ARBW Chapter 01

Lin Mian, male, twenty years old.

The world he lives in is a wasteland after the apocalypse.

In this world, humanity is divided into three categories.

They are: Nobles, Mutants, and Lower Class People.

Nobles are the capitalists from before the apocalypse, and it is said that the entire apocalypse was orchestrated by them.

Because there were too many humans in this world while resources were continuously depleting, these wealthy and powerful capitalists devised a plan to eliminate the excess population and monopolize the remaining usable resources. Thus, they created a plan for the extermination of humanity during the apocalypse.

They manufactured a highly infectious virus and possessed a genetic serum that could resist this virus. Before spreading the virus, they injected themselves and their families with the serum.

So when the virus broke out, they had the ability to resist it, while ordinary people struggled to survive, allowing them to plunder various resources on a grand scale.

As a result, they held a vast amount of resources and referred to themselves as the Upper Class, or Nobles.

Next are the Mutants, a group of people whose bodies mutated after being infected by the virus during the apocalypse.

This group is small in number and is the only one capable of challenging the Nobles.

However, their power is relatively scattered, and most of them pledge allegiance to the Nobles for the resources they possess, ultimately lacking the ability to shake the Nobles’ interests.

Finally, there are the Lower Class People, also known as consumables.

Unlike the Nobles, Lower Class People cannot resist the virus and cannot gain supernatural abilities like the Mutants; most of them are just ordinary humans.

This group occupies the majority of the world. Before the apocalypse, they were mostly middle-class or lower-class individuals.

After the apocalypse, due to a lack of money and resources to exchange for the genetic serum, even though they are numerous, they cannot compete with the Nobles and Mutants.

In such an environment, they have no money, no serum, no ability to protect themselves, and no resources.

Their fate awaits them: either to quietly wait for death or to become the playthings of the Nobles.

Yes, you read that right; they have become playthings and consumables.

Some Lower Class People, in order to survive, would send their wives or children to the Nobles for their amusement.

Because of this form of entertainment, the Nobles developed many profitable entertainment methods.

For example, they would confine these beautiful individuals in a closed town and broadcast their struggle for survival through countless cameras.

Some Nobles with more resources could pay a certain amount to come and live in these towns.

The Lower Class People in such towns must follow the rules of the town, such as what time to wake up, what time to eat, and how to please the visiting Nobles. They cannot defy any of the Nobles’ requests; otherwise, they would be killed by the town’s guards.

Additionally, some Lower Class People have become organ storage warehouses for the Nobles. When a Noble’s body undergoes a mutation, they can directly obtain new parts from the Lower Class People.

In short, it is a dark and painful world for ordinary people.

Lin Mian’s family is an ordinary one, living in the relatively dangerous outer city. Because Lin Mian is exceptionally beautiful, his father sent him to the Nobles.

Thus, Lin Mian was sent to a place called Scarlet Town, nestled in a mountainous area with both mountains and water.

The entire town is enclosed by an electric fence, and many Lower Class People, all of whom are as beautiful as Lin Mian, are sent there one after another.

Among these people, there are both old and young; the oldest is over forty, while the youngest is only five or six years old.

To obtain food and water, they must complete various humiliating tasks according to the requirements of the live broadcast comments every day.

For instance, they must bathe in front of the camera, perform stripteases, and some perverse individuals even enjoy watching them use the restroom.

Because Lin Mian is too beautiful, he attracts a particularly large audience of Nobles. Many Nobles assign him various limitless tasks, wanting to see this cold and beautiful person ultimately begging for mercy.

Unable to endure such humiliation, Lin Mian resolved in his heart to starve himself to death.

As long as he dies, this humiliation and this dark existence will come to an end.

He would be liberated.

Then, just as Lin Mian had been starving for three consecutive days and appeared close to death, a peculiar “Noble” suddenly arrived in the town.

This person seemed very wealthy, generously offering gifts to any resident he encountered in the town.

A girl living with Lin Mian received a piece of bread from him.

Seeing this, the girl thought of Lin Mian, who was on the verge of starvation, and wanted to share a bit of the bread with him.

She had completed many live broadcast tasks before, but each time they only gave her a single bite of food.

That single bite was barely enough to keep her from starving to death, which meant she couldn’t spare any for Lin Mian.

Moreover, in this apocalypse, they were all tortured Lower Class People, unable to save even themselves, let alone pity others.

So even when she noticed Lin Mian’s plight, the girl could only watch helplessly as he starved.

But today was different; a particularly benevolent “Noble” had come to the town.

While wandering around, he happened to encounter the girl standing by the roadside, trying to attract the attention of the town’s Nobles.

Currently, there were three Nobles in the town. With the addition of today’s visitor, there were exactly four.

The other three were rather aloof; they generally wouldn’t roam around the town but would visit a resident’s home instead.

What they called “visiting” was well understood—forcing Lower Class People to do some disgusting things.

The girl didn’t care much about her chastity; she had come outside today because she hadn’t received a live broadcast task, which meant she would starve if she didn’t find food.

She had arrived at the town earlier than Lin Mian and had seen many people starve, die of thirst, or be tortured to death. She had long since learned to be submissive. Now, to survive, she had to abandon all her dignity.

As she was trying her luck, she encountered a particularly handsome “Noble.”

This town had welcomed many Nobles, but he was the most handsome among them.

Many residents of the town felt that even being humiliated by such a person wouldn’t be too painful.

Because compared to the previous Nobles, who were either bald, pot-bellied, or old men, today’s “Noble” looked the most like a true Noble, exuding noble charm.

She simply approached him and exchanged a few words. Upon seeing her emaciated appearance, he generously gave her a bag of small bread.

“Thank you, sir. You are the most generous Noble I have ever met. If you need anything, you can come find me in the house across the street.”

After saying this, the girl eagerly clutched the bread and hurried back. She was very hungry and needed to eat.

Similarly, Lin Mian, who lived with her, also needed food; she actually didn’t want Lin Mian to die like this.

Although she hadn’t spoken much with Lin Mian, they shared a bond as Lower Class People, and she felt a sense of connection with him.

If possible, she hoped he could survive. Likewise, she hoped she could survive too.

…

Pei Yuhuai looked at the words spoken by the little character on his phone without much thought. He assumed the character was just a polite NPC and had no intention of visiting their home.

He fully unfolded the folding phone to better view the scenes in the game.

The game he was playing was a dating simulation game. Last night, his little niece came to find him and, seeing that he was still single at his age, downloaded several dating games for him.

She told him, “Uncle, if you play more dating games, you’ll develop a romantic mindset, and then you’ll want to fall in love. Our family doesn’t need you to carry on the family line; whether you like women or men in the future, both my dad and I will support you. So don’t overthink it, and boldly seek true love.”

Pei Yuhuai didn’t stop her from downloading games on his work phone, so he didn’t mind when he saw her messing around with his phone.

The reason he suddenly started playing games today was that when he opened this spare phone, his finger accidentally touched this game.

Then he discovered that the scenes in this dating game were quite beautiful. After registering a little character, he couldn’t help but wander around in it.

The game’s graphics were lovely, and the NPCs were beautiful, incorporating elements of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

This piqued Pei Yuhuai’s interest a bit; he was curious about how a wasteland could be tied to a dating simulation.

Could it be a game that combined romance, monster fighting, and leveling up?

To find out, he began to stroll around this town.

He soon realized that the town was likely a beginner’s map, or what one would call a novice village.

As he walked to the edge of the town, he found that he couldn’t go beyond the outer area. It looked like a white expanse outside, and he estimated that he would have to complete all the tasks in the novice village before he could unlock the map outside.

With this in mind, Pei Yuhuai casually opened the game’s shop.

Being somewhat older, he lacked patience for any game.

Moreover, his time was precious; he would never waste any time on matters that could be resolved through in-game purchases.

Thus, he opened the game shop and immediately recharged ten sets of 688, which amounted to 6880.