Inside a villa.
Su Wan: [Sister Mu, you won’t blame us for doing this, will you?]
Mu Bai stared at the private message on the [System Interface], feeling speechless.
‘This message looks a bit manipulative.’
Mu Bai: [It’s fine. The goal has been achieved. It would actually be dangerous for you to keep holding the leader positions anyway. Like I said, the choice was yours.]
Su Wan: [That’s good to hear!]
Mu Bai closed the private chat and turned her gaze toward the little girl beside her.
There were five escort targets in total.
Tonight, they had been distributed among the Level 2 Player teams, with each pair of teams protecting one target.
The target assigned to Mu Bai’s group of four was this little girl.
“What’s your name?”
Mu Bai asked.
“Hela.”
“How old are you?”
“12 years old.”
The little girl answered the questions timidly, behaving very obediently.
Mu Bai nodded.
Generally speaking, she had no great desire to learn more about the Site Natives, but since this girl was their protection target, it was better to bridge the distance a bit.
“Do you know why you and those researcher uncles are being transferred to the Target Research Institute?”
Mu Bai tried to ask to see if she could glean any useful information.
“I… I don’t know,” Hela said, hesitating for a moment.
“You really don’t know?”
Mu Bai pressed, keenly sensing Hela’s hesitation.
“I’m not entirely sure, but in my opinion, those researcher uncles are already useless. They don’t have the value to justify spending massive resources to send them to another place to continue their research…”
Hela’s tone was abnormally mature, not sounding like a 12-year-old girl at all.
“Why?”
Mu Bai asked curiously.
“Because my parents were the ones leading the [Secret Experiment]. They’re dead. Whether the research failed or an accident happened, the research can’t continue. If the officer uncle thought they were still useful, he would have either kept them in the Military District or sent soldiers to take them to the institute. He wouldn’t have handed them over to a Survivor Organization like this… As for me, I’m just an extra,” Hela said gloomily.
“I’m sorry.”
Mu Bai felt that this matter was not simple.
Perhaps this wasn’t a straightforward mission to escort key figures to their destination; there were likely hidden obstacles involved.
The mission description had many ambiguities, such as whether the “key figures” referred to one person or all five.
Did all five have to be delivered safely, or did they only need to protect one specific individual?
That point alone was manageable, but there seemed to be another layer to the escort mission.
In the eyes of the Military, a Survivor Organization should be quite unreliable.
If these researchers were truly important, the officer wouldn’t have comfortably handed them over to the Survivor Organization for escort.
If they weren’t important, then they naturally weren’t worth the manpower and resources to be moved elsewhere.
Even if they were kept at the Military District, it would only cost enough food for five people.
Now, they were giving out [Crystal Nuclei], handing over [Assault Rifles], and even providing an [Armored Car].
It was very strange.
And that was only the deposit.
The middle-aged officer had promised even more rewards.
Although the final payment was meaningless to the Players, the Players had to complete the mission.
Even if it was a trap, they had to push through.
“I’m back with food~”
Mo Cha’s voice drifted in from outside.
Tang Shifu went to open the door.
“You should have seen it. Those Level 2 Players almost got into a fight over this frozen meat. I took some of it while they weren’t looking,” Mo Cha said as she entered, waving a black plastic bag in her hand.
Hela raised her head in confusion.
“What’s the point of bringing back raw meat? We don’t have any seasoning. Are we supposed to eat it plain?”
Tang Shifu massaged her temples.
“What else? Besides this meat, the camp only has compressed biscuits, rice, and flour. Only the frozen meat has some value,” Mo Cha argued defiantly.
“Fine… I brought seasoning. Since conditions are limited, let’s just roast it over the fire,” Mu Bai said helplessly. “Yuan, help me start a fire in the front yard.”
“Little Mu Bai, you know how to roast meat?”
Mo Cha’s eyes sparkled.
“I guess you could say that.”
Mu Bai had some basic cooking experience.
As for roasting meat… with [Cooking Expert], it shouldn’t taste too bad.
Mu Bai took the bag and checked what kind of meat was inside.
There were chicken wings and raw steaks.
The effects were restoring energy and a temporary increase of 1 point of Strength, respectively.
However, if they were just eating to fill their stomachs, the ingredients’ effects weren’t that important.
Mu Bai suddenly thought about whether she could make something like jerky in the future — food that could provide a short-term stat boost while being easy to store.
That way, she would have a buff available at any time once they reached a Station.
It wouldn’t work for this Station, but if she could return to the Train safely, she could do this from then on.
In the courtyard.
Mu Bai prepared the raw meat.
After marinating it slightly, she placed the meat at just the right height, brushing it with oil and adjusting its position from time to time.
Including Hela, there were only five of them in the villa’s courtyard, so they wouldn’t be disturbed by outsiders.
Ordinary Players who were organized into patrols passed by the gate occasionally.
Drawn by the scent of the meat, they would catch sight of the two [Assault Rifles] placed to the side and look away, leaving quickly.
With the more lethal firearms obtained from the Military, ordinary Players feared Level 2 Players even more.
Even if there were only five harmless-looking girls in the courtyard, no one dared to provoke them.
Meat over an open flame could easily burn.
To cook it thoroughly without charring it while controlling the fire required quite a bit of time.
By the time the first batch of chicken wings was done, Mo Cha and Tang Shifu had been stimulated by the aroma for so long that they couldn’t wait.
They quickly held out containers to catch the food.
During their days on the Train, the best thing they had eaten was the stew Mu Bai had traded them.
Aside from that, there was only jerky.
Even though it was just frozen meat, it was a hot meal.
With the enhancement from [Cooking Expert], the flavor had also improved.
Mo Cha and Tang Shifu ate intently.
For Survivors, food of this level was already a luxury.
Hela sat to the side, staring at the chicken wings in her bowl for a while before poking one with a fork and taking a slow bite.
Ye Yuan took her two pieces, and seeing that the first batch of chicken wings was gone while the steaks weren’t done, she handed them back.
“I’m not that hungry. You eat first,” Ye Yuan said calmly.
“…Then how about one piece each?”
Mu Bai tilted her head.
“That works too.”
Mo Cha’s chewing paused.
Suddenly, the chicken wing didn’t taste as good anymore.
Mu Bai felt that this amount of meat wasn’t quite enough for five people, so she pretended to pull some cans from her backpack — but in reality, she took them out of her [Storage Space] — and placed them near the fire to heat up.
Outside the fence.
A figure wrapped in a cloak quietly watched the scene in the courtyard and clutched their stomach.
The figure swallowed repeatedly before silently pulling out a pack of compressed biscuits from their robes and turning to leave resolutely.
As they turned, a stray lock of golden hair escaped from the hood.