Hello, is this a letter addressed to Demon Fortress?

[Ding! Weekly task update failed.]

[Summary of commissions from the previous cycle.]

[Commission Name: Mail Delivery from Shield City to Carter's Capital]

[Number of emails received: 126]

Final acceptance rate: 10%

Reason for failure: Timeout

[System determination: Commission failed, no reward will be paid.]

In Lin Gui's mind, the mechanical voice calmly broadcast the message.

He wanted to move.

But it can't move.

Every bone and muscle in his body was screaming.

The excruciating pain in his left arm made his vision go black, and every breath felt like being scraped by a knife in his ribs.

He could only lie there, listening to the sound continue.

[Ding! A new weekly task schedule has been generated.]

[Initiating a search for the number of letters currently held by the host.]

Searching...

Search complete.

[Currently holding 5512 letters (along the New Testament City → Avalon route)]

[Should we enable weekly commissions for this period?]

[Route: Carter's Capital → Karan City → New Covenant City]

[Note: This is a follow-up route from the previous cycle that was not completed; the recipient's status has been re-verified.]

A hint of doubt flashed through Lin Gui's hazy consciousness.

On?

Karan City?

The city of Kalan is located closer to the center of the Black Tide, the Withered Rift, than even the capital of Carter.

It's a miracle that King Carter survived.

"Turn on?" he asked in his mind, his voice so weak it was almost inaudible.

"Kalan City has been destroyed... those who replied are all dead... how can the weekly commission possibly proceed..."

The system's voice sounded calmly.

[System check, at least for now.]

It was not destroyed.

Lin Gui's consciousness suddenly froze.

What?

The weekly deliberations can still proceed.

Replies along the route from New Testament City to Avalon can be delivered normally.

The next stop, Karan City, was not destroyed.

The host's mail receipt has been received, which meets the requirements.

"This is impossible!!"

Lin Gui cried out in his heart.

The voice seemed to explode from the depths of one's soul.

Karan City is closer to the center of the Black Tide than the capital of Carter.

It was a small border town.

There were no seven walls of the capital city of Katarina, no legendary knights, and no unfathomable being like Katarina.

It was just an ordinary, weak, and vulnerable little town, utterly helpless in the face of evil.

How could it possibly have survived the demon riot?

The survival of the Carter capital was an unexpected surprise.

But Caran City.

That's absolutely impossible.

Lin Gui suddenly opened his eyes.

He wanted to argue.

I want to ask questions.

I want to figure out what's going on.

But at that moment...

A woman's voice came from beside my ear.

"Hey, you bastard, you're finally awake."

The voice was hoarse, tired, and carried an indescribable... eeriness.

Lin Gui endured the pain and turned his head away.

Then, he froze.

That was a face.

A dirty face.

It was all mud, all grass clippings, and all dried scabs made of some unknown sap.

His hair was a tangled mess, like a haystack, with a few withered grasses and unknown feathers stuck in it.

The clothes are no longer recognizable as they were.

It was tattered and worn on his body.

The exposed skin was covered with scratches, bruises, and red welts from mosquito bites.

He looked like he had crawled out of a mud pit.

It rolled around on the ground three more times, and then took a nap in the garbage dump.

"????"

Lin Gui's mind hadn't quite caught up yet, and he asked instinctively.

"Who...are you?"

The savage looked at him.

Expressionless.

Then, she spoke.

"Your beloved."

Lin Gui: "..."

He stared at that face for a few more seconds.

Those eyes.

That tone of voice.

That smug tone.

He squinted, trying to find familiar traces beneath the mud and ashes.

Several seconds passed.

"...Elvia?"

He asked tentatively.

The woman nodded numbly.

Then, she lowered her head and spat out what she was still chewing.

It was a paste-like, grayish-green thing that I couldn't tell what it was.

She pinched the lump with her fingers and kneaded it into a ball shape.

Then, she brought the lump of stuff to Lin Gui's mouth.

Lin Gui looked at that lump of something and felt completely horrified.

"What...are you doing?"

His voice carried a clear sense of vigilance.

Elvia looked at him expressionlessly.

"Feed them."

She said it very naturally.

"To survive, you have to eat, right?"

Lin Gui stared at the clump of paste and fell silent.

"What is this?"

"Food."

I asked what exactly it was.

Elvia was silent for a second.

Then she began to explain.

The dry rations Lin Gui gave her were finished by the third day.

How did she survive from the third to the eighth day?

Eat grass roots.

Eat tree bark.

Eat sour and astringent wild fruits.

Eat insects.

Eat rats.

And those things whose names she couldn't recall.

On one occasion, Shadow Blade Lin asked her to find a grayish-white thing that grew on the back of a rock.

She didn't know what it was, but the woman said it was edible, so she scraped it off and ate it.

That stuff tasted like tasteless, dry mud.

It was hard to swallow, but she still forced herself to swallow it down.

Because all she knew was that if she didn't eat, she would die.

So she ate it.

Eight days.

She ate like that for eight days.

Sometimes we eat grass roots, which are bitter and astringent, like chewing tree bark.

Sometimes we eat wild fruits, which can be sour, sweet, bitter, or astringent—all sorts of flavors.

Sometimes she eats insects, which are still moving in her mouth. She has to close her eyes and chew hard to swallow them.

Sometimes we eat meat of unknown origin, raw meat, and when we chew it, our mouths are full of blood.

She had no idea how much disgusting food she had eaten.

All she knew was that she had survived.

She survived so that the unconscious man she was carrying could live.

Elvia looked at Lin Gui and moved the clump of chewed grass root paste closer to him.

"To keep you from starving, I have no choice but to care for you like an old lady caring for a newborn baby."

"I'll chew it up and put it in your mouth."

"so......"

She spoke without any expression.

Open your mouth.

After saying that, Elvia planned to stuff this indescribable thing into the mouth of the forest ghost.

Lin Gui grabbed her hand, which was covered in sweat and sticky.

Then, a white bread appeared in his right hand.

Elvia: ? ? ? ?