Special District 9 Prologue: Seven Deadly Sins

Special District 9 Prologue: The Seven Deadly Sins

Apocalypse.

The sudden arrival of a catastrophe left the earth in tatters. Animals mutated, food became scarce, and the living environment deteriorated. An era was destroyed, and a civilization ceased to be.

Around 300 kilometers west of Special District 9, on a nameless street, a 23-year-old man was holding his shirt closely to himself as he walked quickly ahead with his head lowered.

The streets were decrepit and ugly, and the underground sewage system had already fallen into disuse many years ago. The stench of outdoor sewage filled the rows upon rows of houses, each of which was in various states of disrepair.

The area was very dim due to the lack of functional lampposts in the area

From time to time, there would be a group of people, mostly women, standing clustered together.

The young man who was hurrying on ahead without allowing his eyes to stray to the side went by the name of Qin Yu. He had just left his job today; he was intending to buy the citizenship of Special District 9 so as to accomplish the first step of his plans.

Standing at 1.82 meters tall, Qin Yu was quite well-built. He was born with a distinctive face and decent facial features that gave him a rugged charm. However, his clothes looked a little unkempt. His beard was not shaved, his slightly long hair was clumped together, and his clothes were covered with grease and stains.

He wouldn’t stand out particularly in a crowd.

Walking quickly ahead, Qin Yu lifted his head slightly to look at the four-way intersection ahead of him as he prepared to turn left to return back to his house.

“Brother! Brother!”

A clear voice rang out in the air.

A woman wearing a dress that had begun to lose its color from repeated washing suddenly tugged lightly on Qin Yu’s arm.

Qin Yu froze for a moment before turning around to ask, “What do you want?”

“30 dollars.” The woman raised three thin fingers as she glanced at a dilapidated house behind her and said, “We’ll head there.”

“Heh, I can’t afford to play,” Qin Yu replied before heading on his way.

“Wait.” The woman tugged on Qin Yu’s arm once more as she said, “25. What about 25?”

Qin Yu turned around to assess the woman before him for a moment before shaking his head, “I don’t have money.”

“You aren’t interested in me? There are others in the house.”

“I really don’t have money,” Qin Yu said as he shook his arm free of the woman’s grasp. “Let go. I am in a rush.”

The woman bit her red lips as she continued holding onto Qin Yu tightly. She was silent for a long while before she added on, “Two bowls of rice is fine too, but we will use my bowl.”

Qin Yu frowned, “I told you I don’t have anything. Scram!”

However, the woman still refused to let go. She looked at a group of seven to eight-year-old children in the house by the side and continued, “… I have three children. If I don’t get any business tonight, they will starve to death… Brother, show some mercy and help me this once. A bowl of rice will do too. I will kneel to you.”

Qin Yu looked at the woman and said coldly, “The world has already changed for so many years. Why did you give birth to your children when you can’t even feed them?”

The woman was stunned by Qin Yu’s words.

Qin Yu’s forcefully shook his hand free of the woman’s grasp before walking ahead while grabbing his clothes tightly to himself.

The woman stood silently on the spot for a moment before quickly running back into the house. While gasping for breath, she cried out, “That man, he has it. I saw it in his clothes when I pulled it just now!”

Roughly half an hour later…

Qin Yu returned to a rundown six-story building and walked up the dirt-filled stairs all the way to the place he had settled in on the fifth floor.

This building was resided by only Qin Yu and his friend, Xiao Zhuang. A huge chunk of the outer walls had already collapsed, and had it been in the previous era, it would have been a building that would soon be demolished.

But in this era, a home was defined by where a person was rather than where he lived in. Qin Yu had chosen this house because it didn’t have any lights or water, so he didn’t have to pay the exorbitant utility bill.

The layout of the room was very simple. There was a bed and two cabinets. There were no entertainment devices, just a military magazine that had marks of excessive flipping. The date written on it was 2019.

After entering the house, Qin Yu took off his dirty outerwear and took out a canvas bag from the pocket. He brought it to the side of his bed, where he took out a broken bowl before carefully pouring alluring white rice into it. At the same time, he shouted, “Xiao Zhuang, is the rice done yet?”

“Not yet. I have also just returned,” someone inside the house replied.

Following that, a young man of roughly the same age as Qin Yu walked out. He had a tanned complexion and a masculine face.

Deng deng deng!

While Qin Yu and Xiao Zhuang were talking, loud footsteps suddenly thumped from below. Qin Yu was stunned for a moment. He quickly hid the bag and the bowl in the cupboard before walking toward the rickety wooden door.

In less than ten seconds, eight 10-year-old children had arrived in the stairway with dozens of men and women.

The stairway was attached to the building from the outside. Due to old age and lack of maintenance, the floor was cracked and the metal bars had grown rusty. With so many people rushing up at once, it made it feel as if the entire building was shaking.

Qin Yu immediately raised his hand and shouted, “Don’t! Stop stomping, damn it. The stairway is going to collapse.”

“Uncle, I’m hungry.”

“Uncle, I want to eat rice…”

“…!”

Each of the children was holding onto a bowl, and they stood on the stairway looking at Qin Yu pitifully.

“Uncle is also hungry too. Has your family eaten yet? If not, can I join in as well?” Qin Yu replied with a smile on his face.

Those children had clear eyes that reflected their innocent thoughts. However, the adults behind them had already ripped apart the most basic disguise of a human. A well-built, bald man took the lead by shouting, “Bring out your rations or you will never be getting out of this building.”

“I don’t have any rations,” Qin Yu replied. “I really don’t. We are all hungry ghosts in this Development District. If I have rations, the least I can do is to give some of it to you…”

“Spare us the nonsense. We saw you holding food,” the bald man shouted. “Hand it over right now and we’ll leave you be. We won’t ask for too much, just half of what you have.”

“I don’t have any food,” Qin Yu shook his head.

“Enter his house,” the bald man shouted with a deep voice.

“Uncle, we want to eat.”

“Give me food.”

“…!”

With the crowd suddenly rushing up at once, the stairway outside began to shake violently once more, to the point that it felt like everything was going to collapse.

Looking at the huge crowd rushing toward him, Qin Yu’s eyes reddened. He raised his right leg and whipped out a knife from his dirtied pants. Pointing it toward the crowd, he bellowed, “You bastards, you are trying to climb over me because I’m alone? What do I have to fear living in a place like this? I’ll tell you this, I do have rations. Break my knife and I’ll give them to you!”

There was a moment of silence before the bald man sneered coldly, “The children are in front. Stab them to death then.”

“You son of a bitch…” Qin Yu was rendered speechless.

“Enter his house and take his rations,” the bald man hollered once more.

Right after those words were spoken, the crowd on the stairway immediately squeezed their way up, and the children also rushed over too. They tugged onto Qin Yu and begged, “Uncle, give us food.”

“Uncle, I haven’t eaten for many days.”

“All of you, scram!”

Holding onto the dagger, Qin Yu shouted at the children helplessly, “I’ll really start stabbing someone here.”

Inside the house, Xiao Zhuang heard the conflict outside and immediately rushed out to stop Qin Yu. At the same time, he turned to the crowd and shouted, “Calm down, we can talk things out.”

However, the hungry children had no fear at all. They continued holding onto Qin Yu, opening a gap for the adults behind to squeeze through.

With his powerful build, Qin Yu took a step toward his house and blocked the door. He glared at the crowd and hissed, “I am also doing all I can to survive. Don’t push me any further than this!”

However, the crowd continued charging toward the door. No one was paying any heed to Qin Yu’s words.

At the same time, Qin Yu kept getting pulled by the children to the side, but he couldn’t bring himself to really stab them. So, he could only try to struggle free of them to deal with the adults.

“Uncle, give me a bowl of rice. Just one bowl will do…”

“Scram!”

A 10-year-old child was pulling onto Qin Yu with all his might, so Qin Yu shook his arm forcefully to free himself. The child crashed into the incoming crowd before losing his footing and falling through the opening in the metal railings.

“AHHH!!”

The horrified scream of a child reverberated in the air for a very long time.

Bam!

The sound of a body falling onto the ground echoed.

Qin Yu and Xiao Zhuang were dumbstruck. They stared at the metal railing with bated breath. For a moment, they had no idea what they should do.

The crowd fell silent, bringing a temporary moment of peace to the stairway.

“Child… That child fell down!” Xiao Zhuang was the first to howl anxiously.

Dozens of people turned to look at the bottom of the building with dazed looks, but the silence only lasted for two seconds before they turned their heads back. On the other hand, the mother of the child was stunned for a moment before immediately rushing all the way down with a shriek.

Qin Yu was stupefied.

“Ration.”

“A child has already fallen. Now we definitely can’t let him go without having him fork out some rations.”

“Snatch his food!”

“…!”

Deafening shouts filled the surroundings as the crowd continued to march forward. No one bothered to spare a second glance at the child who had fallen down the building.

Standing by the entrance, Xiao Zhuang glared at the incoming crowd. He knew that these people would pit their lives against him if they didn’t bring anything out at this point. So, he bit his lips and roared, “Fine, you bastards. You have won, I’ll admit defeat… I’ll give you some rations.”

Qin Yu immediately grabbed Xiao Zhuang’s arm and ordered with a lowered voice, “You can’t. Not even a bit.”

Xiao Zhuang looked at the huge crowd outside the door as he whispered back to Qin Yu anxiously, “They know we’ve got rations. They won’t let us get away without getting something from us.”

“It’ll only get more troublesome once you give them something!” Qin Yu replied sternly. “I would rather pit my life against them than start such a precedent!”

“Nonsense!” Xiao Zhuang had a different view from Qin Yu. He insisted on his own opinion, “The both of us only have a gun, but there are so many of them out there. Are you confident in suppressing them all? If you can’t do it, we will definitely be robbed. They have already lost their sanity! Can’t you tell as much?”

“Just listen to me. I’ll go get the gun.”

“Qin Yu, don’t you see? They didn’t leave even after a child fell through the railings. We cannot trust them to be rational…” Xiao Zhuang swung away Qin Yu’s arm as he spoke. “We already have enough to eat for ourselves, and we have traded whatever is unnecessary for money too. We won’t lose much by giving them a bowl of rice. I don’t want to put my life at risk unnecessarily. I also have a stake in the rations, so I have the right to decide how they are used.”

Qin Yu fell speechless after hearing those words.

Xiao Zhuang straightened his posture before turning to the bald man to say, “The Development District also has its own rules. I want you to scram right away after I give you some rice.”

“As long as we get food, we’ll scram right away,” the bald man said.

Hearing those words, Xiao Zhuang went into the house to get a huge bowl of rice. Guang dang! He placed it on the ground before waving his hand, “Scram.”

The dozens of people looked at the bowl on the ground with greed in their eyes, but no one walked forward to grab it.

The bald man was silent for a moment before he grabbed the gunny sack by his waist and poured the rice in.

“Scram!” Xiao Zhuang impatiently urged them to leave.

The crowd still remained clustered around the door. The bald man assessed the two men before him as he tied the gunny sack back onto his waist, but he still showed no signs of wanting to leave.

“Didn’t you hear me telling you to scram?” Xiao Zhuang bellowed furiously.

After a moment of silence, someone amidst the crowd suddenly shouted, “Screw it! If he can give us a bowl of rice, they must have at least a sack of it back in there!”

“Give us more. There are too many of us around here. This isn’t enough for us to eat at all.”

“I want rice.”

“Let’s charge in to take their rations. Why are we still wasting our breath here?”

“…!”

Many more angry shouts echoed loudly within the building. This time, the mob began secretly drawing their knives and weapons as they looked at Xiao Zhuang in hostility. There wasn’t the slightest gratitude to be seen on their faces.

The bald man shrugged as he spoke with a deep voice, “You see, these people have already gone mad from starvation. I can’t stop them at all. Take out your sack of rice, and we’ll just take half of it.”

“You bastard!” Xiao Zhuang lost his patience and whipped out a knife from his pocket too.

“What are you doing? You want to fight against all of us?”

“Do you think we are scared of you? We are already dying of hunger over here! We aren’t scared of knives or guns!”

“…!”

The crowd simply didn’t fear Xiao Zhuang as all. They followed the bald man’s lead and barged right into the house.

Xiao Zhuang was completely dumbstruck. He wanted to make a move too, but he didn’t have the confidence to protect their food against these madmen.

Click click.

At this moment, Qin Yu took out a 20mm three-slot rotating chamber pistol and swiftly slotted bullets into it.

Upon seeing the gun, everyone froze on the spot.

Qin Yu nonchalantly took out a huge sack of rations from the cupboard before tossing it on the ground, “The rations are here. If you want it, come and get it.”

No one in the crowd moved.

“Who do you think you are scaring?” the bald man hissed with reddened eyes. “We’ll die without food anyway. Do you think we’ll be scared of that broken gun of yours?”

Qin Yu looked at the other party as he cocked his head toward the rations on the ground and bellowed, “The rations are all in there. You have hands, right? Come here and grab it then!”

The bald man only hesitated for a moment before turning to the crowd behind him and bellowed, “There are so many of us here. I don’t believe that he can kill all of us with that broken gun of his!”

Right after saying those words, the bald man stepped forward to grab that bag of rice.

Bang!

A gunshot sounded, followed by the clicking of gears from the rotation of the gun chamber.

The bald man flew half a meter away as his blood splattered all over the ground. A huge hole had been blown in his chest.

Holding onto his gun with his right hand, Qin Yu continued shouting coldly, “You might die of starvation a few days later, but anyone who dares to touch my rations will be killed right away with a shot of my gun!”

Those words made the crowd look at one another quietly.

“I still have two more bullets in here. Is there anyone else who wants to give it a try?” Qin Yu roared.

The crowd took two steps back.

Qin Yu stepped forward and undid the gunny sack tied around the bald man’s waist. Then, he shouted, “Xiao Zhuang, take our stuff. We’re leaving.”

Xiao Zhuang immediately gathered their items.

Still holding onto his pistol, Qin Yu ordered the crowd, “Scram to the side.”

Not a person in the crowd moved.

Qin Yu aimed his gun at the person closest to him and hollered, “Move!”

That person hesitated for half a second before giving way. The others also quickly followed the lead and opened a path down the stairway.

Five minutes later, Qin Yu was finally at the bottom of the building. He saw a mother hugging her injured child, bawling loudly.

Qin Yu stood quietly for a few seconds before tossing the gunny sack he had taken from the bald man over and said, “They’ll be down very soon. Hide it well.”

The mother was taken aback for a moment before she hurriedly accepted the gunny bag and said, “Thank you, thank you. I’ll kowtow to you. We’ll be able to survive with some food…”

Qin Yu and Xiao Zhuang quickly vanished into the darkness of the night.

Three o’clock in the morning, in the midst of a vast desert, Qin Yu split the rations into two and tossed a portion to Xiao Zhuang as he said, “Take your stuff. We’ll split up here.”

Xiao Zhuang was stunned. With an uncomprehending look, he asked, “Is this necessary? Wasn’t it just a conflict of opinion earlier? I don’t think that there’s a need for us to…”

Qin Yu raised his hand to interrupt him, “Xiao Zhuang, if two people aren’t walking on the same path, it’ll be best not to come together. They will only drag each other down. I’ll be heading to Special District 9… All the best to you.”

After saying those words, Qin Yu turned around and left without any hesitation. He was heading to the first stop of his new life, Special District 9.

In the military barracks west of the Development District, an African-American man spoke with fluent Chinese, “I heard a gunshot in there earlier. Do we head in to take a look?”

“Look for what? There are people fighting and dying over food here every day. Some of them even dare to ambush the vehicles of the army. Who are we to interfere in their business?” an old man lying lazily on a creaky wooden bed replied as he smoked on a smoking pipe.

Translator Notes

Hey guys, I'm StarveCleric, the latest addition to hostednovel!
I'm glad to be here together with hypersheep and DragonInWhite, as well as many other old friends.
For those who don't know me, I worked on Records of the Human Emperor for the first 300 chapters, and a few other works that I have done are
-> The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich
-> Heaven's Shadow
-> Library of Heaven's Path
-> Martial God Asura (from Chapter 4320 onward)
-> The Beautiful Time With You

The work that I'm bringing today is Special District 9.
This is one of the works that start out slow in the first 20 chapters, but it'll build up into a climax that will wow you by the 40th chapter. This novel is not about detective and crime-fighting, but rather, it's more about kingdom building and politics. If this is a genre you like, please do give it a read!
While I know that the setting is not in a popular genre, please trust my translation and taste and give it a try hahaha.

This is my Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/ATHVehx
Also, this is the website's Discord: https://discord.gg/gC3RMvd
Feel free to drop by and chat with us!

Hope to see yall around~