With food and water now available, the oppressive, deathly silent atmosphere at the school eased considerably.
Tang Mo returned to her routine. On Mondays, she'd try her luck catching fish in the river, secretly stashing her catch in her Space. From Tuesday to Friday, she went to the lab.
During the day, she multitasked, training her spiritual power. Every evening and on weekends, she worked on her physical conditioning. Her skill with the knife also grew more and more fluid.
As Tang Mo constantly monitored her body's various attribute values, she finally discovered a pattern.
Based on her training methods and intensity, her Life Value, Strength Value, and agility would each increase by one point per week on average, while her spiritual power would increase by three.
Tang Mo wasn't greedy; this pace was good enough.
After all, most people didn't even know their attribute values could be increased yet. She had already gotten a head start.
The attribute value increases weren't huge, but she could viscerally feel each and every point she gained.
Her body didn't get tired as easily, she could run faster and faster, and swinging her knife became more and more effortless.
Every sign told her that she was getting stronger.
This gave Tang Mo a great sense of security.
One evening, after working up a light sweat from her usual practice, Tang Mo set down her knife, sat on the ground, and started eating her malatang.
WHIRRR…
The sound of propellers echoed from the sky. Tang Mo was very familiar with it—it was the same sound she'd heard the day the government airdropped ID Watches for everyone trapped in the fog.
'The helicopter is back. I just wonder which big shot is getting a secret delivery this late at night.'
The fog zone was sealed, but that didn't mean there was no way to transport things in from the outside.
Anyone who could arrange this must have an incredibly powerful backer.
She had heard rumors about it before, but this was the first time she had seen it for herself.
She hastily packed away her things and the half-eaten bowl of malatang, then dusted herself off and stood up, scanning the area.
'In an open place like this at night, I have to stay hidden. The person picking up the package must be nearby.'
"Yeah, a little more to the east... That's it, right there! Go ahead and drop it. And be accurate this time! You made me run 800 meters for it last time."
With her enhanced vision and hearing, Tang Mo slowly approached the person on the call.
But when she saw the person's back,
Tang Mo froze.
That… was Qin Ling.
Tang Mo's heart hammered in her chest. THUMP-THUMP-THUMP. She desperately tried to calm down, but her body refused to obey.
Qin Ling was the man she had loved in her past life.
She and Qin Ling had met much later, during the fifth month of being trapped in the school.
During a major crisis, she and Qin Ling were trapped together for a whole week.
She had no food on her at all. Qin Ling had some, but not much.
The two of them managed to get through that week. Afterwards, Qin Ling always dragged her along on missions, constantly stuffing food into her hands whether she wanted it or not.
She never understood how Qin Ling had so much food, and none of it looked like the rations distributed by the school.
In the two months that followed, although nothing was ever said outright, they were probably considered a couple.
Qin Ling was usually devil-may-care and flippant, always teasing her. But he was exceptionally serious about one thing: "Tang Mo, when we get out of here, I'll still have your back. I'll take you home with me."
After the fog lifted, the two of them went back to their respective homes, agreeing to meet again the next day.
But after Tang Mo returned home, learned of her mother's death, and sought out Uncle An, she discovered that Qin Ling's family background was exceptionally good.
His family was the most powerful of the Alliance's three great pillars, a cut above even the Wen Family.
'Qin Ling was so amazing... what was I in comparison?'
'I had lost my mother, lost my Space, I'd carelessly sold my abnormal treasure, and my attribute values were so pathetic I could barely protect myself.'
'What right did I have to go home with Qin Ling?'
Later, Tang Mo blocked Qin Ling's communications, leaving him to frantically post missions on the Alliance network looking for her.
She hid in one tiny, unregistered squad after another, living like an ant.
Having been one of heaven's favorites her entire life, she had no pride left by then. But she still had a shred of self-respect.
'Self-respect was useless, but it was all I had to get me through the rest of my life.'
When she was a child watching TV dramas, Tang Mo could never understand why the female leads with terminal illnesses would always secretly leave on their own. She thought it was melodramatic.
But in that moment, she understood. In front of the person you love, anyone would want to leave themselves with one last shred of dignity.
"Who are you?"
Qin Ling saw the girl standing behind him and frowned.
'Damn, what a pain. The package is already on its way down; it's too late to change the drop zone. When did she even get here?' His mind raced, considering a dozen different possibilities.
Seeing that the girl just stood there without answering, he couldn't be bothered with her for now and lowered his head to look for the packages.
To avoid being seen, he could only have his family send a helicopter at night. Searching for things in the pitch dark was a real pain in the ass.
"How about I help you look? I have good eyesight," Tang Mo asked him.
"What's the price?" Qin Ling arched an eyebrow. 'Since she's already seen this, looks like I'm going to have to bleed a little today, one way or another.'
"A meal. When I'm at my wit's end with nowhere else to go, I'll come find you for it."
"Deal."
Tang Mo's vision was enhanced by her spiritual power, something Qin Ling naturally couldn't compare to.
Qin Ling had practiced martial arts since childhood; Strength and agility were his greatest advantages.
In no time, Tang Mo had found four of the five packages. Counting the one Qin Ling found himself, that was all of them!
Qin Ling really hadn't expected that with this short-haired girl's help, he'd be able to find everything so quickly.
"You've got some skills," Qin Ling said in praise as he took the packages from Tang Mo's hands.
"What's that smell?" Passing by Tang Mo, Qin Ling sniffed carefully.
"Is that... malatang?" Qin Ling's gaze grew more intense.
His face drew closer and closer to Tang Mo…
Tang Mo let him scrutinize her, not flinching back.
'I was so focused on finding the packages before, I didn't get a good look at her.'
'Now that I'm actually looking, I realize this girl is really beautiful.'
Most importantly, her face was still rosy and glowing, not at all like someone who was starving.
"You've got some good stuff, don't you? Why not take some out? We can trade. I guarantee you won't get the short end of the stick."
Qin Ling was trapped in the school now, but that didn't mean he was ignorant. Through his family's information network, he knew a great deal about what was happening outside.
Whether it was a Space superpower or a Space Treasure, nothing was that surprising to him.
"Do you have a dog's nose or something?"
Tang Mo rolled her eyes. 'It's been a while, how can he still smell that?'
After a moment's thought, she took out the remaining half-bowl of malatang from her Space.
"I've already eaten from it. You still want it?"
Tang Mo knew her Space would be exposed sooner or later. She had long since prepared a cover story: that she had discovered her Space superpower before the famine began and had stockpiled some food.
It was just that here at school, everyone's sense of community and morality was still relatively strong, so it wasn't convenient to reveal her Space.
'Once we're really out in the world, who would still be naive enough to think that you have to share whatever you have with others? Isn't that just crazy?'
She could trust Qin Ling to keep his mouth shut. Though he usually spoke flippantly, when it came to serious matters, he was more earnest and serious than anyone.