Chapter 508: The Field Family

Smelling the foul stench, Ace felt a raw taste in his throat. Suppressing his nausea, he sensed someone beside him, so he kept his eyes closed and tried to recall everything that had happened.

“I seemed to have experienced a state similar to transmigration. After arriving in this World as an information body, was I immediately attracted to a nearby person with a compatible constitution and descended into this body?

“Let me first sense if there are any abnormalities with the soul.”

Thinking this, Ace attempted to mobilize his remaining mana, only to find that there was not a single bit left.

Without mana and supernatural vision, he was unable to observe his own soul. This caught Ace somewhat off guard; he had become a mortal once again in this World.

He still did not open his eyes. He listened carefully to the sounds nearby. Almost without a doubt, he couldn’t understand the language.

His body felt hot; he seemed to have a fever. There was more than one person nearby. Someone poured a few mouthfuls of hot water into him, and someone else seemed to apply something cool to his forehead.

Ace felt tired and sleepy. Judging by the actions of the people nearby, he felt they should be the original body’s own people, so he fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, Ace’s high fever had subsided. He opened his eyes and stared somewhat sluggishly at the person in front of him.

It should be a human. Although his hair looked like a messy chicken coop in a bizarre style and he was dressed like a ragged beggar with dirt all over his face, he was undoubtedly a human, and an adult male human at that.

This human seemed somewhat delighted yet anxious, constantly saying something to Ace, but Ace couldn’t understand his language at all and just looked at him with a dull expression.

The man’s expression gradually became sad. He stomped his feet and beat his chest, seeming extremely annoyed. He then dragged over a human who looked like a woman. The two babbled in front of Ace, saying things he couldn’t understand.

Ace remained expressionless. After confirming that he had lost his mana and didn’t know the language, he decided to use the fever as an excuse to play dumb. After all, having one’s brain damaged by a fever was much better than being suspected of having a soul swap.

It had taken great effort for his clone to descend into this World; he couldn’t let it be ruined by such a thing.

During the intervals of their conversation, Ace did not relax his vigilance. He observed subconsciously.

The clothes of these two were quite tattered, but they appeared to be woven from plants like hemp. The environment here was dark and damp; it didn’t feel like a normal room, and there were bursts of foul stench.

The man seemed unable to accept this. He hugged Ace tightly, constantly touching Ace’s forehead and cheeks. Dirt rubbed onto Ace, and salty tears flowed out.

The man helped Ace stand up. Only then did Ace discover that there were stone walls all around, with smelly water and garbage in front.

The man dug out a few strange stalks of grass from near the garbage, then led Ace and the woman through a complex stone-walled tunnel. After walking for an unknown amount of time, they arrived at a relatively dry place.

There were many children and three adults here, but the children were surprisingly not noisy. They sat there unusually quietly. Occasionally, when a child wanted to shout, they would be fiercely stopped by an adult.

The man and woman discussed with the other three adults for a long time. One of them looked elderly, wearing a colorful feather crown woven from the feathers of some unknown bird on his head.

This elderly man with the feather crown spoke softly with a solemn expression, while the man begged in a low voice and the woman sobbed.

Seeing this, the old man seemed shocked and tried his best to comfort the woman to calm her down. Finally, the matter seemed to be left unsettled. Ace was settled to the side, lying against a haystack at the foot of the wall.

The man wiped his hands hastily on his clothes, crushed the stalks of grass he had just pulled, and stuffed them into Ace’s mouth.

Ace couldn’t resist and ate it. It tasted somewhat bitter, but after swallowing, it felt somewhat sweet. Just like that, Ace settled down among this group of somewhat strange-looking people.

…

A year passed in the blink of an eye. Ace finally learned the language of this group roughly. He knew his name was Klan Field, a member of the Field Family.

Everyone here was a member of the Field Family. The old man wearing the feather crown was their family leader, Dewey Field, and that man was the father of this body, Doyle Field.

Their entire family lived in this dilapidated and abandoned sewer. Ace could occasionally hear the hustle and bustle of liveliness above ground, but the adults absolutely forbade them from going out.

There was a secret passage here leading to an underground dark river. Most of the clansmen went to the dark river to catch fish and shrimp or gather some edible aquatic algae.

Meals were irregular; sometimes they went hungry, sometimes they were full. Last winter, two children died of hunger and cold, but the adults still showed no intention of leaving the sewer.

Ace slowly recovered his speech, making the clansmen somewhat happy. However, whenever someone became overly emotional, the old leader would always come to stop it.

He would scold softly and use a strange dance to gradually calm people down.

On this day, Doyle gathered the remaining seven children together and said with a gentle voice but a tough attitude:

“Today Klan asked me some questions he shouldn’t have asked. I will say it again. Living here, we must always remember four rules:

“First, this world has been destroyed. We are the surviving humans. Always be careful of the White Monsters and Iron Monsters on the ground.

“Second, keep quiet. Do not let the various monsters on the ground discover us.

“Third, control your emotions. We are cursed by the monsters. Violent emotional fluctuations will bring terrible disasters.

“Fourth, do not discuss monsters normally, especially the White Monsters and Iron Monsters.”

The other children looked terrified. They seemed to have heard this more than once and repeated it along with Doyle. Ace followed suit and repeated it together with them.

But the doubts in Ace’s heart grew. He often heard the bustling sounds above ground and occasionally saw a ray of sunlight through the manhole cover of the sewer. However, when he approached the sunlight, his skin immediately became scalding hot, as if being burned.

Ace did not act rashly. The adults seemed to be hiding many secrets. Since he hadn’t found the secret behind the matters yet, he intended to continue observing the situation.

Over the year, Ace’s body had reached thirteen years of age. He still acted somewhat sluggish, as if his reactions were slightly slower due to the fever.

The little children often teased Ace, but he didn’t mind and just giggled foolishly. However, once Doyle saw it, those children would be beaten severely.

After a few times, not many children dared to bully Ace anymore.

After Doyle finished speaking, the four adults went to the dark river to catch fish and shrimp again, while Old Dewey, wearing the feather crown, stayed home to watch over the seven children.

Ace continued to sit foolishly near the haystack. Hearing Dewey gradually start snoring, he looked left and right, then walked out with a composed expression. Another child saw Ace walk out and followed to take a look, only to find that Ace was relieving himself, and went back resentfully.

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