Trying to steady himself, Anaxa gazed at the prey he had just hunted with gleaming eyes. The silvery fish was a magnificent creature, and his mouth nearly watered as the delicious scent of leaking fish blood mingled with the lingering taste of fresh flesh on his tongue, causing his stomach to growl with intense hunger.
Anaxa did not wish to waste a second longer and was about to dig in when… the system's alarm rang off inside him. It told him that a nearby catfish, weighing nearly ten times the tilapia he had hunted, was making its way here, most likely attracted by the same scent of blood.
And that was all the encouragement the tiny lizard needed to drop everything and be out of there pronto.
"Bah! My breath is already running low. I wouldn't have had enough time to eat that entire fish anyway. Forget it!" On the way to the surface, Anaxa consoled himself with these words, though whether he truly believed them or was merely indulging in sour grapes remained unclear. But given the effort he had spent trying to catch it…
"Grooowl…" Even his stomach churned in protest.
The tiny lizard concentrated on using his tail to move away from the dangerous part of the pond as quickly as possible and as Anaxa swam, he slowly began to half rejoice that he did not get to take part in the feast.
"Darn… I did not realize how far that beast had taken me. If I had stayed for the meal… I do not think I would have had enough breath to safely swim ashore." He mused, slightly shivering,
"Then I most likely would have had to surface to breathe and… who knows what could have happened."
Anaxa's fear was not only the carnivorous fishes around looking for a quick snack but also many aerial predators lurking above, ready to swoop in any second.
So he was glad to avoid that possibility, even if it meant skipping an extremely delicious meal. …
Anaxa made it across to the shore while the sun was still at its apex, and soon began to sunbathe in a secure spot to get his temperature going.
As he waited, he also got his mission completion screen up, eager to select his reward. "Well, even if I lost my meal and rare spear, at least I completed my mission! Hehehe… soon, I'll have a warm blooded body!" That pleasing thought was enough to greatly soothe his aching heart.
Without hesitation, he eagerly pressed the option.
"Ding — Host has selected: Warm-blooded body. Confirm?" The slightly feminine, mechanical voice chimed to double-check Anaxa's choice.
"Yes!" he answered almost instantly.
"Does host wish to confirm one final time? This choice is irreversible."
"...."
Anaxa's finger instinctively hovered over the option. And he was about to blindly confirm again.
However the system's persistent 'nagging' suddenly gave him pause. Anaxa was usually an observant man, thus he thoughtfully wondered, "Why is it being so insistent this time?" as a flicker of doubt crept into his mind.
"It has never asked me to confirm my choice before, not even once…so, is it a new feature?" Anaxa frowned, and quickly sought confirmation,
"System, why are you asking so for my permission so many times? Is there anything I should know about the warm blooded body?"
"...." But just as already expected, the enigmatic voice remained silent.
This caused Anaxa to raise his voice much higher, as a tinge of anger began to dye his mood. The hungry lizard was becoming very susceptible to becoming angry, thus he shouted,
"System! Is there anything wrong with this reward? Are there any hidden traps? Will the change be only temporary? Why did you ask me this so many times?"
"....." Still nothing.
"F….ing this! The customer service sucks so much. Arghhh… if I could rate you, I would give you a negative 5 star." Anaxa swore as such, furiously grinding his teeth. He had just lost his delicious prey, lost his precious spear and now it appeared he was about to be scammed out of his promised reward.
"....."
However at the end of the day, there was little point in screaming to a stone wall, was there? It was not like the system was acting like it was anything abnormal. In fact, this was in its nature, it only responded when it felt like it.
Thus after venting himself for a bit, the tiny lizard cooled down and began to analyse the situation he was in, hoping to figure out what the system could have meant by so many 'warnings'.
Anaxa had learnt from experience that although the mysterious feminine voice might be a bit eccentric, it was never dumb or heedless- whatever it did, there was a clear, underlying reason for it.
"Hmmm… does it mean the system wants me to choose the night vision? But why? Choosing it does not even make sense. I am cold blooded… I can't go out to hunt at night even if I wanted to. Hmmm.. I always wondered by the system put the two opposing options together. Could it be that it wants me to choose the obviously bad one?"
Anaxa already had his suspicions regarding the system offering beforehand, but now with the strange notification, the mystery only got stranger.
"Ahhh still… I really want to choose the warm blooded body… regardless of the danger. It suits my current needs so well! Ahhh…." However even with the system's warning, Anaxa found it extremely hard to deny the allure of such a body.
The advantages of being warm blooded were numerous- he could survive in a whole range of temperature including cold climates, have a much more reliable keeping his internal temperature in check thus able to constantly run, hunt and swim, possesses faster reaction times even in cool weather and best of all, he would not need to waste several hours in the day just sunbathing- he could hunt and forage anytime.
"Tsk! If I had this, I would not be so vulnerable during cold weather. I already struggle to hunt on rainy days. I do not even dare to think what my state will be once winter comes. I will probably die from the hunger pangs alone… starvation won't even get the chance." Anaxa was currently quite vulnerable to temperature drops and would find his stamina start to plummet like a rock the moment the ambient heat went below a certain threshold.
"Hmmm… perhaps the system does not want me to have it because it will use up a lot of energy. Keeping one's temperature constantly at a certain level is like constantly running the air conditioner, it is very energy extensive. I already struggle to meet up needs… if my hunger pangs start to become even more frequent…"
Anaxa slightly shuddered at the thought- these days his hunting had managed to keep up with his needs fairly well, courtesy of his amazing tail- but if that demand were to suddenly increase… say by a factor of two or more,
"I will likely not have time to even sleep! Hmmm… is it because of this that the system does not want me to select it. This, plus all the other complex auxiliary systems such as sweat glands and furs that would be needed to moderate the heat- the body cannot be allowed to become too cold or too hot. Hmmm…"
Unable to find an exact answer from the system itself, Anaxa thus tried to come up with his own reasons in this way.
But ultimately, all these were mere conjectures, without any real proof or confirmation. Hence just like before, two voices began to bicker inside his mind.
Voice-1- Choose the dark vision. It might not make sense to us right now.. but surely there is a reason why the system is acting this way. Trust it. It sees the bigger picture so surely knows much better than you.
Voice-2- Snort! Trust it? What has it done to make us trust it? Every time we ask it anything, it just clams up! Is this something you call trustworthy? Think about it…. if the system did not want us to choose that option, why did it give it?
Voice 1- Obviously as a test, you fool! To see if we were….
Voice- 2- Snort! Right! Where did you get this from? Let me take a dump on and say that is also a test. I…"
"Ding! Host has chosen Night Vision! Congratulations!"
Driven to his wits' end by the screaming voices, Anaxa took a leap of faith and blindly selected the second option without any more consideration. This time, he was willing to trust the system's judgment over him.
And judging by how promptly he got the reply, it was clear he had chosen correctly.
"Beep! Issuing new Mission-
Main Objective- Hunt an oriental Rat Snake
Species- Ptyas mucosa, reptile, extremely mutated.
Duration- Until dawn.
Reward- 100 karma.
Penalty- Not required.
Note- Survive the red moon hunt. Good luck, host!"