The Eye of Oblivion

Chapter 3: Gluttony

A'mu turned and stepped outside. Not long after, she returned with a large beast's leg in hand.

“Eat, child! Have some now to fill your belly. When your father returns tonight, I'll make something delicious for you.”

The leg was about the size of a grown dog’s, already dried, with shriveled flesh and faint traces of blood. One could only imagine how large it had been when fresh.

Li Ran accepted the leg, wide-eyed, feeling the weight pull his hands down slightly.

“Eat?” He thought he had misheard and asked again in confusion. His memories were fragmented, just glimpses of vivid moments like language or the brushes with death.

“Why aren’t you eating, child? You can only have this much now. If you eat too much, you won’t have room for dinner, and your father will be furious.” A'mu teased with a smile, thinking he was still not satisfied.

“What kind of place is this, where even dried meat, hard as stone, is edible?” he wondered to himself. But seeing the earnest look in his new mother’s eyes and feeling the gnawing hunger in his belly, he reluctantly lifted the leg with both hands and took a bite.

*Crunch!* The crisp sound of something like metal striking stone echoed through the small room.

Though the dried meat seemed as hard as rock, it wasn't as tough to chew as he had feared. Or perhaps his teeth were far stronger than he imagined, effortlessly grinding the stone-like meat into powder, which he then swallowed.

Seeing him eat, A'mu grinned broadly and left the room, her face beaming with simple contentment.

The meat was dry and carried a bitter, salty taste. The salt used was so coarse it barely qualified as salt at all. But hunger cares little for such details. In less than ten minutes, the foot-long beast leg had been devoured, yet he still didn’t feel satisfied.

Staring at the two clean bones, he hesitated for a moment before stuffing one into his mouth.

Immediately, a disturbing crunching sound filled the small hut.

Only half-full, he felt some strength return to his body. He sat up and leapt off the bed.

As soon as he landed, a dull thud resonated from the ground.

Li Ran froze for a moment, then jumped again—once, twice. His eyes filled with a mixture of curiosity and astonishment. Suddenly, he grabbed a beast's fang, about a foot long, from beside the wall and tossed it upwards.

It rose less than two meters before plummeting to the ground with alarming speed. In the blink of an eye, it had already hit the floor.

“What kind of planet is this, with gravity this intense? Judging by the speed of that fall, the gravity here must be at least ten, maybe even twenty times stronger than Earth’s!”

He marveled in his heart, then looked down at his own body. Despite the overwhelming gravity, he felt no heaviness or sluggishness as he moved. His seemingly frail and short frame was hiding a terrifying strength, far greater than in his previous life. If he were to return to Earth, he would surely be a superhuman.

He stretched his body, slowly growing accustomed to its stiffness, though fully adapting to it would still take some time.

He walked outside, where the blue and white sun was already setting. At the village entrance, a group of muscular men were shouting and laughing loudly as they approached. They carried enormous beasts on their shoulders, some of which were as large as four meters, resembling giant rhinoceroses. The strongest man in the lead held one by the neck and dragged it effortlessly as he walked.

A palpable sense of raw power filled the air.

Li Ran sucked in a sharp breath. *What kind of monstrous beings are these?*

From his fragmented memories, he recognized the man at the front as his father in this life.

“Child, have you recovered?”

Before Li Ran could respond, a rough hand, thick with calluses, landed heavily on the back of his head with a loud *thud*. Stumbling, he crashed into the house, gritting his teeth in pain.

The men burst into hearty laughter.

“Brother Li, your strength may be greater than mine, but your child doesn’t seem to live up to it. How will he ever find a wife when he grows up?”

“He probably won’t even make it into the hunting team…”

“Get lost! My child will never be weak. Enough of your nonsense,” Yali grumbled as he hefted the beast over his shoulder and headed home, annoyed.

Inside, a half-meter tall, round-bellied black clay pot sat atop a simple stone stove, with flames roaring beneath it. The pot bubbled, filling the air with the tantalizing scent of simmering meat.

Li Ran's mother was adding more firewood, while Yali sat nearby on a stone stool, his face dark and brooding.

For some reason, Li Ran, crouched in front of the pot and drawing circles in the dirt out of boredom, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Before long, the meat inside was fully boiled. Yali stood up, grabbed a steel fork from the corner of the room, and stabbed it into the pot. He pulled out a chunk of meat the size of a fan, still streaked with blood.

He dropped the meat into a pot in front of Li Ran, one thirty centimeters high.

One piece, two pieces... Seven pieces. Li Ran watched in stunned silence as Yali filled the pot to the brim. Each piece was as large as the beast leg he had eaten earlier. Combined, they were enough to last four or five days in his previous life.

Back then, though his appetite was large from martial training, it was still within normal limits, nothing superhuman. And now, with a body barely a meter tall, lean and far from robust, this feast seemed overwhelming.

“Eat. Eat it all,” Yali commanded in a booming voice.

Seeing Li Ran hesitate, Yali’s enormous hand, as large as a fan, pressed down firmly on his head, forcing him towards the pot.

“What kind of parents are these?” Li Ran cursed inwardly, but faced with his father’s rock-solid hand and imposing figure, he wisely chose to surrender. He was certain that if he didn’t eat, his father would push his head into the pot and force-feed him.

By the time he had eaten the first and second pieces, Li Ran was savoring and admiring the beast’s tough sinews and chewy texture. But by the third, he was already feeling full. After the fourth, his stomach began to swell. The fifth piece made him feel nauseous. By the sixth, his belly was round as a small ball, and by the seventh, he found himself unable to move. His stomach churned, threatening to send its contents back up.

He finally understood—sometimes, eating can be an excruciating ordeal.

That night, he dragged his bloated belly and painfully climbed into his hard, iron-like bed, sighing softly. He knew this was just the beginning of such days.