Sid opened his menu, the glowing blue screen reflected in his eyes. He scrolled through the tabs and clicked Storage Room . With a quick drag of his fingers, he created neat labels: Medicine, Food, Tools, Materials, Weapons, Wearables, Misc.

"Alright,"

He muttered, tapping Confirm.

In an instant, the shelves around them shimmered with a bright digital flash. Boxes lifted off the ground and slid into place, perfectly stacked and categorized. Medicine bottles aligned on one side, canned food lined up with labels facing forward, and every tool hung neatly on the pegboards.

Evelise froze mid step, her mouth slightly open.

"Wha... what the hell just happened?!"

Sid chuckled, looking smug.

"Inventory management, baby. Works like a charm."

He started unloading his backpack, pulling out random items and tossing them onto the floor. Each item blinked out of existence, then reappeared instantly in its correct section on the shelves. It was like magic — efficient, effortless, and satisfying.

But then one item didn’t vanish.

A dull, black object hovered in front of him, surrounded by glitching static. A message popped up.

[SYSTEM NOTICE:]

[ Item cannot be stored. Reveal required before storage. ]

"Huh? Reveal?"

He tapped the item and the text changed.

[Item Acquired: Mysterious Fragment (1 / ?)]

[Description:]

A piece of something greater. Collect more of these fragments to unlock its true form.

Sid stared at the description, his eyes narrowing in irritation.

"Oh, come on! Really? The system’s gonna make me grind for mystery puzzle pieces now? I swear it’s just doing this to mess with me."

He started pacing, ranting to himself as Evelise blinked at the glowing object.

"Like, what even is this? Is it a key? A weapon? A shiny rock? Of course not! It’s just some cosmic joke that’ll make me spend the next ten years hunting the other fragments just to find out it’s a useless trinket!"

Evelise tilted her head, still trying to process what she’d seen earlier — the auto sorting shelves, the glowing menus, the strange tech that felt divine and insane. Her voice came out small but sincere.

"Are you a god?"

Sid blinked, stopping mid rant. The words hit him so unexpectedly that he actually stammered.

"W-what? I—no, I—uh—"

He rubbed the back of his neck, flustered but clearly fighting a smile.

"Well, you know... depends on who you ask."

"Of course you’re not, dumbass!"

Evelise smacked him hard across the arm.

"Of course you’re not, dumbass! That’s your skill—your humanthing. Don’t get all high and mighty."

Sid rubbed his arm, grinning despite himself.

"Ow. Okay, fine, fine. My human skill. Happy now?"

"Not yet."

She tilted her head slightly, a confident glint in her eyes.

"Now that you’re done showing off your weird storage magic... let me show you what I can do."

Sid raised a brow, amused.

"Oh? You got tricks too, Miss Tsundere?"

Evelise smirked wider.

"You’ll see soon enough, loudmouth."

Evelise moved toward the newly organized shelves, her steps calm and deliberate. Sid tilted his head, watching her with a curious smirk as she wandered between the rows.

"Alright, now you’ve got me wondering. You got some kind of cheat skill too, or is that just wishful thinking on my part?"

Evelise ignored him at first, scanning the rows of neatly labeled medicine. She picked up bottles one by one, frowning at every single one she saw.

"All of these are man made. Too clinical, too processed. They might help at first, but once you start depending on them, they’ll mess you up. Classic human tricks."

Her eyes paused on one familiar bottle— painkillers. She glanced at Sid, making sure he wasn’t watching. Then, with a subtle motion, she slipped the bottle behind her back and tucked it into a fold of her torn wedding dress.

"You know what the best medicine is?"

Evelise asked, glancing over her shoulder. Sid smirked.

"What? Laughter."

"Stupid. It’s something that comes from nature."

Sid blinked, caught off guard. Then a thought hit him. He quickly pulled up her status screen, his eyes scanning the glowing text that hovered in the air.

"Wait... RIGHT your job class— herbalist!"

"Yeah. I’m an herbalist. I work with plants, not pills. And this old man gathered all these bottles but not a single thing from nature. Now..."

Sid’s eyes widened, already guessing what she was about to say. Together, their voices overlapped.

"YOU HUMAN—"

But Evelise continued without missing a beat, pointing at him.

"—should accompany me for foraging."

Sid froze mid sentence.

"—should go outside and give me herbs— HA? WHAT? ACCOMPANY YOU?"

[SYSTEM MESSAGE!]

[New Task Acquired!]

[Task 6: The Herbalist’s Call]

[Objective:] Accompany Evelise outside the cabin to explore the newly sprouted forest and gather herbs from the Nexus grounds.]

"Oh, come on! Outside? You can’t go out there! The sun’ll fry you like a vampire!"

"Then make sure that doesn’t happen, genius. You’re the one with all the crafting skills, right? Figure it out."

Sid sighed, exasperated.

"You’re seriously throwing my own words back at me?"

"Exactly! You said it yourself— you’re not losing another person again. So, prove it."

He rubbed his face, muttering,

"I hate when you use logic on me."

Finally, he gave in.

"Fine. But we’re not going far. The moment I see smoke coming off your skin, we’re running back."

"Tch, Argh! K fine."

Evelise said, already heading toward the door.

Sid rolled his eyes and opened his crafting menu.

"Alright, let’s see... something to block sunlight..."

He spent the next hour tinkering in silence. He cut up spare leather straps, patched together bits of tarp, and even cannibalized parts of an old raincoat. What came out of it was a hooded cloak with thick fabric layers that draped down to Evelise’s knees. He added small ventilation holes and even wrapped her gloves with reinforced padding so the sunlight wouldn’t sting her skin.

He wasn’t done yet. He also made her a lightweight satchel from an old backpack, sewing in extra pockets, loops for herbs and a foraging satchel.

[SYSTEM MESSAGE!]

[Crafting Complete!]

[Item Crafted: Sun Proof Cloak x1]

[Item Crafted: Reinforced Gloves x2]

[Item Crafted: Forager’s Satchel x1]