The presence of a group of little girls among the ruins, especially ones with such high HP, was truly bizarre, yet it gave him a strange sense of familiarity.
Yang Tao walked toward the girl who had spoken earlier. She was about 1.2 meters tall, with long silver-white hair, wearing worn-out denim shorts and a green T-shirt.
She was fair-skinned and very cute.
However, Yang Tao also noticed a commonality: though these children had different appearances, hairstyles, and outfits, they all possessed crimson eyes that were as beautiful as gemstones.
He knelt down in front of the little girl, a friendly smile appearing on his face as he spoke:
"Hello, what is your name?"
"Akira."
The little girl had no expression on her face, simply staring at Yang Tao quietly.
"Akira? That's a lovely name. What did you mean by 'Initiator' just now?"
"I can follow you and fight for you..."
Yang Tao: "..."
Looking at the little girl, Akira, he suddenly realized where that sense of familiarity came from.
The feeling these little girls gave him was extremely similar to Chito and Yuuri from the world of Girls' Last Tour.
An uneasy feeling welled up in his heart. Based on his experience, this world was very likely another "healing" style world.
He was a cold-hearted man who couldn't stand these "healing" series.
He reached out, wanting to pat the little girl's head. She instinctively tried to dodge, but then, perhaps thinking of something, she endured her physical reaction and let Yang Tao's hand rest on her head.
This scene left Yang Tao stunned.
He found it hard to imagine what kind of environment would force a ten-year-old girl to learn how to please others.
"I won't let you fight unless I am dead. If you have nowhere else to go, you can follow me."
He didn't ask about their parents; if they still had parents or relatives, they wouldn't have ended up like this.
Of course, the even more cruel possibility was that they had been abandoned by their own parents.
Over time, more little girls gathered—all of them little girls around ten years old, without a single boy among them.
If it wasn't because these children couldn't grow up, then something must have happened in this world ten years ago that caused these children to become outcasts in the eyes of ordinary people.
Just then...
A rumbling sound echoed, and all the little girls turned alertly toward the direction of the noise.
A trail of dust rose as a cockroach the size of a dump truck charged toward Yang Tao's position.
"???"
A mutated cockroach? Is this the monster of this world?
This cockroach's HP wasn't high, only 700 points. Several little girls jumped down from the ruins, standing on the path between him and the monster.
This scene made Yang Tao's heart ache slightly.
'What the hell kind of world is this?'
When Yang Tao's figure reappeared, he was already atop the giant cockroach's head. The Red Matter Katar let out a hum, and the health bar above the monster's head emptied and vanished.
The cockroach monster instantly lost its life, its body sliding forward due to momentum. Yang Tao leapt down from its head, stood before the group of little girls, and said with a smile, "If you have nowhere else to go, then come with me."
"I will protect you, or at least make your lives a bit better."
The little girl named Akira looked at him silently with her crimson eyes, then walked toward him step by step. She reached out her small hand to grab his and whispered:
"I will leave with you..."
In the end, eight out of the dozen or so little girls left with him.
Though he said "leave," Yang Tao actually just found a suitable spot nearby and began building an underground shelter.
Because of those monsters earlier, Yang Tao used precious Bedrock for protection. He believed that even if this world exploded, the little girls protected by Bedrock and water would not be harmed.
"Akira, help me ask them if there's any food they want to eat."
Akira looked up at Yang Tao and said calmly, "As long as it's edible, we can eat anything..."
"..."
"Then today, I'll treat you all to burgers and orange juice..."
Yang Tao didn't know what the little girls had eaten to survive before, and he didn't want to know, because he was too kind-hearted to bear it.
While mod-produced burgers weren't necessarily the absolute best, they were definitely top-tier. He took a table out of his backpack and placed it in the room.
Then he took out some wooden planks and placed them by the table, mainly because he didn't have enough chairs suitable for the little girls.
'It would be great if I had a furniture mod.'
"Come, let's eat."
The little girls were very obedient and quietly came to his side. Yang Tao patted the wooden planks and said, "Sit down. We're having burgers for lunch today. If any of you want to eat something else, you can tell me."
"Don't be formal. From today on, this is your home, and I am your family."
With a wave of his hand, a tray appeared in front of each elementary schooler, containing a burger, a small bag of fries, and a cup of warm orange juice.
Worried that these special children might not get enough to eat, Yang Tao piled a 'mountain' of burgers in the middle of the table.
"Eat as much as you want. If you're not full, you can ask me, but don't overeat until you're uncomfortable, understood?"
"Understood!"
Hearing this, a faint smile appeared on Yang Tao's face. He reached out, took a burger from the mountain in the middle, and began eating with the children.
Seeing that he was eating too, the little girls relaxed and began to eat in small bites.
They were a bit reserved during their first meal, but Yang Tao was already very satisfied.
After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Yang Tao looked at the remaining burgers on the table. He reached out to pat the heads of Akira and another little girl named Ori, saying, "There's still some food left on the table. You can take it to your former companions. If any of them want to come here, bring them back."
"If you encounter danger, come back immediately. The Iron Golems guarding the entrance will protect you."
Fanatic · Mutated Iron Golem is a partner you can trust.
The two little girls nodded gently.
Akira and Ori left the underground shelter together. To avoid upsetting any sensitive girls, he didn't follow them.
He flew up to a nearby tall building and looked toward the bustling city center. He wanted to check out the intact parts of the city.
At the very least, he needed to figure out the situation of this world first, as well as those black walls standing around the city outskirts and what those monsters really were.
Entering the city, if not for those strange walls, Yang Tao would have thought he had arrived in Miko's world. The bustling city and the crowded streets showed no sign of the apocalyptic scenes on the outskirts.
'Is this city Tokyo?'
After traveling through many worlds, he knew a thing or two about the landmark buildings of some major cities.