Man on the ark, forced to become king

With the financial resources of the Swire Group, it can easily afford the price. It's so easy to get the opportunity to get involved with that Mr. Lin, it's totally worth it!

Chapter Thirty-Four: Dragons and Serpents of Ursus

Goodnight, Alina.

Goodnight, Talulah.

As night fell, a biting wind swept across the snow-covered land. The white-haired dragon girl waved goodbye to her dearest friend, watched her figure disappear into the distance, sighed, and turned to walk towards her tent.

It was called a tent, but it was really just a place to live, made of scraps of cloth sewn together and supported by simple wooden sticks.

On the frigid Ursus ice plains, especially in winter, these tents offer very limited protection, at best only offering some shelter from the relentless cold winds.

However, for the poor people gathered here, this is the only thing they can count on—even such a simple dwelling is only big enough to barely accommodate one person.

The young woman from Drak stepped into the tent. The curtain fell, slightly keeping out the cold wind. The dim light inside the tent illuminated her clothes, an Ursus-style dress that was somewhere between aristocratic attire and military uniform.

However, this dress, which still shows signs of meticulous workmanship, is now riddled with holes and has been stitched up everywhere, making it hardly presentable.

"what--"

Talulah sat down on the haystack, her breath rising slowly in the lamplight, and stared blankly at the small lamp in front of her.

That was the only perk she could enjoy as the head and leader of the entire organization: an Originium lamp from the Ursus military, which only needed a few Originium fragments to keep it burning for several years.

Occasionally, she would write down simple future plans and internal organizational matters under the lamplight to organize her thoughts and make better decisions—but that was only relatively speaking.

Living in a place like this, even the most basic survival skills are enough to exhaust people, so what good decisions can one make?

Just like now, most people in the organization are huddled in their makeshift tents, shivering and unable to sleep, and Talulah is no exception.

Unlike others, Talulah, who possesses the blood of Drak and has mastered the art of fire-based Originium, doesn't need to worry about keeping warm; what she worries about is the survival of everyone.

As winter approached, the already cold snowfields became even more desolate, making it difficult to even solve the most basic food problem. In order to avoid the Ursus patrol team's winter levy, they had to migrate to the most remote areas, where there were few people, the temperature was very low, and there were no plants that could serve as food.

Let alone food, even obtaining a tent pieced together from scraps is difficult. If this continues, many people may not survive the winter.

Integration movement.

They now have a name that's somewhat respectable, but everyone knows the inside story.

Rather than an organization united by infected individuals, they are more like a group of pitiful people who cannot appear in the sunlight and are forced to huddle together for warmth.

Throughout the entire integration movement, Talulah herself was probably the only one who held onto a sliver of hope for the future.

Even so, Talulah persisted in doing everything she could, feeling that since she had brought those people here, she had an obligation to help them survive.

However, she is not omnipotent; there are many things that cannot be done simply by thinking about them.

Just like the pressing food problem—their previously accumulated food supplies have long been exhausted, and everyone is about to go hungry. Talulah is eager to solve the problem, but she can't think of a suitable solution.

Most of the infected people were already in poor health. The long-term suffering from illness and hunger brought their bodies to the brink of collapse. If food was cut off, within a few days, not many people in the entire organization would be able to survive in such a harsh environment.

If Talulah didn't want to starve or freeze to death on this plain, the only way she could think of was to rob any Ursus patrols that might be passing by.

At this time of year, patrols would collect food and supplies from various villages and transport them back to the army base. This was the only food supply that the Reunion Movement could access.

But how do we steal it, how do we fight it?

Thinking of those emaciated infected compatriots, even if Talulah tried to numb herself, she didn't believe that those people had the potential to fight the Ursus regular army head-on.

A well-trained Ursus soldier might be able to take on a dozen of them, and the difference in team combat is even greater; the two sides are not even on the same side in the battle.

Fortunately, the Reunion Movement is not without capable individuals.

'Perhaps I should talk to Mr. Patriot tomorrow.'

As the thought crossed her mind, Talulah sighed, knowing she had no other choice.

Mr. Patriot was once a member of the Ursus army, leading a team of shield guards. His daughter, Yelena, also led a squad called Yetis, which became a legend on the Ursus ice plains.

To rob the Ursus patrol and obtain food, we must rely on their strength; ordinary infected people are no match, as they have absolutely no fighting ability.

Call ~

The tent flap was lifted, and a cold wind rushed in. Talulah looked up and saw the girl from Katus coming in from outside.

"Yelena?"

"The old man asked me to ask you, shouldn't we take action?"

The white rabbit, draped in a pure white cloak, slipped into the tent, found a spot to sit, and stared directly at Talulah, getting straight to the point.

"Mr. Patriot, have you already guessed what I'm going to do? Well, you've done the same thing before."

Talulah was taken aback, then shook her head with a wry smile.

Yes, this isn't the first time the Reunion Movement has done something like this. The tents and other equipment they use now were all obtained in this way. Because of this, the Reunion Movement has long been on the Ursus military's wanted list, which is why they need to avoid any large patrols that might appear, in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

If there were other options, Talulah would not want to do this, as it would mean abandoning their current base and migrating to a worse place to avoid being caught by the regular army.

But now the Reunion Movement is truly at its wit's end, and there's nothing she can do even if she doesn't want to anymore.

"It's impossible for food to sprout from the snow, and nothing but snow will fall from the sky."

Yelena spoke expressionlessly, and the already low temperature inside the tent seemed to drop even further with her arrival.

“To survive, we must take action against the Ursus patrols. Even if you don’t intend to do it, the old man and I will. Not only do the infected need supplies, but the Shield Guards need them too, even more so. You should know very well that without the old man and the Shield Guards, the Reunion Movement cannot survive in this icy wasteland with just that rabble.”

“Actually, you should consider giving up some things. Yesterday I saw some people loitering suspiciously near the warehouse. Everyone knows what they're planning to do. Some of them don't really want to help others; they just want a long-term meal ticket. When it really comes down to it, they'll run faster than anyone else. I don't think those kinds of people are worth saving. The food we've worked so hard to get isn't meant to feed a bunch of parasites.”

"No, no, they just had no other choice!"

When this issue was raised, Talulah suddenly became emotional, but only for a moment. Soon, she calmed down, took a deep breath, and bowed her head, saying, "I'm sorry, Yelena, they are all my compatriots, and I can't abandon them."

"...You are the leader of the Reunion Movement, you are the one who calls the shots."

Yelena could tell that Talulah seemed to be in a bad state, which was quite normal. After all, anyone would feel powerless and prone to anger when they had to worry about the survival of thousands of people.

Therefore, she did not intend to continue this topic.

Talulah's idea was naive, so naive that it was almost impossible to realize, but it was precisely because of this naive idea that they were here.

"The old man found some information from somewhere that a food convoy will pass by tomorrow at noon. There will be about two hundred people and a lot of supplies. If we can get our hands on them, then we will have a chance to get through this winter safely."

"Really?"

Upon hearing this information, Talulah looked up in surprise, but also with some worry.

"A team of two hundred, what's their equipment like? Can we handle them?"

"I don't know, but based on the old man's judgment, a transport team of this size is very likely to be escorted by regular troops, and their equipment will not be too bad. Moreover, they have to eat even if they can't, otherwise we will all starve and freeze to death on the ice field. In order to survive, sacrifice is inevitable."

Yelena spoke of the information she knew, her eyes calm.

She had long been accustomed to this kind of life, accustomed to the possibility of death at any moment, and had become numb to it.

This is a terrible thing, but on this icy plain, no one has a choice. To survive, they can only abandon those useless emotions.

"You're right, we have to do it."

Talulah slowly clenched her fists, her eyes hardening, and faintly, the temperature inside the tent seemed to rise slightly.

"I will be prepared."

"Ah."

The white rabbit nodded, then got up and left the tent without hesitation, as if she had come here solely to deliver this message.

Talulah was already used to this. Compared to Yelena, she needed to think about something else now—how to minimize the losses tomorrow.

That was a regular Ursus army of two hundred men, equipped with uniform gear, making them undoubtedly quite formidable.

To deal with such an opponent, she couldn't possibly place all her hopes on the Yeti Squad and the Shield Guards; that wasn't the mindset of a competent leader.

But soon, Talulah realized that her thinking was meaningless—because she had no other choice but to rely on herself.

As a pure-blooded Drak and an Oripathy infected, her Originium Arts are quite powerful, and her combat strength is considerable. If the terrain is just right, she can take on dozens of regular soldiers by herself, which is why she decided to target the patrol team.

Besides having no other choice, part of it stemmed from confidence in their own strength. A pure-blooded Drak's flames were enough to melt steel, far beyond the reach of ordinary people, even if they couldn't unleash their full power due to prolonged malnutrition.

After all, she's Draco...

Thinking of her origins, Talulah lowered her eyes, her expression somewhat dazed, as images of the past began to surface in her mind.

Longmen, her father, her uncle, her sister... those were the most beautiful memories of her life.

Unfortunately, all of that is in the past. After meeting Koschei and being taken to Ursus, she could never go back.

That wretched venomous snake ruined everything she had!

I wonder how Huijie is doing now, and whether she has achieved her childhood dream of becoming a chivalrous hero...

Talulah felt a faint smile creep across her lips as her younger sister's innocent smile flashed through her mind.

She really wanted to go back to Longmen and see her sister again.

But, it can't be done.

Talulah is no longer the naive little girl she once was. She is now the leader of the Infected organization and the Reunion Movement, bearing the lives of hundreds of people on her shoulders. She cannot leave this place, at least not now.

She wants to save those infected and bring them hope, not just for what's in front of her now, but for much more!

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