Xia Leng gave a self-mocking, bitter laugh. When had he become so sentimental? He shook his head and stopped dwelling on those long-forgotten memories.
He pulled himself together and sat up. After drinking the beetle's blood, the stomach that had been so empty it ached had eased considerably.
Xia Leng picked up his knife again. While he still had a little strength to spare, he planned to butcher the Giant Armor Beetle in front of him.
Though the hard-shelled insect weighed nearly ten pounds, there was at most two pounds of edible meat on it. The rest was mostly armor and the extra bones it had grown after mutating.
He skillfully worked the bone knife, first cutting off the beetle's head, which he had drained of brain fluid. Then he dug a fingernail-sized black crystal from its skull and slipped it into his pocket.
Crystals like this could be found in the brains of nearly every mutated creature, including all kinds of walking corpses and Baptized Ones.
Their size and color varied according to the creature's species and strength.
Xia Leng had once spent quite some time studying the crystals, but had found no other use for them.
He had even tried swallowing one. Aside from making his second round of bowel movements difficult, it had done nothing to strengthen him, contrary to what he had read...
Of course, perhaps the stones were simply useless to him. But in the eyes of the administrators of certain high-level Fortresses, they were treasures—and there was never enough to go around.
He had no idea what they wanted the stones for. They certainly wouldn't tell a homeless survivor like him, but they were willing to trade all kinds of scarce resources for them.
Naturally, crystals from the brains of mutated creatures had become the common currency among humanity's survivors in the apocalypse.
Of course, the resources they could buy varied according to how rare the crystals were.
The fingernail-sized black crystal in Xia Leng's hand might only be worth a palm-sized piece of edible meat or a pair of worn-out socks.
Just as he was about to keep cutting up the Giant Armor Beetle, he suddenly heard a noisy rush of footsteps in the silent ruins outside!
Xia Leng immediately stopped cutting and crouched warily against the grimy floor!
In this day and age, mutated beasts weren't the only things that could threaten you. Your fellow humans were even more ruthless.
That was why Xia Leng would rather scrape by alone in the dangerous ruins than join one of those makeshift camps and try to survive with others.
Maybe people in a camp could look after one another, and hunting in a group could greatly improve their chances of success.
But that was only a temporary peace, maintained as long as there was enough food to go around.
If one day the creatures around the camp were all hunted down and the food stores ran empty—
Then you became prey to the very people you had once worked alongside.
Don't ask how he knew so much. Xia Leng had once been a member of a camp himself.
The terrifying scar, nearly a foot long, across his back had completely destroyed his trust in other people.
Of course, the man who gave Xia Leng that scar hadn't fared any better. The bone blade in his hand had been fashioned from that traitor's leg bone...
He lay flat on the floor, holding his breath and focusing on the frantic footsteps outside as they drew closer to the area.
Another set of noisy, hurried footsteps followed close behind.
It was clearly a chase between hunter and prey.
The person running in front was moving too frantically. Perhaps they tripped over a broken piece of rebar jutting from a shattered chunk of concrete. They cried out and fell among the ruins, then let out a pained groan. It sounded like they had been badly hurt.
And from the sound of it, was it a girl?
"Heh, you little bitch! Thought you could get away? I'm your master! Don't I have the right to do whatever I want with you?!"
The noisy footsteps behind caught up, followed by a string of vicious curses.
Hearing all this, Xia Leng had a good idea of what was happening. A slave from some camp had finally endured enough abuse and escaped from her master.
The law of the jungle applied in every age.
It was only more primitive and savage in the apocalypse.
Whoever had the most strength, the hardest fists, and the best gear had the most say in this world. They no longer had to worry about punishment under the law or condemnation from public opinion.
Xia Leng quietly edged toward the window. Blending into the darkness, he looked out at the ruins of the street.
Did these people really think they could shout out there without attracting Night Demons?
Ever since the Black Rain fell five years ago, even the sky had become strange and unpredictable.
The sun no longer rose steadily in the east. Sometimes it hung overhead for weeks without setting, leaving the daylight to scorch the earth under temperatures nearing fifty degrees Celsius. Other times, it rose in the west, then set again less than an hour later, like a shy girl darting away, and did not reappear for half a month...
Now, it had been about sixty hours since the sun last rose.
The Crimson Moon hung in the night sky, bathing this wasteland in an even more eerie light and turning it into a scene straight out of the deepest hell.
Still, the strange moonlight let Xia Leng see a little on these dangerous nights.
Down on the ruined street, five men dressed in mutated beast hides surrounded a woman lying on the ground, her clothes barely covering her.
All five looked vicious. They varied in height and build, some tall and thin, others short and fat. Only the one leading them looked reasonably fit and normal.
As for the bony woman lying there and begging for mercy, abuse and starvation had reduced her to skin and bones.
Even from this far away, Xia Leng could see the terrible wounds covering her. She had made it quite a distance before they caught her—probably as far as she could go.
He guessed they were members of a small makeshift camp less than ten kilometers away.
Now that they had caught the slave, she was bound to get another beating. To keep her screams from attracting monsters they couldn't handle, they had stuffed a wad of rag into her mouth. All she could manage was a muffled, pained whimper.
"Boss, that's probably enough. Running out of camp at night was risky enough. Let's take her back."
A man less than five feet three inches tall sidled up to the leader. Looking at the woman, beaten to the point of collapse, he voiced his concern.
"Hmph. Fine. But this is the third time she's run away. Three strikes and you're out. Break her legs! Lock her back in the spare storeroom. She can be rations for later!"
At the leader's chilling words, Xia Leng's eyebrow twitched despite himself.
Then he watched as they used crude clubs to smash the slave woman's bony legs.
Xia Leng watched the whole thing without feeling much of anything. He certainly had no foolish urge to play the hero and rescue the damsel in distress.
In this age, if you could live better than everyone else, you were a hero—and people would worship you.
As he watched them lift the slave woman, who had passed out from the pain, onto someone's back and prepare to leave, Xia Leng finally relaxed a little. He turned around, intending to continue butchering his prey.
But the moment he turned, the deathly pale face that had somehow appeared in front of him made his eyes fly wide open...
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