Another year passed.
Orion was nine years old.
Life after the Underworld was sealed off was even harder than imagined.
The situation in Rivet Town was particularly bad; the speed of the Fragntum's erosion had clearly accelerated.
Every night, monster roars often ca from the town's edge, making the residents tremble with fear.
Without the Silvermane Guards' defenses, Fragntum monsters began to frequently infiltrate Rivet Town.
Orion heard that on several occasions, monsters directly rushed into the town, causing casualties.
Those residents who couldn't evacuate in ti could only be killed by the monsters in despair.
Not long after, the residents of Rivet Town began to migrate en masse to Boulder Town.
In long lines, people carried their ager belongings, walking silently on the road to the neighboring town.
Their faces were filled with fatigue and numbness, having already beco refugees fleeing disaster.
As it was for the residents of Rivet Town, the Orphanage on the town's edge naturally fared no better; the more dangerous the surrounding environnt, the more severe the food shortage beca.
Director Natasha did her best to keep the Orphanage running, constantly running around, searching for food and supplies, and comforting the children.
But it was too difficult for her alone.
Finally, at the suggestion of the Rivet Town Managent Committee, Natasha made a difficult decision—the Rivet Town Orphanage would cease operations.
This news made the children cry in a heap, and Natasha's heart was twisted with pain.
She began to run around, contacting families in Rivet Town and Boulder Town who could barely make ends et, hoping they could adopt the children.
A few days later.
The Orphanage officially closed.
Natasha, with the last group of children and a pitifully small amount of supplies, walked on the road to Boulder Town.
The procession moved like a tired snake, winding forward.
Tears and snot hung on the children's faces, their small hands tightly clutching their last remaining toys.
On the edge of Boulder Town, there was a patch of abandoned houses.
The walls were dilapidated, the windows were drafty, and half of the roof had collapsed.
Natasha stopped here.
This place was far from as good as the Orphanage in Rivet Town, but at least it offered shelter.
She began to get busy, directing the older children to help clear debris and use salvaged wooden planks to patch up the drafty spots.
Soon, a room that was barely habitable was tidied up.
Natasha then cleared out a small area and set up the simple dical equipnt and dicines she had brought.
Not long after, Natasha's clinic opened in Boulder Town.
Although conditions were tough, Natasha's superb skills quickly made the clinic famous in the town.
Residents who were injured or sick ca here with a try-it-and-see attitude, but were moved by her responsible approach.
And Natasha, with her benevolent heart as a healer, often charged patients very little, or even nothing, willing to accept so food as paynt for dical fees.
And Orion stood outside the clinic, watching from afar.
Natasha's busy figure and the patients' smiles—he saw it all.
Of course, he wasn't concerned about whether Natasha was doing well.
He was only concerned about that favor.
As long as Natasha was still around, that favor could be repaid.
This was more important than anything else.
Afterward, Orion returned to his shelter.
These days, he had been continuously upgrading his shelter using resources collected from various places.
He reinforced the walls with thicker planks, made a simple canopy from salvaged tin sheets, and even set up so simple traps around the shelter using ropes and broken stones.
The shelter beca more sturdy and hidden, like a tortoise shell tucked away in a corner.
Orion looked at this shelter, fully equipped, yet he always felt sothing was missing.
As he thought, sohow, a thought popped into his head:
How about inviting Seele to move in?
It seed... it wasn't impossible?
No sooner said than done.
He even managed to get a few clean blankets and a soft pillow for this purpose.
These items were absolute luxuries in the Underworld; he had put in a lot of effort to get them from others.
This wasn't so sudden outbreak of saintly compassion.
He admitted there was a bit of selfishness.
Living alone for a long ti, no matter how rational one was, they would want companionship.
And Seele was one of the few peers he could talk to and was willing to be close to after coming to this world.
He began to tidy the shelter, placing those luxurious blankets and pillows in conspicuous positions.
Imagining Seele's expression when she saw these things, he couldn't help but curve his lips into a smile.
Seele's recent living conditions were not good.
She beca more silent, and her eyes grew colder.
To snatch the increasingly scarce food, she accumulated more and more scars, but she seed to feel no pain.
She was like a small wild beast, surviving in the cracks.
Gradually, she began to miss the forr order of the Underworld.
She no longer wanted to see people fighting tooth and nail over a piece of bread, nor did she want to experience the constant fear of monsters possibly rushing into town at any mont.
But she was just a child; what could she do?
This day.
Seele was again caught in a scramble.
Several vagrants were fighting over a pile of scrap tal, fists and sticks flying.
Seele was just passing by, but one of the vagrants tried to snatch the food hidden on her, and she retaliated without hesitation!
She was agile and ruthless in her moves, quickly making the vagrant clutch his stomach and fall to the ground.
But the food on Seele's person was exposed.
In an instant, the other starving vagrants, and even so usually honest-looking residents, had red eyes, all surrounded her, their gaze filled only with hunger for food.
"Kid! Give that stuff!"
"What? Not giving? Can a kid like you eat all that? Be obedient!"
The atmosphere imdiately beca tense.
Seele confronted five or six adults who were more than ten years older than her.
Although Seele was good at fighting, facing such a disparity in numbers and physique, she had no chance of winning.
Just then, two figures walked over.
"Enough."
A white-haired middle-aged man stopped them.
Beside him stood a tall, expressionless man.
The people who had surrounded them paused, but hunger made them disregard too much, and so rushed forward directly!
Oleg's eyes turned cold.
He made no extra movents, simply struck a punch to the face of the vagrant who was charging at the front.
"Ah!"
The vagrant scread, nose bleeding, his body flying backward like a rag doll, heavily hitting the ground.
Imdiately after, the man beside Oleg also moved; he grabbed two other charging vagrants, lifted them like chickens, and then slamd them hard onto the ground.
"Ugh! Ah!"
The two grunted simultaneously, unable to get up for a long ti.
The remaining vagrants and residents stopped in their tracks, frightened, looking at Oleg and the other man with suspicion.
Only then did they realize that this man and the person he brought were extraordinarily skilled.
Oleg ignored those people; he turned his head and looked at Seele.
He saw that although she was in rags and had injuries, her eyes were still sharp, without the slightest hint of retreat.
"Are you alright, child... Wait, are you Seele?"
Oleg was a little surprised after recognizing Seele.
Seele didn't answer, just watched him warily.
Oleg didn't press; he turned around, surveying the frightened vagrants and residents.
"Do you want to live the rest of your lives like this?"
Oleg asked, a hint of disappointnt in his eyes:
"Like beasts, tearing at each other for a bit of scraps? Is this all the Underworld has beco?!"
His words pierced into people's hearts like an awl.
They lowered their heads, not answering.
"The Silvermane Guards are gone, the Overworld abandoned us!"
Oleg's voice suddenly rose, like a clap of thunder, "But we cannot wait here to die!"
He began to loudly preach his ideas to the onlookers.
"We have ford a team, a team that belongs to the Underworld itself!"
"Listen everyone, we are called Wildfire! We want to maintain order, resist Fragntum monsters, and make sure the Underworld is no longer a junkyard abandoned by the Overworld!"
Oleg's gaze swept over everyone present, his voice ringing out:
"Join us! And with us, like the fire beneath the earth, burn brightly and illuminate the darkness! We don't rely on anyone, only on ourselves!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the man beside Oleg pulled out a stack of crudely printed papers from his person and began to distribute them to the people around him.
Those were "Wildfire" flyers, with their recruitnt slogans and stronghold location written on them.
Although it was unknown whether those vagrants and town residents had listened.
But Oleg's words, like a ball of fire, truly ignited the long-suppressed spirit of resistance deep within Seele.
She had always longed to change this Underworld.
And this man seed to point out a path.
Afterward, Oleg ca to Seele's side.
"Seele? It really is you." He looked at Seele with complicated emotions, "You've grown up... How have you been recently?"
Seele stiffened.
She finally recognized this man.
A blurry image flashed in her mind—a tall Silvermane Guard, leading her as a young child into the gate of the Rivet Town Orphanage.
He was... the captain of the Silvermane Guards, Oleg?
Seele had thought he had long since returned to the Overworld with those Silvermane Guards...
Imdiately after, another figure from her mory erged.
The boy who ca to the Orphanage alone to beg, who would rather scavenge outside than live in the Orphanage... Orion.
From Orion's eyes, she saw sothing different from the other orphans, sothing she yearned for.
Since then, Seele also left the Orphanage and wandered like Orion.
"Oleg... it's you." Seele replied softly, "I... I'm fine."
She didn't want to say much about her wandering life.
"Alright... child, you're still so strong."
Oleg handed Seele a flyer.
"Take this." He pointed to a marked spot on it, "If you ever encounter anything or have difficulties in the future, co find here."
Seele took the flyer, clutching it tightly in her hand.
Just then, Orion's figure rushed over in a hurry.
He heard soone say Seele was surrounded, so he imdiately rushed over.
"Seele!"
He shouted loudly, running to Seele's side, looking her up and down.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
Seele turned her head, saw Orion's breathless appearance, smiled slightly, and shook her head.
"I'm fine." She replied softly, pointing to Oleg and the man beside him, "They helped ..."
Orion followed her hand and looked at Oleg.
"Uh, you two helped Seele out of trouble? Thank you very much..."
"No need to thank us."
Oleg smiled at the two: "With Wildfire, such things will no longer happen in the Underworld. I guarantee it."
And when Orion heard "Wildfire," his gaze changed.
He looked at Oleg, desperately suppressing the excitent in his heart.
—Is that so? Wildfire is starting to erge...
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