The next day.
As usual, Diona had to lead a team out to scavenge for supplies.
Lin Mo didn’t go with them. Now that he’d been allowed to move freely around the settlement, he decided to get a sense of the situation before making any plans.
With men scarce in the apocalypse—and handsome men rarer still—he didn’t stroll down the street as heedlessly as he had yesterday, when he returned with Diona.
Fortunately, they sold robes made specifically for men here. According to Diona, men who didn’t want women flirting with them or bothering them could wear these white, full-body veils that left only their eyes exposed.
(This thing looks really familiar.)
After asking Diona to buy one for him, Lin Mo wrapped himself in the robe and checked his reflection in the mirror again and again.
The robe reached all the way to the ground. It covered his feet and even trailed a long way behind him.
That was why the entire hem of the white veiled robe was reinforced with special, hard-wearing leather. As for the upper part, the robe was so loose that it completely hid his figure.
The sleeves were long enough to cover his hands, and they hung down quite a bit past them, just like the hem.
The hood was wrapped around his head twice, apparently to stop some delinquent girl from sneaking up and yanking a man’s veil right off. But dressed like this, Lin Mo felt like a robber about to hold up a bank. Uh, maybe even worse...
“The more I look, the more it does.”
He paced back and forth in front of the mirror, turning around several times.
“This is unbelievable. Do all the men in this world go out dressed like this?”
Actually, they didn’t.
After all, people here could choose whatever they wanted to wear. This veiled robe was just an option for men who didn’t want to be harassed.
Dressed like this, Lin Mo cautiously stepped out of Diona’s house. He’d been worried people might laugh at him for looking this way—but as he walked along, everyone was busy with their own affairs. No one paid any attention to him, self-conscious as he was.
“...”
After wandering through the settlement’s streets and alleys, Lin Mo saw plenty of women and a small number of men.
Among the men, about one in ten wore veiled robes similar to his, while roughly three in ten simply had cloth masks over their faces.
For an apocalyptic settlement, this place had just about everything. Lin Mo looked around and found several restaurants, weapon shops, and clothing stores. There were also plenty of pawnshops that dealt in valuables, repair shops, and taverns where people could unwind.
“For a little settlement of a few hundred people, this place is really thriving.”
“There are plenty of people on the streets, too. It seems like it’s not just the locals. Other scavengers and travelers from nearby probably use this place as a supply stop as well.”
Lin Mo quickly pieced things together.
Unfortunately, this place was far too distant from the area where their group had scavenged.
If they’d found a place like this sooner, maybe none of them would’ve died.
“A quiet life in town, huh.” Wrapped in his veil, Lin Mo kept wandering around. By midday, he was getting hungry, so he used the money Diona had left him that morning to buy a bowl of thick, porridge-like gruel at a nearby restaurant and fill his stomach.
(They have to turn food into mush. That proves that even a large settlement like this is short on grain.)
He searched all around, but within the walls—built from sheet metal, cars, and piles of boulders—he couldn’t find any sign of farmland.
Even in the backyards residents had carved out for themselves, the barren soil held only a sparse scattering of plant roots.
Lin Mo stood outside someone’s fence and peered at the strange seedlings growing on wooden frames. He thought, Even if these manage to mature, they won’t produce much grain.
“No wonder the women here have to go scavenging outside. Other supplies must come second. Food is always what they’re shortest on.”
He kept walking and looking until he reached the granary near the highest point of the settlement.
Armed women stood guard in the watchtowers and at the gates all around the wall. In the settlement’s other streets and alleys, he often spotted two or three women in guard posts, yawning and playing cards.
But in the area closest to the granary, Lin Mo found the largest number of “soldiers.”
“That’s strange. The granary’s important, sure, but is it really necessary to post this many guards?”
After a quick count, Lin Mo spotted more than ten female warriors in the area. There might’ve been even more women hiding out of sight.
(If I want to leave someday, I absolutely can’t let them know about the food my companions found recently, or the food they got in exchange through the system.)
Over the past month, the transmigrators had collected a considerable number of canned foods.
After all, canned food was the system’s favorite reward. And since it was easy to store and carry, they usually ate the other food they scavenged. Most of the cans were still hidden in an abandoned cellar.
Thirty-seven cans in total. More than twenty were fruit, around five were meat, and the rest were vegetables and fish.
Lin Mo’s face remained expressionless. Though it hardly mattered whether he had an expression or not—the robe covered his entire face, leaving only his eyes exposed.
“It’s a shame their systems are all busted now.”
“If any of the three were still alive, we could use the cans we got from completing missions to trade for other, more useful supplies.”
Thinking this, Lin Mo felt for Bai Xiaomei’s system necklace through his veil. He hoped it might suddenly light up and pop out a new mission. But no matter how much he wished for it, something that couldn’t happen was still impossible.
(I’ve got a rough idea of the situation now.)
(Tomorrow, I’ll ask Diona and the others to take me out with them. As long as she’s by my side, I’ll be completely safe.)
Lin Mo turned and left the granary area. Some female warriors noticed him and gave him smoldering looks, but his current outfit—and the mystery it created around his appearance—kept them from coming over to question him.
However, just as he was about to leave the area and head back to Diona’s house to kill some time...
Almost in the same instant, as he stroked the pendant beneath the white cloth covering his chest, a glow spread out from it.
【New mission detected】
【Mission: Within forty-eight hours of this mission appearing, have your companion Lin Mo go to the nearest Bluebird Tavern and drink a whole glass of ‘Happy Sweet Orange Fruit.’】
【Mission Completion Reward: 1. Two cans of beef. 2. 100 EXP】
