Chapter: 264
“Nothing ever fills me up. And this damn mutt, maybe it’s just too skinny, but it’s tough as hell to chew. Or maybe it’s just its nasty personality.”
The drunkard grumbled while carelessly tossing the pin he was using to pick his teeth onto the floor.
The girl dazedly approached the pin that had fallen to the ground and picked it up.
She compared the ragged flower, drenched from the rain, to the one attached to her own clothes.
There was no way she could be mistaken.
Looking again, it was the same decoration that had been on Myang’s necklace.
And gradually, the girl began to notice the things around her.
Small bone fragments piled up next to where the drunkard was sitting.
Bloodstains mixed with black fur left on the floor.
Ah, a sigh escaped the girl’s lips.
The happiness that had filled her chest disappeared without a trace, leaving a hollow feeling behind.
Emptiness.
With warmth gone, the blood throughout her body grew cold.
The emptiness led to a terrible hunger, and the girl screamed at the feeling of starvation she had never experienced before.
“Ah… Aahhhhh!!!!!!”
“Damn it, what’s wrong with this crazy beggar?!”
The girl let out a scream that echoed as she rushed towards the drunkard.
The drunkard appeared briefly surprised, but soon easily overpowered the girl, throwing her to the ground and stomping on her.
“Hey, you beggar. Did you eat something bad? What’s going on all of a sudden?”
“Y-you bastard!!! Myang…! Myaaaah!!!!”
“What the hell is Myang… Wait a second, ah, hehehe, was that mutt your emergency ration?”
When the subdued girl screamed, the drunkard, who had been looking at her for a moment, seemed to notice the flower accessory she was gripping tightly in her hand was the same as the one on her clothes and sneered.
“If it was yours, you should’ve taken better care of it. You should’ve eaten it before me.”
“Myang isn’t for eating…! He’s my family…!!!”
“Family, whatever. Seems to run in the blood, huh? That rotten mutt. I was pissed off after losing a bet, so I kicked some nearby trash and that thing came out of nowhere, barking like an idiot, trying to bite me. So I kicked it a few times, and it died. I needed a snack, so I roasted it, but if I had known it was yours, I might’ve left a piece.”
“Aaaahhh!!!!”
Fuming at the drunkard’s laughter, the girl thrashed about.
And the drunkard, with a sneer, swung at the girl, his bloodshot eyes staring at her as if finding it ridiculous.
“Why, you mad? Don’t take it so seriously. You’ll find out that this is just the way life goes.”
Just the way it is? Life just works like that?
When the girl glared at the drunkard’s words, he burst into laughter.
“It’s survival of the fittest, survival of the fittest. That’s how this world runs.”
Survival of the fittest, where the weak get eaten by the strong.
The drunkard grabbed the girl by the neck, bringing his face close to hers, as if to explain this truth.
“Why did that mutt get eaten by me? Because it was weaker. Why are you getting beaten by me right now? It’s because you’re weaker. Do you understand? The weak just have to accept everything the strong do as normal! That’s why I ended up in this shithole, all because some noble had it in for me! Damn it! What’s so wrong with spending some money on gambling? I just had to win it back!”
The drunkard shouted in frustration.
It was a city that lived up to the name “City of the Defeated,” where the weak gathered after losing to the strong.
Even within this city, there were divisions between the strong and weak.
And once, the drunkard had been one of the strong.
He couldn’t live with the justification that he was weak, so according to the principle of survival of the fittest, he had stolen many things from those weaker than him.
Money, food, and even lives.
And then he would say it was only natural.
“Natural…?”
Hearing the drunkard’s words, the girl mumbled in disbelief.
Is it right for the strong to do anything they want to the weak?
How hard was it for her and Myang to earn their happiness, only for it to be taken and trampled upon, and for that to be seen as natural?
Who the hell do you think you are?
What right do you have?
“Ah…”
The girl simply couldn’t accept it.
But no matter what she did, Myang would never return.
Warmth lost, happiness lost, and family lost, the girl had nothing left.
For her, the pain was hunger.
The agony that felt like her heart was being torn apart, and the emptiness that swept through her entire body.
All of it became hunger for the girl.
The rain pouring from the sky turned into her tears.
The hunger was the color of emptiness, and the tears flowing from her eyes were black.
Thus, the girl helplessly whimpered.
“I’m so hungry…”
The girl was so hungry.
Hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry.
The girl decided to fill this hunger with food.
Survival of the fittest.
The strong eat the weak.
That’s just how it is supposed to be.
“AHHHH?!! My, my nose…!”
So without hesitation.
The girl lunged forward and bit down hard on the drunkard’s nose.
Blood gushed out, and the drunkard screamed.
Of course, the drunkard didn’t let it slide, not when a girl suddenly bit him.
“You, fucking bitch!!!”
The drunkard swung his full force at the girl’s face.
With a crack, the sound echoed as the strength of his blow completely twisted the girl’s neck to the other side.
Convinced that her neck was completely broken, the drunkard assured himself of her death.
However,
“Hii, hiiick?!”
With a crack, crack.
The girl’s neck slowly returned to its original position, making a sound.
The drunkard was taken aback by the phenomenon and instinctively threw a punch at the girl.
And the girl, receiving that punch with her head, grabbed the drunkard’s right arm, blood dripping from her mouth.
With a crunch.
“Gaaahhhh!!!”
Humans are surprisingly sturdy.
Of course, if one tries to bite off a whole limb, their teeth will break, and their jaw will get dislocated.
Crunch, crunch.
“Guhhh!!! This, this monster!”
Yet, the girl gnawed at the drunkard’s arm without caring that her mouth was in tatters.
Extracting broken teeth, patching her broken jaw.
She bit and chewed through the man’s skin, muscles, and bones with a crunch, crunch.
The pain from the process meant nothing.
After all, the girl was already suffering from an insatiable hunger.
“P-please! I’ll apologize…!! Haahhh!!!”
Thus, the right arm down to the left arm.
Screams continued.
“Ah, aaaaah…”
Next, the left leg and right leg.
Around that point, the screams faded away.
A little while later, the alley was left with nothing but the puddles of blood from the drunkard.
“…”
The girl, having devoured the drunkard whole, stood there in a daze before picking up the tattered flower accessory that lay on the ground.
She gazed at the flower ornament for a moment and thought.
It was strange.
Despite having eaten until she felt as if her stomach would burst, the hunger did not fade.
Was it because Myang was gone?
Looking up at the sky.
Perhaps because Myang was gone, the sky and the clouds did not look beautiful at all.
Myang, where are you? Myang.
Don’t leave me all alone.
Stay with me.
The girl rummaged through the ground, chewing and swallowing what was likely a bone fragment left behind by Myang.
She wasn’t done; she even swallowed the ragged flower accessory that Myang had.
But still, still.
“I’m so hungry…”
The emptiness, it wouldn’t fill.
This dreadful hunger wouldn’t stop.
“I’m so hungry…”
If she’s hungry, the only way to solve it is to eat.
And so, the girl wandered to find something to eat.
Naturally, her steps led her to the most accessible place for food—the trash bin behind the restaurant.
“I’m so hungry…”
The girl mumbled as she opened the trash bin, sticking her head inside.
And she munched away, not caring about what was inside.
But it was strange.
Her stomach wasn’t getting full at all.
So, while muttering that she was hungry, she emptied the trash bin whole.
At that moment, someone grabbed her by the back of the neck and lifted her up.
“…This beggar bitch is still alive.”
It was the restaurant owner.
“Alright, let’s finish this today. You’re dead today, scream it out.”
The restaurant owner muttered as he pulled out a club from somewhere.
And then, whack, he brought it down on the girl.
“…”
The girl, hit by the club, bled black tears, looking directly at the restaurant owner.
“What, what is this… her eyes…”
And thinking of the girl standing there intact despite the blow, the restaurant owner froze in shock.
Good, perfect timing.
I was starving anyway.
Crunch, crunch.
“…”
In the alley where the restaurant was located.
On the floor soaked in puddles of blood, the girl thought.
It was strange.
Even after eating this much, she was still hungry.
“I’m hungry.”
She was hungry.
Food was needed.
“I’m hu■gry.”
Hungry, hungry.
Where’s the food?
Ah, thinking about it, there’s no need to worry.
“There’s food out there.”
There’s still plenty left outside.
The girl turned her body toward the alley exit.
The girl had already been stained a dark hue with the color of hunger.
264th – ██████
Thus, in a small town located at the edge of the continent,
a catastrophe that would swallow 70% of the world was born.
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