A short while later, Alesha found herself in a secluded area with a bunch of trees and bushes. She had been lucky. If "Lightscale Apartments" hadn't prided itself on providing beautiful areas for its tenants to walk through, she wouldn't have been able to find a secluded place at all. Privacy was usually found only at home. The Alliance wasn't particularly thoughtful when it came to individual citizens, after all.
Alesha looked at the countdown, holding her breath.
[0:10, 0:09, 0:08]
The hunger was seriously starting to hurt now, more than she'd ever experienced before. She'd grown up in a good home with her needs provided for, and at university, she had usually stayed pretty on top of taking care of herself. So this was an entirely new (and unpleasant) kind of hunger.
[0:06, 0:05, 0:04]
Seriously, when was that damn clock going to hit 0:00?! She was already so freaking hungry that she felt like clawing at her stomach and curling in a ball, but the penalty had somehow still not started? Just how hungry was she going to get?! It had kept mounting with every second that passed and it was still doing so now. She growled at the clock in frustration.
[0:03, 0:02, 0:01, 0:00]
[Ding! Quest penalty begun!]
[Penalty: Insatiable meat cravings for 8 hours. I hope you noticed the word "insatiable," but I have a feeling you didn't. Well, here goes nothing!]
[Ding! New quest available!]
[Quest: Mmmmmmmmeat!
Goal: Survive the quest penalty without going feral!
Quest Conditions: Consume raw meat every hour, don't hurt anyone while trying to get meat, and don't let anyone notice your strange behavior!
Reward: 50 XP, 1 Chaos Energy, ???
Penalty: ???
Failure Conditions: fail to eat raw meat every hour, hurt someone while trying to get meat, someone takes note of your strange behavior]
Even as hungry as she was, this new set of announcements made Alesha angry. Another freaking quest?! She was too hungry to read the details very closely, but her mind was still clear enough to realize it was probably important, so she skimmed through it. Okay, so she had to eat meat every hour, not hurt anyone, not get caught. Easy enough.
She tore open the first package of meat with gusto, sending splatters of juice (she didn't want to acknowledge it as being blood) everywhere as she tore a piece of meat out of it. Steak. Deep red, dripping, beautifully marbled and … goodness, it smelled amazing. Eyes closed in bliss as she breathed the scent in deeply, Alesha's mouth subconsciously opened, preparing to bite into the meat. She didn't notice that as she did, her canines lengthened subtly, as did the teeth on either side of them, all of which sharpened themselves to optimize them for the tearing of meat. In the end, she had six sharp teeth on top and six sharp teeth on bottom, aside from the rest of her teeth which remained unchanged. Opening her eyes, their multicolored irises flashing with eagerness, she seized the raw steak with her teeth and yanked her head back, pulling the steak in the opposite direction with her hands. The meat tore easily. She barely chewed the bite before swallowing and, in short order, she had eaten the entire first package of meat.
The next several hours passed slowly for Alesha, who after looking at the new quest's requirements again had decided she needed to pace herself. She did not want to know what would happen if she failed to eat meat every hour. She thanked her lucky stars that she had impulsively bought more meat than she had initially planned to, because even having bought 7 packages of meat, that still meant that she couldn't eat a full package every hour like she had done at the start. She didn't know what her hunger would drive her to do if she didn't get enough meat and, once again, she did not want to find out.
[Penalty time remaining: 00:02:23]
Alesha stared at the countdown, stomach still aching with hunger. She had already eaten all the meat she bought last night. She remembered the meat fondly… steak, pork chops, tri-tip, brisket… maybe she had gone overboard, but that's why they advise you to never go shopping while hungry.
She'd tried a bunch of red meats, but hadn't bought any white meats. Idly she wondered what raw chicken would taste like. Earlier, she'd skipped getting chicken on purpose since avoiding salmonella was an instinct at this point, but now that she'd successfully downed both raw pork and beef, she couldn't help but get curious. A part of her (a small part of her) even thought it was a shame that she wouldn't get to try it at least once while it couldn't make her sick.
It was roughly 06:00 now. She hadn't brought a watch and was lamenting the fact, but she was glad that the System, at least, served as an accurate timer. That meant that she could just do some quick math to figure out how much time had passed. It had been roughly 22:00 when the penalty began, the penalty was 8 hours long, and 8 hours after 22:00 was 06:00. Hence, it was roughly 06:00 right now. Her parents would hopefully not be awake for another few hours since it was Saturday, which would give her time to go home, shower and catch a quick nap before tackling whatever the day would hold.
[Penalty time remaining: 00:00:09]
Nine seconds left. Breathe in, breathe out. Almost done.
[Penalty time remaining: 00:00:05, 00:00:04, 00:00:03, 00:00:02, 00:00:01]
[Ding! Quest penalty complete!]
[Ding! Quest complete! Perfect clear! Extra rewards granted.]
[Rewards: 50 XP, 1 Chaos Energy, new skill: "Bite", +1 Vitality, new racial trait]