Chapter 1: CH 1

Dusk.

The blood-red sunlight passed through the vines and fell from the mouth of the pit, illuminating a tile floor full of cracks and sand.

The middle-aged man shuddered and exhaled, clutched his half-severed left arm, and tried to swallow back a few groans. The blood blotted the dirty fabric close to black and it gradually pooled into a black and red lake making the tiles unviewable.

The large amount of adrenaline rush failed to give him the strength to stand up again.

The man raised his head vigorously, crossed the edge of the pit, and looked at the sky dyed orange by the setting sun.

Here, he could barely see the spires of the high-rise buildings not far away. There was no memory of neat floors and spire, and instead the geometric metallic luster was strangely rotated weirdly under the hard yet chilly warm sunlight.

This had ceased to be human territory for a long time.

His limbs began to get cold. The man coughed twice and tried to touch the hemostatic gel in his waist bag. Unfortunately, when he touched it, he found only a few energy tanks. He mechanically rubbed the cold jars; the rapid loss of blood blurred his vision, and the thing in front of him was mixed into a bloody red mass.

There was the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, and the scrapping sound of hard objects rubbing the ground was getting closer.

It was too late. After a long chase, that thing had finally caught him.

The man shook his sweaty hair on his forehead, tightened his cheeks, took out all the energy tanks in his pockets, and spread them out on his thighs. Then, trembling, he squeezed a grenade that was concealed in his chest pocket.

Besides the explosive, there was also an emergency food cannister.

It was the less than the size of the palm of his hand, and had a thin layer, a bit like a candy in a flat box in the old days. Every explorer in the refuge was given one. Unlike homemade weapons and energy tanks, these were precious relics before the destruction of human civilization— Delicious in taste, extremely high energy value; mixed with a sufficient amount of water, it was enough to last an adult an entire week.

But compared to food, everyone was more willing to use it as a kind of amulet. This was a forest. They could always get something to eat. Usually no one was extravagant enough to use such precious resources.

The food cannister he got was still carrying a bit of blood leftover from its previous owner, and now it would become a “relic” again.

The pain and weakness made his consciousness gradually hazy, and for some reason, he suddenly wanted to cry. He twitched his nose fiercely, but the man didn’t even look at it. He threw the small canister directly behind him, letting it rattle and roll into the depths of the ruins.

The ugly thing finally approached. The stench and damp breath came to his face. The man grinned weakly, tearing open the pin of the grenade with his teeth. He tossed the grenade next to the energy tank right after activation.

“Bah, neither one of us will get any food today.” He used his last strength to spit in front of him.

A scorching white light exploded, and the impact of the energy tank bursting almost collapsed the underground corridor not far away.

The vines at the entrance of the cave were instantly burned into ashes by the high heat, and the middle-aged man disappeared without a trace, leaving only a large black crater where he was— The human body at the center of the explosion was reduced to flesh and foam. The shapeless corpse of the monster was also scattered around the pit. Charred flesh showed many gray blood vessels on its fractures that was still slightly twitching.

The blast of wind frightened the nearby birds. After the smoke and dust dissipated, the last piece of debris laid firmly on the land. A few blackbirds fluttered their wings to come closer and began to peck at the flesh near the collapsed pit.

However, everything didn’t return to calm.

The faint sound of stone rumbling sounded again. The corridor that had collapsed shook and a metal container full of scratches and rust slid out from the rubble.

The mud-stained operating panel struggled and flickered a few times before finally going out. The explosion had activated something, and even with the dust covering it, the blue light path of the metal surface remained conspicuous.

The blackbirds stopped pecking and looked at the flashing metal object vigilantly.

The explosion and collision made multiple dents, and the tightly stitched lid was frighteningly twisted. Viscous liquid continued to gush out along the gap, like blood from a wound.

The liquid emitted a faint blue halo that didn’t penetrate the soil. It rolled over the debris and stone, meandering down, and gradually gathered into a depression.

It looked like drops of water falling on the lotus leaf, or mercury that scattered on the ground. After the final liquid flowed out of the metal container, it gathered into a flat circle with a diameter of less than two meters and a height of about half a meter on the dirty ceramic tile fragments.

The nearby blackbirds began to jump vigilantly, putting aside the minced meat in their mouths and were a few steps away from the ruins engulfed by the shadows.

Abnormal changes suddenly occurred.

It seemed that the color was condensing or hatching. The outer side of the huge “drops of water” gradually became transparent, and the color converged to the center of the liquid mass, becoming more turbid. Soon, with a crash, the entire liquid mass collapsed to the ground. The unnatural sound finally startled the blackbirds, who left only corpse residue that had been pecked.

When the last feather landed, the liquid was no longer viscous, and it didn’t penetrate the cracks of the ceramic tile, leaving behind only a condensed object lying in the center that was wet and surrounded by charred bones, shattered tissue fragments, and stone debris.

It was the body of a young man.

At first the body was motionless, like a corpse. A gust of wind swept over, and a few broken leaves stained the white skin causing it to shake.

Ruan Xian felt chilly.

His brain felt like it was mixed with cement that had solidified into a mass as he felt his head frighteningly heavy. The chill enveloped him in an instant, like having your blanket pulled off while experiencing a high fever. He could only cradle his arms tightly while groggy.

His naked skin rubbed against the rough stone debris, and he vaguely realized that something was wrong.

There wasn’t any soft fabric under him. He wasn’t in a bed. The wasn’t the smooth and hard floor of a laboratory. He had passed out several times in the lab before so he would never mistake it.

The first thing to recovered was his sense of smell. The dust rushed into his nose bringing in the scorching smell of the explosion that was so thick it almost suffocated him. The next moment, the wind blew across his damp skin causing the stone debris on his arm to rub against him. Countless senses smashed into his brain at the same time causing Ruan Xian to almost faint again.

Something was wrong.

Although his mind wasn’t very clear. He could be sure that this was definitely not a normal way of perception. His sense of smell and touch were countless times more sensitive, and his chaotic brain couldn’t process such a huge amount of information currently.

Ruan Xian didn’t dare to move. He tried his best to squeeze out a little bit of sanity from the overly amplified perception and carefully opened his eyes.

The light that sound have been soft almost blinded him.

The stimulated eyes gushed out tears forcing Ruan Xian to open his eyes wide until he adjusted to the bright light that hadn’t been seen for a long time. The scene in front of him changed for blurriness to clarity.

‘Perhaps too clear,’ he thought in a dazed.

When he saw the scene in front of him clearly, Ruan Xian would rather pass out again. In this way, when he wakes up, he might be able to return to his familiar bed. Even if it was a hospital bed and IV bottles in front of him, it was 10,000 times better than the scorched earth and corpse.

However, it was useless to close his eyes. The smoke and dust persistently penetrated his nostrils, and the sound of birds and the friction of leaves gradually became deafening, pinning his consciousness firmly in place. It seemed to be a warm dusk, but the wind blowing against his skin felt as if they were embedded with blades. Ruan Xian’s brain was sore from the pain, and he only felt that he had been put on a red-hot iron plate.

The touch was too real, not like a dream, let alone an illusion.

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Ruan Xian gritted his teeth and took in a breath. Whether it was still some scorching traces of explosion or corpses belong to unknown creatures, it seemed like this wasn’t a peaceful area.

It wasn’t safe here.

Although the confusion of waking up at the beginning was still there, this definitely wasn’t a good time to lie down and recall life. He had to find a place to hide himself first. Resisting the perception and pain that pressed down from all sides, Ruan Xian concentrated his energy and quickly judge the situation in front of him…

He was lying on the edge of a pit enlarged by an explosion. Not far from it was a semi-collapsed underground corridor. There were a number of fresh corpses and weird carapace fragments was scattered everywhere. Judging from the damage, this creature was likely to be the target of the explosion.

The explosion itself should have occurred not long ago as the charred land still emanated heat. The scale wasn’t small, but it was concentrated so the scope of the spread wasn’t large.

Ruan Xian took a breath and tried to contract his muscles. He jerked around trying to find a way to control his limbs. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t moved in so long, not to mention his legs that he hadn’t used for so many years, Ruan Xian spent a lot of effort just to regain control of his arms.

The feeling of his arms moving was like pulling a box of iron blocks with a string. The pain caused by the friction made him sweat almost immediately.

Ryan Xian knew his physical condition. His skin itself was fragile. If the wounds on his arm touched anything in this hellhole, the risk of infection was enough for him to roll over.

Unfortunately, he had no choice.

Ruan Xian subconsciously looked at the arm that had moved into his field of vision, but what caught his eye wasn’t the familiar dark red lesion, but a normal smooth skin.

This time, he became completely awake.

Living to this age, Ruan Xian had never seen such healthy skin grew on his body.

Unfortunately, in the face of the pie falling from the sky, Mr. Ruan didn’t have the opportunity to savor it. Not far away, something was whistling, sliding on the ground, and moving quickly in his direction.

The sound of friction pierced his skull through his overly keen hearing causing him to tremble.

Those who were coming were swaying through the grass. No matter what hellish kind of strange situation he was in right now, it was better survive first. There was a sense of desolation everywhere. It didn’t look like a place where people would pass by, so it wasn’t a good idea to shout for help blindly when an unknown party was approaching.

Regardless of the pain, Ruan Xian propped up his arms, gritted his teeth and crawled towards the half-collapsed underground corridor.

On his way while moving awkwardly, Ruan Xian tried to raise his head and his gaze swept roughly to the destination. A few falling concrete slabs propped up a half-person-high entrance, which looked stable. Unless a tap-dancing elephant suddenly fell from the sky, the structure should be enough to survive another small explosion.

As long as he didn’t venture too deep and just hid at the entrance of the cave for a while, it shouldn’t be a problem.

There was a small cracking sound from deep in the ground, which wasn’t normal, but considering his weight, range of motion, and the size of the cracking sound, it should still be okay.

The body that hadn’t exercised for a long time felt abnormally heavy. His muscles seemed to be stuffed with charcoal and sweat oozed out. After staying in a wheelchair for so long, he had long forgotten how to manipulate his legs and only his arms could barely exert a little strength, which made his pace not much faster than a snail.

What was approaching was obviously much faster.

A hoarse and unpleasant howl exploded not far away. Ruan Xian, who was still panting for breath, made a quick decision. He held his breath and stopped moving. The entrance of the cave used for refuge was still more than 20 meters away from him, so it was too late. For now, he could only lower his sense of existence first, then pray that the thing not far away didn’t have an ability to locate by temperature.

The monster that he had never seen before was wandering more than a hundred meters away, looking close to a giant queen ant that was dragging its monstrous abdomen. However, in front of the translucent abdomen that was more than one meter high was embedded with hermit crab like feet that resembled nothing like an “ant”. He couldn’t even find where the mouth of this alien was.

From this angle, he surmised that it was looking for corpses on the other side of the pit. The creepy chewing sound was regular and came from tangled steps. It ate slowly, as if it had no interest in Ruan Xian, who was pretending to be dead not far away.

Ruan Xian laid obediently on the spot. The edge of the broken tiles under him hurt his chest, but he didn’t dare move it.

His heart was beating frantically under his ribs and sweat kept sliding down his skin. Fear was like a barbed tongue, licking down his spine, leaving a string of ominous tingles. Not to mention his body was still unable to move normally, there wasn’t even a branch around him that could be used as a weapon.

Now he could only hope that uncle monster nearby could eat and drink enough as soon as possible, so it would be turned off from having itself a meal of fresh human flesh.

Unfortunately, things in the world never went according to plans. Uncle monster finished gnawing on the corpses around it and turned around a few times in the same place. Ruan Xian was just about to change his breath secretly, when without warning, the monster turned its head, drew back its strange feet, and jumped directly to him.

However, the expected pain came later.

As soon as the monster landed, a dull crash sounded immediately. Ruan Xian realized that he was falling, so he threw himself on his back into a deeper part of the ruins.

Another wave of severe pain hit, like a hammer had bashed into his brain, or his nerves was directly soaked in sulfuric acid. A small steel bar had pierced his side abdomen causing blood to gush out of the wound. Ruan Xian finally couldn’t hold back anymore and groaned lowly, making a few soft moans.

The opening of the collapsed hole wasn’t small. Sunlight poured down and the dust slowly floated from the beams of light.

Human bones were mixed with charred metal parts. Scattered on the ground were many weapons similar to guns. Pieces of rotting clothing were glued to mechanical stumps, piled up in piles, mostly covered with dust. There was metal poles that were tangled with wires that were rusted and slanted in rubbish heaps.

It was like a broken tombstone in a cemetery.

Ruan Xian tightened his body subconsciously and this action caused the steel bar to add more pressure to his abdomen. He was panting wildly, sweating in pain. Fortunately, the monster landed on its back. It was obviously overprotective of its soft belly and was waving its feet trying to get back up.

This was his chance.

He hurriedly stood up, taking a full two minutes to dislodge the steel bar. After getting rid of it, the tormenting pain was immediately replaced by a tingling, like a nest of ants that was having a carnival in his wound.

The monster was still writhing in place.

With a sigh of relief, Ruan Xian leaned on the nearest slate and tried to check the condition of the wound. The location the steel bar pierced was thankfully biased, and his important internal organs didn’t seem to be damage, but blood loss and infection would be a problem, so it was best to deal with it as soon as possible.

However, the wound that had just formed had disappeared at this moment.

The author has something to say:

Start of a new novel–·*·:≡(ε:)

Thank you all for your support! Super touched!!!

…I think my characters seems to have the tendency to be unlucky at the beginning…

Kinky Thoughts:

I really like this author ever since I started translating Stray, so I decided to pick up another work by her. This is a sci-fi/fantasy that’s set in a post-apocalyptic world. Hopefully you will like this novel as much as Stray, and for those who haven’t read Stray, I would strongly recommend you do.

You can read the summary and see if it piques your interest.

Updates will be every Friday for this series until I finish Stray.

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