NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16.3 Crazy Doll Part 4
Lin had made what she could with their limited resources—protein bars that supposedly tasted like chicken, green paste that might have been vegetables once, and something called fruit juice that tasted more like someone's memory of fruit.
Eve stared at her plate with obvious disappointment. "It's all... dead."
"That's how we eat food," Sera said carefully.
"But the good stuff is gone! How am I supposed to keep my body working with this?" She picked up a protein bar, smelled it, and her nose wrinkled in disgust. "It smells like poop."
Lin Xu spoke up gently, "I know it's not great, but it has all the nutrients we need. The bars have vitamins, minerals, and protein."
"But the good stuff is broken!" Eve insisted. "My body needs fresh meat to work right!"
"Fresh meat isn't exactly available right now," Rosa said, taking a defensive bite of her own bar. The texture was like chewing leather that had opinions about being eaten.
Eve sighed dramatically, then her expression brightened. "Oh! I could hunt! There are crawlers in the lower levels, right? Fresh meat, still warm, blood still pumping—"
"No!" Multiple voices yelled at once.
"But I'm really good at it!" Eve protested. "I can make it so they don't feel pain! Much."
"I think we'll pass on the hunting," Sera said firmly. "We have enough food for now."
"But it's not fresh!" Eve insisted. "Fresh meat has stuff that breaks down when you cook it! My body needs that stuff to work right!"
"Your body seems fine without fresh meat," Elena observed, looking at Eve.
"It could be better!" Eve said. "I'm working at like 87% right now. With fresh meat, I could get to 94%!"
"87% seems pretty good to me," Rosa said. "Most of us are probably at like 60% on this stuff."
"Exactly!" Eve said. "Which is why you should let me hunt! I could share with everyone! We could all work better!"
"Sharing crawler meat?" Clara asked, looking a bit green. "I don't think that's going to happen."
"Why not?" Eve was genuinely confused. "Meat is meat! It's just food!"
"It's human meat," Sera said flatly. "That's why not."
---
The temperature in the cafeteria plummeted as Shūmei's control slipped. "You will eat what everyone else eats."
Eve turned those red eyes on her, cat-pupils contracting to slits. "Oh, you're trying to be the boss through food!!"
"I'm not trying to be the boss," Shūmei said coldly. "I'm setting rules."
"Rules are just ideas," Eve said philosophically. "In nature, the strongest girl gets food first! It's how survival works!"
"We're not animals," Shūmei snapped.
"Actually, humans are animals too," Eve corrected cheerfully. "We just like to pretend we're not! It's really interesting how people think!"
"Can we not talk about this right now?" Sera interrupted. "We're trying to eat."
"Right! Eating!" Eve said, picking up the protein bar again. She took a bite, and her face immediately scrunched up in disgust. She spat it out with enough force to stick pieces to the opposite wall.
"That's horrible! It tastes like... like... I don't have words for how bad that is!"
Lin looked hurt. "I tried hard to make these taste okay with what we have."
"It's not your fault!" Eve said quickly. "The stuff we start with isn't good. The cooking ruins the good flavors and healthy stuff!"
"Good flavors?" Rosa asked skeptically. "You mean like 'raw crawler' flavors?"
"Exactly!" Eve said. "Fresh meat has lots of different flavors that you can't get in cooked food!"
"I think I'll stick with the cooked food," Rosa said. "Call me crazy, but I prefer my food not to look at me."
"That's a silly," Eve said. "Meat is meat! Where it comes from doesn't change what it is!"
"It changes the 'might eat me' thing," Rosa shot back.
"That's only if it's still alive," Eve said logically. "Once it's dead, it's just food."
"I think we're getting off track," Elena said calmly. "The problem is that Eve doesn't like our food."
"She doesn't like it is more accurate," Eve corrected. "My body needs certain stuff to work right. This... stuff..." she gestured at the protein bar "...isn't enough."
---
Later that night, Jin discovered that vault security was only as good as its weakest point. And apparently, Eve had found several weak points.
He woke up to the sensation of being watched—that gut feeling that skips thinking and goes straight to screaming *danger*. The room was dark, but not empty. He could smell her before he saw her: sweet and weird, wrong on every level.
"Eve," he said to the darkness, his voice steady even though his heart was racing. "How did you get in here?"
She appeared from the shadows like a bad dream in white, those red eyes glowing softly in the dark. She was wearing something different—not the thin suit, but what looked like a nightgown made of spider silk.
"Air vents!" she said cheerfully, like breaking into someone's room at 3 AM was totally normal. "Your security really needs work. I found ways in!"
"I want you to leave," Jin said, trying to keep his voice calm.
"But I haven't tried to win you over tonight!" She moved closer, and Jin realized with horror that she was literally crawling on his ceiling, her body breaking gravity rules in a creepy way. "The scientists said not giving up was the key to getting a guy!"
"Eve, this isn't right," Jin said, backing away. "You can't just break into people's rooms."
"Why not?" she asked genuinely confused. "Most animals have special ways to attract mates!"
"Human dating usually involves things like going out and talking," Jin said, trying to reason with her. "Not breaking and entering."
"But dates take too long!" Eve insisted. "This way I can show you my skills while saving time!"
She dropped from the ceiling, landing on his bed with almost no sound. This close, her smells were overwhelming—his vision actually got blurry as his body fought between wanting her and being grossed out.
"Eve, get out of my bed," Jin said firmly.
"But it's the best place for making babies!" She tilted her head, white hair cascading like liquid moonlight. "Oh, are you worried about saying yes again? I practiced! Watch!" She cleared her throat. "Jin, do you want to have sex? See? I asked!"
"The answer is no," Jin said, trying to stay calm.
"Oh." She looked honestly confused. "But I asked nicely! The rules said asking nicely makes people say yes more often."
"Rules don't matter if the person says no," Jin explained. "No means no, Eve."
"But why would you say no?" she asked, genuinely perplexed. "I was made to be your perfect girlfriend! We match up ninety-seven percent!"
"Being together isn't just about bodies matching up," Jin said. "It's about feelings, about choice, about actually wanting to be with someone."
"Feelings are just chemicals in your brain," Eve said logically. "And the choice is silly when the best choice is obvious."
Before Jin could respond, the door exploded inward. Blew in, torn off its frame by a blade that embedded itself in the opposite wall.
Shūmei stood in the doorway, and she wasn't pretending anymore. Her red eyes blazed with fury that made the temperature drop twenty degrees instantly. Ice spread from her feet across the floor, creating a crystalline carpet that reflected the emergency lighting in rainbow colors.
"Get. Away. From. Jin-sama."
Eve turned to look at Shūmei, not caring at all about the killing intent that would have sent normal people running. "Oh, hi! I was just trying to get Jin! Want to take notes? You could learn something!"
The knife appeared in Shūmei's hand so fast it seemed to just appear. One second her hand was empty, the next she held a knife that looked like frozen moonlight with a super-sharp edge.
"I'm going to take out your body parts one by one," Shūmei said conversationally.
"That's not in order," Eve pointed out. "Shouldn't you start with the adrenaline parts? Or the big blood tube if we're counting blood tubes?"
"I'm starting with whatever I feel like taking out first," Shūmei said coldly.
"That's not very organized," Eve said, pulling out her notebook. "Taking things out in order works better. You should plan these things."
"I'm planning to start with your tongue," Shūmei said, advancing slowly. "So you'll stop talking."
"But talking is how you get guys!" Eve protested. "Talking is how you get close to someone!"
"You and Jin will never be close!" Shūmei hissed.
"Not yet," Eve corrected cheerfully. "But we're working on it! Not giving up makes it work better by sixty-three percent!"
The two killers faced each other across Jin's bed, and he could feel the world holding its breath. The air was thick with competing feelings—Shūmei's frozen anger against Eve's happy craziness.