abyss domination
Translator: SaltyTank Editor: SaltyTank
Soran bought a loaf of black bread as thick as his arm as he returned to the slums with Vivian. It was the type of dark and tough bread that was so hard it could be used to fend off lousy thieves — a type of bread with an attack power of 1D3. People from the slums would directly grind black wheat into powder without removing the chaff and bake bread with the roughly made dough. Impurities, such as bits of wood, would get mixed into the dough during the process, but the starving people could not care less as long as it was edible. As a result, the bread was so tough that it could only be eaten after soaking slices in water.
Plenty of players could not stand the poorly made food and went down the path of joining the evil alignment.
Soran was one of them, and that was why he became a rogue.
Perhaps because he was now in a real world instead of a virtual one, or perhaps due to the young lady walking beside him, Soran was acting much more cautiously and patiently now. He slowly cut the bread with a knife and soaked it in warm water, then handed over a slice to Vivian as he began eating. Bearing the disgusting texture and impurities, Soran ate silently.
It was not like there was no way to obtain money.
On the contrary, he clearly knew the way. However, this was no longer a game, and he was no longer a mere player controlling an avatar.
This was the real world, the world he was now forced to live in.
Soran had to take responsibility for his own actions in this strange yet familiar world. Furthermore, he had to take care of Vivian. There were a lot of strong professionals in this city; even the guards of the city were all Level 10 Militia/Level 3 Warriors at the very least. Unless he raised his Steal skill to 75, it was still possible for the guards to catch him red-handed.
One would be thrown into jail for stealing.
If the target was a noble, the guards might even break one of the thief’s arms as a warning.
Although the bread was tasteless without adding salt, Vivian was still happily devouring the unappetizing bread in her hands; she was a simple girl who could be satisfied easily.
Most importantly, she was hungry.
As long as her big brother was around, she felt that everything would gradually get better.
The past few weeks had been taxing on the little girl. She was weary and worn out, and all she wanted right now was to stay beside her brother and be a good little girl.
“I’ll get something good for you tomorrow, I promise!”
Soran stroked Vivian’s tiny head, lightly kissed her on the forehead, and said, “Everything will be fine soon.”
“Mhm,” Vivian nodded.
If someone asked her who she completely trusted with all her faith, she would answer ‘my big brother’ without any hesitation.
He had been shielding her from all the dangers and evil in this cruel world since she was three years old.
He had been supporting the family without whining at all for so many years.
Vivian still remembered the days when she was a small child. At that time, her reliable brother always came home with injuries. She could do nothing but cry loudly at her age, yet the injured Soran would still hold her in his arms and comfort her while muttering, “Everything will become better in the future.”
Soon after, they no longer had to wander around in the streets and settled down in the lawless slums.
Everything will be fine.
The eight-year-old was still oblivious to a lot of things in the world, but there was one thing she was certain of: her big brother would always shield her from harm and danger.
That’s great!
Soran looked at the little girl sound asleep on the bed and smiled.
She was really worn out.
Maintaining a living for weeks in the slums was a really challenging and burdensome task for a young child like Vivian.
It had been a while since she had slept without worrying about the future.
Soran removed one of the wooden planks on the floor and revealed a hidden compartment. He took a gleaming dagger out from the compartment while revealing a merciless grin.
It was time for the worthless trash who targeted his dear sister to go to hell.
…
Darkness enshrouded the slums as the sun descended and night took over.
Only a few places were still giving off light in the dark streets.
The Fireplace was a bar in the slums, one of the few places where the residents could enjoy themselves. People could get themselves a jug of low-quality ale with just a single Copper Derahl there. Although the ale gave off a bad smell, the poor residents still found it rather tasty and enjoyable.
Next to the bar were short wooden huts. With just five additional Derahls, people could enjoy a sweaty and tiring night with a prostitute. The quality of the prostitutes was rather poor, but that much was expected given the low price. They were mediocre at best, and the majority of them simply looked bad to be honest. The only thing they could offer were their bodies, but that alone was more than enough.
In a spooky alley next to the bar.
Except for urgent matters, people mostly stayed in their own place for the night as all the streets in the slums were just as spooky. The night was also the time when gangs and factions gathered for meetings, thus the residents did not dare to leave their houses in fear of getting caught up in something troublesome.
Loud chattering could be heard inside The Fireplace.
Inside the bar were laborers who worked in the docks and people from gangs who had dark expressions on their faces, as well as some shady people of unknown origins.
They were mostly gossiping about the ‘war’ between the two triad factions, others laughing as they discussed what would befall the unfortunate fellows who targeted Vivian.
The laughing men all glanced toward a certain corner in the bar for certain reasons.
There were two men sitting at the table in the corner.
Those two were Blaze and Cannibal, the ones who had planned to kidnap Vivian and sell her to Sofia. When had they tried to forcefully barge into the house, one of them was bitten by Heath and could only limp about even now.
“Let’s go.”
Blaze glared at the others in the bar with a serious expression and said, “We’ll head back for now.
“We’ll take care of Soran somehow.”
Cannibal was a stingy person; he hurriedly gulped the rest of the ale down before leaving.
The two had received the deposit from Sofia long ago. If they failed to deliver Vivian before the deadline, someone would soon knock at their doors and have a ‘friendly talk’ with them.
It was already past the point of no return. They could not give up even if they wanted to.
They also knew that Soran treasured his sister and would not let them off the hook for threatening Vivian.
A chilly breeze entered the tavern.
Some of the customers swore, while others turned in time to see Blaze and Cannibal leaving the bar.
A layer of thin, grey clouds covered the moon.
The two uncontrollably shivered as they exited the warm tavern. Perhaps because they had been drinking quite a bit, Blaze entered a dark alley and was about to pee. This was the slums. People would handle all their physical needs in the alleys, and peeing in the corner was nothing new.
Blaze loosened his belt as he cursed in a language from the Northern regions after hearing the moans from the wooden huts nearby.
He was deep in thought about Soran, thus his expression was not good.
All of a sudden.
He had goosebumps all over his body as he noticed the flickering shadow in the distance.
Unable to hold his bladder any longer, Blaze reached for his waist as he relieved himself.
He was reaching for his dagger, but it was far too late.
Soran’s silhouette appeared out of the blue, his shadow flickering in the dark alley. He had been waiting for this moment for a while now.
The gleaming dagger embedded itself into Blaze’s back, puncturing his heart.
A hand covered his mouth and muffled his final shriek.
_Splat!_
Soran retrieved his dagger expressionlessly and cleaned the weapon with the clothes of the dead person lying on the ground.
A data log floated in front of Soran’s eyes:
“Successfully hidden in the shadows!”
“Backstab activated!”
“Successfully activated Backstab*2, dealing 12 damage to the target!”
“Target killed!”
“Extracting soul energy from target… Received 30 Slaughter Experience Points.”
Even though he was a Level 1 rogue, Backstab still dealt double damage during assassinations.
A typical person in the slums only had around 5 HP.
Even Soran, who had a Constitution of 15 and a profession of Level 1 Rogue, had only 12 HP. One strike was all that was needed to end the life of a weak grunt in the slums.
Unless he was up against others who had levelled their professions, Soran could easily assassinate the target.
Cannibal was alarmed by the noises from the alley. He shuddered as he shouted, “Blaze?”
There was no reply.
After hesitating for a bit, he carefully approached the alley to see what Blaze was up to. If there was even the slightest sign of trouble, he would turn and run immediately.
The figure of a certain person kicked a nearby wall and launched himself upward. With 19 Dexterity, Soran could easily leap onto the roof of the short house without requiring footholds in between. Soran jumped at the approaching Cannibal like a leopard and squeezed his neck, silencing his scream of terror. His momentum from the jump knocked Cannibal down, and a sliver of light flashed through the air right before a dagger sliced the pinned man’s throat, then rested in his heart.
Soran tightly choked his target until the body began convulsing.
He stood up, covered in blood.
Soran frowned as he looked at his clothes soaked in blood. He took the purse from the corpse, cleaned the dagger, and sheathed it.
The two thugs carried little money on them, having only a meager amount of 5 Silver Derahls and 20 Copper Derahls. Soran also found a small bag of poison, which was most likely what they had intended to use to kill Heath.
“They were about the same as Level 1 adventurers.”
Soran looked at his palms before fading into the shadows and walking back toward his house.
This was the effect of the Rogue skill Sneak.
The user would hide himself by borrowing the power of the shadows. Soran had assigned all the skill points he had to Sneak before he went to assassinate the two men. With 45 points in Sneak, he would not make any sounds while walking, and his figure would be hazy in the dark, sufficient to fool most people without any combat professions. Soran could disappear into the darkness with only the faintest traces with 100 points, and he would be able to stand in front of a person without the target noticing with 150 points as long as the environment was dark.
From 200 points onward, a rogue could completely vanish from people’s view, even in broad daylight.
The Fireplace was as lively as usual.
The two freezing corpses were discovered accidentally when one of the drunkards tottered into the wrong alley.
No one cared, and no one would bother investigating what happened to the two men.
These were the lawless slums; having corpses on the streets was a common scene.
Someone would take care of the bodies the next day anyway.
*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her
*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao
*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique
*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall
*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake
*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill
*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel
*[Noodles]: made of wheat
*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice
*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet
*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don’t ask me about the tree sap