Heartless

**Heartless**, also known as **Lost Hearts**, refers to humans who have contracted the Heartless Disease. They have lost all their rationality, thoughts, and feelings, making them no different from beasts. All that remains is their instinct to hunt, their survival instincts, and the instinct to use simple tools.

They are also unable to communicate with each other and will take the initiative to attack normal humans, treating them as prey.

According to the observations of many historians in the Ashlands, in addition to hunting humans, the Heartless also prey on beasts, excavate roots, harvest fruits, and capture mutated and unmutated mice to eat. When they are the hungriest, they will even attack each other.

Such a 'diet' and living environment makes it very rare for Heartless to live past the age of 30. However, they have the instinct to reproduce and have a large number of descendants.

Meanwhile, the Heartless from subsequent generations have a little more intelligence and are equipped with better hunting abilities.

The earliest Heartless appeared when the Old World was destroyed. In a short period of time, a large number of humans in each city became Heartless, and many more people, who were caught off-guard, died at the Heartless' hands.

As the Heartless needed to eat to survive, they were like real beasts. Therefore, after humanity's law and order collapsed, ushering in a great famine, they quickly lost a large portion of their city's 'food reserves.' Less than 1% of the original population remained.

Logically speaking, after humans restored a level of law and order and came into control of sufficient firepower, it shouldn't have been too difficult to deal with the Heartless—who are closer to beasts—but that isn't the case in reality.

On the one hand, although the Heartless don't know how to dismantle and maintain weapons, they know how to use them. It is as if they have this instinct. This instinct becomes stronger with every generation of Heartless.

Furthermore, the Heartless have the intrinsic qualities of humans. They can also suffer corruption and mutate. This results in the painful deaths of a large number of Heartless, as well as the creation of a group of top hunters.

Of course, no matter how good the Heartless are at using weapons, they do not know how to conduct scientific research, nor do they know how to organize themselves to produce and maintain them. Even if they become top hunters, they can not cause too much trouble in the face of the firepower-rich human armies.

After all, humans have the technology to induce mutation and genetic modification. Even if they are not mature and have a low chance of success, they can still crush the Heartless, who depend on luck for food.

On the other hand, humans have never been able to figure out the Heartless disease's pathology and spreading nature. They don't know how to prevent contracting such a disease. This results in soldiers not being willing to go to areas where the Heartless gather, fearing that they will be infected.

Therefore, after the large factions eliminated the Heartless around them, they are unwilling to deal with the ones residing in the Old World's ruins.

Awakened Heartless are known as Superior Heartless.