Book 5 Chapter 10.5 - Want and Obtained
Under the cover of night, a dozen or so weary yet robust men arrived at a hill where they could obtain cover from the wind. Almost every single one of them were injured, but in spite of the pain, they quickly cleaned up the snow, dug out a cave, and then hung the radiation resistance cloth over the cave entrance. These were low level warrant officers from the Alloy Brotherhood, able to flee because of their strength. However, right now, their stamina was completely spent, badly needing a place to rest.
This place was already close to a hundred kilometers from the battlefield, so they felt that it should be safe enough. However, the captain in the lead repeatedly watched his surroundings, as if there was an enemy hidden nearby. He thought for a bit, and then had all of the soldiers scatter out and search the surroundings, only leaving behind two soldiers to tidy up the cave. For some reason, he just felt like he couldn't feel fully at ease without carrying out a complete search of his surroundings. The soldiers quickly dispersed, and the two soldiers who were left behind began to tidy up the cave as well. Everything seemed to be carried out quite normally, but the captain's heart instead beated faster and faster!
A miserable cry suddenly sounded from within the cave! The soldiers who entered the cave seemed to have seen something extremely terrifying, only able to meaninglessly scream, not even speaking a single word! Meanwhile, within the miserable screaming and howling was an extremely clear chewing sound!
The captain's face immediately changed. He pulled out his pistol, clenched his fist, and then finally rushed into the cave. In those few seconds of hesitation, those miserable screams already faded away.
With a pa sound, the captain turned on a light stick, the faint radiance lighting up the cave. The cave they dug up couldn't be considered deep, but he couldn't see the two soldiers at all, as if they vanished into thin air. In the captain's field of view, he only saw a seven or eight year old little girl. She was currently sitting on the ground, all smiles as she looked at him.
This was an extremely sweet looking little girl. She had wine red colored hair, gentle and supple as they hung down, making her exquisite and smooth skin appear even more white and clear. The captain had never seen such a beautiful girl before, but the horror he felt inside only grew worse and worse! Other than her extremely mysterious method of emergence, the captain always felt as if there was something wrong with her.
During this period of distrust, a flash of enlightenment suddenly emerged in the captain's mind. He knew what part was wrong. She had the body of a seven or eight year old, yet had the face of a sixteen or seventeen year old young lady!
She laughed, her lips opening and closing, as if trying to say something. However, there was blood seeping out from the corners of her opened mouth! The bright red line of blood meant that she wasn't laughing, but rather eating something!
"Who are you?!" The captain released a loud shout with a stern voice. Only a sufficiently powerful voice could stop his legs from going limp, preventing him from falling onto the ground.
"Me?" The little girl tilted her head. She carefully thought for a bit to herself, and then she smiled towards the captain before saying, "I have a name, I'm Little Luo."
Between her scarlet lips were scarlet teeth, teeth that were covered in blood.
The night was long, but dawn still eventually arrived. However, these Alloy Brotherhood veterans who tried to set up a camp thus disappeared, never to be seen by anyone ever again.
The snow finally stopped, but the heavy snow and cold winds couldn't rid the mountains and valleys of their bloody odor. The anti-radiation cloth covering the cavern entrance floated about in the wind, the outside world completely oblivious to what had previously happened here.
Little Luo stood at the top of the hill, looking down on the cloth covered cave, an unnatural smile appearing on her face. Her body became a bit bigger, already reaching the appearance of a nine year old girl, but her face was still that of a young lady's. Meanwhile, the inside of its somewhat fragile body was completely different from that of a human's, the amount of space available for food storage unexpectedly making up 80%! Her body's skeleton was all made of hollow light material, similar to that of birds, but far sturdier. Most of her various internal organs were flattened into a thin layer and attached to her bones, thus freeing up the greatest amount of room for food. Meanwhile, at her neck region, apart from the brain that was already at the level of an adult, there was a fist sized energy storage area that was strictly protected by bone matter. This energy storage area was full of high energy crystal matter, and tentacle-like bloody wisps wrapped tightly around these crystals.
The strong radiation rushed straight at her face, entering Little Luo's body without being hindered at all. After landing on her unique bones, bringing destruction to the tissue cells along the way, a small half of the energy oscillated through her skeleton, turning into heat energy that maintained survival. While bathed in the radiation, even though her sharp perception made her endure considerable pain, after the newly acquired energy repaired the damaged tissues, there was quite a bit left over. From a biological point of view, this was similar to eating a meal. Her exploitation of radiation energy, in terms of percentage, already reached 2%.
In this world ever present with radiation, this was definitely not a small number, especially for Little Luo whose usage of energy and food already reached that of an extreme biological body.
For Little Luo, standing in the snowland was a type of enjoyment. Eating and evolution were the two most important things for her. Apart from these two, there was nothing else.
However, right now, all of the food had already been digested, but she still paced back and forth, the only reason because she sensed a hint of a familiar aura. That was Li's aura, as well as her mother's aura. When she was still in her mother's body, she who only had survival instincts did everything she could to acquire her mother's nutrients. Now that she had left her mother's body for several months, starting to develop abilities for independent survival, she seemed to reminisce the feeling of safety and warmth.
However, she didn't dare return, not daring to approach the place where she was born. Towards her father, she always felt the greatest fear, to the extent where she didn't even dare think about him. Under the shadow of fear, hunting for food, growing, strengthening herself, and then more food, more power, and continued survival already became her everything.
After growing for several months, only then did she gradually free herself from her instinctive devotion to survival, learning how to think like a human. The original owner of this body was named Tegan, and he left her with many memories. Even though the absorption and modification process already completely changed his brain's fundamental composition, his memories scattered and smashed, it still at least allowed her to pry into fragments of human society. When she was growing within her mother's body, she could sense the outside world through Li, but back then, she couldn't comprehend anything she was sensing.
After standing there for who knew how long, only then did she turn around and quietly leave.