Waiting passively wasn’t in her nature. If one wanted to survive, they had to fight for it. If she had been content to drift along in her past life, she would have starved to death long ago. She wouldn’t have lived to this moment.

Ji He felt as though time was dragging on forever, but in reality, it was only a few seconds. The laser in the robot’s eyes retracted, followed by an electronic voice:

[Temporary worker. Strong work ability. Loves picking up trash. No danger detected.]

The robot turned away as if nothing had happened and continued transporting garbage outside.

Ji He let out a breath of relief and took in a deep gulp of air—only to nearly pass out from the overwhelming stench of rot and grease.

Her body reacted instinctively, gagging, but fortunately, her stomach was empty, so nothing came up. She clamped a hand tightly over her mouth, held her breath, and quickly suppressed the nausea.

She didn’t know how much time she had left before she would be sent out, and she couldn’t afford to waste a second. Ignoring the discomfort, she quickened her pace, moving deeper inside and grabbing whatever she could find.

Anything her fingers touched—piles of trash, livestock innards, bones—vanished instantly.

From the outside, it wasn’t obvious, but once inside, Ji He could see that the entire garbage room was packed to the brim. The trash was stacked from the floor to the ceiling with no gaps in between.

This actually worked to her advantage. She didn’t even have to squat down. She only needed to reach out and swipe her hands across the heaps to collect more.

Just as Ji He was swinging her arms wildly, absorbing as much as she could, a system notification rang out:

[15 minutes are up. Now exiting the instance.]

She barely had enough time to snatch one last handful of trash before her entire body was teleported out.

Her heart ached with regret. In such a short time, she had only managed to collect less than one-tenth of the resources inside.

Watching all that perfectly good food being treated as garbage nearly shattered her soul.

What a shameful waste!

This instance was amazing—she loved it!

Ji He was sent out of the instance and immediately checked the time. 1:00 AM.

She didn’t know what time she had entered, but it definitely hadn’t been one. She had gone to bed at eleven, then spent some time writing and drawing. It couldn’t have taken that long.

Yet, she had spent eight hours and fifteen minutes inside the instance. If time inside matched real-world time, it should be past 8:00 AM by now. But looking at the clock, that clearly wasn’t the case.

This proved that time in the instance didn’t sync with reality. The flow of time inside was faster, while in the real world, it moved more slowly.

Before Ji He could think further, the familiar electronic voice of the system rang out again:

**[Congratulations, Temporary Player Ji He, for perfectly clearing a one-star instance. You have earned another opportunity to enter the Support Game.

Instance rewards: 138 live chickens processed, earning 13 copper coins, which can be used to purchase supplies in the shop.

Due to your extreme frugality and passion for trash, you have unlocked the talent: Scavenger!

Scavenger: When wearing the badge, in-game NPCs will automatically assume you are a garbage worker. When picking up trash, they will subconsciously ignore you. Additionally, there is a certain chance that trash you collect may turn into treasure.

By staying true to your deepest desires, you have also unlocked the talent: Healer!

Healer: Grants healing abilities, allowing you to treat wounds.

The next Support Game session is unscheduled. Please be ready at any time!]**

With that, the system fell silent and disappeared.

At the same time, a badge appeared in her palm, and she could feel a surge of energy within her body.

Ji He: “……”

The corners of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.

This was so absurd.

Could she just say that she really had no love for picking up trash?

She was only trying to exploit the system for resources, okay? She didn’t actually like garbage!

Ji He called out to the system several more times, but there was no response. She wasn’t given a single chance to protest.

Standing there, she took deep breaths to calm herself.

They say a man’s final career is security work, and a woman’s is janitorial work.

Well, scavenging was technically part of janitorial work, right? She had simply skipped 40 years of struggle and reached the peak in one step.

Thinking of it that way, she found it a little easier to accept.

Ji He raised her hand and carefully examined the badge in her palm.

It was most likely the Scavenger Badge. The design was simple—a broom and a trash can. Very fitting.

There was no pin on the back, so she tried placing it against her chest. The badge automatically adhered to her. She then tried pulling it off with great force, but it wouldn’t budge.

When she changed her mind and deliberately tried to remove it, it came off easily.

Surprisingly user-friendly.

After testing it, Ji He carefully stored the badge inside her inventory.

Only then did she finally have the energy to check on her wounds.

Even though she had exited the instance, her injuries hadn’t healed automatically. The pain remained—a dull, persistent ache.

Looking down at her tattered sleepwear, Ji He sighed. The pants were full of holes and bloodstains, completely unwearable.

She stripped off the ruined clothes and attempted to use her healing ability on her wounds.

A soft white light emanated from her palm, illuminating the most severe injury. Within moments, the wound slowly closed and scabbed over. Ji He stopped there and moved on to treat the rest of her injuries.

She wasn’t sure how powerful this ability was or how many wounds it could heal at once. Since she had plenty of injuries, she wanted to maximize its efficiency.

Once a wound had scabbed over, the pain became much more manageable, allowing her to focus on the more serious injuries.

By the time she finished, Ji He was grateful for unlocking the healing ability.

Before treatment, she had eight serious wounds and six minor ones.

After healing, only six of the serious wounds remained, all in the scabbing phase and no longer affecting her movement. The other two, along with all six minor wounds, had vanished without a trace.

Checking her reflection in the mirror, Ji He was satisfied to see her smooth, unblemished face.

This skill would be crucial for survival. Combined with her Scavenger talent, she should have no problem staying under the radar in the game.

No matter how strong one was, survival was the key.

Now that everything was settled, exhaustion finally hit her. She had gone a full 24 hours without rest, and her head was swimming with fatigue.

Still, she forced herself to take a quick shower and change into clean clothes. She didn’t even bother drying her hair before collapsing onto the bed and falling into a deep sleep.

Everything else could wait until morning.

The next day, at 6:30 AM, her alarm clock jolted Ji He awake.

She rubbed her eyes, turned off the alarm, and lay in bed for another five minutes before sitting up.

Looking around at her plain room—a desk, a wardrobe, and a double bed—she was reminded that this had been her home for 18 years.

But it also served as a stark reminder that everything she had experienced wasn’t just a dream.

Ji He checked her inventory with her consciousness. The supplies stored inside confirmed that last night was real.

She had been summoned into a Support Game.

She had spent eight hours slaughtering chickens.

No matter what had happened, life had to go on.

And this sudden appearance of the game only reinforced the suspicions she had held deep in her heart.

A sense of unease settled over her.