"Extra! Extra! Fresh off the press—Longwind Times! The frontline Garrison Guard has crushed the Northern Province's A-Rank Abyss Rift, rescuing several human settlements in the Northern Province and seizing various Abyss supplies..."
The Dark Veil had only just retreated, and the sky was beginning to pale. The frigid winds of Harsh Winter had arrived early, shrouding Longwind City in a thin layer of mist.
Yet beneath the increasingly cold weather, a child's cries rang through the streets and alleys.
The child looked about ten years old, though he was only as tall as a seven- or eight-year-old from the Old Era. He was wrapped in a fairly thick cotton coat and held a stack of newspapers against his chest. His bare hands were thin at the knuckles, their skin covered in cracked wounds.
"Phew..." Lei Xiaohu breathed out, his exhalation forming a thick white cloud in the air.
His eyes were large and bright. After taking a deep breath, he called out again.
"Extra! Extra..."
Just then, the tightly shut door of a house along the nearby street suddenly opened, and a middle-aged man walked out, yawning.
"Xiaohu, isn't today a day off? Why are you still selling papers?"
Lei Xiaohu grinned, revealing a mouthful of gleaming white teeth.
"Uncle Ma, did you forget? I'm different from you all. There's no such thing as a day off in my line of work."
The middle-aged man called Uncle Ma raised a large hand and slapped his forehead, looking suddenly enlightened.
"Ah... I nearly forgot. When you first became a Formal Subject, the adults in the Inner City saw how young you were and wanted to arrange an easy job for you. But you insisted on joining the Cultural Affairs Bureau as an errand boy."
With a smile on his face, Uncle