Why did you provoke me?

Niannian watched as everyone left, then looked at the large box. "Fourth Sister, may I look at the things here?"

"Let's eat first. We're not leaving right away, we have plenty of time to look around." Yu Meng pointed to the food placed to the side.

"Niannian, don't be too hasty in doing anything. Because the premise for doing anything is that you are in good health. And eating is the most important thing to ensure good health."

"Okay," Niannian obediently brought the food to herself and then ate it heartily.

"It's still early. Let's rest for a bit before we deal with it." Yu Meng listened to the increasingly noisy commotion outside. She knew many people had already gotten up; it was another day repeating itself.

Yu Meng only dozed off for a short while before waking up. She quietly watched Nian Nian fiddling with the alien-shaped object. This little girl was indeed full of energy, but she seemed to be troubled by something, her brows furrowed tightly.

"What's wrong?" Yu Meng asked softly.

"Fourth Sister, come and see. These two aliens don't seem to get along. When I put them together, they suddenly separated." Nian Nian didn't turn around and continued to fiddle with the things in the box.

Yu Meng became interested. "Let me see."

Yu Meng walked to the large box, bent down, and the sight before her made her mouth twitch. Several of the small boxes containing the aliens had been opened, and the aliens that could peel off their skins had already had their skins peeled off by Nian Nian and made into small beads and placed in the corresponding boxes.

Some were huddled together, like withered branches and umbrellas. The aliens whose energy had been absorbed were mostly still at the bottom of the box, but two were very active. Nian Nian had wrapped them with threads, and they were swaying quite a bit. "Fourth Sister, look." Nian Nian slowly brought the two aliens on the threads closer together. As a result, the two aliens actually dodged to the side, along with the threads. "Besides, I can't absorb their energy. I can't even peel off their skin. I really don't know how these people found these two aliens."

Yu Meng pinched one of the aliens between her fingers and then gently rubbed it. Niannian watched her and withdrew her own expression.

After a long while, Yu Meng smiled. This alien was disguised too well. If Nian Nian hadn't discovered its special features, they probably would have missed this good thing.

Yu Meng handed it to Niannian, "Try it now."

Then they brought over another alien. Using the same method, they peeled off its skin, revealing a green exterior. It was translucent, like jelly, and had a bouncy, chewy texture.

Yu Meng carefully observed its internal structure with her special eyes. She discovered that each node had a small black dot. It looked quite beautiful, but it was poisonous.

Yu Meng smiled and took out a small box from her backpack, then put the poisonous jelly alien inside.

Niannian's eyes were fixed on Yu Meng's movements. When she saw Yu Meng put the item into her small backpack, her eyes lit up. "Fourth Sister, is it something good?"

Yu Meng nodded, "It's poisonous, but it can be used for self-defense."

"Should we have them find more of these aliens?" Niannian looked at Yu Meng expectantly.

"I'll have Liu Wei find some separately. Just treat this as a regular alien and skip it."

"I'll give one of these to my eldest sister and one to Sister Xiu each," Niannian muttered to herself.

Yu Meng fell silent and took all the aliens out of the box. After carefully examining them, she put them back in the box, leaving the umbrella-shaped alien aside.

Niannian looked at Yu Meng's actions with some confusion, pointing to the items she had just picked out, "These are all good things, why didn't you take them out separately?"

Yu Meng whispered in her ear, "We can't reveal too much. Retrieving all the aliens is already too high-profile. Good things always need to be tested slowly to be discovered."

Niannian clutched her little backpack, saying, "These are all mine now."

Yu Meng nodded. "This is my first time in the Alien Battlefield too. Want to go out and explore?"

"Of course! Fourth Sister, I think my little darlings will eat and drink well here."

"Be more discreet, it won't be good if someone finds out. Secretly make yourself stronger, and then amaze everyone," Yu Meng coaxed Niannian.

The two disguised themselves before stepping out of the tent. The masks were a bit exaggerated, but they were enough to conceal their true appearance.

This was a large open space. There were many tents like theirs around it. Many people were gathered around a makeshift stove made of stones, eating breakfast from their own lunchboxes or teacups.

Xiao Wen had sharp eyes; perhaps he was constantly watching Yu Meng and the others' movements, because he saw them come out of the tent and approached them. "Why didn't you rest a little longer?"

"Didn't they say yesterday there were still a few dangerous parasites? I want to go check them out now."

Xiao Wen fell silent. "They went deeper in on their own. We didn't stop them."

Yu Meng hummed in agreement and didn't ask any further questions.

"This kind of thing happens a lot here. When we assume there's no chance of treatment, we make this choice," Xiao Wen explained. "Being parasitized isn't scary; the worst outcome is being drained dry and dying. The scariest thing is not removing the alien completely, leaving an incomplete form. You have no idea which direction it will develop into. At that point, you won't even have thoughts of suicide; you'll just act on instinct and do many incomprehensible things."

Xiao Wen sighed, "We are comrades-in-arms, but who can pick up a gun and shoot their own comrades? There was no other way, so Grandma specially set up a place to house these people. But in reality, they can no longer be considered human; they are all locked in cages."

Yu Meng vaguely knew some of these things, but Qingyuan never mentioned them when teaching her about base affairs.

"So, how are these people doing now?"

Xiao Wen gave a wry smile. "When I went out, I secretly went to that place. But it's now a ruin. Even the gatekeeper there is nowhere to be found."

"Aren't you soldiers recruited by the state? I see you seem to have official positions as well."

"Our official organizational structure is that of the state, but we serve in military bases. And we all sign agreements when we enter the bases. The kind that says 'life or death'."

"Your parents agreed?" Yu Meng was genuinely surprised. It seemed like no parent could agree to their child joining the army and entering the base, knowing that their life and death would be out of their control.

"We soldiers at the base receive high pay and generous compensation to our families. More importantly, no one says that entering the base means certain death."

Yu Meng knew that, just like her family, their home was not too far from the town. If it weren't for her appearance, they would have been able to make ends meet. Back then, when her older sister wanted to eat some nutritious dried meat, Yu's father couldn't afford it.

Moreover, in truly remote rural and mountainous areas, if sacrificing one person can support the whole family, they would make the choice.