Chapter 54: Men

This is the most detailed map Lin Xiang has ever seen since his resurrection. It also makes him have a rough outline of this strange world in his mind.

The place facing west of Emma City is more than 500 kilometers, and it is no longer within the map. There is only a faint green area, and there is a row of simple words marked "Company Headquarters".

"Only mercenaries above the S level can access the map information of that area." Faced with his doubts, the female receptionist in a seductive dress explained with a smile.

Lin Xiang nodded in a clear way, and his gaze then fell on the lower right corner of the map. His clear eyes suddenly emitted a trace of hideousness with obvious surprise.

The red zone, more than 260 kilometers southeast of Emma City, is marked with a striking black hollow circle. The indicator line stretched out next to it is marked with the words "Knights of the Skeleton" in Chinese and English.

Standing in front of the huge projection map, Lin Xiang had never shaken his body. His face was filled with an unpredictable smile, and it seemed that he was appreciating this technology inherited from the old era. Only the muscles that occasionally twitched in the corners of his eyes and the slightly trembling ends of his fingers could reflect the frenzy and murderous intent that was roaring deep in his heart at this moment.

"Skeleton...Knights--"

He looked very carefully, his eyes facing the distance between cities and strongholds, the surrounding terrain and all the market towns that could be replenished were carefully recorded by his brain and kept in the deepest part of his memory.

When Lin Xiang walked out of the "Sosbia Auction House", it was almost night. The dim sun was pressed by dark clouds to a location not far below the horizon. The yolk that was cut and broken in the air could only barely release a faint light. The dark night could not wait to step on the head of the poor sun, and kicked the planet that symbolized light into the abyss with a grim smile, while spreading its wings representing sin and violence, completely occupying the entire world.

The little mouse was standing outside the cordon, and his thin clothes were obviously unable to fight against the ice and snow. He hugged his arms tightly and trotted back and forth on the snow-filled ground. His purple lips trembled uncontrollably. If he stayed for a few more hours, he would probably be frozen to death.

The moment Lin Xiang's figure appeared at the door of the auction house, a difficult smile finally appeared on the boy's frozen face. He tiptoed, waved his hands desperately, and tried his best to show his presence in all methods.

"Why don't you go home?" Lin Xiang was a little surprised.

"I have to be responsible for my tenants." The boy tried to raise his head and said with a serious attitude that was unique to adults: "This city is very chaotic. Since you have collected your money, you have to be responsible for it."

Lin Xiang's heart moved slightly, feeling a little relieved and feeling a little moved.

After all, this cruel world is not as cold as imagined. The most basic feelings of human beings have not been completely swallowed by terrible radiation and mutant creatures, and they are still retained in the warmest part of their hearts.

Although, it is rare and very light, it does exist.

"What kind of dinner has the Regent Hotel prepared for the guests?" He took off his rat-fur coat and tightly wrapped the boy's almost frozen body.

"There are fragrant bread and delicious soup." The boy swallowed subconsciously and said in a joke that was not his age: "Although it doesn't look great, you will definitely find it delicious."

The little rat did not lie. When they returned to the simple shed, they pressed the empty iron bucket upside down on the temporary dining table serving as a role, and had a simple dinner.

A piece of black bread of about a half kilogram and a bowl of steaming vegetable soup.

The woman stood in a hurry in the corner of the house, looking at Lin Xiang who had just walked into the door with a slightly apologetic eyes.

“…I’m sorry, the only food we can provide…this is all.”

Lin Xiang smiled, pulled over the stool made of hay next to him and sat down, and started eating.

The bread is very hard and emits a unique aroma of barley due to the freshly baked one.

The soup tasted very light, and there was no more seasoning except salt. A few green leaves of green color floated on the warm soup noodles, and a few drops of tiny oil beads floated next to it.

"It's purple cauliflower. This season, some can be dug outside the city. Its radiation is very small, so we all eat this." The woman explained, rubbing her rough hands.

The dry and hard bread chewed in his mouth, making a "squeaking" rubbing sound. After taking a sip of the slightly astringent soup, Lin Xiang raised his head: "Where are you? Sit down and eat together!"

"We... have eaten." The woman hugged the boy tightly in her arms, tried her best to avoid the food on the table, and swallowed her throat hard.

The little mouse pursed her lips tightly, raised her head and chest to look like an adult, but her eyes were aiming at the small amount of bread left on the plate from time to time, and her throat was constantly sliding up and down.

Lin Xiang put down the soup bowl that he raised to his mouth, pulled over the backpack next to him, took out two pieces of corn cakes and jerky rat, and handed them to the mother and son who were emitting light in their eyes: "Heat it up and eat it together!"

"No...this..." the woman quickly refused, and the expression on her face showed that her heart was in irresistible struggle.

"Don't worry! This won't be included in the house money." Lin Xiang tore off a piece of bread and stuffed it into the boy's hand without saying a word.

The debate did not last long, maybe it was because of concern for the guests, maybe it was because of concern for the child's body, or the tortillas and dried meat stimulated the empty stomach, and the embarrassing woman had to walk into the kitchen behind the house with food. Soon, a very special food aroma spread in the air.

A thin man with half a torn quilt and slippers on his feet walked past the open door and leaned into half of his body and saw Lin Xiang sitting in front of the bucket table. His half-closed eyes suddenly opened like hormones. He licked his chapped lips greedily, and rushed into the kitchen with unconcealed ecstasy. Suddenly, a fierce quarrel and tear came from the gap of the wooden board without any sound insulation effect.

The boy chewing bread in his mouth suddenly changed his expression. Without having time to say anything, he ran into the house quickly. Lin Xiang, who was unknown, also followed him in.

The thin middle-aged man tightened the woman's hair with his left hand, waved a wooden stick as thick as an arm in his right hand, and beat the other person's weak body. He roared angrily, "Stupid bitch, I've hidden so much food from me. I think you're simply looking for death-"

As he said that, he raised the stick high and smashed it hard on the woman's cheek with an extremely cruel expression. With the screams, the blood splashed onto the man's face, which aroused the violent desire to vent. He raised the stick above his head, aimed the dying woman with a sharpened port and stabbed it hard.

"ah--"

Before the stick fell, the severe pain from behind caused the man to scream and let go of his hand, and instead tighten the source of the pain.

The boy with hatred face stood behind him, trembling hands, tightly pinching a blunt-headed sharp knife that was not too sharp but enough to stab into his body. A bright red liquid was dripping down from the black rust blade.

This knife opened a terrible groove-shaped wound on the man's butt.

"Little bastard, how dare you attack me?" The man in unbearable pain turned around, looked at his bloody hands in disbelief, pointed at the boy in shock and roaring, "Believe it or not, I will sell you to a butcher shop to make canned food?"

"Enough-"

Lin Xiang walked up with a gloomy face, hugged the boy who was about to pounce on him, pointed to the open door, and shouted at the man who was screaming: "If you don't want to die, get out now-"

"Who the hell are you?" The man widened his eyes, tightened his wound with the dirty cloth surrounding his waist, and screamed in a voice that was a little distorted with pain: "I am her man, you should get out--"

Lin Xiang was stunned and then turned to the boy next to him: "Is he your father?"

"Father? Hahahahaha--"

Perhaps because of the stimulation of the pain nerve, the thin man made a burst of laughter that was inconsistent with his body shape: "I don't know how many men who have slept with this bitch. If you really want to investigate who the little bastard's father is, I'm afraid she can't even explain it clearly. As long as you have strength, money, and food, she will take off her clothes and do whatever you want. If you want to say that I am the little bastard's father, then all the men in this city are his own fathers. Hahahaha--"

"I want your life-"

The boy's tender face was completely deformed due to anger. He grabbed the knife in his hand, like a young lion who had just tasted the blood, roared and rushed towards the laughing man, and stabbed his naked thigh with a cold and hard blade.

"I fuck your mother, you, do you really dare to do it?" The man hurriedly avoided the attack, grabbed the sheet dragged to the ground, ran to the door in a panic, and jumped into anger and scolded: "Boy, wait, I, I'll ask someone to deal with you. I'll cut off your heart and liver tonight, stir-fry and add wine-"

The kitchen is messy.

The boy threw away the knife and struggled to lift the injured woman up from the ground. His eyes were full of sorrow and helplessness.

The pale-faced woman bit her lips tightly, as if she was crying, but she resisted the sound of not sobbing. She clung to her skinny hands, she clutched the broken corn cakes and jerky.

Lin Xiang squatted down and carefully picked up the corn residue scattered on the ground. His delicate and crystal face was as quiet as a pool of deep water that could not be seen.

This crazy world has no moral code at all. Survival has become the only thinking in people's minds. The concept of women and children being preferred in the old era disappeared. As weak people in biological populations, they are always the objects of oppression and humiliation.

"What's your name?" He pulled over the boy standing next to him, looked at the black eyes with confusion and stubbornness, and asked seriously.

"Little mouse." The boy didn't understand why he asked this.

"Your full name can represent the identity of a real man, not a nickname that everyone can call and drink. Do you understand what I mean?" Lin Xiang's voice was as gentle as water, but it had an irresistible majesty.

The boy nodded in a vague way: "My surname is Zhou, and my name is Zhou Hao."

Lin Xiang stood up and looked at Zhou Haoqing's bright eyes with sharp eyes, as if he wanted to see through the nine-year-old child's brain, body, all nerves, and even every corner of the body.

He pulled out the dagger he bought from the auction house from his waist, raised the sharp tip of the knife, and cut a tiny wound on the ring finger of his left hand. From the center of the sunken skin, a ball of dark red blood beads that gradually grew larger.

"Open your mouth—" Lin Xiang's voice was full of commanding meaning.

Although he didn't understand why, the boy raised his head and expanded his closed lips to the maximum, revealing two rows of very white teeth.

The blood dripped into his mouth quickly spread on the tip of his tongue, and the rich smell of blood rushed into the boy's nostrils and esophagus unscrupulously, stimulating him that he couldn't help but roar and roar.

"Forget all this just happened and don't mention it to anyone."

Lin Xiang stretched out his hand, took out a stack of Sosbian banknotes from his pocket, gently pulled the boy's clenched fist, and put the rolled banknotes in it. He patted the tender shoulders hard, and said in an unquestionable tone: "No matter what kind of difficulties you encounter in the future, you must remember one thing--you are a man--"

After saying that, he walked into the room, picked up the backpack and guns placed on the ground, pushed open the door that was swaying by the wind, and turned around and walked out of the shed.

"Wait, please wait-"

The boy who woke up from his dream quickly chased after him, opened his arms and hugged his thighs tightly, and shouted in excitement no matter what, "You...I...you, what's your name?"

Lin Xiang was about to speak, but suddenly a mess of footsteps came from the entrance of the alley not far away.

Dozens of mobs wearing various varied clothes, with cruel and excited faces on their faces rushed into the alley. The one who walked in the front was a thin man who had just escaped from the shed.

"There is that boy, grab him, grab him-"

The man who wrapped his wound with a broken gong was limping over, and his cunning eyes looked back and forth at the g180s behind Lin Xiang's back and forth. Maybe he felt that he was no match! He quickly turned his eyes to the boy standing next to him, and shouted at the crowd following him in a cruel and revengeful tone: "Boss Oka, give me a hundred yuan at the price he had just negotiated, and this little bastard will be yours. But his heart must be my. It's only tender that it's freshly fried."

As soon as he said that, he immediately attracted a few people next to him to laugh: "Hahahaha! That's your son. Even his own people eat, what else can you do?"

"Shut up the fuck-" the man shouted angrily: "I know if he is the seed of me. You have all taken that woman, maybe it's the seed of you who fucked her. At worst, you can chop this little bastard into meat sauce, and each person will have a bite, and everyone will have a share-"

A big man over two meters tall and wearing a leather jacket covered with shiny copper nails came out of the crowd, looked at Lin Xiang opposite him with confusion, and then turned his gaze to the thin man: "Who is he?"

"How do I know who it is?" The thin man stared at Lin Xiang with a jealous and vicious look: "The man who entered the woman's house was either a pervert or a lewd guy. Two dollars a day, it was so cheap-"

The man seemed not to hear the last sentence. He walked up and looked at the thick barrel of Lin Xiang's shoulders exposed behind him, and asked in an uncertain tone: "Which company are you... mercenary?"

"Sosbia." Lin Xiang's cold voice immediately caused a slight vibration and slander among a group of mobs.

"It's just fart-"

The thin man shouted viciously: "Will the mercenary come to live in such a despicable place? Will he fall in love with such an ugly woman? Boss Oka, what do you care about doing? Take that little bastard away and the money will be my. Let's settle the matter between us-"

The man named Oka was a little hesitant. He didn't want to give up this order, which was obviously profitable. The child's meat was very tender and could be sold at a very good price. But he didn't want to offend mercenaries. These guys who only recognized money but not people were cold-blooded. If the other party was just a low-level mercenary, then his own power should be able to settle it...

Just as he was thinking about what to do, a magnetic voice suddenly came from Lin Xiang's ears.

"Are you a human flesh buyer?"

"Yes." Oka nodded.

"I'll sell this guy to you. It's very cheap, one dollar is enough." Lin Xiang glanced at the thin man with a panic next to him and said lightly: "He is only worth this price."

As he said that, he took out his A-level mercenary ID card with his left hand, pulled out the shotgun inserted in his backpack with his right hand, aimed at the ugly head full of fear and shock, and pulled the trigger hard.

"Also, stay away from this boy-"

After saying this, he didn't even look at the corpses on the ground, and walked straight out of the alley through the stunned mob.

The snow is still falling.

Now is the most lively time of the day in Emma City.

Whether it is a civilian area or a restricted area designated by the Sosbia company, countless bars have begun to open. In order to satisfy each other's different desires, men and women come together under the traction of alcohol. It is hard to tell who is more sinful than whom. This is an alternative rule of survival in the new world.

Find a bar and sit for one night, and then go back to Yinyue Town at dawn. This choice seems good for Lin Xiang.
Chapter completed!