Chapter 15
Saturday arrived, bright and sunny.
The preliminary venue for the Yuanqi Star Tunnel-Burrowing Competition was especially lively.
The audience entered in orderly lines, among them plenty of contestants’ family members, friends, classmates, and coworkers who had come in groups to cheer them on…
This was not a professional sporting event. Most of the contestants were amateur tunnel-burrowing enthusiasts with their own studies and jobs, and the organizers naturally understood that well. Every year, the competition was scheduled on a rest day.
The venue was located in an abandoned base outside the main city. Strange tunnels covered the entire area, making it unsuitable for habitation. Several years ago, Yuanqi Star Group had bought the land cheaply, developed it, and turned it into a tunnel-burrowing competition site. During peak tourism season, it was even opened as a scenic attraction for visitors.
Everyone had come by hovercar. The moment they stepped out, countless bizarre-looking hands immediately began snapping photos excitedly.
Suddenly, a gigantic starship stopped in the distance.
A starship was not the kind of transportation an ordinary person could own—and rubbernecking was simply human nature.
Everyone hurriedly put down what they were doing, lifted their heads, and looked toward the starship, whispering to one another and guessing who had arrived…
But the distance was too great. They only saw a tall figure step out from the hatch. Just then, another round of hovercars pulled up, and a group of tall passengers enthusiastically poured out, completely blocking the figure in the distance.
By the time that group dispersed, the starship was already gone.
As for the person who had come down from it, no one knew where they had gone either…
Amid the bustling crowd, Yomi sat in a shopping cart, but his eyes kept drifting backward from time to time.
Early that morning, Anxius had already put on his human skin-suit. Yomi had known nothing about it, so when he came out after waking and suddenly saw an extra handsome man with golden eyes inside the room, he had been startled.
It was a deeply striking face, with a sharp jawline, prominent brow bones, and cold, stern eyes that seemed to carry a trace of nervousness when they looked at him.
Yomi took his work seriously. He had searched for photos of the imperial crown prince long ago, and objectively speaking, the skin-suit looked no different from the real person. But the pressure brought by seeing him in person was completely unlike a photograph. Yomi had almost failed, at first glance, to connect this imposing man before him with the monster he knew.
He stood there in a daze for quite a while before saying, “Your Highness Anxius?”
The tension on the man’s face finally eased, and he gave a slight nod, his thin lips curving faintly.
As for the matter of the crown prince accompanying Yomi to the preliminary round of the tunnel-burrowing competition, Karl had not really supported it. When the prince first raised the idea, Karl had even almost wanted to commit treason by saying, “I really think I could accompany Yomi in Your Highness’s place. At the very least, I’d certainly be more suitable than Your Highness, who might cause a disturbance.”
But looking at that dark, icy face, he could only force out a smile and say, “No one could be more suitable than Your Highness. I’ll make arrangements at once.”
To avoid being recognized, Anxius was now fully disguised—wearing sunglasses and a mask.
Karl, meanwhile, led the guard team into the audience seating area in secret, protecting them from the shadows.
There were too many of them, and if they followed the crown prince openly, they would attract far too much attention.
At first, Yomi had wanted to walk by himself, but Anxius was afraid he would get bumped by passersby, so he directly placed him into one of the shopping carts provided at the entrance to the venue.
While glancing sideways at Anxius, Yomi also looked around cautiously.
He had been affected by the seriousness Karl had displayed before, and kept worrying that someone would discover Anxius’s identity.
With his broad shoulders and long legs, Anxius very quickly arrived at the entrance to the competition grounds.
The loudspeaker at the entrance kept repeating, “Contestants, please scan your cards and enter backstage on your own to prepare…”
Anxius lifted Yomi out of the shopping cart, then removed the small athletic backpack hanging from his elbow and handed it over to him.
Yomi put on the backpack, then touched his horns to make sure there was no problem. Only then did he feel at ease enough to wave at Anxius. “Then I’ll go backstage first. Wait for me in the audience seats.”
Anxius did not nod right away. Instead, he reached out and, imitating Yomi’s manner, also touched his horns, then patted his athletic backpack, as though checking everything for him. Only after that did he nod.
Yomi scanned his card and went inside, following the staff all the way in.
Today he was wearing a brown sports outfit, one that Anxius had picked out for him from the wardrobe inside his little castle. The moment Yomi tried it on, he loved it. The fabric was extremely comfortable and stretchy, and the style looked great as well. It could not have been more suitable for a competition.
The staff member led him into a lounge area connected to the dressing rooms, where there were many makeup tables.
Looking at the solemn expression on Yomi’s face, the staff member had to grit her teeth to keep from revealing the almost unbearable fondness on her own face. She reminded him, “Hello, there are still half an hour before the competition begins. If you need makeup, you may do it here. Over there are the dressing rooms and restrooms… If you need anything else, just come find me over there.”
“All right, thank you.” Yomi sat down, opened his backpack, and took out a book titled The Essentials of Tunnel-Burrowing to read.
There was still half an hour before the preliminary round began. Outside, the audience was taking the opportunity to buy souvenirs and try entertainment facilities, while backstage, the contestants were either warming up or seriously watching videos from previous competitions to gain experience.
After all, only by passing today’s preliminary round would they earn the chance to enter the finals and compete for the hundred thousand star coin prize.
But soon, someone noticed the little figure tucked away in the corner…
“Wow, this year is really interesting. They even put a realistic doll backstage to motivate everyone?” No one knew who said it first, but at once, all eyes turned toward Yomi.
Backstage was too noisy. Yomi had earplugs in and was concentrating on the professional book that was several times bigger than his head.
“What doll? That’s a real person, okay? I saw the staff bring him in with my own eyes!”
“He even went to the restroom once. Since when do realistic dolls use the restroom?”
“All right, stop teasing him! That child’s called Yomi. He’s a contestant just like us. I was doing my makeup across from him just now, and he even greeted me… He’s extremely well-behaved!”
“He greeted me too. We even chatted for a bit. He’s from the wasteland outside the main city, so it’s perfectly normal that his body size is different from ours… If you all want to gossip, at least do it quietly. What if he hears and gets upset?”
The moment those words were spoken, the contestants who had still been astonished all showed expressions of understanding.
The environment of Snar Star’s main city and the world outside it were vastly different. Under such differences, it was natural that different types of Snarans would emerge.
According to the official records of the main city, the shortest adult Snaran was 1.96 meters tall, while the tallest reached 6 meters, with the average height of the general population being around 3 to 4 meters.
Snarans under 2 meters tall were already a very small minority. Someone like Yomi, who was only about 1.7 meters tall, clearly did not look like a person from the main city.
But the world beyond the main city was simply too vast, and there were no authoritative records to document it. Because of that, many Snarans privately referred to those from outside the main city as wild Snarans. After all, lower, taller, and even far stranger-looking Snarans had all appeared out there…
Everyone quietly observed the delicate, compact contestant over there. Just as they were staring in fascination, a voice dripping with disdain suddenly rang out: “He’s just a stupid wild Snaran. Instead of reviewing past competition videos and studying the tunnels before the match, he’s wasting time with some useless book. Is an opponent like that even worth paying attention to?”
Yomi had no idea he had just been classified as a wild man. He was still reading seriously when he heard an argument break out nearby.
He took out his earplugs and looked up, only to find a buzz-cut man with a crocodile tail arguing with a group of people. The argument seemed to be about what exactly one ought to study before a competition…
That sounded like an extremely professional discussion!
Yomi set down his book and pricked up his ears to listen. But before he could hear a conclusion, the man with the crocodile tail strode straight toward him.
This person was much shorter than most Snarans, even shorter than Lynn, who was just over two meters. He was probably somewhere between 1.9 and 2 meters tall.
The reduced height difference made Yomi instinctively lower his guard toward him, and he smiled. “Hello.”
The man’s expression, however, was rather nasty. Looking down at him from above, he said, “Shorty, take a piece of advice from me. If you don’t want to come in last, stop wasting time on that useless book!”
Yomi froze.
“Meikai, don’t do this,” a blond man hurried over and grabbed him. “He doesn’t even know you. What kind of madness are you starting now?”
The man called Meikai shoved him away and said indifferently, “I’m doing it for his own good, aren’t I? Not studying the tunnels before the competition and instead reading some empty nonsense—what is he trying to prove?”
After a brief moment of bewilderment, Yomi finally came back to himself. He closed the book in his hands and slowly looked at Meikai.
Meikai crossed his arms and sneered at the pitiful little thing before him.
Yet on Yomi’s face, there was none of the embarrassment or fear that Meikai had expected. Instead, Yomi looked directly at him and asked, “Does my existence make you uncomfortable?”
Meikai’s smile froze. A moment later, he shouted in humiliation and anger, “What did you say?! Why would a shorty like you make me uncomfortable? If anything, I just find you ridiculous—”
“Shorty? Who are you calling a shorty?” From behind came the lazy sound of footsteps. A woman with a fox tail walked over with one hand on her hip. “As far as I know, this child is from outside the main city. He may not be tall by our standards, but his body proportions are obviously excellent. Who knows? In his hometown, he might even count as tall!” Then she covered her mouth and laughed. “I think it’s you, not even two meters tall, who’s the real shorty! Isn’t that it? You finally saw someone shorter than yourself and suddenly got cocky? How ridiculous!”
“Exactly!” the others murmured in agreement.
Meikai was furious. He wanted to retort, but faced with the woman in front of him, who stood over three meters tall, his earlier mockery of Yomi had clearly become a case of lifting a rock only to drop it on his own foot.
Amid the crowd’s snickering, Meikai black-facedly went off to the dressing room.
The blond man seemed to be friends with Meikai. He kept apologizing to everyone, then walked over to Yomi and bowed. “I’m really sorry. Meikai ran into something today. He usually isn’t this rude…”
Yomi ignored him and lowered his head to look at his book.
The blond man continued softly, “I really am sorry. I know this was completely his fault, but I understand what he’s like. He’s not a bad person… H-He ran into someone today at the venue who used to bully him, and it affected him mentally. Then he saw how popular you were… It was the first time he had met someone even smaller than himself, yet receiving completely different treatment… He just couldn’t control his emotions for a moment, so he offended you. That wasn’t his true intention.”
“I didn’t hurt him,” Yomi said.
“Yes! Of course I know that! He’s the one losing his mind! Please, don’t let him affect you—”
“I don’t care. I simply despise him,” Yomi said, enunciating every word.
“…”
After the blond man left, Yomi went back to reading.
Yet the unexpected incident had still tugged at his emotions, causing many distant memories to break through the chains of time and come flooding back again.
When Yomi was little, his body had always been very frail. In the years right after his parents died, he was so skinny it felt as though the wind could blow him away. Later, when he entered middle school, his body began to grow, and he developed a huge appetite. Only then did he stop being quite so thin.
Even so, among boys his age, his pale skin, overly pretty face, and quiet temperament always became fodder for teasing.
Back then, Yomi had a childhood friend. Before his parents passed away, the two of them often ate together, did homework together, and played games in each other’s homes. Even after Yomi’s parents died, their relationship did not change.
But for some reason, starting one day, that childhood friend began keeping his distance from him and started hanging around with a bunch of big boys two grades above them.
Those big boys were awful. They used to mock the childhood friend for being fat and give him cruel nicknames. Yomi had even stood with his friend before and argued back against them. He had never understood how they later became friends.
Until one day, those big boys suddenly turned their target onto him.
“You look like a bean sprout! Are you seriously not still in elementary school?”
“You even speak so softly. Not manly at all!”
“Come on, are you secretly a girl pretending to be a boy?”
“Sissy…”
Yomi backed away from those voices, trying to distance himself. But when one of the bigger boys reached out to grab his arm, he shouted, “Get away!”
The group froze for a moment—then became excited instead.
What they said grew more and more excessive, and the way they looked at him became more and more disgusting.
His childhood friend followed behind them, seemingly not daring to look at him, his head lowered as he played with his phone. It was only when he heard them say they were going to strip Yomi’s clothes that he suddenly looked up.
“We’re not going to beat you. How about this—you take your clothes off yourself, and we’ll have a look at whether you’re really a boy…”
“Don’t want to? Then we can do it ourselves!”
“Anyway, you don’t have parents. Even if we strip you naked, no one will care, right?”
Through the gaps between several figures, the childhood friend saw that lamb-like face, quiet as it looked at him. Yet in the very next moment, amid the others’ laughter, whatever hesitation existed in his heart shrank back to where it had been.
The childhood friend clenched his fists and turned away.
But only two seconds later, frightened cries rang out, and he turned back again in disbelief.
He saw Yomi—always weak, always small—pull out a fruit knife and wave it crazily. “Come on then! I’m not taking off your clothes—I’m peeling off your skin!”
It was the first time the childhood friend had ever seen Yomi explode.
Caught completely off guard, the big boys all panicked:
“Y-You’ve gone crazy?!”
“Wait, wait, wait… don’t swing that around! Something bad will happen! Be careful!”
“Ah—! He’s serious! My arm is bleeding… quick, quick, stop him!”
They had never imagined, never imagined that a boy who could not even raise his voice to speak would suddenly wave a knife and say, “You’re right. I don’t have parents. I have nothing. So no matter what I do, my life isn’t going to get any worse than it already is.” His voice was still not loud, but it made them shiver in fear. “So there’s nothing I’m not willing to risk!”
Whoever had nothing to lose feared nothing. Everyone understood that principle.
Those boys had never intended things to become serious, nor did they have the resolve to throw everything away.
To them, this had only ever been a meaningless “game.”
They cursed him as a “crazy little bastard,” but their legs ran faster than anyone else’s.
After that, Yomi used the audio recording he had secretly made to apply for a transfer. He never found out whether those big boys received the punishment they deserved, but he never saw any of them again, including his childhood friend.
Later, in high school, during New Year’s visits with his uncle, he happened to end up at that childhood friend’s house.
The childhood friend was clearly at home, but did not dare come out to see him. Yomi, too, acted as if he had already forgotten the other boy and did not ask a single question.
When he was leaving, the childhood friend’s older brother ran out and pulled him aside to talk.
He said, “Back then, my brother was led astray by that group. He couldn’t help it… But they got what was coming to them too. After graduating from high school, two of them committed crimes. I heard they’ve already been sentenced.”
“…”
“One of the troublemakers had a father who was my dad’s boss. At the time, my dad was just entering a crucial point in his career, so we really didn’t dare offend them… And in the end, nothing actually happened to you, right?… Now it counts as evil meeting evil punishment. My younger brother really had no choice. If he hadn’t done that, both of you would’ve been bullied. At least that way he could protect himself, right…”
Yomi wanted to throw up. He held it back. “No. You’ve got it wrong.”
“…What?”
Yomi’s voice was still not loud, yet it was like a storm collapsing from the sky. “You shouldn’t be apologizing on his behalf and asking for forgiveness. I don’t care what strangers do. I simply despise him. I lost nothing. He’s the one who has already lost even his own self. I despise him deeply.”
There were only a few minutes left before the competition began.
Yomi packed up his athletic backpack and also started warming up.
The woman with the fox tail was named Asang. She came over cheerfully to make small talk, but after chatting for only a little while, she exclaimed in surprise, “How do you know the inside of those tunnels so clearly? I only remember the inner maps of a few of them…”
Yomi stretched his body and smiled. “During registration, I went through the competition videos from every past year, as well as all kinds of tunnel videos from the base, several times.”
She was full of admiration.
At that moment, outside, the host began warming up the crowd. A staff member came over with a sheet and asked them to go out in order.
Yomi took several deep breaths. He tied on the headband marked with the number 5, feeling somewhat nervous, and followed the other contestants out.
Once he came out through the contestants’ passageway, he reached the bright outdoor steps. Looking at the sea of people in the audience below, he had no idea where Anxius and Karl might be, so he turned his attention to the cameras flying in the air.
At that moment, every time the host called a name, the big screen would show a still close-up of the contestant’s upper body.
Yomi did not know how the cameras were arranged. He only knew that he was too small, and in order to avoid some kind of stage mishap if the camera failed to capture his upper body, the moment the host called out, “Contestant number five, Yomi from the Black Miasma Wasteland,” he instinctively gave a little hop upward!
…The entire venue fell silent.
On the still image shown on the giant screen, there appeared a tiny figure suspended in midair.
The little figure had lamb horns on his head and a sports headband printed with the number 5 tied around his forehead. The long tail of the headband had wrapped itself around one of his lamb horns. On that beautifully marked little face was a stiff, forced smile written all over with nervousness.
One second later, the audience erupted into unprecedented screams.
