Are You Trying to Be the King of Some Mountain?

Several days later, in another part of the North Blue—Kuin Village.

The despair here took a different form. It was not the blazing heat of war, but a cold, slow death.

The land was barren, and famine hovered over the village like an invisible ghost. Starving corpses littered the ground. The famished villagers, their faces sallow and their bodies gaunt, sat or lay there with vacant eyes, waiting for the faint hope of relief—or for death.

In a small forest on the mountain outside the village, Baby 5 sat on the ground, sobbing softly. It was not hunger that made her cry, but a memory etched into her bones.

In that memory, a woman who was just as gaunt and had been crushed by life heartlessly pushed her into this forest.

"Stop following me! You're completely useless! No one will ever need you!"

Young Baby 5 chased after her in tears and asked:

"Mommy... Mommy doesn't need me either?"

The only answer was her mother's resolute, numb back as she merged into the crowd fleeing the famine and vanished completely.

The pain brought by the memory was far more unbearable than hunger. Baby 5 cried even harder, her frail shoulders shaking violently.

Her heart was filled with an overwhelming desire to be needed and acknowledged. It was as if only by being needed by others could she prove that her existence had value.

After crying for a long time, she forcefully wiped away her tears. Life had to go on. She had to find something to eat.

Anything edible in the forest had long since been stripped bare. She had no choice but to walk toward the forest's edge, hoping to find some wild vegetables or fruit.

Just as she stepped out of the woods and the sunlight shone harshly