In the eastern part of the empire, in the city of Munibau.

After much deliberation, teenager Bruce decided to give up on suicide. He wants to live for his family, no matter how difficult life will be in the future, he will try to open his eyes and not forget to breathe.

Maybe I was afraid of pain and didn't have the determination to kill myself, so I made an excuse.

Maybe it's really for the sake of their parents, and they want to continue to live with their regrets.

But now, none of that matters...

Because it's not easy to survive in this hell on earth.

Sometimes, living like a walking dead requires more courage and perseverance than dying happily.

"Whew," Bruce stumbled back to the steps and sat down, holding on to the fence.

The flames beside him raised his body temperature again, and after a long time, he finally regained consciousness...

Wearing his father's vest and carrying his mother's handkerchief, he leaned on the stone pillar and bowed his head to think about the way out.

Bruce didn't choose to sink with those maniacs who ate human flesh, because he firmly believed that no matter how difficult life was, even if he was about to starve to death, he couldn't target his own kind!

After all, if you eat human flesh, your spirit will become trance-like, and your thoughts will gradually become a mess.

After that, for the rest of their lives, the cannibals would let out uncontrollable laughter anytime, anywhere...

Such a chilling scene, just thinking about it is terrifying!

Bruce wants to survive! It's to survive as a human being! And not as a beast...

At the same time, he did not go to the disaster relief office under the city gate to get the cold rice soup.

Wangmei quenched her thirst, numbed herself with ethereal hope, and could hold on for a while, if she really smelled the food, but nothing flowed into her stomach, the secreted stomach acid is estimated to make her cool faster.

"Whew... I'm so hungry..."Bruce looked up at the stars in the sky, waiting for tomorrow, just like the other refugees sitting nearby, moaning.

...

This went on for a few days, until one day at noon, when Bruce could no longer bear the pain of hunger and planned to try his luck outside the city.

According to the observation of so many days, both the officials and the clergy all had sunken eye sockets, walked unsteadily, and the priest was so emaciated that he could not even speak.

Since people in high positions have nothing to eat, let alone low-level disaster victims like themselves.

I heard from some people who still have the strength to speak that there is still a small amount of grain circulating on the black market, but the price is so high that ordinary people cannot afford it.

A loaf of bread mixed with dirt and stones costs ten gold coins to buy it...

But where are the ten gold coins in the surrounding group of disaster victims? I can't even get ten copper coins.

...

It is said that not long ago, a group of people who did not want to die decided after final deliberation that a village chief with strength would lead more than 30 refugees to rob the black market.

But when I got there, I killed all the guards and pried open the closed gate, only to find that even the black market was going to be hollowed out.

In desperation, the group killed and ate the fat man who was guarding the black market, and this group of victims finally became cannibals and were sentenced to be hanged for public display. Defend the madmen who are in the city but still want to eat human flesh, and uphold the minimum law.

If this continues, if you continue to stay here, the food will definitely be exhausted.

It won't be long before Munibau becomes a city of death where only cannibals can survive.

After thinking about it, Bruce decided to leave here and try his luck somewhere else!

Staying here is death, it is better to break the cauldron and sink the boat, while you can still move your steps, continue to walk north, if you meet any hares on the road, you may live a few more days if you get the eggs!

Arriving at the gate, she looked up at the map of the empire on the bulletin board, and finally picked out a border town.

According to the thinking of most refugees, if they flee to a prosperous big city, they will have a better chance of survival, but as a result, everyone will be crowded here, and in the end, they will not even get a grain of rice, and the local residents will suffer together with the refugees!

So, this time Bruce decided to do the opposite and choose a city that everyone is not optimistic about!

Valentine in the north is too far away, and the Gobi, which is 120 km wide at its shortest, persuaded him to retreat.

Besides, it's still winter, and even if Bruce has enough food, as long as he enters the Gobi without guidance, he will definitely get lost in the ice and snow.

In this way, it is better to settle for the next best thing and choose Blackwater City!

On the way to Blackwater, you'll pass through several villages and towns, and if you're lucky, you'll even find some food!

But the problem also comes, the nearest foothold to Blackwater City is a hundred kilometers to Sam's Village, if you go without food, you will definitely die on the way!

According to other refugees, there were no animals left to eat in the woods north of Munibaut, and all the mushrooms and wild vegetables had been uprooted and eaten.

"Try your luck! I hope someone has a bad eye and leaves me a wild vegetable..."

The man moved to life, the tree to die, Bruce propped up his tired body, left the fire, and from the pile of dead people, picked up a few clothes that looked fairly thick, and draped them over his body.

"Let's go!"

Ignoring the kindness of the people around him, Bruce walked out of the city without looking back.

Dying outside is better than dying in a pile of people, which can be regarded as the soul returning to heaven and earth, and the road after death is spacious and bright!

Because Bruce didn't want to die and fight with others for food on the way to Elysium.

...

On the way to the gate, an old man ran out of oil lamps and fell to the ground without moving, Bruce cautiously came to the old man's side, and after making sure that he was not breathing, he bent down with difficulty to pick up a worn-out crutch and set off again against the wind and snow.

Too late to say goodbye to his dead parents, in order to avoid the cannibals, he chose to take advantage of the night and quietly find out of the city!

Along the way, he picked up a lot of dead people's equipment, but his fragile body couldn't carry too many items, so he ended up only taking a kettle and a small pot.

At this time, the wind and snow outside gradually decreased, and it seemed that it might be a good opportunity to get out of here.

...

Two hours later, Bruce finally found himself in the elm grove above Munibaar.

The distance of just a few hundred meters had consumed all the strength he had accumulated in the past few days.

It was dawn, and he was panting, leaning on crutches and leaning on the trunk of a tree, resting beside an elm tree.

I've heard people say that some wild plants are edible, but... All the edible roots and leaves were picked up by the other refugees, and even those buried in the ground were dug up and eaten.

Since the wild vegetables and mushrooms have been eaten, why haven't these people thought of gnawing on the bark?

With this strange idea, Bruce took his father's dagger from his bosom, cut off a piece of bark, put it to his mouth and tried ...

"It's so hard! I can't bite! ”

He still did not give up, and continued to use the dagger to detain the hard skin of the elm tree, but his own strength was not enough to support it.

But he didn't give up, and after many attempts, he peeled off the hardest part of the outside, revealing the layer inside that was close to the core of the tree.

Regardless of whether he could eat it or not, Bruce opened his mouth and bit it, tore off a piece of bark, put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly...

"It's... The feeling of soft and glutinous, like... Can you eat it? ”

Bruce's eyes widened, and he continued to cut the elm bark with his dagger, gnawing on the parts inside.

"Can you really eat it!?"

A force poured out of nowhere, and he had strength again.

...

Two hours later, it was dawn, and Bruce could be considered to have experienced the feeling of fullness that he had not felt in a long time, and his strength had recovered somewhat.

He even thinks the bark is a little sweet, and he can make a dessert and sell it to make a fortune next spring!

"I... Will you survive until then? ”

The doubts from his heart ignited his desire to survive again.

"I want to live, I can't die here!"

Bruce sped up the movement in his hand! If you want to save enough food to get to your next destination, you have to go a little faster, pick up some edible bark from the elm tree, and store them in your backpack!

Because this tree was torn by himself with a dagger, and once the surrounding refugees found this tree and knew that the bark was edible, it would not take a few hours for this forest to be gnawed away!

So, you have to hurry up, and while no one else knows, go to the middle of the woods to get some more edible parts, store them in your backpack, and head north!

As long as you stagger the crowd, you will win!

Bruce pulled out his dagger, pulled out a small backpack from the corpse nearby, and headed deeper into the woods.

...

Three hours later, at dawn, the nearby refugees found the miserable tree.

"It's... Can you eat bark too? ”

A daring refugee was so hungry that he opened his mouth and took a bite where Bruce hadn't bitten.

The cold bark mixed with the snow water slowly melts in the mouth, and the sweet taste echoes on the tip of the tongue, which makes the refugees cry!

"This soft and sweet feeling... It seems that it can really be eaten! ”

As soon as these words came out, the surrounding refugees took out sharp weapons from their pockets, rushed to the nearest elm tree, peeled off the bark with all their might, greedily sucked the leaves, and then tore off the bark with their teeth and swallowed it into their stomachs...

"There's something to eat!"

By the time the refugees had just started cutting the bark, Bruce had already demolished a dozen trees because he wasn't tall enough to take the underneath them.

During this time, the heavens favored the boy and made him discover a snake hibernating!

Bruce quickly cut off the snake's head, smashed it with a stone, and placed it in his backpack with the snake's body.

After a few more hours, the food was sorted out, Bruce gathered enough dry food for the way, fetched some snow water, and left along the path...

Walking out of the woods, he looked up at the sky: "If I can survive, I must be a good person!" ”