Rope was a habitual thief in the Lungmen slums. She didn't know why her thieving skills were so good; it was like she had a natural talent for it. No matter how well-hidden a wallet was, she could steal it with ease.
Of course, when you walk by the river, you're bound to get your shoes wet.
Steal enough times, and you're bound to mess up.
Back when her skills weren't sharp, she was frequently discovered and beaten half to death. If she hadn't been so tough, she might have actually been killed several times.
However, Rope had her own principles.
Although she was abandoned by her parents as a child and had only managed to survive and grow up by constantly stealing, she never stole from people who were struggling. Her usual targets were arrogant and wealthy types, especially rich bosses who looked down on everyone. Rope loved stealing from people like that.
The reason Rope needed money recently was because of a rumor circulating in the slums. Somewhere in Lungmen's common districts, there was a place selling medication that could suppress Oripathy. Someone had bought it there. Although it couldn't cure it, and the suppression wasn't obvious, it really did have some benefit for Oripathy.
Rope herself had Oripathy and had been sick for many years. Even though she didn't know any medicine, Rope knew her Oripathy was now very serious. The last acute outbreak nearly killed her. She had a premonition that she wouldn't survive the next one.
Because this was the slums.
There was no shortage of the Infected.
Rope had seen her Infected companions die from Oripathy more than once. The way they died was incredibly miserable. The Originium crystals on their skin's surface seemed to come alive, crawling all over their bodies at a visible rate. In just a short while, her companion's entire body, including their mouth, tongue, throat, and eyes, was overgrown with Originium. And yet, they were still alive, still breathing, but turned into this grotesque form.
Because their vocal cords were covered by the Originium, they couldn't make any sound even when they opened their mouths.
Then, in extreme agony.
*Boom.*
Her companion exploded like a bomb. Originium crystals splattered across the entire room. You couldn't even see any flesh and blood. At the moment of death, his entire being had completely turned into Originium. This miserable and terrifying way to die left an indelible shadow in Rope's heart, having witnessed the whole process.
She didn't want to die.
If she wanted to die, she would have ended it all when she was very young, instead of struggling so hard to grow up. And precisely because she knew how hard it was to make it this far, Rope wanted to die even less. She feared death, more than anyone else.
Everyone else said.
The people in the slums were dirt poor, all desperados.
However.
Only Rope knew that, in reality, many people in the slums were terrified of death. If they really weren't afraid, they would have all committed mass suicide long ago to end this miserable life. It was precisely because they knew how hard it was to survive this long that they were even more unwilling to die.
For the desperate Rope, that Oripathy suppression medication had become her only hope.
But, it was just a rumor, after all.
Rope didn't know if that medicine even existed. But she heard it was very expensive. So, Rope desperately needed money. A lot of money.
And so, during dinner, Rope had already targeted the cute, yellow-haired girl in front of her.
Although she had deliberately dressed herself so as not to appear too plain.
But she probably couldn't imagine that the clothes she considered her most ordinary and plainest were still incredibly valuable in the slums. And her aura was one that only the young ladies of the upper districts possessed. The upper districts... for the people of the slums, it was a legendary place. Slum dwellers could enter the common districts, but never the upper districts. They could only gaze from afar at the prosperous buildings. They'd also heard that any random job in the upper districts paid over ten thousand Lungmen Dollars a month. It was truly unimaginable.
Rope, in all her years of thievery, hadn't even made a few times ten thousand in total. Yet they made that much in a single month? Didn't that mean a single year of their income was more than all the money she had stolen in her entire life combined?
Rope didn't dare dream of the upper districts.
Her dream used to be just to be recruited by the Lungmen Guard Department (L.G.D.) as an auxiliary officer, even without benefits. However, that dream shattered after she got Oripathy. Without Oripathy, there might have been hope. But with it, it was basically impossible.
Rope approached Sora only to steal some money from her.
Perhaps the money in that wallet was just a tiny bit of spending money for this upper-district lady, but for Rope, it could be life-saving.
"Hm? Rope, you seem a little nervous? What's wrong? Are you on bad terms with that person who just passed by?"
Sora asked, puzzled, pointing to the person who had just walked past.
Rope nodded quickly. In reality, she didn't know who that person was; she had just said it randomly.
Sora didn't realize Rope was trying to steal her wallet.
After all, although Sora had some skills, her combat experience was worrying. And... one was an amateur, the other relied on this skill to eat. How could an amateur compare to a professional? To be honest, even Lucas Reeve admired Rope's thieving skills. At least, of all the thieves he had seen, none were as good as Rope. With her technique just now, forget Sora, even a regular combat operator might not have noticed, and an Elite Operator probably wouldn't have noticed if they were distracted.
Truly a 'craftsman' who relied on this to eat.
A professional is always a professional.
With Rope's skills, if she were placed in any organization, she could at least be a Specialst operator. Leaving her in the slums was a bit of a waste of talent. Thinking about it, the Reunion Movement seemed to be lacking many of these types of Specialist operators. They weren't short on combat operators, thanks to Mudrock's Sarkaz squad and Hoederer's team joining. But they were really lacking some Specialist operators. And in certain situations, Specialist operators could be far more useful than combat operators.
Honestly.
Thieves were common.
But a thief with good moral character was truly rare. Through his Causality Vision, Lucas Reeve could tell that Rope stole purely for survival and had never done anything heinous. A thief with good character *and* strong skills was even rarer.
Not bad.
Lucas Reeve gave his assessment. Maybe she could be recruited.
After all.
Her Oripathy was quite severe.
Without specific treatment, she would undoubtedly be dead in a year, two at most.
Rope held onto Sora as they walked, forcing topic after topic to keep Sora from getting suspicious. She then tried repeatedly to steal the wallet from her pocket, but she failed six times! Six times!! What was going on?!
Rope was already wondering if her hands had gotten rusty.
How could that be.
She had just lifted someone's wallet the day before yesterday. How could she... just two days later...
Or perhaps...
This Miss Lemuel had discovered she was trying to steal from her?
No...
Impossible.
She didn't look like she noticed at all. And her hands hadn't moved the entire time. It was always just as she was about to pull the wallet out of the pocket that she would inexplicably make a mistake.
Strange...
Rope couldn't help but frown.
She really couldn't accept this!
She was targeting this Miss Lemuel today, and she would definitely steal that wallet from her!
"Miss Lemuel, may I ask what a young lady from the upper districts like you is doing here in our slums? There's nothing here that would interest you."
Rope said slowly. Although it was just polite words, it was also what she genuinely wanted to ask. She was really confused. What was an upper-district lady doing here out of boredom? And all alone? What if she ran into someone with bad intentions?
Sora didn't hide much either. She felt there wasn't much to hide, anyway.
"My job is a creator. I need to find inspiration, so I decided to come to the slums to look for it, hoping I can find what I'm looking for here."
Sour...
Looking at Sora's side profile, Rope felt a sourness churning in her heart.
She wasn't much older than her, but... here she was, being a thief in the slums, while the other girl was an artist in the upper districts, even coming to the slums to "experience life" out of boredom...
The gap between people made Rope feel as if she'd just eaten a lemon, her heart overwhelmed with bitterness.
If I were also a young lady from the upper districts!!
Then I would definitely!!!
Definitely...
Eat beef noodles every meal, with fifty bucks worth of extra beef!!
Rope didn't even know what wish she should make. After all, she felt that beef noodles and the L.G.D.'s pork cutlet rice were the most delicious things she had ever eaten.
"A creator?"
Rope's eyes darted, and she thought of another way to make money.
"Miss Lemuel, where are you sleeping tonight?"
"A hotel, probably. I remember there's a hotel nearby," Sora said.
Rope quickly whispered, "Miss Lemuel, as a local here, I advise you not to stay in a hotel. The hotels here are total rip-offs, and they're not safe. If a young girl like you sleeps there alone and gets targeted by some thug in the hotel, it'd be terrible."
Rope was deliberately trying to scare Sora.
"How about this: I have an empty room where I live. Why don't you sleep there for the next few days? I'll give you a cheap price..."
In reality.
Rope figured Sora wouldn't agree.
Unexpectedly, after thinking for a moment, Sora actually nodded.
"Okay."
For Sora, it didn't matter where she slept. As for safety, with Bailey around, she was 100% safe. And since she was here to truly experience the life of an Infected, staying directly in an Infected's home was probably more appropriate than a hotel.
"???"
Rope froze for a second, then broke into a smile, quickly inviting Sora to her place.
But, for some reason.
Rope had a feeling of being watched, as if someone other than Sora was looking at her.
Strange...
Rope lowered her head again to glance at the teddy bear in Sora's hands. The teddy bear was still looking at her. Those eyes, no matter how she looked at them, seemed alive. Even though they hadn't moved.
"Miss Lemuel, your doll... it's so cute."
Rope asked casually.
Sora just smiled slightly.
"Of course. Bailey is a very important partner of mine."
Bailey?
The doll's name...
Are all the young ladies from the city this bored? Giving names to their dolls?
The place where Rope lived wasn't too remote.
When Sora and Lucas Reeve arrived, Sora froze for a few seconds. Even Lucas Reeve couldn't help but complain inside Sora's head.
"If Liu Yuxi saw this house, he'd probably delete 'An Epigraph for a Humble Dwelling' overnight..."
Sora: "Who is Liu Yuxi, Bailey? And what's 'An Epigraph for a Humble Dwelling'?"
"A poet."
"What's wrong? Miss Lemuel."
Rope turned her head, confused. The young lady seemed to be muttering something just now, but she couldn't hear clearly.
She's probably complaining about how rundown my place is.
But for Rope, it was pretty good.
At least... it had walls. It could shelter her from the wind and rain.
The room wasn't big.
A few dozen square meters.
It was purely an unfurnished shell. Walking in, it was truly "four bare walls." After entering, there was no bed, only a long piece of cardboard opposite the door, a broken-down table, and a broken cabinet. On the table and cabinet were some simple, worn-out pieces of furniture. If you had to say what the most valuable thing in the entire room was, it might be the electric fan that looked like it had been through eighteen owners. Oh... and the fan probably didn't even work. The room had no electricity.
There wasn't even an electric light by the door. They could only barely make out the situation inside by the moonlight.
Ah, this...
Sora was stunned.
It turns out... the places beggars live in on TV... are actually filmed pretty conservatively.
But an even greater sense of sorrow welled up in Sora's heart.
Is this the current situation for the Infected?
And life for the Infected in Lungmen is, to some extent, already considered good. Then what about in Ursus...
Sora couldn't even begin to imagine it.
It turns out, only by seeing it with your own eyes can you know just how difficult the living conditions of the Infected are.
"Ehehe, actually, a lot of this furniture wasn't here before. Didn't the L.G.D. hand out some donated clothes and furniture in the slums a while back? I scavenged all this furniture from there. And this fan! When I can afford it, I'll get electricity hooked up, and I won't be hot when I sleep in the summer anymore. I hope... I hope I can live through a few more summers..."
Although Rope said it with a laugh.
Sora could hear the strong bitterness beneath it.
"You can sleep here. I'll be next to you."
Sora pointed to the relatively clean piece of cardboard on the floor. Since the weather was hot, it was fine not to have a blanket. Rope then dragged over a burlap sack from the side and spread it on the floor as her own bed.
This was Sora's first time sleeping in a place like this. It felt... strange.
After the two lay down, Sora chatted more with Rope about other things, including Rope's life story. Rope's story was bitter, extremely bitter. At least, Sora's heart ached after hearing it. She was already planning to leave some money for Rope tomorrow to improve her life a little. After all, Sora's annual income was substantial; leaving a bit of money was easy.
Gradually.
Sora, tired from walking all day, began to drift off to sleep.
Rope suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Sora, not far away, her heart incredibly complicated.
After their chat just now, Rope basically knew that Sora was a very good person, a kind-hearted young lady. She really couldn't bear to hurt someone like that. But... she really, really needed the money...
Rope struggled with this for a long, long time.
It wasn't until the middle of the night, when she was sure Sora was fast asleep, that Rope finally decided to act. She got up stealthily and walked over to Sora.
"I can't believe she's sleeping so soundly. Young ladies really are carefree... Your life must be so easy..."
Rope carefully prepared to take out the wallet.
Rope remembered there was a lot of cash in this wallet. Rope decided to take just two bills... no... three. Just three bills. Three bills would be nothing to a young lady. Maybe this lady didn't even remember how much money was in her wallet.
Three hundred Lungmen Dollars was no small sum for Rope.
Rope located the pocket and was just about to use her practiced technique to lift Sora's wallet.
Suddenly!
The teddy bear next to Sora suddenly *moved*. Before Rope's completely stunned eyes, it slowly turned its head. The doll's beady eyes met Rope's.
Instantly!
A shocking chill shot from Rope's brain, down her spine, all the way to her heels. Her entire body went ice-cold.
*Hiss...*
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
Rope finally broke, screaming in terror.