Dark King

The children turned pale, afraid to say anything more. Minnie clenched her fists and clutched tightly at her clothes. She bowed her head low to fight back her tears.

The youth took another glance at the children. He was too lazy to rebuke anything. He walked right up to the counter, opened a drawer and grabbed a string of keys from inside the drawer. “Come with me”, as he said and left the hall.

Dudian immediately went after him to keep up with the youth. The other children picked up their backpacks from the ground and walked following behind after the youth and Dudian.

Along the trail through the woods, the crowd arrived in front of a dilapidated wooden shed. The youth opened the door and said, “This is the place. Pick any empty bed and get ready because by tomorrow morning the special training will begin.”. After finishing his words, the youth threw the keys towards Dudian and then directly left.

Dudian caught three keys in his palm. He stared at wooden shed and then frowned slightly. The wooden shed was most probably intentionally built for them. It could not be compared with the gorgeous and unique buildings in the surrounding areas. Even by the living standards of slum areas, this building was a relatively poor house to live in.

“Is this how they are going to treat us?” Dudian knew that special training was not going to start by tomorrow. It had already begun right now they first arrived at the wooden shed.

There were three rooms inside the wooden barracks. All three rooms were completely identical to each another. There were four beds in each room. Each bed had mats and some dark stains on the boards. He quickly checked all the beds and picked a relatively clean wooden bed. He laid his backpack on the bed and waited for the others to choose their beds so that he could then exit to find whisk leaves or large weeds to wipe the bed.?During this time, the other children had also entered the wooden shed. They were stunned at the sight. Even for the boys it was unbearable to live inside the barracks. Minnie slumped down and cried.?The kids grew up in residential areas and have not experienced such a harsh environment before.?Instead of wasting his time, Dudian gave the other two keys to the other children. He went outside to find and gather dried whisk leaves. Later, he returned to the barracks to wipe the bed. If he had known earlier that this was going to be happen, he believed that he should have brought a mattress along to cover the bed.

The other children watched as Dudian busied himself with the entire cleaning process. After they stopped wallowing in self-pity, they each began to choose their own beds. One of the children bit his teeth and talked out to rest of them,” Bear with it temporarily, things will certainly get better in the future!” In desperate moments, people always relied on hope to encourage themselves.

As time passed by they began to compromise with the situation at hand and began to adapt to the current condition.

One of the bigger boys went into Dudian ‘s room. He seemed a bit curious about Dudian, “My name is Mason, what’ s your name?”

“Dudian.”

“You seem to not be afraid of dirt.” The child was direct.

“In fact, there are moss-like things over the top of the bed.” Dudian replied.

“What is it?”, Mason asked.

“……It’s nothing.”

Mason scratched his head, for he did not know what else to say. He noticed spots of mildew on the bed board. He recalled how Dudian dealt with the situation. Immediately, he exited the room to the outside to pull out some green grass to wipe the bed, yet there were too many spots of mildew on the bed. No matter how hard he tried to rub it off, the spots remained dark.

Dudian looked at him, and then said: “We have to dry them under the sun.”

Mason was surprised for a moment and then agreed: “We can put the bed boards outside under the sun to let it dry, so that the pieces do not rot.” He called out to the other children.

They mobilized immediately.

Mason looked at Dudian, “Don’t you want to dry your bed as well?”

“I cannot move it alone.”

“I’ll help you then,” Mason replied at once.

Dudian, because of his temperament, would not ask for help directly. Nevertheless, he replied: “Thank you.” With Mason’s assistance, they took the beds outside of the wooden shed.?Not long after, another youth in officer uniform led a group of children over.

The officer looked at the beds in the open space before frowning slightly, but he did not say anything. Just like the previous officer that came before, he too casually opened a few rooms, let the group of children to pick their own rooms, before leaving the key and then left.

The children looked curiously at Dudian, Mason, and others and then, one by one considered their own bedrooms.

…

…

“Are these dwellings for the children ready?” Dasha arrived to the window. She wore a white thin silk gloves and held a metal tube. If Dudian was here, he would without a doubt recognize at first sight that it was an old-fashioned telescope. She raised it up to her eye level and began to observe the situation outside the wooden sheds.

“Everything is in accordance with your instructions. The housing environment has not changed. We will stop supplying hot water soon.” Tobu respectfully added on, “I believe they will soon adapt to the pains and hardships. This time, I am confident that we will ‘produce’ more than hundred “Scavengers”!”

Dasha nodded slightly. Suddenly she saw group of children carrying the beds from inside the wooden sheds out into the wide-open space. She was momentarily stunned as she did not expect the children to act in such a manner. After a while, she placed away the old-fashioned telescope and said. “You must discipline these children greatly. The number of passing children declined year after year. We must improve the teaching methods and tactics to maintain stable number of Scavengers. Additionally, do not forget to eliminate them instantly in case their mental state is not up to par.”

Tobu bowed his head: “Yes!”

…

…

In the evening, the children worked together to help each other to move the beds back to their respective rooms.

Mason pulled out a bedding from his backpack and laid it on the mattress. Some of the other children looked at him in envy. He laughed back at them and then comfortably lied down, proudly for his ‘foresight’.

Dudian changed his clothes and lied down. He closed his eyelids to revise the knowledge he got from super chip.?Unknowingly, he fell asleep. He woke up at 5 am the next morning because of harsh strange sounds coming from outside. Dudian and other children got up and came together to look at the source of the strange noises. They saw a meter-tall birdlike creature with a crooked neck. It emitted a very sharp sound that almost ruptured their eardrums.