I’m a human being ah, are you not? Chapter 1.1

[I’m a human being ah, are you not?]

Author: Lady Lotus Crane

Text:

①【Social Fear Moth God x Travelling Treasure Hunter

 

The universe was silent, and the Lord God took humanity as His own dependents, caring for them and tending to them without a care in the world. But when He woke up from His sleep, humanity was already extinct, and a newborn race had taken the place of humanity’s ecological position, and was growing by leaps and bounds.

 

God was grief-stricken, and while the alien race certainly bore only a passing resemblance to humans, He still treated the other side as human and showered a few moments of care.

 

That is, until the black-haired, black-eyed treasure hunter accidentally travelled across the gap between time and space to the universe of the present.

 

—— Yan Zhi Xiu rubbed the back of his head, though he didn’t know where he was, there seemed to be a particularly excited madman in front of him …?

 

God sees alien <*unusual race*> A (aloof): what is this? A meal replacement, eat it.

 

God sees alien B (aloof): what is this, a meal replacement, eat it.

 

God sees the treasure hunter (alarmed): what is this, a regular meal, I’ll grab it as soon as I can!

 

***

---

Chapter 1:  愚人一无所有（一）

[Fool with nothing to lose (1)]*(Fool who do not own anything in the world)

---

Chapter 1 Part 1:

Xu Jiu was eating when the trouble came to his door.

The meals supplied to the bottom-level cleaning staff were naturally not considered high-quality, but it was more than enough to fill his stomach. A large spoonful of starchy paste that smelled like rubber and was the colour of oatmeal was lying limply on Xu Jiu’s plate, and next to it was a small spoonful of even darker coloured, savoury minced meat that was said to be laced with a sufficient amount of fat and protein.

 

He was cowering in the corner, a dead-stiff, compressed cold round flat cake in his hand, and was eating it with his head buried in it without saying a word, taking the pie and angrily spreading the two piles of the thick and sticky sauce, using it as a dipping material.

 

The cleaner next to him shrink back, disgusted and a little envious.

 

“Rice bucket (big eater; piggish eater; fathead; good-for-nothing) … your appetite is so good.”

 

He cleared his throat, Xu Jiu still did not raise his head, and only the continuous sound of chewing was heard in all directions, as well as the sound of protective clothing rustling and rubbing.

 

“Hey, hey! Calling you, Xiao Xu!” The man tentatively waved the pie in his hand, “How about switching shifts with me this afternoon? The benefits aren’t lost on you, I’ll take compressed (ship) biscuits to make up for it with you, how about it?”

 

Hearing that there was food, only then Xu Jiu lifted his face and looked at the other party.

 

A clean, pretty face, his skin was as white as a ghostly shadow, his two thin lips also lacked blood colour, and under the light of the cafeteria lamp, his messy short hair was almost dark brown, with hairy yellow ends; the whole man was as thin as a starving stray cat.

 

“Ah?” Xu Jiu wiped the corners of his mouth, revealing a somewhat confused smile, “Brother Wu don’t tell jokes, you’re in charge of washing the radioactive oil drums in the afternoon. That stuff probably would make people vomit and have diarrhoea, I’m not going.”

 

Brother Wu was a bit anxious, he hurriedly sat over, “Xiao Xu, don’t ah! You see, you’re all alone, but your Brother Wu is burdened with a family and there are still people at home waiting for me to go back. I’ve shown you pictures of your nieces and nephews, haven’t I? I really treat you as my own family! Xiao Xu, you help Brother Wu this time, I have both aged parents and young children to support and take care of (aka sandwich generation)…. Three meals! Three meals of compressed biscuits, Brother Wu, I’ll give it to you. You like to eat it right? Can you eat it right?”

 

Seeing Xu Jiu do not say anything or complain, grinning foolishly, he changed his face and whispered: “Oh yeah  Xiao Xu, you can not forget that last time, who helped you to solve the matter? The supervisor didn’t come looking for trouble (with you), did he? I am the one who suffered a lot!”

 

Xu Jiu helplessly put down the biscuits and let out a cloud of white mist, “Brother Wu, you were originally responsible for that incident. I didn’t put the clean equipment in on time, but you had the key in your hand, you were the one who forgot to close the door.”

 

“You’re going to turn over old accounts, aren’t you? You’re going to reopen my old wounds, aren’t you?” Brother Wu sat up straight all of a sudden, he wanted to say something else, Xu Jiu’s smile became even wider, gestured a few fingers towards him and said, “Five meals of compressed biscuits, in addition to this, I also want your share of fruit, Brother Wu.”

 

Brother Wu was dumbfounded for a moment.

 

Yes, fruit. Despite the fact that this branch was set up in the polar region where birds don’t shit and people don’t see each other for thousands of miles, the regular employees could still eat fruit. But when it was said to be fruit, it was actually just dehydrated dried fruit. A small number of deflated and crispy apple slices and banana slices were packed in palm-sized bags, so naturally, they, the bottom-level cleaning staff, were also considered as official employees, and could be given a share once a week.

 

Even so, this kind of dried fruit was still precious, and could almost be used as a kind of trade currency among the huge number of bottom-floor staff.

 

Xu Jiu laughed again, “Forget it if you don’t want to, Brother Wu, I’ll keep an eye on things for you while you wash the radioactive oil drums.”

 

Brother Wu’s teeth clenched and gnawed, he unwillingly and suddenly stood up, after a moment of refusing to budge, he sat down again and said in a lowered voice, “Xiao Xu, you’re too ruthless.”

 

“Then you get someone else to help you wash the oil drums.” Xu Jiu began to break the compressed ship biscuits into small pieces, pressing them into the paste with his fingertips so that they were soaked well.

 

“Good, good,” Brother Wu thought it was laughable and angry, “It’s a deal, you wash oil drums for me, then I’ll give you five meals of biscuits and a week’s worth of fruit …”

 

“This week’s fruit,” Xu Jiu added, “not ‘one week’.”

 

“Gotta——” said Brother Wu, standing up again, smiled hypocritically, “Fruit for this week, this week.”

 

Seeing Xu Jiu nodded down, the man lifted his leg and left, before leaving, he viciously cursed, “Rice bucket (big eater),eat less!”

 

Xu Jiu rightly pretended not to hear, not a shadow of reluctance in his smile, and shouted at the other man’s back, “See you tomorrow, Brother Wu!”

 

He left, and in the large canteen, not a single person approached Xu Jiu to talk to him again. He finished his meal alone, sent his plate off to be washed off and loaded into the cupboard alone, and then went back to his small, capsule-like, humble dormitory alone.

 

Xu Jiu had no parents, and there were many other orphans like him in Mobius Laboratorium, whose origins were unknown. This huge organization, which was called a laboratory but was in fact a giant enterprise, searched for these orphans (just like him), just like searching for floating weeds [fig.rover; person who wanders from place to place] on the surface of the water. It absorbed them, gave them food and shelter, but at the same time, it mercilessly screened, eliminated, and squeezed them.

 

Xu Jiu had long forgotten where he had come from, let alone knowing if he had any other blood relatives alive. Compared to his peers with extraordinary qualifications, Xu Jiu’s talent for learning was mediocre, and he was only halfway through his senior high school classes at the lab-dominated school before the teacher in charge of the assessment (exam) sent him out of the classroom with a piece of paper and a stamp.

 

It was a good thing that he had grown up in the precincts (area under jurisdiction) ruled by the laboratory, and for the lab’s managers, instead of hiring outsiders, they would have chosen a kid like Xu Jiu, who had a clean background and they knew his roots better.

 

Just like this, it was that the day after he had involuntarily dropped out of school, he seamlessly transitioned into the status of a worker and became part of the army of low-level cleaners.

 

Xu Jiu took off his work badge and dropped it on the small, half-human-tall table. The dim lamplight illuminated the eight-ringed logo on it, as well as a small “6”.

 

Dreams were too far away from him, and tomorrow was a very purely vague thing. Xu Jiu’s wish was very pragmatic, he only wanted to not go hungry every day before his death, and preferably to die a quick death without too much suffering the moment he was burned clean by the lab as a consumable materials.

 

Before then, cleaning the radioactive oil drums was considered a small matter. If you could eat more, then just eat as much as you could, since after today, who knows what it will be like in the future?

---