“Is that place not on the way?”
Wu Yingzhe was keen enough to notice something. After all, if it were directly on the route, Mo Shao wouldn’t have used the phrasing she did.
“It’s slightly off from a straight line,” Mo Shao replied. “It’s about an extra thirty-kilometer detour.”
“Then why…?”
“Because tomorrow is the Double Ninth Festival, and I plan to visit Dragonspine,” Mo Shao explained before following up with a question of her own: “If the monsters are calm during the day and become aggressive at night, don’t you think a festival would have an effect too?”
“So, we’re going mountain climbing tomorrow,” Ying Yusheng realized.
“Mhm. There are benefits.”
She didn’t bother telling them to pass this information around. Once they reached Seven Hills City, she could just announce it over a loudspeaker and everyone would know.
From now on, she would spread information as she traveled. Once the number of people in the know increased, the news would naturally diffuse on its own.
—It wasn’t like the Crafting Tables and saplings that required physical items.
“Wait—but I remember the day after tomorrow is Halloween, right?” Tu Sisheng suddenly remembered something, visibly becoming nervous.
“Indeed. The monsters will be strengthened then.”
“Then what do we do?!” Tu Sisheng was already starting to panic.
“That’s why we need to reach Seven Hills before the night of the day after tomorrow,” Mo Shao stated her final conclusion.
“How far is it?” Wu Yingzhe no longer hesitated. Any dreams of becoming a local tyrant had to take a backseat to survival!
“Over three hundred kilometers.”
They would be out for three days and two nights, meaning they had to cover a hundred kilometers a day. Ordinary people could manage that, though it would be exhausting.
But that was under normal circumstances. In this environment, they couldn’t walk in a straight line, and there was no telling how many unknown dangers they would encounter along the way…
Who knew how many people would be left by the time they reached Seven Hills City?
“We need to… discuss this.” Wu Yingzhe took a deep breath and looked at Mo Shao again. “Would you like to participate?”
Mo Shao simply shook her head and walked over to Katicia.
They could discuss it all they wanted. If they didn’t listen to her in the end, they should be prepared to get lost or just die halfway.
“What do you all… think?” Back in an office, Wu Yingzhe gathered people for a small meeting.
Both Ying Yusheng and Tu Sisheng were present; clearly, they had already formed a “leadership inner circle.”
“What she said sounds very serious, but there’s one question—is any of it true?” A refined, scholarly man acting as the strategist spoke first.
“We can’t afford to gamble,” Wu Yingzhe shook his head, then frowned. “But where exactly did she get so much intel?”
—This was the most baffling thing about Mo Shao to him.
Those well-reasoned arguments and her confident expression definitely weren't things someone could just make up on the fly.
“Could she be a Reincarnator?” Tu Sisheng raised her hand. Who hadn't read a few chapters of web novels these days? Even if they hadn't, they’d heard of the trope.
Given how Mo Shao acted, it was natural for people to think in that direction.
“I don’t think so,” the strategist shook his head.
“Why?” Tu Sisheng tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“She’s too calm. I don’t see any resentment or rage in her eyes, nor that intense desire for control.” The strategist pushed up his glasses, a sharp glint in his eyes as he stated his findings and deductions with great certainty. “Furthermore—how could someone who returned from a post-apocalyptic future be such a ‘saint’? To be so ‘selfless’? And yet she is—at least in part, she acts this way because of the hope in her heart.”
“You’re right. At the very least, she should care a bit more about profits and her own strength,” Ying Yusheng agreed wholeheartedly.
—As everyone knew, most Reincarnator protagonists in apocalypse stories were like that.
If Mo Shao knew that they had ruled out her being a Reincarnator for those reasons, she would have had plenty to complain about…
She had spent her entire previous life playing a survival game in the wilderness, seeing almost no living people the entire time. She had no grievances… She really was an embarrassment to the Reincarnator community.
“What if there are benefits to acting this way?” Tu Sisheng offered another perspective. Although she was a bit airheaded, as an arts student, she had the necessary imagination.
“Then there should be downsides to doing bad things, but aren’t I doing perfectly fine?” Ying Yusheng waved a hand dismissively.
“I guess that’s true—so what’s the deal with her?” Tu Sisheng stopped dwelling on that and turned to another curiosity.
“Maybe some kind of divination or prophetic ability?” Wu Yingzhe made a few guesses. “But she’s clearly a ‘Transformer’ as well…”
While Mo Shao's appearance hadn't been bragged about in detail, everyone knew that there was no such thing as an ugly Magical Girl.
—Not to mention she also worked part-time as a Witch. Her temperament, looks, and charm were all maxed out!
So, it was naturally easy to see that Mo Shao was a Transformer.
“Can any of you recognize who she transformed into?” He posed the question to the few “weeb” youths.
“Grey hair… Elaina?” After thinking for a moment, a slightly chubby tall guy gave his first impression.
“The eye color is wrong, isn't it?” A short, thin guy shook his head. While refuting the first guess, he offered his own: “Jinhsi?”
“The figure isn’t quite right,” Ying Yusheng dismissed this, which immediately drew a comment of “Wow, that’s so gross” from Tu Sisheng.
However, after a long discussion, they finally reached a conclusion: “I don’t think we can find a match…”
Since Mo Shao was actually just herself, they naturally couldn't connect her to anyone else.
“Maybe she’s using some kind of disguise? Why don't we try to test her?” Tu Sisheng’s thought process was quite peculiar.
“Did you see that group with her? How are we supposed to test her?” Ying Yusheng looked speechless, leaning his head on his hand in exasperation.
“Direct moral kidnapping?”
“I think that would be difficult. Besides, if we annoy her, could we even win a fight against them?” The strategist disagreed. “Let’s not even consider that for now.”
Wu Yingzhe stood up, concluding the small meeting. “Let’s focus on the immediate future. We can only talk about the long term if we survive.
“I’ll go hold a morale-boosting assembly soon to explain the situation. At the same time, we’ll distribute the items so the ordinary people can perform a Dead-binding on them. After all, we have to travel so far. The death rate for ordinary people without Dead-binding is too high, so we have to look out for them.”
Wu Yingzhe acted like a good person, but anyone could see that he was actually trying to win back the hearts of those Mo Shao had pulled away.
However, no one exposed him. In a sense, everyone present was a bird of a feather.
They simply continued listening to him.
“We also need to prepare cold-weather gear and see if we can find any cars or mounts—anything that can speed us up. Finally, we just have to endure tonight and set off tomorrow!”
“Well… I guess we have no choice but to follow her for now.”
“Yeah, there’s no other way.”
“Let’s go with that, then.”
…The group finally reached a consensus.
While they were discussing things inside, the modifications to the outer walls were completely finished.
Under the leadership of that old man—his name was Shi Zhensheng, an expert in wall construction—the modifications were handled very effectively.
There were low walls to guide the monsters' movement, small barbicans where they could trap and kill enemies, and firing platforms protruding from the straight lines…
It could only be said that professional tasks should be left to professionals.
With the overall structure of the walls in place, the next step was to add the “software” enhancements.
They dug up the earth, replaced it with sand, and planted cacti in an organized, staggered fashion, creating another layer of trap defenses.
Torches were also placed all along the walls. After all, one of the biggest disadvantages for humans fighting at night was the darkness.
While the cafeteria lights still worked, they weren’t professional-grade, so there were many blind spots.
There were also various haphazard chevaux de frise made of sharpened wooden sticks mixed with various metal tables and chairs.
They did a lot of work, and most of it was crude—but it would have some effect regardless, so they did it anyway.
Everything was now prepared. All that remained was to wait for the monster “siege.”
Rate on N.U.
