyway.

After listing the items, Moira Lynch paid them no more mind. All she wanted now was to stay in peak condition to face the game, whenever it might begin.

Now that players had started awakening, their numbers would only continue to grow.

The most important thing for her now was to focus on getting stronger as quickly as possible.

The game might not be dangerous now, but that didn’t mean it never would be. Besides, as the old saying goes, when there are no external threats, the people closest to you become the greatest danger.

Having grown up as an orphan in her past life, Moira Lynch had seen plenty of the darker side of human nature.

Moira Lynch drifted off to sleep thinking about her plans for the next day. Elsewhere, however, other groups of people couldn’t sleep a wink.

Some despaired over their failure to awaken. It was one thing to never have hope, but to have it and then lose it was enough to make a person break down.

At this very moment, countless people were trapped in that state of collapse, overwhelmed not only by fear of the future but also by the disappointment and resentment of their own families.

Meanwhile, some who had successfully awakened were chatting in the game’s public channel.

At first, there were only one or two, but gradually, more people joined in.

Although the number of people who could awaken in the first three days was small, across the entire globe, it still added up to several hundred.

For a time, everyone spoke their minds, and the conversation covered every topic imaginable.

But as Talents awakened, so too were human desires amplified. Gradually, these people split into two distinct factions.

One group believed the game was humanity’s only hope, and that they should all work together to survive the disaster. The other group believed in survival of the fittest, where the strong prey on the weak. What did the lives of others have to do with them?

Around the world, countless people were in an uproar over these awakened players. It even reached the point where some fanatical scientists attempted to dissect players to uncover the game’s secrets.

As the only shop in existence, it naturally attracted a great deal of attention.

Some ordinary people saw the shop was selling broken machines for the exorbitant price of twenty Gold Coins, cursed the "profiteering merchant," and left.

However, those with a bit more knowledge saw the word "Starfarer" and immediately realized the shop was likely selling products from space.

Products from space!

Even broken, they would have immense research value.

Buy it!

Forget twenty Gold Coins—they had to buy it even if it cost two hundred!