Free Web NovelChapter 42: Chapter 41: Haven’t Eaten Yet
The individual strength of the Undead was relatively weak; their main advantage was their numbers. Unfortunately, ever since arriving in the Otherworld, the number of Skeletons Li Ziyu could obtain had been quite limited. He was unable to mass-produce units, and his growth was stifled.
Now, things were looking up. With the Tomb of the Dead, he could spend 100 units of Soul Energy to generate 10 Skeleton Undead each day. Little by little, they would add up. Plus, the Tomb of the Dead could be expanded to create even more Undead with Soul Energy, solving his troop problem.
With a wave of his hand, Li Ziyu injected 100 units of Soul Energy into the Tomb of the Dead.
Under the moonlight, the Undead bustled about, bringing all the corpses and weapons back to the Mobile Fortress and cleaning up the battlefield.
Out of 500 Lizardman Warriors, fewer than 100 managed to escape. Even their leader, Ah Mu, had been killed. Weapons, Skeletons, Energy—it was a huge haul, and it had temporarily eliminated a potential threat.
The Undead had already returned to the fortress. The ones whose Soul Fires had turned red reverted to their normal, eerie blue flames after confirming their City Lord’s revival. They were no longer as frenzied as before, which allowed Li Ziyu to breathe a sigh of relief.
He had never expected that his own death would trigger a transformation in the Undead. ’Still, it’s a good thing it happened,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, we might not have been able to defeat so many Lizardmen.’
After cleaning the battlefield and gathering the resources, Li Ziyu started up the Mobile Fortress to rendezvous with Liu Xingxing, who had taken a separate route. ’All the Lizardmen came for me,’ he thought, ’so Liu Xingxing should be safe.’
He checked their positions and was taken aback.
’Huh?’ freёweɓnovel.com
’He’s this close?’
On the system-generated map, a blinking dot of light marked Liu Xingxing’s position. It was extremely close. It didn’t take long for Li Ziyu to find the powered-down Treasure-Hunting Catman Mobile Fortress.
Li Ziyu checked on Liu Xingxing’s status. As expected, the guy hadn’t been caught in the crossfire. The Lizardman Warriors’ attention had been focused entirely on the Undead; no one had paid him any mind.
The Treasure-Hunting Catman Mobile Fortress started up and returned to the side of the Undead Fortress, docking with it. Liu Xingxing immediately ran into the Undead Main Tower.
"Big Bro! Big Bro, are you okay?" Liu Xingxing yelled as he ran in.
But when he got a clear look at the scene, he fell silent. Li Ziyu was calmly eating his dinner, a spread of fruit and roasted meat laid out on the table. The fight against the Lizardmen had taken a serious toll on his stamina, and he was starving.
Li Ziyu tore at a piece of roast meat as he looked up at Liu Xingxing and nodded. "Mhm, I’m fine. Doing great."
"Big Bro, as long as you’re okay, I can rest easy... Is that roast meat good?" Liu Xingxing’s attention wasn’t on Li Ziyu’s words at all. He was staring intently at the roast meat, almost drooling.
"Hm?" Li Ziyu paused in the middle of tearing at the meat, finally noticing how strange Liu Xingxing looked. "You haven’t eaten? Want to join me?"
"I couldn’t possibly," he said, but his body was far more honest as he sidled up to the table, grabbed a piece of meat that was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and stuffed it into his mouth.
’He really hasn’t eaten?’
Li Ziyu was about to tell him to eat slower when he heard Liu Xingxing’s stomach let out a loud RUMBLE. A suspicion formed in his mind. "You... haven’t eaten at all?"
"Mmmph, no. I didn’t know where to find food. I saw some wild fruit, but I didn’t recognize any of it and was afraid to eat it in case it was poisonous," Liu Xingxing said indistinctly, his mouth completely full.
A look of understanding appeared on Li Ziyu’s face. ’No wonder. With just those two Catmen under his command, they probably couldn’t hunt anything. So he just went hungry until now?’
"Why didn’t you say so earlier?" Li Ziyu asked casually, putting down the meat in his hand.
"Well, I wanted to find something good for you first, Big Bro," Liu Xingxing said, flashing an earnest smile.
His words took Li Ziyu by surprise, and he couldn’t help but feel a pang of emotion. ’What a naive kid,’ he thought.
They hadn’t known each other for long, and Li Ziyu didn’t really know what kind of person Liu Xingxing was. But based on his actions just now, he had earned some approval. ’As long as this kid doesn’t get any funny ideas, we’ll get along just fine.’
He pushed the plate of roast meat in front of him toward Liu Xingxing. "Slow down, there’s plenty. If you’re hungry in the future, you have to say so. How else would I know you haven’t eaten? Right, I have some more meat here. You can take some with you later. Have your two Catmen eaten?"
Liu Xingxing, chewing his meat vigorously, shook his head. "Nope. If we don’t find food soon, those two cats are going to rebel."
Li Ziyu chuckled and nodded, then called over an Undead and ordered it to take some food to the Catmen. Those two were valuable treasure-hunting assistants. It would be a huge joke if they starved to death. Li Ziyu had no use for a general without an army.
’I really did overlook that.’
One of the many advantages of the Undead was that they didn’t need to eat. A pile of bones had no use for food, so they didn’t require any provisions. Ever since he’d been transported here, the only person Li Ziyu had to worry about feeding was himself—truly a case of "one person eats their fill, and the whole family doesn’t go hungry." But other Races were different.
As a City Lord, you could skimp on other benefits, but guaranteeing food was a must. Food was the most critical factor, as it had a huge impact on loyalty. If you couldn’t guarantee enough food, the probability of your subordinate Races rebelling was extremely high. A City Lord might not be killed by Natives or Monsters, but instead die at the hands of their own hungry followers.
Li Ziyu was used to his Undead and had forgotten about Liu Xingxing and his two Catmen. It really would be difficult for them to get food. After all, they had only just arrived, their combat ability was lousy, and they were few in number.
In fact, Liu Xingxing had realized this earlier in the day when his stomach was rumbling during his treasure hunt. He loved treasure hunting, but he didn’t know the first thing about hunting for food. Moreover, he wasn’t familiar with the plants of the Otherworld and couldn’t even gather wild fruit. He could only endure it and wait for the Undead Lord to appear. At that moment, he had been incredibly thankful that he had latched onto someone powerful; his Big Bro was sure to have food.
When they met that night, he was too embarrassed to ask for food directly. Instead, he wanted to get some results to show for himself before bringing it up. He never expected that his first treasure-hunting spot would turn out to be someone’s ancestral grave, that he’d be discovered, and that he’d be chased all this way. Only now was he finally able to eat some roast meat.
Before he was transported here, he had lived in a time of peace. Even when he went treasure hunting, he always brought dried rations with him. And even if his rations ran out, he knew plenty of edible plants. He had never truly gone hungry before. This time, he finally understood just how awful it felt to be hungry.
After eating two pieces of roast meat and finally getting some food in his belly, Liu Xingxing was in the mood to observe his surroundings. There were still traces of blood in the main tower, and the air had a metallic, acrid smell. A pile of bloodstained weapons was stacked to the side. ’The battle must have been incredibly brutal,’ he though.
He hadn’t been far from the Undead Fortress earlier and had secretly watched the battle. The sight of hordes of Lizardman Warriors surrounding the fortress and clashing with the Undead had made his blood run cold.
Liu Xingxing felt that if he were in the Undead’s place, he would have died eight hundred times over.
The number of Lizardmen had far surpassed the number of Undead, but somehow, the Undead had emerged as the final victors—and it had been a decisive victory, too. He had seen them chasing down and killing the Lizardmen everywhere. Now, seeing the state of the main tower, he could appreciate the brutality of the fight even more.
