"Chicken soup's here!"
With Celia's cheerful shout, the children became restless, some even standing on their stools, just to get a whiff of the chicken soup's aroma sooner.
Even the pink-haired girl beside Michael was the same, even more energetic than the other children.
Only he was the exception—as a glorious transmigrated uncle, he really couldn't imitate the actions of a ten-year-old.
"Sigh... what's with this, saying it's chicken soup, but it's really just soup..."
"But there's a piece of meat in it!"
"You don't understand, that's called 'seven-mile fragrance'!"
"Seven-mile fragrance... what does that have to do with chicken?"
"I don't know, Michael said the chicken's butt is 'seven-mile fragrance'..."
Celia maintained an awkward yet polite smile, gently tapping Michael on the head with a small wooden spoon.
"I know you read a lot, but don't go telling them all sorts of nonsense!"
Michael stuck out his tongue and rolled his eyes. While all the other kids were eager to drink the warm chicken soup, he silently took a small piece of corn and turned to hand it to the girl beside him.
But the girl also happened to be turning around with her bowl, the two of them seemingly familiar with this tacit understanding. The girl took the corn from Michael without hesitation, and Michael silently took the soup she offered.
Corn was a rare treat in the orphanage.
And the warm chicken soup helped to swallow the freezing cold potatoes that made your teeth ache.
"Speaking of which, those weird uncles came again this morning. This is the third time, right? The physical exams are so annoying!"
Michael's hand trembled, but the children were already chattering away.
He secretly glanced at the girl beside him. She was looking down, silent.
Normally, she would be the center of all the children, her words seemingly never-ending, but... but her name was Elysia.
She was the Elysia who, despite smiling in her fancy dress, made people's tears fall unconsciously, and by the time they realized it, she had already broken through the dimensional wall to arrive in this world.
He didn't know why he had come to this era destined for its end, but since he was already here, then...
So he reached out a finger and poked Elysia's slightly chubby cheek.
When she turned her head in exasperation, Michael had already put on what he thought was a warm smile.
Then he got another tap on the head from Celia, "Michael, don't always bully Ellie."
"Children, those uncles brought you flour and butter. I'll make you a cake for dinner, how does that sound?"
After lunch, Michael returned to his room.
His narrow bed was scattered with all sorts of books and blueprints.
"The Atomic Arrangement Structure of Iron", "Carbon Element Infiltration of Steel", "Classic Handheld Firearm Blueprints from the Last Century"...
For some reason, he had recently become particularly interested in these kinds of books. No, it seemed that even before he had taken over this body, this little boy had already started browsing chemical engineering books.
Of course, these weren't things that a ten-year-old should be exposed to—at least not for ordinary children.
He tidied up his books and blueprints and headed towards Celia's room, but stopped at the door.
"Mama Celia, I... I want to leave here."
Elysia's voice came from inside the room. Michael pursed his lips, leaned against the wall, and slowly lowered his head, not knowing what he was thinking.
Soon, Elysia came out, and she immediately saw Michael leaning against the wall.
"Eh, what are you doing here!" She seemed a little flustered.
Michael raised his head, his lips moving, but he couldn't utter a single complete sentence.
"Eh! Your eyes are red, you..."
Michael quickly turned his head away, "It's nothing, nothing! I..."
While he was trying to deny it, a big snot bubble popped out of his nose with a pop.
"Hehehe!" Elysia was amused by his embarrassing appearance.
Michael couldn't stand looking so pathetic, so he quickly hugged his books and ran into Celia's room.
"Pfft!" Seeing the snot bubble on the boy's nose constantly changing with his breathing, Celia couldn't help but laugh.
While wiping Michael's nose, she asked, "What's wrong?"
He took a deep breath, and finally just said, "The due date is here, I need to return the books and bring some back."
"If you go now, you won't be back before sunset, will you?"
Celia wanted to say that.
But she knew why the boy had cried just now.
Or rather, she thought she knew why the boy was crying, so she couldn't bear to refuse the boy's request any longer.
"Alright then! Take this money, and try to be back before dark!"
She ruffled the boy's soft silver hair.
"Ahem, ahem! 'The Structural Principles of Modern Mainstream Mecha'... you're quite the unique child."
Inside the bookstore, a pale old man leaned back in a rickety chair. He glanced at the books the boy was holding and muttered in a voice barely audible to the human ear.
Michael took out nine coins from his pocket and lined them up on the table.
He was a little apprehensive. This money wasn't enough to borrow the book—or rather, it wasn't enough to borrow the book and pay off his previous debt.
As for why there were only nine coins, it was naturally because of the cake in the box he was carrying in his other hand.
But the old man leaned back against the plastic board behind his chair, not moving.
He didn't move, and Michael didn't move either.
The thin door was blown open by the wind. Michael shivered and quickly wrapped his coat tighter around himself.
But the old man still didn't move.
Michael let out a light sigh that a child shouldn't be able to make, took two steps forward, and lifted the old man's sleeve.
As expected, purple veins had already spread to his wrist.
Michael took back the nine coins.
The destined end was unfortunate for the old man, but not necessarily for Michael—at least he could save the money and take the old man's scarf to keep warm.
As for calling the police or the hospital, that had long since lost its necessity.
For this town called Vostok-51... no, soon for the entire world, illness and death would become commonplace.
It was dusk when he left the bookstore. He should have walked faster, but his steps today were unusually heavy.
Yes, no one knew the weight this era was about to bear.
Only he, as a former witness, had glimpsed a corner of it.
Night had quietly fallen.
"Crap, it'll take ages to get back to the orphanage."
Michael quickly quickened his pace. He had promised Celia that he would return early.
What's more... he knew Elysia would leave.
He knew he couldn't stop her.
So, he had bought this cake, just to use it to see Elysia off.
After all, "Sweet cake, and beautiful girls are the perfect match."
She would definitely say that, right?
That was the sound of boots stepping on the snow.
Michael suddenly turned his head. Even if the person was hiding well, even deliberately matching his pace, he could still hear the discordant rhythm.
But he was wrong. The snowy ground behind him was empty.
The dim, warm lights from the low houses on both sides illuminated the footprints on the snow.
Besides his own, there was no one else.
He was also wrong, he made a serious mistake.
That was—he should never expose his back to the darkness.
Feeling the movement behind him, Michael stiffly turned his head, only to see an enlarged version of... a mosquito?
No! It wasn't! Its wings weren't tightly connected to its body, and purple energy was spilling out from its head in chunks.
"That's... a Honkai beast!"
Michael's mind was screaming, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, only to freeze mid-way from the wind and snow.
His peripheral vision quickly scanned his surroundings.
Perfect, not a single baseball bat in sight.
Although finding one wouldn't help either, he wasn't a Kaslana, he couldn't unleash the true power of a baseball bat.
What's more... this body right now, was just a child...
But before the emotion of fear could completely spread, it was met with a change—
The charging-type Honkai beast didn't attack Michael, but rather, somewhat affectionately... nuzzled him?
The moment the words left his mouth, Michael suddenly understood—why he had been driven by a primal urge to constantly read those obscure and difficult books.
Of course, if you look at the definition from the many years to come, he was indeed a genius.
He was just about to step towards that so-called destiny, that was all.
The charging-type Honkai beast's withered corpse and the books fell on the snow at the same time.
Michael lowered his head, not saying a word.
Soon, the howling north wind swirling above the town began to twist and bend, until it formed a vortex.
The overflowing Honkai energy dyed the wind a light purple.
And the center of the vortex was Michael's small body.
He began to run, but not towards the orphanage.
It felt like something was about to burst out of his head.
He wanted to take advantage of his last moment of clarity to get away from this town, so that not too many people would turn into zombies because of the rapidly increasing Honkai energy.
"So... so I'm the First Herrscher..."
His eyelids were heavy, and he could only see a sliver of light in front of him.
In a daze, that light seemed to turn pink.
Although he knew that the Herrschers of the Previous Era could not retain human consciousness.
Although he knew that the Herrschers of the Previous Era could not escape the fate of being killed.
But he still held onto that unrealistic hope:
"But if I'm a Herrscher... perhaps I'll have the qualification to be a witness..."