Endless Debt

In the fog, Melissa walked vigilantly through the ruins, moving in the narrow cracks, heading towards her home.

Melissa was not safe until she returned to the familiar simple hut, but as long as she returned there, she could temporarily breathe a sigh of relief, have a good meal, and then nestle in the gap and take a nap. Go on for a while.

After waking up, Melissa prepared to scavenge among the ruins. Blood people died every day. When the blood tax collectors recovered their bodies, blood people like Melissa would swarm in and collect the remaining remains of the deceased. A few items are recycled.

Melissa didn't plan to take anything valuable, she just wanted to get some rags, cotton wool and the like. The old city had become colder and colder these days. Every day when she woke up, Melissa was shivering from the cold.

The drizzle of light rain kept falling, and the rainwater penetrated into the ruins and dripped back and forth in the gaps.

"Sun...sun..."

Melissa was talking to herself, and at this moment, she remembered Devon's story.

Devin said that in the outside world, the sky is blue, and there is a huge fireball hanging in the sky, providing lighting and warmth to the earth.

To be honest, Melissa couldn't understand the blue sky, sun, day and night in German's words... It was like asking a person who has never had sight to imagine what the so-called colorful is.

But Melissa will still try to imagine the outside world. This is a rare color in her life, and it is the motivation that supports Melissa's efforts to survive in this hell.

"I'm really curious. Is the sun that big and hot?"

Melissa was suspicious, not because she didn't believe what Devin said, but because her poor mind really found it difficult to imagine such a thing. She even said that Melissa would be frightened by such a fantasy.

Such a huge fireball, what should I do if it falls? Wouldn't everyone be burned to ashes?

In fact... it would not be bad if it was burned to ashes. The word warmth is equally luxurious and expensive in the Land of Eternal Night. Only a small number of blood people can slightly experience that warmth, while more people are like Melissa. Shivering in the shadows.

After squeezing her body through another gap, Melissa cautiously poked her head out. After making sure that no one was around, she quickly jumped out, ran all the way back to the shaky hut, and then plunged into the side of the house. In the gap.

Melissa had polished the angular masonry in the gaps. She also stuffed a lot of fabrics and cotton wool inside to block other water-seeping cracks, trying to keep this narrow nest dry and warm.

After leaving one starch stick behind, Melissa wrapped the other starch sticks several layers of cloth and stuffed them into the corner, then chewed the starch sticks in her hands.

Melissa didn't eat too much. If you eat too much, you won't be able to run, and you might not be able to get into the gaps. After simply appeasing her hunger, she set out again, picking up waste along the ruins.

Melissa was lucky today. She picked up several rags along the way and wrapped them around her body, like a ghost walking in the mist.

A huge shadow covered Melissa, and she raised her head. It was the "statue" in German's mouth. It was said that large rocks were carved into human shapes for commemorative purposes.

Melissa doesn't quite understand the meaning of words like statues and memorials. It's not easy for her to learn language to communicate in this hellish place.

This huge sculpture stands on top of the ruins. It has been tortured by weathering and water erosion, and its surface is mottled and dilapidated. However, it still exudes a solemn and mysterious atmosphere.

Melissa guessed that the sculpture depicted a man. His upper body was hidden in the mist and could not be seen clearly. But Melissa thought that the man depicted in this sculpture should have been the owner of the old city.

Devin said that the name of this city was not originally called Old City, but for some reasons that he did not know, the name of the city was erased, turned into ruins, and became a shelter for the blood people.

Melissa felt the same way, how could those superior Night Clan live in such an environment with the Blood People.

They should live outside the city, but where exactly outside the city, Melissa didn't know.

In order to prevent the blood people from escaping, countless hungry bloodthirsty people wandered outside the city. Coupled with the lingering fog, many people who walked out of the city disappeared and never came back.

Looking away from the sculpture, Melissa continued forward.

Today's collection goal has been achieved. Normally, Melissa would have returned to her den to reduce energy consumption, but this time Devin gave her a few more starch sticks to make Melissa's supplies abundant. After eating a lot, she planned to continue walking around the old city until she felt hungry.

Melissa did not go to some dangerous places, but walked towards the west side of the old city. Different from the ruins where she lived, there were buildings still standing there. Although they were dilapidated, in the old city, such a residence , still considered luxurious.

In the building on the west side, there is a building called the church. Listening to German speaking, it is a place where people pray. Unfortunately, Melissa still does not understand what the church, prayers, and believers mean, but she knows , those people called believers often gather there to perform some inexplicable and wonderful ritual activities.

The most important thing is that during ritual activities, these believers will waste a lot of blood to sacrifice to an unknown existence.

Melissa didn't understand their beliefs, and she didn't understand why they should waste precious blood and give it to something illusory. But what she knew was that if she was smart enough, she should be able to recover some blood from the pool of blood at the ceremony.

The XC area gradually appeared in the mist. Compared with the gray ruins, there was a lot more fire and life here, and even the coldness around him was driven away a lot.

Many blood people have set up stalls on the streets to exchange some materials. The exchange items include starch sticks, cloth, sharp metal fragments...

A burst of aroma wafted over, and Melissa immediately felt that her mouth was secreting saliva. She looked in the direction of the aroma and saw a stove propped up by the roadside, with rats hanging on the stove one after another. while baking. There were many people gathered around the stove eagerly.

In the land of eternal night where supplies are scarce, the blood people have no food sources other than starch sticks, so meat products are particularly precious in this hell.

"I really didn't expect that rats could survive in this hellish place."

Devin once uttered such an exclamation. From his words, it seems that mice are not a good thing.

Melissa disagreed with Devin's idea. She always felt that mice were magical animals and tenacious beings, so she had to be like a mouse...as tough as a mouse.

Suddenly someone bumped into Melissa. Melissa immediately became nervous. She tried to turn around and escape, but found that more people were surrounding her. Melissa ran around in fear, only to find that more and more people were approaching her. Coming over, I was like a small fish trying to swim upstream. I could only be dragged forward by them in a feeble struggle.

After a brief panic, Melissa calmed down. She found that these people were not hostile to her, but there were just too many people and they got her involved.

They were mumbling words, as if they were whispering something, but Melissa couldn't understand it. In order to avoid getting hurt, she could only follow them forward.

The team grew stronger, and the crowd was like a black wave, passing through the damaged buildings and pouring into the central church.

The firelight flickered and the warmth of the crowd made Melissa not want to leave. Slowly, the crowd stopped moving. Melissa looked around to figure out what was going on, but she was too short and could only see when she looked up. Cheeks full of enthusiasm.

"The sun, the sun is waiting for us behind the clouds!"

A high-pitched voice sounded from the front. Melissa had heard this voice before, but on the edge of the XC area, the blood people living in the surrounding area all knew that there was such a loud voice among the believers. It can be transmitted very far.

"The pain at the moment is just a hardship and test for us. As long as we devoutly dedicate our precious things, the angel of the blazing sun will come one day."

Melissa stopped moving and murmured, "One day? Angel of the blazing sun?"

sun?

Melissa moved toward the edge of the crowd, and a stone pillar appeared in front of her. She climbed up without hesitation, and her vision finally broadened.

In front of the crowd of believers was a huge high platform. The priest with a loud voice stood there with his hands spread out. Behind him was a pair of stained glass with a red sphere carved on it. Under the reflection of the surrounding firelight, the sphere seemed to burn.

Melissa said in a strange way, "The sun..."

All Melissa's knowledge of the sun comes from German. It can be said that the sun is just a false illusion in her mind. But at this moment, Melissa has clearly never seen the real sun, but She was convinced that the painted fireball behind the priest looked like the sun.

Warm, hot, huge.

"Angel of the blazing sun!"

The believers chanted, and then one by one they walked onto the high platform and squeezed the blood out of the blood bags into the large vat on the high platform. Some people's blood bags had shriveled up, so they took them directly on the spot. Get out the needle and donate blood.

Everyone sacrificed blood and prayed for the arrival of the scorching sun. The fanatical atmosphere filled the air and almost went to Melissa's mind. For a moment, she wanted to jump off the stone pillar and join the blood donation queue.

But before Melissa's mind completely fell into this frenzy, the closed door of the church was kicked open. Looking back, a group of blood tax collectors strode in with weapons in hand.

…

Devin looked at the figures rushing ahead, and then at the sturdy short stick in his hand. The blood tax officials rarely acted together, let alone collect blood from the blood people on such a large scale.

Continuous forced collection will only break the cycle of blood tax and reduce the output of blood. This is a truth that every blood tax official understands, but after all, Dewen's will cannot interfere with the existence of the superior.

Devin looked at the figure standing among the blood tax collectors with his peripheral vision. His pale skin was very common in the old city, but what was not common was that he had a pair of scarlet pupils.

A noble Night Clan personally supervised and collected the blood tax... Devin hoped that it would be as simple as collecting the blood tax.