Curse

The inexplicable aura of a curse emanating from the boy gave this body of Kurourushi's a chance to survive.

The auras of the two curses actually merged, and in the end, while Gu Yanzhi was completely unconscious, this body placed a curse on the boy.

Kurourushi's body clung to life by attaching itself to the boy's body.

But because of Gu Yanzhi's earlier suicide attempt, along with the enormous amount of Cursed Energy consumed by the parasitism, Kurourushi's body fell dormant again.

A Cursed Spirit's constitution allowed it to heal its injuries even without Reverse Cursed Technique.

The boy's life was also miraculously saved by this curse of Gu Yanzhi's.

After a long period of unconsciousness, the boy opened his eyes with difficulty.

The sewer ceiling slowly came into focus.

Patches of rust and mold covered it in the dim light, and the smell of blood hung in the air. Everything felt strange.

The boy instinctively felt afraid, but after a long moment of stunned silence, he realized he had forgotten something.

He had no idea why he was in the sewer, or how he had become separated from his family and ended up here.

Gu Yanzhi and his cockroaches were careful not to waste food, and the sewage masked most of the scents.

So the boy noticed nothing unusual.

He braced his hands against the ground and tried to stand, but the moment he straightened up, a sharp pain shot through his stomach-a pang of intense hunger.

How long had it been since I last ate?

Grimacing, the boy decided to ignore the strange scene before him for now and find something to eat first.

He staggered toward the sewer exit.

His figure vanished into the faint light spilling through a hole in the pipe wall.

He did not look back. If he had looked back just then, and if he had possessed Cursed Energy and could see what ordinary people could not...

He would have discovered several Cursed Spirits hiding in the darkness deep within the sewer all along.

They huddled in cracks in the pipe wall, their shells pressed against the brickwork and their antennae tucked tightly away, not daring to make a sound.

Only after the boy left did they crawl out with faint rustling noises and flee in the opposite direction.

The boy had spent so long in the sewer that he had grown used to the darkness. When he first emerged, the sunlight on the street stung his eyes.

He stood on the shattered street and raised a hand to shade his forehead, taking a long time to adjust to the light aboveground.

The sight before him instantly made him forget his hunger and stop wondering where he should go.

The entire street was unrecognizable. A large section of asphalt had been torn up, the charred wrecks of cars lay overturned by the roadside, and black smoke rose in the distance from something he could not identify.

The whole city was in chaos.

As he crossed an intersection, a few passersby hurried past in the distance, their heads lowered and their coats pulled tight. No one looked at him, and no one stopped.

The boy's steps grew slower and slower.

In his memory, this street should have been familiar-past that bookstore and a little farther ahead was the neighborhood where he lived.

But now the bookstore was gone, and half the building had collapsed. He turned in a circle where he stood, unable to find a single landmark to get his bearings.

His eyes began to sting, and tears welled up.

The boy blinked hard, forcing the tears back, and encouraged himself inwardly.

I have to get moving. My family is still waiting for me.

He jogged around a street corner and spotted a convenience store.

Half the sign hung crooked, but the lights were still on.

Through the dusty windows, he could see a few sparse rows of goods on the shelves. He swallowed at the entrance, then slowly made his way inside.

At that moment, two men were clinking drinks inside the convenience store. One had a buzz cut and a blue dragon tattooed on his arm; the other was tall and thin, with a fresh scar on his face that pulled red whenever he smiled.

"You got superpowers too?"

The buzz-cut man gulped down some beer and belched. "Boss, you too? That's great!"

"Yeah." The tall, thin man shook the beer can in his hand. Foam spilled from the opening and dripped onto his trousers, but he paid it no mind.

"I've already registered as a player and racked up three points."

"That's our boss for you! I'm telling you, this is a real opportunity for us. No more prison, and with these powers, we'll be living the high life in no time."

The buzz-cut man laughed and raised his beer can, tapping it against the tall man's with a crisp metallic clink.

Both men were utterly lost in their drunken haze.

Just then, the convenience store door was pushed open. Its hinges gave a hoarse creak, and a boy walked in.

The beer can fell from the buzz-cut man's hand.

Beer dribbled from the corners of the tall man's mouth, ran down his chin, and dripped onto the table. Cold sweat seeped from his temples as instinctive terror instantly swept away his drunkenness.

With every step the boy took, the oppressive pressure of Cursed Energy spread farther. The two men, both possessing Cursed Energy, cast sidelong looks at the boy, who could only be described as a monster.

A dark shadow stirred behind him, its vast Cursed Energy glaring ferociously at them.

Both men swallowed. The buzz-cut man moved first, springing out of his chair, smashing through the window behind him, and tumbling outside.

Broken glass pierced his arm as he landed, spraying blood, but he scrambled up and kept running without looking back.

The tall man reacted right after him, cursing the bastard for stabbing him in the back so quickly. He charged toward the window too, and a large piece of his trouser leg was torn off by the broken glass as he climbed out.

That kid's a monster. Could a human really give off that kind of Cursed Energy? He's practically the same as those monsters downtown.

Their footsteps faded down the empty street.

The sound of shattering glass frightened the boy so badly that his legs buckled, and he ducked beside the counter. He huddled behind it for several minutes, only slowly standing once he was sure there were no more sounds nearby.

He walked up to the counter and glanced inside. The cash register was still lit, and its drawer stood half open, with a few coins inside.

He checked the prices on the shelves, then looked down at the coins he had taken from his pocket and carefully counted them on the counter.

"Just enough."

He placed the coins on the counter, took a loaf of bread from the shelf, tore open the packaging, and bit into it.

The bread was dry. It had been sitting there for who knew how many days and might already have expired. The crust was a little hard to chew.

But this was the first bite of food the boy had eaten in days, and the sound of his chewing was especially clear in the empty convenience store.

He ate quickly, his cheeks bulging with food as crumbs fell from the corners of his mouth.

Just as he was wolfing it down, a voice suddenly rang out in his head.

It was as though someone who had just awakened from a long sleep had spoken from the depths of his consciousness, their voice carrying a hint of amusement.

"You're an interesting little brat!"