Chapter 1 - Hunger

"Brother i am hungry."

"I know, I have been trying to get food these 2 days, those officials have stopped giving out dark bread for some reason. "

"we have not eaten anything for 2 days. Brother, I am really hungry."

"....i will try to get something for us to eat today. I promise you Mei. You wait here at home and close the door yeah ?"

The conversation happened inside a slum house, in a small 20 sq meters area covered with dirt floor and barely any furniture, discounting the makeshift hay bed sitting near the corner of the room and a small clay jar with a lid. A boy around 14 years old and his 12 years old sister are sitting near the empty jar. With a hungry eyes the little girl was eyeing the jar with expectation, although she knew that the jar was empty.

The jar is used to contain bread or grain, now not a single grain nor a crumb of bread exist inside of it. It has been 2 days since the sibling ate anything. Growing up the kids demand a lot of food, yet they do not have enough. Their thin stature reflect the 80% of the town population which in the same situation as the sibling. Slums has been growing due to the lack of available provision, food prices have been rising up, and other non edible item has saturated the market due to everyone selling their personal goods to support their family needs.

The famine around the town have been getting worse and worse everyday, somehow the wheat stop growing, the grapes stop producing their juicy fruits. The land is dying, but not in a desertification way. Only the edible plants known by human species stop growing. Potato, wheat, rice or any other common human crops just stop on their track and wilt. The magic researchers and alchemist has been baffled with this matter, yet over the months none of the research bear fruits.

The phenomenon does not stop there, a new kind of fruit trees and vegetables start popping up, problem is they are poisonous for human consumption. Animal does not seem to have a problem eating them, but once a tamed animal ate the new mutant fruit or vegetable, they seem to forget their tamed status and goes into an enrage state until they either ran away or killed. Humanity greatest asset on procuring food, farming and animal husbandry just died like that.

On the first few months, the government provides food for the more unfortunate populations. Unfortunately, its proven to be a never ending famine, the food provision being provided less and less until it finally stopped 2 days ago.

Forced by hunger and the needs to eat, crime rate increased, people kill and rob each other to fulfill their needs. From young to old, nobody is safe from the famine. The richer group has been hiring more security to protect their coffers, yet it only delays the inevitable.

....

Gale and his sister Mei haven't eaten anything for two days. Gale decided to stop waiting for the government provision as he have a feeling it will never come again. He told his sister to lock the door and wait for him to come back as he grabbed his ragged cloak and makeshift dagger. Covering his face Gale stepped out from the house. He held his makeshift dagger which he stole from a piece of merchant's carriage after it got robbed on the way to the city.

"Today, I must find food no matter what. Mei is hungry and I do not have the luxury of waiting anymore"

As Gale stepped out of the slum edge, he thought on the place where he can find food. The stores on main street, the granary, the rich man's houses, or the dreaded wilderness. The main street is pretty much emptied, any open store is chock full of guards. The town granary is guarded around the clock, there is no way for a kid without training on his age to bypass them and successfully escape while carrying a sack of grain. So the only option left would be a rich man house and wilderness. As Gale contemplates his action, someone tapped his shoulder.

"Hey Gale, whats with the long face?"

"Yufi."

Gale took a good look on a the petite figure are standing with a cheeky grin, She is one of Gale few friends. Yufi, a troublemaker girl with her eye catching white long hair and a scaly black tail on her back. She is a dragonewt as far as her claim goes, Gale himself pretty much believe she is a lizard if anything although Gale is smart enough not to argue with her.

"So Gale," as Yufi adopt her hands on waist pose "what are you up to?"

"Sorry Yufi, i got no time to play with you today. I need to find food."

"Food huh..now that you remind me the government have stopped sending food provision to slums." Yufin nodded with her finger caressing an imaginary stubble

"Yeah, Mei is getting hungry."

"Well sorry about not being able to donate any food. Although.." Yufi paused for a bit, extending her usual bad habit of hanging people with information

"Although?" Gale frowned "Just say it, do you have solutions?"

"If you give me a kiss i'll tell you" As Yufi cheekily grin like her usual self when she teased Gale

Being a 14 years old Gale had a blush on his face as Yufi is quite pretty, in fact she is pretty cute if not for the fact she is slightly malnourished, like majority of the population in the town.

"Well enough fun," Cut Yufi as her eyes turned sharp "I had a gig which might land us food for weeks."

The sentence aroused Gale full attention immediately as he perked up.

"A shipments of food is coming today from the western mountain. I heard the Red Grass merchant group are assigning them to be sold at expensive price." As Yufi said seriously "They must be intending to milk the rest of the rich people around until the last drop."

"And I assume, since you know this it means the gangs also knew about it. A raid ?"

"Yes, a raid. They will be armed but we come with numbers. Its a first come first serve for the food." With a shrug Yufi said "Hence why I told you, I need someone I can trust with my back to raid with me"

......

After a discussion about the timing of the raid, Gale and Yufi decide to go to the western forest to scout the road they will take. The possible raid route, the escape route, the escape route B and many other environmental factor that can help them. Along the way they passed a lot of similar groups doing the same thing they are currently doing, none of the group interacted with each other as they do their stuff due to wariness.

They are currently around 3.5 km from the western gate. As the sky grew brighter, reaching noon. All of the groups around have pick a tree or bushes where they can see the road. Staying still, this group of hungry predator wait for the coming of the caravan.

......

"Clop clop clop" as the sound of the horse pulling the caravan come closer to the ambush site, not knowing what awaits them. 12 guards are guarding the caravan around the clock. Using a shiny iron armor and a long spear on their hand, the guards look fierce. Despite them being fierce looking, the rational of hungry people is long gone. As the caravan drew nearer and nearer, one of the group who can't wait anymore sprouted from the bushes while screaming. The scream mark the start of the mob hitting the caravan like a pack of wild beast.

Gale and Yufi included, they are hungry and they do need the food in the caravan storage. Weirdly, the fight did not happen, the guards upon seeing all the charging people start retreating immediately. The coachman just shrieked in fear and let all of the people rummage the content of the caravan.

Gale felt that the behavior of the guards seems weird but the urgency of the situation does not give luxury of waiting, the food is being ransacked as Gale hesitate. As Yufi and Gale approach the caravan while pushing around the people who were trying to took more food, a sharp stench of meat hit their nose.

"Meat Gale ! Look its Meat !" As Yufi yapped happily

"Talk later, lets take two bags of them first !"

"Good idea !"

.....

Going back to city via the south gate, Gale and Yufi were quite satisfied with the haul. It was an easy job, no bloodshed, barely any violence if not counting the pushing around and more importantly they got meat.

"We are going to eat like a king today Gale." With a giant grin on her face Yufi hug gale around the neck

"Yufi, you know its kind of weird if i think about it now..."

"About the guards who ran away?"

"Yeah, they are quite well equipped and they seems calm when running away"

"Mmm..I don't know Gale, I would ran as well if I see 60 people running like a mad dog towards me."

"...Still, they jus-"

"Ssssh, just enjoy our victory, go home and eat the meat with your sister." As Yufi put her finger on Gale's lips silencing him.

Gale only smile wryly, he shake his head and gave Yufi a sigh. This friend of his has always been like this, carefree and happy. As Gale shook the thought of the weird guard behavior away he shift his thought to his home. They entered the city like usual and gone their separate way on the slum junction.

Entering his home, his sister Mei looked at Gale with a bright eye as she recognized the bag that Gale brought home.

"Gale is that food ?"

"Yes, I got some meat from hunting outside" As Gale scratch his nose while saying it.

Mei gave Gale a strange look but soon forgot about it. She urged Gale to hurry and cook the meat as both of them were really hungry. In 15 minutes a meaty aroma filled their home. The hungry siblings eat with vigor, they haven't had anything to eat for 2 days after all. Not to forget, it was meat, a luxury product inside the town.

"Gale, this meat is really gowd" Said Mei with her mouth full

"Stop talking while munching Mei"

"Bout, dis really gowd"

Gale can only shake his head amused, he must agree with his sister though. The meat they currently eat is better compared to anything Gray tried before. He can't quite wrapped his finger on what kind of meat they are eating, certainly not the usual meat. The meat melt on his mouth producing umami taste upon touching his tongue. After that come the sweet after taste of the blood from the meat, it slid through his throat smoothly with a texture of a flan. Despite eating the meat without any other condiment it has enough saltiness, savoriness and sweetness. But most important part is the fact that the meat is bouncy without being too hard to chew, producing a texture worth dying for.

....

The night soon came, the slums area today was slightly brighter than usual. Maybe the raid fed many family and it makes things better...

Unfortunately, what must come will come. Around dusk a lot of people started screaming in the slums. Agony and painful screaming start echoing around the slums. Gale and Mei raised from their sleep as they start hearing the scream, they wondered on what happened to the people around the slums.

The sibling look at each other with caution on their eye, they inches closer to each other and Gale took his makeshift knife from his bedside. They stared at the door for a while, suddenly Gale started to have a weird feeling in his body, it was heating up real bad. Mei on his side was also clutching her stomach and got into a fetal position.

He sweated all overs and soon he was overcame with a great pang of hunger, a hunger he never felt before. Hunger that almost overwrite all of his sanity, all he can think of is to consume, devour, eat. Both of the sibling soon run the corner of the room where Gale hang the rest of the meat to dry. The meat is still wet since its barely 1 day of drying. Both of them rip apart the meat from the hanger and started eating it raw.

As they consumed the meat, soon it was gone. Then they stopped and stared at each other, the hunger on their eyes real. The only thing holding back Gale from lunging forward is his love for his sister. The same thing occurred with Mei, her body was trembling as she held her hunger towards eating his brother. It was a minute of silence.

Gale felt his sanity was getting lower and lower, he was afraid on what will happen when it finally break apart. He soon stood up and ran from the house. He closed the door with a bang and locked it. He didn't know where to go, he just need to go away until the hunger pangs disappear.

Running on the slums on the night was not a novel experience for Gale, he did this often enough to remember where he need to go while closing his eye. On his way around the slum aimless there was a crunching and slurping sound, Gale got really attracted to the sound so he drew closer.

On the floor a man was being eaten by a woman around 50s, she ate him while crying. As she teared the man's organ slowly, she started picking it one by one before crunching it with satisfaction inside her mouth. Viscera spilled from her mouth and blood was dyeing her clothing and face.

Gale's mind shook as he watched this scene playing in front of him. On one part he felt that he should join the woman to eat, but his last bit of sanity prompted him to ran from her. As his mind start fighting on which action to do, the woman who was eating while crying got tackled by a child. The child tackled the woman and bit her neck in one whole swoop. Gale soon broke out his stupor and ran from the scene, he ran until he looked at the usual river people used to wash clothes. The river cutting the town in the middle was looking like a good alternative to cool his head.

"Splash" As Gale entered the water. The sobering and cooling feeling of the water helped him regained some of his sanity. He stayed there for 2 minutes underwater before climbing back up. The hunger pang have been reduced to the point of being able to be controlled. Gale huffed heavily as he lie down near the river bed. He knew the food was suspicious, he knew but his hunger clouded his judgement. What just happened was a nightmare.

After enough rest Gale started to head back home, he was exercising caution as he was afraid if some people were still affected by the hunger pang. Fortunately, his way home was quiet. He unlocked the still locked door and look at Mei at the ground, unconscious. Panic stricken, Gale ran at Mei's unconscious body and feel her breathing.

"Good, she is still breathing" as Gale push a relief sigh out of his mouth.

He took a seat after locking the door and started thinking about the meat he ate this evening.

"Ding"

A weird sound rang from inside of Gale's head, he looked around and found nothing.

"User successfully resisted Gluttony. Authenticating user as one of the Glutton's Legion. User assigned to registrant #563"

After that a weird book fall into Gale's view, the book was floating in the air. It looked like a leather bound book with a clip to keep it close. On the side of the book there is a feather pen attached to it. Curiosity soon took over Gale as he took the book out of the air and opened it. On the first page of the book a detail about Gale is shown.

Name: Gale

Status: Seedling Gourmet

Age: 14

Gender: Male

Description: A seedling gourmet who just started his journey on his journey to seek the best food in the world.

Hunger: 12/100

Mutation progress:

Strength +0.01

Agility +0.00

Endurance +0.03

Intelligence +0.01

Baffled by this, Gale looked on the second page which has an entry

Name: Mutated Cow

Status: 0* Evolved creature

Description:

Mutated cow is a creature which evolved after eating the new species of hay. It is an old world creature that got lucky and passed the natural selection of the new world plant's species. The gene and magic circuit has then been altered to fit with the new world better. The new species are provided with greater endurance, strength, speed and sharper instinct. Unfortunately due to the low level of the basic species it failed to get enhancement to its intelligence. The Meat is delicious, smooth and succulent. Able to be used in multiple way of cooking, from grilling, stew, stir-fry and other methods available.

One major drawback on this meat is the fact it is not a fit consumption for non-mutated creature. Feeding this meat on non-mutated creature will start mutation on the creature that eat this meat. The mutation will produce an extreme feeling of hunger for the consumer. Failing to resist this hunger pang will result in berserk state of the consumer, it ends with the consumer stomach rupturing due to overeating.