I, the Rock King Emperor with 21 billion in power, have joined the chat group.

----The pitiful little girl.

Zhong Li thought this to himself, but his face remained expressionless as he quietly watched the little girl eating.

The whole bag of bread was quickly eaten up. Zhongli then handed two portions of his own lunchbox to the little girl in front of him and said calmly, "Eat up."

The little girl looked up at him in surprise, but without much hesitation, she immediately opened the lid of the bento box and continued to eat heartily.

After finishing the three-pack of bento boxes in her hand, the thin child patted the hem of her tattered dress and silently stood up.

Then, right there in the middle, she started taking off her clothes.

The small, thin body appeared in front of Zhongli in less than half a second.

Zhongli, who had been calm all along, remained expressionless.

He waved his hand gently, and the little girl was stunned for a moment before her tattered clothes were on her.

Where did you learn that?

Zhongli asked calmly.

"Aria-chan," the little girl replied in a flat voice.

"Hmm, what did she say?" Zhongli squatted down and calmly looked into the eyes of the little girl in front of him.

“If an adult suddenly gives you something delicious and doesn’t hit you, he must need your body,” Yuko Kobayashi said calmly.

It was as if such mature, even frightening and disgusting words did not come from her mouth.

Zhongli nodded slightly in understanding.

He was not surprised that such a young girl would be used for these purposes, not limited to abuse, abuse in a male-female sense, or even the possibility of torture and murder.

The demons lurking in the human heart, when faced with something small and powerless to resist, coupled with a tacitly accepted social environment, can transform into disgusting behemoths.

Not to mention, society seems to be deliberately directing public opinion toward the "cursed child".

It's as if the near extinction of humanity is the fault of these cursed children; it's as if the hardships we're experiencing now are the fault of these cursed children; it's as if the world has become what it is today because of these cursed children.

However, although Zhongli felt a slight unease, it did not reach the point of making him angry.

In fact, this world is even slightly more ethical than the world of [Nana the Level-less] that he experienced.

"No need." Zhongli replied calmly to the little girl's indifferent words.

"Um, where do you live? Tell me."

Yuko Kobayashi shook her head: "There's nowhere to live in the city."

She raised her arm and pointed south: "You can sleep in the suburbs."

"Are there any other cursed children?" Zhongli continued to ask.

"Yes, most of them are still here, and they can protect each other. And if any of them turn into Gastrea, if there are enough of them, they can take them down." Yuko Kobayashi recounted these chilling facts, yet her expression remained unchanged.

It's as if she was born cold and aloof.

"Can you take me there?" Zhongli asked three times.

This question made the young girl pause for a moment. She seemed to hesitate for a second before speaking, "What is your purpose?"

She had heard about it from other cursed children as well.

The adults, dressed in white coats and looking kind and friendly, lured away many children with food and pretty clothes, but in the end, none of the children ever came back.

"Do you want me to go find other cursed children?" Kobayashi Yuko's voice was quite mature, even frighteningly calm.

“No, I just want to see where you live,” Zhongli replied softly.

The little girl, like a kitten, tilted her head back and thought for a moment, then slowly nodded: "Yes, come with me."

After saying that, she stepped forward, took Zhongli's sleeve, and walked with her thin, short legs toward the ruins on the outskirts of the city.

Along the way, many people in Tokyo turned their attention to them.

A young man dressed in ancient Eastern Kingdom attire, and a little girl dressed in tattered clothes who is clearly a "cursed child".

I walked lightly in the twilight as the sun was about to set.

Having eaten her fill and regained much of her strength, the little girl now displayed a lightness akin to that of a kitten.

She walked briskly and without hesitation across the ruins, her bare, pale toes barely touching the ground.

After about half an hour, Zhongli finally arrived at the place where the thin young girl would sleep at night with her.

Standing amidst a dilapidated, ruined building, the young girl gently tugged at Zhong Li's sleeve, gesturing for him to walk this way.

Turning into a weed-covered hallway, I arrived at a small room that was also overgrown with weeds.

The little girl looked left and right and found a long wooden stick in the corner of the small room.

The wooden stick was clearly shaved, and its surface was transformed into a three-dimensional shape resembling a key.

Holding the wooden stick, Yuko Kobayashi, as usual, inserted it into a crack in the floorboards.

Then she suddenly lifted her arm, and a power beyond what a young girl should possess erupted from it, lifting a section of the floorboards and revealing a dark hole beneath.

“This is where we usually live.” Kobayashi Yuko looked calmly at Zhong Li.

She couldn't understand why she would tell Zhongli about the only safe hiding place she and her companions had.

Perhaps it was because of the young man's profound and weighty demeanor, or perhaps it was because of the two large bags of bread he was carrying.

At least, her cat-like intuition reminded her that the person in front of her was worthy of her trust, and she even wanted to lean her head in and let him rub it.

"Okay, let's go down then." Zhongli nodded slightly, then took the lead, holding Kobayashi Yuko's thin hand, and stepped into the cave.

The cave was not small. Zhongli and Kobayashi Yuko walked through it for about two minutes before arriving at a very spacious room.

Judging from the architecture of this room, it should have been a place where the original owner of this building parked his vehicles and some large collections. However, it is clear that after the world fell into the hands of the Gastrea, this place has become a small hut for the cursed children to live in.

It was nearly nighttime, and in this spacious but dilapidated "home," several young girls were chatting and laughing around a campfire.

In front of them were some discarded fast food items that appeared to have been salvaged from the trash cans of convenience stores or supermarkets, as well as household items that had completely expired.

A worn-out straw mat, a worn-out quilt, and worn-out clothes.

Their happiness today seems to stem from the fact that one of the little girls found a discarded dress in a trash can.

The skirt had a large tear at the hem, making it very difficult to repair. However, the little girl who found the skirt was clearly delighted and spun around the fire several times.

The other little girls around the fire watched her with envy and happiness.

Pat pat pat~~!

The sound of footsteps on the concrete floor was very noticeable in the empty underground parking garage.

The sudden appearance of Zhongli and Kobayashi Yuko caused the cursed children, who had just been enjoying themselves, to change their expressions abruptly.

The little girls immediately adopted a wary expression, looking at the adults and children in front of them.

To them, adults are a terrifying presence.

Then, as Zhongli and Kobayashi Yuko approached, one of the little girls looked up at the light and saw Kobayashi Yuko's face clearly. She exclaimed with surprise and delight.

"Yuko??"

"You're not dead? Where have you been these past few days?"

Chapter Seventeen: I Will Become a Mentor

The little girl's question was quite pointed.

Perhaps in the eyes of these "cursed children," when a child is missing for more than two days, it means that she is dead.

That's why she asked Yuko Kobayashi that question.

"Who is the adult next to you?" The little girl with a ponytail and wearing a tattered pink sweater pointed at Zhong Li and asked loudly, "Why did you bring an adult here? Don't you remember? This is a place only for us 'cursed children' can come to."

"He said he wanted to see where I was resting, Maria-chan."

Yuko Kobayashi responded to her friend's accusations with such indifference.

"In addition, he bought two large bags of white bread and several bento boxes as gifts for us."

"You think a few bento boxes and white bread can..." The blonde girl with a ponytail took two steps back, struggling to resist the temptation of the food, and said stubbornly, "Have you forgotten how those filthy adults tricked us with food? Xiaowei, Xiaoxi, Qingzi and Binlang were taken away by food, and they haven't come back yet."

"Last time, Koichi found the remains of Aoko and Binlang in a garbage dump in a laboratory on the outskirts of the southern district, but he couldn't find a complete body."

"Can you imagine the torture and suffering they endured before they died?"

"Want some?" Yuko Kobayashi took out a beautifully packaged cake from a bag. The creamy white frosting and bright red strawberries looked incredibly appetizing.

"Damn, strawberry cake??" The blonde Maria stared blankly at the food she had longed for countless times, swallowing hard several times before finally regaining her composure after nearly a minute: "No... impossible... you think you can bribe me with just a strawberry cake."

"Delicious." Regardless of what Maria said, Yuko Kobayashi simply took out a spoon and scooped up a handful of cream from the top of the small cake, stuffing it full of cream into her mouth.

The rich, calorie-rich cream and sugar left her savoring the wonderful taste in every part of her body.

"Really not going to eat?"

After eating half of the cake in front of Maria, Yuko Kobayashi held the remaining half and continued to ask Maria a question.

"Damn it!" Maria muttered angrily, "I don't believe you."

Before she could finish speaking, Yuko Kobayashi ate half of the remaining cake.

She even held the cake high as a reminder of "one-quarter".

Maria's head bobbed up and down with the cake. After a moment, she finally couldn't resist taking two steps forward, then suddenly jumped up and grabbed the cake from Kobayashi Yuko's hand like a swift leopard.

"It's mine now."

She proudly raised her head and announced it.

Seeing the interaction between Maria and Yuko Kobayashi, the other little girls also lowered their guard and took small steps to Zhongli, their eyes fixed on the large bag he was carrying.

Zhongli smiled and said, "Okay, go ahead and eat."

He put the bags on the ground and let the little girls choose for themselves.

Then he walked over to the fire and waved to Yuko Kobayashi and Maria: "Can we talk?"

“If you ask me, it’s not impossible.” Maria proudly raised her head.

Her steps were not as arrogant as her words, and she quickly led Zhongli to his side.