HSB Chapter 5

Words couldn’t describe how angry Julius was. There was even a hint of grievance in his anger. He was angry at the prompt from the game. He still felt the game was secretly targeting him. His grievance was: when a father considerately helped his daughter sew her beloved toy bear together and his actions weren’t appreciated by her.

“Why –50?” Julius started ranting at the game. Of course, he couldn’t blame his precious daughter. “Give me a fucking reason! Jumping down from –10 to –50, aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Don’t pretend to be dead and silent!”

After a long time, the System finally came out with this sentence: [You really have no fucking clue why you’re –50?]

Julius: “…”

Was the System scolding him? Ah! It was scolding him

As the most favored seventh prince of the royal family of the Astra Empire, having a noble status, and growing up being spoiled, no one dared to scold him, not even his father, the emperor, scolded him. But he was now being scolded by a gaming system!

The System was scolding him, right? Yes? It was scolding him!

Julius wanted to rip into the System some more when he noticed from the corner of his eye that a megaphone appeared on Bambi’s head. He brushed off the System and quickly tapped on the audio, and the soft and sweet voice of his baby daughter filled his ears.

“Winnie, I think there’s someone in the house I can’t see.”

Julius was surprised, then overjoyed, and declared proudly, “That’s my girl! So smart she is!”

So quick to realize that “there’s someone” there.

Now that his daughter knew that there was an invisible person around, Bambi definitely wouldn’t be afraid anymore if he did other things.

Perfect!

Julius was elated and couldn’t be bothered to wrangle with the gaming system. He was going to level up his intimacy.

Once he reached the minimum line, he could buy all the good stuff for his daughter.

Baby, wait for Daddy to buy you food. I’ll feed you to be white and plump and make you the most beautiful little princess.

In the next second, he heard his precious daughter’s nervous and trembling voice squeak in terror, “Will he, will he eat me?”

Julius: “…”

Is Daddy so scary?

Bambi only said this, and then she didn’t say anything else, only sitting dumbly on the bed, hanging her little head. Julius couldn’t see Bambi’s little face and couldn’t tell what his daughter was thinking.

What should he do?

What should he do to save his daughter from this big misunderstanding of him?

The System, probably afraid that Julius would “do” something, appeared again and prompted: [Bambi is extremely afraid. Please DO NOT do anything for her own good.]

The word “DO NOT” was capitalized and in bold red, which was especially eye-catching

Julius: “…”

Bambi fiddled with her hands, trying to calm herself down.

After some very serious consideration, she concluded that “there was an invisible person in her home.”

Bambi wasn’t a baby that didn’t understand anything. Five-year-olds already had a unique way of thinking, not to mention that Bambi had always been smart.

The invisible person caught her when she fell, gave her a big apple, and didn’t let her go to her grandfather, and now he sewed Winnie’s arm back together.

Bambi was scared.

She felt like the person was in her home watching her.

Bambi remembered that once she and her grandfather met a strange, fat man on the road. He gave Bambi candy, and when he wanted to hug Bambi, Grandpa chased (beat) him off.

Grandpa said that man wasn’t a good person. Some bad guys liked to catch children and eat them, and that fat mister was a bad guy who especially liked to eat children.

Giving her candy was only to gain her trust.

Hence, Bambi constantly reminded herself that no stranger would be nice to another person for no reason, and if someone suddenly treated her well, then he must have other intentions.

As for the current situation, Bambi mentally converted it according to her own understanding and concluded that the invisible person wanted to eat her.

She didn’t dare raise her head or speak. She silently stared at her hands, worrying that if she was eaten, there would be no one to bring food to Grandpa, and Grandpa would starve.

What should she do so that person wouldn’t eat her?

Bambi carefully squeezed her hand, and suddenly understood why that person gave her a big apple and forbade her to give the apple skin to her grandfather.

She was too thin. He wanted to raise her to be fat and plump so she would taste better. Just like the chick that Bambi used to have.

It was really pure luck. Last year, because of the cold weather, Hugh took Bambi south. They passed a farm that was quite a mess, and one could even spot some human bones. It was clear that there had been a struggle there.

They didn’t expect to find anything, but Bambi crawled into a dog hole out of curiosity, scaring Hugh into a cold sweat, afraid Bambi would meet an accident. In the end…

…when Bambi climbed out of the dog hole, her white and tender little face was smudged, and she pulled out an egg from her tiny pocket presenting it to him like a precious treasure, and exclaimed in an angelic voice, “Grandpa, it’s an egg!”

Hugh detected traces of life in this egg, and later after Bambi meticulously cared for it every day—when in fact it was Hugh who secretly used his powers to preserve the life in the egg—the chick broke out of its shell.

Hugh would take care to preserve his granddaughter’s innocence and strove to give her a wonderful childhood, but he would also slowly teach Bambi the basics of survival.

For example, chicken was poultry and food for humans.

So once the chick grew into a chicken, it could be eaten.

When the chicken grew up, Hugh boiled half of it for soup and the other half was braised. Bambi and Grandpa greatly enjoyed and savored their meal.

Grandpa also said that the chicken was delicious because it was usually fed well and grew fat…

~*~

Bambi picked up the teddy bear once again. After Grandpa left, Winnie was her only friend, even if Winnie’s hand was sewn uglily by the invisible person.

Holding Winnie, Bambi was less afraid.

The days after her grandpa left, she was afraid at first, but then she got used to it.

Her little head thought quickly—that person was going to fatten her up before eating her, so he wouldn’t eat her right now.

She could find a way to run away.

Being with her grandpa, Bambi had plenty of experience running away.

Grandpa said there was no shame in running away; it was taking responsibility for one’s life.

Of course, this was too deep for Bambi to understand, but she instinctively knew what “running away” meant.

B-class power users were powerful in the early days of the apocalypse, but later into the apocalypse, power users could be found everywhere, and the B-class wasn’t so highly valued, not to mention that Hugh was an elderly power user.

Physical factors limited the strength of his powers.

Coupled with the fact that there was Bambi by his side, in most cases, Hugh wouldn’t choose to go head-to-head, and it was a common occurrence for him to take Bambi and run.

The last rays of the setting sun disappeared over the horizon, and the room suddenly darkened. Julius, who had been silently watching Bambi, was still wondering why Bambi didn’t turn on the lights when she moved.

She rolled over and got out of bed, walked over to the bedside table, and picked up a small lotus-like bowl with a thin needle in the middle, Julius couldn’t figure out what the purpose of this thing was.

It wasn’t until Bambi pulled out a cardboard box from under the bed filled with candles that he realized that the lotus bowl was a candleholder.

Bambi took out a candle and stuck it firmly onto the tip of the candleholder, lit it with a lighter, and placed it on the bedside table, the skill she showed made Julius’s eyes wet.

Julius: “…”

There wasn’t even electricity!

Stupid useless game, you’re abusing my daughter!

Then Bambi closed all the blinds in the house.

The blinds were specially installed by Hugh. It was a layer of metal steel plate. You only had to pull on the cords to pull the blinds down, and no light from inside the house would penetrate outside.

When the cord was pulled, it would sputter a little and needed to be pulled a few more times. Hugh was running out of time and didn’t have the time to improve it, so Bambi needed to tug it several times for it to move.

Julius’s hands itched and he wanted to help his baby daughter pull it down but remembering the System’s warning and the prominent –50 in the upper right corner reminded him that staying still was the best way to go about it.

It’s dark and he can’t scare his baby daughter anymore.

Endure. He had to endure.

Finally, Bambi closed all the blinds, and the room was dim with only the faint glow of the burning candle.

The room was silent. Bambi was used to this dim silence. Except for the invisible person.

As she did this, she kept a tight hold on the teddy bear in her arms—Winnie gave her courage.

“It’s okay,” she cheered herself up. “With Winnie here, I’m not afraid.

Bambi carried the candleholder to the bathroom, gingerly placed the candleholder on the shelf on her right, put her teddy bear next to it, stepped on the short stool, and began to wash her face and brush her teeth by the light of the candle.

Even if there was an invisible bad guy who wanted to eat her, she couldn’t neglect to wash her face because of this.

Bambi had naturally transitioned from “the invisible guy” to “the invisible bad guy.”

As she washed, Bambi suddenly stopped moving, and her little face fell into deep thought.

If she became dirty and smelly, would the bad guy stop wanting to eat her because he was disgusted?

But…

…Bambi who had been taught by Hugh to love cleanliness bit her finger being torn on what to do. Finally, she followed her heart and cleaned herself up.

Because she remembered that if the bad guy really wanted to eat her, he wouldn’t care if she was dirty or not.

The chicken was dirty, but later she and her grandpa still ate the chicken.

So, she can’t stink herself.

After cleaning herself up, Bambi returned to her bedroom with her teddy bear and the candlestick. She put the candlestick on the bedside table, hesitated, and didn’t blow out the candle.

In order to save on candles, except for the first few nights after Grandpa left Bambi lit the candle all night, after she got used to it, she would blow out the candle every night before she went to sleep.

This helped save on the dwindling supply of candles.

But tonight…

Bambi hugged the bear’s arm tightly. She didn’t blow out the candle. She crawled under the covers, covering her head completely with the covers.

Bambi made plans to run away to the supermarket she visited during the day. The bad guy would leave if he couldn’t find her. When he left, she would go back home. This time she would remember to lock the door so that the bad guy couldn’t come in again.

Bambi was just thinking that the bad guy must have snuck in with her when she went out to find food today.

Thinking about it, she became troubled once again. She couldn’t see the bad guy, so how could she be sure that the bad guy had left?

In the complex intertwining of emotions such a frustration, worry, fear, etc., a child’s drowsiness instinctively took the lead, and Bambi fell asleep restlessly.

Seeing his daughter fall asleep Julius began to reflect on himself.

Bambi was still a child. Children were different from adults. Adults could quickly distinguish between good and bad, but children couldn’t.

Therefore, instead of making Bambi happy, his actions would only make her feel unsafe, which would only lead her to fear him and misunderstand his actions.

He must go about it a different way.

First, he must let his daughter know that he won’t eat her!

Julius wracked his brain, and an idea suddenly came to him. He searched for a pen and paper in Bambi’s room, and in his search, he found a colored pencil in the corner. But no paper was found.

Julius: “…”

He wanted to go into the living room, but when he reached the doorway, he was blocked by an invisible wall.

Julius could only touch where Bambi was.

For example, Bambi was in the bedroom, so he could only move the things in the bedroom. He wasn’t allowed to go into the living room. If Bambi was in the living room, he could only touch the living room, not the bedroom or some other places.

Even when he could touch it, it was like through a thick layer of gloves. He couldn’t really feel it with his hands.

That’s why he patched up the bear so horrendously.

Prince Julius refused to admit that he was poor in craftsmanship.

This was also thanks to the third prince’s virtual projection equipment. Anything could be displayed virtually through screen projection. This wasn’t an ordinary screen projection, but a screen projection that could cast yourself into it.

With the help of this set of equipment, he could search around in his daughter’s room. Otherwise, if he just relied on his LUX, he could only do some simple movements with his finger.

Okay, fine, let’s forget about the paper.

Julius cast a glance at the white wall. He’ll just write on the wall.

Just as he was about to write “Bambi, I’m Daddy” on the wall, he suddenly paused and reconsidered. Bambi might wake up tomorrow and still be scared.

He didn’t want to see a notification of how many points were deducted again!

[Darling Bambi, my name is Julius Xander. I won’t eat you. This guy over here is a drawing of me. I want to be friends with you. Is that okay?]

After writing these words in the tone of the child, Julius then drew himself on the empty space next to his message. He drew for over ten minutes, not satisfied with the result, and revised for another ten more minutes. Finally, he finished drawing in half an hour.

He studied his drawing carefully and glared at the pencil with a disgruntled look. The pencil wasn’t any good. He could barely draw five percent of his handsomeness onto the canvas.

There was an introduction and his own portrait. Surely his baby daughter wouldn’t be afraid anymore once she woke up and saw this.

As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, the System popped up with a sentence: [Bambi can’t read.]

Julius: “…”