Mir stood on the concrete platform at the mouth of the pipe, with Gavo standing beside him wearing her gas mask.
Although the height difference between them was enormous, the aura radiating from Gavo was enough that none of the feral children watching below dared look down on her.
After all, several chips in the teeth Mir exposed to the air were said to have been made by that miniature beast with her bare hands.
"Brothers, we've got a new family member. Mask."
Mir patted Gavo on the shoulder and made the announcement to those below.
"Mask, on our side we rank by strength. Even though you're strong, since you're a newcomer, you can only be Number Thirteen for now."
"Now then, let me introduce everyone."
As he pointed at each person, Mir introduced their rank and nickname:
"Number Two, One-Eye... Number Four, Rabbit-Mouth... Number Six, Fish-Eyes... Number Eight, Loose-Skin... Number Twelve, Round-Foot."
"And of course, me. The boss, Faceless."
"Even though we're still small right now and don't have our own territory..."
"One day, we'll become the strongest gang and survive in the underhive openly and proudly!"
At this point, Mir clenched his fists hard, his eyes flashing with soaring fighting spirit.
Gavo swept her gaze across the group and was somewhat surprised to find that every child there had the same kind of light in their eyes.
Even scum as lowly as ants could dream of climbing to the top of the mountain.
A pity that, in the eyes of those in the upper hive, that mountain was no different from a little dirt slope at their feet.
She did not laugh at their dream.
Because in her own heart, she held an even more distant one.
To rise from an underhive ant into an angel before the Emperor's throne.
...
As they spent more time together, Gavo's impression of these feral children improved greatly.
Although they ranked each other by status, food and water were distributed equally.
Although their personalities were nasty, there was still a unique spark shining inside their souls.
Mir was an extremely loyal and approachable big brother. The moment someone got bullied, he would swing those monstrous fists of his and go settle the matter.
Rabbit-Mouth was foul-mouthed to the extreme, yet inwardly kind and sensitive. He could always sharply sense other people's negative emotions, then use the art of verbal abuse to draw all the enemy fire onto himself and comfort the other person in the process.
Fish-Eyes had no real opinions of his own and was somewhat cowardly, but he liked taking care of others. Gavo's adoptive father was basically looked after in turns by him and Gavo.
And in the hearts of these feral children, Gavo's image gradually became something very concrete:
A treasure bowl that could fight.
Not only was her combat power terrifying, she could always beat Rabbit-Mouth and any scavenger who came looking for trouble until they were half-dead.
And on top of that, she was practically the ancient Terra god of scavenging.
Since they had no independent territory, the Children's Gang obtained supplies by going out scavenging in groups.
But the amount of high-value scrap Gavo could find by herself was equal to the combined haul of the other twelve.
With wealth-gathering power like that, Number Two, One-Eye, willingly gave up his position, allowing her to become the unquestioned second-in-command of the Children's Gang with no effort at all.
During this period, Gavo's daily rhythm did not change much.
Aside from the fact that her adoptive father was still unconscious and needed care, and that home had become the Children's Gang's abandoned drainage pipe, she still trained like mad and made time whenever she could to go listen to Old Bill's stories.
Unfortunately, because Gavo had disappeared for several days while recovering, Old Bill had visibly aged a great deal.
Of course, aside from all that, there was one task she had been pursuing with all her strength the entire time.
Finding the scum who had injured her adoptive father.
...
The gears of time turned within the invisible void, letting out a low hum that resonated with the sea of souls.
The threads of fate were drawn by the hand of that great Weaver, becoming part of the maze of all things as they moved toward the paths meant for them.
He laughed softly, adding a new stroke to the final curtain that contained endless beauty and terror.
...
Time passed, suns and moons flew by, and before anyone noticed, holy Terra had completed another six full cycles around its blazing sun.
In those six years, Gavo had grown a lot. Her height had already reached an astounding one point five meters, far beyond children her age.
Rabbit-Mouth found this extremely baffling.
How was he growing so fast?
If this kept going, Rabbit-Mouth would end up shorter than him.
That meant one fewer way to mock him...
Mir, however, did not feel much about it.
That guy had already reached a shocking one point nine meters in height, and he still seemed to be growing.
Gavo was deeply curious about this.
What the hell was he eating to get that huge?
Wasn't the whole point that underhive scum were supposed to be short from malnutrition?
Still, as far as Gavo was concerned, her growth in physical ability had obviously far surpassed Mir's.
Even with the obstruction of her growth curve, by the time she was nine years old, Gavo had already reached the point where she could lift one hundred kilograms with a single arm.
Her body looked slender and long-limbed, but in truth it was packed with hard, iron-like coiled muscle.
Her speed was difficult to measure concretely because there was no timing equipment, but judging from the movement of the air around her when she ran at full speed, it was absolutely astonishing.
"Normal weight training is gradually starting to lose its effect. Does that mean my limit is finally getting close?"
Yes, even after six years, Gavo still had not completed the system objective of breaking through her limits.
But as the effect of ordinary training weakened more and more, she could vaguely sense that soon the rate at which Infinite Growth raised her limits would no longer be able to keep up with the rate at which her body consumed energy.
That was both good news and bad news.
Because if that moment truly arrived, it would mean she had to adopt even harsher methods of training.
But an environment that could support that level of training was very hard to find in the underhive.
"Boss! Boss! Boss!"
Gavo was pulled out of her thoughts by the frantic yelling and turned to look at Fish-Eyes, who was running in wildly from outside.
Then she asked calmly,
"What happened?"
The reason Gavo had become the boss was simple.
Two years ago, one day, Mir suddenly got the urge to spar with her for fun, and at the same time settle the old grudge from four years earlier when she had knocked him out with that Receive, Redirect, Strike move.
Then he got toyed with by Gavo's agile footwork.
In the end, Mir ran out of stamina and was beaten to his knees by a vicious combo from Gavo.
That was how Gavo ascended to the position of boss.
In the years afterward, Mir kept trying to challenge her and take the position back.
The result was that each time, he got beaten even worse than before.
But Mir obviously enjoyed it.
To quote his own words:
"A good, satisfying fight makes even my thing stand up!"
Hearing Gavo's question, Fish-Eyes panted for a while before finally blurting out a piece of news that instantly changed Gavo's expression.
"Mir and the others... they've been surrounded by the Wild Dog Gang!"
Peace had never been the natural state of the underhive.
The moment a local tyrant's appetite could no longer be satisfied, the so-called gang buffer zone would become a bloody meat grinder the very next second.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]