Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 921: Section 606: Return

Chapter 921: Section 606: Return

Mr. Belzemeninsky, who had been stabbed, lay in a pool of blood, and Mars used a kitchen knife instead of bullets to resolve the matter. Mars thought this child was quite considerate - you see, Mr. Belzemeninsky said that bullets were too expensive, so his offspring just followed suit willingly.

Then Mars reached out his hand, and the unopened alcoholic beverages on the table danced with Spiritual Energy, their caps opening, and the alcohol gathered together, eventually becoming Mars’s hand-cleaning solution.

After washing his hands, he waved them, splashing the liquid onto the ground.

"Such scum, alive, only make food expensive, maybe he and his companions would even occupy those liquid foods that should have been distributed to the poor," Mars said, as he noticed a refrigerator in the corner and walked over to open its door.

Malin saw those half-liquid substances in plastic bags, walked over and picked up a bag, Malin looked at the solid content... completely unrecognizable: "Is this the liquid food you’re talking about, kid?"

"Yes, these should be made from giant rat meat, after all, New Hangzhou has a giant rat farm... at least it’s still there now," Mars mentioned the farm with an unnatural expression, which Malin noticed.

"Why do you say it’s still there at least now?" Out of curiosity, Malin asked.

"Well... because I burned it down before I came here," the child said this with hesitation and unhappiness on his face.

"Why?" Malin raised his eyebrows, increasingly curious.

"Giant rat meat is edible, yes, but those guys even used zombie meat found in the southern nests to feed the rats. I am Shepherd from the Assassin’s Guild under Harvest Goddess, I led people to destroy that factory and exposed the truth, consuming too much of such rat meat causes irreversible human distortion... However, without this food, many will starve as they can’t afford food, and the Harvest Goddess doesn’t have enough means to compensate for the famine caused by this shortage," Mars explained.

"... At least you did nothing wrong, as long as you don’t starve, people can still survive, but if they become twisted from consuming too much rat meat, they won’t even remain human," Malin patted the kid’s back: "Don’t blame yourself, in this operation, you were the Guild’s weapon, and a weapon shouldn’t regret its deeds."

All Malin could do was advise the child thus, and Mars nodded, seemingly agreeing with Malin’s sophistry.

"Speaking of which, twisted cases used to be rare because although there were many poor, everyone could more or less fend for themselves, and the frequency of consuming giant rat meat didn’t exceed the monthly quotient needed to cause distortion, or say the accumulation wasn’t high." As Mars explained, Malin understood why—three months before Mars arrived here, a large number of refugees from the southern archipelago city-states’ war fled north to New Hangzhou, suddenly increasing the demand for food by over hundred thousand mouths, and cheap liquid food made from giant rat meat became the refugees’ daily meals, creating hundreds of distortion cases within two months, thus revealing the secret.

To be honest, Malin felt disgusted even hearing about it, although the factory owner claimed these products could be safe within reasonable intake ranges... but that’s zombie meat.

However, on the other hand, how did zombies manage to survive until such a far future era?

"You mentioned zombies? Many regions have them, the Western Human World has them, we Eastern Human World also have them, they are everywhere in the Dark Zone between our two worlds, their numbers are too large," Mars answered, giving Malin some good news—at least there were no Chaos or different kind beings in the Dark Zone, zombies are terrifying, but at least they don’t require Quicksilver Bullets to kill, which is cost-effective and feels pleasant.

But that guy used their corpses to feed the giant rats, indicating a thriving gray industry chain.

Anyway, it’s better not to tell Mars about this, as this kid has both a sense of justice and empathy, in Malin’s era, this would be living Saint’s example, but in this future world, his kindness... has become almost akin to weakness.

Meanwhile, Malin tried to store this bag of food in his space, but he saw the bag suddenly turn into ash as he turned his hand.

"Can’t recover it?" Mars also noticed the scene.

"Yes... it looks like my great plan is gone," said Malin, smiling, not minding—perhaps because this era is in the future, as a person from the past, Malin may not be able to recover things that don’t actually exist into his personal space.

So, amidst his reflection, Malin eventually left the courtyard with Mars, ready to burn the place down with a wave of his hand, when Malin noticed a few small things within his sensory range.

It was several Rat-men, similar to Faye’s team of rat maids, hiding behind a nearby low wall, with one particularly nervous little thing looking this way.

"Do you have Rat-men here as well?"

"A lot, they are everywhere, including Merchants, respectable people, and those who make a living scavenging. There’s a freshly dead corpse in the yard behind us, in their eyes, it’s like a gold mine," Mars also noticed those little