Chapter 1
“Hoo…Hoo…Hoo…”
Mia lay on the ground, trying hard to control her rapid breathing due to nervousness, and stared straight ahead through the narrow hole in front of her.
She knew that her grandfather was hiding in another , but because of the angle, she could only vaguely see the raised reddish-brown stone next to the cave. Therefore, loneliness and panic swept over her, and her sweaty hands trembled, and she could hardly hold the crude stone axe.
Outside this narrow cave, a monster that looked like a rotten tree root was slowly searching for food. It was two people tall, and its sharp claws gently scratched the ground, causing the hard stone to crack like tofu, and a half-foot-deep pit appeared on the ground. The monster dug twice more, hooked out a slender brown worm that was constantly twisting from the ground, stretched out its tongue covered with barbs, and swallowed the thing into its mouth, almost without chewing it.
Mia's scalp went numb and a deep fear appeared in her eyes involuntarily.
The monster, whose scientific name was the Kolo Lizard, was a ferocious monster that even the military had to send out at least two elite teams to deal with. But here, it was one of the weakest creatures besides humans, and the only food that she and her grandfather could hunt.
This was Mia's first hunt. She had been training in the dark and gloomy underground cave for half a year for this day. But when she faced the actual battle, she found that her strength was so weak and her preparation was far from sufficient. The scales of the lizard were so hard and thick that she doubted whether the stone axe in her hand could cut a gap in it. The claws and teeth were so sharp that if she was scratched, she would either die or be injured.
Mia could not help but want to retreat, but then she immediately became firm again - Grandpa was old, and if she continued to be a useless burden, sooner or later, she would kill her only relative. In order to prevent the tragedy from happening, she must become strong as soon as possible, be able to stand on her own, and become a strong person that Grandpa could trust and rely on!
Thinking of this, it seemed as if an endless amount of courage surged up in my heart, and the shaking of my arms suddenly stopped. At this moment, the Kolo Lizard suddenly let out a terrifying howl, its huge head swayed, dark red blood flowed down its cheek to the ground, and one of its eyes had turned into a bloody hole because a fist-sized stone was deeply embedded in it.
Mia was stunned for a moment, then realized that her grandfather had launched an attack, so she rushed out without thinking, jumped high, raised the stone axe with both hands and chopped it down fiercely!
"Hey-ah!"
The stone axe struck heavily on the scales on the back of the Kolo Lizard, creating a streak of bright sparks.
“Oh no!”
As her body fell to the ground, Mia realized that her hasty attack had hit the hard shell of the Colo Lizard's back, causing no damage to the monster at all, but instead drawing the Colo Lizard's attention to herself. The Colo Lizard turned its head, staring at Mia who had fallen to the ground with its other scarlet eye, and opened its mouth wide, the fishy smell almost made the girl faint.
"boom!"
Just as the monster's teeth were flashing with cold light and about to bite Mia's body in half, a black shadow suddenly rushed out from the side and punched the lizard's lower jaw heavily. As if it was hit head-on by a high-speed car, the lizard's upper body involuntarily rose up, and a hoarse low roar came out of its mouth. The black shadow did not stop for a moment, rushing in front of the lizard like lightning, almost hugging the ugly monster in its arms, and punching the lizard's relatively soft abdomen several times in succession. After several loud "booms", the lizard fell to the ground with a viscous red liquid overflowing from its mouth. Its limbs were still twitching, but it gradually became silent.
Although this black shadow who suddenly rushed out killed the ferocious beast that ordinary people were afraid of in just five moves, he looked neither strong nor cool. He had a head full of white hair and a thin body. At this moment, he was hunched over, covering his mouth and making a few suppressed coughs, just like an ordinary, dying old man.
Mia was so frightened that she quickly got up from the ground, held the old man's arm, and shouted with shame and a bit of grievance: "Grandpa..."
"Don't just stand there." The old man Mi Dong coughed twice, waved his hand and said, "Hurry up and clean up. The noise just now was too loud. We need to leave quickly."
"Yes!" Mia understood this. She agreed, looked at Mi Dong worriedly, and grabbed the old man's arm with both hands, as if she wanted to pass on her youth and strength to him. Then she let go, and the two of them dragged their trembling hands and feet to quickly skin and bone the body of the Colo Lizard, cut off as much edible meat and internal organs as possible, and tied it up with a few rags so that they could take it back to their temporary residence.
Soon, the huge body of the Kolo Lizard had turned into a pile of scales, broken bones, and pieces of meat. Only the head still retained its hideous appearance. Seeing that today's work was about to be completed, Mia couldn't help but show a somewhat relaxed look. Suddenly, her waist tightened and she was thrown to the side. The speed was so fast that she even blacked out. When she came to her senses, she found that she had moved a distance of ten meters in an instant.
Seven or eight arrows were nailed to their original positions. The huge force even caused most of the arrows to sink into the ground. If Mia was still there, she would definitely have become a corpse by now.
Mi Dong held the girl in one hand and a leg bone removed from a Colorus lizard in the other. His face was as cold as iron and with murderous intent in his eyes, he looked coldly at the dozen or so people who suddenly appeared around him.
These people were dressed in rags, some even only had a piece of animal skin of unknown color around their waists, and their expressions were full of the madness and cruelty of desperadoes. Their weapons were also very simple, only three or four people held homemade bows and arrows, and the rest mostly had stone tools or animal bones. One person was even bare-handed, with only ten nails sharpened. But their simple appearance did not mean that they were weak. On the contrary, the fact that they could survive in this place proved that these people were strong.
——However, there are always some people who dare not swing their weapons at monsters even in desperate situations, and instead choose to treat their own kind as their prey.
Because of our intelligence and emotions, humans are sometimes much easier to hunt than single-celled beasts.
Judging from the attackers' positions, they were led by a bald strong man, who had the best bow and arrow in his hand. He also had a short knife made of animal teeth on his waist.
The bald man smacked his lips, seeming to feel very sorry that the sneak attack was ineffective. His eyes flickered as he assessed the threat level of Mi Dong's strength just displayed to him. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded and said, "Put down your things, you can leave."
In his opinion, this decision was probably already very magnanimous, but anger flashed across Mi Dong's face - in the past, no one had ever dared to speak to him like this, but the soft and slightly trembling body of the girl in his hands extinguished the murderous intent that suddenly rose in his heart. After a little hesitation, Mi Dong slowly retreated with the girl, his eyes always fixed on the group of attackers, not daring to leave his back to them.
The attackers were the same. Even though Mi Dong and the other two had shown signs of retreating, no one let down their guard. The bow and arrow in the bald man's hand always moved with Mi Dong's movements. Only Mia looked at the piece of meat that was gradually moving away, and her expression could not help but reveal a bit of unwillingness and desire.
"etc."
Seeing that Mi Dong and the other man were about to approach a hole about three square meters in size on the ground, the bald man suddenly shouted, and everyone suddenly became alert, and the air seemed to become tense.
The bald man put down the bow and arrow in his hand, took a few steps forward, picked up a bundle of bright red meat on the ground, threw it hard at Mi Dong, and said, "I'm sorry to let you work in vain, take these."
Seeing that the lost things were back in her hands, even though it was only a few tenths of the original, Mia was still happy because of this unexpected surprise, and her impression of the bald man became much better. But Mi Dong's face became even uglier, but he didn't say much. He took the piece of meat, looked at the bald man deeply, and was about to jump into the cave with Mia.
At this moment, one of the bald man's men accidentally looked up and exclaimed, "Sugar Rain!"
This sudden sound made everyone stunned, and one of them even almost shot the arrow in his hand. However, after a moment of reaction, everyone put the confrontation behind their minds, looked up at the sky, and then showed ecstatic expressions together.
Hundreds of thousands, even millions of white dots appeared out of nowhere in the sky, gradually growing larger, forming a veritable rainstorm. The pure white "raindrops" fell to the ground at a leisurely speed, and soon occupied the entire sky and the sight of everyone on the ground.
It was like pouring cold water into a boiling oil pan.
If you look down from the sky at this time, you can see that the entire planet is completely boiling because of this "rain".
Although there are many "raindrops", they are very rare compared to the distribution range of planets. Sometimes, there may not be one in a radius of dozens of miles. Therefore, whether you can seize this "opportunity" requires the ability to accurately judge its landing point, strong competitiveness - or combat effectiveness - and a little bit of luck.
The bald man's team had all of these. They had lived here for a long time, and with their rich experience, they were able to judge that a raindrop was about to fall nearby. The bald man made a quick decision and said, "Let's go!"
The group of people didn't even spare a glance for the Colo lizard meat they had snatched before, and rushed to the place where the white dot was about to fall as fast as possible. Their bodies covered by rags revealed a determination to win.
In the blink of an eye, Mia and her grandson were the only ones .
Mi Dong then let go of Mi Ya. The girl landed, turned her head and looked at the old man, hesitantly saying: "Grandpa, we..."
Mi Dong coughed twice, then said, "No hurry." He quickly hid the bundled pieces of meat, then looked at Mia with desire in her eyes, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Let's go and take a look, and act accordingly. But when we get there, you have to..."
"I understand." Mia said quickly: "I will find a place to hide first. I won't be impulsive and won't cause you any trouble."
Mi Dong added: "If I say run, you should run for your life immediately and don't care about anything else. Can you do it?"
Mia bit her lip and nodded, "I understand." She understood what Mi Dong meant - if he was in danger, she should leave him behind and run for her life. The girl agreed, but secretly thought: If even her grandfather died, what would be the point of her living alone in this hellish place, even if she could only survive?
Mi Dong didn't say anything else. The girl's thoughts were like written on a white paper, and it was easy to see at a glance. Mi Dong felt a little helpless, but these words were just his habitual reminder, without much toughness. Because Mi Dong was very confident, he didn't think there were many people on this planet who were stronger than him. Even if he couldn't beat them, he could always escape with a little girl. If Mia hadn't been by his side just now, he could have kept all of the bald guys with one hand. If someone thinks he is weak because he is old and sick, they are very wrong.
When the two arrived near the predicted landing point, the sugar rain was still slowly falling in space, and dozens of people had gathered nearby. Among them, the bald man's team had the largest number of people. They stared at everyone with a nervous look, and their weapons were ready to go. The other people in groups of two or three knew that they had little hope of gaining anything, but they were reluctant to leave, and lingered nearby, hoping to fish in troubled waters when the sugar rain landed.
Mi Dong and the other man were hiding in the distance. Mia looked up at the ball falling hundreds of meters in the sky and was slightly stunned.
This was the first time she saw the feast of the people on this planet - sugar rain.
Spectacular, beautiful and leisurely.
…and desperate.
"Grandpa, is this how I came here?" Mia asked softly.
"......Yeah." Mi Dong replied in a low voice.
Mia was silent.
During this period of time, she tried her best not to recall her past life, not to think about why all this happened, and desperately mastered the skills to survive in this place, forgetting the past, not looking forward to the future, and just trying to spend every day now. But now, this white rain suddenly awakened all the memories and pains. Thinking that she had also fallen into this hell irreversibly, Mia's body trembled slightly, and she didn't notice the drops of blood falling to the ground from her tightly clenched hands.
Mi Dong sighed silently, but didn't say anything - no matter how painful it was, she had to get through this stage on her own.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, the sugar rain finally slowly fell to the ground, and there were more sneaky figures nearby. When the giant white sphere was still seven or eight meters from the ground, someone finally couldn't hold back, jumped up high, grabbed the "raindrops", and fiercely tore off a large piece of white flocs from it.
This was like stirring up a hornet's nest. Many people rushed forward and quickly tore the white ball into pieces. Some people couldn't wait to stuff the white flocs into their mouths and eat them voraciously. However, Guangtou, Mi Dong and other people who were more powerful in the fight did not move.
Those floccules were just an unnecessary addition to the "sugar rain". What really mattered was what was inside. They waited to see if those things were worth their while.
Sugar rain is not real rain, of course.
That is the only channel to obtain materials from the civilized world on this isolated, harsh, primitive and wild planet.
Many years ago, someone invented a strange sugar ball. It was white and soft, containing a small amount of sugar and relatively rich nutrients. It could expand rapidly in a short period of time, with a diameter of up to 20 to 30 meters. It could hold a certain number of objects. The thick white sugar thread on the outside was both elastic and sticky, fireproof and waterproof, and could well protect the objects inside. No matter how fragile the object inside was - a glass or a baby - even if it was thrown from a height of tens of millions of meters outside the planet, the impact force when it finally fell to the ground would be so weak that it would not cause any damage to it.
Once this kind of sugar ball called "marshmallow" appeared, it immediately became popular throughout the Landia Empire, and soon became the first choice for dropping supplies to the planet. In the past, in order to prevent the possibility of people on the planet obtaining technological products and then transforming spacecraft to escape from the planet, the outside world has always used very primitive parachutes to drop various supplies, including people. Not many people care about the casualties caused by this, but some supplies are seriously damaged during landing, which is unbearable for many people. Therefore, it is conceivable that marshmallows are popular.
However, this delivery method also has a disadvantage: without tearing off the outer layer of sugar, no one knows what is inside - it could be food, clean water, medicine, or... a person.
In a few breaths, the outer layer of sugar threads had been torn off by the hungry crowd by 70% to 80%, and part of the stuff inside was vaguely exposed. The bald man felt that the appearance of that thing looked very unfamiliar, and it was not any of the materials he had obtained from the cotton candy balls. The hard texture, the blue translucent color, that feeling... Suddenly, he remembered a legend, his pupils suddenly shrank, and he shouted: "Wait... Stop it!"
But the last layer of sugar had been torn off by the anxious people, and the object inside was completely exposed to everyone. Looking at that thing, most people were stunned for no reason. A moment later, a terrified, broken scream suddenly pierced the air: "Ice coffin! This is an ice coffin!"
Suddenly, everyone seemed to hear the sound of a bomb, and they immediately fled in all directions. A few people asked in confusion: "What is the ice coffin?" But no one who knew the answer was willing to stop and explain it to them. No one was stupid, and seeing that everyone else was running for their lives, even if they didn't know why, the rest of them ran away.
If you are not smart, you won't survive long in this place.
Left behind by the crowd was a cabinet-shaped object more than three meters high. The light blue translucent material exuded a faint chill. It really looked like a coffin made of ice, and a human-shaped black shadow could be seen inside.
"Grandpa, is there... a person in there?" Mia asked softly.
"It should be." Mi Dong said. After the two of them were stranded on this planet, they did not interact with other people, so Mi Dong did not know what the so-called ice coffin was. However, he was confident of his strength and did not flee in panic like the others, but stayed where he was to observe. He stared at the ice coffin that frightened everyone, and did not think that there was anything special about it , but...
Mi Dong frowned.
Even the figure was blurry, but he suddenly had a feeling - the person in the ice coffin opened his eyes.
At this moment, everyone who was fleeing desperately stopped in unison as if they had agreed to do so, as if they were naked and exposed in the snow, and a chill seeped into their bones.
The next second, as if a bomb had exploded, the ice coffin instantly turned into steam and spread out, and in a moment, the area within a hundred miles became misty. The milky white mist was like a thick slurry, and even the people around him looked hazy. At the same time, an invisible wave spread out, and all the people who escaped, wandered, and hid in the distance to observe, all lost consciousness in an instant.
Mi Dong didn't even have the chance to regret, and he fainted. But Mia, who was beside him, had a necklace on her neck that flashed and then broke. This short-term protection made the girl faint two seconds later than the others.
Before she lost consciousness, she tried to open her eyes wide, trying to figure out what was going on.
In the white fog, she vaguely saw a slender figure walking towards her from a distance, as if walking on the wind and clouds, step by step, with a wonderful rhythm that seemed to be in tune with her heartbeat, or as if it was just a glimpse that could only be seen in a dream.
