Girl Doesn’t Die in Fairytale Town: Chapter 1 – Day of Beginning
The warm morning sun punctually pierced through the window, landing on the worn wooden floor and awakening the silver-haired girl sleeping on the simple bed beside it.
The girl’s long eyelashes trembled, and she slowly opened her eyes, sitting up with gentle movements.
“Mmm—Nn!”
She stretched, letting out a charming, soft moan that sparked the imagination. Her youthful curves were faintly visible beneath her thin nightgown.
“Huu…”
Finally, the girl let out a long sigh, sweeping away the fatigue of a long sleep.
—And so, Miss Luo Yan’s day began.
Groping for a moment, Luo Yan grasped a small wooden stick leaning against the bedside table—a cane, to be precise. Then, using it skillfully for support, she slowly shuffled towards the dressing table.
The distance from the bed to the dressing table wasn’t far, but it took Luo Yan several minutes. When she finally sat down, she was still breathing slightly heavily.
“Looks, looks like,” Luo Yan covered her slightly heaving chest, trying to steady her breath, “my condition has worsened again…”
The dressing table mirror reflected the young Luo Yan’s face. Pale hair, pale complexion, pale lips, even her pupils were so light they were difficult to discern.
Only upon close inspection could one find a faint, almost invisible touch of pale red in her eyes.
However, her exquisite and beautiful face hadn’t faded due to its sickly pallor. On the contrary, it added a touch of fragile beauty.
However, Luo Yan’s vision was now severely impaired.
Even at such a close distance, she could hardly make out her own features in the mirror, only seeing a few vague outlines.
Indeed, Luo Yan was seriously ill.
“Albinism,” her medical records stated, but her symptoms were far more severe than those of other albino patients.
Not only could she not endure prolonged exposure to sunlight and suffered from a weak constitution, but more importantly, the functions of various organs in her body were continuously declining, subjecting her to constant torment from pain.
It felt like a curse. For as long as Luo Yan could remember, she had been lingering in this painful state, every day spent hovering at the gates of hell.
—However, she was still alive, and that was the best news.
Luo Yan was content with her current life. Even though she was seriously ill, many people had extended a helping hand, willing to help her without asking for anything in return.
The town’s hospital provided her with free medical care and checkups, and often came to visit and comfort her. Luo Yan’s heart was filled with gratitude.
Moreover, as if fearing she couldn’t accept so much charity with peace of mind, a kind-hearted person arranged a simple job for Luo Yan, caring for a little girl in their home who was also ill.
However, rather than an employment relationship, the mistress of the house treated Luo Yan like her own daughter, more like she had been adopted.
Therefore, Luo Yan still felt somewhat uneasy and insisted on helping to clean the manor.
This way, she could at least consider herself an employed maid.
At least she could feel a little more at ease while receiving help.
Luo Yan exhaled forcefully, then seemed to remember something, slapping her forehead.
“Oh dear, the appointment with Dr. Messier is almost here, I mustn’t be late.”
Luo Yan quickly put on a black ladies’ hat and then a pair of plain white gloves to prevent her skin from being accidentally sunburned.
After making all the necessary preparations, Luo Yan gripped her cane, slung a small shoulder bag over her shoulder, grabbed a parasol from the hook beside her, and walked towards the door of the small house.
“Creak—”
The old door groaned under the strain, and warm sunlight squeezed in, spilling onto the floor. The colorful town appeared in the world outside.
Above, painted haphazardly with blue crayon as the boundless blue sky, a few strokes of green outlined the trees and grass. Brown, black, and red piled together formed the houses, and two strokes of white in the sky emitted clear and pleasant birdsong.
This was not a child’s doodle, but the town as seen through Luo Yan’s eyes.
Perhaps due to her severely deteriorated vision, her field of view was perpetually shrouded in a thick gray fog. Everything she saw was incredibly blurry, like a child’s playful scribbles, but she was used to it.
A thin, golden light poured down, piercing through the thick gray fog, adding a few warm strokes to this picture filled with a sense of happiness.
Luo Yan tilted her head slightly, facing the sun that showered the earth with its light. The corners of her eyes curved into crescents.
“The sunlight is so nice.”
Then, she opened her parasol and stepped outside, her petite figure retreating into the shade enveloped by the light.
Even though she didn’t know how much longer this life could last, even though her life seemed to have entered a countdown, at least at this moment, she was still alive.
Therefore—
“It’s good to be alive.”
……
“Please note, the target discovered in the ‘Ruin’ level contaminated area ‘Ghost Town’ has begun to move. Please maintain observation.”
“Roger, everything is normal at present.”
Several people stared at a screen displaying Luo Yan slowly walking down the road.
Behind Luo Yan was an overgrown, abandoned manor house, its style dating back at least several hundred years. Fallen leaves danced in the gentle breeze, and the rusty iron gate creaked.
“So, this is Ghost Town…”
Hua Qiling’s breathing was slightly rapid. She watched the silver-haired girl with the parasol on the screen gradually move away from the surveillance range, her brow furrowed.
She picked up a report from the table, which the archives team had delivered overnight.
All currently known information about “Ghost Town” from all the mega-cities had been compiled into the report in Hua Qiling’s hands.
But looking at this report, Hua Qiling felt a throbbing pain in her forehead.
[“Ruin” level contaminated area “Ghost Town,” with no fixed time or location of appearance, randomly appears in the Endless Wasteland and disappears again after a period of time. Currently observed 16 times.]
[Lifeforms entering the town lose contact within 24 hours. Even if the planned exploration time is much shorter than 24 hours, no exit can be found. Currently, there are no successful return cases for exploration personnel who have entered the town.]
[After appearing, “Ghost Town” will move erratically. There have been instances of overlapping with mega-cities, with the overlapping areas being directly assimilated and swallowed, equivalent to entering the town.]
However, the most noteworthy point was that in all current archival data, including communications from exploration personnel within 24 hours, there was no mention of the existence of any lifeforms within the town.
“So, who is that silver-haired girl?”
Hua Qiling looked up at the screen connected to the surveillance equipment. Luo Yan’s figure was gone, and everything in view was desolate and decaying, as if abandoned for countless ages.
“Could she be the key to solving this crisis?”
“…Or, is she the true culprit behind this crisis?”
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