The walls of the dark alleyway were damp and moldy, with dark brown spots matted over blurred graffiti.
Clutter piled high on both sides of the walls—discarded cardboard boxes, rusted iron buckets, and scraps of meat and rotting organs were scattered everywhere.
Dust and cobwebs covered the abandoned furniture, where rodents and insects scurried about, darting away in a panic at the slightest movement.
Two thugs were beating a ragged beggar, their fists and feet raining down on him.
"You dead yet?" one of the scrawny thugs snarled, grabbing the beggar's filthy long hair and leaning down. "I'm talking to you!"
The beggar's eyes were cloudy and weary. He stared silently at the person in front of him, showing no reaction to the knife pressed against his cheek.
"Vagrants belong outside the city. Don't let me see your face on our turf again, or I'll kill you. You hear me?"
"Boss, I think someone's coming," the other short, stout thug whispered.
The two of them straightened up. The scrawny thug narrowed his eyes, and by the faint light of the alleyway, he finally saw the person approaching.
She was small in stature with blonde hair falling by her ears. Her brow was furrowed, her youthful face written with impatience.
"You're in my way. Get lost."
The two thugs exchanged a glance before silently tucking their weapons away. They swayed as they brushed past the girl. It wasn't until they reached the end of the alley that the stout thug looked back to confirm she wasn't paying attention and spat out a threat.
"Next time I see you, you're dead!"
It was unclear if he was talking to the beggar or just trying to reassure himself.
City folk were always like this; Xu Xiaoyou didn't care.
Sector 7, Sector 8, and Sector 9 were all within the Villain Gang's sphere of influence. Those two thugs were likely members. Xu Xiaoyou's primary impression of these people was that they bullied the weak and feared the strong.
As one of the most chaotic areas in the entire Hive City, murder, robbery, and violent debt collection were the norm. A few beggars disappearing every day wouldn't catch anyone's attention—until parts of them showed up on someone's dinner table.
"Did you hear that? They said if they see you here again, you're dead," Xu Xiaoyou said.
The beggar didn't respond, leaning against the wall with a numb expression.
Xu Xiaoyou kicked over his begging bowl and continued deeper into the alley.
Deep within the alleyway sat a slave shop. A withered yellow oil lamp hung at the entrance, its dim light illuminating the surrounding decay.
Xu Xiaoyou let out a soft breath and walked inside.
The owner of the slave shop was a green-skinned orc. From the moment the girl entered, his eyes never left her. His narrow eyes squinted with a shrewd glint as if he were sizing her up, and he didn't rush to greet her.
A card for credit points fluttered onto the counter in front of him.
The girl rested her hands on the counter and tilted her head at him with a calm expression.
"Honored guest!"
The slave merchant patted his head, putting on an expression of great regret.
"Ah, the light outside was too dim just now, I didn't see you come in. Look at my eyes, hah~"
"You're here to buy slaves, right? You've come to the right place! I have the most variety! What are you looking for? Female green-skinned orcs, cat-girls, dark elves?"
The slave merchant stood up quickly to welcome her, his previous negligence vanished. He led Xu Xiaoyou deeper into the shop.
"Or perhaps you're looking for something more high-end? Urban eldritch creatures? I have those too, though the price..."
Xu Xiaoyou didn't respond, remaining silent.
Green-skinned orcs, a race known as the cancer of the Hive City, usually existed at the very bottom of the Hive City pyramid, mostly serving as slaves.
This was due to the unique traits of their race.
They were distinct from the orc races often seen in films; they didn't need to actively consume food. Their bodies possessed plant-like characteristics, allowing them to perform photosynthesis in sunlight to obtain energy. One could even sever their limbs, grind them into spore powder, and scatter them into the soil—by the following year, a new batch of orcs would grow.
This meant that if they weren't strictly controlled, these hardy, physically powerful, and terrifyingly fertile creatures with generally low intelligence would take over the entire Hive City like cancer cells in a very short time. This would cause the city's operations to overload and collapse. In the end, the Hive City would fall like a giant tormented by maggots, rotting and stinking to high heaven.
Consequently, most Hive Cities classified green-skinned orcs as a 'strictly controlled species.' Laws usually forbade them from intermarrying with other races, required all reproduction to be reported and registered, banned them from politics, and restricted their living areas. No matter how foolish those so-called intellectuals were, they would never bring up human rights for green-skinned orcs, because behind every one of these harsh laws was a lesson written in blood.
And a green-skinned orc capable of becoming a slave merchant would never be as simple as the Hive City's stereotypes suggested, whether in terms of social skills or intellect.
Xu Xiaoyou shot a deep look at the hunched figure walking ahead and followed him.
Oil lamps on iron brackets burned along both sides of the dim corridor, illuminating slave rooms that resembled cages. Most of the slaves were emaciated, looking like skeletons wrapped in skin.
The deeper they went, the more unbearable the smell became—a stench of rotting flesh mixed with a pungent, musky odor. Xu Xiaoyou could even see a few rotting corpses surrounded by flies under the straw inside the iron cages.
The slave merchant stopped in front of a cage. The kerosene lamp in his hand illuminated the scene inside: a skeletal ghoul was hunched over, eating.
"Your Item Link No. 2 is attacking Item Link No. 1."
For some reason, that sentence popped into Xu Xiaoyou's mind at the sight.
"It wasn't... it wasn't me. I didn't kill him, he died on his own... he threw himself onto my claws!" The ghoul squinted, unable to open its eyes in the light of the kerosene lamp, cowering in panic. "It really wasn't me..."
Looking at the half-length of steaming intestine still in its hand, both Xu Xiaoyou and the slave merchant fell silent: "..."
Seeing the slave merchant's face darken, the ghoul lunged at the iron bars like a madman. Its claws lashed out at the blonde girl, its crimson eyes filled with a hunger for fresh meat.
"I was just too hungry... What did I do wrong? You smell so good, your skin is so tender... You must be so juicy. Just let me eat you, okay? It's simple, just stick your arm in here, and I'll enjoy every bit!"
BANG—
"AHHH—"
Smoke drifted from the muzzle of Xu Xiaoyou's gun, her gaze indifferent. The ghoul collapsed to the floor, wailing and begging for mercy as it curled up, clutching the wound on its thigh that was gushing blood.
"Aren't you going to kill him?" The slave merchant looked at the blonde girl with interest, the folds of flesh on his face bunching together. His empty, dark eye sockets seemed to want to peer right through her. "He's just a slave. You don't need to care about his life."
"Only by living will he continue to suffer. This is my charity to him—I want him to remember this pain with his very body," Xu Xiaoyou said as she slowly holstered her gun and gave the slave merchant a slight smile. "To remember the price of offending me."
Rate on N.U.
