A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 2654: Chapter 1788: This Hero Prepares Dinner (The Rise of the Ronin Is Kinda Interesting)

Although Duanmu Huai’s tone was very serious, after a moment of hesitation, those humans still made their choice. One-third of them stayed, while the remaining two-thirds left the rundown small town.

"Give them some food, and then arm them."

Duanmu Huai gave the order, and soon the Star Realm Army led these people away. At this moment, Lisetta walked over, gently tugging at Duanmu Huai’s sleeve.

"Are you really planning to let them fight? I had a look, and they don’t seem suitable for combat."

"You?"

Duanmu Huai glanced at Lisetta, clearly not taking her words seriously.

"How did you look?"

"With my eyes!"

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s sarcastic inquiry, Lisetta retorted angrily.

"We deities have a kind of identification magic that can see others’ attribute values, for example..."

Lisetta pointed at one of the women. She stared at her for a moment, then took out a piece of paper and wrote down her attributes for Duanmu Huai.

Simply put, it’s similar to the attribute values of characters in a game, including personality and special skills.

"You might not see it clearly, but those orcs you killed before, each had an attack power of over thirty thousand! These people’s attack power is not even a thousand, sending them to fight orcs is simply suicidal!"

Lisetta gesticulated desperately, trying to persuade Duanmu Huai, but he merely glanced at the paper with disinterest, then turned his head away.

"What a boring thing."

"How can you call it boring, this is..."

"I said it’s boring, so it’s boring."

Duanmu Huai interrupted Lisetta’s protest.

"What, do you mean they shouldn’t fight because of their low combat power? Are you suggesting that since their combat power is so low, they should just submit to those orcs and be their slaves?"

"No, that’s not what I mean..."

"That’s exactly what you mean."

Duanmu Huai’s expression turned cold and grim. He stared at Lisetta with disdain in his eyes.

"Humans are not engaging in this kind of struggle for the first time against beings stronger than themselves. Haven’t humans also defeated those massive beasts? Even whales in the ocean are not their match. Are humans faster than cheetahs? Or stronger than bears? By your logic, since humans are inferior to these beasts, should they just lie there and be eaten like pigs?"

"........."

"Humans stand here, ruling this world, not merely because of combat power! You foolish idiot! Human wisdom, willpower, and determination are what’s most important! What if combat power is low? Can’t you kill a baby even if you can’t beat an adult orc? If you can’t fight them head-on, can’t you set fire or poison them? Who said humans must confront them directly like those inferior beasts?"

At this point, Duanmu Huai snorted coldly.

"So, you fundamentally don’t understand the power of humans—what you care about are trivial, insignificant details. Humans are a race so strong that when their survival is threatened, they could take the entire Milky Way down with them, remember that, you foolish goddess."

After saying this, Duanmu Huai didn’t even give Lisetta another glance, turning and leaving. Lisetta stood there, dazed and silent, looking lost and dejected. Seeing this scene, Hei Chuan Chi Yin felt a bit sympathetic and wanted to step forward to comfort her but, at that moment, Mary, who was beside her, closed her notebook, patted her shoulder, and shook her head.

"This is not something we should concern ourselves with."

".........Alright."

Hei Chuan Chi Yin hesitated for a moment, nodded, and then followed Mary towards the direction Duanmu Huai had left. Even so, deep down, she still had some doubts.

"Miss Mary, what Mr. Duanmu said..."

"It’s all true."

"Eh? Really?"

"Yes, Mr. Duanmu and I have been to quite a few worlds together, and among them, there are many worlds like this, occupied by aliens, where humans are on the brink of collapse. But even in such hopeless worlds, humans would desperately fight to survive, no matter how overwhelmingly powerful the enemy is, they never lose faith or hope."

At this point, Mary hesitated a little.

"Miss Chi Yin, perhaps you can’t believe it, but...humans are a far more greedy race than you can imagine."

"Greedy?"

"Yes, greedy in their desire to live, to move forward; no matter what dangers they encounter, they don’t choose to give up, nor do they despair. Even with a sliver of hope, they try their utmost. Even if many are sacrificed in the process, as long as there is a seed left, they believe everything can be restored to how it was. I think, this is where the resilience of humans lies."

"............"

Hei Chuan Chi Yin also fell into contemplation. Mary’s words made her recall the time she followed Duanmu Huai through the Giant Dragon World. At that time, dragons were rampant, and humans seemed to be on the brink of destruction. Even the Dragon Hunters could only wield silver swords, close-range weapons, to fight those massive monsters that could even breathe fire and ice.

Moreover, the number of the Dragon Race far exceeded that of humans, but even in such circumstances, people did not choose to give up in the face of the Dragon Race’s attacks, choosing instead to resist until the end---even when, after two thousand years, the once world-ravaging dragons had completely vanished without a trace, becoming creatures of myth and legend.

Although Duanmu Huai inflicted quite serious damage on the Dragon God at that time, it was clear that the dragon groups of that world were not just those they had encountered.

However, two thousand years later, all those dragon groups had become extinct.

It was all thanks to those Dragon Hunters wielding silver swords, fighting battle after battle to secure victory.

Thinking of this, Hei Chuan Chi Yin felt she seemed to understand Duanmu Huai’s intention.

But......

Hei Chuan Chi Yin turned around and looked at Lisetta, who still wore a lost expression. As a seasoned actress, Hei Chuan Chi Yin seemed able to understand her thoughts; all along, this Goddess had been guiding Heroes to defeat and eliminate the Demon King. Perhaps, in her view, this royal confrontation, general-to-general, soldier-to-soldier chessboard rule was the normal battle mode.

But Duanmu Huai clearly did not see it that way.

"By the way, I think those who left might not live to see tomorrow morning."

Mary changed the topic.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, this continent is extremely dangerous, and Mr. Duanmu acted intentionally just now."

"They......"

"I think they also understand this point."

Mary sighed; as a girl whose main job is a writer, she shares something of the sensibility with Hei Chuan Chi Yin.

"They just want to take a gamble because anyone with eyes can see that’s the only way they can avoid the Orcs’ inevitable discovery and subsequent attack on us. And Mr. Duanmu also said that if they stayed, they’d be put into the suicide squad. They’re very afraid of Orcs and probably never thought of fighting them. As far as they’re concerned, fighting Orcs is a path that only leads to death. But if they leave here and hide in those caves, maybe there is still a sliver of chance to survive."

Hei Chuan Chi Yin said nothing either.

After all......all this was too shocking for her as well.

Yet soon Hei Chuan Chi Yin found that something even more shocking was still to come.

First, it was about food.

Duanmu Huai naturally has an inventory and brought quite a bit of food, but he clearly doesn’t plan to share it with those people. At most, he’ll let Mary and Hei Chuan Chi Yin eat some, since the Night Guard are Spiritual Bodies and don’t need sustenance. Meanwhile, the only edible things in this ruined town are some fruits and the roasted human limbs.

To be honest, upon seeing those human limbs hanging on iron hooks, dried by the wind and smoked, Mary’s face turned quite unsightly, while Hei Chuan Chi Yin immediately rushed out to find a place to vomit.

Yet Duanmu Huai obviously didn’t care about this; since there was nothing to eat then......

"Chop up those Orcs and boil them for a stew."

"Eat, eat Orcs?"

Admittedly, Lisetta had been following Duanmu Huai for some time, but such a... well, order, she still couldn’t accept at all.

"But those are Orcs."

"Aren’t they just animals becoming spirits? What’s the problem?"

Duanmu Huai indeed felt no psychological burden; after all, in the Journey to the West World, he ate all sorts of Black Bear Spirit, Green Bull Spirit, and Koi Spirit along the way.

Of course, he didn’t eat scorpions or centipedes or anything like that.

And in Duanmu Huai’s view, the Orcs in this world are somewhat similar to those little devils from Journey to the West, who’d shout "King, King, it’s terrible, the hairy-faced Thunder King is coming!"

There’s no psychological burden eating them.

"Oh, and consider their digestion isn’t too good, prepare the young ones, find some young Orc corpses, pluck the hair, dunk them in boiling water, and then roast them directly over fire, sprinkle some seasoning---just like roasting suckling pigs, it’s not that hard."

"Whoa!—-!"

At this moment, Lisetta couldn’t help covering her mouth and rushing out, yet naturally, Duanmu Huai didn’t even glance at this Goddess.

"By the way, tell them that after they finish eating today, next time if they want fresh ones, they’ll have to eat what they kill themselves. If they kill several Orcs, they’ll eat several."

Mary silently took notes on the side and sighed.

Seems like her book will be criticized upon publication again.

But well, whether more or less criticism this time... she’s already used to it.