Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 24: Evolved Man

Translator: Editor:

As soon as Luo Yuan got back to the rented room, he took out the head and the thigh of the Rat King out from the sack. He was slightly excited and used his identification technique on the meat.

“The head of the Rat King”

“Function: Food, Material.”

“Rarity: Light Blue.”

“Weight: 10 kg”

“Effect: 1. Slightly strengthens body stamina

2. Slightly increases strength

3. Slightly enhances sensory perception

4. May evolve the body, though the possibility is small.”

“Comment: Its strong teeth and bone can be used to make weapons. Its flesh is rich in active components which can enhance your body’s inner qualities and may even evolve it.”

“The thigh of the Rat King”

“Function: Food, Material.”

“Rarity: Light Blue.”

“Weight: 7 kg”

“Effect: 1. Slightly strengthens body stamina

2. Slightly increases strength

3. May evolve the body, though the possibility is small.”

“Comment: Its bone can be used to make weapons. Its flesh is rich in active components which can enhance your body’s inner qualities and may even evolve it.”

After digesting the messages in his mind, Luo Yuan was excited. “That’s why those people fought so desperately for the Rat King, even the army joining in the fight, too. If everyone knew blue leveled organisms had such effects, many would want to have some. I hadn’t known that blue leveled organisms could not only strengthen the body’s inner qualities but also cause it to evolve.

“Does that also mean that somebody has already evolved? Recently, many blue leveled organisms in Donghu City have been killed, so there might have been someone lucky enough. How’s it like when they evolve? Do they increase in size like other organisms or does it affect the other properties?” If evolving meant increasing in body size, he would rather not to.

He thought of something and took his hand phone from his bedroom, but its battery was completely discharged. He changed its battery. As this area was always experiencing blackouts, he had prepared four to five extra batteries. Once the sweet music of switched on the phone rang, he accessed the web and searched for evolved men.There were some information about them.

Luo Yuan opened every site but most of the information was unreliable. Some places were just talking nonsense without any direct proof. The moment Luo Yuan clicked onto the last post, his face became serious.

“An evolved man was found in Sha City. He killed a mutated dog with his fist which froze it to death. Proof is in the photo!” The picture was very clear with a man, turned away from the camera, in a punching posture. There was a huge frosted mutated dog in front of his fist. Below the post were hundreds of replies.

“Instinct needs fire, I need sofa.”1

“I’m also in Sha City, why didn’t I know of his existence?”

“It should be fake, this mutated dog must have been brought out from a refrigerator.”

“The doggie is so pitiful, wuwuwu..!”

Most were useless comments. So he scanned through, looking for more valuable information.

“You feel weird because you haven’t seen it before. Maybe you guys don’t know, but I have a friend who’s an evolved person, though his ability was about strength. And he has been called to serve by the government.”

“I’m an evolved man too but I don’t dare to show off so that I won’t be found out.”

“Certainly there are evolved men but they aren’t very superb. I worked in a police station and I used to see one. He was like a normal man, could be killed with a gun, just that he had some special powers.”

When Luo Yuan found out that the evolved men did not change in body size, he was relieved, but at the same time, he felt a sense of urgency too. The most important thing during troubled times was not only power and wealth, but also personal strength.

As he had no wealth or power, he could only rely on his own strength. How could he be more nourished than others when everyone was struggling to survive and were afraid of tomorrow. It was because of the fact that he was stronger than the other normal people that he could live like he used to. No matter how much the world changed, it was always the strong preying upon the weak. It was just getting more obvious today!

As Luo Yuan thought that, he acted immediately.

He took out his Zhanmadao and peeled off the scalp of the Rat King. After washing it, the skull was as smooth as jade. He tried piercing it with his knife and realized that this skull was very hard. As he feared that his Zhanmadao may break, he didn’t dare to use a lot of strength.

He took out a small axe from his toolbox and hacked at the skull for a few times. Finally, it broke open and the greyish white brain juice poured into a big bowl.

Then he used his identification technique and found out that it could only enhance sensory perception. But it was not unusual since sensory perception was related to the brain and not to the other parts of the body.

After that, he cut the rest of the meat into pieces, washed it and filled one big basin. Luo Yuan set up a pan, turned on the gas and started boiling water. He was clever enough not to put all the meat in to prevent the heat from damaging its effects.

He only cut a small piece of meat to put it in the boiling water. When it was cooked, he used his identification technique to identify again, and the result showed the difference as expected. It could still strengthen the body’s inner qualities but the last effect ‘may evolve the body, though the possibility is small’ was gone. It seemed that cooking food destroyed something.

“Shall I eat it raw?” Luo Yuan hesitated. As a person who was used to eating cooked food, he could not just accept the bloody smell of raw meat. But his hesitation collapsed like weak building blocks in less than a second under the temptation to evolve. Sacrificing some comfort for a chance to evolve; nobody would ever make a wrong choice here!

Though the raw meat was cleansed and cut into slices, he still felt disgusted when he put it in his mouth. It was his automatic response which could not be suppressed. He took some times to adapt. Gradually, his body became hot. And that condition was similar to what he felt when he upgraded, just weaker. Luo Yuan was thrilled and continued eating the raw meat.

When he finished two full plates, his stomach was very full, but Luo Yuan didn’t feel anything special. “Maybe it’s not so fast!” he comforted himself. He waited longer until the warmth gradually disappeared, but he still felt nothing more than the excitement of consuming lots of supplement.

Luo Yuan turned on the properties column and checked carefully. But it didn’t change at all. He neither evolved nor his properties had upgraded. “Is it I’m that I’m too unlucky or did I not have enough meat?” When facing such a situation, Luo Yuan was disappointed but he could only accept the reality. So he marinated the leftover meat to make them last longer.

When he finished his work, he found that it was 12 o’clock already. But he did not feel sleepy at all. So he practiced his knife skills throughout the night. The next morning, he used the leftover brain juice to cook a bowl of soup and drank it as his breakfast. Then, he fried some of the marinated rat meat, which no longer went bad easily but could still be used as food.

He could endure the raw meat but not the marinated raw meat. When he thought of the feeling of smooth and salty taste, he felt uncomfortable. Since he was not able to evolve, instead of continuing hopelessly, it was better to just fill his stomach.

When the rat meat was fried, the whole kitchen filled with the aroma which increased people’s appetite. Though Luo Yuan had already eaten, he couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva and greedily eat another few pieces. Though he had just added some salt and his cooking skills weren’t good, the fried meat was so delicious that he enjoyed it very much.

Soon, he was ready to leave. The car had already been prepared. It was a relatively new Pajero Jeep which cost about three hundred thousand in the old days. Today, however, together with the leftover 8 liters of gas, it cost only two hundred catties of food. It could have been even lower if he had negotiated. With the newly established control over fuel, the cars had become scrap metal. Other than for consuming space in the garage, they weren’t useful for much else.

Luo Yuan didn’t feel like departing so early because of the incident that occurred yesterday. Though he did not reveal anything, it could still be found out easily if somebody was to investigate.

He never looked down on the government’s and army’s abilities, nor put his hope in someone else. The army had always been a violent organization. If one fought with them for food and got caught, he would either get beaten or worse, lose his life. This was especially so after the collapsed societal orde—nobody could ensure their own safety after provoking them.

After Luo Yuan let the fried rat meat cool down at the living room, he put it in a big plastic bag and tied it tight with a rope. Then, his acute hearing heard footsteps at the door and he slightly paused.

“Who’s there?” Luo Yuan tried to ask.

“Uncle…” there came an an answer in a timid voice. Luo Yuan was relieved and opened the door.

A thirteen or fourteen-years-old girl was hesitantly standing at the door. Her fingers were worryingly agitating her shirt, and she was blushing.

She was actually neighbor living on the same fourth floor. But the people in the city were said to be cold. Luo Yuan felt like he used to see the young lady before but he did not know her name. At first, he was confused about her arrival, but soon he knew what was happening. It was the fault of the rat meat which smelled too good. As Luo Yuan saw that her face looked obviously thinner than before, he felt sympathetic. So he said gently, “You are from the opposite side, right? What’s your name?”

“Uncle, I am Wang Shishi!”

“You haven’t had your breakfast, have you? Come in!” Luo Yuan said.

The young lady was shy, she blushed from just saying her name. She hesitated for a while but still entered. She curiously looked around and then lowered her head, feeling nervous. Luo Yuan opened up a plastic bag and filled a plate with meat. Then, he took out a box of milk from the no longer working fridge and put it on the table, asking, “Where’re your parents?”

She took a pair of chopsticks to take a piece of meat and put it in her mouth, she then chewed slightly and swallowed. “Dad’s gone to work to the construction site, while my mom went out too. They will come back only at night.”

“Construction site!” He just remembered that the entrance to the residential area had a notice for recruitment. The government of the city seemed to want to build something big.

Looking at the young lady wolfing down her food, Luo Yuan felt funny and said, “Eat slower and drink some milk. Why doesn’t your mom take you along?”

“My mom said it’s too dangerous and asked me to stay at home.” When Wang Shishi felt that Luo Yuan was quite friendly, she started to take it easy. She said recklessly, “Uncle, why do I feel that my body is so hot!” She then timidly looked at Luo Yuan.

Luo Yuan was shocked, and thought that he had heard wrongly as the hint was not what a thirteen or fourteen years old young girl should say. But soon, he found out what was wrong. She was red all over her face, her neck and also her arms.

Then, the blood was oozing out from her nostrils and dripped on the table in front of her. When Wang Shishi saw the blood, she was shocked and wiped her nose. As she saw her hands full of blood, she was so nervous that she pushed the bowl and chopsticks away and cried loudly, “Uncle, please don’t kill me…wuwuwu… I will not eat greedily again. I…I’m still a virgin, willing to do anything!” The girls today knew everything they should know and also what they shouldn’t know as they have been using internet since a young age.

Well, nobody could blame the young lady for her misunderstanding. She had just wanted to eat something and ate it until her body was hot and then her nose started to bleed. Anyone would find it unusual.

Luo Yuan felt sorry and blamed himself for not being more attentive. It was important pay heed to the type of one’s body before eating ginseng. And this flesh of blue leveled organism was apparently stronger than the ginseng as it contained large amounts of absorbable active components. Luo Yuan’s body’s inner qualities were very strong, and he still felt hot after eating. But this young lady’s inner qualites were not even as strong as those of a normal adult, so the result shouldn’t have been unexpected. If the energy wasn’t gentle, the end result wouldn’t have been as simple as a nose bleed already.

“Alright, please don’t cry!” Luo Yuan scolded.

Wang Shishi was so scared that she stopped herself from crying and sobbed.

“Raise your head and lie on the chair. How do you feel now?”

“I am still feeling hot.” Wang Shishi timidly answered.

“Don’t stand up, okay?” Luo Yuan said with a straight face.

“I will be very obedient and will not move.” Wang Shishi was very scared, and so she sat there trembling, uncertain where to put her hands.

Luo Yuan took out a towel from the washroom and moistened it with water. When he got back to the living room, she was still there, lying on the chair, not moving. He walked toward her and put the towel on her head. “You will be alright. You are still young and I don’t know what you were thinking. Anyway, I’m going out soon, so you can go back first.”

“Yes, uncle!” Wang Shishi felt that she must have misunderstood and was vert embarrassed while holding the wet towel. “Then I’ll go first, uncle.” Her watery eyes kept looking at the unfinished rat meat.

“Take it, take it! But please don’t eat it again to prevent your nose from bleeding again.” Luo Yuan said impatiently.

“Thank you uncle.” Wang Shishi grinned.

Translator Notes

1 The sentence should be meaningless or just some modern internet language because the commenter may have just wanted to be the first person who replied to the post or to earn more points as a member of the forum.