Z2 wild area.

This is a place where no light can be seen, and it is also a place of chaos and poverty that even the empire doesn't bother to control.

Large tracts of wilderness and rocks stretch under the zenith, and the hard brown soil is cracked by drought.Even the air stinks, full of feces and urine.

Without morality, without law, without hope and even without love, people living here can hardly be called human beings.

The lunatic was drooling and giggling, the villain was wantonly venting his animal nature, and the patient was paralyzed by the roadside, moaning and moaning, waiting for the end of their lives.

Helga, mother and son settled down here, and built a barely sheltered house with cardboard shells, thick cloth, planks and a few iron bars.

But what about the rest?

The fresh water brought with me ran out in a few days, and it was hard to find even a blade of grass on this dry land.

Helga was also at a loss.She was born in a famous family, and she was well-clothed and well-fed when she was a child. She read all the classics of the sages in her youth, and only after she had an epiphany did she take the initiative to lead her family to join the revolution.

Although the later days were difficult, they never fell into the situation of "no clothes and no food" in the true sense.

There are places where people gather, just like in the melee era, this wild area is divided into small forces by several groups of rogues.

The bosses call themselves "lords", plunder resources everywhere, and do things like bullying.

It's not that Helga has considered taking refuge in one of them. After all, Jiang Jianming is young and frail, and has the hidden injury of a wormhole jump, so he can't stand the harsh environment at all.

But when she saw with her own eyes the appearance of those "lords" raping, raping, and committing all kinds of crimes, she stopped silently.

She really couldn't open her mouth to beg that kind of villain, let alone become one of them.

Jiang Jianming's heart is like a mirror.

He coughed lightly and tugged at the corner of Helga's clothes.

"Mom, don't go."

"Obviously I like to be with my mother."

A few days later, the mother and son discovered the way to survive in the Z2 wild area - grabbing garbage.

The interstellar ship that transports garbage will throw garbage into remote wild areas every month, and many refugees make a living on this, and the "lords" will even start a monthly battle for garbage.

After taking a bite, found unpalatable food, tired clothes, shoes and hats, and pills that have just expired for a month or two...

The rubbish thrown away by the upper-class nobles is an extremely precious resource for these untouchables.

Helga's crystal bone class is not low, but on the one hand, she has to worry about hiding her identity; on the other hand, she is weak and has a sick and disabled child with her. It is impossible for her to have a direct conflict with those "lords".

Like the other refugees, she could only wait until the first wave of snatching battles by the lords was over, and then rush forward in disgrace.

To survive.

In those few years, in Jiang Jianming's memory, his mother was always dirty and dark.

She plastered her face to hide her beauty, and fought in the stinking rubbish.

But she didn't torment the child like this, and she resolutely forbade Jiang Jianming to leave that broken room.

Sometimes when it was very late and Helga hadn't come back, Jiang Jianming couldn't help but open the door and look out.As time went on, the little boy would go out of the house bit by bit.

When Helga came back in tatters, she puffed up her cheeks and said, "This kid didn't listen to his mother, why did he come out? It's so cold outside."

Jiang Jianming said softly, "I want to see Xing Xing."

The dirty mother knelt down and poked the child's forehead with her bloody fingertips, the end of her eyes bent into a gentle crescent moon.

"Then have you finished the homework you left yesterday? Humph, mom will have a surprise test tonight."

Finally, the mother would pick up the baby on her shoulders and walk home under the moonlight.

When it was late at night, she would light a candle, shake off a shabby red carpet to cover Jiang Jianming, and tell some random stories to lull him to sleep.

That's it, day after day.

After all, Helga was once the leader of the resistance organization. Even if she fell to this point, she could still barely survive with her children.

For her, the greater pain came from the surrounding environment instead.

In the Z2 wild area, human tragedies happen every day.When there are many occurrences, tragedies do not become tragedies, but become everyday.

Helga couldn't see the living being degraded like this, but how could she be saved?

If one person is rescued today, tomorrow there will be more than a dozen people crying and begging for alms.The vagrants who had avenged their revenge once pierced her shoulder with a crystal bone and robbed her and her children of rations for the winter.

Countless times, she curled up in the middle of the night, making vague weeping sounds—it didn't sound like she was making it, it was more like some evil spirit attached to her.

Perennial fatigue, weakness caused by chronic crystal disorder, extreme mental torment and pain, and the sequelae of being plotted against...

Under the influence of all this, Helga's sanity gradually became insane.

She became more and more strict with Jiang Jianming, her homework requirements became more and more extreme, and she would beat others when she was agitated. After she woke up, she couldn't believe that she had become like this, so the pain accumulated even deeper.

One rainy morning.

The sick old woman, who was taken in overnight, squinted her eyes before leaving, showing her yellow teeth at Helga.

"Hey, I said, silly big sister."

"You'd better die quickly. Look at your son, tsk tsk tsk, how pitiful it is to follow a mother like you."

...In the depths of the house, the woman hugged her knees and shrank in the darkness, buried her head deep in her thin arms.

Next to him, a young boy with black hair and black eyes wrung out the wet handkerchief, calmly wiped the blood from his forehead, and said lightly: "My mother will not die. Grandma, if you don't want to leave, stay and help us."live."

In recent years, the concept that patients with chronic crystal disorder should commit suicide as soon as possible has been popularized throughout the empire, and it has been widely accepted... After all, it is too painful for this disease to be in the advanced stage, and it is also a terminal illness.

Especially in the Z2 wild area, few people have hope for the future, what's the point of living and suffering?

So there is an unwritten custom.If the patient is lucky one day and grabs something delicious while robbing the garbage... that is the time for them to end their lives.

After a good meal, we set out on the road with a full stomach the next day.

But Jiang Jianming knew that his mother didn't want to die.

With her death, the few remaining flames of human civilization will be extinguished again.

When she chooses to commit suicide, she means defeating the rule of the dark empire and surrendering to this twisted world.

She would rather struggle in the mud than die.

The sick old woman curled her lips and walked out the door, muttering as she walked:

"Really, silly elder sister. You died earlier, and your son can still get close to a great lord with that face! Don't look at him as a disabled human child, let's care about our 'one-eyed dragon' in the north, just like this!"

The sound gradually faded away.

The cold wind beat against the newly pasted window paper, the roof cracked a few cracks, and the deep winter sun shone down.

Holding a wet handkerchief, Jiang Jianming slowly walked in front of his mother, his pale face was brightly and darkly reflected by the rays of sunlight.

He took Helga's arm. "Mom, hand."

The child knelt on the ground, carefully wiping off the plaster on the fingers of his mother when he fell ill last night, as well as the blood from his wound.

Helga closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably.

"Obviously... my good boy. From now on, mom won't come in the house, and mom will sleep outside at night, okay..."

The wound on his forehead hadn't clotted yet.Jiang Jianming looked calm and lowered his eyelids slightly, "No, I obviously want to be with my mother."

"Besides, it doesn't really hurt much. Mom, don't listen to other people's nonsense."

He is too unlike a child of this age, there is a sea of dry stars in his eyes.

It reflects the ancient Milky Way, as well as the rotting ants drowned in the stinking ditch.

"As long as you can be like this now, you will be very happy."

Helga just shed tears, and she stroked Jiang Jianming's cheek with her hand, as if she was touching a piece of broken porcelain.

What a poor child, he has been homeless and suffering since he was born, and he is sick all over. How can he know what happiness is.

She taught the child the existence of "happiness" and "brightness", but she couldn't let him see it.

Jiang Jianming dropped the handkerchief and got into Helga's arms.Holding his mother's skinny palm, he said calmly, "It doesn't matter what kind of mother you become, just stay with me. You've grown up and can protect your mother."

...

The next day, after Helga went out, Jiang Jianming also went out in silence.

He didn't do anything, just wandered around and came back before his mother came home.

Day three, day four...same thing.

For half a month, the incident of the young boy going out and wandering around was not exposed.

It was the eighteenth day, the day the junk ship was coming.

Jiang Jianming stole Helga's old pistol and took away a bullet.

It took him half a day to get out of this area, climbed up the halfway of a nearby forest with difficulty, fired a shot at a branch of a giant tree, and then spent half a day walking back down the mountain silently.

When Helga came home that evening, she was overjoyed.

She said today is a really good day.I heard that the alien creature's nest fell into the territory of "One-Eyed Leopard". Two big birds frantically attacked the territory for a day, and the "Black Iron" in the west also went to take advantage of the fire, but they did not participate in the battle for garbage.

The refugees around were crying with excitement.Of course, she also brought back many good things, and she can not go out for the next week.

"It's called evil comes with evil." Helga smiled and hugged Jiang Jianming into her arms, rubbing the child's cheek with the cool tip of her nose.

And Jiang Jianming was wrapped in a red blanket by his mother, staring at the moon outside thoughtfully.

"That's right. If Mingming followed the One-eyed Leopard, he might be taken away by the big bird monster today, so I don't want it."

... This year, the future commander of the new empire was twelve years old, and he was still a child with a very pure heart.

The shot he fired at the lair of the alien creature was just trying to keep the mother and the "happy" life in front of him as long as possible, and then a little longer.

The cries of the poor at the bottom are destined not to reach the ears of the upper class living in Eternal Paradise.

In the depths of the palace, a faint scent of incense lingers among the gold-woven curtains.Odin leaned back on the chair, staring intently at the goblet in front of him.

"This wine... the taste has changed."

The red wine inside swayed like blood, and he was only sipped.

The attendant knelt down in panic: "Reporting to Your Majesty, the original bartender passed away in a sudden acute disorder two days ago. Today's drink is, is his son..."

Odin snorted and waved his hand: "Go down. Everyone else get down."

The attendants left in a hurry as if they had been pardoned.In a blink of an eye, the hall became much cleaner.

The emperor refocused his attention on the video communication in front of him: "Oh... Vladimir, you just said, what do we need?"

On the opposite side was the top person in charge of the Gray Owl Laboratory, "Key, Your Majesty."

This half-hundred man with silver hair and blue eyes - one of the few people in the empire who knew some secrets of crystal particles - was frowning wearily.

"It's been two years, and the power of that little Highness is getting stronger and stronger. Once it gets out of control, the result will be devastating."

"Although His Majesty is His Highness Kaios created for the purpose of striking crystal particles. However, he should not have any sense of belonging to humans..."

This is already a euphemism.That little monster has been tortured to death in the laboratory since its birth, and it would be a ghost if it didn't hate humans.

Vladimir whispered: "I think we need something that can imprison him and control him from the will level, but we can't find it."

"I've tried all the negative things like fear and pain. But maybe because... Your Highness was born from it, and these can no longer cause any spiritual fluctuations in him."

Odin raised his eyebrows: "Oh, he didn't respond?"

Vladimir: "Yes. He will laugh at us."

Odin: "..."

Vladimir bowed his head: "Your Majesty, forgive me... We have tried our best not to show timidity in front of His Highness Kaios, but his sensitivity is too terrifying."

"He has realized that his existence is very special to us, and now he has even begun to actively test the bottom line here. The growth rate of the crystal bone is even more terrifying... The gray owl laboratory has been out of control—"

Suddenly, a series of garbled characters flashed across the communication video, and white noise interrupted Vladimir's voice.

"..."

The emperor's face darkened.

It was only two years since Kaios was born, and the emperor was aging faster, and many hidden wounds from previous battles had resurfaced, making him no longer as mighty as a man in his prime.

But when the drooping eyelids are lifted, the dark green eyes still make people shudder.

The next second, a childish but indifferent voice came.

"There's no point here."

"Give me something else."

The screen returned to normal, but it had already cut to the console in the laboratory.

A dozen experimenters huddled in the corner in fear, the alloy glass was shattered again, and a large piece of red gold crystal bone stretched out to wrap those instruments and optical brains.

On top of the largest computer sat a blond child.

Upon closer inspection, he didn't even have legs—the flesh and blood from the legs turned into crystals.

"Give me something else."

The child stared at the screen with emerald eyes, "Otherwise I will blow up, these data are very important to you, emperor?"

Odin let out a low breath.

For the past two years, he and this little monster have been tormenting each other.

He successfully allowed Kaios to stay in the laboratory as a living human experiment sample for two years, and the little monster gained knowledge learning channels in various fields of human society, as well as his years of accumulated combat experience.

But the little monster seemed more interested in the living than in the knowledge of the dead.

For example... every time Emperor Odin secretly visits the laboratory, this little guy will definitely try to break the glass, break out and try to kill him.

He didn't try his best, and only attacked one or two moves. When he found that he couldn't get his hands and lacked interest, he turned into a semi-crystalline state, and slowly crawled away like a snake.

He is at ease.It's just the poor emperor's guards and the gray owl laboratory, who are scared away half their lives every time.The recent moves have become more and more tricky, and even Odin himself began to break out in a cold sweat.

And such a barely maintained balance...

Odin looked at the screen and thought to himself: It seems that it can only end today.

"Okay," the emperor sighed, "I will give you other pleasures. The premise is... at least be a normal human being in front of outsiders."

...

——In the 45th year of the old imperial calendar, a starship was moored in the palace of the Star City of Eternal Paradise.

The "little monster" Kaios, who was born in the laboratory, stepped into this magnificent land as the emperor's illegitimate son.

Those green eyes, which were very similar to Odin, freed him from doubts about his identity.

And Odin's children, especially the crown prince—Andrew Odin II, all vaguely perceived the ominous meaning from it.

Especially, the day that child arrived.

Crown Prince Andrew heard from the eyeliner of the waiter that he had planted, that the always cruel and ruthless father actually hummed and smiled lowly, and said this to the illegitimate son:

"Don't worry, you won't get tired of playing."

"There's an entire empire here for you to play."

The author has something to say:

That last sentence—

Keos' understanding: There is still an entire empire's power to suppress him.

Andrew's understanding: Fuck, father wants to give this little bastard the seat of heir!?

What Odin really wanted to express: despaired, let the overthrow of the empire become a new game for little monsters.

In fact, the future of Kaios: Commander posted, Jiang Jiang kissed... oh, he won't give me a kiss, emoemo...