Chapter 8: The Only Hope

“Is that the Red Snail Camp over there?” Liu Hen gazed at the faint glow several thousand meters away, his heart stirring with excitement.

Finally, he had arrived!

Traveling through utter darkness without any light source, fully aware of the lurking monsters, was nerve-wracking. Even after more than a day of adaptation, he remained on edge, constantly fearing an encounter with an overwhelming creature.

Thankfully, he had made it without incident.

Reaching this place meant he could exchange for food, no longer having to endure relentless hunger.

Having drunk too much water earlier, nature called urgently. He had to relieve himself on the spot, expelling the filtered water that contained almost no nutrients his body could absorb.

Afterward, he pressed on.

According to the original owner’s memory, the Red Snail Camp’s main base was inside a stone mountain, likely hollowed out within. That was merely speculation, as outsiders could never see what lay inside the camp.

The only visible area to the wastelanders was the camp’s trading ground.

Ordinary wastelanders couldn’t even enter this trading area; they had to buy tree cakes right at the entrance.

From the original owner’s recollections, the camp residents felt a mixture of love and hate toward the wastelanders, but mostly disdain.

The camp relied on wastelanders to source various supplies for trade, essentially obtaining goods at near zero cost.

However, wastelanders were indiscriminate eaters, leaving no vegetation alive in their wake.

Indeed, there was no grass around here at all; all the adapted dark grasses had been dug up and eaten.

Many trees had their bark nibbled off as soon as it sprouted, and the twisted, stunted trees stood bare and desolate.

Only the poisonous trees remained untouched.

Moreover, wastelanders ate anything, grew large, rarely bathed, and carried many bacteria, emitting a foul stench that repelled the camp residents and made them reluctant to interact.

“I wonder what the Eternal Night World really is… Did this world ever have a sun?” Liu Hen pondered silently.

Unfortunately, the original owner’s memories held no clue. Ever since he could remember, the world had been cloaked in darkness, and the Red Snail Camp had already existed.

Suddenly, two figures appeared in his sight.

With midnight returning, visibility dropped again to about ten meters.

Wastelanders always tread lightly, so by the time Liu Hen noticed them, they were only ten meters apart.

A chill ran through him as he watched them warily, ready to hurl a chunk of iron ore at any moment.

The two wastelanders eyed him cautiously as well, not underestimating him despite his solitary presence.

With visibility so limited, no one knew if a larger group lurked further beyond.

The standoff lasted a few seconds before both parties retreated out of each other’s sight and continued on separately without further disturbance.

In this region, killings and robberies were common. Most people coming here carried supplies to trade for food, and those leaving often had some food on them.

Therefore, Liu Hen remained tense, every nerve taut.

When he came within two thousand meters, he spotted inhabited caves.

Lights glowed inside, visible even from afar, with at least a dozen people inside. According to the original owner’s memory, these residents carried pistols and other firearms, deterring any who might covet their possessions.

Caves appeared every hundred meters or so.

The inhabitants seemed to survive by raising poisonous creatures that could only live on the surface, trading these for food with the Red Snail Camp.

Unfortunately, this breeding technique was rare and difficult to master.

“Maybe I could also dig a cave nearby to live in… though that depends on how my special abilities develop,” Liu Hen thought to himself.

At last, he reached the Red Snail Camp.

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The first thing he saw was a thick wall towering ten meters high.

The wall curved gracefully, stretching over five hundred meters, completely blocking the sheer cliff of the mountain before him. The enclosed area was roughly three hundred meters in length and width.

Inside, the camp wasn’t brightly lit but had enough illumination to be far less dark than outside.

Night lamps with strong brightness adorned the wall’s top, likely to spot any invading monsters or dangers promptly.

Beneath the wall lay a scattered group of a dozen or so wastelanders—alive, but the dead had long been dragged away and discarded.

These wastelanders were either as frail as children, actual children, or disabled. Each was as thin as a walking skeleton.

Most wore no clothes, either robbed or traded away in exchange for food, surviving the bitter cold only through sheer tenacity.

They were people unable to survive on their own in the world of night mist, too afraid to stray far from the camp’s walls, fearing they’d be caught and eaten by starving wastelanders gone mad.

Because of physical impairments, other wastelanders rejected them, leaving them to wait for death by starvation or to rely solely on self-supply.

But self-supply had diminishing returns; sooner or later, demand would outpace supply, and that would be their end.

Thanks to the light shining down from the wall, Liu Hen noticed the two wastelanders he’d seen earlier.

One was a man, the other a woman, their faces too dirty to discern features or even approximate age—only their silhouettes revealed their genders.

As they neared the wall, a scrawny little girl, no more than seven or eight years old and naked as a skeleton, knelt and approached. At five meters away, she stopped and pleaded, “Please give me some food…”

“Get lost!” the pair snapped, threatening to strike.

The little girl hurriedly knelt away, but hesitated when she saw Liu Hen, seeming to want to plead again.

Liu Hen quickened his pace and passed by her.

“Sigh…” he sighed inwardly, newly arrived as he was, finding such scenes hard to witness.

Yet he himself was barely surviving and forced himself to be cold-hearted.

Perhaps sensing someone approaching, a small side gate in the camp’s wall slowly opened, and an elderly man wrapped in tattered, thick clothes stepped out, expressionless as he looked at the three of them.

“What are you trading?” he asked flatly.

The two in front hurriedly produced a blood-red wooden block, asking how much food it could fetch.

Liu Hen keenly noticed the old man’s eyes brighten briefly upon seeing the block but then quickly calm.

“Fragments of ghost locust wood, barely that big. You can barely get three jin of tree cakes for it,” the man said neutrally.

“Only three jin?” The two frowned.

“Trade or not? If not, get lost.” The old man’s tone was cold.

“Trade, trade,” the man replied, reluctantly handing over the block. “Thanks, Manager Chen.”

The old man—Manager Chen—took the block and handed over three pieces of blackened tree cake.

After they left, he turned to Liu Hen. “What about you?”

“Hello, Manager Chen. I’d like to trade for one jin of tree cake.” Liu Hen immediately took out the last magic crystal he had and offered it.

“Poor bastard,” Chen said coldly, accepting the crystal. He tossed a piece of tree cake to Liu Hen, then slammed the gate shut with a thud, as if venting his displeasure at being out at midnight.

“…”

Liu Hen didn’t dare take offense. He weighed the roughly palm-sized, square tree cake—it should be about five hundred grams—and turned to leave.

In truth, being able to exchange for food without trouble or melodramatic obstacles left him quite satisfied.

“Brother, please give me some food…” The scrawny little girl knelt and came over again, her voice hoarse with pleading.

Liu Hen instinctively quickened his pace, but after a few steps, he stopped abruptly, recalling his need to find companions.

His companions didn’t need to be strong; in fact, he felt uneasy trusting someone stronger than himself.

A feeble little girl like this was the most fitting candidate.

Seeing him halt, hope flashed in the little girl’s murky eyes.

Liu Hen turned to her and asked, “Are your feet injured?”

“Huh? No… no,” she answered truthfully, though puzzled.

“Stand up and walk a few steps,” he instructed again.

Since he sought a partner, he couldn’t afford to take in someone disabled—danger would only become a burden.

Though confused, the girl slowly stood and took a few steps.

Perhaps due to weakness and having knelt for so long, her body was nearly frozen stiff, making her gait unsteady and tottering, as if she might fall at any moment.

Liu Hen nodded in approval and said, “I can’t give you food now, but if you’re willing to follow me and obey all my orders, I can guarantee you won’t starve to death.”

At once, the little girl shuddered—not with gratitude, but fear—as she asked, “Then how will I die?”

“...?”

Were all wastelanders so cautious? Even children recognized such verbal traps.

Liu Hen patiently explained, “I need a partner to keep watch. I won’t let you die; I’ll protect you.”

Suspicion and uncertainty flickered in the girl’s eyes.

“I’ll give you ten seconds to decide. I don’t have time to waste,” he said flatly. “Decide quickly.”

Though most wastelanders were illiterate, everyone knew what ten seconds meant—that was common sense. This world was a wasteland, not some ignorant ancient era.

Other wastelanders beneath the wall had been stirred by the scene, thinking a soft-hearted person had appeared.

But seeing Liu Hen didn’t just give food but made such demands, they all lay back down at once.

“Hah, that kind of talk only fools kids. Who in their right mind would take in a useless child as a burden?” a disabled wastelander sneered from afar.

Liu Hen glanced coldly at the man but said nothing.

“Time’s up.”

Seeing the girl still silent, he turned and walked away.

Behind him, the girl’s eyes flickered with fierce struggle.

‘I want to live, even if it’s a humble life… Even if I die terribly, maybe it won’t happen,’ she thought.

Biting her lip, she hurriedly said, “I’m willing to obey all your orders, just please let me live!”

Liu Hen turned back, satisfied.

“Remember those words forever. Come with me.”

With that, he strode again into the night mist.

“Child, once you step out, you might become dinner. Human hearts are terrifying—more so than the monsters in the dark,” the disabled wastelander called out again.

“Unless I try, how will I know it’s not true? This is my only chance to survive!” The scrawny girl clenched her teeth, her gaze quickly hardening as she staggered to follow.

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