Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1725: Arrival of Hell: Part-4

Third Person’s POV

Young Aether was utterly shocked when he heard the story, and what’s more, it had all happened right after his death.

The more Jonathan spoke, the more silent Aether became.

He had never imagined that the world could be reduced to such a horrific state simply because the Mother Root had invaded Earth. It wasn’t merely the continents or cities that had changed.

The entire biodiversity of Earth had been shattered beyond recognition, as though the planet itself had been stripped of its former identity.

What disturbed him even more was hearing that the forests and vegetation had suffered the same fate as the flourishing lands of his own empire.

Young Aether looked at Jonathan with an unreadable expression, “So… you rejected them and left the shelter?”

Jonathan slowly nodded, his expression calm despite recalling such memories.

“What else was I supposed to do?” he replied quietly. “I couldn’t stand there and watch my parents become someone else’s dinner.”

Aether quietly released the breath he had unknowingly been holding. Although he never truly believed Jonathan would abandon his humanity…. desperation had a terrifying way of changing people.

Hunger wasn’t simply discomfort.

It was a force capable of eroding reason itself!!

No matter how rational, kind, or innocent a person once was, once that primordial instinct took hold, little remained inside their mind besides the overwhelming desire to survive… even if survival demanded devouring another living person.

“…Still,” Young Aether said after a moment of silence, “shouldn’t there have been medical nutrient bags? The ones hospitals use for patients in comas? You know… something that could at least keep people alive without food. Surely hospitals had large supplies of them, right?”

Having watched countless dramas and documentaries back in his previous life, that solution immediately came to his mind.

Jonathan shook his head before answering.

“Of course, we tried that. It worked… but only for people who were bedridden or barely moved at all. Workers like us burned through far too much energy every single day. Those nutrients simply weren’t enough.”

He lowered his gaze before continuing.

“And honestly… nearly every hospital had already been destroyed. The factories that produced those nutrient bags were gone as well. Without factories… without transportation… without raw materials… there was no way to make more.”

Young Aether slowly nodded, a thoughtful expression crossing his face as the reality settled deeper into his mind.

“So… there really was nothing left,” he murmured softly.

Now he finally understood why their patience had eventually reached its limit. Civilisation itself had collapsed overnight.

Every system humanity relied upon had disappeared, and nobody had ever prepared for a catastrophe of that scale.

No crops.

No harvests.

No forests.

No livestock.

Not even clean water.

Then what the fuck were these people supposed to eat…

…other than the only species still left alive?

“Cannibalism…” Young Aether muttered under his breath.

The word itself didn’t shock him very much. Compared to the horrors he had witnessed inside the Void Empire, this wasn’t even the worst fate imaginable.

Yet there was something deeply unsettling about it.

The same humans who had once stood proudly at the pinnacle of Earth’s civilisation… beings who built nations, explored space, and called themselves rational… had eventually been reduced to hunting one another simply to survive.

Slowly, Young Aether began to understand why those people had made such horrifying choices.

Understanding, however, did not mean acceptance.

In the end, he simply couldn’t bring himself to care enough to justify it… Well, he didn’t care!

“So you left with your parents?” Aether asked, lifting his eyes toward Jonathan once more. “But where did you even go? Every city was destroyed, and every shelter could have eventually resorted to cannibalism. More importantly… how did you survive without food?”

Jonathan drew a slow breath before answering, his voice noticeably quieter than before.

“It wasn’t only me. Everyone who couldn’t accept eating another human chose to leave with us.”

A faint, bitter smile briefly appeared across his face.

“Honestly… I was surprised. The general confidently announced that everyone had agreed with the decision. But when I walked out… nearly one-third of the shelter followed behind me instead.”

The smile lingered for only a brief second before slowly fading away.

His eyes darkened, and an unmistakable sadness settled across his face, as though what came after that decision was far more painful than leaving the shelter itself.

Young Aether fell silent as he realised what was coming next wouldn’t be easy to hear. Quietly, he steeled his heart and prepared himself for whatever Jonathan was about to reveal.

“We took over an abandoned building and turned it into our new shelter. There wasn’t much inside, but at least it gave everyone a roof over their heads and somewhere relatively safe to sleep. The general… he was a good man. Before we left, he gave us a few guns and rifles so we could protect ourselves.”

Jonathan paused briefly before letting out a weary sigh.

“But food was still the biggest problem. If we couldn’t solve that… we’d eventually end up just like the people in the shelter. So those of us who could still walk and fight formed small groups and searched everywhere we could. We checked supermarkets, warehouses, apartments… anywhere people might have left something behind. Even expired food became precious to us. We searched every corner we could think of… just to fill our stomachs.”

His voice gradually weakened, as though the memory itself had lodged inside his throat.

“…We… managed to find some food. It wasn’t much… barely enough to feed everyone for a week, but it was enough to keep them alive…”

Before Jonathan could continue, Young Aether quietly interrupted him, his gaze fixed on the floor beneath his feet.

“Did you… take it from other survivors?”

A brief silence followed.

“…Did you kill them?”

Jonathan’s shoulders stiffened before he slowly lowered his head. His fingers trembled slightly as guilt surfaced across his face.

“W… We didn’t have a choice anymore, Aether.” His voice cracked. “We just… wanted to live.”

He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned pale.

“My mother and father were barely hanging on. If we returned empty-handed, not just them… everyone waiting in that building would have died. I… I had to do it!”

His emotions finally burst through as he pointed at Aether.

“You would’ve done the same! If you were there… if your family was starving… You would’ve done exactly the same thing!”

“…”

Young Aether didn’t argue.

He simply nodded.

He understood.

People pushed beyond every limit, and eventually stopped making moral choices. They simply made whatever choice allowed them to see another day.

However…

“Their food…” Young Aether asked quietly, his expression remaining unreadable.

“…or were they the food?”

After everything Jonathan had described, it wasn’t an unreasonable question. Hunger had already consumed their sanity once before.

When the general first proposed cannibalism, that itself had become the only thought remaining inside everyone’s mind.

Jonathan weakly smiled before shaking his head.

“No… thank God we never reached that point.”

Young Aether raised an eyebrow.

“How?”

For the first time in a while, genuine relief appeared on Jonathan’s face, and some strength slowly returned to his voice.

“Soon after that, scientists finally found a way to grow crops again. It took countless failures, but eventually they succeeded. Once they harvested enough wheat, they immediately began producing bread and distributed it to every survivor they could reach.”

“Bread?” Young Aether blinked several times in surprise. “That’s… unexpected.”

He hadn’t imagined the scientists would restore agriculture after so many months of complete devastation.

Then again…

Bread.

The word alone stirred an unpleasant memory.

Back in his life, there had been a period when he had survived almost entirely on bread.

‘Damn… those cursed loaves are everywhere.’

He shuddered inwardly, remembering those miserable days. By the end of it, he had nearly forgotten what real food even tasted like.

“Yeah.” Jonathan nodded with a faint smile. “The scientists focused on only one crop at first… wheat. It had a high yield, grew relatively quickly, and contained enough nutrients and protein to help starving people recover. They poured every remaining resource into that single project.”

His smile widened ever so slightly.

“And… it worked.”

“The moment the first batches of bread reached the survivors…” Jonathan exhaled slowly. “…it felt like the entire world could finally breathe again.”

Young Aether nodded thoughtfully.

“So after that… everything slowly returned to normal?”

The moment those words left his mouth, Jonathan’s expression froze.

Only then did Jonathan’s face become even more blank and unreadable, as though every trace of hope had been drained from his expression.

“The government distributed the mutated wheat seeds and bread as quickly as they could. Even though it was barely enough to keep everyone fed… it didn’t matter. Compared to eating other people, those loaves of bread were a blessing.”

A faint smile appeared on his lips before gradually fading away.

“Honestly… everyone believed it was a new beginning. We believed life would slowly return to the way it once was. Every survivor held onto that tiny spark of hope in their heart…” He slowly clenched his fist while staring blankly at the ceiling.

“…Just like I did.”

His voice became almost emotionless as he uttered the words that once again changed the fate of the entire world.

“Until… Hell’s Gate appeared.”

Young Aether remained silent.

“We… we really believed everything was finally getting better. There was food again… clean water was slowly becoming available… we thought humanity had survived.” Jonathan’s breathing became heavier as he recalled those memories.

“But once again… we were proven wrong.”

His fists trembled violently.

“Those things came out from it… those cursed monsters…”

His teeth ground together.

“Those wicked creatures…”

***

Jonathan Vale’s POV

After helping the government transport supplies and plant the mutated wheat seeds, our group decided to return to the abandoned building where our families were staying. The government had offered us a place inside one of the newly established shelters, but none of us wanted to accept it.

The trust we once had was already gone.

If everything collapsed again, we knew exactly who would become the first targets.

The same people who smiled at us today might very well point their guns at us tomorrow.

So instead, we chose to work.

In exchange for transporting supplies, harvesting wheat, and helping maintain the government’s farming districts, we received bread for our families.

Sometimes, if the officials were in a particularly generous mood, they even gave us a few mutated wheat seeds to grow ourselves.

Every pair of hands mattered now.

The faster the wheat production increased, the sooner humanity might be able to cultivate other crops that were still undergoing research.

“Thank goodness… the General really helped us.”

One of my teammates muttered while wiping the sweat and dirt from his face as we walked along the cracked road beneath the grey sky.

He was right.

Ironically, the very same General who had once proposed cannibalism was also the one who approved our request to work.

Even though I still hated him for forcing us into that nightmare… for cornering everyone until eating another person became the only option…

I also understood.

Back then…

He simply didn’t have the luxury of being a good man.

“He became the villain so the rest of us could survive,” another teammate quietly said.

“…Yeah.”

“Whatever happened back then… we should still be grateful.”

Everyone silently nodded, their expressions carrying a mixture of relief and guilt.

After all…

He had saved our families.

“Man… with this much bread, we can finally eat until we’re full this week.” One of them laughed while patting the sack resting on his shoulder.

“Yeah! And honestly, this batch tastes way better than the pizzas we were eating before.”

“Haha… that’s just because we’re starving. When you’re hungry enough, even shit starts tasting gourmet, you bastards!”

“Hahaha!”

Laughter echoed along the empty street.

For the first time in what felt like forever, everyone smiled without forcing it.

The heavy atmosphere that had followed us for months finally felt a little lighter.

As we approached our building…

Sshhh~

A strange sound drifted through the air.

Every smile instantly vanished.

A freezing chill crawled up my spine, and every hair on my body stood on end.

Our footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

Slowly…

We looked up.

Hovering directly above our building was a swirling vortex of crimson liquid, twisting through the empty sky like a gigantic whirlpool made entirely of blood. It rotated silently, staining the clouds around it with an ominous red glow.

“W… What is that?” someone whispered.

“W-What’s happening?”

“N… No…”

Everyone panicked and immediately sprinted toward the building without the slightest hesitation. None of us cared anymore that the crimson spiral was hovering directly above the rooftop, because the only thing filling our minds was the terrifying thought that our families were still inside.

The moment we rushed through the entrance with our hearts pounding violently against our ribs, horrifying screams echoed throughout the entire building.

“ARRGGGHHHHH!!”

“NOOOOOOO!!”

“WIFEEEEEEE!!”

The desperate cries pierced through every hallway, accompanied by the nauseating stench of fresh blood that struck us almost immediately.

The once familiar shelter had transformed into something unrecognisable. Blood coated the walls in thick crimson streaks, while shattered furniture, torn limbs, and scattered chunks of flesh littered every corner of the corridor.

Bodies lay twisted in impossible positions, their terrified expressions forever frozen as though death itself had arrived too quickly for them to comprehend.

My heartbeat grew louder with every passing second until it completely drowned out every sound around me. The screams of the others gradually faded into meaningless noise as my legs instinctively carried me toward my parents’ room, desperately praying that they had somehow survived.

No…

Please…

Please let them still be alive…

When I reached the familiar door, I froze in place.