Night, Outer City, street alley.
Under the moonlight, Liens, who was lying in a pile of garbage, struggled to crawl up.
Seeing Liens getting up, two men who looked a bit down-and-out, who were walking towards him, stopped.
The two men were similar in build; if distinguishing by physique, the man on the left was slightly taller and sturdier, but not by much. Overall, both were of average height and build, neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin.
They were dishevelled, and their clothes were more or less stained with dark grime, looking as if they hadn't taken care of their appearance for some time.
Of course, Liens wasn't much better off, even worse than the two of them. His tattered and thin clothes couldn't even fully cover his body.
However, having become vagrants, they probably didn't care about such things.
In the face of survival, "how to eat one's fill" was always more important than "how to maintain one's image."
The two exchanged glances, then the man on the right softly asked the man on the left, "What should we do? That kid doesn't seem to be dead yet. Should we continue?"
Hearing this, the man on the left's eyes showed some struggle, but looking at Liens's thin figure struggling to get up, he still sighed and said, "Sigh, I still have some bottom line. Since this kid can still pull through, let's just forget about it."
"But wouldn't selling him alive to the Slave market be worth more? It might even help us get through this predicament," the man on the right said, somewhat unwillingly.
"Even if we sell him to the black market, it would at most let us live a few more days... It's hard, so hard to turn things around in this era," the man on the left sighed.
However, he knew that this alone wouldn't convince his companion, so he continued, "There's been a very mysterious gathering recently. I heard a lot of people have joined it."
"Let's go take a look too. Maybe we can find some opportunity there."
"Gathering?" The man on the right asked, very puzzled.
"I'm not very clear about what kind of gathering it is. The person who told me about it was very mysterious, only telling me to go see it if I wanted to escape my current fate."
The man on the left shook his head slightly, explaining.
"It wouldn't be some cult, would it?" The man on the right asked back with some apprehension.
"We're already at this point, our lives are worthless. We're going to die anyway. Even if it's a cult, at most it will just make our deaths a bit more miserable," the man on the left replied.
Hearing this, the man on the right couldn't help but show a bitter smile when he thought of their current situation.
No longer arguing, the man on the right nodded, agreeing to the man on the left's suggestion, and the two turned and left the alley.
Watching the two leave, Liens, who had barely managed to stand, wanted to catch up, but his body wouldn't allow it. He felt dizzy and disoriented just standing.
The hunger and weakness in his body made it difficult for him to even breathe simply, let alone catch up with the two.
Liens, who had struggled to stand, sat down on the ground, leaning against the garbage pile, thinking and recovering his strength.
Although the surroundings smelled terrible, he had actually gotten used to it, or rather, this body had gotten used to the smell.
"Although I didn't hear what they were just saying, judging by the fact that they seemed to be walking this way earlier, in reality, I might have been unconscious or sold to the Slave market by them after dying."
"If that's really the case, why did they leave... Did they see me get up and kindly let me go?"
Liens mused in his heart.
"Hmm?" Part of a series hosted by My Virtual Library Empire (MV&LEMP&YR).
Liens, who was resting on the ground, heard the sound of footsteps. From the increasingly close sound, it seemed to be coming his way.
He thought it was those two returning, but when he turned to look, he saw a man whose figure was slightly thinner than the previous two.
The man walked quickly, as if worried someone would snatch something from him, rushing towards him, and he was holding a wooden stick in his hand.
Realizing something was wrong, Liens's expression became serious. He looked around, trying to find a suitable weapon among the surrounding garbage.
Soon, he found a wooden stick in the garbage pile that he could pick up in his current state.
Reaching into the sticky garbage and pulling out the wooden stick, Liens used it to support his body and barely stood up, then held the stick with both hands, vigilantly looking at the potential enemy.
The man stopped not far in front of Liens, looking at the wooden stick in Liens's hand with some vigilance, then put on a forced smile and said to Liens, "Kid, I see you don't have much time left. Why not give up your last struggle and let me live a few more days."
Liens didn't respond, just maintained his stick-holding posture, watching him vigilantly.
Seeing this, the man showed a displeased expression, sized Liens up and down, and then said, "Forget it, you don't have much time left anyway. When you die, I can still drag your corpse away."
After speaking, he turned directly, seemingly temporarily giving up on the benefits from Liens and intending to leave.
Seeing the man turn around, Liens breathed a sigh of relief, his tense spirit relaxing a bit. And with this relaxation, it was as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and a sense of powerlessness surged up again.
So, Liens inserted the wooden stick into the ground, supporting his weak body with both hands on it.
A heavy wooden stick struck Liens's right arm, making him instinctively let out a scream, but then a kick silenced his scream, sending him flying into the garbage pile.
Before Liens could react, continuous stick blows and kicks followed one after another. He instinctively curled up, groaning weakly to express his pain.
Unfortunately, this display did not evoke pity from the assailant.
"Wouldn't it have been easier to just give up resisting? You're wasting my precious energy, you really are a stubborn one," the man said disdainfully while hitting Liens with the wooden stick.
It turned out he had no intention of leaving at all; his previous actions were just to make Liens lower his guard.
When Liens was somewhat dazed due to his physical weakness, he seized the opportunity to attack Liens, first disarming Liens, and then beating him to reduce Liens's ability to resist later.
Liens, who originally had the experience of his previous life, wouldn't have lowered his guard so easily, but he was too weak and too tired.
Even if he fought back hard, he actually didn't have much ability to resist.
His previous stance was just hoping that the weapon in his hand could scare off the enemy, after all, what vagrants feared most was injury; an injury often meant one foot stepping towards death.
Unfortunately, this move didn't have much effect; the enemy was determined to get him.
As the man continued to beat him, in a daze, Liens began to feel no pain in his body, and his consciousness seemed to gradually become unfocused...