HSB Chapter 2

Julius enjoyed playing on his LUX while he was taking a bath, which was a habit of his, and as a result, when he opened his LUX today, he noticed there was an icon without a name on his screen. The icon pictured the cute little face of a little girl.

Men sometimes couldn’t resist such cute and adorable things, not even Julius Xander, the seventh prince—and the wealthiest for that matter—of the Astra Empire in the Interstellar Galaxy, was an exception.

Julius tapped on the icon and found that it was a game. The little girl on the icon was the main character of the game—Bambi.

Logging into the game, a large pop-up introduction appeared:

[The little girl’s name is Bambi. She was born during the apocalypse and was abandoned amongst a garbage heap by her biological parents as a newborn. Fortunately, she was found by the old man, Hugh Lane, who took her in and raised her.

Hugh was a B-class metal-type power user and very strong. His only disadvantage was his age. As an old guy in his seventies, even if he was a B-class power user, his strength was greatly reduced.

His original plan was to find a good family for Bambi, so that when his time came, he could entrust Bambi to them. But in the apocalypse, who would selflessly care for a useless little girl?

Hugh couldn’t find a good solution.

Join the base? Once he was gone, there’d still be people who would bully Bambi. He couldn’t dispel his fears.

In the end, Hugh decided to find a place to settle down. As long as he didn’t encounter any particularly dangerous situations, with his B-class strength, it would be no effort to live for ten more years. During that time, he would teach Bambi plenty of survival skills.

He didn’t teach her before because he wanted Bambi to have a carefree childhood, even during the apocalypse. The dividing line was at five years old. After Bambi turned five, he would teach Bambi how to survive in the apocalypse.

However, even the best-laid plans often went awry. When Hugh went out to find supplies, due to physical reasons, he accidentally slipped and fell, and a piece of iron happened to cut into his hand.

At first, Hugh didn’t give the injury much thought. Five years into the apocalypse, the virus dwelled almost exclusively in zombies. The virus that was attached to other items had lost its terrifying effect over time.

But he promptly disinfected the wound with alcohol anyway, and after two days of careful observation when the wound showed no signs of infection, Hugh set his heart at rest.

Once infected with the virus, the infected would mutate within 24 hours.

However, on the third day, the wound became infected.

Hugh wasn’t afraid of death; he had lived seventy long years. But he couldn’t stop worrying about Bambi. She was only five years old. She was still so small and precious. Without his protection, how could Bambi survive in this cruel apocalyptic world? He hadn’t even had time to teach her how to survive.

The staggering speed at which the virus eroded through his body made it impossible for Hugh to make other plans for Bambi, so he went about transferring Bambi to the third floor and sealing off all floors above it like mad.

Power users, who turned into zombies, were way more powerful than ordinary zombies. He couldn’t allow himself to wander around outside. Once he became a mindless zombie, he would only end up hurting Bambi.]

~*~

Julius finished reading the long introduction with a frown. Being born into the royal family of the Astra Empire and the youngest child of the current emperor, Julius had been doted on and spoiled since he was a child.

With no need to inherit the throne, he became interested in commerce. With his genius business mind, he forced a foothold into the empire’s economic lifeline, becoming the richest, high-ranking aristocrat in the Astra Empire.

The plot twisted at Julius’s heartstrings, and he was a little depressed after watching the whole thing.

Just as the popup introduction disappeared, a little girl carrying food for her grandfather appeared in front of him on the screen.

The image was crystal clear, unmistakably catching the unhappiness on the little girl’s face and the big fat teardrops that rolled down her cheeks.

It was enough for any tough guy’s heart to ache; Julius was no exception.

Shouldn’t such a cute little one be deeply loved and cherished by her parents?

When Bambi suddenly tumbled, Julius nearly jumped in fright, and before he could think, he reached out to stop her and realized he could pick her up and move her around, hence preventing Bambi from a horrific fall.

Julius was amused by the little girl’s dazed expression and poked her little face through the screen.

So cute!

Even the mini-games were becoming more and more realistic, not any inferior to the online holographic games.

Once online holographic games swept across the empire, few people played these diverting mini-games. Generally, these kinds of games would be taken off the shelves very shortly once they realized no one was playing.

Julius clicked on the game, wondering which company created this game so he could buy the company or invest in it. However, he ended up not finding any relevant information about the gaming company.

He was a little confused but didn’t think too much into it. It might be that the company was too small, and the game was put online anonymously. He could just check up on it later.

Julius surveyed the screen to see what features the game had.

While Julius was busy studying the game, Bambi raised her hand to touch her face, and her doe-like eyes, slightly puffy from crying, were puzzled as she gingerly picked up her teddy bear, patting off the dust, and whispered to it, “Winnie, I think something poked my face just now.”

The teddy bear gazed at her quietly, naturally unable to respond to her.

Bang!

The metal wall resonated with a powerful impact once again. Bambi instinctively flinched. The waterworks that just stopped were about to burst once again; Bambi bit down on her lips and forced them back.

Grandpa said that Bambi must be strong and must not cry even when she’s by herself. She cried several times today, so she couldn’t cry anymore. Sniffing, Bambi turned and shot inside the doors, slammed it shut, and locked it.

All doors and windows in the house were reinforced with metal.

Her stomach growled, reminding Bambi she was hungry.

Worried that she was malnourished and in poor health, Hugh was selective in his search for supplies—the most important of which was the baby formula that Bambi drank.

But baby formula was hard to find, and before Hugh was infected, they already ran out of baby formula. It was while looking for baby formula for Bambi that Hugh accidentally fell and cut his hand. Of course, he wouldn’t tell Bambi that.

Bambi had never been a picky eater and ate whatever was given to her, but there was one problem—Hugh raised her too well. He raised Bambi as if they were still living in the normal world before the apocalypse, so Bambi ended up having an especially sensitive stomach.

Even when they were eating instant noodles, Hugh would find a way to make it delicious and healthy for Bambi. After Hugh was infected, Bambi could no longer eat hot food.

In their home, there was a propane tank that Hugh found. Bambi knew how to use it, but Hugh feared the stove might accidentally explode, so he had it specially modified to suit his height, so Bambi couldn’t reach it. Even if she stepped on a chair, it was easy to spill the food.

The first time she cooked noodles in a pot, Bambi fell while climbing into a chair. Fortunately, the water was cold, and she only fell and did not suffer any other injuries.

Hence, Bambi didn’t dare cook anything in the kitchen.

When she was hungry, she’d chomp on instant noodles and bread; when she was thirsty, she’d drink water.

But Bambi had a delicate stomach. In the beginning, when she started eating, her stomach couldn’t take it and she’d throw up as much as she ate. Then she learned from her mistake and nibbled on it slowly and she didn’t throw it up anymore.

But the rapid loss of weight was visible to the naked eye. When Hugh was there, Bambi was well-fed and looked white and tender like a little snowball. She looked vastly different from what she was like now.

Grandpa said that no matter what Bambi heard, she wasn’t allowed to open the door and go outside. Bambi was a good girl and stayed inside the house. It wasn’t until the food was gone that she plucked the courage to leave the room and went out looking for food just like Grandpa.

Bambi pulled out a cute cartoon mug that was already meticulously cleaned. She grabbed a bottle of water, put her tiny hand on the bottle cap, and after struggling to twist it and turning the tender palm of her hand red, she finally unscrewed the lid.

Unscrewing the lid delighted Bambi as she giggled joyously. She blew on the reddened palm of her hand until the pain dissipated and then slowly poured the water from the bottle into the mug. It was filled two-thirds of the way. The rest of the water must be saved for later.

She took small sips and began to pick out what to eat—instant noodles or bread. Instant noodles could make her feel full for longer, but it didn’t taste good.

“Winnie, which one should I eat first? Noodles or bread.” Every time she was hungry and it was time to eat, Bambi would ask Winnie for its opinion.

Bambi raised the bear’s arm and quietly pointed to the bread.

“Great! Winnie also picked bread, just what I was thinking.” Bambi happily listened to Winnie’s advice, reached for the bread, and tore open the package, taking small bites as she washed it down with water.

Her eyes curved joyfully into crescents.

The look of Bambi as she held the bread like she was reluctant to finish eating it made Julius’s heart ache badly. In the Astra Empire of the Interstellar Galaxy, instant noodles were food only given to vicious criminals as punishment. As for the dense-looking bread that didn’t have any nutritional value, not even the poor would eat it.

Even if this daughter only existed in the game, how could Julius allow his daughter to eat this junk food?

Julius just finished inspecting the game. It had a store where he could buy items. Without a second thought, Julius clicked on the store, where he instantly saw the tab labeled [Food], clicked on it, and his finger froze.

Except for the first [Red Apple] icon that was lit up, all the other icons were gray. He couldn’t click on any of them.

Julius: “…”

What the hell was with this game? He couldn’t even buy food for his daughter!

Julius was so pissed he almost smashed the newly bought bathtub. In the end, he could only click on the red apple. At least, it was better than nothing; he’d just buy a large basket for his daughter.

Below the red apple where it displayed [+] for quantity didn’t respond no matter how many times Julius pressed on it.

Finally, he understood—he could only buy one.

Taking in a deep breath, Julius calmly spent five S-dollars to buy a red apple. Julius, who spent no less than 10,000 S-dollars each time, glowered at the five S-dollars for a long time.

This was an absolute insult!

After a successful purchase, the red apple icon turned gray.

“…”

Okay, you won!

Julius quickly swiped the apple onto the table.

At this moment, a round egg rolled in. It was the AI butler.

“Your Highness, you have been soaking in the bath for 27 minutes and 34 seconds. Your skin will wrinkle if you soak any longer.”

When Julius heard this, he lifted his hand to see it was white from the long soak and shot up to his feet.

“Is my back wrinkled?”

The egg on the ground moved. “Sorry Your Highness, I don’t have eyes now, so I can’t see.”

Julius“…”

~*~

Bambi was nibbling on some bread when she suddenly heard a soft “bang.” Her head jerked up, only to see a big red apple had dropped in front of her. It was about half the size of her head.

Bambi was stunned.