How to Feed an Abyss!

Chapter 36.1 – The Blue Butterfly

Shi Yuan’s whole body froze.

The blood was still flowing, and silverfish scales appeared on the back of the soldier’s hand, and his state seemed to have miraculously improved, his voice stopped shaking, and his thinking was extremely clear: “I was infected by a moth. Moths can hear 300 kilohertz sounds. I’m not that good. At most, I can hear some monster sounds in advance. But I can distinguish people’s voices very easily, and I won’t forget it as long as I hear it once.”

He continued: “I have heard your voice, you are the person next to General Lu, yes… it’s Shi Yuan, right?”

As an Alliance general, Lu Tinghan often had soldiers accompanying him to guard when he went out, so many people had seen Shi Yuan. And Shi Yuan…his eyes were full of Lu Tinghan, and he didn’t have time to care about other people. Naturally, he didn’t remember what they looked like.

The person in front of him was probably one of the guards.

The last time they met in the city, Shi Yuan and Lu Tinghan walked side by side. Maybe they were discussing what to eat at night, maybe they talked about the flowers at home, or maybe Shi Yuan was suspicious that Lu Tinghan changed his nickname back to “long-tailed purring monster”… Shi Yuan didn’t like the guards around Lu Tinghan. They were too dangerous and had killed many monsters, but as long as Lu Tinghan was there, he wouldn’t be afraid.

This time, they met outside the city, in the woods, in the wet mud that couldn’t be melted away, and the noise and movement of monsters were everywhere. As if fate was teasing, the role was suddenly reversed, the warrior was dying, but the soft young man was safe. For the two of them, one was a deadly hell, and the other was a kind homeland.

The warrior said with a sigh: “The process of infection is really strange. Out of human limitations, I have noticed a lot…things that I usually don’t notice.”

He opened his sightless eyes: “I can smell all the monsters here. Shi Yuan, I also know that they are all afraid of you. You appeared outside the city alone and were unscathed. What on earth are you?”

Shi Yuan clenched the gauze tightly with his fingers and replied, “You let me save you first, and I will tell you when the wound is bandaged.”

“It’s useless, I’m absolutely hopeless.” The soldier’s expression became colder and colder, he still pointed a gun at his head, and said word for word, “Answer my question, why are you pretending to be a human, and why do you want to stay by the side of General Lu? Are you going to kill him? Are you here to spy on human intelligence? Or appreciate our struggle? Is all this interesting to you?!”

Shi Yuan clutched the gauze: “No, I…”

“Enough!!” the soldier yelled violently, his body convulsed, “I won’t believe a word of yours, I’m now–I ‘m going to kill you!”

However, his fingers kept twitching and the gun almost came out of his hand, not to mention pulling the trigger. His veins flared, and it took him several tries to accept that he couldn’t shoot, and he immediately reached for his communicator with his left hand.

He touched an empty space.

The lower half of his body was a bloody mess, and his communicator had long since shattered, making it impossible to report to the command center.

He opened his eyes, stayed where he was, and murmured: “I have to tell them, I have to let the general know…”

Shi Yuan said softly: “I will tell him.”

Soldier: “Do you think cough, cough! Cough! Do you think I will believe you?!”

“I went out of the city this time just to kill a monster and bring it back to Lu Tinghan to see,” Shi Yuan said.

“Why did you do that? What’s in it for you?!”

Shi Yuan replied: “Because I like this city.”

His tone was magnanimous, the soldier was taken aback for a moment, and couldn’t help blurting out: “Are you addicted to pretending to be a human? Do you like to kill your own kind? Or are you too deep in stage dramas and really regard yourself as a God of Salvation?”

—He had seen “The Martyr”.

“I don’t want to kill them.” Shi Yuan sat down in front of him and curled his tail.

Soldier: “Do you have feelings too?”

He convulsed a few more times.

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “I can’t describe that feeling to you. Whenever I see monsters, I know that I bleed the same blood as them.”

There were many words that could describe the connection between individuals, such as blood is thicker than water, such as heart-to-heart, but the connection between monsters was closer than what people thought.

Whether it was the silverfish, poisonous flowers, purple light bug, or the huge and brilliant “horn”, when Shi Yuan saw them, he would feel a tremor in his soul.

Monsters would fight each other, but they also had the same soul, the same bloodline, and the same resonance with the abyss.

Homologous, symbiotic, constantly devouring and evolving.

This was why monsters of different ethnic groups would riot at the same time. In areas that couldn’t be observed by human instruments, their minds converged in a long river.

One stone stirred up a thousand waves.

No distinction between each other, their souls would dance.

“I like them very much,” Shi Yuan said. “At first, I was really afraid of humans – although now I am still afraid. But I met a lot of people in the city, made friends, and learned a lot. Now I also like humans. So, I came here.”

He shook the tip of his tail: “I don’t know if I can protect the city. I might fail, or there might be some other accident. I don’t even know what I can do, but I always have to give it a try.”

The soldier opened his mouth slightly, wanting to say something but didn’t say it. He didn’t realize that this spasm was over, and he could pull the trigger as long as he wanted.

The scales on the back of the hand grew rapidly, covering the upper body, and the bleeding rate slowed down, not because the injury improved, but because the blood was about to dry out.

After a long time, he whispered: “I must be crazy, otherwise, how could I believe you… Shi Yuan, what are you?”

The sun shone through the woods, shining the scales of a red snake, a few silverfish swam through the soil, their crystal-like bodies were clear, and the songs of mushrooms came from the wind.

Shi Yuan looked at the human in front of him.

He was really going to die. The infection was obliterating his characteristics as a human being a little bit. He would become one of the monsters and stay in the wasteland forever.

People would often confide in the truth to the dying, the secrets brought into the grave were the safest.

Shi Yuan was different.

His expression was almost gentle.

Just like when he stretched out his hands to the Queen Bee, just like when he played the God of Salvation over and over again on the stage, just as gently as when he said to Lu Tinghan, “Let me infect you.”

He replied: “I am Abyss.”

He told the secret as a comfort to the dying, it was the greatest gentleness he could give.

At this moment, the soldier was so horrified that he couldn’t speak, and after a long time, he asked in a trembling voice, “Are you that, the Abyss No.0 that disappeared?”

“Yes,” Shi Yuan said. “It’s me, I’m 0.” He thought for a while and added, “Lu Tinghan is 1.”

Soldier: “……”

Soldier：“…………”

His half-infected face had “what the f*ck did I just hear?!” written all over it.

 

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**TN

I have a new novel tl project, also a post-apocalyptic type with System Shou x Reincarnator Gong, here’s the LINK if you’re interested. 🙂