Sir! Don't close the net!

“Maybe that’s why I wanted to give it a try, that’s why we’re here. Lorne, look at me,” Shirley took a deep breath, placed her hands on her knees, and looked into Lorne’s eyes. “How do you feel about today? Do you think today’s work was unreasonable and unacceptable?”

"This……"

Lorne Low

He glanced at the blanket in his arms, then his shoulders slumped down.

“I think it’s great, I even think… we should have done this a long time ago.”

“If Carly really cares about us, then this is how it should be, instead of… never mind,” Sherry sighed. “It’s just wishful thinking. What path others take is none of our business. We just need to stick to our own ideas.”

“That’s true—they don’t really bother us anyway,” Sitch said, letting out a long sigh with his hands behind his head.

Shirley turned to look at the street outside the shop window. As night fell, thick smog silently spread to every corner.

Carly looked away, but didn't close the door. Instead, she pulled up a chair and sat down facing the open door, gazing at the smog that filled the air outside.

Even in the areas inhabited by nobles, dangerous smog can still invade the Triassic region.

Carly still remembers what Li Yili said that night.

Who told you that smog won't get into buildings?

That one sentence shattered her sense of security. The rules she thought could protect her were nothing more than a thin, almost invisible thread held by the fingers of another being. This thread could break at any moment and could be abandoned at any time.

What she saw next shattered her last shred of hope. She faced the truth that had given her a sense of security and realized just how thin the thread in her hand truly was.

There's a reason why the residents of San Die Quan practically weld their doors shut at night. An open door means it's not an isolated space. In the early stages of the dense fog, many people were invaded by the smog and disappeared because they forgot to close a window.

She opened the door, but the smog showed no sign of intruding.

This is not the treatment that a low-end product should receive.

Chapter 114 You Don't Like Men, Do You?

Li Yili sat in the garden, holding a cup of still-steaming red tea, gazing at the incredibly beautiful garden under the moonlight. Rebecca squatted on a step, tilting her head back and yawning towards the moon.

"I said...can we go back now? I'm so sleepy."

After yawning for what felt like the umpteenth time, Rebecca wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and peeked towards Li Yili. Seeing that there was still more than half a cup of black tea left in Li Yili's cup, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"By the way, how much longer are you going to drink this cup of tea?"

"Do not……"

Before Li Yili could finish speaking, Rebecca stood up abruptly, strode over to Li Yili, snatched the black tea, put her left hand on her hip, tilted her head back, and gulped down the entire cup of tea in one go. Then she stuck her tongue out at Li Yili.

"Ugh—it tastes awful. Why do you guys always like to drink this stuff?"

Li Yili tilted her head back, reluctantly giving up the urge to pinch Rebecca's tongue and make it circle in chalk.

"I don't like drinking it either, but at least it tastes a little better than plain water. Although, all I need is water."

“So… even if you tell me all this, I still won’t understand,” Rebecca scratched the back of her head, thought for a moment, and then complained, slapping the empty cup onto Li Yili’s hand and putting her hands on her hips. “So can we talk about something I understand, like…”

Rebecca looked around and lowered her voice.

"Can I wander around the chalk circle? It looks pretty safe here."

“You look pretty dangerous,” Li Yili retorted before standing up and swinging her arms. “Let’s go, let’s wander around.”

"I knew it wouldn't... Huh?! Is it okay?!"

Rebecca, who thought Li Yili would refuse, subconsciously lowered her head, but quickly realized what was happening and looked up with shining eyes.

"Is it really possible?!"

“Yes, you can now…” Li Yili looked around to make sure no one else was there, then shrugged her shoulders. “You can start taking off your clothes now.”

"Oh oh oh-"

Rebecca nodded vigorously, sniffed the surrounding air to make sure no one else was around, and then began to take off her clothes in front of Li Yili, revealing her slender, snow-white body.

Li Yili crossed her arms, tilted her head, and her calm gaze made Rebecca shrink back shyly.

"What—it's not like this is the first time you've seen this! Don't tell me you're suddenly interested in me!"

“No, it’s just…” Li Yili pinched the bridge of her nose to relax, then turned and started walking. “I really have no interest in your body.”

Rebecca pouted, stuffed her clothes into the flower bushes, and followed Li Yili behind her with her fair and lithe legs, peeking out to complain, "I mean... although I myself think it's unlikely, you don't think this will make me feel so-called female jealousy, and then I'll turn around and throw myself at you, do you?"

"Huh? You think you have a choice?" Li Yili raised her eyes. "Paying out of your own pocket? Is that something you can decide?"

"That's true, that's why I was wondering..."

Rebecca stretched lazily in the moonlight, her pupils gradually widening, her bones beginning to grow and expand explosively, her crystal-clear jade feet sinking into the ground, her sharp claws extending and piercing deeply into the earth, her heavy, scorching breaths stirring the hair around Li Yili's ears.

"I'm probably prettier than those rich girls, and my figure is much better. Generally speaking, even if you don't have any romantic feelings for me..."

"There must be some physical desire, right?"

The tall, slender shadow gradually covered Li Yili's shadow.

"Ha... Which book did you read that in?" Li Yili turned her head and glanced at the werewolf standing behind her, who was at least two meters tall, and grinned.

“Of course there are… lots of books,” Rebecca said, rubbing her furry paws together. “And Ashley also said while we were soaking in the hot springs that men like beautiful women with good figures. Apparently, young ladies control their diets and wear corsets to maintain a proper figure, but…!”

Rebecca put her hands on her hips and raised her head with unwavering confidence.

"Even without those grueling steps, my figure is still much better than theirs!"

“It looks like that,” Li Yili shrugged and continued forward.

“So… at least you’ll have a little bit of physical lust for me, just a tiny bit,” Rebecca swished her tail and followed Li Yili. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid of how I look now, or… ha—could it be…!”

Rebecca paused, her wolf eyes widening as if she had discovered some terrifying secret, and pointed at Li Yili's back.

You like men!

Li Yili's lips twitched violently.

"Speaking of which! You... seem quite interested in that righteous sheriff and Dante! Waaah—"

Li Yili took a deep breath for a while before suppressing her anger. She turned around with a stern expression, and thick liquid seeped out from her arm. A slender arm draped in black leather rose from the liquid, and a lantern with a blue glow shone out.

"If you don't want to be shaved and paraded around in circles, you'd better shut up."

Rebecca's expression froze instantly, and she leaped backward, landing directly on top of the gas lamppost.

"Hahaha—just kidding, just kidding. I just saw you were in a bad mood and wanted to tell a joke, really, really. By the way... ugh, you look disgusting—"

Li Yili glanced down at her arm, which was still covered in a black, oil-like viscous liquid. Her lips twitched slightly, and she raised her hand to press Penny's arm back down.

"Ugh—this is even more disgusting!"

Rebecca leaped and landed on the gas lamp next to Li Yili. She crouched down and dug her paws into the lamp, which creaked as it swayed from side to side. "I was saying... why does this place always feel so deserted? Isn't this supposed to be a commercial area? How come there isn't even a single stall?"

Rebecca paused for a moment before complaining.

"On the contrary, Jurassic Circle is doing business both day and night."

“This is the normal situation,” Li Yili said, putting her hands behind her back and continuing forward. “Let others do the work, and you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.”

“Hey…why don’t I see anyone out enjoying themselves? Surely they’re not all at home doing *that*,” Rebecca tilted her head back and sniffed around. “Besides, the smell of living people seems to be much less than during the day.”

"Of course, it's because the most prosperous place in the wasteland is, and can only be, the capital, Millennium."

Li Yili raised her hand and pointed to the golden gate that opened between the chalk circle and the Millennium Capital not far away.

As the wealthiest business tycoon in the Cretaceous region, Tipor's residence was very close to the gateway to the capital, Millennium.

"As a businessman, the first thing you need to learn is how to please those in power."

Chapter 115 The Inherited Pride and Inferiority

Compared to the three ancient behemoths of Nibelungen, Ancient Veda, and Eden, the wasteland is like a toddler who has just learned to walk. With less than two hundred years of history, abandoned by the times, and a land devoid of any temples, these two fatal factors have led to an extremely distorted and unstable growth process for the wasteland.

The wasteland royal family and nobility are the ugliest tumors born from their deformed growth process.

Greedy and foolish, they are more interested in making the wasteland and other places realize that they are the ruling class of the wasteland than in taking responsibility for making the wasteland prosperous and strong. And if you think about the origin of the wasteland's royal family and nobles, you will find that this is not a strange thing.

The original wasteland royal family and nobility were just a bunch of people who couldn't make ends meet and were cobbled together from all over the world by the Cult of Steam and Steel. The Cult of Steam and Steel didn't deliberately provide any so-called education. As a result, a group of people who got a windfall from the sky passed on their arrogance and inferiority complex.

Standing before the open golden gate, Li Yili couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

From a distance, he wondered why the golden gate seemed to have special effects, shimmering as if it were flashing. But as he got closer, he discovered that the golden gate was inlaid with all sorts of gems, as if telling everyone that behind this gate lay the prosperity of the entire wasteland.

However, this does not mean that the wasteland royal family welcomes others to enter. They just want to show off, but never think about sharing. They wish that only they and their descendants could breathe the air of the capital, Millennium. Therefore, even merchants from the Cretaceous Circle who want to enter the capital, Millennium must register and obtain a pass with a validity period of one day to one week.

If it weren't for the resolute stance of the Cult of Steam and Steel, the wasteland royal family and nobles would have preferred to make Arkham University their private school, kicking out all students from other places.

To satisfy the vanity of the wasteland's royal family and nobility, merchants from the Chalk Circle are always eager to get into the capital, Millennium, as if they're desperate.

They had to stay in the capital, Millennium, for 24 hours a day, breathing in the air of prosperity, and then leave with great reluctance. There were even instances where businessmen pretended not to know that their departure time had passed and stayed overnight.

To make others realize once again how wonderful the Millennium Capital was, the wasteland royal family and nobles put on a grand show by holding a trial for this matter. One trial wasn't enough; they went through several trials, to the point that for a time, the entire wasteland's newspapers were talking about it.

Thanks to the wasteland royal family and nobles, the merchants of the Cretaceous Circle have become increasingly shrewd. Although they still cannot change their survival strategy of sucking the blood of the weak to grow stronger, they are at least much better than the wasteland royal family and nobles. And now they also pay great attention to the image of their children.

"Ha—that's really enough..."

Li Yili raised her hand and patted her forehead.

"Hey—shall we go in?" Rebecca, hiding in the shadows, clung to the tree trunk, her tail swishing wildly behind her. "It feels like it's going to be really lively inside!"

Li Yili thought for a moment, shook her head, turned around and waved to Rebecca, "There are too many people in the capital's Millennium Lane. It will be very inconvenient for you to move around in this state. Just wear the chalk circle on your wrist today."

"Eh--"

"There's a pasture in the chalk circle, and I heard they raise quite a few sheep there. Even if one or two go missing, no one should notice, right? Are you interested?"

Rebecca vigorously wiped the sweat from the corners of her mouth and raised her hands above her head.

"have--"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"It seems... they won't be back anytime soon."

Anne drew the curtains and had just turned her wheelchair when there was a knock on the door. The door slowly opened, and Ashley, clutching a pillow, cautiously peeked in. "Miss Anne, may we sleep together tonight?"

Anne paused for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Actually, I was just about to chat with you, Ashley, but right now... to be honest, I can't sleep yet."

“This… I’m sorry, life in the Jurassic Circle must be tough,” Ashley said apologetically, sitting down in a chair while hugging a pillow.

"Yes, it's very tough, whether it's the Jurassic Circle or the Triassic Circle."

This time, Annie didn't choose to change the subject. Instead, she smiled helplessly and nodded. "Every day feels like the last day... No, if it were the last day, I could probably be a little happier. Whether it's life in the Jurassic Circle or the Triassic Circle, it's just pure torture. The only thing worth remembering now feels more like an addiction to happiness, a slow-death poison called life."