Why can't humans do it too?

He had already seen Jibril's disdainful look, but unfortunately, such a look did not hurt Cole at all when it was placed on her cute little girl face; on the contrary, it made him even more excited.

This situation suddenly gave Jibril a sense of déjà vu, and a question arose in her mind—does everyone who calls themselves an older sister like this?

"Ah! That's right!" Suddenly remembering something, Ke'er sat up abruptly, her terrifying eyes gleaming as she stared at Suer and asked, "So, what is your relationship with these two beautiful children, Suer...?"

“They were people from other destroyed settlements that I met by chance while I was wandering outside,” Sue answered without hesitation.

"Huh? That's not what I was asking, is it?" Ke'er clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction.

"Ah~, Ke'er, what you really wanted to ask about is that, right?" Suddenly realizing something, Xin Ke smiled and pulled Jibril, who was sitting next to her, to her side, even patting the hair of the Skywing girl in a very friendly manner with her right hand.

"We're actually mother and daughter~~~"

Chapter 174 Confession

thump.

thump.

thump.

He banged his forehead against the table in front of him again and again. After Xin Ke spoke, Su Er looked ashen-faced.

mother and daughter.

Return the mother and daughter.

Mother and daughter? What a load of rubbish! They don't even have the same hair color. How is that hereditary?

Relying on mutation?

Such a big change, and all you're doing is changing your hair?

Oh, Riku and the others don't know about genetics...

Given your relationship with Jibril, wouldn't adding another generation to your life like this cause a major war?

With one last slam of his forehead against the table, Sulmu slumped onto the cold surface, letting it clear his mind. From this position, he could see Xin Ke and Jibril sitting together with smiles on the other side. He wondered what the two of them had been talking about in private, but what was most amazing was that they didn't seem to be arguing at all.

"Here, have some more water," Riku said calmly, pushing the water glass in front of Suer to block his view.

This man had already discerned a great deal from Suer's reaction alone.

Meanwhile, Ke'er was still speechless, muttering "Aba aba" for a long time without uttering a single word, only able to wave her arms wildly in the air.

"Hey hey hey eh hey hey? Mother, mother and daughter?" Ke'er finally managed to squeeze out a few words through her teeth, her fingers trembling as she looked back and forth between Suer, Xinke, and Jibril.

"Really?! Is it that fast?!"

Ke'er had begun to doubt the limits of human growth, constantly counting on her fingers as if she were calculating something.

Or perhaps...?

"Ah~, this one... cough cough, it really is mother and daughter~", Jibril said with a smile, putting her arm around Xin Ke's arm and leaning close to it.

Suer saw that Xinke's expression stiffened visibly; Jibril was exerting force!

"Ah, Jibril is indeed a very well-behaved child, isn't she? Want me to pat her head? She's so cute~" Xin Ke said through gritted teeth and a smile, while vigorously rubbing Jibril's hair with her other hand, and even turned to invite Ke'er.

"Ah, hahaha, let's... let's not use it for now?" A sense of foreboding flashed through Ke'er's mind, and she quietly swallowed and refused with a dry laugh.

What's going on with this mother and daughter? It all seems so confusing...

"Don't listen to her nonsense. She usually loves to joke around and see how people don't react," Su Er kept rubbing his temples. So why did these two have to come with him? Wouldn't it have been better to just wait outside?

If you want to fight, you can find a place to fight anytime. It's much more refreshing than acting here.

"Speaking of which, do you remember when we discovered this safe spot?" Riku suddenly turned to ask Suer, observing the strange atmosphere over there.

"Of course I remember. The temperature inside the cave should have been cold and gloomy. We were wondering why it felt so warm when we came in," Suer recalled.

“Yes, your guess was correct,” Riku nodded in agreement. “There are indeed hot springs here. They were accidentally dug out when the people were expanding the cave after they moved here. Would you like to take a look?”

The last question was directed at Xin Ke and Jibril.

"Oh! Right, hot springs have become a unique feature of our settlement. Before, we had to boil water separately to take a bath, but now we don't have to waste any water at all!" Ke'er said with a hint of pride. "Girls would probably love hot springs. Shall I take you to see one?"

"Hmm~~~ Hmph~~~", she drawled, tilting her head to look at Suer, then at Riku, "Alright then~, I'll wait for your news, Suer~"

"Okay, be careful."

"Huh? What's there to be careful about in the settlement? Sul, really, have you been living in fear for too long?" Without saying a word, Ko'er stood up excitedly. She wanted to pick Jibril up from the chair, but she was easily dodged in the next second.

"Anyway, you two haven't seen each other for so long, so chat for a bit! We'll be back in a bit!" Cole said, waving her hand as she poked half her body out from behind the wooden door. "Oh, right, Xin Ke and Jibril, right? I'll just call you guys directly. Let me show you around first."

“Although Suer has never been in the settlement, we’ve always kept his room available. Shall we go take a look? Or is there anything we need…”

"Oh? Let's go take a look over there first..."

The wooden door wasn't very soundproof, and Suer and Riku could hear the sounds outside gradually fading away.

Both Sull and Riku let out a long sigh of relief.

He wasn't too worried that the two of them would do anything outrageous... well, probably. Sull still trusted that they knew what was important. If he stayed here, it wouldn't be convenient for him to talk to Riku about some private things.

"They're not human, are they?" After a long while, Riku suddenly whispered, staring silently at the closed wooden door.

It wasn't a guess or a tentative tone, but a direct affirmation.

“Yes, the blonde one is a Forest Elf, and the pink-haired one is a Skywing,” knowing that Riku must have noticed something amiss, Sull answered straightforwardly, “So? Were you scared?”

As he spoke, he suddenly chuckled softly. Sull turned his head to carefully observe Riku's expression—no expression, or rather, unusually calm.

“You still have that same twisted sense of humor… but it’s much better than before.” Riku could tell at a glance what Sull was expecting, and he couldn’t help but smile wryly. “You used to make jokes too, but they weren’t nearly as lighthearted as they are now. Looks like you’ve been through a lot these past two years.”

"Well, that's about right," he sighed deeply. Meeting again after two years, he felt like he had so much to say that he didn't even know where to begin.

"I'm already very satisfied to see everyone in the settlement like this," Suer said slowly, propping his head up with a hint of melancholy and tapping the table with his fingers. "That kind of mental state can't be forced. It's not the numbness we had before. That vibrant energy... You and Ke'er have really had a tough two years."

"Everyone worked very hard," Liku said without denying it, simply refilling Suer's cup with hot water. "Tell me about your business. Those food and warm clothes must have been your doing?"

Chapter 175 Riku's Dilemma

“Well, to be precise, it should be thanks to that forest elf,” Suer nodded and said. “I knew you could guess that.”

“After all, how could such a windfall happen one after another?” Riku chuckled self-deprecatingly. “And it just so happened that the first batch of supplies we found were almost used up when we discovered the second batch of things that other races hadn’t had time to take with them when they evacuated. There are definitely not that many coincidences in this world.”

"Ah, is that guy so abrupt in his actions?" Su Er couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. The image of the seemingly trusted subordinate of Xin Ke appearing in front of him and speaking haltingly flashed through his mind.

“Actually, it’s already done very well. They even went so far as to disguise the traces of battle between different races, and no one else in the settlement noticed anything,” Riku continued with a smile, seeing Sul’s embarrassed look. “It’s just that people like you and me don’t really need too many reasons.”

“Yes…”, Suer sighed deeply.

Two years have allowed Liku to mature more, not only in appearance but also in his composed demeanor.

To be honest, Sull was a little bored that he didn't see the man's eyes widen in shock at his words, but then he thought about it and felt relieved—if he could express his emotions so uncontrollably, he wouldn't be Riku.

"No more constant risky expeditions to find food. We just need to periodically gather the latest intelligence on the war. Although we will still inevitably encounter danger, Su'er, do you know what?" Riku smiled contentedly as he spoke of this. "In the past two years, not a single person has sacrificed their life. I think that's probably why everyone is as vibrant as you described."

The fact that people don't have to worry about survival or live in a fearful environment is the root of the thriving scene in the settlement today.

“So, tell me a little about your story over the past two years,” Riku said with a smile, propping his cheek up with one hand. “It will definitely be more exciting than I imagined.”

"Ah, really?" Suer couldn't help but chuckle. "Then you'd better remember this well and pass my story down to future generations. Let me think... where should I begin?"

Suer lowered his head and pondered for a moment before raising his head.

"Let's begin on the thirteenth day after I left the settlement, when I arrived at a desert..."

--------------

Sul made no attempt to hide anything from Riku, telling him everything that had happened since leaving the settlement, including that he wasn't a human from this world, but rather a human from another world who had somehow arrived there.

He emphasized the current relationship with the Forest Elves and the Skywings, and listed the information he knew about each race, as well as the personality traits and triggers of the two goddesses who had come with him.

Sull isn't afraid of being mind-read, but Riku might not be, so cough cough, be careful what you say and do.

In terms of the amount of intelligence gathered, the information that Suer revealed in just one day is already equivalent to the amount of intelligence the settlement has gathered over the past few decades—after all, given humanity's status at the bottom, there was simply no way to obtain much intelligence in the past.

This also includes the reasons for the start of the great war and the purpose of the gods' battle.

To be fair, sharing this seemingly hopeless news did make Suer feel much more at ease.

"...So you're still not staying in the settlement?" Riku asked without turning his head, standing by the wall and looking at the map nailed to the wooden board.

“Well, I’ll leave the settlement to you. I’m going to find the answer Okan mentioned… just in case, right?” Leaning back in his chair, Suer stared blankly at the cave ceiling. “Do you think things are alright as they are?”

"...What? You and the Forest Elf race?"

"?"

"?"

"What are you talking about?" With a forced lift of his head, Suer looked at Riku's back with a strange expression and said, "I'm talking about keeping the Forest Elf's aid a secret, and the suggestion Xinke mentioned. What have you been thinking?"

"Absolutely not!" Riku roared without hesitation, then turned around abruptly. Under Sul's increasingly strange gaze, he coughed dryly. "Cough cough, I mean your handling was fine."

“To be honest, I’m hesitant about secretly accepting aid from the Forest Elves. If you stayed in the settlement a little longer, you’d probably find out. People’s vigilance and willpower have relaxed a lot compared to the past, even though I’m trying to find a way to deal with this.” Riku sat back down at the table, clutching his hair in obvious pain. “After all, we don’t lack food or other necessities right now. Since we don’t have to go out, the motivation to risk going out to investigate the movements of other races has diminished considerably.”

“We’ve finally managed to improve our lives, how could it be easy to fall back into the mire?” Riku sighed with a wry smile. “But you haven’t forgotten, Sull, have you? Our principle for finding a place to live is to thoroughly investigate the main battlegrounds and spheres of influence of other races, and then migrate to the place with the lowest probability of war.”

“Now a voice has emerged in the settlement that since there is no shortage of food and other supplies, we might as well just stay here and not go out so we won’t be discovered… and quite a few people even agree with this idea.”

"Isn't this just deceiving yourself?"