Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

The winter sun, distant and chilly, blossomed in the sky with a brilliance that was just right.

The black iron walls of the city started to emerge at the end of the horizon, and the rest of the trip was without many twists and turns.

They had arrived.

From afar, upon seeing the city, the refugees visibly stirred with excitement, and their bodies, which had been listless like the walking dead, suddenly surged with a bit of vitality from deep within.

For most of them... or rather all of them, they had spent the first half of their lives in a wilderness oasis called Jinshuizhou Town.

What did a city look like?

They had only seen and heard about it through some circulated pamphlets and rumors.

So this is how big it is...

The steel city walls, taller than the tallest thing they had ever seen, seemed to reach straight up to the sky.

The humans living inside must be very happy, not having to worry if they would still be able to wake up the next day.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

So... were they also going to live in a city like this now?

...

What seemed close took a long walk to reach.

The refugees had already been drained of almost all their energy, and had they not actually seen the city, they would have collapsed long ago.

The last leg of the journey took them nearly until dusk.

They didn't head to the military camp but arrived at a place outside the city that Bai E had never been to before.

The makeshift buildings were almost built against the city walls and looked somewhat run-down; there was also a gathering place outside the city in the distance, but it wasn't Black Street.

This place was closer to another gate of the city.

"Take them to handover."

The captain of Team 1 was clearly familiar with the procedures; the city had its own standard process for handling new refugees.

The personnel responsible for the reception had stern faces. It was hard to tell if it was military silence or if they had reached the pinnacle of exhaustion and numbness, they just stood by the road with dead fish eyes watching the endless grey-black queue.

The smell of the refugees made them frown slightly, "So many?"

"Four hundred and five," the captain of Team 1 replied promptly.

Some unlucky refugees had been hit by the orcs' wildly inaccurate gunfire in the skirmish with them.

"Oh~" The guiding officer nodded, "Have them line up here and wait, one by one."

"Come on, line up, and follow this official," the captain said.

Under the guidance of Team 1's captain, the soldiers of the coalition team maintained order at the scene.

"Everyone, line up and wait here, don't panic, don't rush. This is the last checkpoint before entering the city, and there are some necessary checks."

"Later, follow the orders of those officials, do whatever they tell you, understood?"

Having been with these refugees all the way, the soldiers were familiar with them, and now they said their last goodbyes.

After all, what was to come next had nothing to do with them.

Bai E stood by the road, watching the refugees pass by one by one, each of them looking at him with gratitude, nodding respectfully with a smile even if they didn't speak.

He smiled throughout, trying to comfort their confusion about the unknown, "It's okay, just follow them."

It was only when Morphie and Kiro Lan walked past him, with Kiro Lan looking at Bai E with determination, "I will come to find you, sir."

Bai E still smiled lightly, "You guys just watch yourself."

Everyone had their own choices, and he had no right to interfere.

Not until he watched the team being handed over and settled did Dashan approach Bai E curiously, "How come I didn't see that old man among the refugees?"

"..." Bai E's smile wavered slightly before he shook his head, "Didn't they report him missing last night?"

"Oh~ I remember I saw him last night."

Dashan scratched his head, sounding somewhat regretful, "Did he get hooked by a spider in the chaos? That's a shame."

When that old man was around, he managed the refugees quite well.

He had some ability.

Bai E pursed his lips and did not engage further in the conversation.

He quickly took a few steps forward and caught up with the squad of Team 1's captain.

"Um... Captain, excuse me."

"Bai E..." Team 1's captain paused, his tone noticeably softer, "What is it?"

Bai E glanced back, "What are they queuing for?"

"Health check," Team 1's captain explained patiently. "All new refugees entering the city need a health check."

They needed to check for highly contagious diseases that were a serious threat, examine if their physical fitness could endure at least ten more years of labor, assess whether their mental state was stable enough to comply with regulations... and so on.

The city wasn't a charity; was it its solidarity and cooperation that kept it standing in this bleak world?

No! In times like these, it was the city rules, considering gain and loss to the extreme, that mattered.

Everything useful to the city would get its due role.

Everything useless to the city should be discarded without a second thought.

As for whether life itself would seek a way out... that was up to each individual's fate.

Bai E frowned slightly to himself and looked back again.

He asked, "What will happen to them after the health check?"

"Arrangement?" Team 1's captain looked at Bai E curiously, "Those who are physically fit will go to work in the city, and those who are in poor health..."

He gestured with his eyes toward the gathering place nearby, "That place is waiting for them."

The greatest blessing the city offered to the refugees was allowing them to catch their breath under its protective shade.

Though this space was equally filled with the law of the jungle's barbarity where the strong preyed on the weak.

Bai E frowned deeply in silence.

The captain of Team 1, who had happily completed the mission and returned to the city, was evidently much happier now. At this moment, he even put an arm around Bai E's shoulder, "Brother, don't worry too much about them. Are you feeling guilty about your own promise? There's no need. Back then, it was your only chance to defeat that demon. They will only be grateful for your rescue.

Not every word needs to be strictly acted upon, many makeshift plans are just that, makeshift. We understand you, and they will too."

"..."

Seeing that Bai E still didn't speak, the captain of Team 1 patted his shoulder with a chuckle, "Alright, stop thinking so much. We'll head back to camp to report our positions, and tonight I'll treat you to a drink at Black Street's bar. Get drunk, and by tomorrow, we'll have forgotten it all."

"Let's go! Back to camp!"

"If the captain's buying, we're not coming back until we're drunk!"

The soldiers who had once again brushed past death's door and even returned from a mission accomplished were somewhat excited.

Aside from fighting, they each had their own desired normal life.

In the midst of the commotion, Tiger came forward and also put his arm around Bai E's shoulder, whispering, "Take it easy, you're just a new recruit. You can't do that much."

Yes... can't do that much.

Bai E pressed his lips together, taking one last look back at the refugees awaiting the judgment of their fate.

...

"Huh?" The medical examiner, seeing the red light flashing on the equipment in front of him, instantly became excited from his previously listless complexion, "Spiritual Energy! Spiritual Energy!"

There was a fluctuation of Spiritual Energy!

This refugee might possess the innate talent to harness Spiritual Energy!

"Quick, quick, quick! Notify the superior! A Spiritual Energy talent has appeared among the refugees!"

"What! A talent for Spiritual Energy!" Another staff member perked up, as if it were a festive occasion for them to find a talent for Spiritual Energy among the refugees.

After peering closely and confirming the screen of the device that first indicated this discovery, the latter rushed out, "I'll go notify the superior right away!"

The equipment used for refugee check-ups could only detect basic things, like whether the body was within a "healthy range," or if there were any obvious contagious diseases, etc. For monitoring Spiritual Energy, it only remained at the level of "fluctuations."

After all, they were just refugees. Assuming an indifferent attitude, they were being tested on the off-chance something might turn up. Of course, finding something was good, but it didn't matter if they didn't.

Because of its crudeness, the equipment was prone to misjudgments, or it was normal to discover just a hint of talent that was difficult to activate. Therefore, a real professional superior was needed for a "final diagnosis."

And such equipment was not just limited to one; there were times when there were many refugees, and checking them one by one would be too inefficient.

Hearing the clamor of two staff members belonging to the same machine, the workers at the four other machines were somewhat dumbfounded.

One of them, also looking at the red light on his machine, said with a puzzled face, "It looks like I've found one too."

This triggered a chain reaction, as the staff at the remaining three machines exclaimed in succession, "Mine too..."

"Mine too..."

"Is the equipment broken?"

So many talents for Spiritual Energy appearing among the refugees at the same time was either the Arbitration Place's enforcers coming to joke with them or the equipment was broken.

There was no third possibility.

"Quick, quick, quick! Get him back! The equipment might be broken! Don't startle the superior over nothing!"

"Hey you! Wait over there. Come! Next one, you try now."

In the spirit of controlling the variables, a staff member directed the refugees being examined to step aside.

"Oh, oh~" The refugees, who didn't understand why the superiors in the city were making such a fuss, shuffled over bewilderedly, murmuring submissively.

The result came out quickly—"Beep, beep, beep~"

It's red!

"Let's test a few more..."

"Beep, beep, beep~"

It's red!

All of them are red!

"Damn it, got all excited for nothing! The freaking machines are all broken!"

"Who got screwed by a dog?"

A voice suddenly emerged from the doorway, and a man as thin as a monkey walked in laughing.

Seeing the newcomer, all the staff members tensed up instantly.

"Superior..."

"Superior~"

The thin monkey's gaze swiftly moved across the faces of the refugees in the room, trying to discern with his own eyes who the chosen one was.

Eventually settling on a particularly handsome young man in his twenties, he asked the staff members with a grin, "Is it that kid?"

"Um, um~" The questioned staff member just shook his head nervously, hesitant to tell the truth.

"Oh?" The thin monkey's gaze shifted again towards the second potential target, "So it must be him then."

Handsome and dashing as he was, how could anyone who shared his Spiritual Energy talent not also be good looking?

"Um, um~" The staff member shook his head again.

"..."

The thin monkey's expression became slightly displeased as he looked toward the third candidate, "It can't possibly be him."

"Superior..."

In the corner, a staff member nervously raised a hand, "They all are..."