Chapter 266: Chapter-266

By evening, she was genuinely worried.

’If this continues for even a few more days, I’ll be too weak to work. And if I can’t work, they’ll just throw me out or sell me to someone else.’

’I need a solution. Fast.’

She sat in her small room that evening, hungry, exhausted, and trying to think clearly despite the brain fog that came with starvation.

The System hovered nearby, clearly worried.

“Host… what are we going to do?”

Heena closed her eyes and thought hard.

’I have a few options. None of them good.’

’Option one: Accept Samuel’s offer immediately and hope he’ll provide better food. But that shows weakness and desperation.’

’Option two: Try to steal food and risk getting caught. Too risky.’

’Option three: Find a way to expose Maya’s scheme publicly. But how?’

’Option four…’

She opened her eyes, a dangerous glint appearing in them.

’Option four: If Maya wants to play this game, I’ll play it better than she ever imagined.’

She smiled slightly despite her hunger.

“System, I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything, Host!”

“I need you to find out exactly when and where Maya is storing the food she’s hiding from the kitchen. There’s no way she’s actually using everything. She must be stockpiling some of it somewhere to make it look like I’m the one wasting supplies.”

The System nodded and disappeared to investigate.

Heena lay down on her thin sleeping mat, her stomach cramping painfully.

’Just a little longer,’ she told herself. ’Just hold on a little longer. Then I’ll turn this entire situation around.’

.

.

.

To hell with handling hunger gracefully.

Heena literally woke up after only an hour of restless sleep, her stomach growling so loudly it echoed in the tiny room.

She sat up on her thin sleeping mat, and her anger was beyond control.

’Like, even if you hate an animal, you still wouldn’t take away its food. That’s a basic principle of cruelty. How the FUCK did this woman even become the heroine of this world?!’

She looked over at the System, who was peacefully sleeping—and yes, the System was FULL of food because the bastard had spent HER money from the System store to buy himself snacks.

And here was the infuriating problem: during an active mission, Heena couldn’t purchase food from the System store unless she’d bought and registered it BEFORE starting the mission.

And before anyone judged her for not planning ahead, she literally hadn’t had access to her money before entering this world. Her earned credits from previous missions were deposited in her System account card, but she hadn’t retrieved that card or registered any emergency supplies before this mission started.

Why? Because who would have thought this idiot System would send her into such a poverty-stricken, food-scarce hellhole?!

And even if she wanted to buy food now, the System store prices were absolutely insane. Normally in the real world—China, Japan, anywhere—you could get a cabbage for maybe a dollar. But in the System store? Twenty dollars for ONE cabbage!

Why would anyone waste money like that?!

The only reason the System could buy food was because he had special purchasing privileges that Hosts didn’t get during active missions.

Heena looked at the peacefully sleeping System and said loudly, “Let’s go.”

The System jerked awake, looking around in confusion. “Go? Go where, Host?”

“To find food, you idiot,” Heena said, standing up and heading for the door.

And Heena was quite a petty person when it came to food—it wasn’t her fault. There was a saying: “Don’t snatch food from a beggar.” But if someone dared to snatch food from HEENA? Well, of course she would make absolutely certain they didn’t have a peaceful day.

Heena walked toward Maya’s personal courtyard, moving carefully through the darkness, staying in the shadows.

The System floated after her nervously and asked, “Host, why are we sneaking like this? Are we going to beat someone up again?”

Heena turned to glare at him and said in a low growl, “Yeah, I’m going to beat something up. And if you don’t shut up, I’ll beat YOU up too. I’m so tired and hungry right now that I can barely stand. So shut your mouth before I use you as bait.”

Hearing that threat, the System immediately shut his mouth and followed silently.

Heena walked forward carefully and stopped in front of a small ornamental pond.

This pond was literally Maya’s favorite feature in the entire household. The pond contained exotic fish that she’d received from her husband as a wedding anniversary gift last year, and she absolutely cherished them.

It was said that these particular fish brought blessings and good fortune to the household.

The fish were swimming calmly in the moonlit water when they suddenly felt a shudder of premonition.

One fish’s eye looked upward—

And saw Heena standing at the edge of the pond, staring down at them with a wide, hungry smile that would have terrified any creature with survival instincts.

Soon, only a few splashes disturbed the quiet night before the fish were gone from the pond.

There had been three large fish—beautiful, expensive, carefully tended.

Now there were zero.

—

’’[The Midnight Feast]’’

Of course, Heena wasn’t such an idiot that she would cook the stolen fish right here in the household where the smell would alert everyone.

No, she was much smarter than that.

She carried the three large fish—already killed and cleaned with quick efficiency—toward the back mountain.

It was late at night, a time when normally not even brave men would dare to venture into the wilderness alone.

But Heena was different.

She reached the foot of the mountain and found a secluded area far from any paths or houses. There were no buildings nearby, no one to see the smoke or smell the cooking.

She gathered dry firewood quickly and efficiently, built a small fire, and started roasting the fish over the flames.

As she waited for them to cook, her mouth was literally watering.

And the System, watching this, had to acknowledge one thing: these fish were incredibly expensive. Like, literally, if you tried to sell the original Seera as a servant versus selling one of these fish, the fish would fetch a price at least five times higher.

These were rare ornamental fish imported from distant regions, valuable collector’s items that wealthy people kept as status symbols.

And Heena was roasting them like common river fish.

Half an hour later, sitting with a blissfully full stomach for the first time in what felt like forever, Heena rubbed her belly and let out a satisfied burp.

“Ahhhh, so satisfying,” she sighed contentedly.

The System had also eaten—the damn thing had taken five or six bites even though he was already completely full from his System store snacks.

He looked at Heena and said worriedly, “But Host, you left the fish bones and scraps right there by the pond. Don’t you think Maya will notice?”

Heena looked at him like he was the biggest fool in the universe and said, “Of course she’ll notice. This is the first thing she looks at every single morning. She checks on those fish before she even eats breakfast.”

Hearing that, the System stood up in alarm, looking at her with wide eyes.

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