Chapter 90: Hide and Seek
Su Hao cautiously observed his surroundings with vigilant eyes. He wouldn’t miss any movement; in fact, even small details couldn’t escape his vision, or rather, the scanning of Little Light.
However, Su Hao’s worries seemed to be unnecessary. He had been walking for quite a while, and nothing had happened. It was as if this small town truly had only him as its inhabitant.
In the dim light, Su Hao followed the wall slowly, feeling the thick calluses on his feet but unable to ward off the coldness from the ground.
Su Hao looked up at the night sky, where only a few stars could be seen. There was no moon; it was possible that this world had no moon at all, making the night pitch black.
“Pick up the pace, or when it’s completely dark, I won’t be able to see a thing, not even a piece of bread right in front of me!”
After walking for a while, Su Hao arrived at a house with a small courtyard. Suddenly, he heard faint noises coming from inside the house. He stopped to listen carefully but found that the sound had disappeared, leaving everything eerily quiet.
“Could there be someone inside?” Su Hao hesitated. He began to cautiously circle around the courtyard, hoping to sneak inside and find some food.
However, the wall proved too high for him.
Su Hao circled around and unexpectedly discovered a dog hole. It was small, only allowing children or small animals like cats and dogs to pass through. For an ordinary adult, it would be impossible to crawl through this opening.
Su Hao crouched down to give it a try, and surprisingly, it worked!
He slowly extended his head inside, wriggling like a maggot into the opening.
“No one here?” Su Hao crawled back out and began to observe the small courtyard.
The courtyard had some unidentified dried grass hanging to dry and a large dog tied to a hook on the wall. The dog kept retreating until it was cornered against the wall.
“A big dog?” Su Hao was startled, realizing that his small frame wouldn’t stand a chance against this large dog.
Su Hao instinctively thought about running, but he noticed that the dog seemed even more afraid than he was. What was it afraid of?
“Could it be a useless dog?” Su Hao watched for a while and confirmed that it was indeed a useless dog. Then he carefully tiptoed around the courtyard, searching for some food he could quietly sneak away with.
However, the courtyard’s walls were too high for him to climb.
Su Hao made a full circle and unexpectedly found a stack of firewood piled against a wall. It was an excellent hiding spot.
Su Hao immediately and cautiously moved aside some firewood, revealing a small space that could conceal him. He crawled inside, turned around with great difficulty, and used all his strength to close the small opening.
Su Hao lay quietly in the enclosed space, surrounded by a strong sense of security.
And it was warm! After eating, Su Hao’s body gradually regained strength. He could even feel his body recovering.
“Next, I’ll hide here for a while, wait until my body is fully adjusted, and then make plans.”
Soon, drowsiness overcame him, and Su Hao fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, as the day began to dawn, the entire city woke up completely, as if the silence of the night had been an illusion.
When Su Hao woke up, he still lay quietly behind the firewood stack, waiting for the owner of the courtyard to leave.
As for what the owner of the courtyard would think when they discovered the food missing, Su Hao couldn’t see that.
When the yard finally fell silent, and he couldn’t hold in his urge to pee any longer, Su Hao didn’t wait any longer. He pushed the firewood stack aside with force, crawled out, and sealed the opening. After a quick scan of the kitchen, he ate something and then left through the door.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
The owner of the yard was gone, but the tied-up useless dog started barking furiously as soon as it saw Su Hao coming out of the kitchen.
Su Hao ignored it and, while relieving himself, he realized something was amiss.
“What’s going on?” Su Hao instinctively raised his hand to carefully observe. Similar to a normal human, but with a darker skin tone, sharp nails resembling those of a cat.
After he finished, he quickly crawled out of the dog hole. As he stood up, he noticed that the people passing by on the street were all individuals with slightly dimmer skin tones, averaging a height of over seven feet, with well-proportioned bodies, and an agile appearance.
What set them apart from normal humans were their ears, which pointed upward like elves, with a tuft of white fluff at the tips, very beautiful, and their eye pupils were brownish-green, similar to those of feline animals.
Even the girls walking on the street had exceptionally tall and graceful figures, exquisite and beautiful faces, clear and captivating eyes, plus the adorable white fluff on their ears.
They were like otherworldly beauties. And it wasn’t just one; most of them were like this.
“A land of beauties!” Su Hao sighed in his heart.
Overall, they resembled a hybrid of trolls and elves, with the exquisite beauty of elves, the towering stature of trolls, and slightly darker skin, creating a harmonious and beautiful appearance.
A race that combined strength and aesthetics.
Su Hao reached up to touch his ears, which were pointed but without fur.
“Are these considered normal people? I guess so, just a bit different, but even more agile and beautiful…”
Last night, the light was dim, and he hadn’t had a chance to carefully observe his own appearance. Now he suddenly realized that he had become a species akin to the legendary elves, and he felt a sense of novelty.
Before Su Hao could further investigate his new body, a cart slowly passed by in front of him. On the cart was a large wooden barrel, with two hands and a foot sticking out from the edge of the barrel, still stained with blood. The key point was that these hands and feet were bare bones, as if they had been gnawed clean by some strange creature.
From their structure, these hands and feet undoubtedly belonged to the people of this world. However, many passersby seemed to take no notice of this, as if it were a common sight.
Su Hao furrowed his brows and watched the cart slowly disappear around the corner.
These bones looked very fresh; they must have met with an unfortunate fate last night.
But this was too exaggerated. If it was murder, why would someone strip the bones so clean? Were they butchering cattle and sheep?
Moreover, judging by the size of the wooden barrel, it held quite a number of bone frames.
What happened on this world’s nights? What had occurred last night?
Could it be that if you wandered around the small town at night, you would be devoured into bare bones by some terrifying creature the next day?
Su Hao contemplated for a moment, then shook his head. Hiding might not even work. If there were hunters preying at night, the competition would be about who could hide better.
“Maybe it’s a game of hide and seek! The whole town plays hide and seek together. Just thinking about it is exciting,” Su Hao thought for a while and stopped overthinking it.
As long as he hid during the night and didn’t venture outside, there shouldn’t be any major problems. There was so little meat on him that it wouldn’t even fill a gap between the teeth. Who would want to eat him?
Watching people coming and going on the street, each busy with their own activities, their faces filled with content smiles, Su Hao assumed that daytime was relatively safe. He decided to take this opportunity to explore and get to know this world, while also solving his three meals a day problem.
Su Hao made up his mind, going along with the flow. He would be active during the day and hide obediently at night.
Even if he wanted to do something reckless, he would wait until he became a Master Martial Artist and could use runes freely, gaining self-defense capabilities.
“Now, I’m short of startup capital. If I want to get my first pot of gold, I’ll have to either steal or beg… Life is tough!” Su Hao reduced his presence to the minimum, slowly wandering through this chaotic small town.
Su Hao, who hadn’t even mastered the language of this world yet, couldn’t fathom how a three-year-old street child like him could make a living.
Even begging might not work!
Su Hao couldn’t help but think about how he had never been this destitute before. Even in death, he had always maintained a relatively dignified existence…
