Hero of Darkness

Chapter 1223: Resource Management

[[AUTHOR’s announcement : Hello everyone, sorry for the long 1 and half month break.

The reason behind my absence is simply too complicated to explain, but I’ll try anyway.

For the past 2 months, I’ve been suffering from Chronic Insomnia. And no, I do not have the habit of drinking Coffee everyday.

I could barely sleep for 2 hours every night, and my mind was hyperactive throughout the entire thing. I even resumed gym again just to exhaust myself so I could fall asleep due to fatigue, but it just doesn’t work.

I have visited two different doctors and taken different medications. Yet none of them helped at all. I even self medicated and tried Magnesium Glycinate, Vitamin K2 and D3 along with it to better my sleep and calm my nervous system down. I even tried the whole yellow light after 6 PM thing and shut down all the lights at 8 PM in my room just to fall asleep. But nothing worked.

And throughout the day, my mood was often irritated for no reason. I could not focus on a single thing and constantly seeking some sort of ’feel good’ hit. Playing video games or going to the gym didn’t help either.

Drinking and other stuff are a no-go for me because of my illness that all of you are aware of. And every time I tried to sit down and write Chapters... my brain instantly turned itself off.

Some might call it being lazy, but those who suffer from chronic insomnia understand how chaotic your mind and body connection is due to irregular sleep, fatigue at the wrong time, brain shutting down while the body is perfectly fine.

It was like becoming a living Mummy with a functioning brain.

After almost 2 months... I can finally get at least 4 hours of sleep, which is just me passing out till I wake up again around 3 AM.

While I am aware of your displeasure due to irregular updates... I am also struggling on my own end. I will try to upload at least one Chapter per day for the following week and would preferably resume the novel at a regular pace from next month.

So thank you for your constant support despite my failures to uphold my own words from time to time.

See you more often from now on.

- CrimsonWolfAuthor ]]

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Chapter :

The young kid who barely had a sense of reality about the world outside, despite getting scared for the life that was to come... suddenly started seeking justice out of nowhere.

What did a clueless boy like him even know about justice?

First, the monsters from the other dimension killed his parent, and now the monsters native to this world put him and thousands of others like him in cells, giving them food to survive and training them mercilessly to fight the other victims just like Morpheus.

His exposure to reality was already so little. So why did the yearning for justice stem in his mind?

The answer lay in the concept of ’Evolution’ in itself.

Every species on the planet, even those that went extinct, adapted to their surroundings, their place in the world, and evolved on one core principle... Survival of the fittest.

Humans were no exceptions to this rule ever since their own beginning. They went from monkeys to cavemen. They started hunting and farming to survive. Their bodies adapted to the atmosphere and the nature.

All of it happened over millions of years for countless species in the world.

And presently, people who faced death would often develop this keen sense as well as their survival instinct went through the roof.

Ever since Morpheus was brought here after losing his parents... he was quietly observing.

He saw many others just like him who lost their everything to the monsters. But as human beings... forget helping the survivors, their lives were now treated as livestock meant only to be fattened up and then led to slaughter.

All of it for what?

Because people wanted to be entertained.

Why was there such a disparity even though they were all human beings? Why was there such cruelty to the victims in the times when they needed someone’s help the most?

It was like a disabled person who already couldn’t walk on their feet and intentionally breaking off their legs just because they felt excitement and power from doing it.

Humans had forgotten humanity. And that is what Morpheus observed from his cold and lifeless eyes.

And as for seeking justice?

”What can I even do?” asked Morpheus to himself.

”They are bigger, stronger, have powers, and know how to fight. I can’t even beat or hurt other kids of my age.

How can a weak person like me even fight back and survive?” he kept wondering as he whispered while lying on a bed inside the infirmary.

At the moment, it seemed like strength was all it needed to be in control of your life.

But Morpheus, who had developed the sixth sense far too early, asked himself another question.

”Since every one of them is strong, then the people whom they follow must be stronger?

But is one stronger person enough to control all the other stronger people who are many more in numbers?” he asked.

Morpheus hadn’t even gone to school because of their poverty, but could already differentiate between one and many.

”Papa used to say rich people control everything. So then, who is truly in control?

The strong people or the rich people?” he wondered again and again.

And in the end, he reached his own conclusion.

”Power is power. It doesn’t matter which shape or form it takes.”

******************

One Month Later...

The harsh training continued as Morpheus started gaining muscles, learned to fight, and to predict the movements of his opponents.

While the other kids took a beating and chose to go and spend time in the infirmary... Morpheus kept hiding his pain and suffering just so he could learn to endure even more pain, spend more time training, and adapt to battles.

He realized that whatever plans these people had for kids like him... they would eventually end up in their deaths.

The batch before them was almost left with half a dozen kids. And 3 more batches were brought in within the past month.

Morpheus deduced that their time would come soon and eventually, whether they were prepared or not... all of them would be forced to fight for real.

That was the reason why he did not slack behind or take breaks. He cried alone in his small cell, and he sobbed with a muffled voice when he missed his parents. He wailed alone when he couldn’t endure the pain from his injuries.

But he did not take breaks and fell behind everyone.

Every day, Morpheus was improving; he was developing keen battle sense while observing others, their size, their movements, their fighting stances, and creating a strategy to face off the opponents.

He also noticed one thing... some kids were turning far more violent. They were intentionally breaking their opponent’s arms and legs, rendering them useless and unfit to fight.

Maybe they thought that if there was less competition to begin with, they wouldn’t have to live among others and have better lives if they proved themselves to be stronger than the rest of the bunch.

”Idiots. Do they not realize that we are sticking out more by displaying our strength?” he wondered.

As for many kids who went into the infirmary... those who could still fight always returned for the training. Those who had their arms or legs broken, who would take months to recover... not a single one of them returned.

”The infirmary isn’t even that big. If everyone received a bed to rest after their injuries... the building would be much bigger.” he thought with a skeptical tone.

”So are they still inside the building?” wondered Morpheus.

How could hundreds of people be treated with merely 50 beds?

There was definitely something happening behind the isolated walls in that building. He just hadn’t seen it by himself yet.

But his curiosity... wouldn’t last long.

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The day finally came...

A long queue of kids like Morpheus formed, led by the militia soldiers while chaining both their hands and feet as they were marched towards the central building of this whole settlement.

Today, the entire secret settlement was filled with luxury cars, helicopters flying in, and even private jets hovering in the sky as if there was some kind of grand festival.

Compared to their rundown training facilities and cages... this place was a royal palace, and they were brought in like slaves.

”Arggh!!”

”Let me go!!”

”Mom! Help me!”

”Father! Save me!”

On their way, Morpheus and the group heard loud cries for help and agony.

These screams filled with agony and helplessness echoed throughout the hallway of one corner of this grand building.

Chop!

Chop!

Chopping noises resounded throughout the pathway as Morpheus, following in the line, got a glimpse of the door on his way...

The room where all these screams came from... was filled with the kids from the infirmary who were injured beyond use.

The main cooking ingredient wasn’t the vegetables or the spices... it was these human children being slaughtered in front of Morpheus’ eyes.

All of them were being butchered alive by men and women inside this room, the floor soaked in their blood, while plenty of large cooking utensils and ingredients were being brought in by other people.

”ARRRGGHHGH!!!!”

Ear-deafening screams of agony and terror almost hit like shockwaves to Morpheus as he watched another carnage right in front of him.

First watching his parents being eaten alive by the monsters, and now the kids the same age as him being butchered alive by humans.

Both times, the harrowing cries and mortifying screams for help had become a trigger for Morpheus.

”Hah! I already told them that the dog that does not bark on its master’s orders will be gunned down.

They proved themselves useless. At least now, their pathetic lives would at least fill the bellies of their esteemed guests from around the world,” spoke the leader of the militia group.

His body froze on the spot as Morpheus imagined himself in place of those kids.

What if he had gotten injured beyond the point of recovery? What if he deliberately got injured like other kids and went to the infirmary just to rest and avoid more pain?

What if he had chosen the path of comfort and cowardice? Would he be sitting in that same hall with those children, helplessly begging for their lives?

”How can humans do this to other humans?” asked Morpheus in a hushed tone to himself.

It was right then...

”Hey, why are you stopping?! Get in line, you bastard!” shouted one of the militia soldiers and shoved Morpheus.

As they walked, their group was escorted to narrow paths, with guards holding guns at every corner and at equal intervals.

”What is going to happen to us?” asked the kid behind Morpheus, his body shivering with fear for his life.

However, Morpheus did not respond while maintaining his usual cold and despondent countenance.

”Many kids who were severely injured were placed in that room when I was sent there. But even before that, the numbers were still dwindling.

There was no major event like this. So where did all the kids go?” he wondered and the very next moment...

SHOCK!!

Morpheus suddenly came to a realization as his entire body lost the will to move.

Ever since the day all of them were brought into this settlement from the survivor camps, the food they received was always enough for thousands of them.

Morpheus himself remembered eagerly eating the small chunks of meat whenever he saw them in the gruel.

It was this moment he realized that for the past one month...

They were the ones eating the other children.