"Legend says that on the full-moon nights of ancient Terra, if someone walks alone across the wilderness outside a hive city, they may encounter a dreadful being called the Emperor Weasel."
"It may be an alien. It may be a daemon. Or it may be something even worse."
"Those who meet it will be asked a question: Do you think it looks like a man, or a god?"
"Only by answering that it looks like a man will it leave in satisfaction."
"That is how the Emperor Weasel seeks its title."
Watching her adoptive father lower his hands, Gavo's big bright eyes remained completely calm.
Today's story was just as bizarre as ever.
[Stories heard +1]
[789 stories remaining until objective completion.]
Looking at the pop-up window, she let out a slight sigh.
It had already been more than four months since the listening-to-stories objective appeared.
Yet her progress was still painfully slow.
It couldn't be helped. For someone like her adoptive father, who had been born with defects, telling a story clearly and in an organized way was genuinely difficult.
And on top of that, every person only knew a limited number of stories. Otherwise, One Thousand and One Nights would not have stopped at just one book.
Asking her adoptive father to make up the rest was impossible as well.
That kind of imagination simply did not exist among the scum struggling day after day in the underhive.
Gavo frowned.
If she did not complete the current system objective, then the next objective would never appear. In the short term, the attributes she had accumulated through Infinite Growth alone were far from enough to let her establish herself in the underhive garbage heap.
Right now, she still ate very little. With only her adoptive father's labor, the two of them could barely manage food and warmth.
But if anything happened to her adoptive father, or if her appetite increased as she grew, then the fragile balance of their current life could easily collapse.
She needed stronger talents.
Strength was the only hard currency in the underhive.
"Mm, ah."
After finishing the story, her adoptive father stood up. He picked up a large gas mask hanging by the door and put it around his neck, then dragged behind him an old handcart that screeched harshly from rust as he prepared to open the stiff, corroded door and continue scavenging for scrap that could be exchanged for the supplies they would need to survive.
Originally, Gavo had still been wondering how she could hear more stories. But when she saw this scene, her eyes rolled, and a bold idea suddenly appeared in her mind.
If she went outside together with her adoptive father, then she would have a chance to meet other people.
Although the greatest danger in the underhive came from people, if she did not take that risk, then her growth would slow down, and the hidden dangers that came with that would only increase.
Ancient Terra had a famous saying: Those who cannot give anything up can gain nothing.
Give up temporary peace in exchange for greater future stability.
That was Gavo's resolve.
So, as she looked at her adoptive father's hunched back while he opened the door, she took a deep breath and spoke with clear, deliberate pronunciation:
"I want to go out too."
Her adoptive father's back visibly trembled.
The last time he had heard Gavo speak was eleven months ago, when she had asked for a name.
Slowly, he turned around and looked at the little one with her fair, tender skin, and at the determined light shining in her lovely wide eyes.
For a moment, he could not help but think back to the day he first found her.
That evening, after enduring a lifetime of loneliness, he had held up the Aquila and prayed to the Emperor with all his devotion, begging for a presence that might comfort his solitary soul.
Even a rat-wolf pup would have done.
The moment he went out scavenging and discovered Gavo, his once dim and colorless world had been illuminated by the appearance of that little one.
When he held her frail body in his trembling hands, he knew that his lifelong devotion had finally been rewarded as it should have been.
This was a gift from the God-Emperor.
This was the Blessed Child He had granted him.
This was the light He had sent to shine into his dark and joyless world.
Yes, light.
He still clearly remembered the light in the little one's eyes, that unwavering, determined light.
Time had passed so quickly.
The moment he found her in the garbage heap still felt like yesterday, yet without him noticing, she had already grown so much.
He did not refuse Gavo.
Instead, he silently stared at her for a while.
Then he slowly took off the gas mask hanging around his neck and placed it over Gavo's face.
After that, he signed to her, telling her never to take it off outside.
Inside the gas mask was a disgusting rotten-egg stench, but Gavo obediently put it on.
She understood very well that her adoptive father was protecting her as much as he could.
A cute little girl meant no mutation and good health.
And gangs that had suffered heavy losses had a great need for girls like that to bear strong, healthy manpower for them.
Seeing how quiet and obedient Gavo was, her adoptive father nodded, then pulled the handcart and took her outside.
This was Gavo's first time coming outside. Even through glass lenses cracked and caked with grime, she still felt excited.
[A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet. Achievement completed: First Exploration.]
[Talent acquired: Adventurer. Your outings are filled with unusual encounters and adventures.]
"Tsk. Another talent that feels unsettling."
Gavo curled her lips.
She looked around and saw many shacks made from scrap metal and discarded junk standing here and there.
Clearly, this was a settlement of scavengers.
Past those shacks, her gaze fell upon the enormous garbage mountains in the distance.
They were true mountains of trash, towering so high that they even stirred a vague memory of climbing Mount Tai with a buddy in her previous life.
How could garbage mountains of this scale even come into existence?
The answer revealed itself soon enough.
Amid cries tinged with panic, Gavo saw huge amounts of waste cascading down from the heights like a waterfall falling from the heavens, scattering across the tops of the trash mountains.
Following the direction from which the garbage was falling, Gavo slowly raised her gaze higher.
Through the hazy toxic clouds, she vaguely saw... a wall?
No, it was not a wall.
It was a city of steel forged by humanity.
Its seemingly smooth surface was covered with an intricate web of spaces and pipelines. Countless human figures swayed under dim lights, creating an indescribable feeling of oppression.
This was the hive city, the most efficient machine of the Imperium of Man. Innumerable laborers became the flesh-and-blood gears of this machine, feeding its bottomless abyssal maw with everything they had.
But not every part of the hive city was oppressive.
When Gavo tilted her view nearly straight upward, her eyes pierced through the gray cloud layer and landed upon the gigantic towers that looked like spears piercing the heavens.
Brilliant light covered the surfaces of those towering spires, forming intricate and luxurious patterns that displayed all the beauty of the cloud-piercing towers without restraint.
The lights burning endlessly at the tips of those towers hung high above like sparks from the realm of gods, luring Gavo into unconsciously stretching out her right hand, trying to touch those distant points of light.
But unfortunately, she touched nothing at all.
After all, the bright lights at the tips of the towers high above could never illuminate the garbage fields of the underhive buried in the abyss below.
(End of Chapter)
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