The rat had already been impaled, yet it was still tenaciously clinging to life.
It stared at Renn without the slightest trace of fear, baring its teeth and claws as though trying to intimidate and threaten him.
Expressionless, Renn twisted its neck and killed it.
Then he casually tossed the rat aside.
Renn had once asked the purple-haired girl why people didn’t catch these rats for food.
Her answer had been simple: their meat was inedible.
Eating it would kill you.
After living in a place like Meteor City for countless generations, even the rats had mutated.
Suddenly, Renn stopped.
A thought had occurred to him.
“They can’t be eaten directly, but I can still throw them into the Disassembler.”
“If that thief’s corpse could be disassembled, then these rats should work too.”
Renn picked up a length of rope from nearby, tied up the dead rat, and continued climbing the garbage heap.
After finding a secluded area with no one around, he began rummaging through the trash.
He found nothing.
The garbage here was truly garbage.
There was nothing worth recycling.
Worse still, it was dangerous.
Aside from rats, Renn also spotted several venomous insects.
Anything that came close was immediately stabbed to death, and Renn piled the corpses together.
The sky gradually darkened.
The people on the garbage heap began heading back down.
There hadn’t been many people here to begin with, and by evening, Renn was the only one left.
“Disassembler!”
The Disassembler appeared.
Renn tossed all the rats and venomous insects he had collected into it.
“Disassembly successful. EXP gained: 16.”
“Biological Energy acquired: 4.”
Renn could feel his injuries recovering further.
“Just as I thought. They can be disassembled.”
“Even if all I get is EXP and Biological Energy, that’s enough.”
Renn cut off a small piece of rat meat.
The scent of fresh blood immediately spread through the air.
It was bait.
He intended to lure carnivorous creatures living on the garbage heap toward him.
“Squeak, squeak!”
A rat caught the scent and rapidly approached.
Renn didn’t hesitate.
He raised his dagger and stabbed downward.
“Disassembly successful. EXP gained: 1.”
“Biological Energy acquired: 0.1.”
That was what he gained from disassembling a single rat.
Time passed little by little.
Renn didn’t stop.
He continued killing rats one after another.
The creatures seemed almost insane.
No matter how many of their kind died, the moment they smelled blood, they still couldn’t resist approaching.
“Disassembly successful. EXP gained: 1.”
“Biological Energy acquired: 0.1.”
Another warm current flowed into Renn’s body.
Then, all of a sudden, Renn realized something.
His lower leg no longer hurt.
A possibility flashed through his mind, and his eyes lit up.
“My leg healed?”
Renn cautiously moved it.
There was no pain whatsoever.
His leg moved freely and smoothly.
“It really is healed!”
Renn let out a long breath and looked at the Disassembler.
The situation he had faced today had practically been hopeless.
His own injuries hadn’t healed, the purple-haired girl he had made a deal with had been injured as well, and there was no source of food.
Under those circumstances, all they could do was wait to die.
But now, the Disassembler had completely healed Renn’s injuries.
“Since I’ve fully recovered, there’s no reason to keep hunting these things. I need to find food.”
With a thought, the Disassembler vanished.
“In my current condition, I should be able to compete with at least some of the people at the fresh garbage heaps.”
Meteor City was a recruitment ground for the mafia and had produced many criminal organizations over the years.
The most famous example was the Phantom Troupe.
But the vast majority of people here were still ordinary humans.
People like the thief Renn had killed—ordinary people who had merely learned a few combat skills.
Under the faint moonlight, there weren’t many people still active.
Nighttime was far more dangerous than daytime.
Even so, dozens of figures could still be seen busily moving up and down the fresh garbage heaps.
All of them were fighting to survive.
Renn plunged straight into the crowd.
At dawn, the purple-haired girl opened her eyes.
She instinctively recoiled, smacking the back of her head against the wall before realizing she was lying on her own bed.
She quickly looked around the room.
Only then did she realize that she had made it home.
She let out a breath of relief.
But immediately afterward, she noticed something else.
Renn was gone.
The purple-haired girl froze.
After hesitating for a while, she got out of bed and rummaged through the wooden chest until she found the Clear Cube Fragment.
She fell silent.
A long time passed.
Eventually, she climbed back onto the bed and hugged the Clear Cube Fragment against her chest.
“Knock, knock!”
A knock suddenly sounded at the door.
The girl’s expression instantly turned wary.
She quietly got out of bed and peered through a crack in the door.
“It’s me.”
For an instant, the purple-haired girl stared blankly.
After hesitating, she slid the latch aside.
Then she opened the door.
Renn was standing outside, carrying two black bags in his hands.
She couldn’t tell what was inside them.
“You… came back.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the purple-haired girl felt that something about them sounded strange.
“Yeah. I’m back.”
Renn stepped inside, placed the bags on the table, and sat down on the chair.
The girl closed the door and secured the latch.
For a moment, the wooden hut fell silent.
Renn opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he swallowed the words.
Instead, he took an apple from one of the bags and handed it to her.
“Eat.”
The purple-haired girl’s eyes lit up.
Part of the apple had already rotted, but to her, it was still an incredibly rare delicacy.
She might go years without getting the chance to eat something like this even once.
Renn took out another apple for himself and bit into it.
The purple-haired girl suddenly stopped eating and stared at him.
“Your injuries… they’re completely healed?”