System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 42: Eve’s Weakness

"Insulin?" He blinked. "...What?"

Eve’s now fragile demeanour looked like a lie Damon didn’t wish to believe, but the more he looked at her, the more he started to trust that this wasn’t just a lie.

Her already pale face turned even paler, her eyes looked as if she couldn’t focus, swaying across the entire store without purpose.

"I’m diabetic..." she whispered, as if scared to admit her weakness.

Damon turned to Kitsune with a confused look. "Is that even possible? Do illnesses not go away with mana?"

She lingered for a moment before replying. "Not at first. Once your vitality rises high enough, even chronic illnesses go away, but before that... their effects might even grow stronger due to your body’s enhanced output."

"I see," Damon replied, nodding along to the explanation.

’Then the reason she collapsed after she removed the ring was probably that her vitality suddenly dropped,’ he thought more to himself than to Kitsune.

Damon turned back toward Eve.

"Do you have any medication nearby? Some hidden stash?"

"It’s all gone... " She replied through her dizziness, "I’ve searched all the nearby pharmacies, but they’re all empty."

Damon lingered on her reply. ’Is this another one of her plays? Is this a way of asking for the relic back?’

He couldn’t help but question the realness of the girl’s condition, no matter how weak and fragile she looked right now. He just couldn’t bring himself to trust her. She had already played him once, so who’s to say she wouldn’t do it twice?

The only thing that did make sense to him was that all the nearby pharmacies were empty. In the event of any apocalypse, places like pharmacies were usually the first to get looted. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

She also travelled by motorcycle, which made it more plausible that she had already scouted all the nearby pharmacies.

’Could it be that she’s telling the truth?’ Just as he was about to draw a conclusion, another thing came into his mind.

"What about the hospital? They must have-"

"No... It’s... It’s impossible..."

The girl seemed to want to add something else, but the words seemed to have died on her lips as her head slumped back to the floor.

"I think it’s a fitting end for a thief," Kitsune murmured from the side of Damon, like an evil spirit convincing him to sin.

’She really doesn’t like her, huh?’ he thought to himself before turning his gaze to the ring in his hand.

Perhaps it was because of his inner morals or simply because this type of death didn’t sit right with him, but he let out a long exhale before putting the ring on one of the girl’s fingers.

He could feel Kitsune’s gaze on his back, the way she stared needles into him, but he did his best not to look her way for the time being.

Instead, he focused on Eve, waiting to see the effects of the Vitality Ring.

More so than mercy, it was a test to see if vitality truly worked the way he thought it did, and within moments, he got his answer.

The girl jolted up with a gasp, her eyes snapping into focus as if she had been reborn.

She looked at Damon with surprise before her gaze dropped down toward her hand. More specifically, to her ring finger, on which Damon, without any care or attention to detail, slid the relic on.

Her lips curved up slightly, and she opened her mouth as if to comment on it, but before she would get a chance to, Damon was first to speak.

"What did you mean by impossible?"

"Huh? Oh... There is a monster stronger than anything I have ever seen. I barely managed to escape last time. Going there is a suicide."

Damon nodded. It was exactly what he thought she meant.

A strong monster, exactly the type of thing he was looking for.

"I’ll lend you the ring and help you get the insulin from the hospital. In return, you will help me kill that monster."

Eve’s face paled once more. She blinked a couple of times, as if trying to erase his serious expression from her sight, but it was to no avail. Damon was as serious as one gets.

"Did you not hear me say that going there is a suicide?"

"You’re dead without insulin anyway, aren’t you?"

The girl stared at him for a moment longer before letting out a defeated exhale. "Don’t say I didn’t warn you..."

Damon studied her every move as she rose to her feet, still very much distrustful of her.

"My motorcycle is out in the back, we can use it to get there," she said, already walking toward the back exit before taking a sudden pause midstep. "Though there are only two seats..." she added, taking a quick glance at Kitsune before continuing her walk.

Instantly, a heavy presence filled the entire store, one that not only surprised Eve but even Damon, who had never seen her react so strongly toward anything.

Then, it suddenly stopped just as her heels clicked toward him and her arm wrapped tightly around his, as if saying he belongs to her.

Damon blinked in disbelief at whatever the situation he found himself in before picking up the pace and moving toward the back exit.

"Wait," Eve suddenly said right beside the already opened exit. "I will be back in a minute."

Damon frowned, instantly distrusting her words.

"My motorcycle is out there, don’t worry, I won’t run."

Damon glanced through the open door to confirm the motorcycle was there before giving the girl a single nod.

She wasted no time rushing back into the store, while he and Kitsune waited outside.

After around three or four minutes, Eve stepped through the exit. But instead of the black dress she had been wearing, which was coincidentally the same one Kitsune had on, she changed into a similar but red dress and a pair of thigh-high boots, with her usual gun belt attached to the side.

"Let’s go," She said before stepping onto the motorcycle and revving it to life for the world to hear.