CHAPTER TWO!
In all his years as a scientist who created Nexalink, he hadn't thought that Nexacore would upgrade on its own without his confirmation. What is going on? Nexacore [UPGRADING 5%...] [INSUFFICIENT ENERGY TO UPGRADE] [SCANNING SURROUNDING FOR UNKNOWN ENERGY] [ENERGY DETECTED]. Alex saw that the energy is located in the giant wolf's chest and tried to remove it. After a long time of trial and error, it was still impossible to remove, so Alex had to stay in the cave and wait for other animals to feast on the body of the beast. It seems lady luck was shining on Alex because a pig-like creature came and started feasting on the flesh. Alex had to wait and pray that the pig doesn't eat the core the energy was detected from.
After eating to his full, the pig-like creature carried the remaining carcass. "Fu*k," Alex screamed in his mind, seeing the carcass being carried away by the pig. Alex was thinking about what to do next when all of a sudden he heard a high-pitched screech. Alex closed his ears and looked at the pig-like monster who had stopped and was ready for battle, facing a giant vulture with high wings and red eyes, looking at the dead carcass. "GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT," the giant pig-like creature is preparing for battle when the vulture attacked with its long talon, scratching the back of the pig, which enraged the monster, swinging its hands trying to catch the vulture. The vulture flew back and perched on a tree nearby, ready to attack again. The pig saw the vulture and chased, making the tree fall by hitting it hard with its head. The vulture flew up, tormenting the pig, which made it mad, chasing the vulture on foot.
Alex saw all this and wanted to try his luck collecting the core when the pig bit open the chest of the wolf since the pig and vulture were not around. Leaving the cave, Alex scanned the area for any giant creature around and found none. Seems like the battle of the wolf and flying lion chased all the animals nearby away. Alex ran to the carcass and tried removing the core, but when he touched the core, it turned into light and entered the body of Alex, absorbed by Nexacore [FOUND UNKNOWN ENERGY] [UPGRADING 15%... 20%] [INSUFFICIENT ENERGY FAILED TO UPGRADE].
Alex, returning back to his cave, saw the weather became dark, and when he looked up, he saw the giant vulture flying toward him very fast. Alex couldn't even think of anything before he started running toward the cave. Fortunately, he was close to the cave, which he jumped into before the vulture could grab him. Alex's heart was beating very fast; he felt like a mouse being toyed with, and there is nothing he can do. Failing to catch his prey, the vulture flew to the wolf carcass and started feasting when a boulder was thrown at it. Looking up, the vulture saw the pig running toward it fast. The vulture carried the carcass and flew away. The pig became mad when he saw his prey being taken; he charged toward the direction the vulture flew. Five minutes later, everywhere became clear. Alex could still hear his heartbeat; he started thinking about leaving this place and looking for civilization, but it was impossible looking at his current stage [SCANNING] [HOST MENTAL STATE IS UNSTABLE] [HOST RIGHT HAND IS MISSING] [UNKNOWN ENERGY CAN BE USED TO CREATE NEW HAND] [PERMISSION TO START OPERATION].
"What the h***," Alex was confused. Core from beasts can be used like this??? "YES," Alex shouted in his mind. [OPERATION STARTED] [1%... 5%] "AAAAAAARRRRGGGGG," Alex felt like tens of thousands if not millions of bullet ants feasting on his right hand. The pain made Alex faint. [99% 100%]. Alex's right hand looks like the wolf beast with huge claws, which later transformed into a normal hand. Alex woke up and was amazed looking at his new hand, which was much stronger than his former one. He was very satisfied looking at his hand. "BRRRR," his stomach reminded him that he hasn't eaten for a long time. He left the cave trying to look for food to eat. He went opposite from where the vulture and pig went so he won't encounter them by chance.
Alex searched around the cave but couldn't find any edible plants or water, so he went further and still found nothing. Nexacore scanned around and searched for anything edible for human consumption [SCANNING... FOUND EDIBLE FOOD 27M AHEAD]. Alex used the inbuilt radar with a cursor-like arrow pointing the direction where edible food was. Alex followed the direction with extreme caution, looking around his surroundings. He arrived at his location; he saw a huge cave. Alex didn't know what was inside, but he entered the cave because of extreme hunger. He saw carcasses of rotten animals scattered around, but he knows that it wasn't the food he was looking for because the arrow was still pointing forward.
Alex checked for the cores of the rotten animals and saw two of them, which were absorbed by his system, and went forward toward the location of the arrow. Alex saw a giant snake and stopped moving, even stopped breathing, asking his system anxiously how to escape from the giant snake [NO LIFE FORCE IS DETECTED AROUND HOST]. Alex didn't fully believe his system because he felt like the snake moved, but after a while, Alex believed that the snake is dead because he threw a stone at the snake and prepared to run, but no movement. Alex went to the carcass because that's what the arrow is pointing at. He asked the system about it and was told the edible food is inside the snake. Alex gave up hope instantly because he couldn't even penetrate the skin of the snake after he tried, but due to his hunger, his right hand transformed.