Feeling the chill that traveled up into his spine, the feeling of cold and hunger was the clearest feeling that Sigurd felt after opening up his eyes in this world. There are certainly other feelings such as confusion and fear, but the cold and hunger was the one who stood out the most.
While having his body shivering all over due to the cold, the young man named Sigurd was wearing thin and ragged clothes, his trembling body wrapped in a dirty rag, his hair was unkempt, his trembling body was curled up in a hole that are under a rather small bridge that was neither able to properly shelter him from the wind nor snow outside, with the sight of a desolate and simple european style houses can be seen in the distance.
However, Sigurd clearly remembered that just not too long ago he was merely an ordinary migrant worker living in a peaceful modern world, and yet, in less than a blink of the eyes, the entire world had changed, the already adult Sigurd suddenly turned into a young child with body no older than 10 years old.
While trying to warm himself up by rubbing his hands all over his body, the young man's mind began to go all over the place.
'Is this a dream? I recall from some website in the past that said few people actually were able to wake up inside their dream, but should the feeling that we received in the dream wouldn't be so real?'
Sigurd then took a short breath before quickly pinching his cheek as hard as he could. When blood starts to show, he stops, his suspicion starts to grow.
He squatted down to gather some heat, while his mind began to quickly work up to understand his situation better. After a while, he started to notice the similarity of his situation with some of the characters of a few fanfiction that he read a long time ago.
'Could I have just been transported into another world like in those stories i read quite a while ago? but I hadn't done anything bad or heinous in my life to make my arrival this dangerous, right?'
The feeling of cold water splashing up at his shoulder startled him up, Sigurd swirled his up above, only now realizing the various gaps on the bridge, gaps that are big enough to let a few trickles of cold water splashes down to anyone unlucky enough to be standing below it.
"Shit, I can't sleep here. With an empty stomach like this, there is a high chance i won't be waking up after taking a short nap."
While the situation that surrounded him is irrational and absurd, to survive, Sigurd must kept thinking logical and rational, no matter how dire his situation is, no matter what had happened to him, no matter who did it to him, his survival now takes priority over all else.
There is no food nor drink that can be found around the dirty and dilapidated small bridge hole, while the world outside the bridge hole was made from ice and snow.
Shrinking and waiting under the bridge would only shrink his chance of survival even further, while going outside right now also equally dangerous to him, the chance of survival would still be greater, since if gods allow it, he can met some nice people that can take him in for a while, or at least he can find some food or drink that can prolong his life.
Sigurd's body trembled due to the cold, and with great difficulty, got up, he staggered a few steps, and after getting used to walking with his weak, cold, and fragile body, decided to go out to look for a chance to survive in the outside world.
Wearing a pair of broken shoes with toes exposed on both sides, the moment his feet stepped on the cruel world filled to the brim with ice and snow, his whole body was assaulted with chills that penetrated deep into his bone marrow.
"Hiss..."
Sigurd couldn't help taking a deep breath in pain, and then took a decisive step forward, his time is scarce, so each second was more precious than the last, and the more he hesitated at doing anything, the less chance he could see the shining sun of tomorrow.
Before long, he finally made his way to the streets of the small town with great difficulty.
There were few pedestrians that were still walking on the street, most of them were wrapped in thick clothes and warm gloves.
Occasionally, some of the pedestrians would glance at Sigurd when he walked near them, they then would cast a look of pity or disgust at him, and then silently speed up their pace and leave, pretending to not see the dying child near them.
It seems that everyone's life is not easy, and no one has the leisure to care for what appears to be a little beggar such as Sigurd.
Looking at the recent pedestrians who speed walked and pretended to not see him, Sigurd let out a short sigh and began to think.
'Would mugging someone outside be safer than robbing them at their own house?'
In the face of survival, fragile things such as moral boundaries are something that few beings called humans would find difficult to cross.
However, the young man quickly noted that doing things that strains his body like mugging and robbing people's houses was something that his current weak and fragile body lacked the capability to do.
Hoooo~
A gust of cold wind mixed with flying snow blew past the young man, forcing Sigurd to tighten the thin rags that wrapped his body even further, but unfortunately, a thin piece of clothing that is filled to the brim with holes is something that isn't capable of resisting much of the cold.
'From the looks of it, begging for food is the only thing i can do for now'
Sigurd was so cold that even his teeth were like trying to shatter themself by clashing against each other regularly, but when he thought deeper about his chance of success by begging for food from the pedestrians around him, he let out a short sigh before discarding this idea.
It's not a question of whether he can pull a pitiful face off in front of hundreds of strangers or not, since things like pride and face are trivial things in front of survival, but the main reason was it doesn't matter at all in front of survival. The main reason is that in this environment, begging may not have much hope.
Sigurd gritted his teeth and tried his best to think and find a way out while walking—if he had no other choice, he could only try begging first.
Sa! Sa! Sa!
Suddenly, a movement that was different from other pedestrians came from the side.
Sigurd took a closer look and saw that it was a middle-aged man who was busy pushing a rather rundown car.
Looking at the middle aged man who is pushing the car, it seems the man has a tendency to hunchback while pushing his ride, and from the way the fatigue and impatience can be seen on the snow-stained face. This is an ordinary man whose edges and corners have been smoothed by life. But the point is, from the mouth of the brown paper bag he held in his arms, Sigurd saw a corner of black bread sticking out.
Sigurd took a quick look at the car, when out of the blue, a perfect three-dimensional model was constructed inside Sigurd's mind. A series of detailed information such as force analysis, transmission system, the structural disassembly, and the cause of the car failure are presented clearly in an instant.
Sigurd glanced at the snow field next to him, and his eyes focused on a stone with a suitable shape and a dead wood branch with a proper thickness. In another moment, a complete repair plan took shape in his mind.
'Hold on! Since when did I get so smart!?'
It only took a single gust of cold wind for him to disregard his surprise.
'It doesn't matter, for now, getting food takes precedence over anything.'
"Sir, please wait a moment!"
With such thought in mind, Sigurd stopped the man decisively.
The man who breathed out a big mouthful of mist paused for a moment, he then took a secret look at Sigurd whose whole thin body was shivering from the cold, and then looked at the food in his arms, hesitated for a moment, and shook his head.
"Sorry kid, I have no extra food, try your luck with another person."
The man suppressed the rising guilt in his heart, he's not hard-hearted, but rather really poor, he's so poor that even after working the whole day, the best he can buy was a few piece of bread for his wife and daughter, should he give in and gave the thin looking buy a piece of the bread in his hand, either his wife or him would need to fast just so their daughter can eat.
"I'm not here to beg for food, I'm here to do a quick job, I can fix your car!"
Sigurd tried to speak more confidently and calmly, to increase his persuasiveness, but due to the cold, the voice that came out was trembling greatly.
"Don't play around-"
"I'm not! My father used to do this! I grew up watching him repair cars every single days and are often help him when he's too busy with something, i know how that car works, i know how to fix it!"
"This..."
"Twenty minutes, no, ten minutes is enough! Give me ten minutes, and I can fix your car! In return, I only need two pieces of black bread! If in ten minutes I can't do it then you would suffer no loss, but if i did it, you would be able to arrive home sooner with just the price of two black bread, furthermore, you would be able to do your job more smoothly by using your newly fixed car, you would also save a considerate amount of money that you would usually need to fix your car, surely you can see that this is a very profitable business!"
Sigurd exhausted all his strength to speak fluently, which also exhausted the strength he had accumulated for a long time, so after speaking, he gasped for air while waiting quietly for the man in front of him to make a decision with some expectation.
The other party saw Sigurd's pitiful trembling body, his heart started to waver, but he still hesitated.
Looking at the man who started to cave in, Sigurd didn't miss the chance to strike while the iron was still hot.
"I'm just a child. What can I do badly in front of an adult like you? Please, I just want to change some food so that I won't starve to death today. I beg you, give me a chance! "
The man closed his eyes for a moment before with a heavy sigh, he gave Sigurd a nod.
"Fine, I agree, but be careful, I'll be very angry if you make my car worse."
While it's true that he would get mad should his car get worse, but that's pretty much it, he won't beat the kid or do anything worse than that.
'Should it come to worst, I still can apply for that pharmaceutical companies job offer to get some extra money to gather enough money to fix the car '
The middle-aged man suddenly felt distressed, a little worried that the situation would get worse.
"Okay, don't worry sir, I'm a professional at this!"
After saying so, Sigure walked close and quickly squatted beside the car, using nothing but a few stones, wooden branches, and hands that were red from the cold, he began the car repair work.
After a series of smooth and completely incomprehensible fiddling, as if he had performed a magic trick, Sigurd stood up and said:
"It's done, you can try to start the engine."
The man froze for a moment, looked at his car, quickly got inside, and just as the kid said, the car started without any problem, the man turned his head in disbelief to Sigurd and said with awe.
"It's fixed just like that?"
Sigurd nodded his head and replied.
"People who don't know medical skills would never be able to treat a man with a cold, even if they have all the things that they need, but a doctor only needs to give the sick man a few doses of medicine and tell him to rest a few days. It's the same with mechanics, those who didn't dwell on this wouldn't even know what to do even if they have the tools that can change into anything that they want, but those who know a lot can fix things like this in mere minutes. Now, can I please have the bread sir?"
The other party glanced at the bag in his arms, sighed, and handed the whole bag to Sigurd.
"There are six pieces of bread in the bag, just take all of it, you are more than deserving, i can just buy more in the way."
Seeing that, Sigurd let out a joyful smile and bowed his head, his voice full of gratitude.
"I should thank you for your generosity. Your trustworthiness and kindness today just saved my life. This is undoubtedly a virtue that needs to be praised by the whole world."
"Ahahahaha, that's too exaggerated! No matter what, you have to live a good life. Should you find no place that can shelter you, you can just live with my family, my house is in the third room on the corner over there, anyway, have a better day little one, see you around."
Having said that, the man went inside his car and went on his way.
And Sigurd, holding the bag of bread that was still slightly warm, picked up one and took a bite.
The bread was dry, astringent, and felt nothing more than a firewood.
But, to the young man who almost died of starvation, the taste of the black bread is something that is beyond comparison.
With gratitude to the unknown uncle, Sigurd ate half of the bread, and then with great perseverance stopped eating it. His current body is too weak, he could hurt his stomach by accident if he ate too much, he needs to eat the bread slowly to let his stomach digest and adapt to it completely.
"Sigh"
Sigurd let out a long sigh, tightly hugged the paper bag in his arms, and used the warmth from the bread to increase the temperature of his freezing body.
After this, he has to go back to the bridge hole, while is not an ideal place to live, but at least it can cover his sleeping figure from the cold snow.
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