Mr. Death in the Steam World

Moen sniffed and wiped his face haphazardly with his sleeve.

"Thank you, Chloe. I'm sorry you had to see this."

Chloe shook her head.

"The meat is ready, won't you order some?"

Chloe shook her head again.

I don't eat meat.

"So what will you eat?"

"Snow."

Moen didn't try to persuade him any further. He simply tore off the remaining pieces of meat one by one and neatly arranged them on the clean stone slab.

"Then we'll save it and eat it slowly," he said. "Anyway, it's cold here, the meat won't spoil."

Chloe nodded and sat back down on the steps in front of the igloo.

Moen sat down next to her, and the two of them sat side by side, watching the snowflakes fall from the sky.

How long do you plan to stay here?

Moen thought for a moment. "I don't know, maybe a few days, maybe until the snowstorm passes."

"When was that?"

"I don't know either."

Chloe lowered her head, tracing circles on her knee with her fingers. After a moment of silence, she suddenly spoke.

"You can stay here indefinitely."

Moen turned his head to look at her, but Chloe didn't look up, still staring at her fingers.

"Anyway, I'm the only one here, so one more person won't make a difference."

Her voice was very soft, but Moen heard it clearly.

Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him.

"Um, Chloe."

"?"

"If I told you there might be a few more people here, would you be okay with that?"

......

Moen never forgot his goal—to win first place in this magic combat event and obtain a reward sufficient to advance to the third rank.

But he is also well aware that with his current location and resources, if he tries to compete with others for residents using conventional methods...

Forget about first place, just avoiding elimination is considered lucky.

Therefore, he needed to find another way.

His core competency was right in front of him from the very beginning.

Chloe.

More precisely, it's the snow-free area surrounding Chloe.

"Chloe, you said the snow wouldn't come near you, right?"

"Yes, I won't if I don't want to."

"If... more people lived here, would the snow still avoid them?"

Chloe tilted her head and thought for a moment.

"As long as they don't dirty the snow, it should be fine."

Moen's lips curled up slightly.

This was the answer he needed—a safe zone untouched by wind and snow.

He didn't need to compete with Langdon and his men for the residents who had already been taken in.

What he had to do was to build a safe zone from scratch on this deserted wasteland.

Just do it.

The next morning, Moen began his expansion project.

"The wind is strongest on the north side, so we need the thickest walls there. The south side is the entrance/exit. The door should be located there. The east side is close to the snowdrifts, so we can dig a storage room there."

Chloe sat on the steps, tilting her head as she watched him mutter to himself, her eyes filled with confusion.

"Who are you talking to?"

"With myself." Moen crouched down and drew a rough plan on the snow with his finger.

"Look, this is your old house. I'm planning to expand outwards from here—what do you think?"

Chloe looked down at the crooked line on the snow, remained silent for two seconds, then reached out and drew an even larger circle outside the line.

"If we're going to expand, let's expand it a bit more."

Moen paused for a moment, then smiled.

"Okay, whatever you say."

The actual construction was much more difficult than he had imagined.

Chloe's igloo used some kind of technique that he couldn't understand.

The gaps between the ice blocks are perfectly sealed, as if they were carved out of a single block of ice.

He tried to remove a corner of the north wall, and the entire wall almost collapsed.

"You can't do it this way."

Chloe stood up from the steps, walked to the wall, and gently patted the ice with her little hand.

A crack silently appeared on the ice surface, and then the entire wall, as if supported by an invisible hand, slowly shifted outward by half a meter.

The gaps between the bricks automatically adjust and re-interlock, making them even more stable than before.

Moen opened and closed his mouth, unable to utter a word for a long time.

"You...can you do this?"

"Is this something strange?"

Chloe weakly withdrew her hand, looking innocently at Moen.

Moen took a deep breath and accepted the fact.

Anyway, Chloe already has many unique qualities, so adding more wouldn't make a difference.

In short, with Chloe's "Snow Power" as a foundation, the project progressed much faster.

By evening, the igloo had grown to almost twice its original size, and could accommodate five or six people at the same time.

Moen wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a long breath.

Next comes the most crucial step – finding people.

Moen stood up from the door of the igloo and brushed the snow off his clothes.

"Chloe, I have to go out for a bit, I might not be back until tonight."

"Where to?"

"Go find other people." Moen paused. "Find some people who are stuck outside in the snowstorm."

"They need help, and I... need them."

Chloe nodded slightly.

"careful."

Moen smiled, turned and stepped into the snowstorm.

"Oh, right!"

Chloe suddenly called out to Moen,

"Try not to go in the northwest direction."

This reminded Moen of the dark red light he had seen with the "Eye of Death" before, and he nodded solemnly.

Even Chloe said so, so it's probably true.

However, given his current abilities, even if he wanted to go and see, he was powerless to do so.

Let's focus on the immediate issues first.

……

Although Langdon assigned him the most remote and desolate areas, those areas were not completely isolated from each other.

As long as you're heading in the right direction, you'll eventually meet someone.

The wind and snow guided him, and after walking for about an hour, he finally saw a figure beside a frozen ditch.

It was a young man in his early twenties, wearing the same gray robe as him, squatting by the ditch, staring blankly at a piece of ice.

Hearing footsteps, he turned his head sharply, a hint of wariness flashing in his eyes.

"Who are you?"

"Mount Marcus." Moun walked up to him, knelt down, and looked him in the eye. "And you?"

"Allen." The young man hesitated for a moment, then gave his name.

"You are... that correspondence student who was sent to the far northern wilderness?"

"right."

Allen's expression became somewhat subtle, seemingly a mixture of sympathy and self-mockery.

"I wasn't much better off. I was sent to this glacial area, supposedly because there were people living there, but after searching for ages, I didn't see a single soul."

"There's only one patch of ice, and no matter how hard you try, you can't break it. It's even hard to get a drink of water."

He sighed, his tone full of helplessness.

"That Langdon guy is obviously messing with us."

Moen didn't respond to that, but instead looked around and pointed in the direction behind Allen.

"You came from over there?"

"Yeah, that's just a scree slope, nothing much there."

"And this way?" Moen pointed in the opposite direction.

Allen thought for a moment. "I've never been there. It's too far, and with this weather, I'm afraid I won't be able to get back if I go too far."

Moen stood up and looked in that direction.

The wind and snow were too heavy to see anything in the distance, but based on his assessment of the terrain, there should be a temporary hut built by hunters in that direction.

"I'm going to take a look over there," he said. "Do you want to come with me?"

Allen hesitated for a moment, but finally stood up and patted the snow off his knees.

"Since we're just killing time anyway, let's go."

The two walked in that direction, one after the other, braving the wind and snow.

After walking for about half an hour, a low shed appeared ahead.

The shack, built of wooden stakes and animal hides, was weighed down by the snow and looked like it could collapse at any moment.

Moen quickened his pace and went over, bending down to crawl into the shed.

There was no one inside, only some scattered tools and half a bag of moldy flour.

Moen crouched down and examined the bag of flour.

Although some of it was moldy, most of it was still edible, and in a place like the far north wilderness, it was a rare treat.

He took the flour bag out, placed it at the entrance of the shed, and then turned to look at Allen.

"Take this bag of flour with you; it'll last you for several days."

Allen paused for a moment.

"Give me?"

"Hmm." Moen nodded. "But you have to do me a favor."

"What kind of help?"

"Take me to see other parts of your area; maybe there are other shacks, or... people."

Allen stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed.

"OK."