Chapter 1 The Crimson Night

　　The Neverwinter Nights continent was twilight most of the time, especially in the dark season when the orbit of the upper continents blocked out the sunlight and the days were only a few short hours long. 　　Tonight, as Twin Alpha turned into near-Earth orbit, it was a rare night with a moon. 　　A huge full moon almost took up a small half of the sky, as if it would hit overhead the next moment, and even ordinary people without abilities could clearly see the huge basins and majestic mountains on the surface of the moon. 　　But the people who had not yet fallen asleep were terrified. 　　The full moon was actually scarlet, and the moonlight hung down from the sky to the earth like a thin veil, as if it were a living thing, spreading over the undulating and rugged earth. It rendered large swaths and swaths of gray and black silhouettes with a rich red, like a huge scar and wound, on which a cold metallic light flashed from time to time. 　　From time to time, long wolf howls and unknown beasts roars came from the distance, echoing with each other, full of tyrannical aura. 　　In the legends of the Neverwinter Nights Continent, the Crimson Moon was an ominous sign that was very rare, but when it appeared, it meant chaos and pain. Whenever the moon was drenched in the color of blood, the great kings of the dark world would open the gate of calamity, spreading berserkness and catastrophe over the land. 　　The legend was not without reason, for under the blood-colored moonlight, all creatures would involuntarily become more violent and bloodthirsty, as well as more belligerent. 　　A tiny black dot suddenly appeared under the scarlet night. It flew from beyond the sky, slowly moving across the sky and becoming larger and larger. It was clearly a floating airship that was thousands of meters long! 　　It was extremely worn out, with patches all over the huge airbags, while the metal components were rusty, and the splices were buckling in multiple places, causing people to worry about whether it would suddenly break. 　　As if confirming people's worries, the airship suddenly shook violently for a few times, and a lot of parts actually fell off from it, including a large metal component of more than ten meters. 　　The metal component crashed into the earth, stirring up a roar. 　　The floating airship struggled hard, and the rows of copper pipes on the outer wall trembled, spewing out large clouds of steam from the rear mechanical compartment. A total of eight sets of propellers at the back of the ship made a raw creaking sound, spinning frantically, before barely stabilizing the ship. 　　Below the airship, dozens of thick cables hung down in a messy manner, dangling huge cargo holds that were also rusted, and through the unclosed hatches, it was possible to see that they were filled with garbage. 　　The rusty old floating airship was like a dying beast, moving through the last part of the journey with great difficulty, and finally flew to its destination. In the hundreds of meters of earth below, there was an extremely vast airship graveyard! 　　At this moment, tens of thousands of people were swarming out from their various hiding places, they had long since left their fear of Crimson Moon behind, waving their hands vigorously at the airships and continuously letting out exuberant cheers! 　　Even in this great land that was almost forgotten by the Empire, they were the lowest ants in the entire world, struggling for survival every day. 　　This was the burial place of those once glorious behemoths, the scrapped airships that flew in from the upper continent usually carried a large amount of garbage, and over time it became a dumping ground for everything. The people living in the airship graveyard relied on the garbage thrown down from the upper continent to survive. 　　Once no floating airships carrying garbage arrived for a long time, a large number of people would starve to death here. To them, the garbage from the upper continent was all hope. 　　And tomorrow ...... tomorrow is too extravagant a word here, no one will think about tomorrow. 　　The pontoon boat that had already aligned itself with the coordinates let out a painful groan, and the propellers stopped turning one by one. The huge hull suddenly shook violently, bouncing up and down in the air for a fall of tens of meters before the outer wall in front of the left side cracked open, separating a small dirigible. 　　The small dirigible's exterior looked much more polished, and it flew around the junkyard for a while before turning its head and climbing, gradually flying off into the sky. 　　The floating airship in the air, on the other hand, lost its power and began to vibrate continuously before it suddenly lurched and slowly fell towards the earth! 　　It fell faster and faster, finally hitting the earth and disintegrating with a roar. Countless garbage, scraps, and metal components flew in all directions, raining garbage over the airship graveyard. 　　The orgy had begun! 　　The hosts screamed and rushed towards the place where the airships had crashed, some of them even running on all fours like wild animals. 　　From time to time, huge metal components fell into the air, and many of those who were below the drop point were unable to dodge and were smashed to pieces by the tons of components. However, their companions around them were oblivious to the danger, and still rushed forward with all their lives, only seeking to be the first to run to the place where they could scramble for the garbage. 　　There were men, women, old people and children. But age and gender are meaningless here, each group of people is distinguished by their size and strength, which is the only criterion for dividing the land in the graveyard. 　　Those who could rush under the wreckage of the airships were the strongest and most powerful men in the whole cemetery, then the weaker men and the stronger women, then the weaker women, and the outermost circle were the old people and children. 　　The people thus formed concentric circles with the falling pontoon boat as the center. There was an invisible but impenetrable boundary between each layer. 　　At the outermost edge of the concentric circles, there was an area for small children. Hundreds of children were constantly rummaging through the garbage in this area, searching for food that hardly existed. 　　Among them was a skinny boy who was also rummaging hard. 　　He was about seven or eight years old, with a dark face that could not be seen at all, and the clothes on his body, which should have been an adult's shirt, wrapped around him like a robe. And the shirt has long been torn out of shape, simply with cloth wrapped around the body of a few large pieces of rags. 　　He used his hands to pick at the cold garbage, his hands are full of cuts, many wounds are still festering. But he didn't seem to feel the pain, desperately picking his way through the large pile of unrecognizable garbage in front of him. 　　He hadn't eaten for three days, and if he couldn't find something to eat today, he definitely wouldn't be able to hold out until the next pontoon boat arrived. 　　But no matter how hard the boy tried, he never found anything. 　　This area had long been turned over countless times before it was left to this group of children under the age of ten. These children were the weakest people on this dump. And when the strong people really can t find food, their hungry eyes will ...... stare at the old people and children. 　　Here is the abandoned land, here is the airship graveyard. The people here are no different from the beasts as long as they live. Even the powerful beasts live with more dignity than them! 　　The desire to survive made the little boy refuse to give up, he kept turning over the garbage, and many wounds on his body cracked and oozed blood again because of the excessive force. But he didn't even realize it. 　　Another rain of garbage fell into the air, and one of the larger garbage bags landed next to the boy. 　　The outer shell of the bag shattered, and out of all the useless garbage rolled an oily paper bag, which at once firmly attracted the little boy's full attention. Surprisingly there were splashes of oil oozing from the paper packet! 　　He suddenly pounced on it with the agility of a wildcat, and grasped the oil paper bag tightly in his hands. Without even opening it to ascertain its contents, he tucked it into his shirt, while turning his head warily to look to his right and left, before crawling cautiously toward the outer perimeter. 　　Among this group of children, there was just as much competition and looting, and even killing! The level of cruelty was not at all inferior to the world of adults. 　　The little boy was very small, and was on the weak side of the junkyard, so if the big, strong kids found out that he had found something edible and wanted to hide it, a severe beating would be the least of his worries. 　　Luckily, the little boy managed to escape the area by avoiding the sight of all the older children. He seemed to have an innate acumen, always being one step ahead of the older children who were scarier than the beasts. 　　After getting away from the wreckage of the pontoon boat, the little boy ran wildly, all the way behind another mountain of garbage, and got into an empty metal barrel. 　　This was his little nest, a shelter from the elements. In the boy's mind, this small space of just over one square meter is a paradise on earth. 　　He carefully took out the oil paper bag, held his breath, and slowly opened it with a pilgrimage-like look. 　　Inside the paper bag was actually a loaf of bread! A bread with just one bite! 　　The first moment the little boy saw it, he knew the thing was called bread. He had never seen such a complete piece of food in a junkyard before, but couldn't recall at all where or when he had learned of such a thing as bread. 　　In reality, it was just an ordinary round piece of bread, which in the upper continent even the lowest of the grassy folk could have taken a bite and thrown it away, just like this piece in the little boy's hand. But in this dump, it could be worth several lives. 　　As he got closer, he could smell the faint odor belonging to the grain, and the little boy just felt that all the hurt and pain in his body had gone away. He held the piece of bread carefully, incredulous that he could find such a treasure. 　　Was this a dream? 　　A bead of blood oozed from the wound on his hand and rolled down onto the bread. The little boy lost his voice and screamed, hastily rubbing his hand over his body as hard as he could to dry all the blood and sweat stains. He looked back at the bread with a sobbing little face, as sad as if a sacred object in his heart had been desecrated. 　　At that moment the little boy's stomach suddenly rumbled, and his stomach expressed its longing with a convulsive, sharp pain. So he tore off the blood-stained part of the bread and, with all his determination, prepared to put it into his mouth. 　　But his hand suddenly stopped in mid-air. 　　Just outside the iron barrel, a little girl had appeared at some point. 　　She was only four or five years old, and her small face was black and gray, completely drowning out her original skin color, but her well-defined lines outlined the childish shape of a future stunning young girl. And her big shining eyes were exceptionally beautiful and glowing, staring straight at the bread in the little boy's hand, no longer able to move away. 　　The little boy sat up prancing, and with his left hand quietly grasped an iron bar sharpened at one end. This is the most instinctive reaction of people living in the dump, when the food in one person's hand is seen by another person, it is often a fight to the death. 　　The little girl didn't escape, both of her eyes were glued to the bread and she didn't move a muscle. 　　The little boy slowly put down the iron bar in his hand, hesitated, long, long time before he made up his mind, slowly tore the bread into two halves, and then handed half of it to the little girl. 　　The boy's movements were slow, his hands were shaking, and his forehead was even denser with beads of sweat. His stomach and all the wounds on his body were protesting with the most intense pain. 　　But the bread reached the little girl. 　　The little girl couldn't seem to believe her eyes, she firmly grasped the bread with one hand and wiped her eyes hard to make sure she wasn't dreaming. 　　She suddenly and desperately pushed the bread into her mouth, and half a round loaf of bread, bigger than her fist, actually disappeared into that tiny mouth in a few moments, perhaps not more than three seconds! 　　The little girl ate up the bread and licked the residue from her hands, only then did she raise her eyes and for the first time focused her gaze on the little boy's face, looked at it carefully, and flew away. 　　The little boy did not know what he felt in his heart at the moment, not to mention why he did so, and could only sit down in dismay. Perhaps it was the little girl's pure eyes that touched some emotion deep in his heart? 　　But what kind of strange thing are emotions? The little boy leaned against the wall of the barrel and carefully tore off a slice of bread the size of a fingernail cap and put it into his mouth, not swallowing it right away, but just holding it in, feeling the fresh flavor of the grain with his tongue. 　　Just then, from outside his nook, a tender little girl's voice suddenly came, "He's got something tasty on his hands! You promised to share half of it with me!" 　　The boy's heart sank to the bottom, and he saw that there were several older children standing outside.