The Strongest Backing - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Officer, I’d like to report a crime.”

“I’ve encountered something… supernatural.”

I glanced at the shocked System and continued.

“Some strange things have been happening to me. Something calling itself a ‘System’ wants me to collect Affection Points. It says it won’t let me go home until they’re maxed out.”

“Yes, I believe this constitutes false imprisonment.”

Seeing that I was crossing the line, the System finally snapped.

[Host! You only have one minute left for the trade, or the failure channel will close permanently!]

I immediately sped up my speech.

“Would you be willing to give me something to eat? I haven’t eaten in a long time.”

“In exchange, I’m willing to give you a flower.”

I casually plucked an unknown wildflower from beside my feet.

If you beg, you might be ignored. But if you say you’re starving, someone will almost certainly feed you.

Sure enough, the trade was established.

The System functioned as a Mutual Interface. According to its rules, matter requires a certain balance; to take from others, one must give. It could be simply understood as a transaction.

The other party gave me instant noodles, bread, and mineral water. In return, I sent over three stalks of wild grass and flowers.

I had no choice. I was starving and truly had nothing of more value to offer.

I neatly stacked the supplies inside the cave I had struggled to find over the last few days, then sat on the ground clutching a loaf of bread.

The System’s voice rang out, dripping with sarcasm.

[Host, if the person on the other side doesn’t believe you, the trading interface won’t open again.]

I sighed, ignoring its schadenfreude, and lowered my head to carefully calculate how long these items would keep me alive.

I hadn’t actually expected a stranger to believe me from the start. To anyone else, this would sound like a mental health crisis.

But what I didn’t know was that I was lucky enough to encounter a good policeman.

The young officer who took the call was skeptical. He looked down at his desk. The instant noodles, bread, and mineral water he had casually agreed to give away were gone.

He hadn’t even had time to ask for an address yet!

“…Am I just too tired lately?”

He raised a hand to rub his eyes. In the next second, three stalks of flora appeared out of thin air right in the center of his desk.

The roots were damp and the leaves were intact, looking as if they had just been pulled from the wild.

He froze. The office windows were closed, and the door was shut. They had simply… appeared.

A chill raced up his spine to the back of his neck. He remembered the anxious female voice on the phone, claiming she had been kidnapped by a System and trapped in a Beastman World.

He was young and had read a few System novels. Thinking of this, he carefully picked up the plants, sealed them in an evidence bag, took a deep breath, and stood up.

Then, he knocked on the Director’s office door.

***

I sat at the mouth of the cave, holding fruit I’d picked from a tree. I knew nothing about herbs, fruits, or vegetables. Even if I recognized them back in reality, I was completely lost after transmigrating to the Beastman World.

The fruits here were unlike anything I had ever seen. I only dared to climb the tree and pick a few after seeing the birds eat them without issue.

But I knew very well that this wasn’t a long-term solution.

I stared at the fruit in my hand and sighed. For the past few days, I had been surviving almost entirely on these. I had picked nearly all the fruit nearby, and I didn’t even dare to drink the lake water.

Without a way to start a fire, I couldn’t boil it. I was afraid the water contained some ancient bacteria; my stomach was far too fragile. In a place like this, a fever or illness was never a small matter. With bad luck, it could cost you your life.

For the umpteenth time, the System urged me in my ear:

[Host, hurry up and find the Male Lead’s Tribe.]

[The Male Lead will protect you.]

[As long as you’re willing to trade, your Favorability Points will be maxed out in no time. Then we can go home early, right?]

The “trade” it spoke of was a trade of the body. After all, this was a Beastman World where men far outnumbered women.

“Shut up.”

I cut it off coldly, looking up at the distant, rolling silhouettes of the Beastman Tribe.

Despite my outward defiance, I knew better than anyone that I really couldn’t hold out much longer.