Reborn One Week Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 372: Chapter 362: Remuneration

Tang Mo looked at the small, round pellets, her heart filled with joy.

Ever since she lost her Space, she had developed a great fondness for things she could see and touch.

Back when she had her Space, it didn’t matter how much she owned; she never thought much of it. Now that her Space was gone, everything had to be packed into her backpack and pockets. The tangible, physical sensation of things she could see and touch gave her a great sense of stability and security.

”Um, Qiao Jin, how much of this feed do you want? Go ahead and take your share.”

Zhao Tian was an honest man. Although he wasn’t particularly sharp, he knew that without the young woman before them, he and his brothers would have never been able to get those corpses, and naturally, they wouldn’t have been able to make so much valuable feed.

”I want a backpack full of pellets.”

Tang Mo didn’t stand on ceremony and immediately stated the amount she had already decided on.

Since she’d come out to do the work of hauling corpses, she obviously wasn’t doing it out of the goodness of her heart. She was here to get something in return.

This was the amount she had decided on beforehand. She had no Space, and her pockets were stuffed with candy as Aunt Hua had told her, so she could only rely on her backpack to carry these pellets.

And her backpack was already more than half-full of food...

To be honest, these pellets weren’t of much use to her. After all, the Red-eyed Mutant Beasts were like big toys to her, posing no threat whatsoever.

But she knew just how precious these pellets were to the people of this world. There was no harm in stocking up.

In the apocalypse, hoarding, if possible, was the greatest source of security for anyone.

Hundreds of pellets were piled on the floor before them.

A backpack could hold a few dozen at most, which really wasn’t a large amount.

Zhao Huan had already braced himself for the young woman to make an exorbitant demand.

In Zhao Huan’s mind, the best outcome would be for the three of them to split the pellets evenly. However, if the young woman asked for half or even more, they would have to grit their teeth and give it to her.

After all, without the young woman, they wouldn’t have any of these things.

Besides, Zhao Huan had a selfish motive: this young woman was going to be traveling with them for a long way.

Along the way, these pellets would eventually run out. Whether or not they could trouble the young woman to help them again would depend on whether the concessions they made this time were to her satisfaction.

Although the young woman had dragged the corpses back, the food used to wrap the chunks of flesh, the tools, and the manpower had all been provided by them.

In truth, the Zhao Brothers had contributed a great deal as well. After all, corpses could be found anywhere on the streets, but food was not easy to come by; you had to be lucky to find it.

”Good, good! Take them.”

Zhao Tian’s joy was plain to see. He also felt that a backpack’s worth was far too little, and fearing that Tang Mo would go back on her word, he urged her to hurry up and pack them away.

Tang Mo opened her backpack and stuffed the pellets inside.

Her backpack still contained a lot of food, so after stuffing in about half a backpack’s worth of pellets, it was completely full.

For the other half, Tang Mo took a cloth sack out of her bag and put the rest of the pellets inside.

That cloth sack was what Xiao Jin had previously used to carry her art supplies. Tang Mo had figured it might come in handy sooner or later, so she had kept it in her backpack.

Now the cloth sack was also stuffed full, and she carried it in her hand.

That night, neither Tang Mo nor the three Zhao Brothers slept a wink, staying up until dawn.

At daybreak, the main group had to start traveling again, but these few ”Midnight Elves” weren’t the least bit sleepy.

Tang Mo wasn’t sleepy because she had used her spiritual power to metabolize her fatigue.

The three Zhao Brothers, however, weren’t sleepy purely due to excitement. Anyone who had acquired so much wealth overnight would be too excited to sleep.

The next morning, when everyone had packed up and come downstairs, they noticed that something about the house seemed different from when they had entered the previous night.

”Look, why are there so many bloodstains here!”

Everyone quickly noticed the bloodstains on the floor of the first-floor hall.

They were from the previous night when Zhao Huan and Zhao Tian were processing the corpses. Bloodstains are hard to clean up completely, and even though they had tried to tidy up, they couldn’t cover all the traces.

”Don’t tell me a mutant beast got in here last night?”

The people quickly found an explanation for the bloodstains. This was the first-floor hall, and although the door was currently closed, it wasn’t locked. It was entirely possible that a mutant beast had gotten in.

And the most terrifying part was that a mutant beast had entered their house and eaten someone, yet they had been completely unaware upstairs.

”Quick, do a headcount! Are we missing someone? See whose companion is gone!”

After connecting the bloodstains to this idea, everyone immediately flew into a panic, rushing to confirm that their own companions were still safe and sound.

”Doesn’t seem like anyone’s missing?”

”No one missing from my group either.”

After checking and double-checking, they were surprised to find that not a single person from their group was missing.

’Then a mutant beast must have caught someone outside and dragged them in here to eat. There’s no other explanation.’

Everyone broke out in a cold sweat, thankful that they had survived another night.

After something like this, no one wanted to linger in this place any longer. Everyone wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

And so, the large group set off, their pace even faster than the day before.

In the past few days, under the protection of the three Zhao Brothers, the crowd had never felt so close to danger. But today’s incident had thoroughly instilled a sense of crisis in them.

’I didn’t expect it to have this kind of effect. Before today, this group wouldn’t listen no matter what I said.’ Zhao Huan was inwardly delighted but put on an even more terrified expression.

The more perilous the situation seemed, the more obedient and easier to manage these people would become.

Meanwhile, Tang Mo ambled along with the main group, just as leisurely as before. Although their traveling speed had increased significantly, for Tang Mo, it was still basically the same as taking a walk.

”Aunt Hua, this is for you. Keep it safe.”

Tang Mo casually tossed the cloth sack she was carrying to Aunt Hua.

She had no use for so many of these things anyway; filling half her backpack was her limit.

If she hadn’t had plenty of these cloth sacks on hand, she would’ve had to wrap the pellets in several layers just to put them in her backpack with her food, a prospect she found rather revolting.

”This is...”

Aunt Hua took the sack, opened it, and peeked inside. Her expression changed instantly. She quickly tied the sack shut again and hurriedly pushed it back to Tang Mo.

”Xiao Jin, be a good girl and return it to them quickly. We can’t take things that aren’t ours. It will cause trouble.”

Aunt Hua had seen clearly yesterday. These pellets were the bait the Zhao Brothers had used to feed that Meat Dragon.

Now that Qiao Jin had brought back such a big bag of these things, if she hadn’t stolen them, Aunt Hua truly couldn’t imagine any other possibility.