43 Frying Eggs

The drive was about two hours as there were a lot of cars and other pieces of trash littered across the streets. The population of Enrageds and Infected appeared to have reduced quite a bit, but there were still many Enrageds running around.

Aida made sure to use her system to avoid all the larger red dots as she had a group of unconscious people to take care of. There were a surprising number of larger dots throughout the drive. None of them would match up to AIda if she openly released her power, but they were definitely larger than the standard human.

During this drive, she also took the time to experiment with her scan system. She discovered that the scan range was limited by area. Previously, she had scanned in a perfect circle with a radius of 5 meters. Therefore the total area that she could scan, if she scanned only in one direction, she would be able to scan roughly 79 meters ahead [1].

She chose not to leverage Xiao Ai's ability since she had no need for such a wide range, and did not completely understand Xiao Ai's new physiology. Aida wasn't too sure how much power Xiao Ai needed to consume and whether she was able to consume power while unconscious. Aida's biggest concern was that she could unintentionally overdraw Xiao Ai's power, which could potentially risk Xiao Ai's very existence.

After testing different configurations, she determined that a cross shape was optimal for her current situation. The streets were all perfect squares, so by checking what was immediately to her sides, just behind the car and what was coming up ahead would allow her to keep track of everything.

Aida had to bulldoze over many Enraged but they seemed oddly less intelligent than the ones she had previously encountered. Due to her picking only the smaller dots that denoted which were smaller threats, she was able to reach the residential area with ease.

Driving past the houses, she already had a house pre-selected based on her interests. She was able to preview the locations with her system.

The house she selected was decently large. It had 5 bedrooms, 3 baths and a large kitchen. Using her scan, she checked and made sure there was no one inside.

Using her lockpicking skills, she quickly unlocked the door and parked the car into the garage. Doing a quick walk through, she made sure to close and lock all windows and doors. The Enraged were attracted to killing anything animate, but only if they could see, smell or hear it. Afterwards, she picked up each person and put them onto a bed with the twins sharing one bed. She unabashedly left the master bedroom for herself and Xiao Ai.

Luckily, all the rooms were still clean and organized as it had only been roughly a week since the apocalypse hit.

Digging into the kitchen, she found the kitchen was well stocked with food and water. Wanting something quick and simple to eat, she went to fry a few eggs for herself.

The results were less than ideal. During the process of frying the eggs, she didn't expect the oil to fly everywhere after being heated. In response to the flying oil, she tried to put it out by throwing water into the pan which lead to the oil spraying everywhere. Not knowing whether it was supposed to be like this, she cracked two eggs and threw it into the mix at the cost of burning her hands. Her inexperience led to many eggshells falling into the pan with the egg itself.

Finally after many injuries and an arduous process, the eggs were finally "ready" to be eaten. Moving the food onto a plate, she sat down at the dining table and began eating.

Crunchhhhh. In Aida's first bite, there were already many eggshells awaiting her.

Sighing, she decidedly dumped the eggs away. This was a hopeless case.

She got up to hunt for more food when her consciousness was dragged into the system yet again.

[Host has entered the punishment system. Host failed to fry an egg.

Punishment: Cook 100 fried eggs with no abilities.]

"...Are you serious?! I even get punished for failing to cook eggs?! What kind of broken con system are you?!"

The system ignored Aida's protest. [Host is ready for the punishment system. Moving Host into Cooking Fried Eggs simulation.]

Aida opened her eyes and found herself in a kitchen. There was a single stove top with a pan on top with a spatula. Next to it was a single egg, some oil, salt and other basic seasonings. The instructions for how to cook an egg was written on a hologram floating in the air.

Hesitantly, Aida tentatively grabbed the pan and the spatula, and prepared to follow the directions. As she turned to grab the egg, she accidentally knocked it over and it fell on the floor with a splat.

"..." [...]

[Host has failed. Grade: F. Fried Eggs Completion: 0]

[Sending Host back into simulation.]

Trying over and over again, Aida failed time and again.

Round 5, the oil exploded and killed her. Round 19, she burned the entire rubber spatula into the egg creating a plastic egg mixture. Round 33, the entire bottle of salt went into the egg and hardened. Round 57, the egg was somehow cooked with the entire shell still on, so exploded onto Aida's face. Thankfully the system reset so she was still intact. Round 86, she just started to throw the egg on the floor instead of trying to cook it herself.

Who knew cooking was so hard?? Through this process, Aida grew an immense appreciation towards all cooks.

[Host has failed Punishment. Overall Grade: F. Recommendation: Host is advised to never step into a kitchen again. Host could potentially use cooking as a lethal killing method.]

"Sh-shut up!" Aida responded with a blush on her face.

[Moving Host to back to Home.]

[1] Area of a circle = πr2, therefore if r = 5, the total area would be 78.54.