In front of the courtyard wall of Xiao Wei’s house.
“Sister… you’re not official personnel, are you?”
Xiao Wei, who had been silent the whole way, finally asked.
This question was essentially redundant.
She knew it wouldn’t ease her depression and might even bring her trouble.
But she still asked.
The battle at the stone bridge had overturned her perception of Mu Bai and the others’ identities.
Professional personnel dealing with supernatural incidents had no reason to carry firearms, ready to engage in a firefight with another group at any moment.
Her acceptance of losing Xiao Huang was originally based on their identity as official personnel.
The town’s trouble needed to be solved—that was correct.
But Xiao Wei was also unwilling to face Xiao Huang’s departure.
Now, Mu Bai and the others taking risks to deal with the evil spirit no longer had a solid justification.
This led to Xiao Huang’s sacrifice.
Her rationality was gradually failing to suppress her emotions.
So, she wanted to take advantage of the fact that Mu Bai and the others had been relatively caring towards her.
They probably wouldn’t just turn hostile, and at least her doubts would be answered.
“That’s right.”
Mu Bai heard the question and didn’t hesitate much.
“Why… help the town…”
“Because we’re looking for something. That thing is only found in the Mountain God Temple at night. Coincidentally, we needed to eliminate that evil spirit… I’m sorry, I didn’t anticipate Xiao Huang’s sacrifice.”
Xiao Huang’s sacrifice was valuable.
From now on, those ghostly things won’t appear in the town anymore.
Unless someone, with nothing better to do, touches the spirit tablet enshrining the Mountain God at night.
In Mu Bai’s estimation, even touching the tablet during the day would probably be fine.
However, telling a child under ten, “Your friend’s sacrifice was valuable,” measuring life and freedom by value, was a bit too un-fairytale-like.
Therefore, Mu Bai apologized.
After all, it was indeed their lack of strength that forced Xiao Huang to be sealed away with the evil spirit.
“Can I still see Xiao Huang?”
Xiao Wei asked again.
“You can go to the Mountain God Temple to pay respects anytime, whisper a few words. Maybe Xiao Huang can hear. But be careful not to get close to that tablet, and it must be during the day. It’s best not to go on cloudy or rainy days.”
With the evil spirit’s main body sealed, the residual black aura in the tablet might be due to the evil spirit’s methods of forcing the townspeople to worship, or perhaps some leftover power from the evil spirit.
Either way, it can’t cause much trouble.
The evil spirit’s influence on the town has been lifted.
When day comes, the adults will definitely notice something is wrong and be on guard.
Of course, risks that should be avoided still need attention, like avoiding times when shadows are easily formed.
“Okay.”
“Huh?”
“We have to go. Take care… If you ever have the misfortune of seeing something dirty in the future, pretend you don’t see it.”
“Oh…”
Xiao Wei seemed to understand, yet not quite.
After seeing Xiao Wei back, the four of them first returned to their own train.
They put away the firearms and backpacks they were carrying, left Ye Yin and Mo Cha on the train, and had Tang Shifu and Mu Bai go together to the other train to loot the spoils.
Although the evil spirit was sealed, the Hand in the Wall and the Slender Black Shadow disappeared, and the spreading shadows no longer appeared, having Tang Shifu, who knew Weapon Strike Fist, accompany her was still safer.
Mu Bai was grateful she had walked around the entire town during the day, knowing the location of the other train.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been confident of making the round trip before the gray fog shrank.
Arriving in front of the other train, the door was already open.
When she tried to step inside, there was no light barrier blocking outsiders.
Tang Shifu stayed outside, observing the gray fog’s contraction, while Mu Bai entered.
This squad had six people.
Just the carriages used as living quarters numbered three, all originally main carriages of a single train.
Mu Bai quickly looted the kitchen and the three main carriages, putting all food and ingredient reserves into her [Portable Space].
Then she went to the touchscreen.
She took out all the important supplies from it in one go!
There were too many construction materials; they wouldn’t fit in the space.
Mu Bai only selected the food, gold, silver, and Train Coins.
The gold and silver weren’t much, just enough for an upgrade.
But the Train Coins were a surprising nearly sixty.
Getting so many good things from looting someone else’s train for the first time made Mu Bai somewhat tempted to start raiding other players.
However, Mu Bai also knew that this harvest was so substantial purely because the other party also had a Level 3 Train and had gathered upgrade resources.
In these days of the Survival Game, players’ moral standards had been dropping lower and lower.
There weren’t many like Mu Bai’s group who were Chaotic Good.
If raiding weren’t high-risk alongside high reward, most players would definitely be robbing each other.
As for the high-risk part…
So far, in less than a month, three raiding teams had already been killed by Mu Bai’s team.
Not to mention easily running into tough opponents, even if the target was relatively weak, there was the possibility of being caught off guard by a special Talent and getting overturned.
A private message notification came.
Mu Bai opened the system interface.
Mo Cha: [Come back quick!]
Mo Cha: [The fog is shrinking much faster than expected. Don’t delay!]
“Fufu, let’s go… whoa?!”
Mu Bai started to speak but was suddenly lifted up by Tang Shifu.
Tang Shifu held her under one arm and started running at full speed.
“Sorry, it’s faster this way.”
Tang Shifu explained while running at full speed.
Mu Bai couldn’t say anything more, just secretly shocked at Tang Shige’s speed.
Limit-breaking strength and near-limit Agility brought speed comparable to a car.
The wind hitting her face even stung a little.
The distance that would have taken Mu Bai over ten minutes to walk, Tang Shifu covered with Mu Bai in less than five minutes.
Returning near their own train, they saw the fog from the opposite direction was about to shrink right up to them.
At this distance, at most two or three minutes would completely cut off the path back to the train.
“Phew…”
Mu Bai let out a long breath, but not from fear.
This journey was just too thrilling.
Couldn’t she have been properly carried or given a piggyback ride?!
“You guys scared me…”
Mo Cha rarely complained.
She knew that in an emergency, there was no time to reply to messages.
But for however long it took Mu Bai and Tang Shifu to return, she had been worried for those same minutes.
Ye Yin, sitting leaning against the wall on the bed, was the same, her weak gaze holding a hint of reproach.
“I’m sorry for making you worry.”
Mu Bai immediately apologized.
“Sorry.”
Tang Shifu looked away, not reflecting at all, just offering an apology for the incident.
“Forget it, I don’t blame you two.”
Mo Cha sighed.
“How were the gains?”
This was the first time she had directly experienced the speed of the large map’s shrinking circle.
If it were her, she’d also be caught off guard.
They’d just be more careful next time.
“Huge! There were tons of Train Coins!”
Mu Bai took all the loot from her [Storage Space] and placed it within the Yellow Line Area, handing it over to Mo Cha to sort and store.
She herself hurried to Ye Yin’s side to check her condition.
Having delayed this long, saying she wasn’t worried would be a lie.
Really not the quest they shone brightest in, not that I think they had much better option. But tricking a kid into trusting you then sacrificing their only friend… That’ll weigh on them a while, especially since these are real people to all appearances.
As for the relationship dynamics, wooooo do I sense some hard conversations down the line. /None/ of them are handling things well and it can only blow up if they don’t deal with it.