Chapter 109 - Exchange of Information and Finally the Oriole!
Chapter 109: Exchange of Information and Finally the Oriole!
“The mutant beast riot that Magoo encountered was not that bad because he was alone. That’s why he said something about not having enough fun.”
“But if that’s the deduction from the current situation, I’m afraid that the large shelters will encounter a large number of monsters that grow exponentially!”
When Su Mo noticed that the wind and snow had wet a corner of Magoo’s diary, he quickly put it back into his storage space.
The hypothesis was that, the more people there were around, the greater the extent of the disaster.
Even though there were only fifteen people including Su Mo for now, the extent of which the wind and snow increased could clearly be felt.
For the big shelters with dozens or hundreds of people, he was afraid that their environment was even worse.
When Su Mo opened up the World Channel, as expected, in the chat channel, Su Mo read the discussions of a small group of people, which further confirmed his suspicions.
“The snow at my place is really strange. It just keeps getting heavier. At first, I was happy because I finally didn’t have to worry about water anymore, but if it continues snowing like it did last night, I don’t think we can even leave tomorrow!”
“Not for me. It’s not that heavy at my place, but one strange thing is that, when I went out with my bro to collect wood, guess what happened when I came back? I found that the snow near my shelter was not as heavy as the snow that I encountered when I was outside.”
“It’s still okay for us. Even though the snow is quite heavy on our side, our leader came over just now and got a bunch of people to build an igloo. I hope the snow doesn’t stop. Otherwise, all the work we did in this weather would’ve been in vain.”
“…”
No one noticed that, as the number of people changed, it gradually affected the degree of the disaster, and only a small number of people felt that there was something off.
“No, I must verify this information first as it will seriously affect the future development of my shelter!”
If his speculation was right, shelters with tens of thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people would be in jeopardy.
When that time came, having many people gathering together would probably mean that they would have to face a disaster that was many times worse.
Even an ordinary level one earthquake would develop into a level nine or even ten because of the number of people!
After opening up the private message channel and taking a look, Su Mo found Shen Ke’s name.
This time, Su Mo chose to give her a call.
Beep beep beep beep~
The urgent ringing sounded in his ear and before Su Mo could lament about the magic of the game panel, Shen Ke had picked up the call on the other side of the phone.
“Hey, it’s Almighty Su! What’s up?” Although Shen Ke deliberately raised the tone of her voice to sound cheerful, Su Mo still caught on to the tiredness in her voice.
“Hey, just wondering if your Tundra Shelter’s okay today.”
“We’re doing fine! It’s just that the snow is a little heavy, but everyone’s so enthusiastic now. Everyone’s talking about boiling snow to get water for drinking. For the past few days, everyone’s not had much water to drink, so seeing the snow, they were very excited.”
When she mentioned that, Su Mo could finally feel a trace of Shen Ke’s joy, as if they had met with rain after a long drought. Everyone seemed to think that the snow was God’s mercy for mankind.
However, it was also completely understandable. After all, the exception to this case was Su Mo, who had access to a stable daily source of drinking water, while water was scarce for others who lived in large shelters.
Since everyone was suddenly living in abundance, it was natural that everyone would be very happy and joyful, and perhaps even ignore the fatal problem of disasters varying in severity.
“About that… I have a hypothesis. Can you guys verify it for me? According to my hypothesis, the intensity of wind and snow, or even the disaster, seems to vary with the number of people. I feel like it has something to do with the number of people in an area that makes the wind and snow heavier when there are more people, and vice versa…”
When Shen Ke heard what Su Mo said, she was silent for a moment.
Immediately, Su Mo could hear the thick sound of feet moving through the snow through the phone call.
After about half a minute, by the time the person picked up the phone again, it was a thick male voice on the line.
“Hello Su Mo. I was in charge of negotiating a deal with you last time. Do you still remember me?”
Su Mo could recognize the voice. It was the man who brought the stenographers over last time when Shen Ke could not make up her mind.
Su Mo did not hide anything. He told them about how there were a few people entering the range of his shelter and that he noticed that the wind and snow became heavier. The whole thing turned into an informant relaying information, in addition to analysing the conclusion with people he knew.
Telling nine truths and one lie naturally did not make the story sound off!
After talking for a bit, the man at the other side of the phone quickly left to verify the authenticity of the information while Shen Ke picked up the phone again and began to chatter about her daily trifles.
Since there was nothing going on, Su Mo was happy to have someone to talk to as well.
The two talked on various topics, from the snowy scenery in the north and south to the differences between the winter habits of the northerners and southerners. Then they talked about everything about hot pot and other dishes. They talked so much that Su Mo started to feel hungry, when suddenly, a few tiny dots finally appeared at the end of the horizon.
“Hold on, Shen Ke. If you guys manage to verify the information I asked about, remember to just send me a message. I have something I need to deal with on my side now.”
“Hmm? Oh, okay!”
Su Mo quickly hung up the phone. He moved and shifted from side to side because his body was starting to get a little stiff from lying down too long. After that, he picked up his binoculars again.
This time, Su Mo recognized the creatures again.
They were…
Kobolds!
They were a group of kobolds that added up to at least eighteen of them!
In the group, there were already eight Kobold Mages. Even if Su Mo faced them head-on, it would have been difficult to deal with them if he did not use the crossbow.
Not to mention the fourteen randomly-equipped henchmen who were at the Underground Shelter at that moment.
“It’s like watching an annual emotional drama. First, there’s six of them, then eight more came along, and now eighteen kobolds behind.”
“Is my Underground Shelter now becoming a glowing underground treasure chest? Is that why all of them are attracted to this place?”
Under his mask, Su Mo’s face turned cold and his gaze revealed a hard-to-conceal killing intent.
Su Mo still had some emotions when killing human beings, but for beasts like kobolds, he would kill them without mercy whenever he encountered them!
Compared to the lion people, Su Mo felt that kobolds were much more dangerous.
Not because they discovered the great killing weapon that was gunpowder, or because they came over with large amounts of supplies, or even because they built a magnificent castle from scratch in a few days!
Rather, it was… their intelligence!
Kobolds were much smarter than the lion people, both in terms of their defense and offense. All in all, there were many little details about them that confirmed that.
“Since they’re here, I’ll make sure that they’ll never leave! I’ll make all of them stay here permanently!”
As he pulled out his crossbow, Su Mo’s hand tightly gripped the crossbow and removed the ordinary crossbow arrows bolts in the crossbow.
There was a flash of light.
Five simple, crude, and funny-looking, picric acid explosive crossbow arrows appeared in Su Mo’s hand.
One by one, Su Mo carefully loaded them up into the crossbow.
“Oreo, are you sensing that the danger is coming from these kobolds?” Su Mo calmly asked, as he pressed the self-check button and listened to the sound of the motor doing its job.
The next second, Oreo nodded before shaking her head again.
As Oreo turned to the far side, she raised her head and laid back down, signaling Su Mo to keep on waiting.
“Hmm? There are still others?”
“If eighteen kobolds aren’t the ultimate source of danger, I have to say, this big show is starting to get really exciting!”
Under his mask, Su Mo did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Originally, he thought that it was just a group of people with a death wish, but he did not expect that it would turn out to be so intense. Obviously, Su Mo could easily guess how this love story would play out.
The path that had not been covered by the wind and snow was once again tread upon by the kobolds.
The dense footprints had become a guiding light of sorts.
The kobold team hardly hesitated. When they passed the Deep-sea Shelter’s hill, they instantly split into two teams and traveled along the sides.
Su Mo, who was lying on the high slope with only his eyes visible, saw everything clearly.
“What a bad show. If I was in the shelter, I’d be watching the television and it would’ve been something else.”
Three groups had passed by, clearly with different intentions.
Each group thought that they were the oriole at the back, but alas…
When two more people appeared at the edge of his line of sight, Su Mo knew…
This time, he was the only oriole left!
Oreo, who was still lying on the ground, could no longer resist and began to bark softly.
Beneath the wind and snow, it was clear who Oreo was pointing out. Obviously, the last two people were the biggest threats!
Compared to the previous fourteen people, as well as the eighteen kobolds, the two people at the back had equipment that far exceeded the level of being well-equipped!
After he waited until the two people were around three hundred meters away from him, Su Mo finally got a better look at their faces amidst the wind and snow that was getting worse.
The one on the left wore luxurious combat uniform he got from god knows where as well as shiny new military boots. When the guy turned around, Su Mo also saw that he was wearing a pair of warm-looking thermal pants underneath.
When the pair turned around, Su Mo immediately recognized the man. Amazingly, it was the long-awaited Kento Maeda!
The Deep-sea Shelter’s landmark and the footprints on the ground did not surprise Kento Maeda. Instead, he smiled at the big man next to him and said something to him.
The big man on the right went along with him and two black objects appeared in his hands when he raised his hand into thin air.
“They have guns?!… No wonder Oreo sensed that those two are the biggest threats!”
Looking through his binoculars, Su Mo could not clearly see what kind of guns they were wielding, but he could also vaguely distinguish from the shape that they were two handguns.
The two men skillfully removed their cartridge clips and put them back in. Kento Maeda even picked up the handgun and pretended to aim it at a distance.
When he did that, it made the big man beside him laugh out loud.
They looked like they got along and the two of them checked their equipment once more before they moved past quickly.
“It looks like this long-awaited show is finally going to start!”
On the hill, Su Mo, who was almost covered with snow, slowly stood up after watching the two figures walk away.
With a slight shake, the snow fell off, revealing the all-terrain photometric combat uniform underneath it.
From a certain angle, the snowflakes falling from the sky made Su Mo’s figure look even more mysterious.
After turning on the heating switch at his waist and waiting for every part of his body to regain agility, Su Mo slid down the hill in a half-crouch.
Behind him, Oreo also followed him as she laid on her belly, slowly sliding down the slope.
One man and one dog slowly followed behind Kento Maeda.