Unlike the Talulah of the "Black Serpent" era, the Talulah of this moment was still lively—almost bright.
Inside the temporary shelter, she stared at the "construction level" around her, and for a second she genuinely didn't know what to say.
Over the past few days she'd been observing: yes, the damage caused by corrosion phenomena was severe—
but she hadn't expected the worst destruction to come from the people called Riftbreakers.
"…Rebuilding this place," she said quietly, "is going to take a lot of work."
Koschei was shameless, a bastard—
but the skills he'd taught her weren't all useless.
With only a brief look, Talulah had already analyzed what work the shelter needed and in what order.
As for Bai Ling, compared to the last time he'd been here, the area around the Valley Fortress didn't seem much better—
but it didn't seem much worse either.
Under Bai Ling's command, Eyjafjalla and Erdelra had pushed through and flattened the Riftbreaker clusters near the fortress with surprising speed.
Most of the affected civilians had been injured, but not killed.
Put simply:
Hold the land but lose the people—lose both.Hold the people but lose the land—you can still keep both in the end.
The temporary shelter looked shabby, sure—
but as long as the people survived, it could always be rebuilt.
Then Bai Ling heard someone calling his name.
A girl's voice—
and behind her, someone chasing after her.
"Brother Bai Ling!!!"
"Hey, Aji—don't run so fast!"
When they reached him, the girl—Aji—had already wrapped her arms around his leg, smiling like she'd just found something precious.
Bai Ling crouched down and lifted her into his arms.
"…So it's Mr. Bai Ling," the man said, noticing him, visibly relaxing.
"Aji, how have you been feeling lately?"
"I feel a lot better! Sometimes it's still cold at night when I sleep, but I didn't catch a cold!"
Her voice was sweet, but the content made Bai Ling's mood tighten.
Cold at night meant resources were still insufficient.
And the shelter's housing quality was plainly terrible.
A middle-aged Liberi man with a single eyepatch watched Bai Ling holding Aji, surprise flickering in his eyes.
"You came."
"…We received a request for assistance, so I came to take a look."
Bai Ling gently rubbed Aji's cheek. The bandage that had once covered it was gone now; new skin had grown in cleanly—no scar left behind.
"Thanks to you saving Mark back then—he had the inhibitors with him—otherwise Aji probably wouldn't be this energetic right now…"
"That was what I should've done."
After setting Aji down carefully, Bai Ling turned—only to see Chen Qianyu returning from outside the settlement, carrying a pile of supplies.
"Does the shelter need anything right now?"
"…Last time you came through the valley corridor, you cleared out a lot of Riftbreakers. Now the camps don't dare keep too many of them concentrated," the eyepatched man said. "But raids and harassment against the shelter have increased."
"Their waves are frequent, and every time they pick the right moment. It's got everyone inside on edge—constantly running, constantly exhausted."
Riftbreakers weren't all idiots.
They were crazed, sure—but they had their own logic. By sheer "crooked luck," they'd found the shelter's weak point and kept squeezing it.
The shelter was built against the mountain. There was only one open entrance.
Riftbreakers didn't fear casualties. If a raid could bring resources back to the clan, they would raid—every time.
As a result, the shelter was now short on medicine, and the armed personnel were burning out.
They had to reverse the situation—otherwise things would only spiral.
Listening to the whole exchange, Talulah simply stepped behind Bai Ling, quietly watching—wanting to see how he would handle this.
Chen Qianyu set the supplies down beside Soth and straightened up.
"This is all the medicine the Hub District can provide. I didn't expect there'd still be so many Riftbreakers even after one cleanup."
"We need to set up local defenses first, then conduct another purge. You can't spend a thousand days stealing and another thousand days guarding—if we don't take the initiative, it'll only get worse."
Using the authority he'd obtained from Perlica and the "little penguin," Bai Ling opened the secondary core interface and pulled out several automated turrets. From the core's power outlet, he ran a cable and a generator stake.
He placed the turrets at the entrance first, connected the generator, and confirmed they could run normally.
Then Bai Ling took Chen Qianyu and Talulah and left the shelter together.
He wasn't counting on those turrets to stop a full-scale Riftbreaker assault.
He just needed the shelter not to collapse while he was away with Chen Qianyu and Talulah.
Once he'd confirmed the shelter would hold in the short term, the three set off—heading toward the area around the destroyed nest-tower of the Grindbone Clan.
The nest-tower itself was gone, but the clan's Riftbreakers were still concentrated there. Their resistance was nasty enough that even Alliance Guild workers didn't dare assault the place casually.
A pack of beasts was dangerous by default—
but worse was this: Riftbreakers weren't all merely humanoid monsters. Among them were individuals who could think.
That was why the last guild purge had left the attackers with serious injuries.
To prevent further casualties, the guild had established a checkpoint near the Grindbone camp and instituted shifts.
And today's guard happened to be an old acquaintance.
"Up ahead is dangerous… best not to get too clo—ah, it's you. Mr. Bai Ling."
The worker was named Mark—the one Bai Ling had "incidentally" saved during the emergency landing at the Energy Highlands.
Trusting Bai Ling, Mark stepped aside immediately—only offering a single reminder:
Be careful.
....
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