In the city of the glowing light, Obsidian City. Under the surface of the prosperous, unobtrusive alley, a pair of ice-cold eyes watching the street. From that day, the day darkness enveloped the world, heavy snow made it almost impossible to see the road ahead, and it has been snowing for three days straight. The entire Obsidian City was buried by the snow. The same cold that pierced the soul was permeating this world…
"They'll die..."
The pitch-black figure huddled in the alley hugged the ragged clothes on his body, which was his only solace amid the heavy snow. Icy eyes gazed at those lining up to buy food in the distance, a glimmer of longing in his eyes. In the past, he might have been able to survive in this bustling city by stealing and by some small means, but not today. He could not even afford a meal worth the gold coin.
Now a steamed bun can only be exchanged for a gold coin. If it was the old days, a gold coin could buy thousands of steamed buns.
But among the rumors in the streets and alleys, the moment the demons invaded the world, humans were imprisoned in the glorious city, and stepping into the wild was no different from walking into death row.
But why was this city not in a crisis?
He gazed coldly at a teenager of his age in the crowd, probably the child of some wealthy merchant, exchanging a bag of gold coins for some food to fill his stomach. As a rich man, he was completely unaware of how dangerous a situation he was in. There was no adult around him...he might just become another corpse lying in the gutter.
He curled up in the shadow of the alley and made up his mind. He clenched the rusty dagger in his hand. Unable to resist the temptation of food, he was about to stand up. But then…
"What are you going to do?"
The teenager who seemed to show off how wealthy he was to the ordinary people was suddenly surrounded by a group of ragged and terrifying big men. Seeing this situation, everyone around chose to ignore it.
After all, no one wanted to be the first bird...
The prey... was being watched by another hunter, and he unwillingly watched the boy dragged into the alley by the big guys. All of the courage that he had mustered at the last second, gone in an instant, he fell heavily to the ground.
The hunger, the cold, made him nearly collapse...
This is harder than ever. The feeling of the soul being frozen is not at all pleasant. Consciousness gradually began to blur.
Until... The scent of food broke into his sense of smell.
'Food?'
He snapped his already dazed eyes wide open and raised his head to find a white steamed bun in front of him, emitting its enticing scent. But as a sewer rat, he did not immediately pounce on it. Instead, he raised his head to look at the person holding this steamed bun ...
"So beautiful..." He opened his mouth while staying motionless.
For him, who hasn't read a book for even a day. He could only describe people with just a few words. But the man in front of him didn't seem abrupt when he used this word.
"Are you hungry?" The figure said with the tone of voice that made people want to sink into it.
For a moment, it put his brain into a pause. He swallowed his saliva, nodded, then stared unapologetically straight at the steamed bun and expressed what he wanted without any concealment.
"Here you go..."
The steamed bun was placed against his face.
"Are you from the charity?"
He understood the behavior of rich people, flaunting their wealth by giving food or some money to the poor. But no matter what matters the most was this food could keep him alive! So he did not hesitate and snatched the enticing food that was presented in front of his face and seized the thing that could let him live. Then there was some timid look looking at the man.
"Do not rush. First of all, I am not from a charity. I will not give anything to anyone." The smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, the only thing that makes people feel warm in this cold winter.
"What...do you want me to do? Kill who?" He tightly kept the food in his hand, his icy eyes locked with the flash of scarlet. It wasn't the first time he had done something like this, and to the young man, the usual people wouldn't care about this one little beggar, which was the perfect identity to be a killer! Be hired for a small insignificant price, kill, escape ... was the intention of hiring this kind of people.
"No, I am not asking you to kill anyone, but..." A white finger up pointed at his forehead, "I want your last name!"
He was almost subconsciously about to pull out his own dagger and stab the man in the heart, but… He couldn't move! His whole body trembled, and he found himself unable to move at all with that scarlet gaze.
'Who?'
'Could it be a professional assassin?'
Great fear gripped his heart. But this fear dissipated in a moment, and he calmed down. The steamed bun was still hot in his hand.
"You are very hungry, right? Very eager to eat, right?"
He nodded.
"Then give me your last name, and I will feed you until you're full, never hungry, and provide you with an inexhaustible supply of food."
Temptation.
A deal almost as enticing as the deal with the devil.
'What does he want from me? Trying to make me a slave?'
That's all he could think of, but so what, freedom?
'What does it matter if I could be free but then die from starvation?'
He nodded again in exchange for the man's pleasant smile.
"Eat, give me your last name, and then you will never feel hungry."
As he nibbled on the food that made his mouth water, he asked out loud, "Your name?"
Whether it's a good people or a master, you always need to know the other person's name, right?
The smile remained the same.
"You can call me Lucius."
'Lucius?'
After he recited this name in his heart, he did not have any hesitation in gulping down the steamed bun in his hand.
.........
Lucius looked at the young beggar of 13 or 14 years old. He still gnawed on those steamed buns. He was definitely hungry for a long time. Obsidian City supplies were limited. After the devil descended, the entire world's temperature was falling. Some places have even fallen below freezing point; the snow was almost the same weather as day.
So, in this case, food was particularly important.
And human life...
It seemed like even a gold coin is not worth it.
"Are you full?" Lucius gazed at the little beggar, his cheeks puffed out, and shook his head.
One could never be satisfied.
Just when he was excitedly chewing the food that could sustain his life, a power that didn't belong to him suddenly raged wildly from his body and spread all over his body! The little beggar fell to the ground, veins popped out of his forehead, he clenched his fists, vomiting the food he just ate out of his mouth, at this time, his teeth could no longer be called human teeth, sharp fangs, his thin body also became taller with speed visible to the naked eye. Scarlet muscle tissue spread across his body, and sharp barbs kept growing out of him, no, or rather its body in a piercing manner.
"UAAAAHHHH!"
With a raging hiss, another human, also known as the infected body, favored by the black light virus, appeared in front of Lucius. It did not attack Lucius because the virus mother, Yuri, controlled him. Lucius could even feel the emotions transmitted from it.
'Hungryy….'
"The stomach... is still hungry, right?" Lucius slightly turned sideways, glanced at the street because the appearance and the scream of this monster alerted people, and those people panicked. Lucius pointed to those fleeing humans: "I promised to provide you with an inexhaustible supply of food. Eat until you are full!"
The infected body seemed to understand Lucius's words. He roared, ancient dragon-like feet crushed the ground, charged in towards the group of fleeing humans, waved his sharp claws, after which the human caught one by one crushed and turned into his own food.
"One gold coin for one steamed bun." Lucius played with the gold coin in his hand, "Human life is also the same in this world, huh?"
Lucius looked up at the foggy sky. He could hear the sound of monsters hissing, and human screams of terror reverberated throughout the city.
"In this world, there is no place that is absolutely safe."
Lucius's figure concealed into the darkness, the city's blizzard blew even bigger, scarlet snow drifted down.