Chapter 1 Seawater

Seawater.

Salty, fishy seawater lapped at her cracked feet, covered in dried salt.

The soles of her feet were rubbed raw by the礁石.

The cold sea breeze blew on her, causing the thin, dark-skinned girl to shiver.

The rupee is the name of the currency used in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and other countries. The English word is "rupee," the code is INR, and the unit is 100.

One rupee equals 0.01349 US dollars, or 0.08862 Chinese yuan.

For Indians, an ordinary meal costs 30 rupees, and a low-income takeaway lunch is about 10 rupees.

But what does three rupees (about three mao in Chinese yuan) mean for the untouchables of India?

The answer: two lives.

Night fell, and the cold moonlight sprinkled on the sea. The tide ebbed and flowed, hitting the礁石 and forming foamy waves.

The thin, dark-skinned Indian girl sat in a cave on a low, sloping cliff by the sea.

She wore dirty, tattered shorts and a shirt of unrecognizable color, her hair was unkempt, and she hugged her knees with her arms. Shivering in the cold night wind, her eyes were empty.

Ten days ago, the girl and her two sisters plucked up their courage and asked their factory owner for a three-rupee increase in their daily wage of 25 rupees after work.

They were untouchables, the lowest caste outside of the Indian caste system.

Untouchables, or Dalits, account for 16.2% of India's total population. Using a total population of 1.324 billion, there are as many as 200 million Dalits.

In traditional Indian thinking, the bodies of Dalits are dirty, and everything they touch is contaminated. Even their shadows can defile people of higher castes.

They are forbidden from frequently appearing in public places, cannot use the same drinking containers and tableware as other castes, cannot touch other castes, cannot marry other castes, work for the people in the village, but are not allowed to live in the village, and can only engage in the lowest and most humble industries.

After the girl and her two sisters asked for a three-rupee increase in their daily wage, the workshop owner laughed at and beat them, tied the girls up with hemp ropes, and abused them for several hours.

Even more despairing was that when the local police car arrived, the Indian policemen who got out of the car not only did not stop the owner, but joined him in abusing the girl's two sisters.

The girl struggled to break free from the hemp rope and escaped into the night. Police sirens blared behind her, and flashing car lights appeared and disappeared in the dense, man-high weeds.

She escaped, but her two sisters were hanged from trees, covered in wounds, to demonstrate to those untouchables who dared to make rebellious demands—this was the scene the girl saw at the entrance of the village when she tried to escape home in the morning.

Standing next to the several police cars parked by the road were the Indian policemen who had participated in the abuse.

The girl dared not go home, nor dared to leave, fearing that she would be discovered by the police car on the road and silenced.

She hid in a shallow cave under the cliff by the sea, eating small fish and crabs when she was hungry, and drinking ice water dripping from the cave when she was thirsty.

The girl did not know what was happening outside and could only calculate the passage of time by the rising and setting of the sun.

So cold...

She hugged her knees even tighter, and her thoughts were chaotic in her muddled brain.

Hinduism advocates equality for all, but this equality is only at the spiritual and soul level; the physical body is unequal.

The bodies of Brahmins and Kshatriyas are pure and clean, Vaishyas and Shudras have blemishes, and untouchable Dalits are a collection of the world's dirt and filth.

There are only two ways for a Dalit to become clean.

The first is to practice asceticism, endure what normal people consider to be the most painful things, cut off water and food, endure hunger, self-flagellation, endure cold and heat, until the mind and body transcend, then they can move the gods and escape the sea of suffering.

The second is to obediently accept oppression and exploitation, serve the high-caste people, do not contact other untouchables, isolate themselves, and reduce the degree of their own pollution. In this way, they can be reborn as a Brahmin in the next life and become a pure and superior person.

Under the influence of this traditional concept, the bottom-level Dalits developed hatred for each other.

Dalits who slaughter chickens despise Dalits who catch mice.

Dalits who catch mice despise Dalits who clean toilets and sewers.

Different groups were divided among the Dalits, and each believed that the other was an impure source of pollution, and actively demanded isolation to avoid contamination.

High involution and bottom-level hatred make it impossible for Dalits to unite. Although they have a huge population of 100 to 200 million, they still have no say in the social system.

The girl hiding in the cliff cave did not think so deeply. She stared blankly at the sea, and another face of an equally dark-skinned Indian girl appeared in her mind.

Nina.

A member of the Gale Riders' seventh group, an Indian special envoy to the Global Supernatural Alliance, and the glory of low-caste Indians.

The same age, the same identity.

The other party can become the focus of countless spotlights, meeting with dignitaries.

But the girl's two sisters were hanged from the trees in the early morning mist.

A sense of sadness welled up in the girl's heart. If Nina was here, if Nina was still in India, then she should, no, she would definitely uphold justice after hearing the news,

Just like what she did for the Dalit community before.

However, not long after the Gate War ended, Nina, who often appeared on major Indian TV stations, disappeared from the news media and was nowhere to be found.

The cohesion that the low-caste groups had finally accumulated also dissipated.

"Damn it, where is that girl?"

A faint and noisy human voice sounded above the cliff, and the light of a flashlight lit up above the cliff, shining on the sea.

The girl's empty eyes were instantly filled with fear and despair.

The cliffs here were very low, and the sound could be easily transmitted.

She dared not move and slowly shrunk her body, moving towards the back of the cave.

A man's voice said: "We've been looking for so many days and haven't found her yet. Damn the new director, it's just a missing untouchable girl, and he insists on investigating thoroughly. Her parents were taught a lesson by us and canceled the report."

"We will find her."

Another man's voice said slowly: "She's injured, has no food, and can't escape too far."

"...What should we do after we find her?"

"Do you even need to ask? Kill her."

"But the new director asked..."

"Don't worry about the new director. He is a Brahmin, the son of a diplomat, and an elite in the IPS (Indian Federal Police System). Whether this matter is investigated or not, he will be promoted. And we will stay here and rot for the rest of our lives. Do you want to wait to be liquidated by the local forces after the case is investigated?"

"..."

"Don't forget, your uncle, our superior, also participated in the abuse that day..."

"...I understand."

The two men above the cliff lowered their voices and talked, and the light of the flashlight swept back and forth on the sea.

The girl under the cliff desperately covered her mouth, and tears streamed from her eyes.

Whoosh—

The seawater in front of the cave suddenly parted to both sides.

An animal crawled out of the sea.

It was a dog, its fur was mottled brown and black, it was skinny, and it was soaked, just like a stray dog on the side of the road.

How could a dog swim up from the sea?

The girl's brain didn't have time to process this information. She instinctively leaned forward, wanting to cover the dog's mouth to prevent it from making a sound and attracting the attention of the two men above the cliff.

But, at the moment she stretched out her hand, she froze.

The dog suddenly exuded an invisible and intangible strange aura, like a top predator such as a tiger or lion, coldly staring at the girl in front of it, regarding her as a piece of moving meat.

Cannot move.

The girl's body froze in place, and the brown-black stray dog turned its head and body on its own. As its fur甩动, the seawater on its body splashed and dried.

"Phew, it's really cold here. Let's go, let's go and meet up with the others."

"Wait."

The flashlight light above the cliff suddenly stopped, shining on a sea surface, "What is that?"

On the sea surface illuminated by the flashlight light, a piece of blood-stained cloth fragment was floating—it was the cloth the girl used to bandage the wounds she received from the beating.

"Could it be..."

The second man muttered in a low voice, and the light of the flashlight晃了晃 at the entrance of the mountain cave, "There seems to be a cave below.

You come over and give me light, I'll climb down and take a look."

The sound of rustling footsteps sounded above, and the light of the flashlight flickered and shook. Then, the sound of hands pulling at grass and vines was heard.

Once again, the girl fell into fear and despair.

Tears welled up in her eyes, flowing down her chapped cheeks.

The brown-black stray dog took two steps forward indifferently, came to the girl, and歪了歪 its head.

There was no emotion in its black bean-like eyes, just a silent gaze.

Pa.

Without any warning, a slender, sharp, tongue-like catheter like a harpoon shot out from the dog's mouth and nailed into the girl's brow.

A vague and powerful psychic will echoed in the girl's mind.

【To what extent can you go to survive?】

One, everything.

The girl's eyes were empty, and she instinctively answered the question raised by the voice.

【Very good. Then, embrace the hive and join us.】

The dog's tongue-like catheter kept bulging and contracting, injecting something into the girl's brow.

A dozen seconds later, the catheter retracted.

The other party returned to its usual stray dog appearance,趴伏 on the rock, lazily scratching the fur on its waist with its hind feet, making a soft rustling sound.

The girl stared blankly at her palm, raised her hand and touched her forehead.

There was a faint circle of blood on her forehead. The wound cut open by the dog creature's tongue-like catheter had already healed.

Pa嗒.

A stout man in a brown Indian police uniform jumped from above onto the rock at the entrance of the cave, with a loaded pistol hanging from his waist.

The light from the flashlight in his hand swept over, illuminating the ragged girl and the ordinary stray dog.

A look of joy appeared on the stout man's face. He shouted to his companion above the cliff, "Come down quickly, I found her..."

His voice stopped abruptly.

The girl instinctively raised her arm, and a catheter with a sharp arrowhead shot out from her wrist,釘 on the stout man's brow, interrupting his words.