She carefully lifted the tattered fabric covering the infant and confirmed that it was a baby girl who had fallen from the sky.
After a moment's thought, Mei had already decided on a name— Ayla.
The name comes from an ancient Terra word meaning bronze, the first metal tamed by human civilization.
On the forgotten wasteland planet Vedtal, danger and death are everywhere. She simply prays that this child can live on as resiliently as bronze, enduring corrosion and hammering without breaking.
There are no fancy meanings, just the most sincere hopes of a scavenger who has endured a lot of hardship.
Holding the swaddled baby, Mei hurried back to her settlement, traversing the wasteland littered with metal fragments and weathered rocks.
This was just a makeshift shelter where more than fifty desperate scavengers huddled together for warmth.
Several makeshift shacks made of scrap metal were crammed into the depressions of the massive shipwreck, with rusted steel plates piled up outside as a defensive barrier. Generators hummed and whirred, barely maintaining the most basic lighting and heating.
When May stepped into the camp carrying the baby, the news spread quickly.
For these scavengers who had long been accustomed to death, Mei having another daughter was a rare and joyous occasion.
People crowded around, peering in, a long-lost gentleness appearing on their rough faces. Someone handed over a scrap of cloth, someone else took out half a dry, hard starch cake, and they all offered their meager blessings.
Mei looked down at the tiny Ayla in her arms, her heart filled with no other desires but the hope that she would grow up safely and peacefully.
Reality soon presented a challenge.
Mei was already forty years old, and her body was no longer young; she had no breast milk at all.
They searched the entire settlement thoroughly but couldn't find any women who were breastfeeding.
To May's surprise, Ayla was surprisingly easy to care for.
Mix the compressed starch canned food with water to make a thick paste, and feed it to the little guy. He eats it with great relish, his sapphire-like eyes squinting, looking very satisfied.
This truly delighted Mei.
But trouble ensued, as Ayla's appetite was astonishing.
May had already saved two-thirds of her food ration for the children, but Ayla still often looked like she wasn't full. The enormous need for food resulted in an unbelievable growth rate.
In just one month, Ayla was able to walk steadily upright and stagger back and forth between the metal sheds.
In less than half a year, she had grown to a full 1.2 meters tall, and her figure was almost indistinguishable from that of a five or six-year-old human girl.
But their appearance is far more outstanding.
Her long, smooth, jet-black hair cascaded down like silk, and she had bright, amethyst-like eyes and fair, delicate skin, as exquisite as a meticulously crafted porcelain doll.
In a wasteland filled with filth, scars, and ragged clothes, such an excessively beautiful child was simply too conspicuous.
Rumors and gossip quietly spread among the shacks.
Some whispered around the campfire that Ayla was the daughter of a demon, a seed of calamity cast down from the Warp, destined to bring destruction and disaster to Vedtal sooner or later.
Suspicion lurked in the shadows spread far and wide, and panic quietly began to creep into small communities.
But May's attitude was extremely firm after learning of these rumors.
If she overheard someone gossiping behind her back, she would go directly to their door, stand in front of their simple shack, and sternly question them about their right to maliciously slander a young girl who didn't even know what was going on.
"Every bite of food she eats is taken from my own portion; she hasn't touched a single piece of your canned food!"
Mei's voice echoed through the camp as her calloused hands rested on the rusty hilt of her hunting knife at her waist.
"If I hear another word of slander against Ayla, I'll cut your tongue out myself!"
Mei is one of the most senior scavengers in this wasteland. She used to be a sheriff in the now-destroyed Black Iron City and is highly respected in the settlement.
After a strong statement, the public gossip was finally suppressed, and no one dared to criticize Ayla in public anymore.
However, the enormous appetite resulting from children's rapid growth remains an unavoidable practical problem.
Despite her deep reluctance, Mei had no choice but to make the decision to take Ayla with her on her scavenging trip.
Scavenging is a way of life for more than 90% of the inhabitants of the planet Vedtal.
This planet was trapped within the isolation of the Cage Star System long before the Great Rift tore the Milky Way apart.
Aside from the occasional Chaos Pirate who intrudes, there are almost no visitors from other parts of the galaxy. Even the Imperium's Tithe have long forgotten about this abandoned star system.
Fortunately, this area was once a vast Industrial World, with the ground covered with the ruins of abandoned factories.
In addition, several fierce interstellar naval battles resulted in the wreckage of countless warships falling onto planets, forming endless giant junkyards on the earth.
The remaining inhabitants of Vedtal spent their days scavenging through the metal ruins, picking up usable parts and supplies to exchange for food and water to survive.
May didn't expect young Ayla to actually dig up much valuable material.
The little girl had fair and delicate skin and looked frail.
She took Ayla out mainly because she didn't want to leave her alone at the camp, fearing that malicious intent might harm the child while she was away.
I just hope Ayla stays close behind and doesn't get lost in the vast ocean of trash.
But reality soon shattered all of May's expectations; Ayla's displayed talent shocked him beyond measure.
The little girl displayed both extraordinary insight and an astonishing ability to learn.
Mei only gave a brief verbal explanation of how to distinguish various parts and materials and their corresponding values, Ayla memorized it perfectly.
Walking through a vast sea of garbage, piled high with scrap metal, broken circuit boards, and rusted components.
She could always spot valuable items at a glance, picking out the best materials from countless useless scraps.
Moreover, her physical functions and reaction speed far surpass those of ordinary human children.
While scavenging, a giant, two-meter-long radiated cockroach suddenly sprang out from under a rusted steel plate, its limbs flailing and its mouthparts dripping with corrosive slime, and pounced straight at Ayla.
Mei didn't even have time to raise her gun and fire.
Ayla deftly sidestepped and nimbly dodged the cockroach's attack, then bent down, grabbed a sharp-edged metal fragment from the ground, and swung it out with all her might.
With a flash of cold light, the sharp metal piece precisely struck the weakest point on the body of the radiated cockroach.
With a soft thud, the enormous insect body crashed heavily onto the ruins, twitched a few times, and then lay still.
Mei stood there, Daidai, her breath catching in her throat.
The girl who carried out the kill was less than a year old.