Chapter 84

"Line up! Line up!"

Early that morning, Luo Te, thrilled by the good news, went door to door spreading the word. It spread from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, and soon not only those who had been at the plaza that day, but others at their wit's end as well, crowded near Lin Tu's shelter. The crowd swelled to over a thousand.

"Can we join?" someone asked.

Others were still waiting to see how things played out.

Lin Tu climbed to the top floor of the shelter and pulled out the loudspeaker she'd scavenged from the Government Army's warehouse. "For now, we're only accepting those who registered at Polly Plaza yesterday—I believe those are the people who have been struggling the most. We'll take others too, but only once this batch has settled in."

Taking in too many at once would make management difficult and cause chaos. Lin Tu was determined to prevent that.

"Before you receive supplies and move into the houses, I need to state one thing," Lin Tu said. "Although I own these houses, once you move in, you can treat them as your own—your own homes. I promise I won't charge you any rent, nor will I kick you out on some random pretext. I'll do my best to help you find work and live your own lives."

"Because I know war isn't what we ultimately want. What we want is just a warm home."

Indeed, if given a choice, who would willingly go to war? In the face of death, everyone is a coward by nature—but stand them before their beloved family and home, and they can instantly become warriors who fear neither life nor death.

"I'm willing!" Someone immediately raised their swaddled infant high. "Everything I do is for her happiness!"

Another person covered her mouth, tears streaming down. Those she had wanted to protect, and those who had protected her, were long gone. Now she lived only for the possibility of tomorrow—for herself.

"I don't want war. But if they insist on coming, I'm not afraid of them!"

Lin Tu nodded. "That said, I don't want any traitors among us. If anyone acts immorally or betrays us, provided everyone agrees, I'll exercise my sole right as the property owner to expel them. Any objections?"

As the owner of the houses, the only privilege she kept for herself was still hedged with restrictions. The crowd answered in unison: "No!"

Lin Tu nodded and handed the loudspeaker to Luo Te behind her.

"Then please line up, register at the shelter entrance, receive a portion of food, and someone will guide you to your new shelters. Based on the number of rooms, each shelter will house four to ten people, all randomly assigned. If you have issues with the assignment, please discuss it among yourselves and then register with me. Repair materials will be delivered by truck shortly. After you've eaten, please help each other fix up the houses as soon as possible—otherwise, if it snows tonight..."

Lin Tu left Luo Te to direct the crowd and went downstairs herself.

"You really looted the entire Government Army warehouse and then burned it down!" Even having witnessed the spectacle of Lin Tu buying up a stretch of houses in one sweep that morning, Guan Suixing still couldn't believe it. —

Weren't they supposed to be surviving a disaster together? How had she become a landlord?

Lin Tu tossed two Single-Use Backpacks to her. Opening them, Guan Suixing found them packed with lumber, thin steel plates, paint, saws, hammers, nails, and other things needed for house repairs.

Guan Suixing's mouth twitched. She said nothing. She had always thought she was crazy enough, but it turned out the person before her was even crazier.

Lin Tu handed the remaining Single-Use Backpacks to Li Yuanyuan and Liu Sheng. Inside were food, clothing, and other miscellaneous goods. "Find a truck, drive it somewhere out of the way, stuff all this in, and bring it back."

The two acknowledged the task.

Lin Tu and the rest planned to make a trip to the Rebel Army's base. By now, news of the Government Army warehouse burning down should have reached them. It was time to claim their [military merit] and bring back the [Human Evolution Liquid].

At the Rebel Army base, the Deputy Commander was already waiting for Lin Tu.

It was impossible for the Rebel Army not to know that Lin Tu had suddenly taken in so many civilians. But to her surprise, the Deputy Commander didn't ask a single question about the civilians—instead, he asked why she hadn't completed the mission to seize the supplies.

"That truck had no supplies at all," Lin Tu said, choosing her words carefully to cater to the Rebel Army's preferences. "The Government went to all that trouble just to kill civilians. So I deliberately did the opposite. As for those civilians..."

The Deputy Commander waved a hand to cut her off. "I don't care what you do, but orders from above must be carried out. Understand?"

The office worker in Lin Tu instinctively apologized. "It's all my fault. I won't make the same mistake again."

"No, you don't understand," the Deputy Commander said. "What I mean is, you only need to follow orders. You don't need to have your own ideas—including burning down the Government Army warehouse."

Lin Tu was taken aback. So she had done something wrong? What, did they think that just because they paid her a pittance, they could act like her father and have everything done under their brilliant guidance? She had taken the initiative to burn down the Government Army warehouse—did they expect her to give it back?

Lin Tu's face turned cold. Did they really think she'd be an obedient dog for a few scraps?

She had already looted the Government Army's warehouse—why not burn the Rebel Army's too?

The Deputy Commander smiled, trying to ease the awkward tension. "But this time, burning the Government Army warehouse helped us a great deal. I'll let it slide and even award you military merit as a reward."

Lin Tu: "Oh." What a huge honor indeed.

"I heard you want to exchange for the [Human Evolution Liquid]," the Deputy Commander said. "That requires quite a lot of military merit. Take the merit I'm giving you and go to the supply office—find the person in the back and have them open the safe."

They had run out of things to say to each other long ago. After bidding farewell to the Deputy Commander, Lin Tu and the others quickly retrieved the Evolution Liquid. She held the vial in her palm, and the phone in her pocket immediately buzzed. Lin Tu passed the liquid to the others, and the players' phones all rang in succession.

"[Human Body Function Evolution Liquid (homemade): A liquid created by combining evolution points with an unknown gene. Has a chance to greatly evolve one's physical functions, but will produce severe side effects.]" Yi Ying read it out word for word, then gasped. "Am I reading this right? Evolution points?"

"It really is evolution points," Guan Suiyue said.

This wasn't the first time she had seen evolution points, so the moment she held the glass tube and saw the liquid shimmering with a luster that seemed to belong to a different world entirely, she had already guessed.

The words "evolution points" piqued Luo Yongzhi's curiosity. "How severe are these severe side effects, exactly?"

Lin Tu looked at her phone. She had received one more piece of information than the others—

[From "Anju": Congratulations on discovering the new material "Contaminated Energy Stone." This material has been marked by an unknown organism. Using it may cause "Anju" to be invaded and slip beyond your control. Please use with caution.]

In other words, the side effect of drinking the Human Evolution Liquid was that one's body would be invaded—no longer under their own control.

"Even without side effects, I wouldn't drink it!" Yi Ying said hurriedly, practically eager to throw away the Evolution Liquid in her hand. "Using this stuff turns you crazy, and you get hunted down too. We're really unlucky to have run into this thing."

No one dared drink it, and the lead went cold.

What had Rui Si meant by saying the truth would be understood once they obtained the [Human Evolution Liquid]? Lin Tu recalled how, that day, she had tried to pull him but found she couldn't—Rui Si's strength was terrifying, nothing like an ordinary person. Had he drunk the Evolution Liquid? Was drinking it the only way to understand the truth?

The [Human Evolution Liquid] was entrusted to Lin Tu's keeping. She tucked it into her backpack, somewhat regretful that the truth had slipped through her fingers.

The others, however, harbored no regrets. At the moment, they were more concerned with what else they could exchange with their remaining military merit.

"Cured meat and sausage!" Luo Yongzhi declared loudly. "We've got to clean out all the cured meat and sausage. That stuff lasts a long time, and with the fat, it's delicious just steamed over rice. I can live off it for a good while back in Doomsday Town!"

"The local specialty here is smoked horse leg. Are you stupid?" Yi Ying rolled her eyes. "If you want sausage, it's smoked horse intestine—that's way better than cured pork sausage."

"Oh," Luo Yongzhi said gloomily. "My world was hit by disaster early on. I never really got to travel before entering Infinite Calamity, so I've never heard of these things."

Yi Ying immediately felt that she shouldn't have said anything.

Lin Tu: "...I'll give you some curing sauce later. You can cure your own."

"Great!" Luo Yongzhi's face lit up again.

Yi Ying looked at Lin Tu with pleading eyes.

"I'll give you some too." Lin Tu glanced at Guan Suiyue, who was the only one excluded but was seemingly pretending not to care. Anyway, she had stocked up a lot at that cured meat workshop in the last disaster world, so she might as well share with everyone.

The supplies the group exchanged were quite numerous, but most were for their own use during the disaster or to bring back to Doomsday Town. So they found a spot to stuff everything into Single-Use Backpacks, then carried the remaining supplies—meant to be a cover—back to the shelter.

As for Lin Tu's [Side Mission Progress]: the shelter's completion level had dropped to 12%, the number of residents had increased to 235, and the average health of residents had fallen to 34%.

Right now, those two hundred-plus people were hard at work building their new home.

People came and went, hauling supplies on their shoulders. Kids teamed up with carts to haul lumber and furniture. Some were cleaning the courtyard, shoveling thick snow off the ground and walls, then clearing away the trash to leave space for building greenhouses to grow vegetables. Others stood on the walls measuring the holes while some were already nailing wooden boards onto the original structure.

Just a day had passed, yet their grim faces were now beaming—as if what they had eaten was not a hearty meal but a magic pill.

Even the original residents were moved by their vitality, and many took the initiative to help build. They chatted and laughed, welcoming the new neighbors. Among the crowd, Lin Tu spotted the little girl Nuo Nuo, Bu Daixi, and many familiar faces whose names she didn't know.

"How do you plan to keep them alive through the war?" Guan Suiyue suddenly asked. "Giving people hope only to let them down is a cruel thing."

After all, this was a disaster rated C-level. Comparing it to other C-level disasters made it clear that the [Place of Exile] had yet to show its true cruelty. By that point, even players could only hide in the shadows and wait out the three months.

Lin Tu wanted to lead these people to survive? Absurd. Guan Suiyue, considering the cured meat sauce Lin Tu had promised her, gave a reluctant reminder.

"You underestimate the power of ordinary people." Lin Tu, unexpectedly, didn't appreciate the advice. She walked over to help.

Guan Suiyue watched her retreating back and let out a soft snort. Then her gaze drifted outward and landed on her own sister, who was cheerfully helping carry lumber, already making friends.

—Guan Suiyue rubbed her forehead. One more troublesome than the other, truly.