Chapter 1: Lin Yuxi, both lucky and unlucky

My name is Lin Yuxi, and I’m an honest-to-goodness useless Variant.

Why “useless,” you ask?

Ever since the Hetero-Virus outbreak, the world has long since turned into complete chaos. Of everyone infected, eight or nine out of ten end up mutating into drooling, grotesque monsters unrecognizable as human.

And then there are the lucky few — the so-called chosen ones.
People like me.

After getting infected, I didn’t turn into one of those horrifying things. Instead, I was fortunate enough to have my body remodeled, and I even awakened an ability. The odds of this happening are absurdly low — probably one in two hundred million.

(Now you get how valuable I am, right?)

Anyone whose body has been remodeled by the Hetero-Virus gains at least some kind of enhancement, to a greater or lesser degree.
In our little territory here, there’s a legend that’s been passed around forever: a Variant whose strength and stamina shot up to five times that of a normal person, and whose body could partially harden — supposedly so tough that even a rocket couldn’t blast through.

Of course, those are just rumors.
A big shot like that is way out of reach for a small fry like me. As a “useless” case, I know my place very well — and I know exactly how to protect myself. I’ve never dared let anyone find out I’m a Variant.

After all, I don’t have any of the impressive combat abilities the others do. I can’t protect myself, much less get favored by the Lord of the territory.
A rare but completely useless existence like me? If my identity got exposed, I’d almost certainly be dragged off to be dissected for research and end up in pieces with no corpse left to bury.

So why do I call myself useless?
Did the mutation fail to give me an ability and leave my body unchanged?
No. Quite the opposite — the changes the mutation brought were so massive they’re practically ridiculous.
It altered even my physiology… and my personality… turning a bright, sunny teenage boy straight into a white-haired beautiful girl.

This appearance hasn’t brought me the slightest convenience.
It only attracts endless trouble.
That’s why I can only rely on disguise and carefully hide who I really am.

In this lawless world, being beautiful is nothing but a source of disaster.

“Aaahhh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get!”

Still — when you get down to it, I’m actually quite lucky.
At least I didn’t become one of those neither-human-nor-ghost abominations.
And the ability I awakened after the remodeling really does exist.

It may not be particularly impressive, but it’s the only thing I have to rely on to survive in this chaotic age.

If this were a novel, my power would probably be called an “Ice-type Ability” or something cool like that.
In reality?
I’m basically an “Hail Princess” at best.

I can condense a palm-sized chunk of ice out of thin air… but I can’t control it at all.
Sometimes I comfort myself:
‘Hey, being able to drink ice-cold beverages anytime in summer is pretty amazing, right?’

And the reason this ice is my lifeline is simple: my only way to survive right now is to use my ability to make ice blocks, melt them into water, mix that water with mud, and trade the resulting “filtered sewage” with other drifters for food.

The drifters living here basically have only two paths.

The first path: anyone between seventeen and forty-five can become a territorial soldier.
In plain terms — voluntarily sell your life to the territory and exchange it for a mouthful of food.
That’s the choice most people make.

The second path: remain a drifter.
Some are kids under seventeen or elders over fifty; others are people who would rather rot here waiting to die than sell their lives to the Lord.
And these people are usually the fiercest when it comes to fighting over food.

Every so often the territory drops supplies, letting the drifters scramble madly for them — both to keep them barely alive (so they can be drafted when soldiers run short) and to use the chaos to weed out the useless old, weak, sick, and disabled.

Anyone who fails to grab food can only collect rainwater from the ground and trade that.
For various special reasons, everyone can only draw water from the soil — but the water that comes up is toxic.
It has to be filtered and repeatedly settled for several days before it becomes barely drinkable sewage.

Often, after collecting a thousand milliliters, only about a hundred milliliters are actually potable.

People who manage to snatch food will trade with those who collected water.
Over time, a strange, fragile balance has formed.
And I — am one of those sewage sellers.

For me, now living as a girl, using my ice blocks mixed with dirt to fake “filtered sewage” and trade for food is undoubtedly the safest option.
But perhaps because part of me still refuses to accept having been male once, sometimes I still join the mad scramble —
Most importantly, the food you can get with sewage is usually just steamed buns.
But I also want a better life.
I want to eat canned meat too.

……

Lin Yuxi woke up groggy, feeling sticky and uncomfortable all over.
She couldn’t help but grumble inwardly:
‘Looks like I need to find a chance to take a proper bath.’

Even though clean water is more precious than gold in the drifter zone, for a Variant who can produce ice it isn’t actually that hard.
She usually sneaks away to quietly wash the parts of her body hidden under her clothes — just enough to feel refreshed without exposing her appearance.

She reached into the tattered box and pulled out a rock-hard steamed bun, nibbling at it in tiny bites.
Her mouth filled with coarse crumbs; inwardly she wailed:
‘Ugh… I really, really want to eat meat!’

She struggled to swallow the dry mouthful, then hurriedly took a sip from the water she’d prepared earlier to wash the crumbs down her throat.

After finishing what could barely be called breakfast, Lin Yuxi decided to head out and try her luck.
The territory was very likely to drop supplies today — after all, last night the Lord had returned with his soldiers and brought back a large haul.
If the Lord was in a good mood, maybe today’s drop would be much more generous.
Maybe — just maybe — there would even be canned meat!

With that thought, Lin Yuxi stuffed two bottles of “specially prepared” sewage into the pockets of her black hooded cloak and set off toward the central supply drop point.

She had no idea how much would be dropped this time, or whether she could grab anything.
If she could get even one can of meat, that would be perfect — she hadn’t tasted meat in a whole week.

If only she could move into the residential zone inside.
She’d heard that everyone there had their own plot of farmland, and there were all kinds of places for free trading.

If only she had brought more supplies when she first came here to seek refuge.
Then she could have moved into the residential area instead of being stuck in the drifter zone, going hungry one day and barely full the next, forced to depend entirely on the Lord’s occasional good or bad moods for the pitifully small supply drops that kept her alive.

But now it was pointless to think about that.
Back then the situation had been so desperate, and she had been so terrified of dying.
The moment she heard there was a territory offering shelter, she had run here with everything she had, thinking she would get a safe place to stay and hot meals.

Instead?
She was stopped right at the outer perimeter.
Thinking about it now, it made sense — there’s no such thing as free food in this world.

It didn’t take long before Lin Yuxi reached the center of the drifter zone.
A little farther in was the residential area she could only dream of entering.

Just as she expected, the drop point was already packed with people.
Judging by their exhausted yet feverish expressions, many had probably been guarding the spot since last night.

Lin Yuxi looked at the densely packed crowd and could only pray silently:
‘When the scramble starts later, please let at least some food roll out to the edges.’

If she couldn’t grab anything, she’d just have to trade water for a few buns again.

She glanced around and spotted more than a dozen skinny figures — including a few girls — standing far from the main crowd just like her.
Clearly they had the same idea: wait for scraps that might scatter outward.
Most of them had crossed paths with her many times during previous scrambles; after so many rounds, they’d grown somewhat familiar.

Before long, a medium-sized truck slowly backed in.
Four soldiers in special uniforms stood in the bed of the truck; two of them were holding rifles.

The moment people saw the supplies on the truck, the crowd below erupted.
Waves of excited, overlapping voices rose so loud they seemed ready to tear the sky apart.

Among the two soldiers without rifles, one pulled out a pocket watch, checked the time, then nodded to the other three.
Immediately afterward, he raised a large metal bucket high and dumped it fiercely toward the crowd.
A cascade of white steamed buns tumbled out, falling like heavy rain onto the mass of people.

The crowd exploded.
Everyone surged forward like mad, clawing and fighting for the food.
Lin Yuxi kept her eyes locked on the landing zone.
The instant she spotted an opportunity, she lunged toward a bun that had rolled near her feet.

In mere moments, every bun that had fallen was snatched away.
Most people had scratches and bruises from the struggle.
Those who failed to grab anything — and ended up injured instead — started cursing furiously.
Some even turned red-eyed and reached to snatch food from the people right beside them.