The sun is high

If Hulbert, the second person in charge of the Black Sun Society, saw the current scene of Salem City, he might applaud happily.

Because in Herbert's theory, the nature of human society and biology itself are infinitely similar.

Just as he said to Shuge at the Black Sun Society meeting before, he believes that civilization and society composed of human beings and other intelligent beings must find development and solutions in constant internal and external competition.

Correspondingly, these individual components of civilization and society naturally need to be constantly purged round after round in competition.

In his eyes, the winners should obtain resources, the losers will naturally be plundered, and the passing and death of the losers will naturally lead to the success of the winners. In this process, those competitors who are at a disadvantage must Relying on their own abilities to change their own status and status, their abilities will increase and their value in the world will also increase.

This set of theories has an extremely precise and simple summary in the original world of Xiuge.

"Natural selection, survival of the fittest."

And this extremely cruel natural law is being repeated over and over again in Salem City.

What compresses the living space of the survivors is not only the dangerous descendants of the Dark Abyss, but also humans themselves.

Food, water, warm clothing and weapons...

In Salem City, where the social structure and rules have completely collapsed, people have to rack their brains for these things. For those who are already vulnerable in the city, if they want to win these life-sustaining chips, they must To take greater risks and even pay a huge price.

As for those who refuse to take risks, most of them have now become "food".

"Food" in every sense of the word.

The mages of the Legal Committee now basically stick to the branch of the Legal Committee, while the members of the former independent government of Salem City have united with some of the Iris guards left in Salem City. In the past, the Delan Embassy operated as a stronghold. Both sides relied on their own force and resources to barely maintain their dominance in this dilapidated and disorderly city.

Although it is a bit funny to talk about the word "domination" in this environment, at least they still have considerable control and allocation rights over many resources in Salem City.

Unlike people who can protect themselves with weapons, magic, and rituals, the survivors in Salem City who fight independently must accept another set of life patterns.

In order to find useful daily supplies, they often choose to go out during the day and go to locations where important supplies may be stored - most of them are commercial areas densely packed with shops and warehouses, or they used to be part of the independent government of Salem City. Some office spaces, such as police stations, were looted by people in less than a week after the incident in Salem City.

As the descendants of An Yuan grew up and the stock of materials in the city continued to decrease, the battles between people began to become more frequent and fierce.

For those vulnerable people who do not have sufficient means of self-defense and are very easy to fall into "prey" of others, if they want to replenish the supplies they need for life in a timely manner, they must choose to go out at those delicate times.

For example, early morning or evening.

Generally speaking, the evening is more dangerous than the early morning, because when night is about to fall, the activities of the descendants of the Dark Abyss will become more frequent, and going out at this time is tantamount to gambling with your life.

Therefore, before the sun rises, it is the time for many struggling survivors to grit their teeth and go out to earn survival capital for themselves.

At this time, a blazing flame was burning in a dark store.

Fifteen-year-old Marlena huddled in the corner of the store. She was very lucky today. She had only been out for less than half an hour and successfully found a pile of cans in the small warehouse behind the grocery store. After discovering When these cans were made, Marlena almost cried with joy.

Without exception, these canned fruits are the "Fanhua Brand" fruit cans produced in the Kingdom of Deland. They are well preserved and come in a wide variety, ranging from plain blueberries, to sea peaches, to the "Crown Apples" from Alice in the Kingdom of Deland. Everything you need.

When she saw those beautiful labels and packaging, Malena's mouth almost drooled.

After all, she hadn't eaten much of these things in the past.

In fact, she shouldn't have been looking for supplies today.

But in the past few days, the person who had been trying to take care of them fell ill. There were very few supplies left in the hideout, and the emergency medicines were completely exhausted. In this case, as a The "sister" of all the children, Malena resolutely carried the huge backpack and went out.

Although no medicine was successfully found, these canned fruits that can effectively replenish body energy are already a huge harvest.

What's even more rare is that this store is not too far from their hiding place, so Malena immediately puts a large number of cans into her backpack and prepares to leave immediately.

But at this moment, the poor girl discovered that there was a huge crack behind the collapsed shelves in the store.

After the previous terrible earthquake, such cracks became extremely common in Salem City, and a black crack connected to the ground often represented death and misfortune.

Maybe she noticed the noise caused by Malena when she was looking for items in the store warehouse, or maybe she was just used to returning underground through the gap in the store. In short, when Malena was about to leave, she happened to bump into a group of people leaving the store. The "thick mud" slowly creeping in through the door.

In this mass of mud, Marlena could even see the corpse of a survivor who had not been fully digested, and his head that had detached from the body was suspended in the dark pus, and his empty eye sockets were looking at His own direction seemed to be calling her in despair.

Facing the descendant of An Abyss who was about to rush towards her, the girl immediately threw out the alchemy bomb she carried. The blazing fire formed a sea of ​​fire, blocking the black sludge trying to advance at the door, but this At the same time, the girl's escape route was blocked.

The flames burned the surging black shadow, and an unpleasant smell wafted out.

After enduring the scorching fire, this group of descendants of An Abyss, which had devoured countless people and absorbed countless human memories, suddenly grew many mouths and shouted and laughed at the prey in the store.

It knew that this little prey could not escape from the house.

As an individual descendant of Dark Abyss acting alone, it is most enthusiastic about prey of this size, because it does not need to spend too much time to fully understand their memories and knowledge, and it can be digested extremely smoothly, which makes it Be able to dive into the next hunt more quickly.

This is just a very ordinary sundry store with extremely limited space inside. Probably because someone once tried to transform this place into a shelter, they sealed the windows of the store with thick boards, and these boards made Malena lost her chance to escape from the store.

"Crack!"

In the midst of the billowing smoke, Malena once again threw an alchemy bomb, and the flames with weak magic power became strong again, but this behavior was only a delay after all.

The children of An Abyss are not those ordinary beasts. Although they are afraid of the burning fire, they will not retreat because of it. Anyway, there is still a lot of time before the sun rises completely, and it can definitely wait.

A considerable amount of the thick smoke was blown into the store by the cold wind, which caused Malena to cough violently. Under the stimulation of the smoke and the influence of fear, her tears began to flow out uncontrollably, driven by the desire to survive. Next, she found a hard iron pipe from under the collapsed shelf, and used it to pry up the wooden board sealing the window with difficulty.

However, the wooden board was nailed too tightly, and Malena, who was already severely malnourished, could not pry it open. After several attempts, she began to gasp violently, and the descendants of An Abyss outside were obviously aware of it. And understanding what was happening in the store, those long mouths immediately burst into happy laughter.

Through previous devouring, it has successfully learned and understood the concept of "breakfast" from human memory. Now, at this time, it seems that it is the right time to eat...

Facing the extremely chaotic and crazy laughter of the predator, Malena's spirit almost collapsed.

But at this moment, the sound made by the "silt" suddenly changed. The original laughter turned into a scream filled with panic in the blink of an eye. In just a few seconds, this kind of The scream was cut off on the spot, replaced by a strange but equally creepy sound.

The next moment, a cold blue magic light bloomed at the door of the store, and a magic ball with a color like an ice sculpture appeared out of thin air above the flames, while the cold mist flowing from it continued to move downwards. The burning fire fell, and in just a few seconds, all the beating flames were completely extinguished.

Immediately afterwards, a mage's hand suddenly appeared next to the frightened girl. The palm of this hand showed a strong dark green color. Under its touch, the thick hand that was firmly nailed to the window The wooden board was easily removed, and the next second, the magical breeze created by the simple trick began to blow in the store, and the moving airflow immediately cleared away the thick smoke in the room.

On the street outside the store, Xiuge glanced at the descendants of An Yuan who had completely turned into useless pus in the mist of the mirror messenger, and then said to the door of the store: "Okay, come out... I I know you’re in there!”

A moment later, a small, thin figure timidly appeared at the door.

On her face, which was covered in black and gray, there were still traces of tears left by her previous tears.

Shuge saw that on the girl's back was a heavy backpack that seemed to be full of things, and in her hand was an alchemy bomb that had not yet been thrown.

Seeing this picture, Xiuge shook his head gently, and his tone involuntarily softened: "You are the only one here? You came out by yourself... to find something?"

The girl looked at the young mage in front of her with some fear, and then nodded gently.

Seeing that the girl seemed willing to communicate with him, Xiuge knelt down and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid... I am just an ordinary mage. I traveled here before, but ended up being trapped in the north of the city. The guide I hired also died, and I finally escaped from there today."

Xiuge's words obviously surprised the girl. Seeing that Xiuge was always very friendly, she asked cautiously: "North? There are many monsters there..."

"It's a lot, but I know how to deal with them."

Xiuge smiled and pointed at the black pus on the ground: "Look, they are actually very fragile, and magic can kill them with a single stroke."

The girl's eyes shone a little, but almost all residents of Van'en had great awe for the identity of the mage, so her mouth trembled slightly twice, but she did not say any more words.

"Don't worry, I am different from the legendary mages. If you have any requests, you can tell me... However, I am also looking for a new guide."

Xiuge gave a small hint in his words: "If you have a suitable candidate, you can take me to see him, as a reward for me saving you, how about it?"

Hearing these words, the light in the girl's eyes became brighter. After a brief hesitation, she nodded vigorously: "Mr. Mage, I know a person who is most familiar with Salem City. He will definitely be your Guide! However, he is sick now and can only lie in bed..."

Xiuge did not show too much enthusiasm. He knew that in such a disaster environment, trust between people is not so easy to establish.

So he narrowed his eyes hesitantly: "Maybe you can take me to see him. Although I am not a doctor, I might be able to help... But if the people you know can't help me, then I will You get some reward, do you understand?"

Hearing these words, the girl became calmer. She nodded vigorously: "I... we also know many places where food and weapons are hidden, but those places are too far and too dangerous, but if It’s you, there must be no problem… We are willing to tell you these locations for free!”

Apparently, she misunderstood what Shuge meant.

But for the moment, the two parties had already reached a foundation of communication and trust, so Xiuge raised his hand and lightly snapped his fingers.

The next moment, a huge rat with three slender tails appeared in the street. Under the girl's horrified gaze, the big furry rat yawned dissatisfiedly, then lowered its head and lay on the ground.

It already has the consciousness of being a mount.