Wasteland Queen: My Harvest Power novel Chapter 1

"Reina, I am so disappointed in you!"

The woman sat on the couch. With one arm, she held her trembling younger daughter, and with the other, pointed at her older daughter, Reina Ashworth.

She yelled, "Stella only changed your application, and you're overreacting like this? How can you be so cruel?"

Reina narrowed her eyes at the mother-daughter duo in front of her. Her heart turned cold. She ripped up the admission letter and threw the pieces at Stella Foster's head. "Cruel? Mom, do you even know where she changed my application to?"

"Where?" Helen Foster actually had no clue what her younger daughter had done.

Reina sneered. "Catgirl Club. Mom, if she likes that kind of trash, fine. But why did she change my application to some training school like that?"

Anyone could tell by the name that it was run by some entertainment club inside the base—one that served men.

She had finally awakened a Harvesting Ability. She could have applied to the base's official ability academy. This was her one shot at a better life, and her sister had just ruined it.

"What's wrong with Catgirl Club?"

Stella covered her swollen face and said in a pitiful voice, "The pay is high, and there's no danger. You can even meet important people in the base. I was thinking about you!"

Hmph. It's just a useless Harvesting Ability. What's so great about it?

Once I earn enough points to awaken my own ability, I'll be much better than Reina.

A smug look flashed across Stella's eyes.

In Greenfinch Base, the rule was simple: 18-year-olds only get one shot at a school application. If you mess it up or pick the wrong one, you don't get a do-over.

She wanted Reina to miss the ability academy, stuck at the bottom, beneath her, forever.

Helen's eyes lit up as she nodded along. "Stella's right, Reina. She's thinking about you. Going into the wilderness is dangerous. If the club accepts you, you'll definitely earn more than going out to do harvesting work."

"Once you make money, we'll buy gene-awakening potions. Your sister and brother can awaken abilities, too. Then the three of you can support each other. Our family can finally establish ourselves at Greenfinch Base."

Being abandoned by that man had always been Helen's biggest pain. She constantly dreamed that her kids would rise above everyone else and slap that heartless man in the face.

Reina almost laughed in anger at what Helen and Stella said.

Stand firm in the base by selling my body? What the hell is wrong with them?

Reina honestly wanted to crack their heads open and see if their brains were just full of trash.

She didn't want to waste any more breath on them. She turned around and went to her room to pack.

She was leaving this house.

She was done letting them bleed her dry like leeches.

Last night, Reina had an incredibly vivid dream. In it, she saw Stella tampering with her school application.

After she refused to enroll, Stella and Helen teamed up to drug her and sold her to the Catgirl Club.

She ended up locked in a basement, used like a human blood pack to be drained every single day until her body gave out and she died a miserable death.

It was so creepy that when she woke up this morning, she found out the first part of the nightmare—the changed application—had actually come true.

For her own safety, she had to leave, even if it meant renting a tiny place somewhere else.

As she was packing, Helen and Stella burst into the room.

Seeing the suitcase, they tried to stop her. "What are you doing? Where do you think you're going?"

Reina zipped up her backpack and said calmly, "The school is sending graduates on a mission outside the city. If I don't go, I won't get my diploma."

Helen relaxed a little but still eyed Reina suspiciously. "Really? You're not lying to us?"

"What do I get from lying to you?" Reina slung the backpack over her shoulder and walked toward the door.

Helen blocked her again, looking suspicious. "So you're not going to the Catgirl training school?"

"Nope!" Reina shoved past her mom and headed for the door.

"If you aren't going there, where are you going?" Helen grabbed Reina's arms, holding tight while shooting a quick glance at Stella.

Stella hurried over and said anxiously, "The Catgirl Club is a great choice. Don't give up on it! If they accepted normal people without abilities, I'd sign up myself."

As she spoke, she reached for Reina's backpack.

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