Chapter 93: Eating Hot Pot
“I agree,” Lin Huai said. “I never planned on keeping him.”
After Young Master Is Jungler personally dealt with the red-haired thug, a long silence passed before he finally stepped out of the tavern, his head hanging low.
He stopped in front of Lin Huai with downcast eyes, mumbling an apology: “I’m sorry… I…”
Lin Huai raised a hand to cut him off, her tone cool and detached. “You don’t need to apologize to me. We simply stood on different sides.”
With a flick of her wrist, she pulled the integration crystal from her Space Jade Bangle and held it out between them. “Cut your palm and activate the crystal.”
The boy no longer dared to show the slightest defiance. Whatever Lin Huai commanded, he followed without question.
He nicked his skin and pressed his bloody palm against the stone. The crystal pulsed with bright light, dissolved into shimmering specks, and vanished into thin air.
Next, Lin Huai retrieved a Zone Transfer Card from her inventory and offered it forward. “Everyone must take responsibility for the words they speak and the choices they make.”
She looked at him steadily. “I chose to spare your life, but there is no room for you in Zone 444. Take this card and move to another district. If you become strong enough to survive, perhaps our paths will cross again someday.”
A mixture of shock, bitter disappointment, and grief flashed across the teenager’s face. After standing in silence for a few seconds, he did not reach for the card in her hand.
Instead, he turned his face away with stubborn pride. “I have my own transfer card! If you don’t want me around, fine! I can leave on my own—you don’t have to kick me out!”
The boy crushed a card from his own pouch. A glowing circle of teleportation light flared beneath his boots. Just before the beam swallowed his silhouette, he looked straight at Lin Huai and shouted:
“I will get stronger! Just you wait—one day, I’m going to make you look at me with real respect!”
With that parting shout, the light flashed, and his figure disappeared. A second later, his name vanished from the district roster.
If You’re Bad, Practice More stroked her chin, watching the empty ground. “That kid was still throwing out threats as he walked out the door. Did we just let a future troublemaker slip away?”
Dragon Emerging from the Sea shook his head, his deep voice calm and measured. “He’s just immature. The boy isn’t rotten at his core. Hopefully, whatever hardships he faces down the road will help him grow into a real man.”
Lin Huai remained silent. With countless districts scattered across the game world, the chances of ever running into him again were practically zero.
Besides, the trials ahead would only grow deadlier. Whether any of them would even survive to see the end was an open question.
In a world like this, parting ways often meant saying goodbye forever.
Still, that was no longer her concern. Having handled the leadership of the absorbed district, Lin Huai turned to her squad with a smile. “Come on. Let’s find a pavilion in the park and have hotpot.”
Right on cue, Old Hei’s broadcast echoed across the sky.
[Congratulations to player Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice for successfully activating the integration crystal once again. The merger has finalized! The district designation remains District 44, Zone 444. System Assistant Old Hei will continue guiding you along the road.]
[Integration completion reward: one down jacket for every survivor!]
[Huh? What kind of cheap reward is this? Last time we got individual mini hotpots, and now just a padded coat?]
[Old Hei is getting stingier by the day!]
[Is it because we didn’t have a massive team brawl this time that he’s tossing us scraps just to get rid of us?]
In the public lobby, long-time survivors of Zone 444 immediately began airing their grievances.
Even the members of the Elite Squad frowned as the items dropped into their hands. Looking at the bright, garish red down jacket she had just received, Sister Cai’s face filled with visible disgust. “What an awful shade of red… Old Hei really phoned it in this time, didn’t he?”
Without a second thought, she shoved the bright red coat straight into the arms of Fastest Hand at SF Express. “Here, take it! It matches your delivery uniform perfectly!”
Fastest Hand chuckled and took it gladly. “Hehe, I actually like red!”
He turned around and traded the spare yellow jacket in his hands with Flash Delivery Yellow Knight.
Yellow Knight was left standing on the pavement looking thoroughly bewildered, holding two identical yellow coats in his arms.
Listening to everyone complain about the cheap prize, Lin Huai thought it through carefully before speaking up: “Old Hei wouldn’t hand out winter coats for no reason. He’s almost certainly dropping a hint.”
She looked around at her teammates. “My guess is that the next environmental disaster will involve extreme freezing temperatures or a massive blizzard. When that happens, warm winter gear will be life-saving.”
Hearing this, Sister Cai marched straight back to Yellow Knight and snatched one of the yellow jackets right back out of his hands. “Wait, it’s going to get freezing cold? In that case, I’d better keep one for myself!”
In this new timeline, the sequence of environmental disasters had been completely shuffled. Lin Huai couldn’t predict the exact timing of the upcoming calamity, but having lived through every single disaster in her past life, she wasn’t worried. With the Yellow Springs Road Guide providing early warnings, she would never be caught off guard.
Ordinary players, however, had a much harder time. Every sudden shift in climate caused widespread panic, and during the first few days of any new disaster, large numbers of survivors always died.
Lin Huai had initially considered warning the entire district about the potential blizzard, but glancing at the public chat, she saw that the newly merged players from Zone 398 were already picking vicious fights with the veteran drivers of Zone 444. Shaking her head, she closed the screen and decided to hold off on the announcement for now.
Zone 398 had clearly suffered from poor leadership, breaking into fractured cliques. Their former rank-one leader had vanished into thin air, yet not a single driver had noticed or cared.
The moment these newcomers arrived, they had tried to throw their weight around to bully the local survivors, throwing the entire lobby into an uproar.
Lin Huai didn’t bother getting involved. She preferred to let the noise settle while she enjoyed a quiet meal with her core team.
Having learned their lesson from the noisy restaurant last time, the group skipped the local taverns entirely. Instead, they picked a scenic, quiet park in town and set up their hotpot feast inside an open-air stone pavilion.
Lin Huai had promised to treat everyone, so she brought out the rich soup bases and staple meats, while Cute and Sparkling contributed an abundance of fresh produce from her own stock. As the team’s master chef, her inventory was packed with crisp vegetables and quality ingredients.
A moment later, Sparkling brought out four freshly prepared dishes from her food truck’s warmers. Alongside her classic sweet-and-sour pork ribs and stir-fried shrimp were two brand-new additions: tender braised pork belly and sweet osmanthus soup.
Lin Huai looked at the banquet with an appreciative smile. “Did you already finish cooking ten thousand dishes? Has your Chef God skill leveled up to Tier 2?”
Sparkling beamed proudly as she set the platters onto the stone table. “Hehe! Thanks to the Young Miss helping me sell meal boxes every single day, I finally racked up enough experience points to reach Tier 2!”
She added happily, “My total mental energy stat went up by five points too!”
Sister Cai watched with open envy. “Man, this game really comes down to pure luck. I want a skill card so badly—preferably an offensive combat skill so I can crush every fight!”
Dragon Emerging from the Sea quietly dropped slices of beef into the bubbling broth, a hint of longing in his steady eyes. “Treasures like that don’t just fall from the sky. Across the entire server, very few survivors have laid hands on a real skill card.”
Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar looked across the table at Lin Huai. “Only the top-tier powerhouses have them, right? Boss, do you have one?”
Lin Huai paused, chewing on a freshly blanched enoki mushroom, and gave a calm nod. “Yes, I have one.”
In fact, she had more than one.
Just as she was weighing whether to share the details of her skills with the squad, Old Wang smoothly stepped in and steered the conversation:
“Of course our Boss has one—she’s rank one on the server! What we should be asking is how the rest of us can get our hands on them.”
He looked at Lin Huai with curiosity. “Boss, is there a specific way for regular squad members to unlock skill cards? Or are they only awarded to players who hit certain combat thresholds?”
