Chapter 105: Hoping They Survive

The two individuals preparing to move the corpses exchanged a glance. They let out a fierce roar, lunging forward in an attempt to seize the gun. Although they were unsure how Su Miao had managed to acquire an assault rifle, they believed that at such close range—and given that it was not a handgun—it would be easy to wrest it away.

"Ah!"

As they shouted, the two men collapsed onto the very corpses they had been tasked to move. Their skulls had been blown open by bullets, leaving them in a gruesome, bloody heap.

Li Wei was truly terrified this time; his face was splattered with blood. "You... why did you kill again? They were just here to move the bodies..." His voice trembled.

Su Miao remained silent, simply keeping the assault rifle leveled at Li Wei. While his fear seemed genuine, she could not be certain if he was using it to mask malicious intent.

"Are you a murderer?"
"Why? You were the one who asked us to move the bodies, so why kill them? We were already preparing to leave."
"Are you not afraid of the law?"
"You heartless monster..."

Bang!

The woman who shouted those words was struck in the head and died instantly. Su Miao’s hands were shaking as she held the rifle. When the woman spoke, the men nearby had shown signs of rallying together against her. In her experience with games, such people were like support or healer classes—they had to be eliminated first, or they would cause trouble later.

As for Li Wei, he dropped to his knees: "Please, spare us. We will leave right now."

The last person she had seen kneel like that was Chang Jieming from the security team. Yet, this Li Wei was clearly different from Chang Jieming. Su Miao could not quite put her finger on how, but the difference was palpable.

"Hypocrite! Hypocrite!"

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out. The Myna bird had awakened at some point and immediately flew downstairs to start its mockery. "A person with a dirty heart, pretending to sacrifice themselves to knock on the door, while actually stalling for time so their teammates can go to their deaths. Hypocrite! Hypocrite!"

The air turned deathly, bone-chillingly quiet. Of course, with temperatures already below negative sixty degrees Celsius, a little more chill hardly mattered.

"A black mutated bird..."
"A talking mutated bird, a symbol of death..."
"A witch! She must be a witch!"

The people in the courtyard trembled with fear. Had they known there was such a talking black bird here, they would never have stepped within a hundred paces of the villa. Along their journey, they had encountered others with mutated pets, and every single one of them had been a ruthless, terrifying killer.

Barely ten minutes had passed since they first knocked on the door, and already four people were dead.

"Symbol of death your sister! Are you illiterate? I am the Myna! The handsome and dashing Myna!" the bird squawked, flying through the air.

Su Miao was momentarily stunned. How had her identity as a "witch" been exposed so quickly? No, that wasn't the point.

The remaining people no longer showed signs of hostility. Should she let them go? Just as she thought this, she fired a shot at the leader, Li Wei, ending his life. The Myna was right; this guy was too hypocritical. If it weren't for his leadership, none of this would have happened today.

Li Wei collapsed, his eyes wide with disbelief even in death. He had knelt and begged for mercy; he never expected Su Miao to kill him anyway. If he were still capable of thought, he surely would have asked: "You wouldn't really kill me just because a mutated Myna said so, would you?"

The remaining ten people, seeing Li Wei executed, scrambled in panic to escape. Su Miao raised her rifle to fire.

"Don't run! Don't run! Her Highness said if you dare to run, she will kill you all!" the Myna shrieked.

The ten people in the courtyard froze, looking at Su Miao with utter terror. Remaining in this frozen wasteland meant risking death by exposure or a bullet to the head, but running meant certain death.

"What do you want us to do?"
"Please, don't kill me. I haven't even had a girlfriend yet."
"Don't kill us, it was so hard for us to survive until now, it’s a miracle we even made it here."
"Send us to a shelter, we won't tell anyone about you."

They pleaded one after another. Facing so many people at once, Su Miao felt tense; she had a strong urge to kill them all. She did not want to repeat the mistake she had made in the tourist area. Back then, the people she had spared had soon found a way to try and kill her.

The Myna stood on the door handle, looking arrogant. "Stand still! Obey Her Highness’s orders! Do whatever she tells you, or you’ll all die, understand?"

They stood in the courtyard, not daring to utter a word.

The Myna squawked, "Are you all mute? Can't you answer?"

They shuddered and immediately shouted in unison, "Yes, Your Highness!"

"Too quiet, I can't hear you!" the bird chirped.

They yelled even louder, "Yes, Your Highness!"

"Still too quiet!"

Slap! Su Miao swatted the Myna to the ground. "Shut up."

For Su Miao, it would be best if none of these people could talk. Their voices made her nervous, especially at such close range. Not to mention that just moments ago, they had all been harboring ill intentions. It was a miracle she hadn't killed them all already.

Dizzy, the Myna spun around on the ground, looked at Su Miao with an innocent expression, and chirped, "Her Highness says, shut up!"

The people in the courtyard were instantly struck dumb with terror. She really was a witch—to swat such a terrifying mutated bird to the ground with one blow, it was chilling.

The Myna chirped, "Your Highness, you may have them do your bidding now."

Su Miao gripped her assault rifle tighter. "Why do you call me 'Your Highness'?"

The Myna countered, "Your Highness, is there a problem with that?"

Su Miao sighed, helplessly suspecting that this bird must have watched a lot of anime before its mutation. However, the Myna's suggestion gave her an idea. She looked at the terrified group and said, "I won't kill you."

The survivors looked at her, unsure whether to believe her. She had just told them to move the bodies, only to kill them before they could even finish the task. But they had no other choice.

Su Miao continued, "You can stay in the two villas next door. There are fireplaces inside, and water tanks beside them. Fill the tanks and burn wood in the fireplace, and you will have heat."

The survivors’ eyes lit up. Some of them had suggested staying in those villas earlier, but others in the group wanted a ready-made home, which led them here—leading to their deaths. It was all Li Wei's fault! If not for him, those beautiful girls in the team wouldn't have died. One man felt a surge of resentment, even blaming Su Miao. He hadn't even had a chance to confess his feelings, hadn't even had a chance for the night...

Bang!

Another gunshot rang out. Another survivor fell.

"Ah!"

Seeing another death, three people fled in different directions. The others wanted to run too, but they saw Su Miao holding the rifle with slightly trembling hands, firing three quick shots to drop those who had tried to bolt.

The Myna said, "Her Highness said, don't act rashly, or you will all die."

Su Miao really wanted to punch the bird, but she restrained herself. She looked at those who remained and said, "Tomorrow at noon, you can come here to collect rations."

The remaining five men and one woman stared at each other. They didn't know if Su Miao was joking, or if she was just going to give them a bullet instead of food. Fifteen people had been reduced to just the six of them in the blink of an eye. Was the witch telling the truth? They didn't dare believe her. They were also terrified that she would start shooting again.

Su Miao added, "When you leave, remember to take these corpses with you, and take their backpacks as well."

Before the six of them could react, they heard a bang. They instantly dove to the ground, terrified that she had fired again. After waiting for a long time, they realized it was just the sound of Su Miao closing her front door. They looked at each other, taking several minutes to recover their senses.

Not daring to disobey, they rested for a moment before dragging the corpses away. Two of them were already beginning to freeze to the ground; any later and they would have needed sledgehammers to pry the bodies from the ice. It took them six minutes to move the nine corpses away from Su Miao's door and toss them down the mountain. They collected nine backpacks of supplies.

After completing the task, they hurried to the nearby villas. There were two, one of which looked crooked; they chose the one that didn't.

"A fireplace! There really is a fireplace!" Guo Yixing, who had reached the second floor first, exclaimed.

Luo Zhengyi, Chu Zekai, Yu Feng, Teng Jingyu, and Sun Rong rushed up, feeling a wave of warmth just looking at it. Yu Feng checked the area and found the water tanks Su Miao had mentioned. "The witch didn't lie. There are tanks on both sides of the fireplace. If we fill them and light the fire, we won't have to fear the cold."

Sun Rong rubbed his hands together. "Quick, find some wood in the villa. Start a fire, it's freezing." He was the one who had suggested staying here earlier, but no one had listened; they all wanted something ready-made. He was the most timid of the group, which was why no one had listened when he urged them to leave before they reached Su Miao's villa.

Teng Jingyu asked, "Do you think we should keep running?" They had found a large amount of dried food in the nine backpacks; it would last the six of them a long time. They didn't need to depend on the witch.

Luo Zhengyi and Chu Zekai glanced at her but said nothing. The women in the group had caused the most trouble today, though all three of them were now dead. Looking at it from another perspective, perhaps this witch possessed no basic humanity—under her gun, everyone was equal.

Sun Rong said, "No. I think we should go see her tomorrow. Otherwise, I don't think we'll survive."

Teng Jingyu argued, "We can find a shelter! If we find one, we'll be saved. We could even report this murderous witch and have the army deal with her."

The room went silent. Five pairs of grim eyes stared at Teng Jingyu, as if they wanted to tear her apart.

Sun Rong said, "You can try thinking those thoughts in front of the witch and see if you die. Or you can look for a shelter yourself—we won't stop you, but I don't think you'll survive the cold outside."

Teng Jingyu fell silent. Previously, there had been four women in the group, and whenever something happened, they could be pushed to the front while the men hid behind. She hadn't expected those three idiots to be killed off so easily. Despite their beautiful faces, they had been useless. Thinking of this, she recalled Su Miao's bare face, and her last shred of confidence crumbled.

Suddenly, Guo Yixing said, "Brother Sun, we support you. Please be our team leader!"

Sun Rong was stunned. "What?"

Yu Feng said, "I agree."

Sun Rong was terrified. In their old team, if someone wanted to get rid of someone, they would push that person to the front to die. Li Wei had been the best at this, and everyone knew the method well.

Sun Rong immediately refused: "No, no, no. I'm a coward, I can't be a leader."

The brothers Luo Zhengyi and Chu Zekai spoke up: "We support you as leader precisely because you are a coward."

Teng Jingyu looked at her teammates in astonishment, unable to fathom what they were thinking.

Guo Yixing said, "That's four votes. Captain, what should we do tomorrow?"

Sun Rong was deeply conflicted. "We go tomorrow at noon as requested, see what she wants. What if she really gives us food..."

Teng Jingyu asked, "Aren't you afraid she'll keep killing?"

Sun Rong stared at her for a long time. "If she wanted us dead, we'd already be corpses. She's keeping us, most likely to use us as a shield." That was his greatest fear. He added, "Regardless of tomorrow, everyone look for firewood. I feel the temperature dropping again. Without a fireplace and heat, we'll all freeze to death."

...

Back at the villa, the door was shut. Su Miao reached out to grab the Myna. "I'm giving you a check-up."

"Your Highness, no!" The Myna zipped away. "Your Highness, Your Highness, I was just translating what you needed to express in a professional manner!"

*Heh.* Su Miao was speechless regarding the bird's "translation" skills. This wasn't translation; it was the work of a troublemaker who loved to stir the pot. The Myna flew around the second floor, refusing to let Su Miao catch it.

Su Miao watched it for a long while, then pulled a rake, a sled, and other tools from her magical space and turned to leave. She had promised the survivors food, but giving them just rice and flour without vegetables was dangerous. She decided to give them some vegetables—the kind she had grown today.

She brought her tools outside the wall and began digging through the snow.

The Myna followed her out. "Your Highness, what are you doing? You aren't trying to bury the smart Myna, are you?"

Su Miao, while digging, said, "If you jump in, I'll bury you."

The Myna immediately shut its beak.

Su Miao lost patience with the digging. She raised her hand, and several small blue fireballs exploded the thick layers of ice and snow, revealing the rich, dark soil beneath.

"That should be enough."

Su Miao planted a vegetable seed in each patch and added a drop of growth serum. By tomorrow, the vegetables and fruits the survivors needed would have grown.

She hoped they would survive.