39: Air cutting machine

Ning kept looking around the area where the rabbit had led him, when he suddenly saw something red on a bush. “Hmm… are those berries?” He was surprised at how easily he had found them. He took a closer look and saw a bunch of red berries on the bush, all clustered together in small groups.

“Great, I found some berries. This should help them a bit.” Ning started to get excited. Coincidentally, the rabbit also hopped towards the berry bush.

“Hmm… what are those dry lumps over there?” He asked curiously, but didn't pay much attention to what he was seeing. The rabbit reached the bush and crawled over the dry lumps on the ground to eat some berries.

Ning excitedly got the berries. “Alright, so I just need to put them in storage. Can I do that while they’re still attached to the plant?” He wondered.

“There’s no harm in trying.” He thought, and began to concentrate on putting the berries into storage. He tried for a while, but it was no use.

“Damn. I need to think of something else. Uh… what if I cut it off the tree first? No, I don’t have hands, nor Telepathy.

If I could cut it off the tree… hmm… that would work. Hey, System! Do you have anything that can cut off the small vines the berries are attached to?” he asked.

<System informs you that you have gained the skill ‘Air Cutter’>

“Air Cutter? Cutting air?” He was confused. “Oh, wait, cutting with air? Is that it?”

<Yes. You emit a sharp slash made of air, cutting through anything in its path>

“Then what’s the price?” he asked.

<Air Cutter consumes 5,000,000 Energy> “Huh? That’s surprisingly cheap. Considering its utility. Well, compared to Candlelight, it’s not cheap. But using Candlelight also requires energy—wait! Does this also require energy?” Ning asked nervously.

<Air Cutter consumes 200 Energy per centimeter cut, and 2000 Energy per 5 meters traveled>

<Distances less than 5 meters have no distance-based cost>

<Remaining Energy consumption is calculated based on the power of the slash>

“Oh, that’s not so bad then. Alright, buy it.” He commanded the system.

<Confirmed>

<Congratulations, you have successfully acquired 'Air Cutter'>

“Oh, great. Alright, let’s cut off that vine then,” he thought. “Distance won’t consume energy for now, and since that vine is so small, I doubt I’ll even need more than 1 centimeter of length. This should be a piece of cake,” he thought.

He focused his attention on the small vine with a bunch of berries. With a thought, an almost invisible blade sliced from him towards the vine. With one cut, the vine was severed.

The bunch of berries began to fall, but before they hit the ground, they changed trajectory and flew directly towards the rabbit, then disappeared.

“Yes!” Ning shouted excitedly. As soon as the berries fell, he sent them to his Cross-dimensional Storage. “Thank goodness, now that the berries aren’t connected to the vine, it finally works properly.”

He then continued to collect more berries. He would send the Air Cutter towards the vines, then use his storage ability to store them before they fell.

He was very excited. He collected for a while, and then something happened. “Why do I feel so bloated? Almost like I’ve eaten too much,” he thought.

“System, what’s happening?” he asked.

<The Cross-dimensional Storage with time stopped is full>

“Oh, we’re full already? So we collected all 5 kilograms of berries. That was fast. I guess that’s it for now.” He decided to wait until the rabbit finished eating before leaving.

He waited for a few minutes. Slowly, a few minutes turned into several minutes. Time seemed to stretch out.

“What’s going on?” He looked out and found the rabbit motionless.

It wasn’t even eating. “What’s wrong with it?” he thought as he watched it.

The rabbit had eaten half a berry, and foam was coming out of its mouth. It wasn’t breathing at all. “Huh? What happened?” He was shocked. “Is it dead?” he thought.

Just then, something caught his attention. It was a dry lump on the ground. It looked uncannily like…

“A rabbit?” He turned to another lump. This one looked like a crow. Another one looked like a squirrel. And another one looked like something else.

In short, every dry lump was the shape of some animal, a corpse left behind after death.

“Does that mean…” A terrifying thought appeared in his mind.

“Are these berries poisonous?” he thought. “System, are these berries poisonous?” he asked.

<Yes>

The system confirmed his suspicion.

“Oh my goodness. If I hadn’t seen these dead animals, I would have killed everyone in the whole village.” He could feel how scared he was now.

“That was a close call. I need to get rid of all the berries I collected.”

“But how do I do that?” He encountered a small problem. “System, how do I throw away items in my storage?” he asked.

<Taking items out of storage is the same as storing items>

<You have an all-seeing eye over everything in your Cross-dimensional Storage>

<With just a thought, you can see everything in your storage and choose what to take out>

“Is that so? Let me see.” He concentrated, trying to see if he could access his storage. Suddenly, a flood of information began to pour into his mind.

“Wow. I understand.”

He seemed to have complete knowledge of his storage. He knew there were a total of 244 berries on 16 different vines. He could also see the 6 berry seeds he had just collected this morning.

He had thought about throwing everything into the wild, and suddenly all his stored items poured out. All the berries and stones fell onto the ground.

Finally, Ning no longer felt bloated.