Chapter 67

Abel was taken aback, but he believed her story about the amnesia.

He gave a bitter laugh. "The Government Army and the Rebel Army are just different names. For ordinary folks like us, there's no real difference. If they had nuclear bombs right now, whether it's the Government Army or the Rebel Army, I'm afraid our last piece of pure land would be stripped away too. Miss Lin, don't hold any expectations for them—neither side. The only reason they haven't wiped us out completely is probably because they think they can kill us and eat us when they get hungry enough..."

Lin Tu, who had grown up under the red flag and instinctively felt she could rely on the Government Army, nodded, now understanding her situation.

In short, she was alone and without support. Not just her—all the ordinary civilians. As the disaster introduction had said, their madness had already contaminated most of the world with nuclear fallout. Fortunately, such terrifying weapons no longer existed. What people needed to do now was survive on this war-torn land.

Joining one of the two armies might be an option, but Lin Tu felt this required careful consideration. The priority was finding a safe place to settle down first.

When Lin Tu asked about that, Uncle Abel looked at her with pity. "You could stay here. Grandma Doro is the owner of this house, and she's not here right now. But when I brought you back, I already asked her. She said if you don't mind the conditions here, of course you can stay. We won't just abandon you."

Lin Tu was about to thank him when Uncle Abel continued.

"But you know, resources are very limited during wartime. The only place you can sleep is that little sofa. If you want to eat bread like everyone else here, you'll have to help out with some work. Oh, right, and that cloth blanket you're wearing—Ju Yi lent it to you temporarily. You'll need to give it back to her. She only has two sets of clothes, and her original one is already too dirty to wear."

Abel went from shelter to food to clothing, and Lin Tu deeply felt the hardship of the disaster world.

She looked down at herself and saw an old cotton coat that resembled a dress. In this snow-covered town where temperatures were several degrees below zero, she hadn't felt too cold—this cotton coat had been a great help.

And now, she had to return it.

The bad news was that Lin Tu had stockpiled plenty of thick cotton coats and pants in the previous disaster, but those clothes were all in her small hut and couldn't be brought over. And in the Single-Use Backpack she'd brought along, there wasn't a single thick piece of clothing.

"We don't have any extra cotton clothes here. For the next two days while your clothes dry, you'll have to make do staying in bed during the day and squeezing in with Bu Daixi and the others at night." Seeing Lin Tu's headache, Abel added, "Of course, you don't have to stay in bed the whole time. Later I can help you bring the blanket downstairs, and you can curl up in a chair on the first floor, chat with the children, and do some handiwork."

This might be a good solution for others, but not for Lin Tu.

Before entering the disaster, Yi Ying had briefly passed along the notes about this disaster. This disaster had safe zones, but they were constantly shifting. For players, the safe zone at the start was the shelter where they descended. As time passed, the shelter would eventually collapse. They could choose to inherit the shelter early to maintain the safe zone, or they could choose not to inherit it and find shelters built by other players or locals when the shelter collapsed.

Yi Ying had suggested that Lin Tu use the time while the safe zone still existed to collect supplies as quickly as possible, and when the first shelter collapsed, she could gather everyone together.

Even without her saying this, Lin Tu would have done the same. Lin Tu had never been a passive person—being trapped by the cold and unable to do anything was not her style.

"Is there anywhere I can get cotton clothes or other supplies?" Lin Tu asked.

"You can go with Aunt Meili to wash the Rebel Army's dirty clothes and earn some money doing handiwork. Eventually you can trade for a cotton coat from the army... If you need other things, maybe you can ask Uncle David to bring them back for you."

Lin Tu sensed he wasn't saying everything and asked, "Is there a faster way? Where does Uncle David bring things back from?"

"There is, but it requires taking some risks. You're a girl—you don't need to go."

Lin Tu immediately shook her head firmly. "Please, you must let me go."

Abel hesitated for a moment. "I'll go talk to him for you. Get ready early tonight."

—

Without clothes, Lin Tu spent the whole afternoon curled up in bed, but she wasn't idle.

Lin Tu briefly communicated with the Butler and learned that time in the real world was still frozen at that one second, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"What exactly was that thing?" The Butler, monitoring the situation in the house, had already been on the verge of tears at the sight of the monster's hideous appearance.

"Something that hunts for energy stones," Lin Tu sighed. "But what it wants them for? I don't know. The good news is, it found me based on the player data from [Infinite Calamity]. It doesn't know about the small hut or your existence, and I'm the only one it knows about."

She'd coveted something good and gotten herself into trouble. But if time were to rewind, she would still pick up that brilliant stone. The reason was simple—energy stones, or evolution points, were just too useful.

—Lin Tu had just discovered that she could still enter the Back Mountain unlocked in the [Anomaly Space].

"Good thing we thought on our feet and accepted Yi Ying's invitation to enter this disaster," the Butler said smugly, waiting for Lin Tu to praise its cleverness before asking, "So what do we do now?"

"Buy as much time as we can."

Lin Tu ended the conversation. Following the instructions for using the [Anomaly Space], she pictured the Back Mountain in her mind, silently recited "Anomaly Space" three times, and when she opened her eyes again, she was in the familiar mountains.

Unlike what she'd seen before, her house and the world beyond the mountain were now shrouded in a layer of white mist.

Her motorcycle lay toppled on the path by the door, and the corpses of those burly men were still buried in the grass, with flies busily transporting things on them—thank goodness time in this Anomaly Space hadn't paused, or they'd have become mummified without rotting—Lin Tu's mind surfaced this darkly humorous joke, and she immediately suppressed it.

Lin Tu's gaze turned to the shelves by the door. The express delivery she'd ordered, the things she'd brought out earlier to plan for planting, were still piled up there.

Lin Tu rubbed her hands together and decided to first bury those burly men, then plow the land and plant. Apart from special plants, she'd also bought seeds for wheat, corn, pumpkin, radish, peas, greens, tomatoes, strawberries... all things that could be planted this season.

Although she still needed to find supplies like clothes in the disaster world, with an entire Back Mountain at her disposal, she could be completely self-sufficient when it came to food!

In this Anomaly Space, still in late spring, Lin Tu's thin clothing was perfectly suitable. But she spent the entire afternoon busy planting, working up a light sweat from the heat, until she heard a distant knock at the door. Only then did she close her eyes again, silently recite "exit" three times, and open them.

"Come in."

"Were you asleep, little Miss Lin?" The kind old grandma Shi Duoluo—Grandma Doro—pushed the door open. Seeing Lin Tu's flushed face and the traces of sweat, she said with concern, "It seems your injury hasn't fully recovered yet. I heard you plan to go out with David and the others tonight. Why not reconsider? You're welcome to stay here—no need to feel embarrassed."

"It's fine." Lin Tu immediately sat up, indicating she was perfectly capable.

Grandma Doro smiled. "It's a good thing for a girl to be strong-willed. I came to call you down for dinner, little Miss Lin."

Lin Tu grabbed a blanket to wrap around herself and followed her downstairs.

On the stairs, remembering the afternoon, Lin Tu asked, "Grandma Doro, are your two sons doing well?"

The reason this paper-thin, dilapidated house could shelter so many people was closely tied to Doro's two sons.

Doro sighed heavily, her already hunched back seeming to droop even lower, and her once brilliantly white hair suddenly lost its luster. "There will be news," she said.

At the dinner table, Lin Tu finally got to know everyone living in this house.

Actually, she'd already seen most of them in the afternoon.

Abel, carrying plates with one arm, Aunt Meili still hanging clothes, the heavily pregnant Ju Yi managing the children, and the few kids at the table—Bu Daixi and her brother Bu Jiefu were playfully scuffling, while the wide-eyed boy Little David was snuggled against... —and beside them sat a person who yawned but was clearly not a child, patting Little David's head in his arms.

Lin Tu immediately guessed this was the person she'd be going with tonight—David.

"Little Lin Tu, later before I go to bed, I'll change and give you my clothes so you can go out," Ju Yi greeted warmly.

Lin Tu thanked her and helped serve the food.

She'd wanted to ask David about where they were going tonight, but when she served that plate of... something unspeakable, she fell silent.

No one would recognize what this was, except the cook who made it.

When Lin Tu humbly asked, Abel pointed at the mess: "In here there's stewed potatoes, tatsoi, elm bark powder, corn, some bread that was too sour to swallow, and some leftover scraps from the Government Army's kitchen. I checked—there's quite a bit of fat rendered into little bits, and everyone can get some!"

Hearing that whole description, Lin Tu felt her stomach thumping nervously.

The children, however, cheered and immediately sat up straight, their eyes eagerly hoping to be served their portions soon.

"And this?" Lin Tu placed the children's bowls in front of them before picking up her own.

Beside the mess was another lump. If it weren't so dark, Lin Tu might have thought this was bread. And such things—hers and David's portions were clearly larger than the others'.

"Bread made from acorn powder, elm bark powder, and rye flour," Abel said happily, dipping a piece in the sauce and popping it into his mouth. "Try it—you can taste a fresh woodsy flavor. Lots of people wanted to buy it back then but couldn't get any. The rye husks weren't removed, so it's really filling. For your mission tonight, I packed you some extra."

Lin Tu: "...Thanks." But such generosity really wasn't necessary.

After checking it for contamination, she gritted her teeth and took a bite of the bread. Before the gritty, sand-like texture even reached her brain, an indescribable sourness hit her nose.

Lin Tu quickly spat it out in self-preservation, then, using the excuse that her body hadn't recovered yet, gave all the food to the children.

Sure enough, she needed to collect supplies quickly. She couldn't endure a life of hardship.

Lin Tu asked David if he had a map of where they were going tonight. When David shook his head and said there was no such thing, Lin Tu excused herself to rest and went upstairs, waiting only for the night departure.

Downstairs, the group watched her retreating figure with concern. Abel took out the last bit of black bread from the kitchen and placed it into David's bowl—

"I'm really afraid she won't survive. Please take care of her tonight. If you run into patrol guards, run fast."

David accepted the extra food. "The waste warehouse at night is too dangerous. I'll only be able to protect her as best I can."

On the second floor, one hour before departure.

Lin Tu took out the [Spy Computer], stuffing bread into her mouth while etching the map and nearest resource points into her mind.

Tonight, she didn't plan on finishing things simply. If the place David took her to was different from the resource points on the map, she intended to make a second trip, using the early hours to collect as many supplies as possible in one go.

When the time was about right, Lin Tu organized her special items into her pocket. This would be her first step into the night of this unknown disaster.