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ASER – Chapter 9

Flatbread

Within the Tang Song Empire, Qishan County was indeed a backwater, but it was, after all, the interstellar age. The building systems were decent, the county roads were relatively wide, transportation was convenient, and local prices were actually not high. However, for the poor, the concept of “prices” didn’t exist; all their money was basically just used to scrape by.

Dragging her suitcase along the county road, A’Diao calculated all her assets and found that she had no room to scrape by at all.

Only 461 Star Coins remained.

The tuition for the first semester of senior year at Qishan County High School was 650 Star Coins. That’s why she risked picking mulberry fruits, hoping to make up the amount in one go. As a result, now she hadn’t gathered enough money, her old home was gone, and she had to rent a place.

There were 6 days left until school started.

Finally, after dragging her suitcase all over the county, she found a suitable place in Old Street. After some haggling with the landlady, who was wielding a spatula, the latter, unable to stand the almost-burnt chicken wings in the house any longer, settled on a rent of 5 Star Coins a day.

For such short-term rentals, there were no agreements to sign. Both sides, afraid of being cheated, opted for daily payment.

The landlady saw that A’Diao was young and looked quite clean. Although she haggled, it wasn’t too outrageous and was still within an acceptable range. Plus, she paid readily. So, the landlady went inside, fished the chicken wings out, put them on the table, took off her apron, and prepared to get her a quilt.

On the way, A’Diao was quite well-behaved and polite, even helping to carry the duvet cover and pillow.

The courtyard was a quadrangle, surrounded by tall trees, but the house itself was a bit old-fashioned. Its advantage was its simplicity. A’Diao had already seen the place and was generally satisfied.

It was just dinner time, and many outside tenants were returning. A mixed bag of people, some curiously looking over.

In front of these people, the landlady, while tidying up, said loudly to the other tenants, “That big oaf, your dad, entrusted you to me for a few days because he went to work with a group of brothers. It just so happens I don’t have any rooms at home, so stay here for a few days. If anything happens, just call, and your uncle and I will come.”

After saying that, she took her inside.

A’Diao naturally knew that her “polite” investment had worked. After closing the door, she whispered, “Thank you, Big Sister.”

Oh, what a sweet talker.

The landlady smiled, quickly arranged the bedding, and gave her the key. But looking outside, she pulled A’Diao to a corner. “Actually, the second floor is better, but Big Sister is letting you stay on the first floor. Firstly, if anything happens, you can run from the back window. Secondly, here…”

She took out another key and pushed open the wardrobe. “This was originally where my in-laws lived. Country folk like to pickle vegetables, so there’s a cellar underneath. After they passed away, it was emptied. If anyone has any bad intentions and I can’t get to you in time, you can hide here. The wooden board below has a latch; it can hold until I come to rescue you.”

“But don’t go out at night. It’s not safe outside. Someone was killed in the alley next door just today. This Spiritual Energy revival is really chaotic.”

“A young girl like you… don’t say I didn’t look after you.”

This was truly an unexpected bonus.

A’Diao repeatedly thanked her and paid the next day’s rent in advance. The landlady smiled even more brightly and later even gave her steamed buns, vegetable soup, and a chicken wing.

Indeed, there’s no such thing as unprovoked kindness. It’s all about give and take.


Night fell. The sounds of human activity echoed from both upstairs and downstairs. The occasional toilet flush reminded her of the ultra-low-level targets she could capture.

It seems anyone can be captured.

But in such a chaotic place, it was best to minimize contact. A’Diao didn’t dare to make a fuss, just kept the doors and windows tightly closed, sat at the desk, and continued reading and doing her homework as usual, so as not to fall behind. Occasionally, she checked the news on her phone. When she saw the tragic death incidents happening everywhere, her mentality gradually became unstable. She slammed her book shut.

Those news stories were quickly suppressed, like fireworks, turning to ash after burning, leaving no trace, blown away by the wind.

Poverty is the greatest original sin; even the truth of death cannot be publicized.

“In fact, the authorities are just swords in the hands of the powerful. Swords have their own sharpness, but the direction they point is not controlled by themselves.”

“A mere Jiang Family can make me like a stray dog… No wonder those girls in the village all want to marry into good families. Although not independent, when they themselves are not outstanding enough, marriage is indeed their simplest choice to cross class boundaries.”

Who would want to eat chaff and swallow vegetables if they could eat hot steamed buns?

Who would want to eat steamed buns if they could eat shark fin and bear paw?

“People strive for higher things… The so-called family said they didn’t want me, so they didn’t want me. The Old Daoist Priest is the same. Useless people will only be abandoned.”

A’Diao’s face was stern, but she quickly calmed down and prepared to finish the test papers she was supposed to do today. But a message suddenly popped up in the group chat. It was from her deskmate, Zhao Min.

“Xiao Diao, look at the group chat. Did you do that summer report? Damn, I just found out about it.”

What?

A’Diao opened the class group chat and saw hundreds of messages about this summer extracurricular investigation and development report. Other classmates were talking about the topics and content they wrote, but these two deskmates, fellow sufferers, were still in a state of “what the hell” bewilderment.

Oh, she remembered. Before the holiday, when the homeroom teacher was saying those last words, one of them was busy reading a novel, and the other was busy packing up to catch the bus back to the mountains to dig sweet potatoes.

Zhao Min: “We’re screwed. The teacher said to submit it early, it’s due tomorrow. She has to grade the assignments in advance because the Education Bureau is investigating recently.”

Zhao Min: “Do you think if we tell the homeroom teacher now that we didn’t know about this assignment, she’ll let us off the hook?”

A’Diao: “She’ll probably let me off the hook and beat you up. After all, based on our grades, she knows I genuinely didn’t know, not that I didn’t want to do it or couldn’t do it. That’s not necessarily the case for you.”

From Zhao Min +1+1+1.

He can even spam that?

It was truly an unexpected joy. After all, how could she hurt her deskmate?

No one was willing to “lend” them their work. Having no other choice, the two could only download the files shared by their classmates in the group chat and start working on the assignment overnight. A’Diao originally planned to go down to the cellar to absorb toilet Spiritual Energy after finishing her test papers, but now she couldn’t.

The numbers on the wall clock kept changing. At 3 a.m., A’Diao finally finished typing the content on her computer. After sending it to the homeroom teacher’s email, her eyelids could barely stay open. Without even taking a shower, she collapsed on the bed. Not long after the lights were turned off, the toilet suddenly reminded her: There are 26 ultra-low-level capturable targets nearby.

I know, I know, but I just want to sleep. I’m not capturing Mental Energy anymore.

Half-asleep, A’Diao didn’t move.

Toilet: There are 25 ultra-low-level capturable targets nearby.

Toilet: There are 24 ultra-low-level capturable targets nearby.

After three consecutive times, A’Diao suddenly opened her eyes.

Something’s not right. She remembered that after 10 p.m., the number of people in this area was basically fixed, because most of them were laborers who had work the next day and went to bed early. So their range of movement was also fixed. During her later study session, the last count from the toilet was 27 ultra-low-level capturable targets.

But the first reminder just now was 26 people, and it decreased by one person every few minutes.

What did this mean?

Did these three people secretly leave this area one after another?

Toilet: There are 23 ultra-low-level capturable targets nearby.

Damn it, another one is gone!

A’Diao: ?

For some reason, she suddenly thought of the landlady’s casual words – someone died in the alley.

Could it be that the attacker was targeting this place as well?

That shouldn’t be the case. There were no signs of Spiritual Vessels here.

Unless it was murder or a supernatural attack.

The documented records of the initial descent of Spiritual Energy did mention that beings other than humans benefited from Spiritual Energy and became stronger. There were other creatures as well.

They became strange and powerful, and with infinitely amplified bloodlust, they began to prey on humans.

A’Diao’s mind froze for a second. When the toilet prompted 22 people, she finally quietly lifted the quilt, took the key, her phone, and the wooden stick she kept by the bed for self-defense, and tiptoed carefully to the cellar.


In the quadrangle, a wriggling shadow moved along the corridor on the second floor of the west wing. It crawled out of the second room from the left staircase, silently, its soft underbelly contracting and moving like a snake. But its skin scraped against the ground, leaving a trail of mucus. Under the cold moonlight, this mucus was faintly blood-red.

It approached the third room. After getting close to the door, its body changed shape like mud, compressing and spreading, transforming from a three-dimensional oval shape into a flat, pancake-like form. It silently wriggled into the half-centimeter gap under the door.

The room was darker than the outside, with only some moonlight shining through the window, adding a bit of cold light to the interior.

After the wriggling flatbread fully entered, it filled out its body like a sponge, becoming elongated. Its front end rose slightly, as if sniffing something. It quickly approached the large bed.

On the bed, a couple was sound asleep, completely unaware of the two-meter-long creature crawling to the corner of the bed. Its tail stood up, and one end suddenly revealed a mouthpart, which was releasing a green gas.

The gas gradually spread, and the couple, inhaling the green gas, became like they were anesthetized, quickly becoming motionless. They didn’t even know that its heavy body was crawling over them through the quilt, until its head approached their heads, rising slightly like a rattlesnake. Its mouth opened, and a two-inch-long tubular mouthpart ejected from its upper jaw, slowly piercing their heads.

Soon, a white fluid was sucked away through the mouthpart. The anesthetized wife’s features became hollow in her unconsciousness, her expression becoming numb like a corpse, her eyes rolling upwards, terrifyingly so.

Soon it was the husband’s turn.

Is that it?

No. After finishing the most delicious part, it turned its body, crawled from their heads, and entered the gap between their chests and the quilt, gathering on their upper bodies. Under the quilt, it wriggled. Soon, there was a sharp tearing sound, the sound of skin being ripped open, followed by the sound of sharp teeth chewing and swallowing.

Its form grew larger and larger.

Suddenly, its chewing stopped.

Because it heard a faint sound. Its hearing and sense of smell were excellent. Just now, it heard the sound of something being moved, and it also smelled that the scent of its prey seemed to have diminished a bit.

There were other prey, so it could ignore this small loss, but it felt vaguely uneasy.

It crawled off the bed, out of the room, and along the corridor, clinging to the wooden pillars connecting the second and first floors… It soon reached the outside of the first room on the left in the east wing.

It was certain that the previous movement came from here.

It crawled inside.

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