This is a vast expanse of ruins, where sturdy buildings are now mostly reduced to fractured walls, and broken stones litter the ground. Green moss crawls up the walls, serving as a reminder of the absurdity of the post-apocalyptic world in which they exist as irreparable scars.
In a relatively open space, the sound of striking rocks echoes through the air. The scattered stones on the ground have been manually cleared, leaving a large area for movement.
A green-haired teenage boy holds a steel pipe that seems out of place in his hands and swings it from above. He doesn't swing the pipe aimlessly, but instead combines his movements with the direction of his steps, making his strikes more powerful despite his seemingly weak physique.
The sun is already high in the sky, and the sweat on his forehead shows that he has been practicing for quite some time. His thin shirt is damp with sweat, and the muscles underneath are beginning to take shape.
After another powerful strike, the sweat on his forehead flies into his eyes. He releases his left hand and rubs his eyes with the back of his clean hand, squinting at the sun. He mutters to himself, "It's about time to go back."
He puts the steel pipe in his left hand and walks towards two adjacent broken walls, where a wooden pole with some dried meat hanging on it has been placed under the sun to dry.
The boy took down a wooden pole and held it in his right hand, walking and jumping towards a direction among the ruins. After a while, he saw a slightly damaged but still usable asphalt road. He followed the road to a relatively intact house, where he put down the steel pole and raised his hand to knock on the door. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something, pushed the door and it opened directly. A helpless expression appeared on his face as he picked up the pole and entered the house, shouting, "Dad, you never close the door. Any smart thief can come and steal things from the front room."
"Shut up, Kevin. No thief dares to come and steal things with me inside," replied the middle-aged Asian man who was standing behind a door made of some kind of animal fur next to a small wooden table. He was over 1.8 meters tall and had a strong build. Hanging on the wall were various tools, including an iron axe, an iron sword, a small round shield, and a steel pole that looked similar to the one Kevin was holding but had been modified from its original shape.
"The skinny thieves can't possibly have the strength to move my 'good buddy,' right?" The middle-aged man patted the weapons on the wall with confidence in his voice.
"Yeah, yeah, but your 'good buddy' hasn't brought us any supplies for days. Is it really so good that someone will come to trade for it?" Kevin replied sarcastically. He then walked to a room behind two curtains while holding some dried meat. The room had two beds, three wooden chairs, and a stove.
"Don't say that. It's just that we haven't needed them yet. When the time comes, many people will trade good meat for them. Besides, don't I still have my 'good son'?" The man heard his son's dissatisfaction and came into the room, winking at Kevin.
"OKOK, but before the good meat arrives, I think we can only eat these dried meat sparingly. How do you say it in your hometown? La rou? Is that right?" Kevin cut off a tenth of the meat, then chopped the small amount of meat into pieces and sprinkled it into the boiling rice porridge on the stove.
After a while, the rice porridge boiled, and Kevin took out two iron lunch boxes from the side and filled them with rice porridge. He brought them to the front room, where he saw the man already sitting at the small wooden table. They chatted casually while eating lunch.
"Dad, I'm telling you again, when you're not in the front room, make sure to lock the door. Recently, I heard from someone at the church that there have been a lot of thefts around here."
"All the stuff I hung up are genuine items. It's not easy to move them. Plus, I'm only one room away. How could I not notice if someone came to steal?"
"You never know. Father Daniel didn't realize he had lost his bedding until someone stole it from him. Frank even lost his beloved refrigerator, and he was furious yesterday afternoon."
"Really? Frank lost the things he always brags about? Then, it seems that the thief has some special skills. I should be more careful." The man finally took this matter seriously and rubbed his chin, seemingly deep in thought.
"I'm done eating." Kevin put down the lunch box and prepared to take it outside to wash it.
"Are you still going to help at the church this afternoon?"
"Yeah."
"So, are you sure you want to choose the career of a priest? You've been exercising with me since you were a kid, don't you want to become a warrior and gain even stronger power?" The man asked Kevin earnestly.
"Didn't you always tell me that I must be able to protect myself? In this world, I dare not entrust my life to others. If I become a priest, I can heal and take care of myself. As for physical fitness, I can train on my own." Kevin replied without even looking back.
"Okay, you have your own clear opinion. Just wipe off your sweat and take a rest inside for a while. The church won't be open until the afternoon." "Okay," Kevin walked into the inner room and lay on the bed. The small bed, which used to seem spacious to him as a child, now felt cramped as he grew up. The family's meat supply was running low, with only about ten days left, and his father's weapons had not been exchanged for supplies yet. Kevin was about to awaken his profession and could go hunting for weaker monsters outside the city, but he couldn't do it alone... The morning practice had consumed a lot of his energy, and with his mind in turmoil, Kevin fell asleep.